The Other Twin

They appeared outside of the Hogwarts grounds. Hari leaned over, gulping in breaths. Don’t throw up. Don’t throw up.

Albus rubbed her back.

“What was that?” she groaned.

“Apparition. It becomes more pleasant with experience,” said Albus, cheerfully.

Hari just groaned.

“Professor Snape. If you are not otherwise engaged, please stop by for a nightcap tonight,” said Dumbledore.

Snape muttered something Hari couldn’t hear and then disappeared.

They walked along a path. After a few minutes, Albus said, “Welcome to Hogwarts, Hari.”

Hari looked up and was stunned. The most beautiful castle she could imagine was stretched out before her. Stone towers reached for the sky. There was even a lake surrounded by impossibly green grass. Her jaw was hanging open.

It was too much to take in. Albus gently guided Hari through the halls, onto staircases that moved, and by paintings that talked!

She found herself in Dumbledore’s office drinking tea. Hari was dazed.

“It feels… It feels so… It’s… a lot.” Hari wasn’t sure how to say it.

Albus’s eyes twinkled. “You feel the magic of Hogwarts. You will become accustomed to it.”

“Magic. It feels like this?”

“Hogwarts does. Everywhere has its own characteristics,” said Albus.

“I can see why you’d never want to leave here.” Hari drank tea.

“Not everyone can feel it as we do, my dear.”

“No?” Hari looked up, startled.

“No.” Albus didn’t seem worried by this, so Hari shrugged it off.

After a light meal, Albus showed Hari to a plain room down the hall from his office.

“You may stay here,” he said.

She looked around the room. It had a window! And a bed. And a closet. She peeked through a door off to the side, which led to her own bathroom. Hari was overwhelmed. How could all of this be hers? Surely it was only for a night or two. Still, this would be the best night of her life.

“What color would you like the walls? We should decorate. Perhaps a light blue color?” Albus said.

Hari blinked and fidgeted. “Errr. Well, there’s no need. Really.” She folded her hands.

“Alright. Think about it,” said Albus, gently.

Later in the afternoon, Albus took her back out of Hogwarts.

“Where are we going?” asked Hari.

“To Hogsmeade, my dear. It is a small village that borders Hogwarts. Let’s get you some warmer clothing. We can go in the next few days to get a wand and other necessities from Diagon Alley.”

None of this made much sense to Hari. But she knew one thing. “Sorry, sir. But I don’t… I don’t have any money.” She looked down.

“Not to worry,” said Albus, cheerfully.

He led her into a clothing shop. Hari wasn’t sure how it happened. Her attention grabbed onto a tape measure that was floating and measuring her without a human touching it. A few minutes later they left the shop with several bags. Hari had no idea what Albus purchased.

When they returned to Hogwarts, Albus gently moved her in the direction of her new room. Hari took a shower using the softest soap she’d ever felt. The shampoo and conditioner smelled divine. For the first time in her life, her hair and skin felt soft. She moved to the bags from Hogsmeade and pulled out a shirt. It was the most vivid, garish orange she’d ever seen. And were the threads twinkling silver? Hari laughed. Nothing this colorful ever entered the orphanage. She loved it. Hari pulled on the shirt and was surprised – she’d never worn anything so soft.

After dinner, she went to bed early. This must be a dream. But she didn’t want to wake up. Ever.

________________________________________

“What do you know, Severus?”

Snape scowled. “How would I know what the Potters have done to their offspring?”

Albus just looked at Snape over his classes.

Snape’s scowl deepened. “The famous Potter spawn and his parents appear at a few public events each year. The girl has never been with them. She is never spoken of.”

“By anyone?” prompted Dumbledore.

Snape paused then shook his head.

The silence stretched.

“Did you feel the ward on the cupboard door?” murmured Snape.

Albus nodded. “Her magic is remarkably controlled for her age.”

“And she transfigured your conjured tea set to match the orphanage’s decor.”

Albus nodded again.

“She’s a parselmouth,” whispered Snape.

“It’s just a language,” said Dumbledore, calmly.

Snape scowled. “Just a language? And how does she speak that language?”

Albus sighed. “The Potters and Voldemort have at least one shared ancestor, long ago. It is possible this is a rare magical trait that the Potters conceal. There are many possible answers.”

Snape was still frowning.

“It is best if her abilities and ancestry are not shared,” said Dumbledore.

Snape raised an eyebrow. “There will be an uproar when a previously unknown twin of the Boy-Who-Lived comes to Hogwarts in September.”

Dumbledore drank tea.

Snape tried a different approach. “She said she dreamed of someone who felt like you.”

“Ah. Yes. It has been a number of years since a magically-sensitive student came to Hogwarts.”

“How many, since you?”

Dumbledore folded his hands in front of him. “Two. Voldemort and you, of course.”

Snape flinched. His Occlumency shields hadn’t worked this hard in a while. He wanted to scrub the memory of the orphanage from his brain, and to never see the tiny child with the haunted eyes again. Damn all Potters.

“The dream…” Snape trailed off.

“Yes. I believe young Hari is a type of seer. Her abilities are likely to develop more now that she is in the magical world. We will need to look out for the signs and help her.”

“You won’t send her off to Trelawney?” drawled Snape.

“I think not,” said Albus.

Snape pinched his nose. He didn’t want to say this. He didn’t want to think about it. “That place…”

Albus made a humming noise.

Snape knew why this was so difficult to talk about. And it made him angry. At her. At all of the damned Potters. “The…” Just say the word. “The…abuse was extensive. She’ll hate the Potters. And everything relating to them.”

“Do you think so?”

“I would,” said Snape.

Albus leaned back and looked out the window. “The next few days will be illuminating,” he muttered.

________________________________________

Hari was staring into the Black Lake. The sun was beating down on her shoulders, but she felt cold. Her palms were sweating.

Albus had gently told her a little about her family. Everything he did was gentle. Or cheerful. Or calm.

They were alive. She had a twin.

Why? Why was she sent to an orphanage?

Albus said he didn’t know, but would find out. Do not leap to conclusions, he warned.

________________________________________

“You have to understand. We thought you were a squib,” said Lily.

Hari was in Albus’s office. Two adults, Lily and James, were sitting uncomfortably in chairs on the opposite side of the desk. Hari stood, leaning next to some paperwork. Albus said she didn’t need to talk with them, but she needed to hear the information from their lips. Her ears were buzzing, but she needed to understand.

“What’s a squib?”

Lily shifted. “Someone without magic who has magical parents.”

Hari breathed, mind racing. “So you got rid of me because you didn’t want a kid without magic?”

“No! No, not at all. We just… It would have been dangerous. With Charlie being the Boy-Who-Lived, there are very bad people who would try to use you against him. And if you didn’t have magic to defend yourself…”

Hari was unmoved.

Lily kept talking. “And besides, if you grew up in the magical world but had no magic, you would have been terribly jealous and bitter.”

“Because knowing that I grew up in a terrible orphanage while my biological parents and twin were warm, full, and happy just fills me with joy,” Hari said through clenched teeth.

“We had no idea you were at an orphanage,” said Lily.

“Oh? Where did you think I was?”

“At my sister’s. Petunia.”

“So…all of those times you visited, where did you think I was? Sick? With friends? Surely you must have gotten suspicious,” drawled Hari.

“Errrr. Well, we don’t get on, Petunia and I, that is. We don’t stay in touch.”

“So you gave your daughter away to someone you don’t like?” asked Hari.

“Petunia never liked magic, so it would have been good for a squib–”

“I’m obviously not a squib. So you couldn’t have known for sure. And you gave me to someone who hates magic? Did you want me to be miserable?” Hari’s stomach was clenched. Her palms hurt. It was easier to focus on the physical pain than something deeper in her that was breaking.

“No,” said James. “We thought it would be–”

“And you never visited,” said Hari stiffly. “In ten years you never visited, even from a distance, to see me. Not once. You would have known I wasn’t there.”

“We’ve been so… It wouldn’t have been… It wouldn’t have been safe. Someone could have followed us,” said James.

His palms were open, almost like he was asking her to give him something. But she wouldn’t. Why should she? No one had ever given her anything.

“You were just embarrassed, weren’t you?” murmured Hari.

“What?”

“You were so embarrassed at the thought of having a child who was different than you, that you got rid of me rather than risk it.”

The silence stretched.

James looked up. “Your mother is a muggleborn. She comes from non-magical parents. I come from a long line of magic. There were many people who were opposed to our marriage. They thought mixing in muggle blood would dilute our magic. Which is nonsense. You-Know-Who, the wizard who tried to kill Charlie, was their leader. Even after Charlie vanquished him, many of his supporters were around. If we had a squib, they might push anti-muggle and anti-muggleborn legislation through. It’s about more than us.”

Hari wasn’t buying it.

“I’m told most parents do anything to protect their young. I’ve never seen that. It’s interesting that you don’t care about my wellbeing. I feel sorry for Charlie having to grow up with parents who don’t really care about their kids.”

“We love Charlie,” gasped Lily. “We would never…” She seemed to realize her misstep.

“You threw me away like trash. I’m human. And you treated me like nothing. Do you know what that feels like?”

No one said anything. She didn’t think they could ever understand.

Hari continued in a cold, calm voice. “You’re terrible people. Just awful. I suppose I’m glad to have some answers. But we don’t ever need to talk again.” Hari walked toward the door then stopped. “One more question. What did you tell Petunia my name was?”

Lily blinked. “We wrote it in the letter that described everything. Hadrianna Potter. That’s…that’s what we wrote.”

Hari clenched her jaw. A letter? “Did she know anyone named Black?”

James puffed out a breath of air. “Siri. Sirius Black. He’s your godfather.” After a pause, he said, “Petunia met him at our wedding.” Another pause. “It didn’t go well.”

Hari nodded and left the room. She could hear her heartbeat in her ears.

On her way out, she heard Lily say, “Headmaster. We need to decide what to say to people. The newspapers…”

Hari hated them.

They were her parents. They were supposed to care about her. They were supposed to protect her. Why didn’t they care? Why were they so willing to risk her safety?

They betrayed her.

________________________________________

Albus found her later.

“I won’t lie for them,” Hari growled.

“Nor would I ask that of you.” Albus gently patted her shoulder.

“How could they?” It would have been a yell if Hari’s teeth weren’t tightly clenched.

Albus didn’t say anything. He put a hand on her other shoulder and pulled her closer. She collapsed against him. She was gasping for breath and tears covered her cheeks. Everything hurt.

Later, when she could speak a little, Hari asked, “So are you sending me back?”

“Back?” Albus murmured.

“To the orphanage,” she whispered.

Albus hugged her tighter. “Never.”

“There must be something wrong with me. My parents didn’t want me. No one at the orphanage wanted me. No one ever tried to adopt me. Everyone–” Hari was cut off.

“They were wrong.”

Hari was quiet for a few breaths. “Wrong?”

“Yes.”

“All of them?”

“Yes.” After a few minutes of hugging her, a touch of humor entered Albus’s voice. “I am quite old to be a first time parent, but I will try if you want.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Hari had never really been hugged before. And now she’d been hugging a potential adoptive father. For a while. Was it awkward? She didn’t really want to stop. But how did something like this work?

“Errr…” Hari started.

“Yes, my dear?”

“What now?”

Albus chuckled. “Now we should decorate your room. How do you feel about bright pink? I think it would be fetching on the floor.”

Hari let out a hysterical laugh and hugged him tighter.