Chapter Text
Chapter 1: The Zoo Accident
"To Harry and Kira Potter - the boy and the girl who lived!"
Kira Potter wakes up, slightly startled. She looks at her left and sees her brother Harry still asleep next to her.
Kira lies there, staring up at the ceiling thinking about her dream.
It is always the same dream -
In her dream, Kira always stands in a children's room.
Inside this room are two baby beds with two babies inside of them.
One has short black hair and green eyes, while the other one has short red hair and hazel eyes.
Strange The longer Kira looks at them the more they start to look like Kira and Harry
Besides the two baby beds and the two babies, the only other visible thing is the white door.
At the beginning of the dream it is quiet and calm... until a loud crash can be heard from behind the white door.
Kira and the two babies look startled at the door. The babies start crying.
Suddenly a loud scream can be heard, and a young woman runs into the room, shutting the door behind her.
This woman has long red hair and green eyes. She looks like their mother Lily from the pictures that Aunt Petunia shows them.
Actually there aren´t any pictures of their parents inside the house because Uncle Vernon doesn´t want them to be in his house.
But Aunt Petunia shows them the pictures that she hides from him, at night or whenever Uncle Vernon is at work and Dudley is asleep.
The woman kneels in front of their cribs with tears in her eyes.
Kira can't hear what she says..., but she can hear loud steps and the turning of the door knob.
Both Kira and her mother turn around to look back at the door.
The woman stands in front of the cribs protecting her children with her life as the door breaks down.
A mysterious man with a long black cloak with a hood, which covers his face. Only his dark blue eyes are visible. [1]
Kira shudders slightly. She has never seen such... evil eyes... if that's the correct way to describe them.
There is nothing, but emptiness in his eyes.
Slowly the man point... a wooden stick?... or maybe a wooden magic-wand? But not like the ones that are used in a Circus, where they are used to fool naive children... and, sometimes their parents, too.
The "wand" is made out of a some sort of white wood with a bone-like handle, and it is curved. [2]
Every time Kira sees the wand being pointed threateningly at the woman. Kira always thinks that it is such a waste to use such a beautiful wand just for killing people. What a waste.
The man shouts something and a bold of light green lightning hits the woman, who falls immediately with a scream.
Kira looks down at her and one single tear rolls down her eyes.
The first few times she had this dream she dried to yell or move to help her, but it was pointless since she couldn't move, and since it was just a dream.
Even though this happens in every single night, in every single dream, it still hurts to watch your "mother" getting killed in front of you.
Then that man walks towards the two babies and points his wand at the baby that looks like Harry,
He shouts the same two words and the light green lightning hits the baby-
And this is the moment when Kira usually wakes up.
Now she lies there mentally preparing herself for her Aunt Petunia to wake them up.
Could this woman be my mom? No, that's impossible! Magic doesn't exist! If that baby really is Harry... then how is he still here... alive... Kiras thoughts are interrupted by Aunt Petunia.
Aunt Petunia is usually nice to them when Uncle Vernon isn´t around.
It´s not that hard to see that she´s afraid of him. Kira also notices her flinching slightly when Uncle Vernon is angry.
But when he is around she threats them like he does.
"Up! Get up! Now!" Kira hears Aunt Petunia's shrill voice from outside the door.
She looks sympathetically at Harry, who woke up with a start.
"Up!" Aunt Petunia screeches as she rappers in the door before she walks away.
Kira hears the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove as she looks at Harry.
"Again, some weird dream, Harry?" Kira asks him with a small smile.
"Yeah, it was weird, but a good dream. There was a flying motorcycle in it, " He tells her.
"Yeah, right," Kira says as she rolls her eyes.
She grimaces as she hears their Aunt walking near their door again.
"Are you two up yet?" She demands.
"Nearly," says Harry as Kira rolls her eyes.
"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything to be perfect on Duddy's birthday."
Their "room" is slowly getting too small for Kira.
Where would they put Kira once she gets too tall for the cupboard under the stairs?... Yes, this is where they sleep.
They both walk down the hall into the kitchen. The table is almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents.
Kira raises her eyebrow as she notices a racing bike among the present, she has no idea why Dudley wanted a racing bike in the first place.
Dudley is a lot like Uncle Vernon fat, mean and stupid. He probably doesn't even know to ride a bike.
The only "exercise" Dudley knows is punching somebody. His favourite punching bag is Harry.
Kira was also his favourite punching bag, but it changed after she started hitting back.
Kira is a fast learned. So, after years of dodging and out running... or rather out climbing Dudley. She learned how to fight back.
Harry on the other hand is a pretty fast runner. He's also very short and skinny for his age. Harry has to wear Dudley´s old elephant skin instead of new clothes, even though Aunt Petunia did give both them (secretly) good clothes, but she is too afraid to let them wear them in front of Uncle Vernon.
Kira is as skinny as Harry, but she's taller than him. Her clothes do look slightly better since she wears the old clothes from the neighbours daughter, which Aunt Petunia probably stole. Kira cannot imagine that her Aunt Petunia actually asked her neighbours if they would give her some clothes for Kira.
Harry had black hair and bright green eyes, which reminds Kira of the woman from her dreams, and Harry also wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape.
Kira had shoulder-length red hair and hazel eyes, she doesn't need glasses.
They both have a very thin scar that was shaped like a bolt of lightning, but while Harry has his scar on his forehead, Kira has her scar on her right cheek. This is also the reason why she is allowed to have long hair to cover her scar.
"Comb your hair!" Uncle Vernon barks at Harry as he enters the kitchen.
Kira rolls her eyes as she brings him a cup of coffee, defying the wish to pour the cup directly on his fat head.
Kira is frying eggs by the time Dudley arrives in the kitchen with his mother.
Harry and Kira put plates of eggs and bacon on the table.
Meanwhile Dudley is counting his presents. His face fell.
"Thirty-six," he says, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."
"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy."
"All right, thirty-seven then," says Dudley, going red in the face.
Kira throws Harry an amusing glance as she sees that he began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.
She and Harry can sense that Dudley is about to throw a tantrum. However, Kira doesn't seem to be that affected by it.
In fact, she only takes a few bites and plays with her food. It seems that her dream is still haunting her.
Aunt Petunia obviously scents danger, too, because she says quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, Popkin? " Two more presents. Is that all right?"
Dudley thinks for a moment. Finally, he says slowly, "So, I'll have thirty... thirty...."
"Thirty-nine, stupid." Kira says as she rolls her eyes, completely ignoring the glares of Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia.
"Oh." Dudley sits down heavily and grabs the nearest parcel. "All right then."
Uncle Vernon chuckles "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley! " He ruffles Dudley's hair.
Kira notices Aunt Petunia shaking her head slightly.
At that moment the telephone rings and Aunt Petunia goes to answer it while Harry, Kira Uncle Vernon watch Dudley unwrap his presents.
Dudley is ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia returns back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.
"Bad news, Vernon," she says. "Mrs Figg's broke her leg. She can't take them. " She jerks her head in Harrys and Kiras direction.
Dudley's mouth falls open in horror, but Harry's heart gives a leap.
Kira looks annoyed though.
Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents take him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies.
Every year, Harry and Kira are left behind with Mrs Figg, an old lady who lived two streets away.
Harry hates it there. The whole house smells of cabbage and Mrs Figg makes them look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.
Kira, on the other hand, doesn't really mind being away from Dudley and Uncle Vernon for a few hours. She also doesn't mind looking at the photographs, since she really loves cats.
"Now what?" says Aunt Petunia..
"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggests.
"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates these children,"
"What about what´s-her-name, your friend -Yvonne?"
"On vacation in Majorca," says Aunt Petunia.
"You could just leave us here," Harry puts in hopefully.
Yeah... as if that will ever happen... Kira thinks as she rolls her eyes.
Uncle Vernon´s face turn red.
"And come back and find the house in ruins?" He snaps at him.
"We won't blow up the house," says Harry.
"Speak for yourself, buddy. I would gladly blow up the house... including with the rest of this garbage that lives here," Kira tells him as she smirks at Uncle Vernon.
"I suppose we could take them to the zoo," says Petunia slowly as she eyes Uncle Vernon carefully, "... and leave them in the car..."
"The car's new, they're not sitting in it alone..."
Dudley begins to cry loudly.
Actually, he is just pretending to cry, because he knows that if he screws up his face and wails, his mother will give him anything he wants.
"Dinky Dudddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let them spoil your special day!" she cries, flinging her arms around him.
"I....don't....want... them... t-t-to come!" Dudley yells between huge sobs. "They always sp-spoil everything!" He shots Harry and Kira a nasty grin through the gap in his mothers' arms.
Just then, the doorbell rings - "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" says Aunt Petunia frantically - and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walks in with his mother.
Dudley stops pretending to cry at once.
Half an hour later, Harry and his sister were sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in their life.
Harry cannot believe his luck, while Kira doesn't really shows any reaction so, it's hard to say if she's happy or not.
In fact, she rarely shows any emotions on her face when she's near the Dudley and his dad or anyone else of their friends, or guests.
She only shows emotions when they´re away...only Harry and sometimes Mrs Figg had ever seen her smile.
Their aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with them, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon has taken both of them aside.
"I'm warning you," he says, putting his face right up close to theirs, "I'm warning you now, brats - any funny business, anything at all - and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."
"Is that a challenge?" Kira asks him as she crosses her arms and looks down at him likes he's the lowest lowlife on earth.
"We're not going to do anything," says Harry nudging Kira, "honestly..."
No matter how much Kira tries to mess with the Dursleys. Strange things often happened around them and it was just no good telling the Dursleys they didn't make them happen.
Once, Uncle Vernon was tired of Harry back from the barber´s looking as though he hadn't been at all, and wasting his money. He had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which he left "to hide that horrible scar."
Dudley had laughed himself silly at him while Aunt Petunia only apologized quietly to him.
Harry spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses.
Next morning, however, they had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Uncle Vernon had sheared it off. He has been given a week in their cupboard for this, even though he has tried to explain that he can't explain how it had grown back so quickly. Lucky he wasn´t hit this time.
He would have been much longer in the cupboard if Kira hadn't stepped in.
She always does it, no matter what punishment Harry's receiving she always helps him. Does Harry have to sit in their cupboard with barely enough food?
She sneaks the food in there, ignoring the risk of getting punished herself.
Harry's threatened to put in the cupboard for a long period of time? Kira goes and does something worse, this way she also gets put in the cupboard for a long time to make the Dursleys forget about Harrys punishment.
Harry is hungry? She gives him her food.
Dudley threatens or is about to hit Harry? Kira stops him and gets punished.
Uncle Vernon is about to hit Harry? Kira stands protectively in front of him.
On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.
But Kira had it even worse than Harry did. Dudley's gang was also chasing after her one day. She stopped running and turned around. As Dudley and his gang came closer they've been pushed away by something, injuring Dudley and his gang by accident. Vernon beat her and locked her in the cellar, which usually serves Kira as the "punishment" room.
Kira doesn't really mind being there since it's much bigger than the cupboard. She already knows that when she becomes too tall for the cupboard this cellar will be her new "room".
The incident was before Kira started to dodge and fight back. After that, he still locked her in the cellar without food for a while (Aunt Petunia was give her food in secret), but he have never touched her....or Harry (at least in front of her) again.
But today seems nothing to get wrong or so Harry thought....
While he drives, Uncle Vernon complains to Aunt Petunia. He likes to complain about a lot of things.
This morning, it was motorcycles.
"...roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he says, as a motorcycle overtake them.
"I had a dream about a motorcycle," says Harry, remembering suddenly," It was flying."
Kira groans quietly.
Uncle Vernon nearly crashes into the car in front. He turns right around in his seat and yells at Harry: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"
Aunt Petunia flinches slightly while Dudley and Piers snigger.
"I know they don't," says Harry. "It was only a dream."
Kira looks out of the window still thinking about her dream.
She wishes that Harry hasn't said anything. If there is one thing the Uncle Vernon hated ever more than them asking questions, it was Harry talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't.
It is a very sunny Saturday and the zoo is crowded with families.
The Dursleys buy Dudley and Pier large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then because the smiling lady in the can asks Harry and Kira what they wanted before they could hurry them away, they buy them cheap lemon ice pops.
It wasn't bad, either, Harry thinks, licking it as they watch a gorilla scratching its head who looks remarkably like Dudley, except it wasn't blond.
Both Potter siblings have the best morning they'd ever had in a long time. Kira, despite still having a bad feeling that something bad is going to happy soon, enjoys the trip... but she'll never let the Dursleys see her smiling.
Kira and her brother walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who start to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favourite hobby of hitting Harry.
Kira feels, afterwards, that it's all too good to last.
After lunch, they are in the reptile house.
It's cool and dark in here, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes are crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone.
It's so cool in here Kira thinks as she looks around. She almost smiles before realizing that the Dursleys are here, too.
Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons.
Dudley quickly finds the largest snake in the place.
At the moment it's fast asleep.
Dudley stands with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.
"Make it move," he whines at his father. Uncle Vernon taps on the glass, but the snake doesn't budge.
"Do it again," Dudley orders. Uncle raps the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozes.
"Stop being stupid! Don't you see it's sleeping?" Kira says in an emotionless and cold tone as she crosses her arms.
"This is boring," Dudley moans. He shuffles away.
Harry and Kira move in front of the tanks and look intently at the snake.
Kira looks at it and she can´t help it, but somehow feel slightly connected to the snake. Their lives are quite similar if you think about it. Both are forced to grow up and live in a house with a bunch of annoying people who are disturbing their peace.
The snake suddenly opens its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raises its head until its eyes were on a level with Kira and Harry.
The snake looks at Kira and then at Harry.
It winks at them.
Kira smiles slightly and winks back at her.
The snake jerks its head towards Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gives them a look that says quite plainly: "I get that all the time."
"I know," Harry murmurs through the glass. "It must be really annoying."
Kira looks at Harry slightly confused for a while, she was sure that the snake won't hear him....or respond to him.
To her surprise the snake nods vigorously.
"Where do you come from?" Kira asks it.
The snake jabs its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry and Kira peer at it.
Boa Constrictor, Brazil.
"Was it nice there?" Harry asks.
"No, Harry. Look at the sign, again," Kira tells him.
Harry reads again: This specimen was bred in the zoo.
"Oh, I see - so you've never been to Brazil?"
"It seems that we have something in common. We also don't know where we come from exactly," Kira says.
As the snake shakes its head, a deafening shout behind Harry and Kira makes both of them jump.
"DUDLEY! MR.DUSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"
Dudley comes waddling towards them as fast as he can.
"Out of the way, you," he says, punching Harry in the ribs.
Caught by surprise, Harry almost falls over, but Kira catches him before he hits the concrete floor.
They both glare at Dudley.
What comes next happened so fast no one saw how it happened - one second, Pier and Dudley are leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they leap back with howls of horror.
Harry gasps while Kira smirks slightly.
The glass in front of the boa constrictor has melted. The great snake is uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor.
People throughout the reptile house scream and start running for the exits.
As the snake slides swiftly past the, Kira hears a low, hissing voice saying, "Brazil, here I come... Thanksss, amigosss,"
"You´re Welcome," Kira hisses back.
She turns her attention back towards the Dursley's.
The keeper of the reptile house is in shock.
"But the glass," he keeps saying, "how did it melted like that?"
As far as Kira has seen, the snake hasn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they are all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley is telling how it has nearly bitten his leg, while Piers swears it had tried to squeeze him to death.
"It would've been such a shame if it did," Kira mumbles.
But the worst of all, for Harry and Kira at least, is Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry and Kira were talking to it, weren't you?"
If looks could kill somebody then Piers would've have died and melted just like the glass, the moment Kira looks at him with a cold, almost murderous glare.
Uncle Vernon waits until Piers is safely out of the house before starting on them.
He's so angry he can hardly speak. He manages to say, "You- boy- go - cupboard - stay - and - and - you- girl- go- cellar - stay - no meals," before he collapses into a chair as Aunt Petunia pours him a glass of Wine, her hands shaking.
Kira lies in the dark, cold and wet cellar much later, wishing she had a watch. Kira didn't know what time it is and she couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet.
Her dreams make it hard for her to fall asleep. She could risk sneaking into the kitchen to get some food for Harry.
They both lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as they could remember, ever since they'd been babies and their parents had died in that car crash. But they couldn't remember being in the car when their parents died.
Sometimes, when Harry tells Kira about his strange visions: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.
Kira thinks it could be connected to her own dream.., but if Harry would've been hit with that green light...then he would've been dead just like the woman in her dreams.
And Kira refuses to think about that.
When they had been younger, they both had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take them away or that Aunt Petunia would move out with both of them, but that never happend.
The Dursleys were their only family. Yet sometimes strangers in the street seemed to know them somehow. Kira didn't really trusted them.
Once, a tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to them while they were out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley.
After asking both Harry and Kira furiously if they knew the man and receiving only a cold glare from Kira in responds, Aunt Petunia rushed them out of the shop without buying anything.
A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at Kira once on a bus.
A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his and Kiras hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word.
At school, Harry and Kira had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry and Kira Potter in their baggy old clothes and Harrys broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.
Kira doesn't really care about the people at school or the strangers. The only thing she ever cared about is Harry....and books... and animals... okay, there are actually a few things she cares about. BUT Harry is her main priority.