Elle (A Harry Potter Fanfiction)

4. Elle Potter: A History

When Harry was first asked to sprint straight to the headmaster's office after the welcoming feast, he had been slightly exasperated. For the past three years, his time at Hogwarts had been accompanied by chaos and death. Now, right after the Triwizard Tournament had been announced and Dumbledore had requested his prenence, he solemnly came to the conclusion that this year wouldn't be too different.
However, once he saw the bottom heavy girl with flaming red hair and clunky work boots leaning on the Professor's desk hesitantly, all of this angst was flushed away from his mind. Without thinking, without even having to comprehend the situation, he already knew. With her doe eyes, long, thin nose and clever smile there was no doubt that this girl was the spitting image of Lily Potter.
The girl was beautiful and strange at the same time, but he couldn't specifically say why. Maybe it was the way she drummed her fingers on the desktop anxiously but gracefully, maybe even how she raised only one light orange eyebrow as he stepped through the door, or possibly how she held herself as though the world simply unraveled itself right before her eyes. Either way, Harry Potter was intrigued, and now his curiosity refused to come to a halt.
"Harry," an old, raggedy voice came from the other end of the desk. Professor Dumbledore stood in his grey, worn robes with his silver hair trailing down his back. "I had no intention of startling you, but I assure you that this meeting is urgent."
He finally tore his eyes away from the girl to nod his head 'yes'.
"This is Elle, but she prefers to be called by the name that the orphanage gave her: Violet." She smiled at him awkwardly before offering a small wave of her dainty hand.
"Hiya," her voice echoed across the room with a soft, high ring like a breeze in September.
"Violet, this is Harry Potter. His parents were killed by a very bad man in nineteen-eighty-one, though his Aunt and Uncle were able to convince him for just over eleven years that they died in a car crash."
She tilted her head and took a sharp, uneven breath. "Excuse me, Professor?"
"Please refrain from interrupting, Miss," Dumbledore said calmly, yet his eyes swam with a seriousness that Harry always hated to recognize. "Harry, Violet's parents perished on the exact same day of the exact same cause. If you were to attend our meeting before she changed into her robes, then you would see a small lightning-shaped scar on her left collar bone. And, Harry-" The old man grabbed the scrawny boy by his wrists and pulled him across the room to stand so close the the red headed girl that he could feel her minty breath on his nose. "- if you are as observant as you've led me to believe then you've already spotted the resemblance between Elle and Lily Potter."
Harry froze in a terrified haze, and barely noticed as his headmaster backed away to leave the two children facing each other in the very center of the room. They cautiously scanned each other's faces, both waiting for their new acquaintance to scream 'You're lying!' or even whisper 'This isn't real'. First seconds past in an anxious daze, then minutes flew by like summer days. Neither of them backed down.
"My name is Violet," the girl said faintly, almost as if those four words were permanently engraved in her brain as an instinct. "Please call me Violet."
"Er-" He mumbled under his breath, searching for something, anything to say. "Ok. I'm Harry-"
"Potter," she finished the sentence for him. "Yeah, I think-" Violet shot a glance at Dumbledore, who was sitting in the corner expectantly. "- well, from what I've heard, I think I might be too. Elle Potter... Violet Potter."
The old man smiled. "I believe that you will both be relieved when I confirm that yes, you were both born on July thirty-first of James and Lily Potter. The prophecy which you parents had heard that predicted that a boy of theirs would overthrow Lord Voldemort lead them to assume that the only choice they had was to keep their second child- a female twin of Harry's- a secret. Peter Pettigrew betrayed their trust, however, by selling this information. Voldemort made an attempt on your lives- a failed attempt, at that. After that night, you were separated in hopes that the general population would never have to know about Elle Potter."
He gave Violet an apologetic gaze.
"However, after fourteen years of receiving continuous reports of a specific orphan girl demonstrating strange abilities, the Ministry has decided that it's best to let her immerse herself into the wizarding world. I'm sorry, Violet and Harry, if this will cause you any distress, and I'm sure it will."
A moment of silence passed before she took a few steps back and practically exploded. "Sorry?" She screeched. "You're gonna need one hell of an apology to make up for fourteen years with no notification whatsoever. Not even a letter!"
"I'm sorry, Miss Potter, but-"
"Don't call me that!" Violet snapped. "Don't you dare call me that! Just because I've got some brother who I never knew existed doesn't mean that you can call me by his name!" She glowered at Harry. "Aren't you going to say something?"
He shifted uncomfortably under her gaze. He wanted to tell her that he completely agreed. Even more than that, he wanted to below at Dumbledore for suddenly bringing some bad-tempered girl into his life and expecting him to accept her with open arms. Sure, he'd spent eleven years hoping that somewhere out there he had a family member who was kinder than Dudley, but it was too late for that now. Harry had friends and a reputation.
What he hated even more about this moment was that he was completely ready for this. One glance at Elle- Violet- his twin, and he was willing to throw down his life for her. He didn't want to, though. It didn't seem right that he didn't even know her middle name yet somehow he loved her like he would've if they'd never been separated.
"Would you like to watch the Sorting, Harry?" Dumbledore asked hesitantly. "Professor McGonagall and I agreed it would be best if we performed the ceremony here rather than with a whole hall of spectators."
Without even looking at Violet to gather her opinion, Harry knew the answer the question. "Of course, Sir."
The silver-haired man smiled as he glided over to one of his many bookshelves and extracted on very old, rumpled-looking hat with narrow slits for eyes and a mouth-shaped wrinkle. The redheaded girl squirmed nervously as it was placed on top of her unruly curls, and she jumped a little when Harry assumed that hat had started speaking to her in her mind. He let himself crack a smile.
After a few seconds of what looked like a heavy debate, the hat made its victorious decision with one loud yelp of "GRYFFINDOR", and that was that.
Violet frowned and brushed off her head once the cap had been removed. "What house are you in, then?"
"Same as you, I suppose," Harry shrugged, secretly thrilled.
It was that very evening that, for the first time in their lives, the Potter twins walked down the halls of Hogwarts together to embark on an adventure that had been waiting for them since day one.
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A/N: I can't even express how much I loved writing for you all! Elle and Harry as one working unit is such a unique relationship to develop.
Yes, this chapter was in third person. No, it won't be like this for the rest of the novel. I'm thinking it will be more suiting if I just throw one in here and there where it would be more suiting to stick to the classic JKR voice.
What's your opinion?
XOXO,
Rose