Chapter 2

CHLOE: TWIN TWO OF SET TWO, AKA THE YOUNGEST

The first two weeks at Hogwarts were interesting. Roxanne and I had two classes together. I saw her four out of five days in said classes and we always sat together. It had taken awhile, but I think we were finally used to not sharing a room. It had been hard at first. I expected to wake up and see her sleeping in the bed next to mine. Both Fred and Hazelle had written home to tell Mum and Dad about what had happened. Mum had written us to tell us that we would be okay. Dad told us that just because we were in different Houses it didn't mean that we were going to lose what made us twins. I guess it was reassuring to see Dad write that. He had been a twin once so he knew what he was talking about, we think. Once, he told me that he still talked to Uncle Fred in his head sometimes and because he knew what Uncle Fred would say they still had their twin connection even in death. I think knowing that made me less heartbroken than Roxanne was. Dad told me, because there was only one other time that Roxanne and I had been separated. Roxanne was in Mungo's after an accident with a broom and she doesn't remember it much, but I remember how awful our room felt without her in it. It was during that time that Dad told me about his conversations with our dead uncle. Even though it was slightly morose, it gave me comfort.

"The Goblin Revolt of…" was all I heard as Professor Binns droned on and on about something in history. The rest of the class was asleep and I couldn't blame them. When you're listening to an ancient ghost talk in some ridiculous voice, you tend to lose focus on staying awake. I was only awake because I had a lot on my mind. My older sister, Hazelle, was being even more obnoxious than she usually was and it was beginning to get on my nerves. Hazelle has this attitude that she was Merlin's gift to magic and well that just wasn't true. Dad constantly talked about how she was too much like my Uncle Draco for her own good. It was true, but Dad's complaining was only half of how he felt. We knew that Hazelle was his princess because she was the only one who got all of the Weasley genes. She had strawberry blonde hair and his hazel eyes. That's is why she's Hazelle and I'm Chloe. Although being Chloe was not as bad as having Lily, James, or Albus's names. I mean they're all named after dead people and I'm not. I have to be thankful for that.

"Chloe?"

I turned my head in the direction of the question. Iris Zabini was standing there with her bag all set as if to leave. I must have missed the signal for class's ending in all my thoughts. It was the end of this long Monday. I was so glad. I had two essays to write and a star chart to draw. The library was my destination. Roxanne would be meeting me there.

The library was almost completely empty except for Rose. She's always here. We don't think she sleeps in Ravenclaw tower, ever.

"Hi Chloe, are you here to study?" She quietly greeted. I nodded my head as I took a table a few away from her. I didn't ask her to sit with me for two reasons. One was that she was a sixth year and wouldn't sit with me anyway and two was that this was mine and Roxanne's time. We did homework together.

"Are we going to work on next week's Potions essay or next week's Transfiguration essay?" Roxanne asked as she took a seat across from me. I looked at her and thought about how if it weren't for the Gryffindor crest and tie she would be my mirror image. It was so weird to see her in clothes that didn't exactly match mine. She sighed because she most likely had the same thoughts as me.

"Potions essay," we said at exactly the same time. It took a moment, but we softly giggled and everything was back to normal. It was just like we were back at home in Weasley Hall at the table in the kitchen. That was where Mum used to home school us on some basic magic controlling techniques.

Hours passed and we headed to dinner. Tonight it was my turn to sit at the Gryffindor table with her. I was excited by this because I hadn't really made any Slytherin friends. Here, I got to sit close to my older brothers and cousins. Half of Gryffindor was my family. Well maybe not half, but definitely a lot of them.

"Hey there you two!" Ulric called out as we entered the Great Hall. We joined him and Helen Thomas at the center of the table. Dinner was one of my favorite times. The castle was my second favorite place in the world. The first was our home. My family is really important to me.

"You're cousin is staring at me," Rose said as she sat down at the table with us. Fred and Lee followed behind her with Al and Louis.

"What do you mean?" Roxanne and I asked simultaneously. Rose looked at us and then looked over to the Slytherin table.

"I mean that your cousin is looking at me," she said as she gestured to Scorpius. Rose was right he was looking at her a little bit. I wondered why that was. I'd talk to him later. Scorpius didn't care about being seen talking to his first-year cousin. If Hazelle didn't look like Dad so much I would think she was Uncle Draco's daughter and Scorpius was our brother. He had more of a temperament like us. Dad liked him even though he would never admit that to Uncle Draco.

I looked back over to my House's table and saw that Hazelle had joined Scorpius and they were whispering fiercely. I wondered what that was about because Scorpius and Hazelle never acted like that.

"Hazelle was probably just talking about you like the smarmy brat she is, and he looked up to see if you were over here," Ulric said to Rose. She nodded her head reluctantly.

"That's not fair. We all know that Scorpius is nicer than Hazelle could ever be," I interjected and they agreed with me.

"I know, sometimes I wish Uncle Draco would just take her permanently," Lee said to the table. We laughed, but knew that would never happen. Dad would be so mad if he heard us talking that way. I loved Hazelle because she was my sister, but she really was mean.

When dinner ended I walked down to the dungeons without Roxanne. It was always the saddest part of the day. I always got over being split up by the time I got into bed at night, but that walk to the dungeons alone, it was bloody brutal. I heard soft footsteps and heated whispering behind me.

I turned around and found that Hazelle and Scorpius were not too far behind. I had never seen them act like this. I would ask Scorpius about it when Hazelle went to bed. She was always in bed by ten-thirty.

"Hey Chloe!" I heard a voice call to me as I entered the common room. I look up to find Iris waving me over to her. She wasn't my best mate like Rox, but she was a good friend. My uncle Draco was friends with her dad in school, so we've known each other since before the whole Sorting fiasco. I enjoyed her company. She chattered away about something in Defense, and I barely listened. I was too busy watching my sister and cousin. They were still arguing from what I could tell.

At ten-thirty when Hazelle made her way to the girls' dormitory, I headed over to my older cousin. He looked at me and smiled. He looked a lot like his dad.

"Hey Chloe," he said, and I remembered how much he's not like his dad. I don't think I've ever seen Uncle Draco actually smile. He smirks a lot. I don't think he ever learned how to smile.

"Hi," I responded lamely. I was not sure how you start out a conversation that asks why someone's fighting with your sister.

"How're your classes? You know if you need help, you can ask?" He questioned me, and I nodded.

"They're good," I started and then blurted, "What's wrong with you and Hazelle?" That was real subtle. I'm glad I learned how to get people to give me information without being obvious.

"She's just mad that I fancy someone," he told me in a really shy kind of way. I look at him surprised. I'm not sure why I was surprised. Scorpius was sixteen. Fancying someone was what teenagers do at that age. I was eleven and I knew that.

"Why would she be mad? She's your cousin it's not like she fancies you," I wondered aloud. He gave me a funny look and I said, "Right?" I hoped she didn't fancy him. Hazelle was odd as it was.

"No, she doesn't," he laughed and then continued, "She's mad about who I fancy. I guess this girl isn't good enough for me. At least that is what Hazelle thinks, but she's two years younger than me. She doesn't really know who is best for me."

"Oh," I answered, and tried to figure out who Hazelle hated enough to think that she wasn't good enough for Scorpius. Then it hit me; he was looking at Rose. He liked my Weasley cousin. I should've found that weird, but I didn't. I kind of thought that Rose and Scorpius would be cool, well they would be, if Hazelle weren't such a smarmy prat. I was not sure what to do with this information, so I filed it away for the moment. Scorpius might've been upset that I knew. He was having enough trouble with my mental sister; I didn't want to add to it.

I hated mornings. It was one of the tiny differences between Roxanne and me. She could get up the moment the alarm went off, but me, I had to lie in bed at least another twenty minutes before I even attempted to move. My mother said that was my father's influence. I didn't care whose influence it was, I still didn't want to bloody wake up when the alarm buzzed.

I woke up twenty minutes later. I quickly showered, dressed, grabbed my school things, and left the dungeons. I got to the Great Hall and noticed that Scorpius and Hazelle were not talking to each other. I guess they had finally come to odds about Scorpius's crush. I had faith that they would figure it out, though. Hazelle may have acted like a dolt, but she probably would figure out that Scorpius was the only real friend she had and would stop acting like he'd betrayed her.

Roxanne spotted my late arrival and left her spot at the Gryffindor table to join me. We scooted onto the end of the table next to Iris. There were so many options for breakfast; I wasn't sure what to eat. Back home, Lacey made one meal and we had to find something we liked enough to eat.

"Ooh strawberries!" Rox squealed and I looked at the same bowl. She was right. We loved strawberries. They were our favorite thing in the whole world. We each plucked about three or four out of the bowl. We took our first bite together.

"So wonderful," Rox cooed in bliss. I couldn't agree more. Strawberries were the world's biggest gift.

"Oh please, the two of you act like you don't eat strawberries every day at home," Hazelle smarted. I ignored her. Even my pain in the arse sister couldn't ruin them for me.

"Oh shove it," I told her.

"Yeah, just because you're having a row with Scorpius doesn't mean you have to take it out on the rest of us!" Killian chimed in as well. I guess we weren't the only ones that Hazelle was driving nutters. She stuck her nose up and went toward the doors to the Great Hall.

"She's such…" Rox started to say, and I finished with, "a brat!"

We finished eating the rest of breakfast, and left the Great Hall. Iris walked with us. We included her in the conversation most of the walk to the Transfiguration classroom where the first year Gryffindors and Slytherins would have their doubles lesson.

"So your sister is a huge brat, but the rest of you aren't? How did that happen?" Iris asked as we entered the classroom.

"Well Dad spoils her…" Rox told her.

"And we think she may have partially gained Uncle Draco's qualities," I added.

"We have no idea how that happened either. She doesn't live with Uncle Draco, and Scorpius didn't bloody well turn out like him, but Uncle Ron and Uncle Harry tell us all the time that she reminds them of him when they were all kids. They're the only two uncles in the whole family that she doesn't have wrapped around her finger. I think it's because she reminds them of Uncle Draco so much," Rox explained to Iris just as Professor Macmillan entered. We had to stop talking then because he was going to start the lesson.

"Today, we will be trying to transfigure a match into a needle. It is a standard first year procedure," Professor Macmillan began the class. I took out a piece of parchment and wrote some notes. After he explained the wandwork and incantation, we got to try ourselves. Kensey Jerkins was the first one to successfully do the task. Rox was next. She helped me a few more times and I got it as well.

Class was dismissed. Rox didn't have Defense with us next, so she went her own way, and I was left with Iris.

"What do you think your uncle has for us today?" She asked as we worked our way to the Defense classroom. Sometimes, I wished that Uncle Bill would have stayed a Curse Breaker for Gringott's. It was weird to have someone who changed your nappies as a Professor. Plus, if something went wrong, he would owl my dad instantly. I was pretty sure that's how Mum knew all the times Fred and Lee were in detention. I was actively trying to avoid the same fate.

"I don't know, but I hope it's something interesting," I told her. It was true, too. I wanted it to be something interesting because otherwise the class focused on how he was my uncle. Unfortunately for me, I usually ended up blushing. Somehow, all of us had gotten the Weasley Blush, even Hazelle.

Defense had actually been exciting. Uncle Bill had taught a shielding spell. We even got to practice while he tried to send a hex at us.

"Wow that was a bloody brilliant lesson!" Iris exclaimed as we left the room. She was always fascinated with hands-on Defense lessons.

"Yeah, it was pretty fun," I agreed. My mind was only half on what we had learned in Defense today. My mind kept wandering back to the way my family was acting lately. Scorpius and Hazelle never fought and Rox and I were making friends outside of one another.

"Chloe? Are you even listening to me?" Iris asked. I must not have responded to her while I was thinking about everything else.

"No, sorry, got distracted," I told her and then she repeated the details of my uncle's lesson again. I was in the class, I knew what happened. I nodded my head as if I were listening to her story.