Disclaimer: Not mine! Please stop reminding me of that.
Chapter 3The twins sat down again at the table and talked awhile with Mari after they had finished the dishes.
"So, Mum. Wanna help us figure out what story to tell people?" James leaned forward, his elbows braced on the tabletop as he munched on a cookie.
"I don't suppose that I have much choice, now do I?" she smiled ruffling his hair.
James grimaced. "Moooooommmmm," he whined trying to evade it, ducking over to the side and moving his chair closer to Cole's.
"Alright, alright," she laughed, settling back a bit and winking at Cole. She loved to tease her son. Cole gave her a nervous smile in return. He had a bad feeling that her teasing would soon extend to him.
"We know people are gonna have questions and we can't very well tell them the truth. So what are we gonna tell them?" Cole murmured taking a sip of milk.
"Well, we could always say that Cole really is your twin, honey. I could explain that he had been taken from the nursery at the hospital. It was just too terrible a memory. I simply couldn't bring myself to speak of it," she sniffed, whipping pretend tears from her eyes theatrically. "It was so awful James. I meant to tell you, but, but I just couldn't. Please forgive me, love. You're not a mother so you just wouldn't understand how hard it was for me." Mari buried her face in her hands, fake sobs wracking her small frame.
Cole and James sat there stunned for a good ten seconds, simply staring at her. The cautiously glanced at each other, "Riiiiggght."
"You'll be okay, Mum. You, uh. You have me back now. Everything's gonna be okay now," Cole patted her awkwardly on the back until she finally decided to give up the ruse and begin laughing as she brought her head up.
She pulled herself back together and continued on with a straight face, "I was so happy when they told me that they had finally been able to track you down with that Muggle family just outside of London, Cole," she smiled seeing the looks her two sons were giving her. She shook her head wryly. Well, James always wondered where he came from. She wouldn't deny that she was just as strange as he was.
"That'll work just fine, Mari," Ashley laughed from the doorway. "Dumbledore of course needs to be told the truth. I suppose we can also tell Sirius, Remus and Lily. They'd find out somehow that the story was a lie anyway. Then they'd just be upset with you. They'd never tell a soul, but James, Cole, I do not want you to tell that Peter Pettigrew that hangs around you boys. There's something about him I don't like. I think he'd do just about anything for the right price. Understood?"
"Understood Dad," both boys nodded in agreement.
"Good, now I'm going to go take care of your room. With the way it is now, both of you won't be able to fit in it comfortably," Ash left the three alone as he headed up the stairs towards the boys' room. He used magic to remove the wall that separated James' room the adjacent guest room. After matching the décor the guest room to fit in with James' he let the two arrange it how they wished.
There was little arguing as the two boys situated the now rather large room how they wanted it. As it turned out, each had similar enough tastes that it was simple to compromise on what they couldn't agree upon. They placed the two beds head to head, after getting rid of the headboards, along one wall closest to the hall way. That way, they could talk late into the night without keeping anyone else up.
James spent most of the night explaining the main points about each of his friends that Cole would be meeting the next day. He paid particular attention to describing his best friend, Sirius Black. Both preferred males, so he thought it would be pretty neat if the two could possibly hit it off.
"Well, Lily is my girlfriend. You won't be able to miss her. She'll be the only girl, but other than that, she's got the glorious red hair and vivid green eyes. Very pretty, very smart. She's got a great sense of humor, too. She doesn't mind that we're into pranks and all that, just as long as we aren't cruel or nasty with 'em.
"Now, Remus, also known as Moony. He's a werewolf. That's how he got the nickname. No one else at school, except the faculty and our group know about it though. The rest of the students don't. They'd freak out, y'know? Yeah well, anyway. He's really smart, too, but I guess to be honest, we all are.
"By the way, I'll make sure you're all caught up by the time school rolls around. Mum'll take care of figuring out what exactly it is that you need to know for school. She'll help teach it to you, too. That way you don't have to be in a year below us. Now, back to Remus. He's kinda quiet, but he's in on all the pranks with us, too. He's the one that sorta keeps us from going to far with anything. I guess you could call him our conscience or our reason. He's the reason we became animagi," James whispered the last part. So far, his parents had yet to discover that little bit of information.
"I've heard about those. That means you can turn yourself into an animal doesn't it?" Cole asked perking up a bit. It had been a subject that really interested him.
"Yeah. My animagus form is a stag. Lily doesn't have one. I wasn't dating her when we finally succeeded in doing it back in fifth year. She knows about it now though, but she isn't really interested in becoming one. First off it's illegal if you don't register, an' well, we aren't registered and probably won't be for a long while if ever.
"Remus, well, he obviously doesn't need one. We only really use the forms when it's the full moon so that we can go out with him. Werewolves are only dangerous to humans, not to other animals and we wanted to keep him company and make it easier for him. Becoming animagi was the perfect solution.
"Sirius is a dog, a really big dog. He looks like a grim which is a big black dog that's supposed to be a death omen. Man, he scared the wits out of us when we first saw it! It took us a little while to get comfortable with it, but now it's no big deal.
"Peter, whom you won't be meeting this summer, is a rat. He's rather annoying and just likes to tag along with us like he's our shadow or something. He's the one that Dad mentioned earlier, the one we can't tell the truth to. We're not really sure how we got stuck with him, but we did. He's not all that bad, but he's whiny and afraid of everything," James rolled over onto his back, folding his arms under his head and craning his neck back a bit so that he could still see Cole's face. "Got it all?" He grinned.
"Yeah, I think so. You think you could help me become an animagus? I don't think I'd like getting left behind. It's probably not a big deal for Lily 'cause she'd be in a different dorm and everything, but I'd be in the same one all by myself," Cole looked down upon James who simply grinned back up at him in reply.
"I was hoping you'd ask that. Yeah, Siri and I'll teach you sometime this summer, after we teach you more of the basic stuff first. It's a bit complicated to just jump right into it, but we'll definitely help you with that. Siri will be ecstatic. Oh! Damnit! You let me forget to tell you 'bout Sirius!" James laughed, smacking his forehead with one hand as if he'd just done something incredibly idiotic.
"Nice going, James since isn't he the one you wanted to set me up with?" Cole laughed giving James' head a playful shove.
"Hey! Alright, alright. Well, he's a bit crazy like Mum said. He acts really arrogant sometimes, but it really is just an act. He doesn't actually think he's a god or anything. He just tends to get carried away with the dramatics. He doesn't like sitting still for long unless he's sleeping or close to it. If he isn't, he's always fidgeting.
"He's a pureblood so his family is related to a lot of other wizarding families. He's nothing like them though. They're all interested in the Dark Arts because they're powerful. He's interested in them because he wants to learn how to counter them. Like I said earlier, he wants to be an auror. He loves food, especially Mum's cooking.
"He's got black hair, uhm, it's a little longer than his shoulders, but he usually has it back in a ponytail. Silver-grey eyes, uhm, bout six feet tall. All the girls think he's hot, if that's any help. I'm not into guys, but I'd have to agree and say he's good looking. His favourite colour is red, but he tends to wear black a lot. Especially leather. If I think of anything more, I'll let you know," James yawned and stretched out under his covers before getting into a comfortable position. "I'll show ya 'round t'morrow morning 'fore they get here. Night Cole."
"Nigh' James," Cole replied sleepily as he too got comfortable. He judged it to be somewhere in between two and three in the morning. Well past a reasonable hour to go to sleep considering all the excitement he'd gone through that day. He yawned, closing his eyes and drifted off.
Later that morning Cole was given the complete tour of the house and grounds by one very enthusiastic James after breakfast.
"Don' worry, dear. He's only like that after breakfast, thank heavens. He might as well be dead on his feet before anything gets into that insatiable stomach of his," Mari laughed as she watched James chatter on.
James grinned once out of his mother's sights and pulled Cole into another corridor that Cole had missed seeing as they passed. "It's one of the secret passageways. I doubt Mum and Dad don't know anything about them, but they don't know I know anything about them."
Cole nodded in understanding. "So in other words, I breathe a word of these to no one, right? 'Cept maybe the ones coming over later today. Right?"
"Right," James grinned pleased and dragged Cole through all the passages that he knew of in the house before ending up outside in the beautiful sunlight.
"What're we gonna do out here?" Cole tipped his head to the side watching as James opened a wood shed and disappeared inside.
"This!" James grinned from ear to ear as he popped back out of the shed holding a broomstick in each hand.
"Sweep?" Cole asked disbelievingly. "I knew you were a little odd, but you really want to sweep?"
"No, no, no. Fly. I'm gonna teach you how to fly," he rolled his eyes as he handed one stick to Cole. "Just mount it and push off the ground with your feet. That simple." James demonstrated by doing just that an hovering while he waited for his twin to give it a try.
Cole looked at the broom for a long moment before finally straddling it and pushing off. His eyes widened as he suddenly lurched forward and the broom overbalanced, flipping him upside down.
James laughed hysterically. "Guess I shoulda mentioned something about keeping your balance and not pushin' off too hard the first time, huh?"
"You think?" Cole muttered bitterly. He was embarrassed. It was bad enough that he was behind in his wizarding studies, but not he had also made a fool of himself with a broom. The only bright side was that only James was there to see it. "A little help here?"
"Oh, right," he continued to laugh as he held out a hand and pulled Cole back upright on the broom. "Don't worry I won't tell anyone. This can be our little secret."
"Oh goody," Cole murmured under his breath as he focused on remaining balanced.
James put a conscious effort into controlling his laughter, seeing how much the sound was bothering the other boy. He marveled at how sensitive the boy could be at times. Well, they'd fix that. No one would put him down. Tease him? Yes. Belittle him? No.
The two spent a good portion of the morning practicing flying. James was impressed by how quickly Cole had caught on after his first mishap. Perhaps it had just been his determination not to screw up again, but it could have just been natural talent. Maybe Cole would be able to be talked into trying out for the Quidditch team. James would bring it up with Sirius later after his best friend had seen the boy fly.
"Mum? You think it would be alright if I went out to go get some stuff for tonight?" James asked hesitantly as Cole would as lunch was ending and the dishes were being cleared away.
"Of course, Cole. Right? You are Cole aren't you?" She looked at him inquisitively.
"Yeah, I am," James smiled, pleased that he could so easily fool his mother. It took a little effort to fake being Cole, but it wasn't all that hard. He just had to act a little unsure of himself and more reserved than he usually was.
"I'm assuming things are set up the same way that you're used to, so I doubt you'll get lost. Be back soon, though. James' friends will be here any time now," she rested a hand on his shoulder as she leant down to kiss his cheek before letting him go.
"Alright Mum. I'll be up in our room if you need me," Cole grinned and ran upstairs
"I will, Mum," James kissed her cheek, causing her to blush and left. His Mum need never know that it was really Cole who was staying home and not James.
TBC...