WHEREVER SHE GOES
"You're doing it wrong."
Jaime rolled his eyes, looked at his sister and roughly handed the wand to her. "You do it, then, since you're so bloody smart."
But he had no more gotten the words out of his mouth, when Cersei pointed the wand at the large flower pot. "Bombarda!"
They were using their father's wand, so the spell wasn't powerful enough to cause the object to explode with the force that it should have; but the flower pot cracked in half, spilling soil onto the manicured lawn. She turned back to her brother, a smug look on her face.
Jaime felt stupid for having challenged her; when it came to things being blown up, set on fire or otherwise destroyed, his sister excelled at the task. "You're a bitch sometimes, do you know that, Cerse?"
She did nothing but stare at him, her smug smile slightly transforming into one of knowing; maybe sometimes, Jaime didn't mind when she bossed him around or was such a know-it-all. The smile on her face dropped away, replaced with a look of seething hatred; he didn't have to turn to see who was coming towards them.
"Hello, Jaime!" Tyrion was out of breath when he reached them having run all the way from the house.
"What ho, little brother." Jaime ruffled Tyrion's hair.
"What do you want, you useless little squib?" Cersei glared at him.
Tyrion stuck his tongue out at her. "I wasn't talking to you."
Jaime didn't let it show, but he was glad when Tyrion stuck up for himself and didn't let either his father's or his sister's cruelty bother him. Though he knew that it hurt his brother more than he let show.
"Can we play now?"
Jaime looked over at his sister and then back to Tyrion. "Not right now, but later."
"I thought you weren't allowed to practice magic when you're not at school." He looked from one sibling to the other.
"Father lets us because he doesn't want stupid children at Hogwarts, which is why he doesn't want you, because you're stupid."
"Cersei..." Jaime gave her a small, disapproving shake of his head.
"Jaime will work at the Ministry and you'll stay home and get fat having lots of children. That's what happens to women, father says so."
Jaime could feel his sister's temper begin to rise and her hand tightened around the wand, turning her knuckles white. "Don't." He was terrified that she would cross the one line that their father had set down when it came to tormenting the youngest Lannister.
Cersei closed her eyes, centering herself and then turned on her heels and stalked off towards the house.
"You know how much that winds her up." Jaime admonished his brother.
A sly smile sat on Tyrion Lannister's mouth. "That's why I said it." The smile slipped off his face as he regarded Jaime. "Don't you like me?" His voice was tiny and full of worry.
"I love you; you're my brother."
"Then why don't you want to play with me anymore? You're always in Cersei's room, or she's in your room. What are you doing in there?"
"Things you wouldn't understand."
"You can teach me." He looked up hopefully at his big brother.
"Cersei's friends are coming over later, once father gets back from the city. When she's playing with them, we can go to your room and you can keep reading Hogwart's, A History to me, alright?"
"Alright." The smile was back on Tyrion's face.
"Race you back to the house?"
"You'll have to tie the laces on your boots, first."
Jaime knew full well that his laces weren't undone, but he looked down as Tyrion, fast as his seven-year-old legs could carry him, took off back to the house. Jaime ran after him, letting his brother easily win. Inside, he found Cersei in the kitchen watching the knife cut slices of bread from the loaf. The bowls of stew, still steaming, sat on the table. The cutting board floated over to the kitchen table and carefully dumped the bread onto a plate. While they were waiting for their lunch to be ready, Jaime went over to the calendar and flipped through until he found July.
He and Cersei had had their birthdays in November, their Hogwart's letters were sitting on their respective desks in their bedrooms, but they had chosen the twelfth of July to go to Diagon Alley to buy their supplies. As a reminder, Jaime had enchanted the calendar, so that when the month of July was visible, owls, books and wands swirled around the little box marked the twelfth.
Once all the food and drink was on the table, the pumpkin juice having just found its way over from the ice box, the pair tucked in. There was a long silence and Jaime finally cleared his throat. "Maybe father will change his mind."
"About what?"
"About letting you work at the Ministry of Magic."
"That's the least of our concerns right now."
Jaime dipped his bread in his bowl. "Such as?"
An arched eyebrow was her only response to the question.
"They only separate boys and girls for sleeping. Not every spare minute of our time will be filled with activities and school. We'll have time to amuse ourselves as we see fit." He grinned at his sister.
"And there's the Sorting Hat."
"Why are you bringing all this up now?"
"Don't you care?"
"Don't be thick, of course I care, but it's like I've already said, what's there to worry about the Sorting Hat? Do you really think that in the thousand year history of Hogwarts, you and I are the only brother and sister who've done things? Or that we're the first ones whose father has let them do magic? The Sorting Hat cares about sorting you into your house and that's it. The rest of it is about pretending...pretending to be normal nearly twelve-year-olds who like to do normal twelve-year-old activities. But isn't that what we do here? Pretend? Don't we Lannisters enjoy a good challenge?"
"I was under the impression that all of our wealth, status and privilege were meant to make life less difficult for us Lannisters."
"Well, I'm up for the challenge; it'll be fun." Jaime put a spoonful of stew in his mouth.
"I can think of better ways to have fun."
"Strangely enough, so can I."
Lunch was done, the dishes had found their way into the sink for washing, and Jaime and Cersei stood in the kitchen staring out the window of the back door. Tyrion had taken a stick and was waving it madly about, tapping things, obviously pretending that he was doing great feats of magic.
Jaime smiled, but only briefly; he felt bad for his brother. Surround by powerful Lannister witches and wizards, Tyrion was a squib and thus could do only wrong in his father's eyes. And then there was Cersei. Jaime looked over at her. A smile sat on her mouth as well, but it was cold, meant to mock Tyrion's futile attempts.
"You know, you should try being nicer to him." Jaime looked back outside.
"He killed our mother while coming into this world; his existence is a blight on our family. Why do you think I should be nicer to him?"
"He's smart, and one day he'll be smart enough to just maybe figure out what we're doing when we're in each other's room."
"He's not smart enough to figure out anything."
"Contrary to popular belief, Cersei Lannister, you don't know everything." He turned to look at her.
"I know you." She gave him an awkward smile as a blush rose up her cheeks.
Jaime shifted in his spot. Before, she had blond hair and green eyes, like he did. Now, her long blond hair seemed to tumble over her shoulders and her eyes made him think of emeralds; she was so pretty. He suddenly felt his face grow hot.
"If you want to kiss me, you have to catch me." She laughed and took off running out of the kitchen.
Jaime turned his back on his brother and ran after her.
...oOo...
The twelfth of July came with much excitement in the Lannister household as the twins spent the day in Diagon Alley buying everything they would need for their first year. Especially anticipated were wands, yew with dragon heartstring core for Cersei, and chesnut with unicorn tail hair core for Jaime. They had both insisted on owls as their pets and after dessert at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, the pair returned home where Tyrion enjoyed waving around his brother's new wand.
On September first, Tywin took Jaime and Cersei to King's Cross Station and watched as they boarded the train. He had not accompanied his children to Diagon Alley and the pride he was now feeling had less to do with his children's accomplishment, and more to do with the fact that all was progressing normally in Tywin Lannister's world.
On the train, Jaime and Cersei sat in a compartment together, their luggage and owls safely stowed away. They had bought up most of the sweets from the trolley and they became the centre of attention as other students, curious to see the son and daughter of one of the most powerful pureblood wizarding families, found excuses to pay them a visit.
It was dark when the train finally came to a stop and little by little, all the students disembarked onto the platform.
"What is that?"
Jaime turned to see what attracted his sister's attention, but it was another boy, older than either he or Cersei, who answered her.
"That's Hagrid; he's the Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts.
"He's a giant. They let giants work at Hogwarts?"
Her fear and anxiety quickly spread, as gasps and mutters went through the group of students who were, more likely than not, Muggle borns who until recently had thought that things like dragons, giants and magic were the stuff of imagination.
The unknown boy gave Cersei a disapproving look for creating a fuss among the younger children. "He's not a giant and he's perfectly safe. Maybe, in the future, you should try keeping your comments to yourself." He headed off to find the students from his own year.
"Firs' years with me, please, firs' years over here." Hagrid held up a latern and the children flocked to him.
With some uncertainty, Cersei did as she was instructed and Jaime followed. They made their way along a narrow pathway until they came upon a lake. There were oohs and aahs, again, mostly from Muggle borns as they caught sight of Hogwarts nestled into the mountain on the other side of the lake.
"Only four to a boat, if you please."
Cersei, Jaime and two students whom they didn't know got in one of the boat. One of the unknown pair issued a shriek of surprise as the boats moved off of their own accord towards the school.
The boats eventually stopped at an underground dock and once all the students and Hagrid had gotten out, they made their way to a door. Hagrid knocked three times and the door was opened by a rather tall and stern looking witch.
"Here they are, all ready to be sorted, Professor McGonagall."
"Thank-you, Hagrid. Follow me, please." She held aloft a lantern and turned and the students followed her to wherever she was leading them.
Jaime knew where they were headed. At his father's insistence, he had read, with some difficulty, Hogwarts, A History and then had had Tyrion read it to him so he mostly paid attention to the conversations going on around him.
"Don't they have electricity at Hogwarts?"
"What's eeltrickcity?" asked a boy from somewhere among the group.
"Don't you know anything?" answered another girl. "That's what Muggles uses inside their homes so they can make their food and wash their clothes."
"Is that true? Muggles use eels?"
The girl who had asked the question in the first place grunted with frustration. "I'll explain it to you later."
Professor McGonagall had brought them to a small area just outside the Great Hall; Jaime could hear noise from inside.
"The banquet will commence soon, but first, you must be sorted into your houses..."
Jaime knew all the houses and knew what would happen next; his concern right now was his sister.
She was a ball of tension and some students there would very quickly get to know that when Cersei Lannister had her eyes narrowed and her mouth tightly closed, it was better to steer clear.
Jaime wanted to comfort her, to tell her that it would all be fine, but he was afraid of saying or doing anything that looked suspicious so he silently kept an eye on her.
Professor McGonagall left them and it took only moments until she returned to lead them into the Great Hall. "Form an orderly queue please and this way."
Jaime knew what he would see, but he still found it impressive, thousands of candles floating above the tables as the ceiling appeared to open out to the night sky.
Professor McGongall brought out a stool and placed a hat on top of it.
"What happens now?" whispered one of the girls, and then her mouth hung open as the hat appeared to shudder and it began to sing a song.
You may have received your letters,
As simple as can be,
But you will advance no further
'Til sorted first by me...
That hat continued with its song and Jaime could feel his sister's worry and he thought that she was going to start screaming for the hat to hurry up and finish, which it eventually did to much applause.
"When you hear your name, please come forward, put on the hat and sit down on the stool." McGonagall looked down at a large roll of parchment and then looked at the crowd of first years. "Abbott, Elizabeth."
The young girl took her time getting up to the front and then she slowly picked up the hat and sat down on the stool. She put the hat on her head and it took only seconds for the hat to proclaim her house.
"RAVENCLAW!"
A roar went up from Jaime's right as Elizabeth Abbott, a smile on her face, took a place at the Ravenclaw table.
"Abbott, Simon."
And so Professor McGonagall went through the list and each student went up to get sorted.
"The hat reads your mind?" squeaked one boy who had been watching quietly from the back of the group.
Another boy, who had more knowledge of what the Sorting Hat could do, grinned at him. "Don't worry. The hat's not interested in whatever coin you nicked from your mam's purse."
"Lannister, Cersei."
Jaime watched as his sister, her head held high, strode up to the stool to take her turn getting sorted. The hat had barely touched her head when it made its decision.
"SLYTHERIN!"
Fists being pounded on the table welcomed the newest member to Slytherin House.
"Lannister, Jaime."
Jaime made his way up to the front. Girls from all four tables whispered and giggled as they watched him pick up the hat, take a seat on the stool and then place the hat on his head.
He had expected the hat to bellow Slytherin throughout the Great Hall; what he received instead was a quiet voice in his ear.
"Interesting, very interesting, yes, yes, I see."
Every hope that he had given to Cersei that things would go smoothly seemed to drift up towards the ceiling of the Great Hall and disappear. They would be taken away to the Headmaster's Office and chastized for their inappropriate behaviour. Then, the school would contact the Ministry of Magic and let Tywin Lannister know that not only had his children engaged in unseemly acts, but that he had broken the rules against letting his underage children do magic.
"Another Lannister...I could put you in Slytherin, you have the Lannister ambition, but...I see courage, yes, great courage and the courageous and the brave belong in Gryffindor."
Jaime sat in stunned silence for a moment. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"
"Gryffindor, my young Lannister."
The hat was covering his eyes, so he couldn't look over at the Slytherin table, but he was pretty sure he didn't have to. She'd be sitting there, half mad with worry about why the sorting was taking so long.
His father would be furious. As far back as anyone could remember, the Lannisters were sorted into Slytherin. Of course, who knew what happened before the hat made its pronouncement. Perhaps he wasn't the first Lannister to be sitting here while the Sorting Hat attempted to put him into another house.
Jaime cared neither about his father, nor about breaking a nearly six hundred year tradition of Lannisters belonging to Slytherin. There was no way that he would be kept apart from his sister. He had told her it would be fun, a challenge for them to find ways to be together. Now, he was terrified that they would be separated from each other.
"I don't want to be in Gryffindor; I want to be in Slytherin."
"Are you sure? You could be among the bravest witches and wizards that Hogwarts has produced."
"I want to be with my sister. Please." Jaime could do nothing but be truthful.
"As you wish...SLYTHERIN!"
Jaime removed the hat and took his seat at the table next to Cersei, who looked at him like all the fuss had been his fault.
He received slaps on the back from the nearby boys and the girls either, with a blush, looked away, or gave him smiles as, eventually, everyone at the table welcomed two more students to Slytherin. Once the sorting was done, and Professor Dumbledore had said his piece, the empty plates and cups on the table were suddenly filled with food and drink and everyone began eating.
In the hurly burly of the post sorting, everyone at the table was eating, laughing and talking with each other, Jaime was able to look over at his sister.
In the light, her hair was spun gold and her green eyes sparkled. He knew that other girls did, and would, fancy him, but for Jaime, there would only ever be Cersei.
She looked at him: they had won and if they were smart about things while they were at school, no one would suspect that they were anything more than brother and sister.
There was so much about her he didn't understand: why she could be so mean and cruel one minute, and tender and awkward the next. This was all so new to the both of them and maybe, one day, things would make more sense. As he watched her sitting in the glow of thousand of candles, he knew that he would follow her anywhere, do anything for her; all she would have to do was ask. That was all that mattered and for right now, that was all he needed to know.