In the Depths

A/N - The twins are like Gred and Forge, where they speak together, finish each other's sentences, and pass sentences between themselves. So expect a lot of "The twins asked/spoke/shifted" as that means that they do things together, when they speak separately and/or pass sentences, the brackets will signify who's talking and their names will be next to the action, and unless ----REDACTED---- then they will ----REDACTED----.

Also if you see ^ next to an animal's name it will also have a number in parenthesis, like so - Snowy Owl^(4), the # means what chapter it was listed in and if only ^ is shown, it was listed earlier in the same chapter.

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It was the twins' 11th birthday, and as a result, they thought it would be a good idea to visit Diagon Alley to get the twins' their school items, because although they know enough, they still need their items, along with their own Gringotts Vault.

In the first year and a half the twins had learned a majority of the Hogwarts Curriculum using a spare wand, and as such moved to other things, such as experimenting with their body, where they realized that they are able to absorb other creatures along with their blood and hair, to gain some of their traits or completely learn their abilities. They figured it might happen after accidentally absorbing their pet Boa at the age of 8. After realizing this, the twins kept it secret from everyone but Adrian, who decided it would be best to let them absorb as many animals as possible in the second half of the second year.

They had their preferences though, John would only take in animals who wouldn't survive on their own, mainly cubs with no parents. Oriana on the other hand would take in any animal that she could defeat in unarmed combat, making her very strong, and she would mostly go after dangerous reptiles, with her most recent conquests being the Eastern Brown Snake in Australia and the Reticulated Python in the Southeastern regions of Asia.

During this time, the twins grew exponentially, allowing them to look more like 14-year-olds would than their classmates' 11-year-old frames. Another thing that allowed this growth was the many elective mundane classes they took in the last year. They took Music, learned basically all instruments, Dance, Mixed Martial Arts (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Jujutsu, Aikido), and multiple forms of cold weaponized combat (Bows, Swords, Whips, Staff, Shields), and older forms of combative weapons consisting of Warhammers, and Battleaxes. This not only surprised their family greatly, but made their instructors completely dumbfounded, as they never seen anyone with this much learning potential.

Little did those instructors know that it was because of their constant spars and fights with animals that gave them an obscene amount of instinctual reaction time and strength, but also the fact that the animals were still alive. See, they figured out when they absorb an animal, they can not only let it grow with them, but that the animal gains near human intelligence due to a humans' evolution potential fusing with theirs. Thanks to that they have at least 10, if not more 'people' talking to them.

However just like their 'spirits', as they call them, and any other animal know that they are only the strongest in their own way, and in their territory, the twins know that they are only strong in the mundane world, the wizarding world is still unexplored.

The twins also figured out how their eyes work. John has not only polycoria, but also a rare form of heterochromia. The polycorian eye is monochromatic, only seeing the world in shades of gray. The other eye has psuedopolycoria, where there are holes in his iris to reveal his pupil behind it, along with a CVI (Cerebral Visual Impairment), that doesn't allow the eye to see movement, making it seem like a stop motion video in color. His polycorian eye can see the future, and his psuedopolycorian eye can interpret along with make out some things from the future, he mainly uses it to find more music to play though.

Oriana has nothing but psuedopolycoria, where the holes in her eyes appear as slightly tinted or shaded dots, and hazel eyes, but is also an empath, and due to that her eyes will change to extremes, which includes the full spectrum of the rainbow.

They managed to get a 'united' form as well, it allows both their bodies to fuse, leaving only the second set of eyes as an indicator as to who's asleep(literally)/submissive (not controlling the body). They look much like the god Shiva from Hindu culture (Record of Ragnarok for reference to eyes).

Aside from all their discoveries and accomplishments, they still had yet to learn about the Wizarding Culture, hence their early trip to Diagon Alley. The twins were able to be in separate bodies, but still connected via holding hands, therefore looking like Hansel and Gretel. They had decided to take in their respective spirits and allow them to see the Alley themselves. John decided to let the Mackenzie Valley wolf, the Pitbull terrier, and the Black-footed Cat see through him. This made his ears shift up to the sides of his head and point out while fur grew around, making John look smaller like any glorified cat person with a big fluffy tail that was able to reach his feet and curl around them once. His skin darkened to a healthy olive color, with darker and lighter colored freckles on his skin

Oriana was allowed more leeway with her choices due to their reptilian similarities, so she let the Brown Snake^, Ret. Python^, Black Caiman, Komodo Dragon, and the Tree Crocodile look through her, leaving her with Mocha skin and patterns of white and yellow skin. Her tongue grew an inch or two, and split at the last inch. Her lower jaw widened and her cheekbones sharpened, her upper canines sharpened, thinned out and became hollow allowing her to use the venom glands now located behind her cheekbones. Her general aura of someone ready to attack put everyone on edge, yet, when they saw John beside her, they wondered how they managed to get along.

Adrian, who was behind them, marveled at the sight of pure-blooded wizards making way for two children who were nearly as pure as snow, yet act like they saw death themselves and make way for them. Oriana and John, however, didn't notice this, but they did see a majority of different shops. They saw one that had animals galore next to one that had only owls, along with a shop that had cauldrons and bags of herbs next to one that had multitudes of books and stationary.

Adrian and the twins stopped at a place called Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, with the twins looking at Adrian hopefully. Unfortunately for Adrian, they could pull off puppy and snake eyes, leaving him defenseless against them. He had one card up his sleeve though, "When we finish getting what you two need, you'll then be able to get whatever you want." When they made the eyes stronger, he said, "Your mother said to finish first. Then snacks." The twins' mouths puckered as if eating lemons, then nodded glumly.

"We need to go to Gringotts bank first, as there we'll be able to transfer the pounds your mom gave us into Galleons, and open up an account for you." Adrian stated as he started walking toward the White Building in the far distance. The twins sped up to catch up to his long strides.

They then looked at each other, nodded, unleashed the eyes, then spoke, "Uncle! Can you give us a ride?" Their uncle, unguarded and unsuspecting, turned around, and nearly regretted it. He sighed and nodded, silently cursing his inability to resist their eyes. The twins perked up and turned into their lamia form, letting their feet disappear into coils and their bodies fuse at the waist. Their clothes, having been enchanted for the occasion, let their jeans split the inseam and all four legs' seams seemed to magnetize to each other making a tubular skirt and shrinking in width yet lengthening to accommodate their size. They left their torsos and arms separated to allow them to sightsee and turn independently.

To everyone else's perspective, it seemed as if they shrunk and turned into a long snake. They were astounded, but ignored it, except for a raven-haired boy who saw the transformation through his glasses while on his way to another store, being led by a hulking, hairy figure. Adrian pulled out a bowler hat with a hole on the top, and put it on while letting the twins slither up his arm. The twins went head first into the hole on top, and the rest of their body followed until there was only the tip of their tail showed and their upper body then popped out.

Adrian felt their weight slowly disappear from his body until he saw their hands wave in front of his face. He thanked himself for the great idea of enchanting a hat with a runic undetectable expansion charm, and built a small room inside of it for the twins while he shrunk himself with a potion. He also mentally patted himself on the back for adding a few weight reduction runes, as carrying the total weight of two eleven-year-olds and the net weight of their spirits, was around half a ton! (Approx. 453.59 Kg)

He then started walking forward toward the building, while the twins marveled at the many sights around them. Adrian reached the bank and the twins noted the marble sign and short, stocky guards that were around the entrance. They read the sign out loud, in a low timbre that startled the guards.

"Enter stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the Sin of Greed.

For those who take, but do not earn

Must pay most dearly in their turn.

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there."

The guards pointed their spears at Adrian, who stopped, then noticed the two twins looking at them and tensed, then relaxed. They then continued inside to find a long hall, with tellers sitting at tall counters, some were closed with the goblins behind them counting coins, with others going through paperwork, signing and reading as they went. However most of them were dealing with other wizards and witches. Adrian walked toward a line that was labelled "Requests and Services".

There was no one else there, so Adrian stepped up and cleared his throat to draw the attention of the goblin. The Goblin looked over his spectacles, and asked mockingly, "What is it that Daggertooth may assist you with?"

Adrian responded with politeness and said, "I would like to open a joint vault and a bloodline test for these two." He finished the request with a motion to his head, where the Goblin looked to find two small heads looking out of the man's hat.

Daggertooths' eyes widened momentarily, because when he looked at the twins, he felt two separate auras, one being cold as winter, calculative as his manager, and dangerous like a dragon, while the other seemed to be warm as a sunbeam, protective like a mother, and as vibrant as a ruby in fire. He then gave them a response that was a full one-eighty turn from before, "I would gladly provide my services to these two." He then turned around, ignoring the surprise on Adrian's face, and called a goblin to him.

"Set up a bloodline test in Room A-13, I will be there to handle the account personally, and then I will call for Shatterfist to finish the test." He told the goblin in gobbledegook. He then Turned to face Adrian, and told him, "Follow my assistant, he will lead you to a room to set up your account and test."

Adrian followed the small being, finally stopping at a room which the assistant opened. Adrian walked in and the goblin said in clipped English, "Daggertooth will be here in a few minutes, please relax in the meanwhile." The goblin then left, and closed the door behind him, leaving the twins with questions as to what were these little men, and Adrian with questions as to their respect to his niece and nephew.

The twins examined the room around them after asking Adrian of the goblins for a few minutes, and noticed its luxurious vibrance, and the way it portrayed itself to cater to high society. The twins asked their uncle, breaking his train of thought, "Uncle Adrian," "[Do they usually act like this?]""{Because this doesn't feel right.}"

Adrian chuckled at their attentiveness, and responded confidently, "You're right, this isn't usually how the goblins work, if it wasn't for opening a new vault and the blood test, they would've helped us at the counter. Even then they would've put us in a simple meeting room, not this."

"That is correct." Daggertooth had walked in and heard the response to the question. "I was originally going to put you in one of our simpler offices, but your children's magic is like that of any of us magical creatures, strong and unyielding."

"You must be mistaken, they're not my children, but my niece and nephew, although I treat them as such." Adrian chuckled. The twins had frowned at the goblin's comment, and nodded when Adrian finished.

The twins asked about the end of the comment, "What do you mean 'our magic is like that of a magical creatures?"

"This is why I and the rest of the goblin race hold the wizards in contempt, because we have our own stories of how old wizards who could part the clouds with a few words, cause global flooding during a temper tantrum, and accidentally cause someone to die due to them farting, and yet you have dropped so far from that glory. The stories describe the magic as if it had its own emotions, and actively worked without the wizard even being conscious. Your magic is like that of those stories, and your demeanor changes the magical presence that others feel."

The twins registered this information, then asked, "[Will this cause problems]?""{Because what you said raised a few red flags}"

The goblin thought for a second, and mulled the question over in his head, before answering, "No, as long as you keep your emotions in check, weaker wizards will mostly have a certain gut feeling about how to interact with you, while strong wizards, will be able to decipher some of your surface emotions.

When you get emotional will be a real treat to see, however. I suspect that many wizards will feel your emotions and will subconsciously feel the same way, stronger wizards might react differently though, it'll depend on their personality."

Daggertooth clapped his hands together, snapping everyone else out of their thoughts. "You asked me to open a joint vault for these two, so let us get down to business." He then motioned for everyone to sit at the desk in one corner of the room and sat down on the other side.

"In order to open a vault, I'll need some of your blood." Daggertooth stated as the twins accommodated themselves in the hat as Adrian set it down on one of the chairs and sat down in the other.

"{Why would you need our blood?}"

"Because using your blood makes a key that as long as you hold it, won't ever let anyone get a hold on what you might have in there."

At this Oriana looked over at her uncle, who nodded in support of what the goblin said while John seemed to be thinking. They both seemed to come to a conclusion at the same time.

"{We can give you the blood.}""[But we need to drop off everyone in order to make it work, don't we?]" They spoke in turn.

After John finished, Oriana asked him, "{What do you mean?}"

"[Exactly what I said, everyone needs to get out for a little bit, because if we give blood it's everyone's, and until I figure out how to separate our blood, then we need to.]"

Daggertooth decided to jump in at this time, and said, "I do need just your blood, if not then both the key and the magic to make the key won't work as well as any changes in your blood will cause it to react differently."

Oriana sighed, "Fine, just give us a minute." They started to slither out of the hat, and to Daggertooths' surprise, seemed to not end for about 3 minutes. When they had their coils underneath them, they changed back and their clothes changed again. They had shifted to where their spinal columns had merged and they were back to back, with their arms and legs facing their respective directions. (i.e. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, The Siamese Witches)

Daggertooth watched with concealed surprise at the twins' actions. When he saw them start motioning in the air, as if soothing it, he was confused, but then he saw tendrils of flesh come off of the twins. The tendrils of flesh formed twelve different figures. Oriana had a python^, boa^(1), caiman^, snake^, and two lizards^ in front of her, while John had a Honduran white bat hanging off his arm, that was holding the cat^, with a wolf^, dog^, black bear, and Secretary Bird sitting in front of him.

Daggertooth watched in fascination as the animals leaned into their hands, John then spoke, "We need you to stay out for a while, so for now, get comfortable, but no messes, we are guests, understood?" All of the animals made their own sounds of agreement, and moved.

The bear laid down, with the wolf and dog lying down next to it, and the reptiles moved around the three of them in order to gain body heat. The bat flew up to the rafters and curled up to sleep, while the bird went on top of the bear and seemed to roost there. The cat purred, however and stayed in John's arms. The twins then walked(?) back to the desk and sat in a chair while shifting Oriana's head to John's left and fusing the arms and legs together.

Daggertooth was speechless at the level of intelligence and respect the animals showed to the twins. The twins, by the way, had shrunk a bit, looking more 12 than 14. He was still staring at the at the animals when Adrian cleared his throat, startling him, though he tried not to show it.

He composed himself, then said to the twins, "All I need is two drops of blood, one from each of you, if that is possible. After that I will explain the common intricacies that I am obliged to tell you and others I am inclined to offhandedly mention."

Oriana's eyes gleamed at the thought of learning a few trade secrets that would help them, while John nodded, wanting to learn new things in general.

Daggertooth handed them an ornately carved dagger, small enough to be a letter opener, and told them as he pulled out two bowls with different ingredients inside, "Just prick yourself somewhere where you can drop it in a bowl, I will handle the rest. Also, draw a little more blood, because you'll need it for the "

Oriana pulled out two empty test tubes from a pocket in her clothing, and handed one to John as he put the knife next to his cheek, and drew a small line from his cheekbone to his lip, and placed the tube to collect what blood dropped down, swiping it up in order to collect it all. Oriana did the same, and then both poured some of their respective tubes into the bowl in front of them. When they reached up to feel for the cut they noticed it was gone, healed over due to the enchantments on the knife.

Daggertooth smiled at their actions and grabbed the two bowls and ran his magic through them, causing the ingredients and blood to shine and mix. Two keys floated out of the bowl and into the air, leaving two steaming piles of black sludge in the bowls. Daggertooth put the bowls close to the table, and then dropped them onto the desktop, and snatched the Keys before they could fall back into the sludge.

He spoke while handing the two twins their respective keys, "These keys are linked to you, they will allow you access to your vault and whatever may lay within. Before we get to that though you need to deposit at least 500 galleons worth of items and/or currency."

Adrian pulled out a small, shrunken briefcase, which enlarged as it went onto the table. He opened the case and started pulling out stacks of pounds. By the end, Daggertooth counted that they were 50 pound bills in bundles of 100, with the stacks being 5 bundles tall, and had them in an area of 10 bundles by 10 bundles.

"That is 2.5 million pounds I presume?"

"Yes, it is." Adrian answered with jaded surprise.

(A/N: Aight' I don't know the conversion, so I'mma say like 1,000 pounds = 2,000 Galleons, bc everything in the wizarding world is pricy af. i.e. the Weasleys)

"That'll be 5 million galleons then. I will turn 100 into sickles and 100 of those sickels into knuts for change."

"Thank you." The twins were thankful for his consideration.

"Would you like a money bag? They are enchanted so that whoever you allow to draw money from them will be allowed to draw money. Items will have to be accessed through the bank however."

"Yes please, make it two, so in case we manage to lose one we have a spare." Oriana said, remembering how John forgets some things.

"That'll be 150 sickels. They will be deducted from your vault immediately."

Daggertooth handed two simple looking black drawstring bags to the twins. John put the cat down, who padded over to the bear and grabbed the bags. Daggertooth then said, "I believe our time is up." He stood up as he continued speaking, "I would, however, like to speak with you again if you do not mind."

The twins were taken aback at the request and all they could think, was, "Why?"

"Because unlike others, you see me as a person of equal standing. You do not show disdain for me, but an interest to learn," He nodded toward Oriana, who nodded back, "and an interest in what we are able to do and how we are." He bowed his head to John, who bowed his head for a second in respect.

"Now then. I shall leave you to Shatterfist, you have yet to take your test, and this meeting has gone far longer than what others would consider 'normal'. Good day to you, Concords." Daggertooth exited the room through a small door, leaving behind a good impression on the twins, and an utterly confused Adrian.

They were left ruminating in their thoughts when suddenly,

"NOW WHO! THE HELL! ASKED FOR A PUNISHMENT?"