My eyes were glued on the papers that were lying out in the open. The smile that I walked into the room with fell faster than I ever thought possible. It was just minutes before that I was excited to see what summer would bring, but seeing a few pieces of paper was enough to tear me down.

"Oh shoot, I was supposed to put those away before I left.." I heard Mariah mutter to herself, walking closer to the table to organize the pile of papers. She glanced back at us, tucking her blonde hair behind her ears. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for you two to see these just yet."

My feet stayed planted on the ground as Hayden stepped forward, his eyes looking down at the papers. His expression was neutral as he read through the first page. Once he was done, his blue eyes looked to me with concern. It was as if he could read every concern I was having. A sigh escaped his lips. "Alright.. Can't change it now. Let's talk this out." He set the papers back on the table and turned to Mariah. "You want to adopt us."

The older woman sighed and pulled a chair out and sat down in front of the adoption papers. "I wasn't planning on asking just yet. I was going to wait till you guys had settled back in for the summer before bringing it up." Her eyes glanced towards the trunks that still lay in the doorway. Pulling out her wand, she lifted them into the air and had them go to their respective rooms. "Yes.. I would love to adopt the two of you." A warm smile formed on her face as she looked at the two of us. "The last few years with you two has been wonderful. I just can't imagine my life without you."

Her words echoed in my head and I slowly sat down at the table with her. It was the first time that any of my foster parents had shown any interest in having me truly be a part of their family. It always seemed like they wanted to get me out of their homes as soon as they were able so the concept of adoption was strange to me. My own parents didn't want me, why would anyone else?

Hayden paced in front of the table, clearly not sure how to handle the situation. He had been with Mariah much longer than I figured he'd jump at the chance to be her son. It didn't make much sense to me why he was so conflicted.

The silence rang through the room as none of us were sure what to say. Seeing this, Mariah reached across the table and took my hands in her own. "I know it's a big decision. I certainly don't expect an answer, especially since you've only just gotten home. I simply just want you to know that you feel like my family and whether you're legally my children or not.." She trailed off, smiling softly. "You'll always feel like my own kids."

My eyes stared at our conjoined hands feeling tears welling up in my eyes. Her words were sincere. When I looked up to meet her gaze, there wasn't a single sign of a lie. Every fiber of my being knew this was what she wanted. But was it something I could do? "I.. I don't know if I can." I glanced away so I didn't have to see the look on her face. "It's just.. I feel like I'm making progress on knowing who my birth parents are and I don't think I'm ready to give up on that just yet."

"I understand, dear." She spoke, but I still didn't have the confidence to look back towards her. "I wasn't sure you would be, but I also wanted to put the offer out there. It's an offer that will always be open."

I muttered a quiet thank you and reached up to wipe the water from my eyes. Hesitantly, I looked to Hayden who was now leaning up against the wall with his gaze downcasted. Mariah followed my gaze and questioned the older boy what he thought. There was a moment of silence before he finally spoke. "I'm out too." He began, his gaze still towards the floor. "I'm sticking with whatever Penny's doing. The only way I'm getting adopted is if she's right next to me." His gaze finally looked up to meet my own, a toothy grin on his face. "We're a package deal."

His words made me want to cry more than I already was. Each time I heard him say things like that, I felt the same amount of emotion. I almost felt proud that someone like Hayden would even take me in as family. And as I turned to Mariah, I knew she felt the same way about me. "I do hope this won't change anything. I really do enjoy it here." I smiled softly. "I couldn't imagine being anywhere else."

Mariah got to her feet and stepped closer to me, leaning down to place a kiss on the top of my head. "I'm glad you feel at home here." When she stood up straight, she gestured down the hall. "Now go get unpacked. We'll have plenty of time to chat over the next few weeks."

Hayden and I nodded and headed down the hall. I went to bid the blonde a quick thank you, but when I tried to walk away, he took hold of my wrist and pulled me to a stop. "I mean it, you know. Wherever you go, I go." He released my wrist, ruffling my hair. "Whether you like it or not, you're stuck with me. You could say we were just separated at birth."

I rolled my eyes, shoving his hand away. "Oh get off it. You're overly dramatic." I huffed and turned away, but a small smile was still on my face. "But.. I appreciate it."

Pulling his room door open, he began to walk in with a few final words. "Your life would be pretty boring without me so I'll be dramatic as I want baby sis." And with that, he shut the door behind him.

My eyes rested on his now closed door for a moment before giving my head a shake. As strange as the boy was, I couldn't help but be thankful that he was the one who I ran into at this point in my life.

The weeks passed on and I spent the majority of my time with the book Quidditch Through the Ages and a cup of chamomile tea always nearby. There were times I switched books, but that was the most variety I had with the time that had already passed. I had sent out multiple letters to my friends from school and most of them had already sent letters back. That was, except for Harry.

I certainly didn't send him a lengthy letter but I had wanted to at least wish him well seeing as he had just had a run in with Voldemort. Although, I didn't know much about his home life so I simply assumed he was busy spending time with his family. When we got closer to the end of July, I would send him another letter to wish him a happy birthday, but that would be about it. The last thing I wanted to do was bother the Boy Who Lived.

It was currently early morning on a July Saturday when I glanced out the window to see the Owl Post begin to do their rounds. I took a sip of my tea before setting my cup down to grab the mail that flew through our mail slot. Picking the pile up, I made my way towards the kitchen to sort through it. I shuffled the letters around and placed them in three separate piles depending on who they were addressed to. Once I had that done, I took my personal pile as well as the Daily Prophet and returned to my chair in the living room.

As I sat back down, I set the assorted letters on the side table and focused my attention on the Daily Prophet. My eyes scanned the front page and quickly went wide in surprise. The picture on the front page was of a famous wizard, Gilderory Lockhart, with the article below describing how he was to be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts. I had read a few of his books over the last couple of years and heard stories of his adventures from others at school. He was becoming our Defense teacher?

I certainly wasn't a big fan of his, but I did enjoy his books. Then again, I tended to look more at the information in a book instead of who wrote it. It doesn't matter who writes the book as long as I can learn something from it. Though, I will admit that his stories are entertaining.

Down the hall, a door could be heard opening and a moment later, Hayden appeared. His blonde hair was an absolute mess and it looked as if he hadn't slept a wink. But that was how he looked every morning so I was almost certain he had slept plenty. "Good morning." I greeted him only to receive a grunt in return. "Late night?"

He let out another grunt as he grabbed his mail and set his head on the kitchen counter so he could look over to me. "You could say that." He looked at each envelope before deeming the mail unimportant and threw them to the side. "Fred and George wouldn't leave me alone."

I raised an eyebrow, letting the prophet land in my lap. "The twins were here?"

Hayden gave his head a shake. "No. We actually enchanted a bunch of parchment to let us talk a lot easier. Much faster that way." Standing up straight, we went to begin making ourselves a cup of tea so I got to my feet and went into the kitchen so I could see and hear him better. "They didn't like the summer after our first year because we couldn't talk as frequently as they wanted. Same with Lee. So they figured out the charm for it in our second year." He let out a laugh as he started to swirl the tea bag in his mug. "Though.. We may use it in class too."

"Of course you do." I sighed, leaning against the counter. "You should really pay more attention in class. Same with the twins and Lee. I don't care if the twins can pass their assignments and exams with little effort, you can't."

He brought a hand to his chest to feign hurt. "I'm an amazing student. Even McGonagall said so."

"I'm almost certain you missed a few other words when McGonagall told you that.." I muttered, bringing my cup to my lips so I could take a drink of my own tea.

Hayden waved a hand in dismissal. "I'm sure she thinks I'm amazing." He set his cup down so he could run his fingers through his hair in an attempt to straighten out the mess. "But that reminds me, Fred and George said you haven't sent them a single letter. They seem pretty offended since you sent Ron a couple letters already."

I cocked my head to the side. "I didn't realize I was supposed to send them any letters." In fact, they hadn't even sent me a letter so what was the big deal?

"Apparently." He shrugged. "I tried to tell them we'd see them in a couple weeks but they weren't having much of that." Once he deemed his hair neat enough, he grabbed his cup and brought it to his lips. "Those two are bloody stupid. They could just write you a letter themselves." He grumbled as he took a long drink of his tea.

"I was just thinking the same thing." I spoke as I brought my now empty cup to the sink. "On a different topic," My hands reached over and picked up the prophet from the counter to show Hayden. "New professor."

The blond's brow furrowed as he took the paper from my hands to look at the picture of Lockhart. "Seriously? All the options in the world and Dumbledore picks this guy? Git has a bigger ego than all the Slytherins combined."

"I suppose.. But with all his accomplishments, he does have the qualifications." I pointed out, gesturing to the article below that described some of his most recent adventures. "Probably better than what Quirrell had seeing as he was You Know Who in the end."

Hayden groaned, throwing the paper back down on the counter. "Sure, but You Know Who has more experience in the dark arts than some random bimbo. Most of his so-called achievements are fake anyway."

"Really? They seem pretty plausible to me." I questioned, cocking my head to the side. "Sure, he's not exactly humble about them but these sort of things are fully possible for wizards like him."

The look on Hayden's face was unimpressed. "Come on, Penny. I don't know the last time you read one of his books, but some of the spells he used to counter certain magical beasts make no sense at all." He reached forward and flicked my forehead. "You're a Ravenclaw right? Go back and read one and you'll figure it out really quick."

My brows pinched together and I went to argue with him, but was cut off by Mariah finally entering the room. So instead of telling Hayden off, I made the smarter decision to keep my mouth shut.

Mariah came up to each of us respectively and placed a light kiss on each of our heads. "Good morning you two." We muttered a quiet response to her as she grabbed her mail and started to sort through it. Her eyes scanned each envelope at a steady pace before her gaze lay on one letter in particular. Hayden and I both noticed this and the older boy tried to look over her shoulder to see who it was from only to have Mariah tuck the letter away. "Nothing too important today it would seem."

"Then what was that-"

"So what day were you two going to head over to the Weasleys?" She quickly cut Hayden off much to his surprise.

The boy looked to me out of the corner of his eye to see if I was thinking the same thing he was. Sure, I was curious as to what she was hiding, but it certainly wasn't my business. There were plenty of conversations that we didn't want her knowing about so why couldn't she have the same freedom?

"I was thinking about Monday." Hayden answered, deciding to let the letter go for now. "Apparently Mrs. Weasley needs help with the gnomes again."

Mariah nodded, reaching into one of the cupboards to pull out two small envelopes. "Here we go." She handed one to each of us. "This is the money you can use for your school supplies when you get your lists. It will also be your allowance for the school year so don't blow it all at Diagon Alley." She heaved a sigh, placing her hands on her hips. "Leave me alone here all over again, I get it. The older kids get, the less they want to spend with silly old adults."

"Oh come off it." Hayden laughed, throwing an arm around the woman's shoulders. "You'll never be rid of us for too long. Don't tell Mrs. Weasley, but I like your cooking way better."

A small chuckle escaped my lips as well. "I don't know about comparing cooking, but you did tell us this was our home as long as we wanted it, so I'd like to keep it that way."

Mariah patted Hayden's back to walk away from his grip. "Oh alright. As long as you both feel that way then I suppose I can let you go." She looked at me with a smile. "Penny, would you mind going to work on packing some of your stuff for a minute? I want to talk to Hayden." When I gave her a questioning look, she explained. "I just need to have a little conversation about his antics at school this year."

I hummed in understanding. "Ah, of course." I picked up my mail and headed out of the room. When I made it to my room, I let my gaze fall on the trunk that rested at the end of my bed. I began to sort through a few pieces of clothing when a thought crossed my mind.

Why did I need to leave the room for that conversation? Just last year, Mariah had given that speech to Hayden with me in the room. It was her way of letting me know not to follow Hayden's example when it came to rule breaking. So what was the point in having me leave this time?

My eyes narrowed as I headed back out into the hall, quietly making my way closer to the kitchen. Once I was close enough to hear what they were saying, I placed my back against the wall and listened. It wasn't like me to eavesdrop so if it truly was the conversation she said she was going to have, then I would leave it be. But if she was lying to me, then I wanted to know why.

"I don't understand why you can't tell her all of this." Hayden spoke, his tone clearly angered.

"Hayden please.. I just need you to understand. I don't know how bad this is going to get." Mariah whispered, harshly. It was the most stern I had ever heard her. "We got her through the first year, but you know we're running low on time. We're not going to be able to control it on our own soon."

"Why can't you tell Dumbledore about this? He could figure something out."

"He's already aware." She quickly answered before he could throw out another thought. "Her first year was strictly seeing what she could handle at her age. Dumbledore is fully aware of the timeframe we're on. But we need to wait just a little bit longer.. That's why I need you to keep a closer eye on her this year and keep me informed. If it's urgent, let McGonagall know right away and she will handle it from there."

They were both silent and I wished I could see the expression on Hayden's face. My heart pounded as I could feel the tension flowing down the hall. The longer the silence lasted, the more my heart pounded. What were they even talking about? It had to be about me, but why? What were they so concerned about? And if it really was about me, why wouldn't they want to warn me about what's happening?

As more questions formed in my head, Hayden finally spoke. "Fine. But if it gets to that point then you promise me that someone will tell her what's going on. You're lucky I have this long."

"I know. And I'm very grateful."

They went silent once again and I could hear Hayden's heavier feet walking closer to me. Before he could see I had been listening, I quickly made my way back into my room and pretended as if I had been packing the whole time. With a shirt in my hands, I glanced to my open door as Hayden stormed passed without a word.

This summer hadn't exactly been exactly what I was hoping for yet. This hadn't been the first time the two of them were having hushed conversations when I wasn't in the room. Not long after we got home, I had woken up to find the two of them discussing something in the living room. The second I came into the room, they switched the topic to something lighter. Had they been discussing this same topic then too? If they had been discussing this for so long, why couldn't I be a part of it.

I sighed, setting the shirt down in my trunk. Why did it feel like I was the most clueless around here? I walked over to my desk and picked up my copy of The Tales of the Beedle and the Bard. Slowly, I flipped through the book to read the story of the three brothers as I made my way to sit on the edge of my bed. If I was meant to know what was going on, then they would tell me.

My heartbeat bounced inside my body as my grip on the book tightened. No matter what I tried to tell myself to make me feel better, it only gave me a more uneasy feeling. I tried my best to focus on the words on the page to try and distract my mind, but I was failing miserably. They would tell me if it was a big problem. They wouldn't leave me in the dark without a good reason.

Then why did I feel so anxious about this?