Chapter Text
Mrs. Potter woke up that day with an unsettling feeling of suspicion in her stomach. The house was quiet. Perhaps too quiet. With other families, this was probably considered normal. But at the Potter household, quietness was never a good sign. So, with that worrying thought, Mrs. Potter turned her head as she was laying in bed and glanced back at her husband, who was sound asleep beside her.
"Fleamont," she called him in a soft whisper, gently shaking him by the arm. "Fleamont, wake up."
Mr. Potter only groaned and drew the covers over his head to block his eyes from the bright morning sun, which was beaming through the window's curtains.
"Fleamont, don't you think the house is too quiet?" Mrs. Potter whispered, trying to get his attention.
"It's not quiet while you're talking," Mr. Potter's witty voice came from under the blankets.
Mrs. Potter glared at his direction before shaking her head and getting out of bed. She wore her silk dressing gown and ran a hand through her long blonde hair to try and make in neater, before walking out of their bedroom.
On her way down the corridor upstairs, she peeked through her children's separate rooms, seeing that they both had the blankets fully over their heads and were still sleeping in their beds. So she shrugged to herself, deciding to just walk downstairs and pour herself a cup of coffee. But Mrs. Potter had barely reached the second stair when she realized something.
It was true that their son usually slept till noon and had to be woken up sometimes by force, but that wasn't the case for their daughter; the little girl was always the first to wake up in the household.
With her eyes narrowed in suspicion, Mrs. Potter started to tiptoe back toward her daughter's room and slowly opened her door wider. The figure on the bed and under the covers was too still. Something wasn't right.
Mrs. Potter walked toward the bed and ever so gently lowered the blankets. But her face fell when she realized that no one was under the blankets, though there were many pillows set underneath it to make it look like a person. She sighed to herself, shaking her head.
"Oh, for Godric's sake... What are you two little devils up to again?"
***
As the morning wore on a much warmer color and the rays of sunshine splattered across the Potter Manor, unknown to their parents, James and Jenna Potter had gone to the back of their enormous yard, sitting underneath the tall willow tree which had been planted there years and years ago. James had a little blade it his hand as he was sitting next to the tree trunk, trying to carve something upon it as he focused hard, pushing his lopsided glasses up his nose with a finger.
"Let me do it! You'll end up ruining it!" Jenna groaned as she watched her twin brother examining the tree with the blade in his hand.
"No, you can't do it." James shook his head and then turned to face his sister, his grin widening. "Let the men handle the blade."
James then went back to observing the tree trunk, trying to decide where would be the best spot to carve their names. But it went unnoticed by him that at his words, Jenna eyebrows suddenly furrowed together and then slowly her hair started going red from anger.
Jenna was a Metamorphmagus, which meant that she had the ability to change her appearance at will. Most Metamorphmagi could only change their hair colors at the age of eleven, but Jenna was more advanced than what she was aware of.
Just then, her hair turned back to brown and a grin was formed on her lips as an idea made its way through her head. So with that, Jenna closed her eyes and focused, and moments later, she managed to turn her hand into a lobster claw. Without warning, she suddenly pounced, shoving her claw-hand in front of her brother and near his face. James let out a rather girlish shriek in horror and hurtled over the grass and fell to his back, dropping the blade from his hand.
With a satisfied smirk dangling at the edge of her lips, Jenna briskly took the blade off the ground and in a quick motion sat by the tree trunk where James was and started to carve their initials.
"Hey! You could've seriously hurt me!" James retorted loudly, but Jenna only kept grinning.
"Oh, don't be so dramatic, J.P." She laughed. "Besides, if you kept staring at the tree any longer it would've dried out."
"Haha, very funny," James said blankly, but then he moved forward to watch her sister do the blade work.
"All done!" said Jenna cheerfully after a minute or so, finally pulling away to watch her masterpiece with satisfaction.
There, right on the tree trunk, the word 'J.P' was carved.
"What are you two doing?" James and Jenna turned abruptly at the voice, startled to see their mother standing a few feet away from them with her arms folded.
Jenna quickly pocketed the little blade as she and James said in sync, "Nothing."
Mrs. Potter shook her head at them, but said nothing more on the matter. "C'mon, you two. Let's get back inside. I asked Mickey to set the breakfast table."
"Yes!"
"I'm starving!"
The twins said at the same time as they got to their feet and with that, they raced each other back toward their house. As promised, their young house elf, Mickey, had already made them pancakes and bacon for breakfast, with warm toast and fresh pumpkin juice. The window to their kitchen was opening, letting in the refreshing summer breeze. Their mother joined them soon after she had gone upstairs to wear better clothes. But they were in the middle of eating when their father walked into the kitchen, still in his pajamas, his jet-black hair messy, and his brown eyes only half-open.
"Morning, Dad!" James and Jenna said loudly, knowing well that their father wasn't a morning person and that loud noises could easily annoy him at this hour.
"Shh... too much noise... too early..." Mr. Potter mumbled as he went over to pour himself his morning tea in a cup.
When he returned back to the breakfast table and took his usual seat, James and Jenna watched him carefully from the corner of their eyes in silence, their hearts beating in excitement. Then, just as Mr. Potter raised the cup of tea toward his mouth to take a sip, he let out a loud shriek when the cup suddenly bit his nose.
"Oh, Lord!" Mrs. Potter exclaimed, getting up to her feet quickly to try and rid her husband from the jinxed cup, meanwhile James and Jenna were doing everything in their power to hold back their laughter.
When Mrs. Potter finally managed to release Mr. Potter's nose from the jinxed cup, she put the cup down on the table and turned to glare at the twins with her hands on her hips.
"Did I say how beautiful you looked today, Mother?" James said charmingly, but Mrs. Potter's face didn't soften.
"Where did you get the nose-biting tea cups?" she asked them firmly while Mr. Potter was holding his nose in pain which had turned red.
"We don't know what you're talking about." Jenna shrugged innocently.
"Oh, yeah?" Mrs. Potter raised a knowing brow at them before calling out, "Mickey!"
The house elf tiptoed into the kitchen, looking extremely guilty as he had thrown his gaze down at his feet. James and Jenna tried to shake their head at the elf in a warning manner, but they knew that their mother's orders counted more than theirs.
"Mickey, where did they get the jinxed cups?" Mrs. Potter questioned, folding her arm.
"Zonko's Joke Shop in Hogsmeade, my Lady," Mickey blurted out but then clapped a hand over his mouth.
"Really?" Mr. Potter asked excitedly, looking impressed. But then his smile faded when his wife shot him a look. "Really — er — really terrible, is what I was going to say," he corrected himself quickly.
"And how exactly did they get there?" Mrs. Potter asked the house elf.
"They ordered Mickey to take them there with Floo Powder this morning, a few hours ago," Mickey blurted out again without being able to stop himself, and James and Jenna face-palmed.
"And what else did they buy?" Mrs. Potter asked. James went pale in the face and Jenna's hair suddenly turned white.
Mickey tried to hold the words back, but they came bursting out. "Two nose-biting teacups, a box of hiccough sweets, and one Frog Spawn Soap."
Mrs. Potter turned to look at the twins, who were both looking down at their empty plates, as if they were finding it particularly interesting.
"I don't know what you two were thinking, going somewhere so far away alone with the Floo Network! It was very irresponsible of you!"
"Mum, we're old enough to go there!" Jenna tried to reason. "We're eleven! We can take care of ourselves now!"
"Two eleven-year-olds aren't qualified enough to look after themselves, given the state of things!" their mother snapped back.
"Dad?" Jenna turned to face her father hopefully for support, but Mr. Potter awkwardly coughed and raised his copy of the Daily Prophet up to his face; this was his way of saying that he didn't want to be involved in the family drama. Arguments always made him uncomfortable.
"But —" James tried to say, but Mrs. Potter cut him off.
"No 'but'!" she said firmly. "Now you'll go up to your room and bring down every thing Mickey said you've bought. No exceptions. This way, you'll learn not to sneak out of the house ever again."
Huffing to themselves, James and Jenna got to their feet and left the kitchen, walking upstairs to get their stuff in disappointment. James took their shopping bag from under his bed where they had hidden it, while Jenna waited for him at the doorway.
"I can't believe she's making us give all our stuff up!" James said grudgingly. "Just they wait until we're of age! We can go wherever we want — why are you smiling?" James raised a brow at her sister, who unlike him, was grinning and didn't seem too sad about having to give their Joke Shop items up.
With that, Jenna dug into her pocket and took out a set of Dungbombs. "I nicked these when Mickey wasn't paying attention. Mum doesn't have to know about these."
"That's genius, J.P!" James exclaimed happily, patting his sister proudly on the back. "Nice one!"
"Okay, let's just give the other stuff to Mum. We'll keep these Dungbombs for a special occasion." Jenna smirked, putting them back in her pocket. "But try to act sad about it, though."
James scoffed arrogantly. "Yeah, obviously. You don't have to tell me."
With that, the two made their way back downstairs to the kitchen with a fake-depressed expression on their faces, but they both knew how to act their part.
"There you go, Mum," said James with a sad sigh, placing the Zonko's shopping bag on the kitchen table.
"We're really sorry," said Jenna, throwing her gaze down in shame.
"It's okay, as long as you never do it again," said Mrs. Potter, her face softening as she let a smile form on her lips. "Now why don't you kids go take your brooms out for a fly? I don't suppose they'll let first years take their brooms to Hogwarts."
"Which is completely rubbish, in my opinion," said James bitterly, rolling his eyes.
"Amen to that," said Mr. Potter, grinning over his newspaper.
After breakfast, James and Jenna went back to their rooms, taking out their brooms from their closets. But instead of taking them out from their house's front door, they just opened their windows, mounted their brooms, and shot out into the air from there.
They had gotten the whole set of Quidditch balls a few months ago for their eleventh birthday. And so Jenna carried the Quaffle under her arm as she flew toward James, throwing it at him, and he caught it with ease.
Summer was their favorite season of the year, because they would play all day long in the yard with their brooms in the sky, and were severed cool lemonade by Mickey in between breaks. Some days even their parents joined them in a game of Quidditch, both being on the Gryffindor team in their younger days at Hogwarts. Just like any other day, James and Jenna busied themselves by throwing the Quaffle at each other, making risky dives to catch it each time.
Although right at that moment, James's attention was caught by something flying toward them from the distance in the sky.
"Is that an owl?" he questioned, and so Jenna turned her broomstick around, looking up at the horizon.
The owl flew closer and closer toward them and at last when it neared them, it dropped the two letters from its beak. Jenna quickly dived in with her broom and caught them both with ease, stopping in mid-air to read the back of the letters.
But her eyes suddenly widened when she realized what it was and so she let out a scream, shrieking, "THEY'RE OUR HOGWARTS LETTERS!"
James and Janna lost track of what they were doing. They just grabbed on tight onto their letters and landed on the ground, left their brooms there, and ran inside as fast as their feet could carry them.
"WE GOT OUR LETTERS!"
"THE LETTERS! THEY'RE HERE!"
James and Jenna yelled at the same time as they rushed into the living room. Mrs. Potter let out a loud gasp from happiness and placed a hand over her heart, watching them walk forward as they each held onto a letter.
Meanwhile Mr. Potter, who was sitting on the couch as he was examining his wand, let out a yelp and jumped up to his feet in surprise, accidentally giving his wand an unwanted flick in the process and suddenly setting the couch on fire.
"AARGH!" Mr. Potter yelled, looking down at the couch on flames in horror with wide eyes.
"Oh, for Godric's sake!" Mrs. Potter shook her head at him, rolling her eyes. She then briskly took out her own wand and put out the fire, because her husband seemed too in shock to do anything about it.
But despite the mayhem which had fallen upon their living room that afternoon, the four had never been seen happier. They of course knew that this day was coming, but ever since the twins had celebrated their eleventh birthday a few months back, they've been counting the days for this occasion.
"WE'RE GOING TO HOGWARTS!" Jenna yelled out again, her hair changing from orange to yellow and from yellow back to orange from excitement and happiness.
James always used to tease his sister about her hair and say how she looked like a chameleon whenever she got emotional, but he was too excited at the moment to say anything about the matter or to make a joke.
"Well, what are you two waiting for!" Mrs. Potter said cheerfully. "Go ahead. Open up your letters!"
With mischievous glimmers in their eyes, James and Jenna quickly opened up their envelopes. The envelopes were thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, the address behind them were written in emerald-green ink, and there was a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H.
With a wide smile on her lips, Jenna started reading through her letter with her heart pounding excitedly in her chest,
HOGWARTS SCHOOL
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards )
Dear Miss Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy Headmistress
Mrs. Potter was now standing next to James and Mr. Potter beside Jenna as they read through the letters as well, a smile tucking at their lips.
"Oh, this is the proudest day of my life!" Mr. Potter cried out loudly and he let out a little sniff as his eyes filled up with tears.
"Oh, don't cry, old man." Mrs. Potter rolled her eyes at him playfully.
"Who are you calling old man?" Mr. Potter retorted with a frown. "How many times to I have to tell you? I'm twenty five!"
Mrs. Potter stared at her husband blankly, folding her arms. "So you had James and Jenna when you were fourteen?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Mr. Potter mumbled and cleared his throat as he looked away, congratulating his children in order to ignore his wife successfully.
The truth was, Fleamont and Euphemia Potter were rather old to be parents to two eleven-year-olds. They had tried to get pregnant for years when they were younger, and it seemed like there was nothing the healers could to do for them. But when a miracle happened and Euphemia Potter found out that she had become pregnant after many years, they couldn't have been happier to welcome their children into the world.
For that same reason, despite being older than their friends when they first had kid, Euphemia and Fleamont spoiled their kids to a great extent; wether it was with love and affection, or any expensive toy or broom that they wished to have throughout the years. Euphemia had tried on many occasions to be the firm parent, because Fleamont absolutely had no control when it came to his kids' requests and was never able to turn them down. But even she couldn't be too tough on them for too long, because together James and Jenna always somehow wore her down.
"Oh, and look!" Jenna exclaimed, taking another piece of parchment out of the envelope. "This is the list of things we're supposed buy! Wand, cauldron, telescope, ooh and all sorts of cool books!"
But then her face fell when she got to the bottom of the list, which they had written,
'PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS'
"Ugh... stupid gits..." Jenna groaned to herself.
"Mind your language, Jenna," said Mrs. Potter firmly, but Jenna ignored her mother.
"I can't believe they're not gonna let us bring our own brooms!" she went on. "How can we ever be able to prove ourselves worthy of the Quidditch team if they only let us ride on the terrible school brooms!?"
James snorted. "As if they're gonna let you get on the team."
Jenna folded her arms, holding her head up proudly. "Laugh all you want, J.P. But we'll se who will be laughing in the end when I become the Quidditch captain."
"Yeah, right," James scoffed mockingly. "Dream on, J.P."
"We'll see." Jenna grinned challengingly before going to reread her letter over and over again.
"So when are we going to Diagon Alley!?" James turned to face his parents and asked with excitement. He could barely hide the thirst for adventure look in his hazel eyes.
"Well, your father and I will be at the Ministry for the rest of the week, but we can take you there on Saturday if nothing else comes up. How's that?" Mrs. Potter suggested.
"Aw, but can't we go there sooner, Mum?" Jenna groaned before looking up at her with puppy eyes and pouting. "Please?"
"I — well —" Mrs. Potter started hesitantly, pondering the matter.
"Oh c'mon, Mia," said Mr. Potter as he sat back on the half-burnt couch. "I'm sure we can take a day off work. Let the dark wizards rest for a day." He winked, making James and Jenna chuckle.
"Oh, all right." Mrs. Potter finally sighed in defeat. "I'll send an owl to the Auror Headquarters and let them know."
"Yes!" James punched the air happily and then went to high-five Jenna.
"But under one condition," Mrs. Potter went on with a grin and the twins groaned, their smiled fading away.
"What?" James asked worriedly, glancing back at their mother.
Mrs. Potter then put one hand on her hip as she pointed a finger between them warningly. "You two better behave yourselves while we're there."
By those words, James and Jenna's faces lit up, but they tried their best to conceal their little smirks as they said together in sync,
"We will."