Chapter 1
Medea
She rode a chariot pulled by snakes.
Cassandra curled up closer to her brother, tucking her freezing feet into the crook behind his knees.
"Cassie," her brother groaned, turning to face her, pulling her feet from his knees as he did so. His emerald eyes caught on her face, and he reached up to pull her red hair across her left eye.
"But, Harry, I'm cold," she whispered. Harry groaned, and hugged her.
"I know."
They had a few blessed seconds before Aunt Petunia knocked on the cupboard door, and they snuggled into each other, relishing the brief warmth that came with the contact. The moment was shattered by a harsh knocking on the door.
"Get up!" a shrill voice called. "It's Dudders' birthday, and you need to cook breakfast!" The two groaned softly. "What was that?"
"Nothing," they chorused, sitting up. The cupboard was an awkward space for two, and was mostly filled with a single mattress, two blankets and a pair of storage boxes containing clothes. Being in the better position to reach, Cassandra turned the light on, the single bulb blinking. They pulled out clothes, Harry's were hand-me-downs from Dudley, Cassandra's were from the op shop. Harry pulled a spider of his sock. Cassandra shuffled into a blue-grey dress with a white collar.
She glanced in the cracked and chipped mirror that Aunt Petunia had given them in a hopeless attempt to make them care about their appearance. She scrubbed pillow creases from her face and ran her fingers through her dark hair, arranging it over the face.
Cassandra closed her eyes. It was a bad habit, but she did it anyway. She pulled the hair back from her face and tied it back with a hairband. She opened her eyes, a hand over the left side of her face. The visible right side was a relatively normal, kind of pretty face - pale skin, red lips, a bright emerald eye and high cheekbones framed with the dark red of her hair. She let her hand fall, and her gaze roamed over the left side of her face.
The puckered reddish scar stretched from her hairline to the corner of her mouth, crossing over her left eye. Her eye … it lacked the emerald shade of her right - in fact, it was pure white. An expanse of a snowy shade stretched from the corners of her eye.
"Cassie?" Harry asked, one hand on the door. Cassie turned to him and smiled faintly. "You OK?"
"Yeah. I'm OK," she replied, brushing her hair back over her blind eye. She got up to join her twin, and they left the cupboard, heading to the kitchen.
-()-()-(-O-)-()-()-
The day was a disaster. Sort of. Mrs Figg broke her leg, so Harry and Cassandra wound up in the squished car, where, for some reason unknown to Cassandra, her brother stupidly mentioned a flying motorbike. Never mind that Cassandra had had the same dream, he just had to mention it and get their Uncle angry. They did get to share a knickerbocker glory when Dudley threw a tantrum, but the really bad part was when they went into the reptile house. Cassandra liked the reptile house. It was cool, and dark, and damp, and she could hide in the shadows without anyone enquiring after her eye. She turned to a largish black mamba in a tank and watched its serpentine movements - the way it coiled around a tree branch, how the muscles moved as it moved its head to look at her. It tilted its black head to look at her with slit pupiled eyes.
"-Hello-" she whispered to the snake, and she could have sworn the snake smiled. Behind her, Harry looked at a python.
"-Hello, ssspeaker. You are quite sssurprisssing.-" Cassandra raised an eyebrow.
"-How ssso? I ssspeak the tongue of sssnakesss, asss doesss my egg-brother. It'sss not a common gift, I sssuppossse.-" The snake gave a raspy sound, that sounded vaguely like laughter.
"-You underessstimate the rarity of the sssnake-ssspeakersss. You are different. Not bad, but sssurprisssing. I sssuggessst you keep your sssnaky tongue a sssecret - the gift isss not liked or admired among sssorcerersss and sorceresssssssssesss.-"
Cassandra pressed her lips together as the snake devolved into a long hiss at the last word.
"-Sssorcerersss and sssorceresssssssssesss, you sssay? Like me?-" The snake nodded.
"-Like you, ssspeaker-"
Then her cousin came crashing through, shoving her and Harry over as he turned to the python. The glass vanished, and as punishment, Harry and Cassandra spent a week in their cupboard.
Curled into her brothers side, fingers running gently though his hair, Cassandra nursed several bruises on her ribs. Harry cuddled into her bony frame as he drifted off, blood oozing from a cut on his lip. Cassandra ran her hands over their various injuries, letting power flow through them, healing the cuts and bruises. No broken bones that time - though their bodies were a horror story of cracked, shattered and badly-healed bones. She coaxed skin to grow over recent lacerations, and soothed swelling and aches.
She closed her eyes and sent a silent prayer to anyone who listened that she and her brother would stay reasonably safe - no life-threatening injuries for at least a week.
-()-()-(-O-)-()-()-
As Harry slipped into sleep, he felt Cassandra run her slim hands over them, and he exhaled as she eased pains he hadn't been aware of before. There had been several nights when she hadn't been able to do that - those were the brightest scars.
Cassandra always looked out for him, he mused, thoughts unhindered. Even though she was younger, she was the older twin. She protected him, always and forever.
The strange powers they had caught his attention, and he turned his sleepy mind to the conundrum. With him, it showed in his temper, the explosions, blue hair, strange appearances. But for Cassandra, it was proved in her insatiable curiosity, stunning memory, healing hands and flares of protective anger. Of course, they both shared the tongue of snakes and the scars. He pulled her closer as she pulled up the blanket, curling into her as she did the same into him.
However the strangeness showed itself in them, they were siblings, and they could protect each other.
However different they were in temperament and appearance, they loved each other, and looked out for one another.
-()-()-(-O-)-()-()-
So I'm being stupid and starting another story, but I actually have a couple more chapters written, so there shouldn't be too much of a wait.