| Rose |
Nobody noticed their abrupt arrival. The family emerged from the depths of the dark alley into the busy city life of London with not one second glance. Everyone was used the strange people here. The two younger girls pushed their trolleys behind their parents as they ducked into King's Cross station. People bustled around them, each rushing to catch their train or meet up with a loved one. Someone jostled Rose Taylor's side for the umpteenth time that day, and she found herself once again thinking how different things were from back home.
She was too busy peering at the throngs of never ending people that encircled her family to notice that her father had stopped ahead of her, and she almost ran him over with her cart. Grace Taylor's hand clamped firmly on Rose's arm to stop her from barreling into their dad. The former smirked at the latter, who rolled her eyes in response and muttered an "I would have had it."
Stuart Taylor looked back at his daughters and huffed a laugh. "Obviously it is too early for you two to be functioning, and I'd rather not be smooshed today. I'll grab us some caffeine and meet you guys at the platform." He turned towards the small coffee shop, then back around. "Want anything, darling?" he asked his wife.
Kara Taylor shook her head and placed a kiss on his cheek. "No thanks. But please hurry back, I don't want to be stuck too long with these two grumps."
"Hey!" The sisters yelled together and pouted at their parents. The family laughed before parting ways. The walk to platforms nine and ten was slow and silent. They kept having to swerve out of the way of hurrying crowds of people, and fighting for trolley space. The three were relieved, to say the least, when platforms nine and ten came into sight. But it was short lived.
"Um, where the hell is the platform?" Grace shrieked, stopping Rose in her tracks. They both scoured the place, but no platform nine and three-quarters could be seen. People bumped into the shocked group and hissed mean things in beautiful accents.
"Ok cool. Awesome. Great. Maybe this is all a trick. Maybe there is no Hogwarts. I mean, what kind of name is Hogwarts anyway?"
"Honey, the school is real, your father went there, remember?"
"Yes, yes, but –"
"Rose, it's ok. C'mon, let's go sit over there and wait for dad. He'll know what to do," Grace said, leading the other two to a wall not far from the platforms. Rose pulled her trolley to the side and fashioned herself a seat on her trunk, putting her head in her hands and running her fingers frantically through the strands of deep auburn hair.
Ten minutes or so passed in silence and there was no sign of their dad. "What if he doesn't come back in time and we miss the train? Or what if he comes back and he doesn't know the entrance? Or what if he doesn't come back at all because he got abducted by aliens and now we have no father? Or even –"
"Calm down Rose, your dad's fine. There's probably just a big line at the shop. If it'll make you feel better though, I'll go look for him." Rose nodded at her mum and slumped even farther into her hands. Kara kissed her daughters' heads before disappearing into a sea of people.
Grace plopped down beside her sister who seemed to be pulling out tufts of hair now. She grabbed Rose's hands in her own, noticing the chipped blue nail polish compared to her own sleek black
"It's ok, we still have at least ten years before the train leaves, we'll figure it out before then ok? Don't worry, or you're going to go bald much sooner than anticipated. Your hairline is already receding." Rose looked up from her lap to scan the area around them. Nobody seemed to pay the two any attention, for which she was thankful. Everyone knew how much Rose hated attention.
"At least I can actually run my fingers through my hair. Yours would suffer in there forever," Rose teased, pulling her hands out of Grace's to tug on one of her curls. Grace was the only one who knew how to calm down Rose, no matter what the situation. The two could read each other perfectly and seemed to always know exactly what the other needed. Their friends seemed to think it was some kind of twin telepathy thing, but Rose and Grace just thought it was because they were each other's best friend.
They were twins, fraternal twins, though most people still couldn't tell the difference between the sisters in any case. Only in their subtleties could one tell them apart. Where Rose's face was narrower, Grace's was round. Rose was slightly taller, though they were both fairly short; however, what Grace lacked in inches, she made up for in hair. Her hair was a huge, curly mane, not unlike a lion's. It was a shade lighter than Rose's auburn, though both preferred to dye it dark brown. The only real difference between the two –if you don't count the hair –was their eyes.
Rose had eyes that seemed to change colour the more you looked. At first glance, they were an emerald green, piercing and wild. Upon closer inspection, the green unfolded into specks of sea blue, forest green and even a brilliant gold nearing the pupil. Depending on her mood, her eyes shifted in colour, from deep blue to vivid green. No one could deny they were beautiful.
Grace's however, seemed to have taken the colours of the forest and swirled them into an intense iris. The deep greens tangled up with the chocolate brown, cozy and dangerous, pulled in the onlooker. They were as captivating as they were intriguing, and no one would argue their splendour.
That was one of the only ways to tell the two apart; their eyes.
Rose continued tugging on Grace's ringlets, watching them boing back into perfection. The two sat in silence, observing their surroundings whilst waiting for their parents to come back. Time ticked by, and Rose became fidgety again. She had just opened her mouth to voice her concerns when a huge group of people walked by. They were mostly red-heads, but there was one lady with bright pink hair (which the twins looked at longingly, wishing they could pull off something like that) and a disfigured man with a weird-looking eye that stared at the two suspiciously.
Although, none of these people caught their attention. It was the two males leading the procession that made Rose do a double take.
"Holy shit, Rose, they're going top speed at the brick wall." Grace pointed towards two figures who were hunched over their own trolleys, racing towards the bricks between nine and ten.
Rose stared at them in horror. "What are they doing? They're not slowing down. Oh my god, they're going to die. What the fuck! Grace, what the fuck!"
Rose didn't know what to do. They were going much too quickly for her to stop them, she knew that, even as she stood up and reached out towards the pair. No one else seemed concerned for their safety, especially not the group of gingers who seemed to become rowdier the closer they got to the wall.
She covered her mouth in one hand, eyes fixated on the two who were surely about to crash. Even though she didn't want to watch it happen, she couldn't bring herself to look away. Grace was muttering swear words under her breath beside her, still sitting on the trunk.
It was going to happen. Any second now. She didn't want to see the bodies crumple, hear the smack, the screams –
And she didn't.
"What the fuck." Rose could hardly believe her eyes. The two were gone. They were just about to hit the wall when they disappeared. One second they were there, the next they weren't. It was almost like it was – magic.
Grace was still looking at the wall in disbelief when Rose pushed her off the trunk. "Hey! I was sitting there." She scrambled to her feet, glaring after her sister who had already forgotten the incident and was maneuvering the trolley towards the odd brick wall. Rose looked slightly demented in her determination to get there, a fact that was not lost on the rowdy group who quieted dramatically with her nearing presence.
Rose's mind was racing with possibilities, she hardly even noticed her approach or the quietness that ensued. Nine and three-quarters. Wall between nine and ten. Two boys disappearing. It's a freaking magic school! Of course there's going to be a magical kind of entrance. How could they be so stupid!
Everyone else was going about their day normally, paying no mind to the small girl stalking towards an unobtrusive wall and the group watching her apprehensively. Rose abandoned her trolley and took cautious steps towards the wall between platforms nine and ten. Her hand came up of its own accord, hovering in the space between her body and the bricks. Hesitantly, slowly, she reached out and prodded the barrier.
Rose's first thought was if anyone was watching her at the moment, they must think her completely crazy. Then, she herself thought she was losing it.
Her hand felt no resistance. It simply disappeared into the wall.
A muffled shriek escaped her lips as she recoiled her hand. She could hear laughter from the group behind her and made a conscious effort not to turn around. Not wanting to cause a scene, she took a couple calming breaths before tentatively sticking her entire arm through the wall and wiggling it around. She could not see it, but she could still feel the air rushing around it. This time Rose shouted in awe and delight. Yes, she'd been a witch for a while now and yes, she'd seen magic up close and personal, but it still managed to surprise her every time she was faced with it.
"What the devil do you think you're doing? Do you want the muggles to notice you with your arm in a wall? Constant vigilance! Either go through or step away."
Rose whipped around at the gruff voice, face red in embarrassment at both being called out and in fright at the stranger. Her wide eyes took in her audience. The group of red-heads were staring at her in amusement, but it was the distorted man from before that was right in front of her now. She opened her mouth for a retort or an apology –she hadn't quite figured out which one was best suited at the moment, but instead took in the appearance of the grisly man and hastily closed it.
Up close, he was much more frightening.
One of his eyes was normal, staring straight at her, while the bright blue of the fake one whizzed around its socket. His face was scarred and had chunks missing here and there. One of his legs was fake. The way he stood and carried himself oozed power and confidence. Overall, he appeared to either be some kind of badass pirate, or on the wrong end of some gang fights.
"I um, I – I didn't know, I uh, I didn't mean to, like, um," Rose stuttered over an explanation, not really getting anywhere. She frantically looked around for Grace or her mum or her dad or someone that seemed more willing to help than this weird man growing more impatient by the "um". She finally spotted Grace, who was of course, talking to a group of cute boys. Typical.
A hand grabbed Rose's arm, tightly, and alarm bells started ringing. The man was dragging her away from the wall, quite forcefully, toward the red-heads. She panicked and reacted instinctively. Grabbing a hold of the man's wrist with her right one, Rose wrenched it off her left arm and twisted it backwards along with the rest of his arm. She pushed her left hand on the bend of the man's elbow and he grunted in pain.
"Don't fucking touch me," Rose hissed at the man, applying more pressure on his bent arm. She knew she couldn't hold this much longer; the man was definitely much stronger than she and would get over his surprise any time now. "Grace!" Rose called as calmly as possible. "Could you try to stop flirting for five seconds and come over here please?"
Grace's eyes widened as she took in her sister's situation and hurried over, forgetting the boys completely. In the seconds it took for Grace to get to her side, one of older red-heads had sidled up as well. He looked to be about their dad's age, with horn-rimmed glasses. Perhaps the father of the clan.
Not that it really mattered to Rose at this minute. If the freaky guy was with these ginger people, then they were all the enemy. So she glared at him. She knew they were outnumbered by a lot, they were only two teenagers after all, but she figured being a girl in a public place with two strange men could help her out if need be. "Can I help you?" Rose snapped at the red-head, her voice harsh.
The man held up both his hands in the universal sign of surrender. "I mean you no harm, and neither did he," he said, nodding to the weirdo in Rose's hold. Funnily enough, he wasn't even struggling against Rose at all. "I'm sorry if he startled you, Alastor doesn't really know how to deal with people in a normal way. If you could let him go, we could talk about this rationally."
He seemed sincere. He also didn't seem like much of a threat, which eased Rose's protective instinct. She studied him thoroughly though, head to toe. Her eyes focused on the pocket of his jacket where there was an outline of a long, thin stick. A wand, she thought. So these people were magical, like her family. Rose made deliberate eye contact with each of people in the entourage, glaring at them in a way that clearly stated if they pulled anything, they'd be sorry, including the huge, black snarling dog she hadn't noticed before. Then she hastily let go of who she supposed was Alastor, pushed him roughly away from her and Grace, and took a small step back.
"Ok, now talk." The twins regarded the group coolly, arms crossed and scowls prominent. Alastor growled at the two, glowering intensely at Rose and rubbing his arm. Rose shot back a sarcastic smile.
"You were going to raise suspicions if you didn't get away from that damned wall. I was trying to help you," Alastor barked, still glaring.
Rose laughed. "Yes, because assaulting a teenage girl in a crowded place isn't suspicious at all. Maybe if you looked around, you'd see that your stunt attracted much more attention than I ever did."
She was right. The boys Grace was talking to were staring at the group in concern. A family of three kept glancing over to make sure the twins were okay. Onlookers left a wide berth between themselves and the group, but they all looked at the scene curiously.
"For Merlin's sake, these muggles don't know anything. Listen here, you shouldn't have been standing there for so long, or shrieking so loudly. There's a hidden entrance for a reason, and if you were there for any longer somebody else would have noticed."
"Well you shouldn't grab strangers tight enough to bruise and then expect them to be alright with that."
"I wasn't going to hurt you, I was –"
"How the hell was I supposed to know you weren't trying to hurt me? For all I know, you could have dragged me off to an alley somewhere where no one would hear me scream. You certainly look the part."
Alastor looked insulted, at the fact she thought he'd hurt her or because of the appearance comment, she didn't know. King's Cross Station was getting busier with each passing moment.
"Will you keep your voice down? You're drawing more attention than your number before."
" I honestly don't care. I've done nothing wrong. You're the one who came up to me, you're the one who yelled at me, you're the one that handled this situation completely wrong. Do not try to blame this on me. I'm the one with bruises on my wrist." Rose's eyes glinted dangerously. Who did this guy think he was, hurting her then not taking the blame?
Grace looked nervously between her sister and Alastor. She knew enough by now that when Rose's eyes did that, she had to put a stop to it as quickly as possible. She put a hand on her sister's shoulder, pulling her back. Her hand trembled, not because of her own nerves but because of how angry Rose was beneath it. Not a good sign.
"Rose, come on, we should go find our parents, and I left all of our stuff over there so anybody could steal it. Come on... Rose, please."
Rose wasn't listening. She was too busy thinking of ways to kill this man in a bloodless fashion.
"Girls, there you are!" The arrival of her parents brought Rose out of her stupor, and she finally looked away from Alastor. Grace let out a big sigh of relief. She hated having to deal with Rose when she got like this.
Their parents looked between the group of red-heads, Alastor and the other guy, and their daughters. "Seriously?" their mum looked to Rose. "When I left you were panicking and now you're fighting with an Auror? You couldn't have waited until you were with people your own age?"
"He started it," Rose mumbled. Which was true.
"Arthur, so good to see you again! Of course, I didn't expect to meet up quite like this but I guess it'll do."
The red-headed man with the glasses chuckled and shook their dad's hand. "Likewise Stuart. I'm guessing these beautiful young ladies are your daughters?"
What the hell. Did Dad know these people? Guilt tightened Rose's stomach. If they were friends of her dad, then she'd feel at least a little badly about what happened. Then again, she thought, looking at Alastor who was still glowering at her, maybe not.
Their dad came up behind the twins, passing them their teas and hugged them. "Yes, this is Rose and this is Grace. Like I told you at work, they're starting Hogwarts today." Rose forced a smile at her name and sipped her tea. "Rose here," he patted her shoulder, a little harder than necessary, making her tea slosh out of the cup, "was freaking out a little bit because she couldn't find the platform." The red-heads sniggered in the back. The twins glared at them.
"She found it all right," Alastor said.
Stuart looked at him a little weirdly. "Well that's good. How's it going Mad-Eye? You alright?" Grace and Rose shared a look before all the tension between them finally disappeared and they laughed so hard, they had to hold onto each other to keep from falling over. Everybody looked at them then, but they were too busy dying of laughter to notice.
"Ignore them, it happens all the time. I'm Kara by the way. You work at the ministry too, right?" She stuck out her hand to shake Arthurs.
As the adults started talking, the girls slowly calmed down.
"Well that was interesting."
Rose looked at her twin and shook her head. "So interesting. At least we know I still remember shit from karate."
The two stood quietly off to the side, sipping their tea and listening to the adults talk about work. Apparently their dad worked with Arthur. Awkward.
"Hey mum, we're gonna go grab our stuff. I kind of left it over there when Rose..." Grace trailed off awkwardly. "And we should probably get going. The train leaves at eleven and," she checked the time, "it's almost quarter to."
The two made their way over to their stuff, stopping first to collect the trolley Rose had left by the wall, then to the Grace's trolley. Nobody was looking at the group anymore, perhaps because of the arrival of their parents or maybe because of the laughing fit the two had done. Either way, there were no longer eyes on their backs and that made Rose happy. At the time she was too mad to care about who saw her, but now she let her embarrassment creep onto her cheeks and kept her head down.
"So, how many numbers did you get?" Rose asked, leaning against the wall while Grace tried (and failed) to heave her trunk back onto the trolley.
"Well, you know how well these accents work."