The Turning Point

Chapter 1 : Prisonbreak

XXXXX

Disclaimer : I do not own Harry Potter but Artemis is mine.

XXXXX

No. 4, Privet Drive

She stood on the footstep and knocked on the door. A minute later, she heard the shuffling of the feet and the door was opened by a horse faced woman.

She removed her hood and spoke with a sweet smile on her face, "Hello Petty, I have wanted to visit you for a while."

"YOU!", she shouted pointing her shaking finger at her.

She then screamed and then fainted.

It seems the excitement was too much for her.

She levitated the woman inside and placed her on the sofa. She heard two sets of footsteps and knew that they had heard the scream. An enormous beefy man with beady black eyes and no neck came waddling with a slightly smaller version of his.

"YOU! What have you done to my wife?", the larger one shouted.

It was then that he got a proper look at the girl. Now, he understood why his wife had a bad reaction. It took all his self control not to cower in fear but he couldnot stop his hands from shaking.

"B-But you are dead.", he stammered.

"I assure you that I am quite alive, atleast as far as I know.", she replied.

"They said you died when they left the boy on our doorstep.", he said.

"I would love to explain but I don't have the time for it." she replied.

She petrified them and placed them next to the woman. She then stunned them for good measure.

"Who are you?"

She was barely able to contain her flinch. She chastisised herself for letting someone sneak up behind her like that. She had not been here for long and she was already getting careless.

"I want you to keep your wand where I can see them. Slowly turn around. Any wrong movement will see you in a lot of pain.", his cold voice said.

She slowly turned around and looked at a pair of green eyes the same shade as her own.

Harry was shocked. He had heard some noise and had gone down to check it out. He saw a redheaded girl pointing her wand at his relatives. It was the moment she turned around that he got the biggest shock of his life. She resembled his mother to a T. He must have been gaping at her if her amused expression was anything to go by.

"I can see that you want an explanation. But first I would like to check how secure this place is, if you don't mind."

He suddenly felt like a bucket of water had been dumped on his head. Her voice was nothing like his mother's. In fact, it sounded like those pureblood heiresses in Slytherin. A voice that expected to be obeyed. He noted that, while she spoke English very well, the way she spoke was as if English was not her native tongue. He suddenly remembered that she had asked something and he nodded in reply.

She pointed her wand up and made a circular motion above her head. He shivered as he felt something pass through him.

"When was that vase bought?", she asked pointing at a vase that was glowing.

The vase itself was a gaudy, blue colored thing with flower patterns on it. It was the kind of vase Aunt Petunia would love to have among her collections. But he knew that there was something important he was missing.

"I don't remember seeing that vase before.", he replied.

She cast a spell at the vase causing it to glow many different colors causing him to gasp. He knew that spell very well and the implications of those colors. He had learned that spell after his second year when he saw the consequences of being fooled by a dark artifact. Specialis Revelios is a general charm with its own limitations. After all, when he cast the charm on the Triwizard Cup, he learned that it was a portkey but not its destination.

"You are correct. It has a Notice-Me-Not charm on it. It is not a strong one as it becomes ineffective the moment you know its there. There are also monitoring charms and eavesdropping charm."

Harry felt bile rise from his stomach when the implications set in. Fortunately, she had already conjured chairs for them. So, when his knees gave up due to the shock,he didn't end up with a sore behind. He knew that panicking now would only cause more problems. So, he took a deep breath, make that a few deep breaths, and forced himself to think logically. Who was spying on him and how much did they know about his life here? Didn't he have a right to privacy even here?

"How long has it been here?", he asked her though he wondered whether he was better off not knowing.

"Quite a long time. If it makes you feel better, I am sure they didn't get much. Whoever enchanted it did not take into account the interference of blood wards. It works as well as a badly tuned radio of olden days. The rare times they get a signal, there will be so much noise that they won't be able to deduce much.", she assured him.

Ironically, he felt assured by her words. He wondered how he came to trust her so quickly.

She held out her hand and said, "Call me Artemis"

He shook it and said, "Harry Potter but you already knew that."

"I don't understand why everyone refers to you as Harry. After all, it is just a nickname. Your real name is Hadrian. You do know that, don't you?"

Any happiness he felt at meeting someone new faded away as his suspicious nature kicked in. How did she know his real name. He only learned it last summer after the trial when Sirius had told him. At first, he had assumed it to be a tasteless prank Azkaban addled mind of Sirius came up with in a misguided attempt to loosen him up but his serious demeanour(pun unintended) and the original birth certificate with his real name cleared those misconceptions pretty quickly. Apparently, all Potter males are traditionally named after old kings and emperors. After all, his grandfather was Henry Potter and great uncle and his link to Black family was Charles Potter. If you go far enough up, you would even find Julius and Augustus Potter. For some reason, he guessed the prophecy, his parents wanted his real name kept a secret. As they say, names have power. Right after his birth, his grandfather, the then Head of the family, declared his name a family secret. The spell acts similar to the Fidelius charm and restricts those in the know to family members. Sirius would not have been able to keep the information had he not done the Godfather ritual. That is the reason her ability to casually mention it is worrying. He didn't know enough about the spell to confirm anything.

It was then that he noticed something he had missed earlier. He looked at the windows wondering why there were no Ministry owls swarming in.

"You have done a lot of magic but ..."

"Ministry doesn't know about magic being done here. So you can use your wand freely without repercussions.", she replied.

He waited for her to elaborate but she didn't.

"How did you do it?", he asked.

"I put up a Magic Isolator ward around the house. As the name suggests, it magically isolates the house from the outside world. During the war, the Death Eaters used this ward along with Anti-Apparition and Anti-Portkey wards whenever they attacked a magical home. It not only cut off Floo connections and any other means of communication the victims may have had but also shielded their use of heavy Dark Arts from Ministry sensors. It is a simple ward that anyone with enough power can cast but devastatingly effective when used properly. Of course, the power needed increases with increase in area. That is the easy part. The difficult part is to ensure that noone else learns of my little addition. There are wards to inform the caster when someone tries to tamper with the wards. So, I tied it with the blood wards and merged them in such a way that it will be as if they have always been part of the whole. Did I satisfy your curiousity?", she replied amusement coloring her tone at the last part.

She idly noted that he was overwhelmed by all the information she gave him. She gave him some time to assimilate the information but felt disappointed when he nodded. It seemed he knew nothing about the wards that have been protecting him since his childhood. She had a lot of work to do.

"So, what do you know about the Charm of Brotherhood?", she asked.

"Nothing. I haven't heard anything like that before.", he replied.

"It is a charm cast between two people. It is typically a trust building exercise. It is purely intent based charm. There are no wand movements or incantations or use of any external foci. It is old magic. After the charm is cast, the people involved are considered brothers by magic or in our case siblings. I don't know whether it is good enough to actually alter inheritance and family trees. So, to even offer one is a show of great faith.", she replied.

"You do know that it is the charm of Brotherhood, right?"

"I know. Nothing in my research indicates the charm having any gender component. I believe it is because it was mostly done by men as women in those days didn't have the authority to make such important decisions. I have heard mentions of there being a charm of Sisterhood for women but I don't know how true it is. In olden days, the very notion of a woman rising high enough to be on equal basis with a man was considered laughable. While the non-magical world have moved on, our status quo is still the same.", she replied.

While what she said was important, he found what was left unsaid interesting.

"So, the charm is your way of sticking it to the traditionalists."

"Yes, it is.", she admitted, "Even in the Matriachal Houses like Greengrass where everyone knows that women have all the power, they have to resort to send their husbands to do the public negotiations and dealing including Wizengamot politics because the old snobs in the society find it emasculating to see a woman take a prominent role. In high society, appearances are everything.", she said bitterly.

He understood her sentiment. After all, growing up under the control of these creatures he had for relatives and spending rest of time where the society is taking turns glorifing and villifying him had made him a cynic. He understood what it was like to feel contempt for the society and ashamed to be part of it. After knowing Hermione for years, he had a knack for knowing when a female was going into the revolutionary mode. He knew that if he didn't change the subject subtly into safer waters, he would hear many descriptions of the male species that cannot repeated in polite company.

"So, what does the charm do?", he asked.

Okay, maybe subtlety was overrated.

She had a devilish smirk on her face that seemed to be saying that she knew what he was doing and she found his pathetic attempts amusing.

"Once the charm is activated, it acts as a lie detector and tells us when the other person is lying. If the bond is strong enough, it can even recognise any atempts at hiding information. Unlike Unbreakable Vow, you don't need a third person to be your bonder nor is it magically binding. You should also know that this charm completely bypasses the Occlumency shields.", she replied.

He felt embarrassed at being reminded of his lack of Occlumency skills but shook it off. He knew that whatever decision he would take that day, he would be responsible for the consequences. It was his decision to run off to the Ministry that cost Sirius his life. Now he could do a Malfoy by crying and whining about how life is unfair or he could grow some balls and own up to his mistakes.

On one hand, it would be hard to keep secrets from her but on the other hand, he was poor at secret keeping anyway. If he had chosen not to go with it, he would be caught unawares if she suddenly decided that he was more of a liability than an asset. The only downside he could see was that he didn't know if the charm had any side effects that would give her an advantage over him. After some thinking, he decided to take a leap of faith and do it. He had some questions to ask of her. He preffered to know whether she was lying or not rather than wonder about it.

"What do I have to do?"

"I will make a small cut on both of our palms. Then we will shake hands in such a way that our wounds coincide and focus on our intention."

"Do we really have to make a cut on our hands?", he asked nervously.

Ever since the Graveyard incident, he had been wary of anything that required blood. Umbridge added to those fears with her bloodquill.

"The original version didn't require blood. But those involved had enough proficiency in wandless magic to push the required amount of magic through their hands. If I am wrong and you have enough control over your magic, we will do the original version.", she replied.

"Wait! You can do wandless magic", he asked surprised and slightly skeptical.

He instinctively raised his hand to cover his face. He waited for a moment and lowered it after realizing that there was no immediate danger. He was shocked at the sight in front of him. There was a wand floating in front of him and Artemis was standing with her hand stretched towards it. Suddenly, the wand flew back into her hands.

"No need to look so impressed. It is something any ordinary wizard can do with enough practice. In the olden days, the wands were merely learning tools to get children acquainted with magic. After their education was over, they only use their wands in fights where they need to cast quickly and accurately. Then again, wands of those days were crude and primitive.", she replied.

He noted that, in spite of her words, she was quite happy to see him impressed by her. He then remembered something he had not thought about in years. At the end of his first year, Quirell had bound him in ropes with a snap of his fingers. From what he knew, Quirell was at best, an above average wizard. It seems that she was right.

"Alright, let us do it now before I lose my courage.", he said extending his palm towards her.

He resisted the urge to take back his hand when she touched her wand to his palm. He gritted his teeth when she made the cut. She made a similar cut on her palm and took his hand. At first, he thought that the charm didn't work. Then, he saw their hands glowing. The glow soon spread and engulfed them. After a moment, the glow faded away and they seperated. He could already feel the change. He felt as if a great burden he did not know he was carrying had been removed. He was feeling oddly calm and content.

"Is it just me or did we form an emotional bond?", he asked.

"Yes, we did. Or should I say we reforged the bond?"

"What do you mean?"

"We are twins, duh! Don't tell me you haven't figured it out yet. While telepathic connections are rare between twins, majority of them have varying levels of emotional bond", she replied.

He could feel that she was telling the truth but also was hiding something. The charm seemed to be quite useful after all.

"Why did noone else tell me that I have a sister? Everyone told me that Dursleys were the only relatives I had.", he said bitterly.

"That is because noone else knew, silly. I am neither naive nor foolish. I know that if anyone else knew, they would try to manipulate me. Actually, I didn't know either. Granny Agathe, the woman who brought me up, told me everything she knew a few months before her death which was not much more than that I was born in London and that my parents were magical. Naturally, I came to London to find out more. For some one like me who lived her whole life in a country side in Greece, London was like a completely different planet. I spent a lot of time sight seeing. After that, I went to the British National Library to find out more. They have a magical section only we will we able to see. It turned out easier than I expected as the librarian mistook me for Lily Evans. A visit to the National Archives told me all I needed to know. You were still in school at that time. So, I didn't fell the need to walk in there and publicly announce my identity. So, I returned home. I didn't think I would come back to England so soon but after Granny passed away, I had nothing tying me there. So, I took our counterpart of OWLS and came here.", she replied.

"Didn't you have any friends in Greece?"

"You have to understand that Granny was not much of a social person. We lived in the country side in a house which everyone else thought was haunted. She had no living family left. She took me in because she wanted someone to pass her legacy to, someone who would remember her fondly even after her death. We were each other's lifelines. I was homeschooled. While I was advanced for my year group due to it, there were not many social opportunities for me."

He knew from their emotional bond that she was more upset than she had let on. He suddenly felt guilty for suspecting her. True, he did lose his godfather but he never knew the man well. To be honest, death was actually a reprieve for him. His life was one of pain and suffering but he had friends who cared for him and many people who, while not as good as his parents, took on the role of parental figures for him. She is all alone in the world. She left her home country and came here for the only link she had left : him. She might have sensed his guilt through their bond. The next thing he knew she had put a hand on his shoulder.

"You should not feel guilty for excercising caution. The most dangerous enemy is the one we do not know about. While some people will try to outright kill you, there will be people who seek to use you for their agenda, swindle you of everything you own and dump you after your use is over. You would have to be careful of every word you speak and think many times before agreeing to anything.", she said.

"What is the plan?", he asked.

"First step is to get you out of house and into your new home. The next step is to get you emancipated. After that sham of a trial, you will be considered an adult in all your future dealings with the law. There is an old law that a minor who undergoes a trial in front of the entire Wizengamot will be considered legally an adult from the moment the trial begins. It was to ensure that those who commit serious crimes do not go scot free due to their age. On that note, we might as well go to Gringotts and see the state of our accounts. Over the summer, you will be taught everything you need to know to act as an effective head of the House. But, that is more of a long term project.", she replied.

"Wow! You seemed to have planned everything as if you knew that I was going to accept that offer."

"What can I say? I like to be thorough. I don't jump into trouble with my eyes closed and hope for luck to save my life. I am more of a skill and hard work kind of girl. Everything is planned.", she said with a smug expression on her face.

He laughed. He couldn't help it. He knew she meant it as a barb against him but her expression was too funny. He knew that she found it amusing too.

"It is time for us to leave. Let us go upstairs and pack your stuff.", she said.

He stiffened. He knew this was the first of the many occasions where he would regret having the twin bond. He knew his sister could feel his embarrassment just as he could feel her amusement.

"Is there a problem?", she asked.

"Well, you see, my room is in disarray. It hasn't been cleaned in a while. I would rather you not see it.", he replied.

"I would have let you do it on your own but who knows how many tracking charms and monitoring charms are there on your stuff."

She started climbing the steps forcing him to follow. He felt a sudden spike of anger from her side and knew that she saw the multiple locks and cat flap on his door. The anger faded as quickly as it arrived. Other than a slightly scrunching of her nose, there was no physical indication of her disapproval. She checked each item for unwanted enchantments.

"Why don't you the charm you used downstairs. Wouldn't it save a lot of time.", he asked.

"Revelos magicus reveals the magic on an object. Doing it in a room used by muggles where magical items are not supposed to exist is very effective and saves time. Doing it in a room used by a wizard who owns heavily enchanted items like broomstick and snitch, it is a waste of time and magic.", she replied.

He was sure that she had other reasons. He knew that she was doing it to extend his humiliation as much as she could and enjoy it properly. He was not going to say anything of course. Having a sister was well worth all he humiliation that came with it. As if sensing his thought patterns, she turned her head towards him and gave him a dazzling smile which seemed to increase her beauty ten times. He had a feeling that he would have to play the protective older brother role many times in the coming days. He was now starting to understand why Ron was so stressed when it came to Ginny.

"Is this the room that you stayed in your entire life?"

Harry sighed. He preffered forgetting about it but she deserved his honesty.

"I only got this room after Hagrid came with the Hogwarts letter and threatened them. Till then, I was living in the cupboard under the stairs.", he said.

He felt a bigger spike of anger as he expected but he used the opportunity to study her reactions. For a moment, she shed her cheerful outer skin to reveal the darker undertones within. Her stajce screamed danger and her eyes became like frozen emeralds. The moment was over and she returned to her former self.

After she finished checking the clothe items, she went over to the cage and the bird within. He noted with amusement that Hedwig was eyeing his sister as if judging how much of a challenge she will be.

"Don't worry about Hedwig. She is a very intelligent owl but also quite vain and possessive. She was the only girl in my life for some time. Then Hermione came and she had to earn Hedwig's approval. I am sure she will adjust to your presence in no time.", he said.

She gave him an 'I know something you don't' smile and said, "Harry, she is even more intelligent than you realize. She can sense our twin bond and know that I am no danger to you. She is studying my familiar actually."

"You have a familiar?", he asked surprised.

Usually it took years of companion ship for a pet to become a familiar.

"Oh yes, an Egyptian asp or I guess it is now called Egyptian cobra. The magical societies tend to use older terms. He is sleeping now. He hasn't adjusted well to the English weather. Poor thing. I am sure he will be alright in time", she replied lifting the sleeve slightly to show a greyish brown head of the sleeping reptile.

"Artemis, that is an Egyptian asp", he stammered, "isn't it one of the most venomous snakes in the world?"

"Don't talk about him like that. He is perfectly harmless, well, to us. To the enemies, not so harmless."

The sheer adoration in her voice surprised him. He vowed to himself that he would keep her as far away as possible from Hagrid. If both of them got together, the school won't remain standing for long. It suddenly occured to him that the snake was the only souvenir she had of her happy past. He resolved to never complain about it as long as it never hurt anyone.

"Why don't you bring her out? As soon as we clear her, we can leave."

He held out his arm. The owl understood and flew over to him. She spent a minute admiring her which Hedwig seemed to love if her puffed up chest was any indication. Artemis then ran a series of tests none of which he understood. Atlast, she lowered her wand and sighed.

"There were residues of multiple tracking charms and redirection charms on her. The charms seemed to be recent, about few months old. I say residue because none of the charms seemed to stick for long. Either she has unusually high magic resistance for a post owl or there exists some level of familiar bond which reduces the effect of foreign magics. That is a mystery I would like to solve. Anyway, what are you planning to do with the cage?"

Seeing his confusion, she explained, "Hedwig is obviously smart enough to understand what you are saying and is obedient to you. So, the only purpose the cage serves is to sate your relatives' desire to keep you both miserable. Considering that this is the last you are going to see of them, it is pointless. It also serves as a dead weight for you to carry around and make a fool out of yourself."

Hedwig gave a bark in agreement with her.

"When you say it like that, it seems a waste. You are right though. It has never been used outside this house. I think I will keep it here.", he replied.

Hedwig flew upto her and gave her ear a nip as if approving of her and returned to her owner.

"Well, I will leave and let you get ready.", she said and left.

She went downstairs to check on the Dursleys. They were still asleep. With a wave of her wand, she woke Petunia.

"Now, I want you to listen to me very carefully because I am only going to say it once. You are one of the most despicable creatures that I have had the displeasure to meet. I will not bother comparing you to any animal because I don't want to insult it for being unfortunate enough to share some similarities with you. The cruelty you commited against an innocent child to delude yourself of your own superiority makes me feel disgusted at the fact that you are related to me by blood. You do not deserve a prison sentence. You deserve to burn in the deepest pits of hell. I, acting as Head of House Evans, disown you and your son from the family on the account of betrayal of kin and forbid you from owning or passing on anything that belongs to House Evans."

She inwardly congratulated herself for silencing her as at the next moment Petunia arched her back and opened her mouth as if to scream but no sound came out. After 15 years of anchoring the blood wards, it must be quite painful to have it pulled out. She knew that even if Petunia lives, it will be as a mindless husk. Blood wards can be quite ruthless in punishing those it considers its enemies. She gritted her teeth as the felt the pain of needles poking her every inch of skin. She knew that if the wards found her wanting, she would follow Petunia. The pain ended and she felt the slight drainage of her magic. The anchor transfer was successfully completed. She knew that Petunia would no longer be a problem but she petrified her to be sure. She let out the gas from the gas line and returned to the living room. She woke the other two and petrified them. They seemed confused but she didn't feel the need to inform them of their predicament. She was not going to go off into a long villain speech and risk being in danger zone when the gas eventually explodes. Right at time, she saw him walking downstairs struggling with the luggage. He seemed to have understood he meaning of her look as the next thing he did was tap the trunk and make it light weight. They went outside and waited a minute for the wards to surround them. Then, they disapparated away.