THE CHOSEN ONES | hp universe {one}

chapter one

— CHAPTER ONE —

THE TWINS WHO LIVED

Harry and Elizabeth Potter are rather unfortunate children. They lost both their parents at such a young age and were forced to live with the only family they had left; their ghastly Aunt Pertunia along with her horrible husband, Vernon, and demon child, Dudley. They lived in a quaint little home at the end of Privet Drive, with no visible imperfections. Yet, if you look a little harder, at the residents and the inside of the family home, you'd see that it was, in fact, extremely imperfect.

Harry and Elizabeth are twins. But not identical. Harry has jet black hair, like his father, with emerald green eyes, like his mothers. However, Elizabeth was the spitting image of her mother; medium length, auburn hair with emerald green eyes. Harry wore circular glasses and had a lightening bolt scar just above his right eye whereas Elizabeth didn't need glasses and had a lightening bolt scar on the left side of her neck. They didn't know how they got matching scars in different places but always thought it was really cool and must be a 'twin thing'.

Harry and Elizabeth were neglected by their Aunt and Uncle and were used as naïve servants. Harry was forced to reside in the little cupboard under the stairs whilst Elizabeth was a little luckier, and lived in the attic. Both the cupboard under the stairs and the attic were locked at exactly nine at night, only to be unlocked at six am sharp. No earlier, no later. And if they needed the bathroom, they'd have to use the little buckets they were provided with and clean them out themselves the next morning.

Harry and Elizabeth provided breakfast, lunch and dinner for their family everyday. If they failed at doing so, they were locked in their 'rooms' with a glass of water and a single slice of toast to last them until the next morning. It didn't matter if either twin fell ill, they were still expected to provide the food, do all the chores and go to school. Elizabeth can remember an instance when Harry was extremely ill, not being able to go five minutes without fainting or throwing up, yet he was still expected to do everything, alongside Elizabeth. She refused to let her brother suffer like that so she did everything herself. Cooked, cleaned, tidied, everything. She even managed to sneak into Aunt Petunia's medicine cabinet, which they are strictly forbidden to enter, and give Harry a paracetamol tablet, the only thing she could think of that would help him. She also gave him three full meals that she demanded he ate at the appropriate times and constantly provided him with cold water and warm blankets. By night fall, Elizabeth was more than happy to go to bed, having spent all day doing everything herself.

However, despite all the chores the siblings had to do, the worst part about living at 4 Privet Drive was their insufferable cousin, Dudley. He was a plump boy, the weight of Harry and Elizabeth combined, and loved to bully his cousins. He would punch Harry repeatedly, leaving purple bruises on his arms, legs and stomach, and would pull Elizabeth's hair until she had bald patches littering her skull. He also managed to get every thing he wanted, courtesy of his dreadful parents. Every birthday he had, the amount of presents he received only increased, whilst Harry and Elizabeth received the grand total of a pound sterling on theirs.