A Different Sister (Editing)

The Cupboard under the Stairs

"Up! Get up! Now!" Aunt Petunia shrieked, rapping her knuckles on the door to the cupboard under the stairs where Harry slept. He jumped up in his mattress, mind still half awake. He had a very weird dream that night. He switched on the lights and rubbed his eyes before grabbing his Selotaped glasses. He heard Aunt Petunia storm off to the basement to wake his sister, Emma.

Emma Potter was Harry Potter's twin sister. She shared his raven black hair and bright green eyes, but that was about it. She did not have the lightning scar that Harry had on his forehead, and their personalities were very, very different. While they had both been abused at the Dursley household for their entire life, Harry had a more positive opinion about life. He usually believed that things would get better for them. Emma, however, was always distant and cold. She hated the Dursleys with a passion and usually thought on the negative side of things. Harry knew this wasn't because of the Dursleys. She was born like this. Moreover, the Dursleys treated her slightly better than Harry because she never asked questions. She seemed to know all the answers already. The other reason was because Emma was a girl and Dudley, their cousin, thought she was pretty and treated her like a queen. Only sometimes. Emma was very disgusted by this at first, but soon figured her looks would get them two more slices of bacon. She was always this cunning, using anything to achieve her ends.

Emma was woken up by Aunt Petunia's banging and screeching outside the basement door. She groaned and switched on the only source of light in her dark basement bedroom, a flickering light bulb on the ceiling. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, still heavy with sleep. In no hurry at all, she brushed her teeth and combed her wavy black hair, ignoring Aunt Petunia's screech for her to hurry up, then dressed and trudged up the stairs. Her dress was a tattered green one that belonged to Aunt Petunia when she was Emma's age. 

"Good morning, Emma," Harry greeted her on the way to the kitchen. 

"No, it's not," she grunted back. She was definitely not a morning person. Harry smiled at her answer. It surely isn't, he thought as they both entered the kitchen.

Aunt Petunia greeted them with a friendly "Today is Dinky Duddydums' birthday!! How dare you sleep in!! Now go and fry those eggs and bacon!! Don't you dare let them burn, or there will be no dinner for either of you tonight!!" They both groaned and slumped to the stove.

Harry fried the eggs and bacon while Emma handed plates to him, her eyes unfocused. Harry was sure that she was trying to think of a way to nick some food without the Dursleys noticing. When Harry had placed the eggs and bacon on the table, they all sat down to eat. Dudley began counting presents gleefully.

His face fell. "Thirty seven. That's one less than last year." He began to prepare for a huge Dudley tantrum. Harry and Emma began wolfing down their food as fast as they could, not wanting to be caught in this. Aunt Petunia scented danger too.

"And we'll buy you two more presents when we go out today, popkins. Two more presents. How's that, darling?"

"So I'll have thirty-thirty-"

"Thirty nine, you dim-witted dimbo," Emma snapped.

Harry inhaled sharply, looking at Aunt Petunia and waiting for her to issue a punishment for Emma and to take her place instead. But Dudley was too happy to have heard what Emma said after "thirty nine". Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon obviously heard, but pretended not to have done so, because they didn't want to spoil Dinky Duddydums' special day. Aunt Petunia glared poisonously at Emma, warning her to control her mouth. Just then, the phone rang. Aunt Petunia went to answer it. She came back in looking angry.

"Bad news, Vernon. Mrs Figg broke her leg. She can't take them," she jutted her chin at Harry and Emma. Emma smiled to herself. Lord knows that she didn't have anything to do with it at all. She didn't nick a piece of cat food and waved it in front of the cat while Mrs Figg was crossing the road. No, it wasn't her fault that Mrs Figg broke her leg when she tripped over the cat. Nope, she had nothing to do with it at all. 

Harry looked at Emma. She smiled and gave him a look that said thank me later.

"We could ask Marge." Aunt Petunia suggested.

"Don't be silly, Petunia, she hates them, especially the girl." Emma had once kicked Aunt Marge's dog, Ripper, out of sheer spite when he was a grumpy puppy, and Aunt Marge had loathed Emma ever since. To tell the truth, Emma was quite proud of her feat. Ripper was now so scared of her that he wouldn't even bark at her.

"What about your friend, Yvonne?"

"On holiday in Majorca."

"You could just leave us here," Harry interjected. 

Aunt Petunia rounded on him. "And come back to find the house in ruins?"

"We won't blow up the house-" Harry started to say. "Even though we'd like to," Emma interrupted. Aunt Petunia turned white. 

"Oh yes, we'd like to very much," Emma continued. She turned to Harry. "Did I tell you about the stack of bombs I found in the basement?"

Harry grinned. "Nope. We could try them out later." They both cackled evilly. 

"I suppose we could take them to the zoo and leave them in the car," Aunt Petunia huffed.

"That car's new, they're not staying in there alone," Uncle Vernon said. 

"Hey, we could bring the bombs with us in the car!" Harry exclaimed.

Uncle Vernon turned the colour of old porridge.

Dudley started wailing, but immediately shut up after a look of pure hatred from Emma.

"Oh, don't cry, darling!" Aunt Petunia cried, pouncing on Dudley and hugging him like the world was ending. "Mummy won't let them spoil your special day! Mummy will find a way to stick them out of the way!"

Dudley stopped wailing, but pouted at his mother. "But I want Emmy to come with me."

"Did the correct pronunciation of my name slip your brain?" Emma hissed. Then she stopped. "Oh wait, you don't have one, do you?"

She was saved from Aunt Petunia's wrath when the doorbell rang. In stepped Piers Polkiss, a member of Dudley's gang. He was sallow, thin, had a long face, and in the twins' opinion, looked like a rat. Dudley's gang always liked to punch Harry, but Harry, being small and skinny, always evaded their capture long enough to find a safe spot to hide. Dudley's gang never punched Emma. They only verbal bullied her. They said it was because they would never hit a lady, but in truth, whenever they tried to punch Emma, weird things happened. When they were younger, Dudley's gang had cornered Emma and were pinching and beating her mercilessly. Somehow, Emma had managed to set Dudley's hair on fire. When Harry was cornered, he'd somehow find himself on the roof of a building. Strange things happened to the twins, and none of them knew why. Dudley's gang still punched Harry when they could because if weird things happened around him, it usually didn't seem to harm them. But when they hit Emma, the gang itself would get hurt. So they resorted to calling her names instead.

No matter how much she convinced herself that the words weren't true, deep down, Emma knew that they were right about her. That she was cruel. Unforgiving. A snake.

Dudley started chatting up with Piers and completely forgot about the zoo incident. Aunt Petunia was in heated conversation with Uncle Vernon about what to do with the twins. They couldn't be left home alone, nor could they be left alone in the car. They'd blow both of those up. Emma was contemplating whether the Dursleys were the stupidest bunch of people in the whole world or not, strongly believing in the former, while Harry was wishing hard that they would be brought to the zoo, or at least left at home.

At last, with nothing else to do, the Dursleys allowed Harry and Emma to go to the zoo with them, however reluctantly. Before they knew it, Harry and Emma were sitting in between Dudley and Piers, on their way to the zoo for the first time in their lives.

A/N:

Hey guys, this is my first fanfic/story that I've had in my head for sometime. I hope you guys will enjoy it! Please vote and comment, and thanks for all the support!

Lots of love,

Owly ♡