The climb down the drain pipe left scratches over the boys hands and it rocked dangerously in the wind that was slowly picking up. But neither of the two eight year olds complained, they had decided to do this.

The pipe groaned under the weight of the two boys, although they were both very light, the pipe was not that strong.

"Just a little further, Harry," Hayden said, reassuring himself as much as his twin.

"Shh." his brother replied and continued on his decline.

"Sor-"

SCHREECH!!!

The nails holding the pipe to the wall came out and the pipe bended and then fell to the ground, with the two eight year olds still hanging on.

They landed with that solid thunk that you hear when you know something must be broken. Harry let out a surprised gasp, and slowly disentangled himself from the pipe.

His head was spinning, lifting his small hand to his pounding head he felt a pain and pulled it back again. Blood. There was blood on his fingers, he was hurt. His brain slowly came to that realization and did away with the state of shock. Now everything hurt.

Harry tried to stand, but everything was moving far to quickly, and sat back down. Turning his head to face his brother brought forth a wave of nausea. But he could see Hayden was still breathing, but he was also curled up in the fetal position.

"Hayden, Haydy, are you ok?" he asked thickly.

All that was his reply was a small whimper.

Hayden was on top of a flight of stairs, with his back turned to them. The surrounding house he was in was old and rickety. He didn't know this place, but a small niggling voice in the back of his mind that associated with the headaches told him he did. This was his true home, the traitorous voice whispered softly to him.

A large swaying man stood in front of him, smelling foul with bloodshot eyes. "Think you’re smart huh, weirdo? Well, if you’re so special, why can't you fly?"

Push, fall, and then pain. He knew it was coming, the man at the top of stairs would then laugh at his own wit and stumble off in search of his wife. He always knew it would happen, always. It had happened twice before. And would probably happen again if he didn't stop being weird.

Then it came. He was shoved backwards by the drunk man. On his way down he would hit the hard wooden stairs several times and then fall in crumpled heap.

But this time was worse. For some reason he grabbed the hand of the drunk man and pulled him back with him. Together they fell. Thunk, thunk, thunk. All the way down.

Pain everywhere.

The man landed on top of him, he felt the air being squeezed out of him. The man cried out his rage and hoisted himself up. Bellowing at the child he'd just fallen with, he kicked him hard. Twice.

Then he was gone. Then there was darkness.

"Hayden. Get up." Harry ordered. Another whimper. Then a mumble.

"It's so far down, don't like down, so far down." it was almost a hysterical chant. Harry couldn't take it anymore. He tried to get up again. No. Can't.

"Hayden, it's me Harry." Harry tried again once he caught his breath.

"H-Har-Harry? It's so far down, Harry. Why did he push me?"

"Push you? I didn't push you. I'd never push you. Never ever, ever!"

"No... It wasn't real. Just a Vision. Forget it."

Harry considered his brothers words. Hayden hated being asked about the Visions. He'd let it drop, for now. "Haydy, can you move?"

"No, I hurt all over." Hayden said after trying to get up and go to his brother’s side.

"Let’s just wait awhile, till we feel more like ourselves." Harry offered diplomatically. They didn't have to wait long. The lady across the street saw them, just lying there, with weeping wounds, and called an ambulance at once.

The paramedics gently took them to the vehicle, by now Petunia was watching them with thinned lips and a hard expression. She couldn't say anything for what people would think, at the moment the word had gotten out that she took pity on her nephews and let them run wild. Too full of grief for her sister to rein them in.

As they were placed inside and doors shut, Harry watch as his brother fell into a great slumber. Feeling his eyelids drooping, he joined his brother in the land of nod.

Lying on his back, Hayden counted the cracks in the roof. There was 3 of them, well 5 if you counted the two that came off a bigger one, but Hayden didn't. Hayden counted them again.

It was terribly boring.

The bed he lay on was lumpy and the blankets itchy, but it was a bed. Hayden reminded himself he had been in far worse situations and should stop complaining. Unbidden, memories from last year raised themselves from the depths of his mind, once again he was not mentioned in his mother's letters, once again he was falling off a rusty drain pipe.

But most of all he remembered that one night in hospital that had stabbed at his already emotionally distressed state of mind. The old man with a huge beard and the a stern lady caused him no end of confusion and distress. He had, in the dead of the night, woken up to hear them talking about him and Harry.

They used strange words like Muggle and Hogwarts. Also they referred to a person named "Severus" an awful lot. He couldn't hear everything they said, and sometimes he didn't even know if they were real, but he had heard them say he was not Harry's true brother.

Oh how that sentence hunted him at night! He was Harry's brother, he had to be. They were identical and had had each other for as long as they knew

But Lily's letters. Why weren't you in them? A snide voice would say at the back of his mind. Why would a mother exclude her second son from her letters and pretend you don't exist? Where you truly that bad? Harry is so brave, you’re a chicken. No wonder she didn't want you.

Hayden shook his head, no good ever came of brooding on those memories. But then again, good rarely came at all to him or his brother.

He told himself this was not true, why ever since Harry and he had fallen off the drain pipe the Dursleys had not once put them in the closet or starved them. Well starved them for more than 3 days, but that didn't count because the twins had made sure they always had reserves.

"Freaks, Freaks! Freaks, get down here... NOW!" Aunt Petunia's shrill voice called out breaking Hayden away from his thoughts. With a long suffering sigh, Hayden marched himself down to the kitchen where he assumed his aunt was. Harry joined him on the stairway, and with a small smile they went together.

"You two," Petunia said and pointed at them. "You’re hair’s too long, since cutting it doesn’t work, I'm going to shave it... No, wait I have a better idea, you will shave each other’s hair off." Aunt Petunia grinned with a malicious glee, freezing Hayden's heart.

What if he slipped and hurt Harry? He and his brother would stand out anyway with their bald heads... Oh how they would be teased.

"You first, Scar-Head." Petunia said. She never called the twins by their first name if she could avoid it. And over the years she found a way to make sure she never did.

Harry sat down then on the chair Aunt Petunia had cling-wrapped (so they didn't contaminate the furniture with their freakishness) and looked up at Hayden. His eyes told his brother that he did not blame him.

"Take this, now! Or I'll get Vernon down here." Petunia threatened. Reluctantly Hayden took the scissors from his aunt.

Harry's black hair fell away from his head with a snip. Hayden cut as close to his twin's head as possible with the scissors, gently and carefully under his aunt’s beady eye.. His fingers touch softly on Harry's scalp, he was so frightened that he might cut his brother’s skin. A tear ran down his cheek. He was ruining Harry, voluntarily! If only he were as brave as his brother, then he could say no to his aunt's cruel demands...

Then it was his turn, he was sitting very still when he heard his aunt's distressed shriek. He swiveled around to see what was wrong and-

Harry's hair! It was growing back right before their eyes!

"Vernon! Vernon!" His Aunt called out. "VERNON!!!"

...

Oh crap.

"Dudley's birthday today. Oh joy. Oh, what a wonderful thing to be celebrating," Hayden said sarcastically to his brother over the frying pan.

"Yes, now we know whales won't go extinct!" Harry replied.

The two boys could barely contain their sniggers.

"You two!" snapped Vernon, his pudgy face beginning to turn purple. "Stop whispering and cook that bacon and eggs properly!"

As if they could. Hayden had a flair for cooking that Harry could never understand. Hayden couldn't explain it either, but when Vernon and Dudley wolfed down his food and said it was not bad for a freak, he was filled with pride. It was as close to a complement as you could get if you were a Potter and living in a Dursley household.

Dudley entered the kitchen and eyed his present mountain. He started to count them, Hayden rolled his eyes and Harry smirked at his brother.

"Thirty-six!" Dudley gave an outraged cry. "That's two less than last year."

Hayden mimicked his cousin, earning a quite laugh from his brother. The two continued to mock their cousin, quietly, until they realized their relatives had turned their conversation to them. It seemed Mrs. Figg, their usual babysitter, had broken her leg.

"You could just leave us here," Harry put in hopefully, Hayden's heart all but broke at the sound of it in his brother voice.

"And come back to find the house in ruins?" Petunia snarled, her face resembling that of someone who had just eaten a lemon.

"We promise not to touch anything, we won’t think of it!" Hayden added after watching Harry's face fall with disappointment.

Then Dudley chucked a temper tantrum at the idea of them going to his birthday outing. But to no avail, an hour later they were on their way to the zoo with the Dursleys and Piers Polkiss.

"Come on, Harry, let's let the poor thing sleep." Hayden said to his brother who was currently starring at a python dosing in its cage.

Harry turned to face him, his face conveying shock, "It winked!"

"WHAT?!" Hayden said stunned, he didn't question his brother though. Weird things happened around them all the time.

"Shh! I'm serious, Haydy, it winked," Harry told him and then turned back to the python and, well hissed at it.

And worse still, it hissed back. And seemed to be carrying out a conversation with him. Hayden sighed out his frustration. It could only go downhill from here.

"Do you think he made it to Brazil?" Harry asked him idly that night. They had nothing to do, being sentenced to their room for probably a week, and so passed their time by talking, questioning and joking.

It wasn't that bad actually.

"Who?" Hayden asked.

"Well, the snake of course, remember? He said he'd never been to Brazil and –– and why are you looking at me like that?"

"Because you’re saying you can talk to snakes." Hayden said slowly.

"You couldn't understand him? Normally you can do all the weird stuff I can do." Harry said, confused.

"Normally."