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Chapter 2: The Black Siblings
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Harry walked out of Gringotts the next morning having withdrawn as much money from his account that Gringotts would allow at one time. He'd emptied his trust vault. He and Hermione now had nearly 2000 galleons. The vault would refill again from his family vault by the time Harry's copy would come visit the bank again. There was no way the copy would ever notice money was missing. Harry had never paid any mind to how much money he had, so there was no reason his copy would either. This was the one and only time he intended to steal from his copy.
He met up with Hermione outside the bank. She had been to the bookstore to buy a particular book about both common and obscure cosmetics related potions. This book, Bewitching the Senses, contained instructions to brew a potion that could permanently alter their appearance and tone of voice by shuffling the drinker's DNA.
They went to Olivander's next. They had both agreed that they needed new wands so that the wands they used wouldn't be identical to their copy's wands, though they did intend to keep their old ones just in case.
They had re-transfigured their hair to different colors and Harry even gave himself a thin beard. He made his hair longer to cover his scar. They both tried wands for about ten minutes each before they found wands they were comfortable with. As far as they could tell, Olivander hadn't recognized them. Luckily, their transfigured hair had lasted the whole time.
Afterwards, they went to stock up on potion supplies. Then they paid for a second night in their room at The Leaky Cauldron under the pseudonyms of James and Tina once more.
"Is that the name you're going with… James?" Hermione asked Harry after they locked the door to their rented room. "We can't have people figuring out you're actually a copy of Harry James Potter… it seems a little on the nose."
"I've been thinking about it… I think so. James is a common enough name. By the time we're done with this potion we won't look anything like Harry and Hermione anymore."
"Maybe I could call you Jamie sometimes?" Hermione said. "Everyone needs a nickname."
"Er, yeah sure, whatever," James said. "But like, only you can call me that. I want everyone else to call me James. Are you going with Tina then?"
Hermione began preparing the cauldron and starting a controlled fire to make the potion to change their appearance and voices.
"It would be Valentina, but no, I was just trying it out. I love that name but it's more of a middle name. I think I will use it as my middle name. What do you think of Roseanna for my first name?"
"Would I call you Anna for short?" James asked.
"Eew, no, I don't like that. Anna is a fine name I suppose but it's not for me. You'd call me either Roseanna or Rose," Hermione informed.
"Rose? I like it! It's cute. Okay, I need a middle name and we both need a surname.
"For the surname we should go with Black for both of us," Rose said.
"How are we going to get away with using that name, Hermione?"
"I'm not Hermione anymore, James… I'm Rose… and I actually have that planned out. I think we should claim Cygnus Black, Sirius's grandfather, had a squib son… we'll call him Tyberius or something like that. Yeah, that's good. Tyberius. We'll say the black family banished Tyberius for not having magic and they sent him to live in Australia. Squibs are treated a lot better there by the way."
Hermione began measuring ingredients as she continued to speak.
"Well, suppose Tyberius knocked up a witch down in Australia and he left her when he found out she was pregnant… call her Lauren Knox or something like that… anyway, Lauren died in childbirth having twins, you and me. We'll say we only recently found out that our father was from the UK and we thought we'd come live here instead of down there."
"We're siblings then?" James asked.
"Seems easier and safer than coming up with two fake origins," Rose replied.
"Alright, so Roseanna Valentina Black and James Something Black…" James summarized.
"How about Septimus?" Rose suggested.
"Eew, no, maybe Daniel? James asked.
Rose shook her head. "I don't know… what about Marcus?" Rose said.
"Oh, yeah, that's not bad. James Marcus Black. Not bad at all. We'll go with that," James smiled.
"Great," Rose said. "Okay, I'm nearly done with the first part of the potion. This will need to simmer for ten hours before we finish it off. I'm so tired. I'm going back to bed." Rose went to the bed and laid on her side facing James.
James followed Rose to the bed they'd shared last night. "Me too… hey, Hermi… er, I mean Rose. What you said last night… when we thought we were dying…"
"I meant every word, James. I love you. I still don't know if I love you like a brother or if I want to marry you and start a family some day… I'm leaning towards that marriage option actually… but whatever happens we're in this together now and I'm never letting you go."
"I meant what I said too. I love you, Rose… but that kiss was… very weird for me," James laughed awkwardly. "I'm thinking that might mean I see you as a sister."
"Oh, I see… well, no worries, I'm happy with that too," Rose said hesitantly.
"I'm really sorry I don't feel the same, Rose," James said earnestly.
"No… no it's better this way," Rose said. "I mean, these new identities we just decided on… we're brother and sister now. We could never date or marry for real anyway."
"Thanks for understanding, Sis," he smiled. He kicked off his shoes and laid on the bed on his side.
"Hey, Jamie... will you hold me for a bit?" Rose said hesitantly. "I'm… feeling a lot more nervous and panicked about all this than I'm letting on."
"Yeah, of course," James smiled. "Get over here."
Once James had gotten comfortable on his back, Rose rolled over onto her side and cuddled up next to him. The new siblings slept until about 2 P.M. and had a very late lunch.
That afternoon they donned their temporary disguises and went shopping once more, this time for clothes and other necessities like toothbrushes and hairbrushes. They also looked around for an apartment to sublease for just the summer. They ended up finding an apartment in London that they could lease for the summer for just over 30 galleons a month. They went ahead and signed the lease under their new names.
That evening after dinner the potion was finished. Rose explained the potion to James.
"Okay, so this potion will scramble our DNA and give us a new voice, new hair, and a new face. If all goes to plan… you'll look like your own brother or something. Your new genes will still pull from your parent's genes. We have to take the potion once a day for two weeks for the effects to be permanent… I believe I've brewed enough for that. Oh, and apparently your hair is especially likely to change quite drastically. Either of us could end up blonde or redheaded for example, regardless of our parents genes."
"I'm going to miss this version of you," James said sweetly, stepping forward and hugging Rose.
"Well if you like how I look right now then next year at school you can introduce yourself to Hermione Granger," she quipped. "I happen to have it on good authority that she likes your personality quite a bit."
"And I'm sure you'll be eager to meet Harry Potter," James laughed. "I bet he'd want to be your friend."
They tapped their glasses together and downed their potions. The potion tasted like seawater and mud. James felt the familiar sensation of his features melting and reforming just as when he'd taken polyjuice potion. He also realized that his bones hurt… as if they were growing.
After about a minute of feeling uncomfortable, even pained, the sensation was gone. James looked at Rose. She looked somewhat similar to Hermione Granger in her facial features, but several of her features were distinctly different now.
Rose's cheekbones were a little higher than before. Her freckles were gone. Her wild medium hue brown hair was replaced by sleek, straight dark hued brown hair that in the right light could be mistaken for black. Her new button nose was thinner and pointed up slightly reminding James of a bunny. She was also about two inches shorter than before and her eyes were now blue.
"Wow, Rose, you look good," James praised. He was a little surprised that his voice was quite a bit lower. It was also a tad bit gravely as well. "Not that you looked bad before, Sis…"
Rose blushed and smiled. James noticed her front teeth were not as large anymore. They were now a more normal size.
"Thank you, brother. You look rather dashing yourself." Rose's voice was higher pitched now and her words came out a little more softly than before.
James made his way over to the mirror to look at himself. He was followed closely by his sister as she also wanted to see herself.
James was at least two inches taller than before, possibly three. The height difference between the siblings was now huge. His shoulders were also a bit more broad. He had a few freckles now that reminded him of pictures he'd seen of his mother. His jaw was strong and defined. His emerald green eyes had changed to a golden hazel. He had his father's eyes. James ran his hand through his hair. His long black messy mop of hair was replaced with a tidy dark brown crop cut. The hair color, dark brown, matched his sister's new hair color perfectly.
"Good thing the potion made my scar go away," James said. "It might have been difficult to pretend I'm not Harry Potter if I still had the scar…"
"I wonder if the scar might have stuck around if that bit of Voldemort hadn't died," Rose said, running a hand through her own tidy, straight, dark brown hair.
"Who knows, but I'm glad to be rid of it," James said. "I really did have a low constant headache my whole life until last night. I feel so much better!"
"I'm so glad, James… I'm so glad."
"Hey, wait a minute… my eyes are fixed too! I don't need these," he said, taking off his glasses. The DNA scramble seemed to have also fixed his sight.
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Throughout the summer, Rose and James took two or three day trips a week. They owned almost nothing, so many of their trips were shopping trips.
Rose was slowly building up a library of books Hermione had liked while James was a little more focused on clothes shopping. He'd never had the opportunity to go clothes shopping for himself and building a full wardrobe from scratch was really fun. Very few articles of clothing cost more than four or five galleons per item, apart from robes which were usually eight to ten galleons.
Rose also took to brewing all her own cosmetics using potions from Bewitching the Senses in order to save money. Fingernail polish, shampoo, soap, toothpaste… it was all in there and it was all much cheaper than simply buying the finished product.
Harry had bought a book on werewolves and decided to read it to better understand Remus's life experiences. He also found a book on palm reading from the same author and bought it too. Palmistry was the only bit of Divination he ever felt made sense and was unhappy Trelawney had only spent a few days on the subject last year.
James had convinced Rose it was a good idea to write to Sirius and inform him that they exist. The letter was addressed to "the head of the Black family" and included their fake story about being related to him. Sirius had responded and he and James wrote back and forth for the remainder of the summer.
James followed Petegrew's trial closely in the papers all summer. By the end of July Sirius had had all charges dropped, had several articles written in the paper about his innocence, and had taken up his family seat on the Wizengamot.
Eager to meet his newfound cousins, Sirius had sent James and Rose tickets to the quidditch world cup where they could finally meet. He even offered half of his tent to them to camp out at the cup.
Despite their letters they really didn't know Sirius very well at all. Rose had insisted they meet for dinner at a restaurant on an evening a few days prior to meeting for the world cup. James and Rose were both quite surprised when Remus joined them for dinner and even more surprised when Sirius introduced him as his boyfriend.
"So, you two traveled here underage without a guardian or sponsor?" Remus had asked with fatherly concern after nearly an hour of idle chit chat.
"We're searching for our father Tyberius," Rose replied. "He only spent one night with our mother from what we can tell. I'm sure if he knew we existed then he'd want us in his life."
"Well, considering I didn't know he existed until you wrote to me, I doubt you'll find him," Sirius said.
"Yes, it is quite curious that Sirius suddenly has an uncle he never knew about…" Remus said. "Forgive me, but, you're sure Tyberius is a real person? You're sure you're related to Sirius?"
"Positive," James replied. "We read our mother's journal. She knew exactly who our father was. She was hunting him down too before she passed away."
"And could we read this journal ourselves to evaluate its authenticity? I'm not saying I don't believe you, but it wouldn't be the first time someone tried to insert themselves into a rich, pure-blood family…" Remus said before taking a bite out of his very nearly raw steak.
"Sorry, Remus, it was lost in the fire that burned down our orphanage," Rose lied, straightfaced. "We're not asking you to put us back into your family tree, Sirius, and we aren't asking for money… we just wanted to meet you and see if you had any clues on the whereabouts of our father.
"Will you be returning to Australia for school or staying here in Britain?" Sirius asked curiously.
Rose responded. "Staying here, we hope… as long as we can get into Hogwarts that is. Cheshire school doesn't have much to offer us. For example, we had to study arithmancy on our own. They don't offer it at all. Plus magical creatures and astrology are both taught from books… Hogwarts actually lets you use telescopes and feed magical creatures, right? It wasn't entirely clear. I, er, I've read up on the school a bit in 'Hogwarts, A History'."
"Have you sent in your transfer request yet?" Sirius asked. James and Rose both shook their heads. "Right, well then let me sign them as your sponsor. I may not be your guardian, but as head of your house I can sign your transfer paperwork and sign your permission forms as well."
"Sirius, dear, is that wise? I do like these two but… we can't be certain they are actually your family," Remus said. "Please don't go making rash decisions just because of his name."
"My name, Sirs?" James asked, feigning curiosity.
"Oh, well, our best friend from school passed away about thirteen years ago," Remus explained. "His name was James too. Sirius is actually godfather to James's son, Harry. You even look a tad bit like our James… especially in the eyes."
"Why don't you think on it, Sirius," Rose said uncomfortably. She hadn't liked how the conversation suddenly was about James and Harry Potter.. "I'll bring the papers along to the world cup and you can sign them if you like then."
"Thank you again for the tickets and for sharing your tent," James added. "I follow quidditch and I'm really looking forward to it."
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