Harry wearily opened his eyes as his aunt's screeching woke him from his dream. He quickly got dressed as Vernon and Dudley stomped their way down the stairs, sending spiders flying in the cupboard. He picked a few off of his arms and scurried out of the cupboard hurrying to the kitchen before his aunt could scream anymore. He was already on to frying the bacon as the others began pouring into the kitchen for food. The table was overflowing with presents that Dudley was now failing to count. He kept the bitter look off of his face carefully. He didn't want to know what kind of punishment would await if he dared to ruin precious Dudley's birthday.

"Morning Harry."

"Charlie don't waste your time on your troublemaker brother. Here, sit and have some eggs," Petunia cooed ushering Charlie into the fourth and final chair at the table. Harry sat the plate of bacon that was piled high and quietly stood as the Dursley's began to eat. He nibbled on his allotment of the feast he had just prepared for the others, a small piece of toast that was rather burnt.

A small part of him thought he was the one who deserved to sit at the table, instead of Charlie but Charlie was the only one who the Dursleys liked. They had lived there as long as Harry could remember, but Charlie had always been the one who fit into the family. Petunia doted over him, not as much as her precious Duddikins but certainly more than Harry. Even his dull brown hair and brown eyes fit in more than Harry's raven hair and emerald eyes. Petunia said his eye color was unnatural, and tended to swat Harry across the head anytime he met her gaze.

Charlie also didn't make the teacher's hair turn blue or somehow appear on the school's roof unlike Harry. Charlie also liked to rough house with Dudley and ran around with Dudley's gang at school and in the neighborhood. Harry preferred to read books whenever he could and avoid Dudley's gang as much as possible, as he was often their favorite victim. Charlie also got new clothes, unlike Harry who often had to wear Dudley's oversize cast offs. The only thing identical about the twins was the two thin lightning shaped scars on their foreheads.

"Mrs. Figg has broken her leg. I'm afraid she won't be able to take the boy today," Petunia said, setting the phone back down on the receiver.

"Harry could come with us," Charlie suggested. Dudley immediately began to protest. As much as Harry would love to go to a zoo, he did not want to go with Dudley and Charlie.

"I can stay here," Harry offered, "I'll be good."

"What about Yvonne?" Vernon asked glaring at Harry. Harry looked back down at the floor pretending to be interested in a speck of dirt.

"She's abroad," Petunia answered.

"We'll have to take the freak then. I won't leave him here and find the house in shambles," Vernon grunted- shushing Dudley's continued protesting. Harry held back a sigh as he began to clear the table, he knew Dudley would find some way to make this trip miserable.

A short while later he found himself crammed into the backseat with Piers, Dudley, and Charlie who were all talking about a recent video game. Harry stayed silent as possible. Not only did he not know anything they were discussing, as he was not allowed to play such things, Vernon had already given him a very frightening reminder to do his best to pretend not to exist. He was too terrified to let out a peep even as Dudley began pinching him half way to London.

It was a relief when the car finally stopped and the boys filed out of the backseat and Dudley had something new to turn his attention on instead of Harry. It had even begun to turn out to be a decent day. He had even got some ice cream, a rare treat for him. It helped the gnawing pain in his stomach from his minimal breakfast.

He was excited when they entered the reptile house. He often read books about reptiles at the school library. He wandered around staying close enough to the rest but also far enough away that they wouldn't be tempted to bother him instead of the animals. He was staring at a very large snake that seemed to be sleeping in its enclosure. Dudley had already abandoned it as it was not doing anything entertaining. The snake begun to stir slightly, staring at him and drawing in close meeting his eyes. It seemed to study him as he stood there.

"I hope you aren't trying to size me up just to eat me. I wouldn't taste very good," he told it, tilting his head. The snake seemed to shake its head to say no. Harry looked at the plaque nearby and read over it quickly.

"I wonder what Brazil is like, oh but it says you were born in captivity so you wouldn't know either huh?" he mused to himself, the snake shook its head no again. This time it seemed to be rather sad though, flicking out its tongue and wobbling its head. "I hear it's nice. I'd like to see it one day."
"WOAH! LOOK AT WHAT THE SNAKE IS DOING NOW," Dudley yelled as he ran up to Harry and shoved him out of the way so hard he landed on his bum. Harry glanced up as Dudley began to bang on the glass annoying the snake. The glass at the moment seemingly disappeared into midair and the large snake crawled its way out of the enclosure taking a moment to playfully snap at Dudley's heels.

"Thankss amigoo. Sseee you in Brazil ssomeday," the snake said as it made its escape through the zoo. Harry gave it a smile before pandemonium took over the reptile house.

The zoo director apologized over and over again to Petunia and Vernon as the keepers tried to find out where the snake and glass had gone. He secretly hoped they would never find the snake but he tried his best to look ignorant of what had happened. He almost begun to think he had gotten away with it until they were in the car on the way back to Privet Drive. The other three boys were talking excitedly about the escaped snake.

"Harry was talking to it weren't cha, Harry?" Piers blurted excitedly as Dudley finished regaling the tale of the now thirty foot killer python that almost killed him.

"Snakes don't talk Piers. Harry was just reading the information on the plaque out loud," Charlie rolled his eyes.

"But he was hissing at it!" Piers protested. Harry looked quickly at Vernon's neck which was steadily turning purple. That was never a good sign.

Vernon didn't speak until Piers was safely seen home. "Cupboard. Now. No Meals,' he sputtered out finally. Harry scampered away before Vernon decided he wanted to use his fists. He didn't dare argue, he knew he could always sneak out for food later when the Dursleys were in bed asleep.

The zoo incident earned him his longest punishment he could remember. By the time he was allowed back out of his cupboard, the summer holidays were well on their way. He was just thankful it hadn't gone till Christmas like Vernon had threatened.

Harry was cooking breakfast once more as Petunia was stirring a big bucket full of lumpy gray clothes. He grimaced at the thought of wearing the clothes she was preparing and wondered why even though Charlie was going to the same secondary school, he was getting a brand new uniform and not a hasty dye job of old clothing three sizes too large. Harry was set to be an outcast at Stonewall as well. He turned his nose up at the vat of nastiness and turned back to breakfast as Charlie complained about not being able to go to Smeltings like Dudley.

"Dudley get the mail," Vernon spoke as he opened up his newspaper.

"Make Harry do it!" Dudley whined.

"Make Charlie do it!" Harry copied, dodging a blow from Dudley's new stick.

"Harry go get the mail," Vernon spoke sternly this time with none of the softness he had asked Dudley with. Harry dodged another blow and went to the door. He shifted through the mail and was surprised to find that among the normal pieces of mail there were two heavy thick envelopes. One addressed to him and a identical one addressed to Charlie. He wondered who would possible write either one of them as their only relations lived in the same house as them. He ran his fingers over the elegant lettering.

Mr. H. Potter

The Cupboard under the stairs

4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey

And

Mr. C. Potter

The Smallest Bedroom

4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey

Neither letter had a stamp attached or return address which was very bizarre. He hurried back as Vernon yelled and handed over the postcard from Aunt Marge and the bills. He handed Charlie his envelope and went to open his own. Charlie sat his on the table without looking at it. Vernon was engrossed in his newspaper and Petunia was tending to the bacon so neither noticed anything amiss.

"Dad! Dad! Why did they get a letter and not me?" Dudley whined. Harry shot him a look pleading for Dudley to be quiet for once in his life. It was hopeless because he had already stirred Vernon away from his paper.

"What the devil are you talking about?" Vernon snapped slamming down his newspaper. He snatched the two envelopes up, giving Harry a gnarly paper cut at the force. "No one writes these two," he glared before turning his attention to the offending pieces of mail. "P-p-pet…"

Petunia turned around brandishing a spatula. She looked at the papers for a second before turning deathly pale and dropping it, clutching her throat in terror. Harry watched the scene extremely confused as to why they were looking at the letters as if they would explode any moment.

"Everyone to their rooms now!" she shrieked. The three tried to protest with no avail. Vernon was already turning purple- Harry fled first knowing better then to draw Vernon's ire. He also was hoping to be able to hear them through his cupboard door as they talked about the letters. He laid on his cot as quiet as he could so that he could listen to the muffled voices.

"What do we do?" Petunia asked, "Look it even says what bedrooms they are in!'

"They must be watching us. I won't have it. I knew the freak was no good but the other one seemed normal. I won't have it, Pet! Not in my house,' Vernon muttered furiously.

"Should we write back? Say we don't want to send them?" Petunia suggested meekly.

"No. We will just ignore it and not write back at all. They should get the hint."

"But Vernon…"

"I won't have such things in my house. I refuse! We swore we would set those two right Pet, no matter what it took. That we would stamp out this dangerous nonsense."

They must have moved after that because Harry could no longer hear them speaking. He stayed in his cupboard not willing himself to come out yet just in case even as the front door slammed shut as Vernon left and the day passed.

He shrunk as far back as possible as the door to his cupboard flew open.

"Those letters were not for either of you. They've been burned and I don't want to hear any more about it," he said sternly but with an even more frightening smile on his face. Harry nodded quickly trying to make himself seem as small as possible. Vernon looked around the cupboard with a scrunched nose.

"Me and your aunt have been thinking. You are much too big for this cupboard. We've decided to move you into Charlie's room. We've even got you a bunk bed," Vernon smiled. Harry decided not to argue even though it was very unnerving and quickly gathered his things under Vernon's supervision. It only took one trip to move all of it upstairs. He awkwardly stood holding his stuff looking at Charlie.

"I'm taking the top bunk," Charlie declared after scrutinizing him a bit. Harry nodded and put his things in the tiny corner Charlie had cleared out for him. "And don't touch my things," Charlie commanded with a frown. Harry stared at the bottom of the top bunk for hours but couldn't sleep. He waited until he heard soft snores coming from above before he grabbed his blanket and pillow and tiptoed to the closet settling into the floor before sleep overtook him.

The next morning two more letters had arrived and the day after, even more. Vernon had gone positively unhinged going as far to nail the door shut with them all inside. Harry had tried to covertly take a letter but failed every time.

"No post on Sundays,' Vernon hummed merrily until the letters began pouring from the chimney. He went mad tearing down the door and having them all pack a bag and load into the car. Even Petunia seemed too scared to speak up against him. They didn't stop all day but still the letters found them as soon as they had stopped. Vernon then lead them on a crazy trip to a broken down shack they had to reach by rickety boat.

Harry was laying on the floor without even a blanket, staring at the clock waiting for his birthday to arrive. It was almost peaceful if he ignored the snores, and crashing waves outside. That was until there was a loud knock at the door. Everyone bolted up staring at the door. They were in the middle of nowhere after all. The knocking started again but no one dared to open the door. It swung open and in walked the biggest man Harry had ever seen. The giant seemed to even struggle to fit through the doorway.

"Harry! Charlie!" the giant called fondly making his way over to the twins. They looked at each other in disbelief. They certainly didn't know this man. "Happy Birthday to ya both! I've brought ya a cake. Gimme a second ter find it." The giant began searching through his giant pockets.

"Now look here! I don't know who you are and you are trespassing," Vernon said waving the gun he had bought earlier. The giant just grumbled unperturbed and took the gun, twisting the metal into a pretzel and dropped it.

"Be quiet would ya Dursley," the man turned back to the twins and continuing to dig through his large pockets digging out all manner of strange things some of which even moved. 'Where are me manners. I'm Hagrid, Keeper and Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." The giant finally found the cake and sat it on the rotting table and started pulling out a kettle and tea bags.

"Hogwarts?" Charlie asked, backing up slowly to be closer to Petunia.

"Yer don't know 'bout Hogwarts?" Hagrid shouted. Harry flinched away.

"Er-no," Harry answered quietly staring at the ground.

"Where did ya think yer parents learned it all then?"

"Um…learned what?" Charlie questioned.

"LEARNED WHAT? Learned what? Did ya tell these boys nuthin about what they are!" he asked furiously walking towards Vernon and Petunia who ushered Charlie and Dudley behind them. He shook his large head. "Charlie, Harry. Yer wizards just like your da' and mum were," Hagrid said ignoring Vernon's loud protests.

"Oh great. We're stuck in a shack. In the middle of nowhere. With a lunatic!" Charlie exclaimed.

"Oi! I'm not a lunatic. Haven't ya ever wondered why weird things happen around ya?" Hagrid questioned. Harry found himself nodding despite himself. Charlie shook his head furiously.

"Yer the worst lot of muggles I've ever come to known," Hagrid turned his attention to Vernon. "How could ya not tell them about their parents?"

"Muggles?" Harry asked softly.

"Muggles. It's the name we give people like them. Nonmagical folk," Hagrid stopped to explain.

"I'm not like Harry! I don't make freaky things happen! I must be a muggle too. I'm normal," Charlie protested.

"Course yer a wizard too. Ya got a letter and everythin'," Hargid patted Charlie on the back causing him to take several steps forward and handed both boys their letters. Harry turned towards Petunia who had anger and not shock across her face.

"You knew didn't you?" Harry accused.

"Knew? Of course we knew! How could you not be given what my sister was and then flaunting that ruddy boy around? We thought Charlie would be normal but I guess you can't stomp out the bad genes! Only I saw Lily for what she was! My parents were absolutely delighted to have a witch in the family, but I knew all along she was a freak. Then she went and got herself blown up and left us to deal with you two!" Petunia screeched pointing her finger in their direction.

Charlie began crying, real tears pouring down his face. "I thought you said they died in a car crash," he whimpered.

Hagrid lost it at that point and began to lay into the other two adults. Harry had never seen Vernon looked so cowed. He ignored the small part of him that was glad Charlie finally got to see what Harry had been suffering this entire time.

The next morning the twins were led to Diagon Alley to get their school supplies. It took some convincing to get Charlie to come along but Harry accepted immediately. He mostly just wanted to know where it was possible to get spellbooks in London.

Their first stop was Gringrotts where Hagrid explained their parents had left them some money for their schooling. Harry went into his vault with just the goblin as Hagrid went into Charlie's. He began to fill his bag with the gold after staring thoughtfully at the pile. He turned towards the goblin.

"Mr. Griphook, is this considered enough to get through school? I'm afraid my aunt and uncle won't be helping with such expenses," he asked. The goblin studied him for a long time before replying. He looked over a large tomb he had brought in with him.

"It seems your parents liquidated most of their assets during the war. The money from the liquidation was split evenly between the two vaults. They were considered very wealthy so even half their fortune could last you a lifetime if spent wisely. Not that I trust wizards to do such a thing. There is also a family vault with heirlooms and such you may claim upon adulthood as the older twin. Whether or not you allow access to the other is up to you," Griphook replied with a snarling grin. Charlie had certainly not made a fan of the goblin.

"Thank you. That was valuable information," Harry replied with his own smirk.

"You're a strange one. No wizard remembers a goblins name or thanks them," Griphook commented staring holes into Harry.

"Don't bite the hand that feeds you?" he offered.

"I do not understand," Griphook stated.

"It's a … muggle saying. In this case it means don't be rude to those who handle your money," he explained as they closed the vault up. He waved goodbye to Griphook as they left and went about finishing their shopping.

"Hello," a blonde boy said as Harry went to a fitting room. Charlie was led to a different one. "Hogwarts too?"

Harry nodded. The blonde looked him over before beginning to talk about Hogwarts and something called Quidditch. "What house to you think you'll be in? I bet I'll end up in Slytherin, my whole family has. It's really the best house after all. What about your parents?" the blonde finally slowed down.

"I'm not sure. They're dead," Harry shrugged.

"Oh I'm sorry," the blonde said with a frown.

"Don't be, I never even knew them."

A silence fell as the two witches kept working on pinning everything into place.

"Draco Malfoy,' the blonde introduced himself after they had almost finished.

"Harry," he replied jumping down and proceeding to the front.

"I suppose I'll see you at Hogwarts?" Malfoy asked as Harry went to leave. He gave a noncommitting shrug before going to pay.

They went on to the wand shop, Hagrid leaving them at the door. Charlie ended up with an 11 inch willow and unicorn hair wand very quickly. Charlie didn't seem to appreciate his new wand and instead stuffed it quickly back into the box despite the strange shopkeepers frowning. Harry's wand was proving to be a difficult find however. Instead of being discouraged, each failed wand seemed to excite Ollivander further.

"Perhaps…" the strange man trailed off shooting towards the back of the store before appearing with a new box, "one of my finest pieces. 11 inches, holly and phoenix feather. Go on give it a try."

Harry gently lifted the wand and gave it a wave. This time instead of causing explosions the books nearby levitated slowly and purposefully before falling back down.

"That's the one!" Ollivander exclaimed happily. "Curious though, very curious…"

"What's so curious?" Charlie asked, frowning.

"Well, your twin's wand has a brother of its own. The phoenix whose feather is in his wand, drop one other feather. Strange your brother would pick this wand of all the others in my shop when its pair gave you both your scars," Ollivander began mumbling to himself and writing things down furiously in a notebook. Being ignored the two boys just sat their money down for the wands and left the shop quickly. They were greeted by Hagrid holding up two cages.

"Happy Birthday!" Hagrid exclaimed handing them both one of the cages each. "I saw ya lookin' at these two when we were walkin' by."

Inside of Harry's was a gorgeous snowy owl staring back at him intelligently. He looked over at Charlie's to see a white kitten with tiny gray paws.

"Thank you Hagrid," they both said.

They headed back to Privet Drive on their own, with all their school things in tow. They were quickly hurried into the house.

"Aunt Petunia. I don't want to go to this school! These people are weird! I heard these ladies talking about dragons!" Charlie cried. Petunia's gaze softened as she pulled Charlie into a hug.

"I know, but you have to go. It's not your fault your brother infected you with this nonsense. We should have never taken him in," Petunia comforted. Harry opened his mouth to protest but instead just made his way upstairs where he let his new owl out of her cage to stretch her wings out. Charlie came in later and glared at the owl.

"That beast better not hurt Storm," he spat holding the kitten close to his chest.

"They eat rodents. And I've already told Hedwig the cat is off limits," Harry replied turning his attention back to his new book, rolling over so his back faced Charlie. He ignored the names Charlie was calling him. After all, freak now meant Charlie as well.