CHAPTER TWO: We Gathered Around the Hearth

It is snowing and I could already feel the temperature drop inside the Ravenclaw common room. Too clumsy with matches to light up the furnace, I don my scarf and a heavy set of robes as I watch Lorcan and Lysander Scamander kindle the ancient contraption.

"What is the spell again?" Lysander asks his brother after taking out his wand.

"It should be Infergo or something," Lorcan replies unsurely.

"Wait, no, I remember! It is Incendio!" exclaims Lysander.

"Hold on! Remember the last time you cast that spell? You almost set my hair on fire! I think it's better if I handle this."

"But you couldn't even remember the name!" Lysander retorts. "Let me do it!"

From behind them, I chuckle. "How many Ravenclaws does it take to light a fireplace?"

They turn to look at me simultaneously. Their weird telepathic twin senses tend to do that.

"It would be three if you helped," they say together.

I get up from the couch I was situated on and unearth my wand. "You see, if we had lighters we wouldn't have this problem."

The twins stare at me as if I've just spoken Mandarin.

"Let me try my hand at this." With a flick of my magical stick and the utterance of a single world, a spark of fire propels itself from the tip of my wand to the logs in the fireplace.

"Wow, Lena," they say in unison. "You're talented."

There is a hint of sarcasm in their remark but I am used to it and understand. People often act astonished whenever I successfully cast a spell, because in class I oftentimes slur my incantations and incinerate someone's textbook instead.

"Now that that's over with," I say as I return my wand to my right pocket, "How about you and I wander off to Hogsmeade?"

They grin impishly and point at each other. "Which one?"

Flustered, I hesitate to answer. This periodically happens to me because I've come to think of the twins as one identity. Lorcan and Lysander – how could I possible tell them apart? They both have glistening blond hair, lanky figures and devilish smiles. The only thing that distinguishes them is their heterochromia. They both have a pair of grey and brown irises, but Lysander has a grey eye on the left and a brown eye on the right, while Lorcan's eye colors are the reverse of his brother's.

But then, I stop hesitating and answer, "The both of you, of course."

The twins stop grinning and accept my invitation. In just a few moments, we venture towards Hogsmeade, blissfully unaware of the events that await us.