AND THEY WERE WIZARDS. (Oh my god they were wizards)

Is that the best you got, you dumb forest???

Remus had to say he enjoyed his days at school far more than those at home, in the manor lying on the outskirts of Upper Flagley, where the entire Bond family lived. The house, while quite large enough to comfortably fit its twelve residents, was also a rather chaotic place to live when all of them were wizards. And Remus was proud to say he was the main cause of it being so.

Whoever had initially decided that Remus should share a room with his twin, Roman, was to be forever resented. It couldn't be plainer throughout their lives that the two were polar opposites, and annoyed each other half to death because of it. The one thing it could be said they had in common was that both of them were profoundly creative. But while Roman could be found in the living room reciting stories of his own invention or else singing his heart out, Remus found pleasure in experimenting with the very fabrics of logic. Finding ever more of his own joints and seeing which directions they might bend, getting into cupboards and cabinets and seeing how different magical cleaning chemicals reacted when blended together, or else making up his own stories or drawings of a much cruder nature. Nobody in the family said it, but Remus knew his own form of creativity was far less enjoyed or appreciated than his brother's. It had always been so.

This might not have been such an issue if not for the fact that they were forcibly connected. As most neighborhoods do, the village of Upper Flagley contained a population of children who all knew each other, and who spent their summer days around each other. The problem was, anyone who was Roman's friend was also Remus's by default, as the two were to stay together if they left the house. But it seemed even the other kids were only really friends with Roman, and put up with Remus since he had to be there.

The only other young person in the house besides their newborn cousin, Emmie, was their older cousin, Joan, who was seventeen and hung around with an older group of friends. But when they were home, Joan seemed the only person who actually liked Remus. It was strange to have a cousin that felt more like a sibling than your own twin, but that was the way it was.

At Hogwarts however, things were different. There was no 'Roman and Remus,' only Remus. It was remarkable how much easier it was to make a name for yourself and thus find real friends when you were not constantly compared with your exact opposite. Virgil, of course, was one such friend. He also hung around Patton, who'd grown to tolerate, if not like, Remus. And then there was his best mate, which was ironic, as he didn't even know his real name.

Dee and Remus had been writing to each other over the summer after their first year. Reading the letters that their brown owl, Vixon delivered through the bedroom window under the covers in the top bunk by flashlight, Remus always laughed at the way each letter was signed formally with the name Deceit, as that was technically his official fake name. Now they were back at school for their second year, back where Remus was himself and only himself, and back where Dee was forever his partner in crime.

The days were getting colder, wetter and shorter as they always did in October, and the two were spending another Friday night out on the grounds while the sun went down.

"Okay, now you do one." Dee was saying. They were in the middle of a game they often played, where they would watch passers by or mundane surroundings, and make them interesting by any means possible. Dee had just finished undoing a Gryffindor seventh year's shoelaces by magic and re-tying their shoes together. They both roared with laughter as their victim was sent stumbling over their feet for five meters before face planting into the wet leaves.

Remus looked around them. They sat on a bench right by the castle walls with a fine view of the greenhouses, the lake, and the sun setting over the vast, dark forest. It had recently rained. A few students were heading back to the castle from the greenhouses, and... Remus grinned. A little grey rabbit was sniffing around in the grass, right in the path of the approaching students; a few Slytherin fifth years.