Mia Potter was the other Potter. Looking almost identical to her mother, she was a force to be reckoned with. But there was only one person who could reckon with her, and his name was Draco Malfoy.
In which the youngest Potter twin finds herself fa...
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Fifteen-year-old Ginny Weasley walked into the living room of The Burrow and was met with a pleasant surprise.
"Prongs! Hedwig!"
Sitting in the middle of the room were two large cages, each containing a large, beautiful owl with two trunks sitting underneath them.
"Mum!" Ginny hurried towards the bottom of the stairs and looked up.
"Ginny, what is it?" called Mrs. Weasley, looking over the railing of the first floor.
"I was only wondering when Mia and Harry got here?" she called as her mother looked at her confused.
"What?" she called. "Mia and Harry? Mia and Harry who?"
"Mia and Harry Potter, of course," Ginny said amused as Mrs, Weasley looked at her daughter.
"I think I'd know if Mia and Harry Potter were in my house, wouldn't I?" Mrs. Weasley said as Ginny chuckled.
"Their trunks and owls are in the kitchen," Ginny said.
"But, no dear, I seriously doubt that," Mrs Weasley said, just as Ron appeared over the second bannister floor.
"Mia and Harry?" he asked, his flaming red hair coming into view. "Did someone say Mia and Harry?"
"Me, nosey," Ginny called, "are they up there with you?"
"Course not," Ron called, "I think I'd know if my best friends were in my room, wouldn't I?"
"Is that an owl I heard?" came Hermione's voice as her bushy brown hair appeared over the bannister from the third floor.
"You haven't seen him, have you?" Ginny called as Hermione shook her head. "They're wandering about the house."
"Really?" Hermione asked shocked.
"Really."
"Mia! Harry!"
Ginny ran into view and saw the twins standing there, with wide grins on their faces as she ran to them and hugged them both tightly. Seconds later, Mrs. Weasley, Ron and Hermione came into view as they all hugged the twins tightly.
"What a lovely surprise!" Mrs Weasley said, hugging Mia tightly. "Why didn't you let us know you were coming?"
"We didn't know," Mia asked as Mrs. Weasley had her hands on Mia's face. "Dumbledore."
"Oh, that man," Mrs. Weasley said, chuckling amused. "But then what'd we do without him?" Mia looked behind Mrs. Weasley and smiled when she saw Ron was removing something ff Hermione's face.
"Got a bit of toothpaste," he said awkwardly as Mia smiled at them.
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"So when did you get here?" Mia asked as she sat in between her brother and Ron.
The four were sitting in Ron's bedroom, the window opened so the full moon and the stairs were in view.
"A few days ago," Hermione said as Mia nodded, "though for a while, I wasn't sure I was coming." Both Mia and Harry looked at her confused.
"Mum sort of lost it last week," Ron explained as Mia looked at him, "said Ginny and I had no business going back to Hogwarts. That it's too dangerous."
"Oh, come on," Harry said.
"She's not alone," Hermione said as Mia looked at her. "Even my parents and they're muggles know something bad's happening."
"Anyway," Ron added, "Dad stepped in, told her she was being balmy and it took a few days but she came around."
"This is Hogwarts we're talking about," Harry said, clearly confused as to why people would think that. "It's Dumbledore. What could be safer?"
"There's been a lot of talk recently that Dumbledore's got a bit old," Hermione said as Mia scoffed.
"Bullshit," she laughed, "why he's only. . . . what is he?"
"Hundred and fifty?" Ron asked. "Give or take a few years."
The four friends looked at each other and laughed as Mia looked around, a smile on her face.
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The Leaky Cauldron was, for the first time in Mia's memory, empty. Only Tom the landlord, wizened and toothless, remained of the old crowd. He looked up hopefully as they entered, but Mrs. Weasley shook her head.
Tom nodded gloomily and returned to wiping glasses; Mia, Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys walked through the bar and out into the chilly little courtyard at the back where the dustbins stood. Mrs. Weasley raised her wand and rapped a certain brick in the wall, which opened at once to form an archway onto a winding cobbled street. They stepped through the entrance and paused, looking around.
Diagon Alley had changed.
The colourful, glittering window displays of spellbooks, potion ingredients, and cauldrons were lost to view, hidden behind the large Ministry of Magic posters that had been pasted over them. Most of these sombre purple posters carried blown-up versions of the security advice on the Ministry pamphlets that had been sent out over the summer, but others removed black-and-white photographs of Death Eaters known to be on the loose.
Bellatrix Lestrange was sneering from the front of the nearest apothecary. A few windows were boarded up, including those of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. On the other hand, several shabby-looking stalls had sprung up along the street. The nearest one, which had been erected outside Flourish and lots, under a striped, stained awning, had a cardboard sign pinned to its front:
AMULETSEffective Against Werewolves, Dementors, and Inferi.
Mia noticed that many of the people who passed them had the same harried, anxious look as Mrs Weasley and that nobody was stopping to talk anymore; the shoppers stayed together in their own tightly knit groups, moving intently about their business. Nobody seemed to be shopping alone.
"Whoa," said Ron, stopping in his tracks.
Set against the dull, poster-muffled shop fronts around them, Fred and George's windows hit the eye like a firework display. Casual passersby were looking back over their shoulders at the windows, and a few rather stunned-looking people had come to a halt, transfixed. The left-hand window was dazzlingly full of an assortment of goods that revolved, popped, flashed, bounced, and shrieked; Harry's eyes began to water just looking at it. The righthand window was covered with a gigantic poster, purple like those of the Ministry, but emblazoned with flashing yellow letters:
WHY ARE YOU WORRYING ABOUTYOU-KNOW-WHO? YOU SHOULD BE WORRYING ABOUT U-NO-POO! THE CONSTIPATION SENSATION THAT'S GRIPPING THE NATION!
Mia started to laugh. She heard a weak sort of moan beside him and looked around to see Mrs Weasley gazing, dumbfounded, at the poster. Her lips moved silently, mouthing the name "U-No-Poo."
"They'll be murdered in their beds!" she whispered.
"No they won't!" said Ron, who, like Mia, was laughing. "This is brilliant!"
