Twins of Terror

"Dylan, go get the mail," Renee Burkhard sighed. "Please," she added as an afterthought, but her son was already out the door. A moment later he returned, carrying a bundle of letters.

"Ma," Dylan wondered, "what's that?" He pointed to a parchment envelope addressed to Mr. Dylan Burkhard and Miss Evelyn Burkhard.

"Oh, probably a thank-you-note from one of your friends," Renee responded carelessly. "Go ahead, you can open it." Dylan did so, and as he did a mysterious wave of power rushed through his veins, but it was gone as quickly as it had come. He did not ponder this feeling but instead focused on the letter.

Dear Mr. and Miss Burkhard, it read, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A list of supplies needed followed, and Dylan turned around slowly to face his mother. He shoved it into her face, not caring about being rude for the moment. Renee read it carefully, her beautiful face twisting into different emotions. Finally she folded the letter and placed it on the table.

"Evy!" she called to her daughter, sitting down emotionlessly in a chair. A few moments later a girl looking remarkably like her mother came bounding down the steps.

"You called?" she asked, dramatically folding into a mock bow. Dylan sighed and handed his sister the letter, sinking into a chair next to his mother's as he did so.

"Do you think it's real?" Were the first words out of her mouth when she finished reading. Dylan shrugged, but Renee sighed again.

"I don't think any of your friends are clever or imaginative enough to pull something like this," she said slowly. "Meaning no disrespect, of course. I can't see your grandparents putting this amount of thought into something like this, and I certainly didn't. Your father knows how much this would bring your hopes up, so I know that he wouldn't do this. A stranger, perhaps? No. That couldn't be it. So I offer you this theory: we'll try doing what this letter says." She held out a third piece of parchment, this one giving instructions as to how to get to where they needed to go.

"All right," sighed Dylan. "I do hope it's real," he hissed to Evelyn, who nodded frantically. Just then the children's father pulled the door open and walked inside.

"Dad!" Evelyn cried. "How was work?"

"Ah, the usual," Carl Burkhard responded. He was a lawyer, and a good one at that. "How was your day?" he asked, turning to his wife and kissing her on the cheek.

"Quite strange," Renee replied casually, tossing him the letter. Carl read it, his eyes widening more and more from the moment he looked at it.

"This is a hoax," he finally croaked. "Isn't it?" Renee looked at her feet and shook her head. "Kids? It was you guys, wasn't it?" The twins just looked at him. They did not have to say anything; he could see it in their faces. Suddenly Carl seemed to come out of a trance. "My little kids, a witch and wizard! Wait till I tell Grandma, she'll be so surprised!"

"No." Renee's voice was quite firm and unusually strong-minded. "You cannot tell anyone, Carl. First we have to see if it's real. Dylan, you go online and get us tickets for the next flight to London. Evy, you go pack your stuff for... I'd say a week. Carl, supervise her please. I'll pack our stuff." Everyone rushed to do as she said.

***

"I didn't mean ten minutes from now, Dylan. I meant like in five or six hours!" Renee yelled in the middle of Newark Airport. "We're going to miss the flight, no question about it." Dylan grinned sheepishly.

"Hey, mom, if I'm a witch, shouldn't I be able to stop time?" Evelyn suggested, waving her hands around. Renee gave her a very stern look, but a passerby laughed.

"Ah, Halloween. Brings back memories..." the woman sighed, clearly thinking that Evelyn was talking about being a witch for a past Halloween. Renee realized what the woman was talking about and she smiled at her. The woman smiled back, but disappeared around a corner to Gate 160.

"Gate 135... can't be far now," Carl muttered. They walked for a few minutes, and finally they reached the said gate.

"Can I go get us food for the flight?" Dylan asked, looking longingly at the Nathans™ stand a few feet away.

"I'll come with," Evelyn agreed instantly, feeling around in her father's breast pocket for a twenty dollar bill. She and her twin walked over to the stand, and they each purchased curly fries and fried chicken. A moment later, an apologetic-looking Renee felt around in her husband's back pocket for a ten dollar bill and bought two hot dogs and onion rings. Carl glared at them, until he finally felt the urge to get a burger and fries as well.

"Flight 135 boarding!" a voice shouted over the intercom thing. "People in First Class may board first, followed by families with children." The Burkhards edged into the line, showed the ticket-collecter their tickets and passports, and followed the other people onto the plane.

"Seats 12 and 13," Dylan recited, "and 20 and 21." He and his sister headed towards the back of the plane, leaving their parents with seats 12 and 13.

"Can't believe we're going to London," Evelyn mused. Dylan opened his mouth to respond, but the TV sets on the back of the seats in front of them turned on, and a flight attendant began to give a lecture on airplane safety. Of course, the Burkhards had been on planes several times before and knew all about this kind of thing, but one would be surprised at how many adults have never flown anywhere before.

After what seemed like an eternity, the plane sped across the ground and lifted into the air. "Wow." Evelyn voiced what both she and her brother were feeling, as she was the one who knew how to express emotion far better than the other.

"Why do I have an odd feeling of homecoming?" the eleven-year-old boy asked curiously. He was used to Evelyn knowing about feelings so he felt comfortable asking her this odd question.

"If we really are-" she lowered her voice- "magic, maybe in a past life we were magic also," she told him slowly. "And we went to this place for- was it seven years? Well, anyway, I think it has to do with the magic." Dylan did not say it, but he agreed whole-heartedly.

Several hours went by, and then a voice came over the speaker system. "Please move your seats into the upright position and close all trays, for we will be landing now." The twins clutched each other's hands as the plane sped downward.

***

The family found themselves in London for the first time. Evelyn, being American like the rest of the family, found this extremely glamourous. She reached in her pocket for her cell phone but found that there was no service in the crowded airport. She swore loudly, but Carl silenced her with a glare. They did not want to attract attention.

"Excuse me, sir," Renee called to what appeared to be a limo driver, "do you know where the village is?" She knew that the village they were looking for would be a very big one and did not think it would have a name.

"Yes. Would you like me to take you there?" he groaned, heaving the family's baggage onto a cart. Renee nodded as she helped him with his task. "Thank you," they said in unison. "My name is Argus, by the way. I'm working as a driver until September the first, a week from today." The dirty-looking man led them towards a pearly white limousine. The children stepped in, followed by their family.

"I believe the building is called the Leaky Cauldron," Dylan told the man. Instantly everything went quiet. Carl and Renee slapped their hands to their forehead. Dylan might have done what two millennia of sorcerers managed to refrain from doing.

Yet Argus simply scowled and said, "Ah, new students at Hogwarts, are you?" Evelyn's eyes widened. Surely witches and wizards did not go around driving limos? Yet how else would this man know about Hogwarts? As the car pulled into gear, Argus explained quietly, "I'm a Squib. A non-magic person born of magical descent."

The Burkhards were silent. They knew that worse than being non-magical would be being non-magical and knowing that generations of your family had been magical. "I'm what they call the caretaker at Hogwarts. Sworn under oath to remain working there till the day I die, but I'm allowed to have a summer job. Doubt it, really, but what Dumbledore doesn't know won't hurt him!"

Finally the man pulled up to a village. "Out, quickly, and into the Cauldron." They obeyed and walked into what seemed like a pub. They wondered why they were in here, of all places. As they walked in, everyone went quiet.

"New witches and wizards, are you?" teased a woman. "What're your names?"

The children introduced themselves, and as they did so the chatter level in the room raised again, nobody taking any notice of the kids going out through the back door. Carl tapped three bricks out of the wall behind the building, as it said to in the letter, and the archway opened. They were in Diagon Alley. It was real.

All four Burkhards pinched themselves as the sight they saw. There were owls, wizards' hats, wands, cauldrons, broomsticks, and other things. A big white building in the back of the village attracted their attention, and so Dylan ran over to it. Left with no choice, Carl, Renee, and Evelyn followed him. They saw that the sign said Gringotts.

Dylan was inside, talking to a scaly creature. "What are you?" he asked it incredulously.

"I am a goblin," the thing replied. "What is your name, sir?"

"Dylan Burkhard," Dylan replied.

"A Mudblood?" the thing asked without flinching.

"What's that?"

"A Muggle-born."

"Then yes." The thing handed him a gold key just as the rest of the Burkhards dashed inside. "Hi Mom, Dad, Ev. This is the key to my new bank vault!"

"Sir," Evelyn greeted the goblin, "may I have one as well? My name is Evelyn Burkhard." The thing handed her a matching key.

"Harchley!" he yelled, clapping his hands. A goblin rushed over to the family and led them into a small cart resembling that of a roller coaster's.

"Vault 389," Harchley croaked, "and vault 390." He drove them at a ridiculously fast pace through a cave-like thing until he stopped- finally- in between two vaults. He stepped out of the cart and gestured for the Burkhards to do so as well, and they did.

First he slid Dylan's key into the vault on the left, and then he slid Evelyn's into the one on the right. The two girls walked into Evelyn's, as the two men entered Dylan's. "Evy!" Dylan cried upon seeing a heap of coins in his vault. "I've got money!" Evelyn replied with a shriek of laughter.

"Me too! Mounds of gold, silver, and bronze!" she yelled incredulously. "Nothing like dollars and cents, you know?" Dylan agreed and grabbed a sackful of the money and shoved it into his pockets. Evelyn did the same and stepped into the cart again, followed by Harchley and her parents. Dylan plopped in after them and the cart sped towards the enterance at an out-of-this-world speed.

***

"Off to the wand store," Carl sang dully. "Ollivanders- right over here." He led his family into a dusty-looking shop.

"Ah," whispered a man inside the store. "I've been expecting you two. Evelyn and Dylan Burkhard, age eleven." The twins stared at him. "Please, sit down, Mr. and Mrs. Burkhard. Dylan, step forward." Dylan obeyed as Evelyn followed her parents toward three stools and sat on one.

"Are you right- or left-handed?" Mr. Ollivander inquired, holding out a measuring tape. Dylan stuck out his right hand, flexing his fingers as he did so. Mr. Ollivander took the boy's measurements and rushed through the shelves. He tried wands over and over again, but no wand seemed to suit Dylan. Finally, he returned with a long case. "Dragon Heartstring, nine inches, oak," he told the curious child. "Wave it, please."

What followed was very unusual. Dylan brought the wand down in a sweeping motion and a whoosh of the wind followed. A chill ran through the air and a red glow surrounded Dylan's body. "This is it, Dylan!" Evelyn called impatiently. She just wanted to get her wand, and as long as Dylan had one that worked, there would be no time for dramatics. "One Galleon, Dylan. Those are the gold coins."

"Ah, Miss Evelyn," Mr. Ollivander sighed after Dylan had finished his procedure. "You will be easier to place, I believe. He took her measurements and only took three times before he found the correct wand- eleven inches, unicorn tail hair, willow. When she waved it, a silvery glow seemed to shine around her, and three notes of a beautiful song played. "That will be two Sickles- the silver coins, Evelyn dear," the store owner told her.

The family left the wand store happily, each of the children stroking their wands. They purchased the necessary supplies and then approached the pet store. "Dyl, if you want we could get an owl. I heard someone say they deliver Wizard mail," Evelyn suggested. Dylan agreed, and moments later they were four sickles poorer but carrying a snowy owl. "Let's name her Marshmallow," Evelyn suggested. Again, Dylan agreed.

The children returned to the Leaky Cauldron and, finding that it was something of a hotel, unpacked their belongings. "Let's go get ice cream," Dylan requested of his sister, and Evelyn agreed. Their parents, however, preferred to stay at the place and find out more about Wizard stuff.

Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlor was terrific. Dylan had managed to get them each a free ice cream cone by answering the Muggle Trivia Question of the Day: "Who was the first American president?" The answer, of course, was George Washington, and that had bought Dylan a large chocolate cone and Evelyn a medium cookies-and-cream cone.

After leaving the shop, however, Evelyn insisted upon going to the Diagon Alley Library. She was not looking for any class textbooks, but instead for a nice fantasy book she could get lost in. Ice cream was not allowed in the library ("thank God," Dylan exclaimed) so they resorted to sitting on the steps and watching people go by. Bored, Dylan pulled his sister up and walked to Quality Quidditch supplies, hoping to learn about the magical sport.

There were only two boys in the shop- a raven-haired, specatacled boy with an oddly-shaped mark on his forehead, and a freckled, red-haired boy with bright blue eyes. "Hi," Dylan greeted the teenagers. The boys turned around to look at him, and Dylan felt, for the second time in his life, an unexplainable surge of power running through his body.

"Hey," one of the sixteen-year-old boys replied. Dylan asked them their names, and so the redhead answered. "I'm Ron Weasley, and this is Harry. Harry Potter." The other boy glared at him, but Ron paid no notice. "Who're you?"

"Evelyn Burkhard," Evelyn answered. "And this is my brother Dylan." Harry eyed the twins suspiciously.

"You just starting school this year?" another person asked. The Burkhards noticed for the first time that a bushy-haired girl was sitting on a stool in the corner, reading.

"Yes."

"Muggle-born?"

"Yes."
"Then you don't know about Quidditch?" Ron asked eagerly.

"No," Dylan answered gloomily. "But I'd like to."

"You've come to the right place, then!" Ron replied, and launched into a description of a game with seven players, four balls, and lots of broomsticks. When he was done, the girl introduced herself as Hermione Granger.

"Do you know about the school Houses?" she asked. At the twins' puzzled looks, she explained. "Well, there are four Houses, and when you get to the school they Sort you into different ones. There's Gryffindor," she told them proudly, "where the bravest kids go. That's our House. Once you're in one House, you stay in it until you graduate. No switching. Then there's Ravenclaw, the next best in our opinions. The smartest people are put in that House. Hufflepuff, the third best, is the nicest kids although they're pretty dim sometimes. And then there's Slytherin." She spat on the ground. "That's where the evil people go, the nasties and bullies, etc."

"Where do you think you'll go?" Ron asked.

"Gryffindor," Dylan replied without a trace of embarrassment.

"Good going, mate," Ron told him. "And you, Evelyn?"

"Gryffindor... or Ravenclaw."

"Excellent," Hermione told her. "You can sit with us after you're Sorted, then." Harry glanced at her untrustingly, but let it go. "Whenever you need help with something, come to us. We're sixth-years. One more year and then... out into the real world."

"We've experienced the real world a lot already," Harry reminded her jokingly.