Hiya!
New fic then.
This one is a collaboration with my good friend Tielle Sommers. We will write every other chapter: I will write chapters from Lysander's POV, and she will write chapters from Lorcan's POV.
Rated K plus, but this may come to change (depending on Tielle's use of colourful words...).
Please do drop off a review and tell us what you think!
M. Sunshine
The crash echoed nicely throughout the Scamanders' house. Sighing deeply, Lysander put his book down on his bed, stretched his arms and left his room to see what the entire ruckus was about. Heading along the softly carpeted hall, he trotted down the stairs, searching for whoever had made the loud noise.
"Shit." He heard someone exclaim, and rolled his eyes as he realised it was his twin brother, Lorcan. Well, there's a surprise, he thought with slight amusement. Obviously, the noise had come from the basement, where he was obviously doing something completely ridiculous. Lysander was used to his brother's idiotic antics, but the things he thought of doing often made him laugh out loud. Snickering, he pulled the door open and walked down the steady wooden staircase into the small room in the cellar. Lorcan was standing, bent over something, muttering under his breath. Lysander couldn't see what it was, and frowned.
"Lorc, what the hell are you doing?" His voice startled Lorcan, who jumped up and turned around, loosing his balance in the process, and neatly toppling over, landing with a thud on the dark floor.
"Bloody hell, Lys, give a man some warning." He growled, accepting his brother's hand and standing up.
"What are you up to?" he asked, ignoring Lorcan's remark. His face brightened considerably at his brother's interest (even though it was feigned), and motioned to the object standing behind him. It looked like a black, plastic box, with a number of dials and buttons on it.
"Erm… What is that?"
"It's an ampliflyer!" he said excitedly. "Muggles use it to plug these electic guitars into so they get way louder." Lysander looked sceptical.
"And you plan on using it?"
"Hell yeah!" He turned back to the strange contraption and began twiddling the dials again.
"But what was that crash?"
"Ah… Well, see, I was lifting it down the stairs and sort of dropped it. I think it's all right. It's heavier than it looks!" he added in defence as Lysander smirked at him.
"Whatever, Lorc. How did you get it by the way?"
"Found it in dad's storage room. He has tons of junk in there, but I can't think why he'd have on of these." As he spoke, he walked over to a large box and pulled out a dark red electric guitar. "Cool, eh?"
"Sure…" he agreed uncertainly. Lorcan pulled out a cord and plugged it into the amplifier (with some difficulty, as he tried pressing it into the speaker at first).
"Let's see…" He switched the thing on, and it made a loud peeping noise. And then…
KRRRAAAAANG! He'd pulled his fingers quickly across all the guitar's strings and the brawl it let out was almost unbearable. Lysander clutched his ears as he waited for Lorcan to turn it off. To his horror, he didn't, but instead grinned widely and started playing some fast rock-song.
"FOR THE LOVE OF MERLIN, TURN IT OFF!" Lysander yelled at the top of his voice. Lorcan played a few more notes, smirking smugly before he held the strings and switched the amplifier off. After such noise, both their ears were ringing, and Lysander blinked several times.
"If you, ever, turn that on again, I swear I'll turn you into a grasshopper." He threatened, before stomping upstairs. When reaching the hall, he realised his parents, Luna and Rolf, had both returned from Diagon Alley."
"What was that peculiar noise?" his mum enquired in a floating voice as she walked into the kitchen. Lysander followed.
"That was Lorcan, once again making a complete fool of himself." He answered good-naturedly.
"I see." She replied, tucking some herbs into a cupboard. "What is he up to this time then?" Lys rolled his eyes as his father entered the room.
"He found this… ampliflyer, I think it was called, and was-"
"He found what?" Rolf asked, looking gobsmacked.
"An ampliflyer. It's this thing that amplifies the sound from an electic guitar…"
"I know exactly what it is." He said, rubbing his forehead. "He got it from my store room, didn't he?"
"Naturally." Lysander replied with a small shrug. "Er, if you don't mind I was sort of reading and…" Luna smiled.
"Go on and continue then, love."
"Thanks mum." He grimaced and ram up the stairs, back into his room.
"I bet you have."
"Haven't."
"Have."
"Have not!"
"Come on, Lorc, you always forget something." Lysander said indignantly. They were sitting on the edge of the grass in front of the house, waiting to for their parents to come out and Apparate them to Kings Cross to finally get back to school. They would both be starting their fifth year, and neither of them could wait. For different reasons though: Lysander thought it would be interesting to study more advanced types of magic, and to sit his OWLs. Lorcan, however, merely wanted to get back to playing Quidditch and having girls run after him.
Lorcan huffed.
"At least I don't have mum help me pack." Lysander's cheeks turned the faintest pink.
"I just wanted to make sure I got everything." He said in a low voice. Lorc ruffled his hair.
"It's all right, little brother." This time, Lysander huffed.
"I'm ten times as mature as you."
"Oh yeah?"
"Easily." He confirmed, lying back on the soft grass and staring up at the house. It had been in his father's family for around three hundred years, and when his grandparents had got too old to keep it, they'd given it to Rolf Scamander. It was built with sandy coloured stone in odd shapes, and the front door was large and in dark, well-kept wood. It had two floors (not counting the cellar and attic), and contained five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, a study, a small library and a number of storage spaces. There were plenty of high and wide windows, as the Scamanders had been magizoologists for centuries, and enjoyed watching the forest and wildlife around them. It was altogether a very pretty building, and Lysander felt he really enjoyed the structure and architecture of it. Lorcan, of course, couldn't care less. He only complained he couldn't have a bigger room.
"Come on, Lys, they're here." He sat up and saw his parents exiting the house, Rolf locking the door with a sharp flourish of his wand.
"Come on, boys." He called and they both followed them towards the gates. The entire property was protected by the same kind of enchantment that protected Hogwarts: no one could Apparate in or out of the grounds. It wasn't just for safety: None of them wanted unwanted guests to Apparate straight into their house.
Once outside the gates, they stopped, and Lysander held his mother's arm lightly, his brother mirroring him but holding onto their dad. They both turned and they were all sucked away. Lysander had never liked Apparition, but he was intrigued by the fact that they could move so far in such little time. Suddenly, he could breathe again and they were standing behind a row of post boxes outside the station. Grabbing their trunks, Lys and Lorc walked quickly away from the small space and into the actual train station. They heard Rolf and Luna stroll behind them, but didn't exactly fancy walking with them. Soon enough they were in between platforms nine and ten, looking appreciatively at the brick wall between the two platforms.
"Pretty ingenious, this is." Lysander remarked. Lorc just rolled his eyes, and pulled his brother with him through to platform 9¾. The Hogwarts Express was gleaming and steaming, and students were chattering loudly as they boarded the handsome train. Lorcan didn't cast Lysander another look, but hurried forward to say hello to some of his mates. Lysander snorted, and waited for his parents to come through. They soon did, and he walked together with them towards the large crowd of witches and wizards. Lys soon spotted two of the boys he shared a dorm with: Benjamin "Ben" Ackerman and Eric Watson.
"Well, I'm going to head over to Ben and Eric." He said, hinting to his parents to leave. He was normally rather discrete; as he didn't want to hurt his mother's feelings (he nearly blushed thinking about it, but it was just the way it was).
"You do that. Have a nice term, and we'll see you at Christmas." Luna said cheerily, giving her son a small hug. "I take it Lorcan has disappeared?" Lys merely rolled his eyes in reply. "Well, we'll send him a letter."
"Sure. Bye dad." He waved to his father and then made his way towards his now waiting friends.
"Hey Lys!" Eric greeted, slapping his friend on the back.
"Hi Eric. Have a good summer?"
"Awesome. Went to visit my uncle in Wales. He has this huge house, honestly, I got lost more than once. The second time, I swear I saw a waterfall indoors…" Ben snorted.
"Sure you did."
"I swear!"
"Whatever." Lys sniggered.
"So, where's Lorc then?"
"I s'pose he's gone to find Louis." Lysander answered as they got on the train and started the search of an empty compartment. Louis Weasley was the fifth and final boy of the Ravenclaw fifth year dorm.
"Erm… Lys?" They had just entered an empty compartment, and Lys had sat down near the window immediately. "Well… You got the badge, right?"
"Yeah, s-… Shit!" He jumped up, yelling as he exited:
"Save me some Ice mice!" before hurrying to the prefect's carriage. He was the last person to enter, but no one seemed to notice: he made it in time, anyway. The Head Boy was a bossy looking boy from Gryffindor, called David Weeks, and he was currently standing by the window, his hands behind his back.
"Everyone here? Good." The Head Girl, Charlotte Wilson from Slytherin, came forward and stood with him. "Welcome to all new prefects, and welcome back to the rest of you. As you probably know, we have to patrol the corridors throughout the trip, and I will divide you into groups, each group responsible for a number of carriages."
"If anything were to happen, you have the authority to hand out detentions. Should you misuse this power, it will be immediately removed." Charlotte filled in, gazing at the other prefects. Lysander thought they were both a bit full of themselves, the way they were speaking, but all the same respected them for taking their job seriously.
"Scamander, you'll patrol carriages six to ten together with Haines." Timothy Haines was a fifth year Hufflepuff. Lysander didn't know him well, which was probably good. The two boys didn't wait for the others to get their numbers, but left the carriage and made their way down to carriage six while the train sped along.
"So…" Timothy said.
"Yup." Lys answered. An awkward reply, but he felt as cool as ever.
"Who else got the badge in Ravenclaw then?" he asked as they strolled along the corridor.
"Miranda Parker." He replied. Miranda was probably the bitchiest girl in Ravenclaw. Her blonde hair as fake as the curls Rita Skeeter had once sported, and her smile as feigned as the laughter that accompanied it.
"She nice?" Lysander was starting to get annoyed. He'd hoped he'd be able to do this job in some kind of silence, and Haines' questions were irritating him to no end.
"All right, I suppose." He replied curtly, sternly ordering two first years to stop jabbing their wands into a poor cat's furry back.
"You single then?"
"Listen, mate, no offence, but I don't fancy answering any more questions." He snapped. Timothy opened his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it again and let the silence remain. Thank Merlin.
They kept patrolling for the next three hours before they were let off by the next couple of prefects. Lysander told Timothy a short "later", and then rushed off to find his friends. It didn't take him long to locate them: the laughter echoing from their compartment was loud enough to scare the younger students who passed. As he was about to open the door, a jet of red light hit the door and rebounded. It then hit the window, and rebounded again, making the light bounce back and forth. Lysander groaned. They really were remarkably stupid to all the Ravenclaws. When the light left the door, he yanked it open, flicked out his wand and said:
"Finite." The light popped and disappeared. He tucked his wand away again. "You really are complete morons. You'd better watch it, or I'll dock points."
"Sure you will, from your own house." Lorc scoffed.
"Ah, well, maybe not." He replied, grinning widely as he settled in and joined his friends all catching up. Feels good to be going back.
