Chapter II

"Hey mom, what's for dinner?" asked a young man in his twenties, hugging his mother from the shoulders.

"You should know better that to ask me that, Alex. Your father is in the library, ask him. Although I believe that Liz is on kitchen duty tonight" she answered her son, without taking her eyes of the book she was reading.

After giving her a noisy kiss on her cheek, Alex climbed the stairs to search for his father in their library in the second floor of their house. He liked that room, it was one of the few quiet places left in the residence, and the whole family was rather proud of their huge collection of books. To normal families the room must have been quite overwhelming, but Alex felt his heart warm up whenever he was there. Like always, the door was closed. He quietly opened it and quickly closed it, as not to break the stillness of the room. Almost like a spell, everyone hushed the moment they stepped foot in the library.

Alex found his father, or rather his father's head, buried deep within a mountain on parchments and opened books. He silently walked to the desk, but making enough sound so his father acknowledge his presence.

"Elizabeth is on kitchen duty tonight, go and ask her" said Alex's father before he even got the chance to speak.

"I think she is working on her potion. She did mention she was going to add some important ingredients. Should I disturb her?" he said and his father looked up from his research.

"Alexander, how old are you?" he asked.

"23. Why do you ask?" he answered, baffled.

"Aren't you old enough to be able to cook a proper meal for your family? There are many recipes in the kitchen and you are smart enough to be able to follow their strict instructions without burning the food… or the house for that matter" explained his father, returning his gaze to his notes.

"I wasn't that good in Potions in school as I recall" said Alex, smiling.

"And yet even the greatest dunderhead I ever taught can feed himself without being that much of a menace to society"

"That much of a menace? Is that the best you can come up with, dad? You are going soft old man, soon you won't be able to insult a Ministry worker without sounding like a praise" joked Alexander as he pat his father's shoulder.

"If it ever comes to that it will be your duty to your family to put me in an asylum for good" answered his father, patting his son's hand in return.

"Aye aye sir, keeping the family's reputation, that's my job" he joked, mimicking a soldier's salute and marching out of the room in the same style. He heard his father chuckle behind him as he closed the door.

As soon as he was outside, Alex heard some yelling and crying. 'Great' he thought, 'Gwen and Crissy are at it again. Better go and break them up before they smash something'.

But he hadn't reached the last step of the stairs when he felt the familiar tingle in his spine that told him that Liz, his twin, was in some danger, or at least, very scared.

He ran to the potions lab they had in the basement of the house where he knew he could find her, but even before he could reach there he saw the smoke coming out of the room.

"LIZ!" he shouted, covering his mouth with his hand, and grabbing his wand with the other. "Where are you?"

"Alex, sound the alarm and get out of here!" responded his twin as she ran along the room with ingredients and vials. "I will try to contain it, but I'm not sure how big an explosion this can make".

Her brother smashed the button of emergency that was next to the door. That alarm would go off in the entire house, but only those older than 15 years could hear it, so their little brothers would not be frightened by the sound.

"How can I help?" he said, walking into the room decidedly.

"Are you crazy? Go, get out of here" said Liz as she used her wand to stabilize the potion. The cauldron she was using had a red liquid fuming with green smoke that made Alex's eyes water. As far as he knew, green smoke meant only a small but not deadly explosion, but then again, it was an experimental potion, so they couldn't really know what could happen.

"Liz, I'm not leaving without you. So either tell me what to do or come with me to safety" he said and Elizabeth sighed with exasperation.

"You pig-headed idiot! Take those ingredients closest to me and put them somewhere far away. The last thing we want is for the contents of my potion spilling and reacting to the other ingredients in the shelf" she told him and he quickly got to work.

"Alex, Liz, are you there? What are you still doing, get out, now!" shouted their father as they heard him climb down the stairs to the basement.

"Dad, we are fine, go with mum, we got this" shouted Alex in return, only to see, to his horror, how the smoke coming out of the cauldron changed color. From green it turned to violet and that only meant one thing…

"Alex get down!" shouted his sister as she tackled him, covering his body with her own.

The last thing he remembered was the sound of a great explosion and the feeling of being sucked into a big hole. And pain, lots of pain running through his entire body. He recalled screaming and then hearing his father shouting his name before he passed out.