the love you left behind - h.p

castle on the hill

Alora was always the shyer twin. Blaise was the one who would break vases and scream swear words at the top of his lungs when he lost a quidditch match against Draco and Theo. She would sit in the corner reading her books, whist Daphne and Pansy would talk about the newest fashion trends, or what colour they decided to paint their nails that week. She was close with Daphne's sister - Astoria - as she also liked the silence. At home however, she was much more rambunctious and chaotic. Especially on the first day of school.

"Shit!!" was the first thing she said when she realised that she was running late, "MUM, BLAISE HURRY UP WE'RE GONNA MISS THE TRAIN"

"LORI SHUT UP WE LITERALLY HAVE TWO HOURS" her brother replied in a manner which suggested that this was usual occurrence in the Zabini household.

When they both ran down the stairs a while later, their mother laughed at them.

"You two are so silly. Calm down, we have an hour and a half until we need to be there and we can just use floo powd-"

"OH YES FLOO POWDER I COMPLETELY FORGOT!!"

"HOW COULD YOU FORGET THAT YOU DUMB ARSE YOU'RE LITERALLY A WIZARD"

"OH I DIDN'T FORGET THAT YOU PRICK I JUST FORGOT IN THE RUSH OKAY?!"

"NO YOU DIDN'T, YOU FORGOT YOU WERE A WIZARD!"

"NO I DIDN'T"

"YES YOU DID!!"

Softly chuckling Aphrodite Zabini walked away from the bickering pair. She couldn't believe that it was already their very first day of school. She could still remember how her first day was, meeting the twins' father on the train-

Her heart stopped at the thought of him. She desperately hoped that her children would never have to go through something so painful, so heartbreaking, so gut-wrenching, as losing the one person they loved during a war. She had isolated herself and her children from society for the last decade or so - only allowing close family friends to come over and have play dates with her children. Now, she was finally going to show her face in public for the first time in 10 years. She knew the press would be waiting, but she couldn't not show her children off for their very first day of school. That would give them the entirely wrong idea and would make them think that she was an absent mother, who didn't care about her children.

She hadn't changed at all in the last 10 years. She still had the same face - with, astonishingly, even less wrinkles in it than before. She had the same alluring eyes, which would draw anyone in - even Severus Snape had had a crush on her at one point. Although, he wouldn't admit it, especially not to Lily.

Aphrodite sighed. She could feel a melancholic aura settle around her, as it always did when she thought of her deceased other half. She would have thought that it would pass with time, but being isolated in the Highlands of England had not helped her one bit.

"MUUUUMMMMMMM, LORI STOLE MY WANDDDDD" she heard Blaise whine, as the aura that she had felt was disrupted. Sighing, she looked away from the window and went to find the twins.

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Alora was very excited. So much so that her and her brother had a major fight about which house was better. She had wanted to be in Gryffindor, like her father was, whereas her brother wanted to be in Slytherin. But when she stole his wand, and he got their mother involved, it was ultimately decided that it didn't matter what house they were sorted in, as long as they were together.

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"So you just.. run.. straight at it?" Alora asked her mother, rather sceptical of the whole thing. She didn't understand how you could just run at a wall and get onto a whole separate train - she knew magic existed and she had even used it before, but this just seemed a bit far. All this worry was forgotten, however, when a boy with black hair ran straight through the wall, followed by a whole family of redheads. Alora giggled. She thought this was a rather funny sight - like an aubergine being chased by a bunch of carrots. With all her bravery and might she pushed her trolley through the wall, waiting for the impact.