Trouble Fox

Begining to Describe "Normal"

"Normal" is not a word you would use to describe the Potter children. Maybeto describe the Dursleys, who were so normal they were abnormal, but not the odd twins that lived with them. For one, Harry and Brittany Potter looked nothing alike, were born on two different days, about a month apart, and were still medically classified as "twins" (muggle and magical reasons came into play with this, but at the moment neither twin knew of the magical reasons). Another reason normal couldn't describe them was the fact that they hated summer holidays, and wished they were at school. Oh, they were also a wizard and a witch. And Harry Potter was the Boy Who Lived, who had defeated the Dark Lord Voldemort three times in his short life by now. So, no, normal was not a descriptive word for these two. So in the dead of night, Brittany Potter was lying awake and staring at the ceiling of the Dursley's small one-room basement cellar made for storage that happened to be her room. The house wasn't made for three children, and it wasn't like the Dursleys even cared. Ten years in a cupboard under the stairs had proved that for her brother. Speaking of her brother, he was currently celebrating his 13th birthday. If he was awake. (He was.) Brittany, instead of sleeping like a normal person, was drawing. It had taken a bunch of persuasion and a small amount of distraction to get the Dursley's to allow her her art supplies from her trunk, after proving they were absolutely not magical at all, but they had let her keep the muggle drawing pad and pencils with her. She was currently making a card for her older brother, who had pretty much never received one from someone other than herself in his life. (Last year they had "gotten lost in the mail"-a house elf named Dobby was involved)
Her pencil was scratching at the paper, but she didn't worry about waking the Dursleys, they were all asleep two sets of stairs above her. After the card was finished, she crept over to the stairs and climbed up, careful to not step to hard and cause then to creak. The house at night was a little threatening and scary, but years of sleeping in the den on a squeaky couch had gotten her used to it. Brittany stepped over the creaky second-to-last step and climbed the stair, pausing when she heard noises from the rooms ahead. She faintly heard the sound of an owl, and continued to go to Harry's room. Lightly rapping on the door three times, she whispered,
"It's me."
And pushed open the door to his room. Harry was sitting on his bed, a few letters in his hands. Hedwig was ruffling her feathers and the Weasley's owl, Errol, was looking rather tired in Hedwig's cage.
"Happy Birthday!"
Brittany whispered. Harry smiled.
"Hogwarts letters came. As well as news from Ron and Hermione- Ron's dad won some money from a Daily Prophet prize draw and they're in Egypt right now. Look, here they are."
Harry pointed them out on a newspaper clipping.
"Here's a card for you. It's not much, but when we go to Diagon Alley I'll get you something."
Brittany smiled and gave Harry her hand drawn card.
"What's that?"
She asked, pointing to a book that had a large leather strap around it.
"Monster book of monsters. From Hagrid."
Harry replied, and the book shuddered.
"That's... different."
Harry shook his head like he had given up trying to understand it.
"He said it would be needed next year. Don't know why."
Brittany frowned.
"He hasn't gotten another pet, has he? Oh, if it's anything like Norbert or Fluffy...."
Harry laughed.
"Can't be as bad as Aragog, can it?"
Brittany shook her head and laughed.
"No, 'suppose not."
The two stayed up talking for a little while longer, before Brittany crept back down the stairs and into the basement. As she was just starting to go to sleep, she was thinking about how to begin to describe their lives. Normal wasn't an adjective she would use, no, but maybe this was how they would begin to describe normal for them.