The Twins of Faith and the Water of the Elements

Vivienne's POV

(We don't own Harry Potter, sadly)

I woke up in my bedroom with my twin sister's arm hanging in front of my face. I always wondered why she got the top bunk. The cold air smelled like sweat and lavender because of the purple rug in our room. I tried to get up quietly withput Ridley noticing, but that didn't work.

"Hey Sis, why are you getting up? It's Saturday."

"We have to start the fire, Aunt Corella will screech her head of if the house isn't heated." I responded.

"Oh, yeah, that's right. Come on, let's go." Ridley said while bounding out the door. We ran down the stairs, entering the living room. I got the lighter from the kitchen and set fire to the ashen logs in the even more ashen Victorian fire place. Just as Ridley closed the screen, we heard thumps coming out of master bedroom (Or as Ridley and I called it, the Evil Lair.), and the smell of Rosemary Mint perfume visited our noses.

"Vivienne! Ridley! Did you start the fire?" Asked our devious Aunt Corella. "If you did, then start breakfest! Estelle and I are hungry!"

Sure enough, like a little ugly, bratty duck following Mother Duck (Or should I say Aunty Duck?) Estelle followed Aunt Corella down the stairs in her soft pink, velvety robe.

"Chop Chop!" Estelle clapped with a smirk on her face. If she was any other person, I would grind her to bits, but since Estelle was Aunt Corella"s little angel, we had to act like her servants. Ridley and I rushed into the Kitchen to make eggs sunny side up, bacon, fresh squeezed orange juice, and a whole other bunch of bad smelling fancy food.

After breakfast was served, we each grabbed a piece of toast and ran upstairs to get dressed. I pulled out my "Death to Barbie" Tee shirt (PJO Reference!), my gray and red yoga pants, my black belt, my choker, my good old white socks, and last but not least. my combat boots. Ridley was dressed in her regular dark blue skinny jeans, her tie dye tee shirt, black converses, and her black curly hair was pulled up into a pony tail. It looked more like a big puffy explosion of black in the back of her head to me, but that didn't really matter.

"You didn't do anything with your hair?" Ridley asked, looking at me like I was crazy. "It's snarled all over the place, and tangled. Plus, your green highlight is tucked behind your ear."

"One, Ridley, it's all tangled because you, and your invading hand messed with my hair all night. Two, it's behind my ear because I haven't done anything with it yet."

Okay. Total lie. But I could't come up with anything better. But Ridley had a look on her face that said; Can I do your hair?

And the answer was no, or at least, that was my answer. But Ridley pushed me into our small bathroom, got out her hair brush, and started brushing my hair. Then, she made a crown braid in my hair, my green highlight sneaking through my midnight black braid.

You see, our parents died in a car crash, and the only things Ridley and I have are a couple of items of clothing and each other to remember them by. Our mother had our violet eyes and green and blue streak, and our father had the black hair. Ridley and I never cry about it though, we're stronger than that. After all, our child-abuser aunt has made us grow a layer of toughness, or so it seems. Ridley was talking away about school next fall, and how we're not going to see our old friends because Devil Corella doesn't want us to be late and ruin her reputation. I however, was peering out the glass window, and saw an owl swooping down towards the baby blue mailbox outside on our yard. After it slide the letter into the box, I could see it turn, and wink at me. An owl winked at me. Stunned, I told Ridley,

"Hey, we should probably go get the mail. I mean, old witch Corella wouldn't like it if she had to go out in her curlers, would she?"

"Yeah, probably." Ridley agreed. "But I don't want to go out yet. I'm sort of still waking up."

I laughed. "You're still not awake after you talking the mouth off of your face?"

"Shut up!" Ridley teased, playfully slapping my arm. "Just can you go out there? I'm really scarred by our neighbors across the street. Who has naked barbecues?"

"I see your point, wimp. I guess i'll go out by myself." And with a little smile on my face, triumphantly winning this battle, I walked down to the front door. The cool summer breeze rushed to my face like I was an old friend in Paris. I didn't tell Ridley this, but I was glad to go get the mail alone, after what I had seen. I just had needed some time to… think.

A rustling noise came from the hedges on the left. I looked over, but nothing was there. I couldn't even see a shadow behind the strange hedges. Looking around for any speakers or stereos, I quickly ran down the driveway to get the mail. The letter on top stunned me. I felt honored, and kind of special. Here's what the envelope said;

Miss Vivienne and Ridley Faith

225 North Pine Boulevard

Glen Falls, Delaware, 19901

I picked up the other letters in a hurried frenzy, ran to my house, and slammed the door. I threw the rest of the letters on the dining room table, yelled, "Take your mail, suckers!" and jumped into my room.

"Ridley!" I almost screamed with joy. "We got mail!"

"Mail? Seriously Vivienne? Your trying to fool me about getting mail? To the rest of the world, we're just two citizens of Delaware that nobody knows about."

"Well some woman named Headmistress McGonagal clearly knows about us."

"How did you come up with that name?" Ridley laughed. "That's most ridiculous one I've heard in a while, and I should know, I was scared about the Wool Pooh when I was seven for two years."

"First of all, Ridley, you said we were telling monster stories on our birthday, tough girl. And second, Ridley Avalon Faith, why would I have this envelope, not in my handwriting, addressed to us?" I stated, waving the envelope in front of her face.

Ridley's mouth dropped open, I expect half from shock I used her full name, and half from that we had gotten a letter once in our entire lifetime.

"Open it!" Ridley shrieked in delight. "We have mail!"

I quickly sawed through the top, and pulled the letter out from the ivory green envelope. My hands trembled as I looked it, and I wondered what was inside. Were we being adopted? Was there more news on our parent's death? No, it couldn't be either one of those things, they would be addressed to Aunt Corella. The letter was in my hand. All I had to do was open it, a simple and joyous task. But something, something made me not want to open it. I knew that something would just… change.

"Vivienne, are you trying to get back at me? Open the stupid letter, I really, really want to see what's inside!" Ridley pleaded. Well, if I didn't want to start a huge war over a small letter, I had to open it. As I took the too sides and folded them apart, I heard THUMP THUMP up the stairs.

"That is no way to treat your Aunt and your sister, Vivienne! Estelle was crying because of the horrific things you said!" Aunt Corella screeched up the stairs, murmuring to Estelle, the little traitor, "Oh, honey, it's okay, she didn't mean it." I sighed in disgust. I had no right to call Estelle my sister; Ridley was my true sister.

Aunt Corella is our father's sister, and boy, she hated him. Those two were always causing trouble, and our father always started it, or at least Aunt Corella told us that. At first when are parents had children, it was just us twins, Ridley and I. We had inherited our mother's eyes and streak, and when we were little, we were inseparable. It was peaceful, back in Newport, Rhode Island. The waves, crashing against the shore, the sandy beaches. In fact, I bet Ridley and I would be better off living anywhere else than in crazy, scary, Delaware. It seemed our Aunt picked the worst place to live, among crazy people who did all kinds of crazy things. But back to my topic. Anyway, when we were driving to Maine to visit Great Grandmother Marissa, our parents got in an accident, and the force and pressure killed them. But I saw a red light, and Ridley did too. We knew we weren't normal. We just weren't. Estelle was born a couple of years before the trip, and she hated us. Our parents didn't have such a huge house, so Estelle had to stay in our room. She messed up our stuff, screamed at night, and did everything she could to torture us. Estelle was two years old, and barely even liked her regular life, hardly knew our parents. Ridley and I have a theory that Aunt Corella picked her to be her angel because she was so young, that she could twist her mind into believing her evil lies.

So you could understand when I quickly jumped up and locked our bedroom door.

As soon as I looked at it, my mouth dropped open. The letter said, in fancy handwriting;

To Miss Vivienne and Ridley Faith,

We are delighted to find out about your your magical heritage; you two lucky girls are witches that have the ability to cast spells and learn magic. Your term at Hogwarts School For Wizards and Witches starts September first of this current year. I will have an assistant take you to Diagon Alley to get your school supplies. Don't be alarmed, there will be other girls like you. But I warn you, do not go outside school grounds once you get to Hogwarts; there are creatures to deadly and devastation to massive.

Best of Luck,

Headmistress McGonagal

Ridley and I slowly breathed in, and breathed out. We looked at each other, thinking about the same thing; we KNEW we weren't normal.