Adelaide (HP Book 1)

1. Adelaide Potter

Adelaide Potter was a perfectly ordinary girl. 

She lived on a perfectly ordinary street with a perfectly ordinary family, and she went to a perfectly ordinary school. For this was how all was always supposed to be in the eyes of the Dursley household: perfectly ordinary. 

Keywords: supposed to be.

The Dursley household was originally a household of three. There was Adelaide's Aunt Petunia, her Uncle Vernon, and her cousin known as Dudley. However, the size of the household grew to that of five when they ended up taking in Adelaide and her brother Harry after their own parents were killed in a 'car accident' according to the Dursleys. One may take a glimpse at their actions and believe the Dursleys to be a kind and giving family, willing to take in two orphans and raise them as their own. However, anyone with eyes and half a mind would be able to tell that the Dursleys were anything but. 

From the very beginning, the Dursleys had been incredibly reluctant to take care of the pair of twins left behind in the world by Petunia's own sister, and they were certainly not afraid to show it, at least behind closed doors. 

Growing up, Adelaide and Harry were less wards than they were slaves. Of course, they were given the basic necessities of food, water and clothing. However, the food they were given were mere scraps, and their clothes were often simple hand-me-downs that Dudley had grown out of. It didn't help that those hand-me-downs were probably four times the size of the twins despite them being the same age as the large, spoiled child they unfortunately called cousin.

Harry and Adelaide had always been fairly tiny for their age, Harry being a few inches taller than his sister, but the hand-me-downs only made them appear more so. While Harry was a bit more insecure about their appearance, Adelaide wasn't particularly bothered by it. Hand-me-down clothes? She could just tie the shirt to be more for fitting and wear a belt to keep the pants up. Unruly hair? At least it had nice volume. Glasses broken because of Dudley and his group of miscreants? Colorful duct tape she got from her teacher. (Adelaide was quite positive that such a fashion was currently in, no matter what others might say.) So small that both her and Harry managed to fit in a single cupboard under the stairs? Well, it certainly came in handy when hiding from bullies. 

The only thing that she couldn't entirely blame her brother for being insecure about was the thin lightning bolt scar that sat upon his forehead that was just barely hidden by his unruly bangs. That scar was often the topic of ridicule for their mother's family. It was apparently a scratch that he had received in the supposed car accident, but Adelaide knew better. She had the same scar hidden on her collarbone after all. 

And she knew for a fact that it hadn't been a mere car accident that had been the cause of it. 

She still remembered the bad man that had broken into their house and the flash of green light and their mother dying next to their cribs. She remembered the flying motorbike with the giant man, and she remembered the strange old man with the curious spectacles.

Those memories were only sparked by the occasional person, dressed in strange robes, greeting them whenever the rare occasion occurred that their Aunt Petunia brought them out into public. 

Now, she'd be the first to admit that she didn't remember everything. She wasn't even one and a half years old after all. She was only able to piece bits and pieces of the incident together, but she definitely remembered more than her twin. It was honestly strange to her that she even managed to remember as much as she did, but it wasn't as though she could just stop the nightmares that came to her in the night. 

But back to how they were less wards than they were slaves. 

It hadn't taken Petunia and Vernon Dursley very long to realize that Harry and Adelaide were 'perfectly capable' of learning the household chores at the tender age of four. Those household chores included but were not restricted to: trimming the hedges, cooking the family breakfast, cleaning the fireplace, mopping the kitchen floors, vacuuming the rest of the house, taking out the trash, and etc. 

It was safe to say that they rarely had any time for themselves.

If they were asked to do something, they did it. If they didn't, they'd be thrown in their cupboard and would be forced to go without meals for however long the Dursleys chose. They already got a small enough portion as it was, so the two generally did their best to not rock the boat as much as they would like to even though there were many times when they simply couldn't help it. 

You see, the Dursleys prided themselves on being ordinary, and the two Potters were simply anything but. From quickly growing hair to ending up on top of the school roof, there was no end to the strange occurrences around them, and this was most unfortunate for the two as well as their stomachs.

And so they did what they were told. 

And today was no different.

Especially since it was Dudley's birthday.