Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 1

"You know what would be great Emily?" Harry asked me from behind his books.

"What?" I asked as I finished up my essay about trolls for Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"If you could write my Potions essay for me."

"You're hilarious," I laughed.

"Please," he begged me.

"Harry, it's only on Shrinking Potions," I said. "It's not that bad."

"That's only because you've practically memorized every potions book that we've been given…"

We were both sitting in our room doing some of the summer work that we had gotten from Hogwarts. In the beginning of the summer, I managed to stow away all of the homework I had underneath a board in the floor. Harry didn't get to do the same thing, but he managed to pick the lock to the cupboard that all of our school things were locked into.

I had finished most of my homework already, being as I got started on it as soon as I could. Potions, being my favorite subject, was the one that I finished first and Harry seemed to feel that I should write his essay too. He was out of his mind.

"That's beside the point," I told him. "I already wrote down the instructions for the potion, all you have to do is put it in essay form!"

"Fine…" he whined.

After that I got started on writing my essay for History of Magic, my worst subject. It wasn't as bad at the moment only because I didn't have to listen to Professor Binns' droning voice that managed to put me to sleep every time we had his class. Once I had gotten through half of the essay, I heard Harry's watch beep meaning that it had finally reached midnight.

"Happy birthday, Emily," Harry said.

"Happy birthday," I smiled.

I reached over to my bedside table and pulled a small card out of the drawer. Harry went over to the desk that was in our room and pulled out a card also. I handed mine to him and he handed his to me. It was a tradition that we had to give each other a homemade birthday card every year that had some short little message in it. I guess it came to be back when no one else really cared about us.

Thank you for being here for me even when no one else was. Hope your thirteenth birthday is as great as mine! Love, Harry.

Inside of the card was a picture of us when we were little babies, our parents were in the background waving at us.

"Thanks," I smiled as I started at the picture.

I walked over to let Hoot and Hedwig out of their cages so that they could fly around outside. Uncle Vernon finally allowed us to do this, but we had to promise that we wouldn't be sending any letters. I had broken this rule only a couple of times…probably more than that, but I never got caught.

"Thanks, Emily," Harry said as he finished reading the letter.

When Harry stood up I noticed that he had gotten a little bit taller over the summer. We always managed to stay about the same height as each other, but I think that he might even be a little taller than me now.

Even though we were both twins, we didn't really look that much alike. The only thing that we had in common was our eyes. We both had bright green eyes that looked just like our mother's eyes according to everyone that we came in contact with.

Harry had messy, jet black hair and round glasses that sat on his nose. Right in the middle of his forehead, hidden by his hair, was a lightening bolt scar. I had long, red hair and did not wear glasses like my brother. I also had a lightening shaped scar that was on my forehead, however, the one that I had ran down the right side of my face, just passed the bottom of my ear. We were both very skinny and small for our age.

Suddenly several owls flew into the room, each of them holding letters. One of them I recognized to be Ron's owl, Errol, the one that always flew into things.

"Wow…" I said looking at all of the owls that were coming into our room.

"Let's see who wrote us…" Harry said as he walked towards the first owl.

I walked over to the owl closet to me - it was a brown barn owl. When I picked up the letter, I immediately recognized the handwriting to be Hermione's.

Dear Emily,

Happy birthday! I'm sorry for not calling you on the telephone, but Ron told me that he tried to call the other day. Apparently he had been yelling over the phone because he couldn't understand how to use it. Silly boys! Anyway, I hope that the Dursleys aren't treating you too badly this summer. Make sure Harry gets his work done - I know that you will!

Hope you have a wonderful birthday!

Hermione

I smiled as I read through the letter and remembered the phone call that Hermione was talking about. Ron had called up during the summer and Uncle Vernon had answered it. Ron was screaming over it because he didn't realize that you could hear someone perfectly if they just spoke normally. I opened up Hermione's gift and saw that it was a book of some really advanced potions. It seemed that she always gave me potions books…

"What is that?" I asked Harry when I saw a spinning top made of glass.

"It's a…" Harry looked pack at the letter. "Sneakascope…it's supposed to warn me if any intruders are near. Is that another potions book?"

"Yes it is," I smiled.

"Are you actually going to read that?" he asked. "I don't think that you have to read about advanced potions for our third year."

"I know, but I probably will anyway," I said. "I actually enjoy that class…"

I walked over to the next owl which handed me a letter from Ron.

Dear Emily,

Happy birthday! Sorry I wasn't that creative with the gift that I gave you - it's the same one that I gave to Harry. I figured that they could come in some use. I heard that Hermione gave you another potions book. Do you actually read those? They seem pretty terrible. Anyway, I sent along a Daily Prophet and it has my family on the front page! We got to go to Egypt this summer! Well, I hope that you and Harry can come over later this summer, I imagine that it's been hell over there since I called and yelled at your uncle - sorry about that…hope to see you later!

Ron

Attached to it was another Sneakascope - I thought that it was pretty neat actually. The same owl handed me two more letters. I assumed already who they were from.

Dear Emily,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I'm not really sure if this will actually make it over there because Ickle Ronnie-kins told me about that telephone call that he made to your aunt and uncle's house - I hope that they aren't being too mean to you. I wouldn't have to come over there again - haha!

Your favorite Weasley twin,

Fred

P.S. Make sure that you aren't around the Muggles when you open this. I made sure to put that charm you taught us on it to make sure that it wasn't loud, so don't worry about that.

When I read the postscript, I immediately grew concerned as to what the gift was. It was probably something explosive knowing Fred. When I unwrapped the gift, I saw that it was some kind of fireworks. I could only imagine…

I held it outside the window and lit it on fire with a match that I had near the candle in our room. Right when I did, the fireworks flew out into the darkness and exploded quietly into the sky. It read out in multiple different colors the words HAPPY BIRTHDAY and had a smiling face next to it that I assumed was Fred.

"Nice," Harry laughed when he saw it.

"You should be jealous," I laughed.

I opened up the next letter after that.

Dear Emily,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Just so you know, my gift to you is way better than Fred's gift, just saying. I hope that the Dursleys aren't treating you too badly after Ron's phone call - he's an idiot by the way. Speaking of idiots, did you hear that Percy's been named Head Prick? He's been prancing around in his little Head Boy badge ever sense he got it from Hogwarts. It's actually really annoying to be quite honest. He got all mad when I enchanted it to say Head Prick too, Fred got a picture of it (it's attached to this letter) and it's so funny! Anyway, I hope that you've been having a good summer, see you on the first of September!

The better of the Weasley twins,

George

Attached to it, as promised, was a picture of Percy in his "Head Prick" badge chasing George around the Burrow. George was laughing a lot and Percy's face was red and he looked like he was yelling.

I smiled and then picked up the gift that was next to it. Inside of it was a bunch of different kinds of candy that had a note next to it saying:

Don't eat these! These are some extra tricks that Fred and I made over the summer and I was hoping that you could test them out on Dudley or something. Enjoy!

These could come in handy…

Dear Emily,

Happy birthday! Oh, Gran says happy birthday too. I couldn't really get you much because Gran told me that there is more to a friendship than gifts or something. She's crazy…anyway, I hope that your birthday is great - tell Harry I said happy birthday too. See you at school!

Neville

Attached was a variety of different kinds of candies and cookies. I looked over to the owl next to it and I saw two giant textbooks that appeared to be moving around. I motioned for Harry to come over and look at them.

"What are they?" he asked.

I flipped over the first book and I instantly knew who had sent them.

"The Monster Book of Monsters?" Harry asked.

"Hagrid…" I muttered.

Then, without warning, the books started biting and growling at Harry and me. We jumped out of their way as they ran around the room. We tried to figure out a way to stop them and I grabbed onto a belt that way nearby. I jumped onto one of the books and managed to keep it still long enough to strap it down; Harry did the same.

"Definitely Hagrid," Harry said. "I hope that didn't wake anyone up…"

We stayed silent for a moment and then heard our cousin's snoring in the next room. They were still sound asleep. Then we picked up the letter:

Dear Harry and Emily,

Happy Birthday! Think you might find this useful for next year. Won't say no more here. Tell you when I see you. Hope the Muggles are treating you right.

All the best, Hagrid

"Only Hagrid would send us a book that tried to eat us…" Harry laughed.

Then we opened up the final letter, no doubt that it was the Hogwarts letter that we received each year to say what all we needed to buy for school.

Dear Miss Potter,

Please note that the new school year will begin on September the first. The Hogwarts Express will leave ftom King's Cross station, platform nine and three-quarters, at eleven o'clock. Third years are permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade on certain weekends. Please give the enclosed permission form to your parent or guardian to sign. A list of books for next year is enclosed.

Yours sincerely,

Professor M. McGonagall Deputy Headmistress

"Like Uncle Vernon is going to sign this," I muttered.

"Yeah, there's no way that they'll sign this…" Harry sighed.

"Maybe we could forge the signature…or trick them into doing it or something…"

"You've been hanging around Fred and George too long," Harry laughed.

Thanks for reading - I hope that you liked it! I figured that I might as well start off this story with a question for you all: what is something that you are looking forward to in this story or what is something that you hope is going to happen? You don't necessarily have to answer these questions, I just figured I'd ask something. As always, if you have any suggestions, tell me! PLEASE REVIEW!