Wrong, All Wrong

Part title

"I already know how to read, Aster." The loving tone Harry added to my name made me smile. I was a little surprised Harry had verbally replied to me, but I guessed it was because he wouldn't want anyone to find out too much about our telepathic connection just yet. Then I registered what Harry said. Before I could be surprised he mentally added, 'Saphyr taught me how to read.' I couldn't quite imagine the serpent teaching Harry how to read but if Harry said Saphyr did it then I believed him.

'In that case I can't wait to show you all of the cool books.'

Harry smiled back at me. 'Okay then.'

Happily I found out the library was only a few doors down from the bedroom Harry and I were currently staying in. It had the classic two door entrance and I hoped the inside matched the classic idea of a library as well. As Uncle Sirius opened the doors I was delighted to find rows of bookshelves filled with hundreds, maybe thousands, of books. Just like the rest of the house, each bookshelf was labeled with small metal labels in various places. The shelves were labeled by genre and alphabetized by author. There were even individual labels on each of the books which stated its difficulty level. The difficulty levels were distinguished by numbers ranging from zero to ten. Right inside the library doors there was a small table with a guide to all of the labels.

Amusingly level zero was classified as 'Requiring minimal intelligence' and level ten was classified as 'Don't even attempt to read without extensive life experience and education'. The genres ranged from Potions, to Charms, to Not-So-Mythical Creatures, and even the Dark Arts. Alongside the Dark Arts genre listing, however, was a note that said, "Forbidden to those without consent; magically enforced".

As Harry went to sit in one of the cushioned chairs I happily bounced over to the bookshelves. I looked through the genres, skimming over the more academically-associated titles. I wanted to show Harry an interesting book, not boring school stuff. Going down two or three rows of books I finally found something that looked cool. It was "Your Inner Animal" and was a thin book. The book's difficulty level was rated at level two so I thought it wouldn't be too difficult a read. Already flipping through the book I plopped down next to Harry in the large, comfortable chair.

Uncle Sirius had chosen to sit across from us and smiled at the book I had picked up. He didn't say anything though, just sat there and watched us. It looked like he was thinking about something, but I was more concerned with showing the book to Harry to care about Uncle Sirius right then.

"Look Harry," I pointed at various pages with pictures, "this book tells about your 'inner animal', or an animal you're really compatible with."

Gently Harry took the book from me and started reading it from page one. 'Aster,' the mental message abruptly caught my attention, 'what is an uncle?' He looked like he was completely absorbed in reading but I could tell that his eyes were just skimming over the words and not truly reading them.

For a while I was a little shocked, only just remembering that Harry didn't know what an uncle was. He never knew what a family was; nonetheless the different branches of one.

I thought back to yesterday...

'So he's 'Uncle' Severus now?'

'Why not? He must be awesome if Father hates him.'

Even though Harry went on to reply to my statement, I now realized he must not have known what I was talking about at all. Thinking for a moment, I went for the most basic definition I could think of.

'The term 'uncle' has multiple definitions depending on which context one is referring to. With a biological family, or strictly blood-related family, an uncle is the brother of one's mother or father. However there also exists a social family, or friends or acquaintances considered close enough to a person to be considered family. An uncle in that sense is also the 'brother' of one's mother or father but can be your mother's social brother or just an elder man one feels close enough to to claim as an uncle. The female equivalent is called an aunt.'

Harry smiled at me, 'You're very smart.'

I smiled back. 'I had to be.' Trying to find Harry had led me to Mother's letters, but in the beginning there were many words I didn't know yet. So I had learned to know the dictionary, almost constantly looking up various words to determine their meaning. It also led to my love of reading and the multiple times where I would get side tracked. There were many times I caught myself reading a book for pleasure when I had been trying to find Harry. It was one of the reasons it had taken me three years to find him and I sometimes hated myself for it. Harry's smile turned a little sad and made my guilt spike.

Looking down at the book I started reading some of it.

...one's inner animal is not necessarily a strict representation of that person. Simply one could say that the inner animal is one representation of a person that is liable to change throughout that person's life. Various events can affect the personality, lifestyle, and basic attributes of a person and thus change that person's inner animal. When one undergoes a ritual, however, such as becoming an Animagus, one solidifies their inner animal into an actual real-life, physical representation of that animal. The relationship between the person and the inner animal then changes drastically. Instead of the person influencing the inner animal, the inner animal is then influencing the person, changing the person's personality into resembling the inner animal's personality. The two situations are not the same. When a person influences the inner animal, the animal can either change slightly or change completely into a different animal. When the inner animal is influencing the person, the person cannot change into a completely different animal but can reach a substantially similar point in the way that their personality is altered. The inner animal will no longer change no matter how different the person becomes later on in life. Also...

Suddenly the page turned and I realized Harry had finished reading already. He started flipping through the pages before he reached a section of the book filled with questions. As Harry looked through the questions, I saw Harry clutch the book tighter ever so slightly. The book was raised a little closer to his face and I could tell his eyes weren't moving as quickly as they had before. I could feel myself tense as if something was going to explode at any moment. Following Harry's gaze I saw that he was staring at the word 'transcendence'.

'Harry...?'

'I'm fine, Aster. It's nothing.' Harry folded over the corner of the page slowly and carefully, with a deliberate caution that made me want to scream. He gave the book back to me. "I'll finish reading it later," he said aloud. The confident mask was still in place and obscured his true feelings. Silently I put the book away, telling myself to remember to talk to Harry later that night.

When I returned to the comfy chair I curled up next to Harry. "Harry, I'm tired again..."

"It's still morning, Aster," he replied, but wrapped his arms around me anyway. I couldn't see Uncle Sirius' reaction but I only thought about it for a moment before deciding I didn't really care. I might care later on in life, but not right now. Right now I wanted to lie next to my twin and remind myself that I wasn't alone anymore.

A swooshing sound filled the room and startled Harry and I into sitting up. Behind Uncle Sirius' chair was a fireplace I hadn't noticed before. What surprised us the most was that Uncle Severs' face was floating in it. The older man was only looking at Uncle Sirius when he said, "Sirius, there's a problem. Lily and I are at the Ministry." Without further ado his face vanished.

...that didn't sound good.

Author's Note: Just to let my readers know, the Wizarding Academy for Dramatic Arts does indeed exist in the canon universe of Harry Potter. It is mentioned in J. K. Rowling's Tales of Beedle the Bard and is not my own creation. While I am unsure as to whether or not dueling is considered a dramatic art in the canon Wizarding World, I am saying it is one. I apologize to all Flitwick fans but I do not believe in having the same teachers at one academy for so many years, at least not in this universe of Harry Potter.

Also, as I forgot to do so in my previous chapters, I deeply apologize to my older (not biologically – you know what I mean) readers. It took me many months to finally revisit this story, and I will offer no excuses for my absence. I will, however admit that it has been on my mind for equally as long to rewrite the initial chapters of this story as certain details were omitted that I later realized led to the confusion of some of my readers. I apologize for those who dislike rereading chapters, but I assure you it is worth it. This specific chapter had the fewest alterations to it, though I did go back and fix many simple mistakes (such as forgetting Saphyr is female, not male).

To my new readers, thank you so much for giving this story a chance and for reading this far.

–Sakura