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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"Come now, Dudley. Hurry up!"
Sixteen-year-old Euphemia Potter stood at her brother's bedroom window, watching her Uncle pack their car up. Her brother stood next to her, both of them watching. Vernon Dursley had been changing his mind every twenty-four hours for the past four weeks, packing and unpacking and repacking the car with every change of heart and Mia's favourite moment had been the one when Uncle Vernon, unaware that Dudley had added his dumbbells to his case since the last time it had been unpacked, had attempted to hoist it back into the boot and collapsed with roars of pain and much swearing.
The twins walked down the stairs, the house empty, as Mia saw her Aunt standing at the mouth of the kitchen, looking around. Mia came to a stop when she saw her. Aunt Petunia looked up and saw her niece and nephew.
"I've lived in this house twenty years," she said as Mia looked at her. "And now, in a single night, I'm expected to leave."
"They'll torture you," Mia said as Aunt Petunia looked at her, "and kill you."
"If they think you know where we're going," Harry added, "they'll stop at nothing. . . ."
"You think I don't know that?" Aunt Petunia said, taking the twins by surprise, "You think I don't know what they're capable of?" Mia said nothing as her Aunt looked at her. "You didn't just lose a mother that night in Godric's Hollow, you know. I lost a sister."
Mia said nothing as Aunt Petunia looked at her, a look of longing on her face.
"You look so much like her," she said, touching Mia's shoulder. Mia then did something she had never done before. She hugged her Aunt tightly.
"Thought you'd want to be hugged by your sister one last time," Mia said, loud enough for Aunt Petunia to hear. She expected an angry response but was surprised when she felt her Aunt hugging her back. Mia let go of her Aunt, who sent her a small nod before walking out of the house.
The twins looked at each other and followed. They saw Dudley standing outside with Uncle Vernon.
"Well, this is goodbye then, twins," Uncle Vernon said as Mia and Harry, standing by the front door, nodded. Mia glanced towards Aunt Petunia, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, a ghost behind the glass.
"I don't understand," Dudley said, looking at his cousins. "Aren't they coming with us?"
"Who?" Uncle Vernon asked as Mia looked at him.
"Mia and Harry," Dudley said.
"Not," Uncle Vernon said as Dudley looked at him, confused.
"Why?"
"Well, because," Uncle Vernon said, hesitating, "they don't want to, do you, twins?"
"Not," Harry said.
"Besides, I'm just a waste of space," Mia said, raising an eyebrow, "Isn't that right, Vernon?" Uncle Vernon stared hard at the twins, then quickly changed the subject.
"Come on, Dudley, we're off," Uncle Vernon said, staring at the tarts for the car. Dudley hesitated, then crosses the lawn to Mia. The ginger girl looked up at him, confused as she moved her hair behind her ear.
"I don't think you're a waste of space," he said, holding his hand out for Mia to shake.
"And I don't think you're as stupid as you look," she joked, shaking his hand as Dudley chuckled. He turned to Harry and held his hand out.
"Either of you," he added.
"Well, thanks," Harry said, shaking his hand. Mia watched as Dudley turned around and walked back across the lawn.
"Take care," Mia muttered under her breath as she watched her cousin get in the car and watched the family drive off down the road. The car turned right at the end of Privet Drive, its windows burned yellow for a moment in the blazing sun, and then it was gone.
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The light was fading rapidly now, the hall full of shadows in the evening light. It felt most strange to stand here in the silence and know that he was about to leave the house for the last time.
Long ago, when she had been left alone while the Dursleys went out to enjoy themselves, the hours of solitude had been a rare treat. Pausing only to sneak something tasty from the fridge, she had rushed upstairs to play on Dudley's computer or put on the television and flicked through the channels to his heart's content. It gave her an odd, empty feeling to remember those times; it was like remembering a younger brother whom she had lost.
Mia looked around the house and paused when she came to the cupboard. She opened the door crouched down and looked in. Mia looked around at the stacked shoes and umbrellas, remembering how she used to wake every morning looking up at the underside of the staircase, which was more often than not adorned with a spider or two.
There was a sudden, deafening roar from somewhere nearby. Mia straightened up with a jerk and smacked the top of her head on the low door frame. Pausing only to employ a few of Uncle Vernon's choicest swear words, she staggered back into the kitchen, clutching her head and staring out of the window into the back garden with Harry at her side. The darkness seemed to be rippling, the air itself quivering. Then, one by one, figures began to pop into sight as their Disillusionment Charms lifted.
Dominating the scene was Hagrid, wearing a helmet and goggles and sitting astride an enormous motorbike with a black sidecar attached. All around her other people were dismounting from brooms and, in two cases, skeletal, black winged horses. Wrenching open the back door, Mia hurtled into their midst.
There was a general cry of greeting as Hermione flung her arms around the twins, Ron clapped them on the back, and Hagrid said, "Allrigh', twins? Ready fer the off?"
"Why the fuck is everyone here?" Mia asked, chuckling as she looked at everyone.
"Change of plan," growled Mad-Eye, who was holding two enormous, bulging sacks, and whose magical eye was spinning fromdarkening sky to house to garden with dizzying rapidity. "Let'sget undercover before we talk you through it."
Mia led them all back into the kitchen where, laughing andchattering, they settled on chairs, sat themselves upon Aunt Petunia's gleaming work surfaces, or leaned up against her spotlessappliances: Ron, long and lanky; Hermione, her bushy hair tiedback in a long plait; Fred and George, grinning identically; Bill,badly scarred and long-haired; Mr. Weasley, kind-faced, balding,his spectacles a little awry; Mad-Eye, battle-worn, one-legged, hisbright blue magical eye whizzing in its socket; Tonks, whose shorthair was her favourite shade of bright pink; Lupin, greyer, more lined but had the same kind smile Mia loved; Fleur, slender and beautiful, with her long silvery blondehair; Kingsley, taller and broad-shouldered; Hagrid, with his wildhair and beard, standing hunchbacked to avoid hitting his head onthe ceiling; and Mundungus Fletcher, small, dirty, and hangdog,with his droopy bloodhound's eyes and matted hair.
Mia heartseemed to expand and glow at the sight. She felt incredibly fond ofall of them, even Mundungus.
