He was on fire. Sweat ran down his forehead, his head thrummed with pain, and his ears hurt. His throat felt raw and he wondered why, confused. Then he was retching again, only there wasn't anything to throw back up. He shoved his knuckles in his mouth, vainly trying to stop the moan that escaped his lips. A large hand grabbed his arm in a painful grip and dragged him out of the cupboard. He collapsed on the floor, heaving. He heard something, knew his Uncle was yelling, but couldn't quite make it out. When the belt connected with his backside, he screamed.

Harry jerked awake from his nightmare. He wondered if he had screamed aloud. Furiously, he wiped his face with his pajama sleeve. Rolling over, he caught sight of Heather in bed across the room. By the light of the moon, he saw tears making tracks down her face. He was at her side, trying to shake her awake before it even registered in his mind that he had moved. He yelled her name. 'Harry, where are you? Help me!' he saw her lips move before her face twisted in pain. She was screaming.

"Heather!" he yelled her name with more force than before. Her eyes snapped open and she was clinging to him as if he was her lifeline. He saw her shoulders shake, her body racking with her sobs.

"It's okay, I'm here. I had a nightmare too," he assured her quietly in what he hoped was a soothing tone.

Heather wiped away her tears and was looking calmer, although the red-rimmed puffy eyes gave her away. She smiled at him half-heartedly. 'Well, I can't go back to sleep now. What time is it?'

"After five," he guessed, looking out the window. "I guess we could get an early start. Let's get ready and have some breakfast and then we'll hit London."

"We need to go to Gringrotts first, Harry." She could practically feel his blank stare. "To exchange galleons into pounds, silly," she clarified.

"Oh. I knew that."

"Sure you did, brother dear."

They wore their nice new robes over their old clothes from the Dursleys. Harry wore Dudley's hand-me-downs that were at least five times too big while Heather had badly outdated clothes that their aunt had dug out of the attic. Their clothes were so raggedy that they were both understandably desperate for new ones.

Breakfast was a quick affair, after which they practically ran towards Gringrotts.

"May I help you?"

Heather took the initiative this time. "We need to exchange galleons into muggle money." She put the amount Harry had counted out onto the counter in front of the same goblin from yesterday.

"This is quite a large sum. May I make a suggestion?"

"Uh, sure," Heather said lamely.

"Rather than carry all this money on your person, you could acquire a credit card instead."

"Wizards have credit cards?"

"Most wizards do not. It only works in the muggle world, just like an ordinary credit card except that it draws directly from your vaults here."

"Okay, we'll do that then. We'll still need some muggle money for taxi fare."

After that was done, the goblin led them into a small room with a modern telephone and told them the street address for the Leaky Cauldron (or rather one of the stores next to it). Their surprise must have shown on their faces for he explained that goblins were not as ignorant as wizards were about muggle inventions. Harry thanked the goblin and called for a taxi.

The taxi took them to a shopping district where Harry easily identified the most expensive store. Aunt Petunia had a lot of catalogues from the place. He opened his mind to Heather and showed her.

She noticed that they were getting some funny looks and wondered if it was because of the robes or the ugly clothes underneath.

Entering the store, they were intercepted by a stuck-up blonde woman with a patronizing attitude. Heather quickly got sick of her asking if they were lost and whipped out the credit card.

"If you don't mind, my brother and I are in serious need of suitable clothes. Could you perhaps fetch someone to assist us?"

"I can help you," she said quickly.

"Thanks, but no thanks," Heather said just as snobbishly. She noticed a younger woman watching them and pointed at her. "She can help us."

The young woman introduced herself as Robyn. Harry and Heather could tell that she was curious, but she didn't want to pry.

"So, what are you looking for today?"

"Um, we need everything," Harry answered quietly, embarrassed.

"Everything?"

Heather sighed. "Our guardians didn't exactly go out of their way to buy clothes for us. Our parents left us money, but we only discovered that recently. So we're in need of a full wardrobe."

The woman clearly didn't know what to say, but she quickly got to work. Soon they each had piles of clothes to try on. Heather was currently waiting on Harry to finish up while her feet were being measured for shoes.

Harry came out of the dressing room, followed by the man Robyn had fetched to assist him. Heather was blind, but she was almost positive that her brother's face was red again.

He had yelped soon after he'd gone in, which made Robyn explain in amused tones that the assistant was dressing him.

Heather smirked.

'It's not funny.'

'Yes, it is.'

'Wait until it happens to you.'

'I don't see why I should care.'

Harry huffed.

'Stop pouting. Did you get everything?'

'Yeah. Play clothes, poncy clothes, underclothes, and night clothes,' he ticked off. 'More clothes than I can wear in a year.'

Being blind made it very difficult to shop, but she trusted Robyn to pick out good-looking clothes. The woman kept up a constant stream of comments as she dressed her in all the different shirts, trousers, and dresses. Heather didn't think she was faking any compliments and she did toss some clothes into a "not" pile. Heather directed most of the dresses into the pile as well. A few were permitted that were comfortable and didn't sound too formal or flowery.

The children sighed in relief when they finally left the store. Two assistants helped Robyn carry all their boxes to the taxi Harry waved down.

"Where to?"

"Um, the nearest book store that you can find please."

From what they'd learned so far of Hogwarts, it didn't offer courses on science, maths, or even grammar. They intended to get books that would help them keep up in those subjects.

Luckily the bookstore they came to was very large and the assistant was easily able to find textbooks and relevant materials for them. To their amusement, the store even carried a series of books with titles such as 'Basic Math and Pre-Algebra for Dummies'. They purchased all of the "for dummies" books that had anything to do with secondary education. They looked more interesting than the textbooks and it couldn't hurt to have a second source.

They left the bookstore with their bags and climbed back into the taxi that they'd asked to wait for them.

The taxi's final stop was at a store where Harry got his eyes checked and ordered three pairs of brand-new glasses. The old pair he'd worn had not only been a weak prescription, but also the wrong type of prescription. As it turned out, Harry was farsighted. He could see things at a distance much better than things closer to him. Heather had to convince him to buy more than one pair, arguing that if his glasses broke while they were at school he would be stuck without a backup. The first pair of glasses that he picked out were a cross between round and oval shaped and had a flexible silver frame. He couldn't decide between oval rimless frames and rectangular black plastic frames, so he got both. The latter he asked to be made with transition lenses, which sounded useful. Heather bought two pairs of non-prescription glasses, pink-tinted sunglasses with an oval gold wire frame and a pair with transition lenses exactly like Harry's. She was able to walk out of the store with hers, while Harry arranged to pick his up in three weeks.

When Harry asked why she got them, she shrugged and admitted that she liked it when people said how identical they were. If they both wore their transition glasses, they'd look even more alike.

This sparked an idea and Heather dragged Harry into the neighboring store. It was a beauty salon. There she got her hair cut until she really did look exactly the same as Harry, except for their eyes. She also bought hair products including some gel and hair pretties.

Not giving time for Harry to do more than gape, she tugged him into the glasses shop again and hastily ordered hazel and green contacts for each of them, respectively.

They were back in the taxi and headed towards the Leaky Cauldron, when Harry finally spoke up.

"What was that about?"

"Well, I had an idea. I mean how great would it be if we could switch places? Not just at the Dursleys', but at school too."

Harry studied her excited face and realized what she meant. The Dursleys always set them to more difficult tasks based on their disabilities. If they switched places, those tasks would be a breeze. At Hogwarts, if they were sorted into different houses, they could experience what the other's house was like. It could be a lot of fun, too.

"Alright," he agreed. "But what if we get caught?"

"How could we get caught? If somehow they suspect us, just deny it until their ears ring. I doubt they would be able to do anything about it. Besides, we won't give them reason to suspect. We'll practice at acting and sounding like each other. And looking more like each other," she added. "You can wear each of your glasses on different days, random-like. Then, when I'm pretending to be you, I'll wear my transition glasses on top of my contacts. You'll wear just the contacts, since they're already prescription. We can fix our hair a bit different too." She shook the bag of hair pretties in front of his face.

He groaned. "Those are for girls."

"They're also for boys pretending to be girls," she said smugly.

Harry stuck his tongue out petulantly.

The driver turned around and announced they were at the address they'd given him. He had a big grin on his face, which embarrassed Harry when he realized that the driver had probably heard every word.

Heather smirked and paid the man, adding a generous tip.

They waited until the taxi rounded the corner before entering the Leaky Cauldron.

A/N: Sorry about the long wait..I'll try to be better. I did some editing in the previous chapters, especially chapter 5. I advise re-reading that chapter as there is one part that is specific to the plot.