Ascendio - Book 1

Chapter 3 - Chandler

I stared out into space for a moment, not wanting to meet my sister's gaze.

My twin's gaze.

We were twins. We were the same person, in different forms. Sure, our personalities differed, but... but she was me, and I was her. We couldn't be in different houses. And I especially couldn't be in Slytherin. Not so soon after the Wizarding War. Not when society was looking distrustfully at that house. Not when a Death Eater had killed my best friend. Not when my sister was re-watching that same moment, of that skull-masked man murdering her in front of us...

To banish the thought, I swiveled my head away from the green-decked table and accidentally met my sister's eyes. They were filled with disbelief, mistrust, fear... and heartbreak. I couldn't take it. I couldn't. So I snapped.

It sounds simple. S-N-A-P-P-E-D. Six letter word. 'To break or cause to break suddenly or completely.' I felt like I had been split in half, my emotions and words spilling out the front. My heart was raw, exposed, ready to break 'suddenly or completely'. I wanted to hit something. To cry. It was unfair. It wasn't right. The hat had made a mistake. Hurt-hurt-hurt-hurthurthurthurthurthurt...

I leaped from the stool, hitting the ground running. The wind flung off that dirty old cap, but I could still hear it murmuring in my head. I shook all over, barely managing to open the door enough to slip out. My ears were roaring, so I couldn't hear anything, but I had seen the faces of Slytherin house as I had ran. Pity. Hate. Not hate for me, but for themselves.

They had once been a great house, a respectable house. Voldemort came and messed it all up. Now they were outcasts, never able to fit in just because they were cunning and took the side with the most opportunities. Because of something they couldn't control.

I had shunned them because of something they couldn't control. I had ran away from them in fear and disgust. I was just as bad now, just as guilty. I hadn't wanted to be in the underdog house, hadn't wanted to be the laughingstock of Hogwarts or part of the outcast group. I didn't want to be seen more for my mistakes than my triumphs. I didn't want to be the one suspected when something bad happened.

My steps slowed, and I found myself in an unrecognizable hallway, far away from the Great Hall. The roaring in my ears had mostly subsided, and but I was still shaking. I slumped to the floor, scooting back until I was resting against the cold stone wall. I was heaving, my lungs gasping for air--I had no idea where I had run to, or how far, but I must've been gone for awhile.

Everything in my head was a wreck, my thoughts all muddled together in one stewed mess. All I could see was the heartbreak echoing in my twin's eyes--her one green, one blue eye. As if she had some Slytherin in her too, but she had locked it away, and I, with both green, had let it loose unintentionally.

But was it unintentionally?

I had always been the cunning one. The cynical one. And in my personal view of myself, the twisted one. The twin that had never fit in. The twin that pocketed things with ease when we walked through Dollar Tree. The twin that let it all go, let it wreck havoc with a little smile.

And I hated that about myself.

I could hear footsteps in the hallway, but I had pushed myself into an alclove of sorts, so it was harder for them--Slytherin prefects, I think--to find me. They had just gone down the hallway, their wands flickering with Lumos charms, when a tiny voice chirped beside me. "Are you going to be okay?"

I jumped, slapping a hand over my mouth to keep from yelping. "W-Who're you?" I whispered, lowering my hand.

A little laugh, like bells, and then Joyce stepped closer to me from where she had been kneeling in the shadows. I hadn't seen her run after me. "It's me," she said, reaching out as if to take my hand, but she stopped just short of me. I turned my head away--I didn't want anyone to see me like this. But she scooted over next to me.