Chapter One: The New Beginning
By: Blair Tavian and Alda Windrunder
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters except for John, Hannah, Nicholas, Gaby, Arianna and Heath Tavian. All the other characters and places belong to J.K Rowling.
Sunlight sneaked through the window of a room where two girls were sleeping soundly, lighting up their faces as well as the walls of their bedroom. The walls were decorated with countless posters, showing everything from their favorite actors to their favorite bands in bright colors. There were also a few bookshelves along the walls and on a desk next to one of the walls were a three miniature versions of the broomsticks that belonged to their favorite Quidditch players.
The girls looked a bit like two little angels, with their long eyelashes and black, loose curls framing their faces as they slept. Of course, the impression would soon change when the door to their room opened and a woman came in, walking to the window and opening it to make sure the girls know it's morning.
"Rise and shine, girls!" the woman said, cheerfully.
One of the girls, named Arianna, sat up in the bed with tiredness yet in her eyes and stared at her mother. What was so important that her mother had to wake up her and her sister Gabrielle? Arianna wiped her green eyes and brushed her long black hair out of her face, and stumbled out of her bed. The mother saw that Arianna was awake and turned from the room and closed the door.
Arianna walked over to the chestnut wardrobe and opened it to find a bunch of clothes hanging up in their proper place. She reached into the wardrobe, grabbed her favorite outfit and threw it on the bed, and walked over to her sleeping sister. She looked beautiful when she slept, how could someone decided to awake such a beauty, but she had to do it any way.
"Gabrielle, you got to get up," Arianna said shaking her twin sister. "Mum wants us downstairs."
Gabrielle, on the other hand, proved less cooperating. The girl frowned, keeping her eyes closed and placing her pillow on her head. From beneath the pillow, Gaby muttered "No way". She was far from being a morning person and their mother should know that better than anyone else– well, maybe except for her twin sister.
"Gabz, get up. Now." Arianna said, rolling her eyes and changing while her sister sat up and glared. They had been best friends since birth, so both of them knew just how the other would react in most situations. Nevertheless, Anna still threw a pillow at Gaby when she tried to lie down again.
"Okay, okay, I'm up!" Gaby cried, jumping up and heading to the wardrobe to grab a pair of jeans and a black top, changing quickly and grabbing a hairbrush from a nearby table in an attempt to make her hair look less like a disaster.
Not waiting for her sister to come with her, the dressed and ready Arianna walked gracefully down the stairs that led to the spacious living room. Her father was sitting on the couch reading the Daily Prophet, he was a pure blood wizard, and who graduated Hogwarts the same time as the famous Harry Potter. Arianna leaned over, gave her father a kiss, and whispered "Good morning" into his ear.
John Tavian was an auror for the Ministry of magic and worked along side Harry Potter. The Potters were family friends of the Tavians, and the Tavian children grew up with the Potter kids. Arianna walked into the kitchen where the sunlight shone brightly through the window. And on the kitchen table sat two bowls of cereal and a milk in a jug waiting for the girls to come down for breakfast. She saw her mother and gave her a hug and kiss.
"Good Morning mum," Arianna said, seeing her twin join come through the door and mutter a 'hello' in their general direction before sitting down at the table. Their mother opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by two brown owls entering the kitchen through the open window and landing right in front of the girls.
The next second, Mrs. Tavian closed her mouth and rushed over to hug the girls so tightly she made them mutter about the lack of air. Mr. Tavian also sat up and smiled warmly at Arianna and Gabrielle, while gently pulling his wife away.
"Well, open them!" he said, putting an arm around Mrs. Tavian's shoulders.
Arianna was first to oblige and grabbed one of the letters, beaming at the seal while her sister was getting the other. A badger, a lion, a raven and a snake, all placed around an 'H'.
"Finally!" Gaby exclaimed, grinning and opening the letter, shortly followed by her sister doing the same.
Letters fell to the table when the girls opened the envelopes. The two girls read the letters quickly then finally looking up at their parents. Gaby was the first one to get up to hug her parents, shortly followed by her sister. The excitement filled the room and couldn't be dampened by any foul spirits.
Later that afternoon Arianna and Gaby were sitting up in their room reading their letters over and over again until Mrs. Tavian came into the room and told them to get ready. The girls stared at their mother with question on their face, the mother laughed and told them that they were invited to go to the Potters for dinner.
Of course, Arianna and Gabrielle were ready in record time. Both wore knee-long dresses and received their fair share of advice, from the usual 'don't play with your food' to 'don't play with the garden gnomes' and were on the verge of rolling their eyes by the time a black- haired man Flooed into the living room. It was Mr. Harry Potter and he said hello to the two girls and their mother before turning to Mr. Tavian and starting what looked like a very long discussion about work.
"Oh, right!" Harry Potter said when Mrs. Tavian cleared her voice. "Well, good day John, Hannah. Ginny will flip if we don't get back in time." He smiled and gestured to the Tavian family to go into the fireplace. "I will be going over to Ron and Hermione's house, you just go ahead and go to my house."
Four of the five Tavians in turn walked into the fireplace and said their destination to the Potter residence. The girls were first, Arianna and Gaby were just seconds behind eachother. Even being at the house many times the girls were still amazed at the size and beauty of the Potter house. They didn't get the chance to explore yet once more through the house before Mrs. Potter rushed into the living room taking the girls into a hug.
"It's so good to see you dears," Mrs. Potter said with a smile and looking down upon the girls. "Why don't you go wait for your parents in the kitchen. Albus would be delighted to see you."
The girls did as they were told and went into the kitchen. They found the kitchen table set so properly as if they were going to eat dinner with the Minister of Magic. Just as the girls sat down at the table, their older brother Nicholas and his friend James walked into the kitchen laughing at a joke that they had done to Albus. Lily along with Albus walked in next with his hair flying all over his face all purple and his underwear above his pants.
"What happen to you?" Arianna asked.
"Our brothers happened." the boy answered, much to the older children's amusement, as he attempted to fix the damage they had done. Once finished, Albus sat down next to Arianna, letting James and Nicholas sit to Gabrielle's left.
"Nick, honestly!" the two girls said at the same, identical sets of eyes glaring at their brother. He was just a bit tall for his age and had the same black hair as Gaby and Arianna, but startling blueish-grey eyes.
"Anna, Gabz, how could you even think I would ever do such a thing! It was his idea." Nicholas retorted, looking very hurt as he pointed at James, who gave an upset "Hey!".
The girls just shook their head, how could their brother simply blame the whole joke on James, but nothing could be done now. The boys took their seats at the dinner table as Hannah and John came through the fireplace and into the kitchen. The girls' parents were soon followed by the Weasley clan, the girls were excited to see Rose, a spitting image of her mother.
Dinner started promptly after everyone arrived. Ginny brought out a turkey that had been cooking all day long for this wonderful celebration. There were many sides to choose from, like stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and what ever you can think of. The girls filled their plates and ate till their stomachs were full.
The dinner hall was full of laughter and joy, as the parents talked about their memories at Hogwarts. The children enjoyed this, hearing how "Uncle" Harry, is what they called him, killed a basilisk. The new up coming first years were excited to get to Hogwarts so that they could start their own adventure.
At exactly eight o'clock, John and Hannah decided it was time to go, practically dragging Nicholas behind them as the twins said their goodbyes. The four stepped in the fireplace a second after the adults decided to meet in Diagon Alley to get supplies. No need to say, that night Gaby and Arianna were too thrilled to go to sleep and it didn't take the eleven year olds too long to get past their parents' room and down the stairs.
Gaby and Arianna sat down on the moist grass in the front garden, looking up at the sky. There was a silence between them, but none of them minded. Somehow, each knew what the other was thinking. Maybe it was a twin thing. Maybe it was because they were best friends. They didn't know, nor did they care. It just was.
"Anna" Gaby whispered, breaking the silence. "What if we don't get sorted in the same house?"
"I don't know Gabz." Anna said looking over to her sister. "Lets just hope that we don't get separated." The twins then got up and sneaked back into their room. After what seemed like hours of silence and darkness, the two girls went to sleep and soft snores filled the room.
The following morning Hannah walked into her daughters' room and woke them up, telling them to get ready to go to Diagon Alley to get their supplies. Without a moan or a groan, the two girls jumped out of bed and rushed to the wardrobe to get ready. The mother laughed at them as they rushed out of their beds. It was truly a rare sight.
Arianna and Gabrielle were dressed in matching blue jeans and shirts and their hair was pulled up the same way in a ponytail where their curls played. The whole family stood in front of the fireplace and one by one, each made their way to Diagon Alley. The Potters were already there standing in front of the ice cream parlor, so the girls went to Albus, while Nicholas went over to James.
In no time, both Harry and John were levitating just over a dozen packages each, while the children carried smaller boxes and bags. Mrs. Potter and Mrs. Tavian were leading the group from one shop to the other, holding the children's lists and making sure nothing was forgotten. The group stopped in front of Gringotts when James and Nicholas started to whine that they wanted new brooms.
"Merlin!" Ginny said, rolling her eyes at the two boys after she and the other adults had a short talk. "Okay, okay. Hannah and I are going to the bank, Harry and John will go with you."
"What about us?" Albus asked his mother, obviously frustrated. "We're here, too, remember?"
"You three go and get some ice-cream." Harry said, handing his youngest son some galleons and gesturing to his wife to relax.
The four younger children ran off to the parlor with the money in one hand and their boxes and bags in the other. In the parlor, Anna ordered vanilla ice cream with chocolate topings and cherries, Gaby ordered Pistachio and Albus and Lily had a bit of every flavor in the shop. Once with their ice cream, the elven year olds sat out side at one of the tables and ate their ice cream. Anna ate her's too fast and ended up with a brain freeze and the other two laughed at her face.
Soon after Hannah and Ginny gave Harry and James the money for the boy's new brooms, they came over to the parlor and joined their younger children. They sat there watching the children eat their ice cream until the boys returned, each with a new broom in each hand. Anna who sat in the middle of Gaby and Albus called them closer.
"Spoiled brats they are," Anna said.
"Yeah, no fair." Albus said, glaring as James and Nicholas. "How come we don't get brooms?"
"You're first years." James said smugly, watching Nicholas try to get a bite out of Gaby's ice-cream and only ending up with a glare and some pistachio on his head when the girl attempted to lift the ice-cream out of his reach.
"I'm bigger, so give me some of your ice-cream!"
"You got the broom, I get the ice-cream!" Gabrielle told him, making Anna and Albus laugh while James grabbed Nick's broom so the girl didn't get ice-cream on it.
"Kids, time to go." Hannah called as John rolled his eyes at the children. "Now."
The wizards quickly made their way back to the Leaky Cauldron, saying their goodbyes and Flooing to their homes.