The Padfoot Twins

2: The Dawlish Family

Chapter 2.

Chloe's Pov

August 22nd, 1993

"NOAH!" I roared, bounding down the stairs. With a furious demeanour, I stormed into the living room. "What is THIS?" I glared, gesturing to my once very beautiful Red quaffle.

As soon as Noah laid eyes on it, he cringed. "Well you see-" he started to explain, "wait. You can't just assume it was me!"

I rolled my eyes along with Brianne who was playing exploding snap with mum and Noah. "Oh please. Now an explanation?" I sighed, staring down at my quaffle, covered in scratches and an unpleasant shade of brown mud.

"Well, 2 weeks ago, you see. The one when we were down at the Weasley's. While you and Herman-" I rolled my eyes again, at the nickname he's given my best friend, "-were upstairs probably reading or something baloney like that and the twins, Ron, Charlie, Bill and I thought it would be a good pass time to play Quidditch and-" I held up my hand and groaned.

"Say no more. Next time, you owe me a new one!"

"Noah if you want any money left, you should really stop ruining Chloe's things. They're expensive, you know," Dad commented, sauntering into the room with a bowl of Liquorice Wands.

"Ah, I don't worry too much John. My dear twin is always forgiving," Noah smirked, brushing his long, black, curly mess of hair out of his eyes.

That's the difference between Brianne, Noah and I. Us girls prefer to call them 'mum' and 'dad' because, well, they are. But Noah, being the rebel and smart-alec of the family, he calls them John and Maria. There's also the fact that we're adopted, but that doesn't really bother any of us. When Noah and I were 4 and Brianne 3, John and Maria Dawlish took us into their home as their children. My father is an Auror, and mum works a local shop in our town, Godric's Hollow. Often in the summers there I like to help her out at work, even if I did just turn 13. As I recall, my mother said that responsible, young ladies and men who know salt from sugar may work in her shop. 'So pretty much everyone but Noah' Brianne said, only 8 years old.

Noah didn't find that very amusing.

It was a week and a half ago when the Weasley's took off to Egypt. They were all very enthused about it and the twins had told me about their genius plan about locking Percy in one of the pyramids. I thought it was personally brilliant, having a bit of pranking love flowing in my veins.

"Mum, Dad!" A loud voice came from upstairs. All of us were in the family room except for Amber, our 15-year-old sister.

I couldn't imagine what our parents had to go through in the first year of having us. 4 kids in a 4 year age span, man we must have been wild.

"Guess what! Guess what! I just received a letter saying that I'm going to be a Prefect starting this September!" She squealed. Brianne and I exchanged looks, and I could tell she was thinking the same thing as I. 'Oh, goodie'. You see, unlike the rest of us, Amber is blood-related to our parents and let me tell you, she is obsessed with perfection. Some may think she's like Percy Weasley, but Percy is way worse. Amber is tolerable, where Percy, not so much

"Congratulations sweetheart! We're so proud of you!" My mother exclaimed as she and father gave her a big hug.

"Yes, we are so proud dearest Amber, well done, great accomplishment! You'll go far in life and I know it!" Noah agreed almost too cheerfully that you could tell he was being sarcastic.

"Oh shove off, Noah," Amber said, whacking him lightly on the shoulder, just a small smile lingering on her lips.

"I tease people and they get mad. I compliment people and they get mad. What do I have to do to please people around here!?" He asked, throwing his hands up in the air.

Mum rolled her eyes.

"Just don't talk, you'll find that people would be a lot happier!" I suggested smartly.

"Hey!" Noah pouted, then marched out of the living room to his bedroom. We all laughed at his disappearing figure and Amber continued to show mum and dad her letter sent from Professor McGonagall, our Transfiguration Professor and Deputy Headmistress at Hogwarts.

Brianne got up gesturing me to follow her into the kitchen. She offered me the bowl of exploding bonbons that dad put together. Besides being an Auror, he was also an excellent baker that always had some type of treat lying around. I was thankful he put his talent into action almost every day.

"Look what I found in the paper this morning at breakfast," she said.

BLACK STILL AT LARGE

Sirius Black, possibly the most infamous prisoner ever to be held in Azkaban fortress, is still eluding capture, the Ministry of Magic confirmed today. 'We are doing all we can go recapture Black,' said the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, this morning, 'and we beg the magical community to remain calm.'

Fudge has been criticized by some members of the International Federation of Warlocks for informing the Muggle Prime Minister of this crisis.

'Well, really, I had to, don't you know,' said an irritable Fudge. 'Black is mad. He's a danger to anyone who crosses him, magic or Muggle. I have the Prime Minister's assurance that he will not breathe a word of Black's true identity to anyone and let's face it - who'd believe him if he did?' While Muggles have been told that the black is carrying a gun (a kind of metal wand which Muggles use to kill each other) the magical community lives in fear of the massacre like that of 12 years ago when Black murdered 13 people with a single curse.'

I exchanged looks with Brianne and sighed. "Just thank yourself that nobody knows we are his children. We have a different last name, plus we don't look like we did when we were babies. Anyways, he left before you were born. We have nothing to worry about! He won't find us." I reassure her fearful facade, patting her on the shoulder with affection.

She sighed, "I suppose you're right. And anyway, this is my second year of Hogwarts and intend on making it a useful one. I'm not going to be a worry wart the whole year." She promised.

I laughed, "yeah, don't worry." I said, but as I looked into my birth fathers evil, hollow eyes, I wondered, will it be okay?

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What do you guys think?! I'm excited about this book :-)

Hugs and Butterfly Kisses,

Steph