Gabe was just as weird, but it was easier for people to fail to notice that. It wasn't that Gabe was more careful. He just didn't care as much. Or let Henry do all the worrying.

Henry felt that they both had a lot of reason to worry.

As they grew up, they started to understand things better and piecing things, but not fast enough for Henry to realize how to go about figuring out what was going on. He (they) were both still toddlers after all, even if their brains remembered things that no kid could possibly remember.

Honestly, the weirdness started much earlier for Rose Dursley. And Henry was the start of it all.

What kind of baby just shows up at someone's doorstep? Like some kind of overnight delivery? With merely a letter explaining the situation. She - of course - accepted her half-nephew in. But given the sheer absurdity of his arrival no one should've blamed her for to figure out how "return to the sender" without reading the letter.

The letter left her very quiet for the rest of the day. Vernon didn't help at all, demanding an explanation while she couldn't possibly deliver one.

Her husband was sensible enough to call in the nanny to take care of both boys for the day. While the adults in the house sorted things out.

The nanny noticed that, for the first time in a while, "Dudley" wasn't crying as much. Instead, the two boys just held to each other while going about their baby business.

Their baby business is being very talkative, for babies.

This was actually the very first sign of their weirdness, but no one really noticed it as weird. Early talking is a good thing which people don't really complain about.

Similarly, no one really complains about, say, kids that are advanced in class. People did notice how fast the boys learned to read and write.

Of course, Rose and Vernon are very quick to sing praises about his very smart child. If their half-nephew was just as advanced... that was not a bad thing. That is all.

Gabe likes his mother better than his dad, he can't put it into words. And doesn't try.

Henry... he remembers things, but his mind can't really contain those memories, not at first. And when he makes sense of a memory he puts into words.

"Why are we kids?" Is cute the first time it is asked. But weird the second, third and dozenth time.

"Why Aunt Rose is not divorced?" It is not something nice to ask at the best of circumstances and Henry is sent to sleep in the cupboard until it's time to sleep.

(Gabe would climb into the cupboard when they were younger and that was weirder than letting Henry sleep in Gabe's bed.)

"My name is Henry Potter, like the book." It was not weird at first. What was really weird was when Henry worded the follow-up question. "You haven't heard of Harry Potter?"

The reactions to that were varied.

Most people just assumed it was an obscure book they never heard of.

Why Henry pretended such a book (multiple books) existed as a prank was so weird that it took the longest time for Rose to realize what he was doing. At first, she just assumed he misremembered, because it sounded like so much like his name. But the boy kept insisting that it was a super-famous book series? The boy even used the words 'world phenomenon'? When books were ever a phenomenon?? Non-sense. He gets punished with a week of extra chores and no dinners.

(Gabe begs and Rose lets Henry still sleep with him. No reason to punish her own child.)

Henry doesn't think that is fair.

He might remember being older, but his physical brain remains young and with poor impulse control. And he remembers. He remembers people being silly about. And remembers how he never even tried to check the book in the library because it's silly magic, but also because he knew he wouldn't have the chance, because it was too popular. So he throws tantrums and insists.

And that is how people started thinking that he was weird.

Gabe sticks to just... not asking questions.

He can't quite put into words that it is pointless and people are not understanding it.

Instead, he says "Just stop."

Eventually, after too long, and after most of the neighborhood knows him as the kid that makes up stuff... Henry finally stops.

Sometimes it's very easy to think it's all in his imagination.

Sometimes his entire body feels too small to fit him mentally and physically.

(Also, not being able to reach things sucks so much. Specially, when he has to do chores.)

Gabe sometimes helps.

His parents don't ask him to. And sometimes punish Henry over it.

Gabe feels extremely weird about the entire thing. More than remembering things that apparently didn't happen.

(He doesn't have the concepts of "moral obligation" in his head to express them. Honestly, this is not because he is small.)

Her Dudkins is just too kind. And her parents just don't want to be taken advantage of.

Vernon thinks Henry is a bad influence, and they should get Gabe to socialize with new friends. Who was that kid? Peter Polks?

Piers Polkiss, she corrects Vernon. And that is a good idea. Rose gets Piers to show up for playdates while Henry is away.

Sometimes Henry is sent to Mrs. Figs. The old lady is weird, and staying there is mostly boring.

Once, he asks her about the Potter book series, he hadn't done that as much lately. When he tries to explain it was a series of books about magic people going to school (which was all that he really remembered) her eyes just... got a weird vacant expression.

For a moment Henry though she had a stroke or something, but Mrs. Figs regained composure and offered stale cake. Henry accepted it.

Polkiss and the others are alright as friends. Most of the time. His parents let him do nearly anything that didn't leave something broken, which meant that Piers favorite activity was going outside to do some mild vandalism that wouldn't get him in too much trouble.

One time, during an Easter game, he tried to pin that on Gabe.

Gabe pinned him to the ground.

Rose was furious at what that beast child tried to do with her poor Dudkins. That was the end of the friendship with the Polkiss. Heh, the mother was a terrible gossip. Rose made sure to spread rumors that her son was acting out because of the father's drinking problem and that was that.

(Henry was quietly very glad that none of the flak of that came down his head)

Sometimes when Henry is out and about random people will want to shake his hand. Most are oddly dressed, like priests of some obscure religion that accepted colorful robes in their ceremonies.

Henry is not deprived enough of affection to not be unaware of stranger danger and most of the time he will back off those people. When that happened while he was with his aunt and Gabe, Rose was so livid that she took the boys straight to their home, leaving the groceries behind.

It was not... really, affection, but... Henry appreciated it.

Rose explains at length that they should be very careful to not let any of those weird people around them. To go back home if they see them. And to never talk or interact with them.

(She is obviously shaken.)

Then she pretends everything is normal and gets the grocery store to deliver. They have pizza for dinner that night as a consequence.

The next time someone tries to approach Henry to shake his hand, Gabe punches the guy in the balls.

That was probably a bit much. And Henry is worried that even Gabe might get into trouble over it.

He doesn't get in trouble over it.

Henry is almost sure less people try to approach him after that, but he isn't sure.

Punching is good practice for school. Since, his rat-faced former friend started hanging out with bullies to set them on Gabe and Henry.

Most of their peers are shorter than Gabe.

Polkiss manages to find some kids older than them.

That is definitely not good. Specially when the kids corner them and is too much even with Henry helps. Or tries to. He has some of his cousin's height, but still is not that strong. They are kids.

Then suddenly, they are not.

Everyone is very confused when Gabe and Henry suddenly turn into adults, but only the two stay for more than a second. The bullies disperse like cockroaches running away from light.

Henry looks up and down Gabe, even his clothes are adult-sized, except he wasn't wearing that style a minute ago.

"This is impossible," he says looking down at his own hands.

Then... he is suddenly flooded with memories of a large library and of a cold, cold night....

...then they are kids again.

"What happened?"

Henry doesn't provide an answer.

He feels that this is the sort of thing a kid should be happy about, but... he is just more confused than anything.

The next few days are harrowing because Henry assumes that the bullies would tell everyone, but that doesn't happen.

They don't even act like something weird happened at all. Or something that scared them. They are right back to trying to intimidate the two "weirdos".

Weirdo is the nicest thing that they are called.

They are called other things, which Henry... is more angry about the fact that those things are used as offensive terms than being bad on itself.

And something about it, feels correct, but they are not sure.

They remember many things, but sometimes, there are memories that feel... at the edge of what they can understand.

Gabe just doesn't think too much about it. There is enough things trying to hurt his head. Like the bullies crew. The only problems Gabe tries to solve with his mind is trying to figure out what is wrong with his parents. They keep saying appearance this and social standing that, but then they do stuff like force Henry only use Gabe's old clothes. And there was that one time Gabe had to tried to stop his mother trying to give Henry a haircut.

The scissors, come undone on her hands right before she is about to make the first cut.

Rose decides that Gabe is right. She excuses herself.

Henry picks up the pieces of broken scissors. Noticing that they are also dull.

Well, crappy low-quality scissors pieces can go to the trash bin.

Henry's hair is long and shaggy for a while. Which doesn't makes him being called names any less.

Henry wants to ignore them at first, but if you don't do anything then they will continue provoking until there is some reaction. Which leads fists being raised one way or another.

More weird incidents keep happening.

Like, when they are backed into a corner and Henry closes his eyes, only to open them again and... the two are up in the nearest roof.

Another time Gabe's aunt comes visit and sets one of her creatures (a.k.a. one of her dogs) on Henry.

Gabe was not around and Henry finds himself in need to climb a tree to escape.

It stays barking and then it starts shrinking away.

Literally, the creature becomes smaller and smaller until it becomes smaller than the grass blades around it. By that point "Aunt Marge" and her brother had tired from laughing at Henry suffering so they didn't see anything.

Henry slowly climbs down the tree and... mindful of his steps, walks away from the scene.

The dog reappears hours later, but refuses to approach Henry.

Rose hears the story of how Henry lost Marge's dog, and he is sent without dinner to bed.

Then she hears how long Henry was up in that tree until her husband and sister-in-law got bored with it and left Henry unsupervised with an angry dog.

She forces a smile on her face until Marge leaves.

Before the boys are put to bed, she gets Gabe to take dinner up to Henry.

Neither her and her husband shout at each other. That would be uncivilized. But voices can be heard upstairs, which means that voices were raised.

That is very, very weird. And Henry doesn't talk about it and generally acts like something terrible happened. And Gabe wonders if the dog bit him? There are no marks. He is confused, and kinda mad at the adults by default, but specially Aunt Marge.

(Honestly, it's kinda hard to like Aunt Marge, she is the worst traits of every adult. Gabe knows, plus trying to buy love with gifts. Which is a positive trait if you are a kid.)

Gabe keeps poking Henry about what happened. But Henry doesn't budge, and it's very weird.

Henry just... doesn't know how to feel about the entire thing. And he is partially sure that he is losing his marbles.

Eventually, they both forget the event and life goes peacefully.

Or as peacefully as they can have it, when every so often there is a fight at school.

Funny how much fighting you can get into while entirely minding one's own business.

Or despite the fact that the fights prompt the weird incidents. After one such incident, Gabe is looking down at the four pair of sneakers that had melted into the ground.

Ceramic tiles, do ceramic tiles are even capable of melting if they are hot enough? Those sure looked melted, and that then some boys stepped on them, realized their feet were trapped and then booked it. Shoes left behind. Gabe pokes at it. And it's solid and cold. Just, deformed.

"You know what happened?"

"I don't?" Henry shifts uncomfortably.

"Henry, you did this. And your name is Henry Potter. Is that like, the book?"

"That is impossible. And the books was just... me being confused."

Gabe tenses. "Well, I am the one that should be confused and you should be the smart one. Henry, this is magic, you have been doing magic! Like in the book."

"Books." Henry corrects automatically, oddly enough this makes Gabe relax. "And magic isn't real. And the Potters books definitely are not real."

"How do you explain all the weird things?" He says kicking a shoe out of the ground. There is enough force that it rips apart, sole staying firmly planted while the rest flies away.

"It was probably very hot because of the sun."

It is a very cloudy british day. They are damp with sweat, but only because they have been running.

Gabe gives up and instead just walks away.

He does what he never expected to do about the entire situation.

He goes to his mother.

Rose is busying herself in the kitchen.

"Dudkins, do you want a sandwich or something?"

"No, mom. Do you know that magic is real?"

Rose goes very still.

"Honey, dudkins, don't be silly. You are too old to believe magic can be real."

Gabe squints at her. "Okay, a bunch of magic things has been happening. And I don't know, I think you could have known something about it."

"No, dudkin. That's silly magic is a silly thing, and you shouldn't believe in whatever tricks your cousin is playing on you."

"He doesn't believe in magic either! And don't call me Dudkins!"

Rose opens her mouth to respond to that.

Or rather, she tries to open her mouth. It's like her jaw and tongues are a solid piece of stone. And she can't move then at all, and can only produce the most pathetic noises.

"Mom?"

Her eyes still move and scream fear since her mouth can't do it on her behalf.

She is placing her hands over her jaw and neck. Then she takes a deep breath, the air goes in, the nose, is... rigid? She is not sure, but it's working. But... but... her dudkin...

Her dudkin takes a step closer...

She takes a step back, but then decides to step forward and try to... mime at her mouth.

Who still looks rather normal, and is not even opening or closing.

"You can't talk?" Dudley says in a squeak.

Slow nod. Okay, they, Oh, right. She crosses the room towards the phone and picks it up, dialing the emergency services.

Gabe doesn't know why she is doing this when she can't speak. But, oh, right. He can speak.

He takes the phone without needing to be told to. "Hello? My mom can't speak-"

There is a loud popping noise, like someone had took out a particularly squeak cork.

What? Rose can't say.

There are people in her backyard.

Those people.

No.

She grabs Dudley's wrist in the middle of giving them their address.

"Wow, you're hurting me, mom."

But then the backyard door opens, and they hear people coming... wearing robes, the same kind that the people that want to greet Henry use.

"-it was already unlocked." Says one to the other. "Oh, hello."

Gabe drops the phone. "Who the fuck are you?"

Rose reaches for a knife.

"Language, young man!" Says the other man. "Now, we believe there is some problem here? Oh- that is unnecessary."

With a neat and gracious move, a wand appears in the man's hand and with a swish the knife flies away from Rose's grasp.

"Oh. Oh. You guys are magic." Gabe realizes. Of course, the weirdly robed people that appear out of nowhere are magic.

The one that didn't take the knife away smiles. "Indeed we are! We came here because of the sudden emergency. Second one today, even. You and your cousin are quite the handful."

Rose manages to make a confused strangled noise, without any aid of her mouth. She reaches for something else and is trying to shield Gabe with her body.

"Okay, ma'an." Says the non-smiling man in a business-like tone. "We work for the ministry specifically to help in cases of wizard children that do spontaneous magic, like what just happened."

"You don't need to explain to her." The smiling man says. "She is Henry Potter's aunt."

It clicks in Gabe's head that mom knew!

"Anyway, we can fix the problem and go our way." The smiling man pulls out his own wand.

Rose would love to be able to object to this! She tries! She will go for uninformative glaring.

"Hmm? Well, you can fix your mouth in a second," says the smiling man.

Glare.

"And we won't punish your son for the uncontrolled magic he did to you?" the slightly-less smiling man tries to guess.

"Wait? I did that!?"

"Yes... Didn't your mother explain it to you?"

No! Rose tries to grab Gabe and run to the door.

This probably would be much simpler if Gabe was cooperating, but he is not.

And there are two wizards specifically trained to deal with situations where muggles are panicking because of magic here.

They shoot a pair of stunner bolts. And Rose falls in a heap on the ground.

Gabe is pulled off balance and falls on his butt next to her. "The fuck!?"

"Language young man." Now the smiling man was not smiling at all. He levels his wand to aim at Gabe's face.

"She is alright, lad!" The other raises his voice. "That just put her to sleep. She was panicking, and we still need to fix her mouth."

"Yeah, can't have kids like you harming their own mothers," the no-longer-smiling man adds. "The Ministry of Magic is forgiving to a point."

Gabe looks between the no-longer-smiling man and his wand. He nods.

"Why don't you get off the floor," says the once-again-smiling man. "I will fix whatever happened to your mother. And we can get out of your way. Mr. Walsh, can you keep an eye on him?"

"Of course."

No-longer-smilling man waves his wand and Gabe's mom starts floating off the ground. The two walk and float towards the living room.

Gabe clenches his jaw. His worry is enough to make him not at all curious about the magic business.

"Why don't you get off that ground?" Mr. Walsh asks. "This won't take long at all. And your mother will be good as new."

Okay, Gabe will do that. But he will be grumpy the whole time.

Gabe gets up and takes a chair without inviting Mr. Walsh to do the same.

Mr. Walsh notices that and - remembering some key points of his training - takes a chocolate bar out of his pocket. And offers wordlessly to Gabe.

Okay, maybe he won't be completely grumpy.

The narration would like to remind everyone that the boys are not even ten years old.

Mr. Walsh gives him a tight, almost smile. Gabe notices he just took candy from strangers, but fuck it, the bar has crunchy sugary thingies that fizz in his mouth like soda.

"So, you must have had quite a day. Two incidents of spontaneous magic."

Gabe gives a noncommital "mhmm."

Awkward silence.

"What is like living with Henry Potter?" Mr. Walsh asks, clearly trying to keep the conversation going at any cost.

"It's okay, why it wouldn't be?" Gabe says between his final bites of chocolate.

"Oh, I guess you wouldn't know. ...Your mother might not have told you everything."

Gabe is chewing, and he is impulsive enough to not have much of a vocal filter, but he won't waste perfectly good chocolate by spitting it out. Table manners is one of the few rules that he is okay with follow.

So he has time to think.

Apparently mother knows something? Yeah, she wasn't just "teaching" him that magic is not real. She was trying to hide it. And Gabe was angry because he could kind of tell? Maybe he should feel guilty about it? Heh, for later.

"She didn't want to tell us much," Gabe says with a pout that is mostly faked. "Can you tell me, sir?"

Mr. Walsh pauses. "Well, I am not sure how much I should." Another pause. "They usually just send a teacher to tell children like you, but I suppose you do have magical family."

"Like me?"

"Muggleborn, wizards that are born from two muggle parents."

"Ah, right," Gabe says in the tones of someone who already knew that, lying by default, despite not being the most tactical lie.

Mr. Walsh picks up on it. He is too well-trained to squint at the child.

"What did your mother tell you?"

"Uh, nothing. She pretended that magic didn't exist."

"I see," Mr. Walsh says, mostly to himself. "And what do you know?"

"Not much?"

Mr. Walsh gestures for Gabe to go on.

"Well, Henry is magic, and I guess I am too. Or always has been..." Mr. Walsh nods, and repeats the gesture, "and... and..."

For once, Gabe's brain caught up with his mouth. Even he has more sense than to say the thing about the books. But he already spoke 'and', it would be suspicious if there was nothing beyond that and.

So Gabe says the first thing that isn't 'Henry remembers some weird books with magic' and that thing is.

"And there is an evil wizard called Voldemort."

Abrupt silence.