Harry Potter and the Secret of the Twins

April 2002

Chapter 12 - Badger

The third week of February brought the Gryffindor's second match, up against Hufflepuff. The last time they had played the Gryffindors had lost due to hundreds of dementors and Cedric catching the Snitch. None of the Gryffindors had forgotten the loss, nor the Hufflepuffs their victory, but the Gryffindors had been calmed by Cedric's murder. So, with mixed emotions, the match began.

"And they're off! Alicia has the Quaffle, passes it to Angelina, who passes it to Katie, and back to Angelina... SHE SCORES! Ten to zero, Gryffindor!"

Harry grinned at the Chasers, then returned to his search.

"Hufflepuff in possession, they're going to attempt the impossible... Rose avoids Glee's Bludger... SHE SAVES IT AGAIN! Of course, that goes without saying, she always saves it!"

:Good job, Rose!:

:Of course! What else did you expect of me?

:You're not perfect. I wouldn't have tried to drown myself in the shower, though.:

:What?: Rose asked perplexed.

:Inside joke. I'm serious, Rose.:

:Message received, Spirit Brother.:

"GRYFFINDOR SCORES! Twenty/zero Gryffindor. And Michelle McLint has the Quaffle, trying for the goal... Ooh, that hurt! Excellent Bludger from Weasley... or was it the other Weasley?" There was a groan from the crowd. "Alicia has the Quaffle, passes to Katie, back to Alicia, now Angelina... SHE SCORES! Gryffindor's up thirty!"

Just then Harry saw it. The Golden Snitch was hovering right in front of Lee, just too high for him to see it. He sped towards it...

"Harry seems to have seen the Snitch! At least, I hope that's why he's coming this way. OUCH!"

Katherine Hails, the new Hufflepuff Seeker, had been trying to find the Snitch and get there before he caught it. Then Fred hit her with a Bludger that broke her leg with a very audible snap, followed soon after by one from Jeremy York, the Hufflepuff captain, that hit Harry, shattering his arm. They both kept flying, Harry blocking out Lee's description of the breaks, Katherine falling behind...

"HARRY'S CAUGHT THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY TO ZERO!"

Both teams landed, Katherine supported by Jeremy. Harry turned to her, smiling from the victory, and said, "That was wonderful flying, really."

"You weren't to bad either," Katherine answered, grinning back. "We both need to get to the Hospital Wing."

"Yeah," Harry agreed.

Jeremy lifted his Seeker to carry her to the Hospital Wing, Harry walking with them.

"Rose is an excellent Quidditch player," Hails said lightly.

Harry nodded. "She'd have taken that Bludger if she needed to."

"She seems rather... intense."

Harry thought for a moment, then shrugged. "She's been through a lot."

"So have you. Parents murdered and You-Know-Who trying to murder you, and now all this..."

"Different things entirely," Harry muttered.

Katherine smiled. "Both of us have parents in the Order," she said in a low voice. "Your parents were the best of them."

Harry smiled sadly. "Nothing can be done for them. Someone close to them who needs to be cleared now."

Katherine shrugged. "He will be, either by enough being gathered to prove he's innocent or enough of the Wizarding World believing that You-Know-Who has returned and the Order takes up wartime rule."

They arrived in the Hospital Wing then and had to cut off their conversation, as cryptic as it was. Madam Pomfrey immediately began tutting about dangerous sports, though it was easy enough for her to mend the bones. She did Harry first and as he left, Katherine gave him a sardonic smile.

Rose was waiting near the portrait hole with Neville when Harry arrived at the victory celebration. "So, were the Hufflepuffs good company?" she asked when he sat down with them.

Harry shrugged. "Hails was very... er... talkative, but York never said a word."

"Of course she was doing the talking!" Rose said in a tone of mock exasperation. "York is obviously crazy about her, and she wanted to talk to you." She grinned and took Neville's hand, his arm around her waist, and leaned lightly on his shoulder.

Neville grinned knowledgeably at Harry. "Rose only thinks she decides everything."

Harry returned his grin knowingly. "There are some things that others manage to decide."

Rose sat up and put her hands on her hips playfully. "Like what?" She sniffed, glaring at them with mock ferocity.

"Oh... this and that," Neville said in an offhand manor, waving off the question.

Rose glared playfully for a moment longer, then leaned back against Neville, giggling.

Harry smiled and cuffed her gently, then picked up the book beside her. "Those Who Died?"

Rose raised her eyebrow at him. "Don't you remember? Ginny gave it to me for Christmas."

Harry raised his eyebrow back at her. :Stay off it.: "I remember."

Rose smiled sympathetically, closing her eyes. :I understand, Spirit Brother, though I still think that you should talk to Ginny.: "It's really very good. It tells about the lives of the people that Voldemort murdered."

Harry winced slightly. "It sounds depressing," he said, carefully controlling his voice.

"There are two more books in the series: The Dark Ones of Azkaban and The Cruciatus Ward."

"They all sound very depressing to me," Neville said in a small voice, and Harry guessed that he still hadn't told Rose about his parents. Then, Rose probably hadn't told him about her father's innocence or that he was living at Hogwarts.

Rose's eyes flew open and she rounded on Neville. "You are coming with me," she said in a deadly tone. :Harry, you had better not keep anything like that from me again.:

"W- why?" Neville stammered, obviously terrified.

At the same time, Harry winced. :Professor Dumbledore asked me not to tell anyone.:

"We need to talk," she said simply, her voice slightly less dangerous.

Neville gave Harry a terrified look as he followed Rose out, and Harry smiled sympathetically as the portrait hole swung shut and Rose disappeared from his head.

* * * * *

By the second week of March Harry was sure that something was wrong with Rose. She had taken to shutting him out suddenly during classes as soon as a powerful terror began creeping into her mind, and she would occasionally get up and leave quietly during these times. Harry half suspected visions, and ironically the place they occurred the least was in the Divination classroom. She and Neville were obviously still together, though poor Neville seemed more confused than ever.

"What's wrong with her?" Neville asked one evening after Rose left the common room hurriedly, telling Harry mentally that she was going to see Snape before shutting him out.

"If she hasn't told you, it's not my place to tell you," Harry said calmly, not looking up from Seekers Who Fought the Dark.

"She won't tell me," Neville said slightly sourly. "I thought she might have told you."

Harry shook his head. "I think I know, though. If it's what I think than she and Snape have it in hand."

"Snape's helping her!?!?!"

"Yes," Harry said dryly. "They get along surprisingly well."

"As I said, anyone getting along with Snape at all is surprising."

Harry looked up, surprised, and saw Ginny standing behind them. She had several books in her arms and looked as though she was going off to the library. And beautiful. Not to mention a little... not exactly angry, more... well, it was inexplicable, an odd mixture of emotions he could never sort out even if they were his, and definitely not just seeing them on her face. "Hello."

"Oh, so you're speaking to me, are you?" Ginny said icily.

Harry shrugged awkwardly. "I don't see why I shouldn't."

"Oh there's absolutely no reason!" Ginny said sarcastically. "You've been so talkative over the last four and a half months!"

"It's not like I talked to you less than usual," Harry said, prickling slightly. Ginny glared at him for a moment, then swept out of the common room in her icy beauty.

Then he knew. Water. Ginny was of water, and strongly. Not as strongly as either Rose or himself by far, but still very strongly. Neville was of earth as strongly as Ginny was of water, solid, though uncharacteristically and utterly poor in short term memory. And Hermione, sitting next to the fire with Ron, she was earth, though only faintly. Ron was of water in mediocrity. Harry shook his head slightly. This was going to take some getting used to. Fred and George were both mildly air and water. Dean was lightly fire. Romina was touched with all four. Harry stood up quietly and went strait off to bed. He needed to rest so that he could think clearly enough to control his gift.

As he drifted off to sleep he had a distinct feeling that it would take a long time, if he ever did...

Chapter 13 - Eagle

The Quidditch Final came in mid April, just after Easter. Cho was of air and water, mingled together like bubbling laughter. Air brought good flight and strong variability, water a quick temper and vast, immediate mood swings. Earth was consistency and fire was bravery and the ability to change one's self and others, sometimes also a dangerous temper. Harry shook her hand impartiality and took off at the sound of Madam Hooch's whistle. Cho started marking him immediately, cutting in front of him in attempts to make him change course. Rose was growing steadily more annoyed.

"Blow her away, Harry!" she shouted after about the tenth time Cho cut in front of him. It only took him a moment to get the idea and the next time Cho started to try and force him into a different course...

"Cho Chang's caught in the wind! It's not bothering anyone else... It seems to have died down, now."

Harry resumed his search for the Snitch as Katie scored, bringing their score to fifty. Then Ravenclaw pulled off a miraculously deft maneuver and scored and Rose started cursing in a way that had nothing to do with magic. Every phrase had something to do with fire, and a great deal of them were ones that Harry had never heard before.

"Amazing!" Lee said once he'd recovered enough to get on with the commentary. "Absolutely remarkable! That's the first time I've ever seen anyone get past Rose!"

Rose was glaring at the offending Chaser, and Harry knew what she was going to do the barest fraction of a second before the tail of her broom caught fire. The Ravenclaw Chaser noticed the blaze about half a second after Harry and started screaming: she was of water. Madam Hooch flew over and put out her broom with her wand then glared at the assembled Gryffindor players.

"Who did that?!" Madam Hooch demanded furiously. Rose was presenting a blankly innocent façade.

:Rose!:

:It's technically not a foul. I didn't use my wand.:

Presented with no answer, Madam Hooch asked again, "Who fouled Miss Greenwood?"

:You know what all seven hundred fouls are?:

:Yep. I have to know what I'm allowed to do, don't I?:

:I suppose so. And you're certain that it can't be put under any of them?:

In answer Rose said, "Madam Hooch, no one had their wand out."

Madam Hooch turned on her.

"No one used their wand," Rose repeated flatly. "There are no rules against using magic on other players: just wands. And there are no rules against lighting people's brooms on fire." She grinned suddenly. "It was quite spectacular at the World Cup a couple of summers ago. And that kind of spell is usually from raw emotion, anyway, it could have been anyone, on the teams or among the spectators. There was no foul, so let's get on with the game."

Reluctantly, Madam Hooch nodded and allowed play to proceed, and Harry noted that she was purely of air.

:Be careful, Rose.: Harry said softly as he actively returned to the search he hadn't broken off from. Rose answered by sticking out he tongue at him. She would be, though.

Harry let his eyes travel over the pitch more slowly that his spiraling broom, almost lazily. They were seventy points up, now... and he spotted it. There it was, flitting after Fred. He sped for it, Cho marking him again. He sent a gust of wind to blow her away, and then he caught it, just before it darted away. He canceled out his wind and landed, his team and a good deal of the people in the stands cheering incoherently. They had won the game two hundred and thirty to ten and the Quidditch cup by a much larger margin.

* * * * *

The next two weeks past quietly when not in the almost constant celebration the Gryffindors had taken up. The work load on the fifth years was incomprehensible, but Harry somehow found time to do all his homework as well as read the books he'd been given for Christmas. Rose was still having her visions but they didn't seem to be getting any worse.

On May Day Harry sat in an arm chair by the fire re-reading Animagi again with Rose curled in the next chair reading Exceptionally Complex Potions for about the millionth time. Harry didn't see how she could pour over that book so much: it wasn't very different from their Potions text book in form, though the simplest one was it was easily more difficult than the hardest in Moste Potente Potions, which Rose had a heavily used copy of. Between that and the care that Rose took with books, Harry had decided that she had either gotten the book second-hand or that she had poured over it as thoroughly and frequently as her new book for a long time. The second option was much more likely.

Suddenly Rose gasped and scribbled something, than jumped up, handing her book to Harry, and she sped from the room. Harry glanced at the page she had been reading and then, confused, turned to the beginning of the section after carefully marking her place. It was on the making and theory of the two potions for werewolves, the Wolfsbane and the Wolfsmind. There were notes in the margins taken carefully in neat, precise runes. There was a pad of paper with the book, written on by both Rose and Caroline.

Caroline?

Yes, Rose? You seem troubled.

I am. It's my visions. Mostly. Why would you be at Griffin's birth but not me?

You're at school, for one, and... relations.

Relations? But you can't mean...

I can't say until you do.

You're not related to Harry at all. You're Sirius's daughter!

Yes. I am Caroline Black.

Harry picked up the quill that Rose had dropped and scribbled to Caroline. If you're Sirius's daughter, is Rose my twin?

Yes. I'm surprised she didn't figure it out.

It will destroy her world.

She has to know.

I know. Good bye, Caroline.

Good bye, Harry.

Harry put down everything carefully, then tore the paper from the pad and tossed it towards the fire, using air to make sure it reached it as he hurried up to get his invisibility cloak. It was only a quarter to eight now, so they definitely wouldn't get back from Sirius's before curfew. He got down to the dungeons quickly, but Rose was already there, though she seemed to be having trouble breaking the news to Sirius.

"Well, you see... I'm really sorry about this, but Caroline is... er..."

"Your daughter," Harry said simply, stepping into the room and smiling apologetically at Sirius. "And that makes Rose my sister."

Rose inhaled sharply. "It does, doesn't it," she breathed. "You could tell if someone had twins or one child, even as small as Harry and I are, and..." she closed her eyes, thinking back. "Mum know. Er- I guess she's not my mum, is she? Anyway, she was comparing us, seeing how much of a difference there is." She threw Harry a sardonic smile. "There isn't much."

Sirius started breathing again, slowly and evenly, and stared between them. "You two are practically identical."

Harry nodded. "Fortunately, we look different enough that a stranger isn't going to assume that we're twin." He grimaced, remembering that any witch or wizard would know who he was. "It would have to be a Muggle stranger. Anyway, we can't tell anyone for a while at least. It would immediately make Rose a target."

Sirius looked at Harry oddly, both lovingly soft and callously calculating. After several moments he said, "Harry, you are very much your father's son. He did something similar once." He stopped, shaking his head slightly. "He found out... a bit of information and wouldn't let himself near Lily for the better part of a month because her being close to him was dangerous. He only stopped then because I convinced him that it was Lily's decision whether or not it was worth the risk. She, of course, thought that it was worth any risk to be with him."

Harry gave Rose a suspicious look and asked, "What did he find out."

:I didn't tell him about Ginny!: Rose insisted immediately. She wasn't lying.

Sirius shook his head again. "He made me promise not to tell you until you had finished school, if not longer. Anyway, it's Rose's decision whether or not to tell everyone, though we have to tell at least Dumbledore." He glanced at the clock on his mantle. "You two need to go. It's after eight, and I'm late for a meeting with the highest of the Order. We need two more for the highest, and there are some people who we are considering inviting to join. I'll tell them what you've found out. The only ones that don't know are Remus and Albus."

Rose opened her mouth to object, then thought better of it and nodded, turning to leave.

"Just a minute, Rose," Harry said, pulling out the cloak.

Rose smiled gratefully at him and they went back up to the Gryffindor Tower together in unseen silence, removing the cloak in an empty and unwatched corner.

:Promise me you'll at least talk to Ginny.: Rose said, giving him a pointed look.

:I already know what she'll say.:

:Then let her.:

:I can't,: He sighed. :I'm sorry, but I can't.: