One afternoon around the beginning of October before their tenth birthdays, Ronan called her, sounding so urgent that she ran out on a magic lesson from her mother to talk to him. "Ronan," Dora gasped as soon as she saw the bruises on his face. "What's going on?"

Ronan was shaking from head to toe, but breathed, "I—I made Grandfather angry and he cursed me and I fell down the stairs."

"This just happened?" Dora asked in shock.

"He locked me in here," Ronan continued, his words spilling out in his fright and anger. "I want Mum and Dad back. I hate this place."

"Ronan," Dora murmured, seeing her cousin dash away tears of distress.

"I can't stand it," breathed the boy. "He doesn't understand, and he wants me to learn so much extra stuff—and he doesn't care that Mum and Dad are gone." A tremor went through the boy and he sank down against the wall in his room, propping the mirror nearby.

Dora leaned forward as if she could get closer to him and breathed, "It's only a bit more than a year until we're eleven, Ro. It'll be okay."

"But it's two years until Hogwarts," the boy cried hopelessly, his arms wrapped around himself as he shook with pain and emotions. "If I could run away, I would." And tears trickled down his face until he finally buried his face in his arms to stifle his sobs while Dora bit her lip, tearing up as she watched him cry.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I wanted to stay and help you."

"No one can help," he sniffed. "And now everyone thinks I'm either a disgrace, or that I'm too much like Mum—and I hate them all!" He looked up with such an expression of rage that Dora couldn't help momentarily agreeing. "You're the only one that cares, Dora."

"You're family," the girl said earnestly. "I wish I could be there with you."

Ronan's face went white with fear, and he disappeared, leaving Dora to stare at the empty mirror in horror. Had the boy's grandfather walked in and found him talking to the mirror? Terrified, Dora threw the mirror back into the drawer and ran to Will and Charlie's room, bursting inside and crying, "Mum, Desmond's hurting Ronan again! Can we help him?"

Charlie, who had been about to attempt a charm, jumped in shock, and Will looked around at his sister in concern. Their mother looked at her and asked, "He already did, or he caught you?"

"Both," Dora cried in her confusion. "Mum, his face was all bruised, and he said Desmond Cursed him down the stairs, and Ronan just hung up on me—"

Andromeda moved to her daughter's side and Dora grabbed onto her with a small sob and cried, "Can't we do something? He needs help!"

"Desmond is his grandfather and legal guardian, Dora," Andromeda said very gently, cradling the girl to herself. "Old pureblood families are very mean to their children when they misbehave, and it's probably worse for him because he is the last and heir of his family."

"It's not fair!" Dora sobbed, her fists doubled up, ignoring her brothers as they stared at her in shock. "He was crying, and he never cries, and he's really scared—he doesn't want to be there anymore!"

"If he contacts you again, encourage him to behave," Andromeda said, holding her daughter close. "Tell him open rebellion isn't going to help, and he's better off pretending to behave until he's a bit older. Ronan should avoid all the suffering that comes with that."

"Desmond's so mean," Dora cried. "He wasn't before Rod and Bella were taken!"

"Well, he's in charge now, and he's probably far more strict with Ronan than Rodolphus was," Andromeda sighed. "Dora, that's Aunt Bella's son: he's going to be okay."

"What if Desmond caught him?" the girl sniffed.

"It will only make Ronan more determined to contact you somehow, even if that's only at school," Andromeda answered. "From what you've told me about him, he's like both of his parents. He's smart and resourceful, and he'll find a way, Dora."

"I don't want him to be hurt," Dora breathed, wiping away her tears as she realised what a scene she'd made in front of her mother and brothers. "He—he's like my other twin."

Andromeda smiled in spite of Charlie's look of outrage. "I can see that," she said. "But remember, we can't always protect those we love from the things or people around us. It's the things we suffer that make us stronger in the end, and I'm sure this will strengthen Ronan into quite the young man."

Dora glanced in the mirror, morphing her tearstains away and taking some deep breaths. "I just want him to be okay."

"I agree," Andromeda answered. "I'm sure he'll be okay, Dora."

The girl gave a tiny nod, then went back to her room and stayed close to the mirror for the rest of the day and into the evening, ignoring her mother's call to dinner. Her father brought her a plate and she thanked him, seeing him hesitate for a moment before saying, "I'm sure he'll be all right, Dora. Your mum's family is really strong."

"Yeah," Dora smiled weakly. "He just...needs me."

Arthur Weasley looked at his daughter and held back a sigh full of many thoughts. "Your mother and I will be in to say goodnight later unless you come downstairs on your own. We love you."

Dora nodded slightly. "Love you too," she echoed, and watched him leave. It had taken her almost two years to get used to her real parents and hearing them say they loved her—but it was still the strangest thing to hear from her father. He wasn't like any of the rest of his own family, and she wondered if he knew that. Sometimes, she wasn't sure that he really loved her, and that whenever he saw her or talked to her, she made him sad.

She had never mentioned that to anyone but Ronan, who had thought that perhaps her father was sad that she'd been taken away and didn't know him anymore. It had been nearly two years that she'd been back, though, and he was still sad when he looked at her.

Late that evening, Charlie entered her room without knocking, and she faced him in rage before seeing him put a finger to his lips. "Mum and Dad are talking about you," he whispered. "In the kitchen. "Come listen at the top of the stairs. Will, Silas, and Regis are out there: Mum and Dad were just talking about them, too."

Dora did not want to have anything to do with the other twins, but quickly followed Charlie out of curiousity, all five of them standing silently on the landing. Their parents' voices floated out of the kitchen.

"—worried about her," Arthur was saying. "No, no, Dromeda, of course I don't blame you. I honestly doubt whether the Order could have broken the defenses on Lestrange Manor before Ronan's parents were arrested. Dora's just so attached to the boy—it's not healthy."

"That's what happens when only one person seems to really care about you," Andromeda sighed. "She's enough like Bellatrix to have seen right through her, I'm sure. I just wish I could help her understand that we love her no matter what."

"Do you think she'll ever be happy here?" Arthur asked, and Dora moved closer to hear her mother's very quiet reply.

"I don't know, Arthur. She's been very hurt by what she's suffered, and I know the other twins and the younger two still really upset her, but I'm not exactly sure why," their mother murmured. "I hope she's beginning to trust me more, but I'm afraid it's only because she has to, and not because she knows that I want to help her."

Dora's heart pounded at the things she was hearing, and Will moved closer. "We shouldn't be listening to this," he hissed to them.

"Shh," said Regis.

"Don't be a Percy," Silas told his oldest brother, receiving a warning look from his twin.

Will's ears turned red, but when he looked at Dora, his words hadn't had an effect on her at all. The girl was gripping the top of the banister tightly, listening hard for more information.

"She resents the younger two because she feels like they took her place while she was gone," Arthur sighed. "Will told me."

Dora stared at Will in outrage, and he just groaned silently, sitting down at the top of the stairs and putting his head in his hands. Charlie looked at his twin and whispered, "Well, we all know you feel like that."

"No one could replace Nymphadora," Andromeda said with a laugh mixed with some emotion. "She was the first girl, and she was one of the three that were born before we moved to this house…but Bella really hurt Dora when she took her away from us."

"I wish we could have stopped Bellatrix," Arthur said. "Dora just always looks so upset and frightened and alone that it hurts me to look at her. I wish I could have protected her more."

"I think she knows that," Andromeda sighed. "She's asked me if she makes you sad."

"What?" Arthur said in surprise. "Oh, that's—I didn't mean—"

"Children just know," Andromeda said, and her listening children all knew she was smiling. "Besides, you never quite mastered the pureblood mask."

"Not a fan of masks," Arthur said with a huff, and Andromeda laughed slightly. "I'll do better, try not to be so open."

"You once told me that children must be loved, remember?" the witch said, and the children heard her chair creak and exchanged knowing looks of warning. "Well, that's what we'll do. Love them all no matter what, and keep in mind the things that might upset them. We can't treat them all the same, as no two children are exactly alike, even Silas and Regis."

The younger twins looked offended, but as Will gave them a severe look and motioned them to go to their room, they all realised it was too late for them to get on up to the next landing. Dora waved at them all and pointed firmly to Will and Charlie's room. They all rushed inside as silently as possible and shut the door most of the way, the younger twins and Dora hiding behind the beds until their parents had gone upstairs.

"That was close," Silas breathed—and froze as there was a soft knock on the door.

All five of them looked at each other, and Dora rolled her eyes at the younger twins before waving the door open as was her custom since she had arrived back at the Burrow. Their mother stood in the entrance of the room, immediately seeing the five all together. "What are we doing in here?" she inquired pleasantly.

"Nothing," Regis said, and Charlie nudged him to be quiet.

"Talking," Will answered. "About stuff before...and about Ronan."

"Can I trust you to be back in your own rooms in an hour?" Andromeda asked them. "It is getting a little past your bedtimes."

The children looked at each other and Charlie said, "Sure, Mum. I'm not even sure Dora and the boys will want to be in the same room for that long anyway."

The three of them huffed at their brother, but Charlie ignored them, grinning at his mother innocently. Andromeda smiled at him, having noticed a great decrease in the boy's anger since his twin's return, though his sadness had increased in equal amounts. "All right," she said. "I'll check in an hour. If you're here, I'll be back down to see you off to bed."

"Thanks," Will told his mother, grateful as he knew that Dora was going to need someone with her for a few minutes after what she had heard. "We'll try to be done."

"Goodnight, then," Andromeda said and left the room, shutting the door quietly.

"She knew we were listening," Dora said. "She looked in my room and came looking for me. I should have gone out and told her I was looking for a drink."

"Wait, she knew when she and Dad were talking, or afterward?" Charlie asked.

"Afterward," Dora answered her twin. "She must have done a spell to figure out where I was."

"We're not bad kids," Silas said to Dora with a scowl. "I don't know why you have to be mean."

Charlie sighed. "Silas, she's not being mean. It was stupid for you to pretend to be Ronan. You wouldn't like it if somebody took your twin away and pretended to be him."

"But I wouldn't hurt them," Regis huffed, also scowling at Dora.

"You don't know what you would do if someone ripped you away from your family," Will said to the younger twins sternly. "You didn't see Aunt Bella take Dora, and you don't know what happened to Dora when she was gone. They were mean to Dora too."

"What did they do?" Silas asked doubtfully, crossing his arms and frowning at Dora and her twin.

Dora did not want to answer, but Regis said, "Come on, Dora. You came back and didn't tell us anything!"

"Rodolphus protected me from Mum and Bella's Dad several times, but Rodolphus also never really liked me because I'm better at magic and things and faster at learning than Ronan. Bella just...well, she does everything for the Dark Lord, and so she didn't actually want me there. He wanted me there." Dora scowled.

"The Dark Lord?" Silas frowned. "But he died years ago."

"He's not dead," Dora and Charlie said together, Will nodded in agreement with them. "He's coming back," Dora continued firmly, "and both Aunt Bella and Mum believe that. Aunt Bella loved him more than she loved Rodolphus, and I think she would know if he was dead or not."

"But how do we know?" Will asked. "Did you ever see Bella and You-Know-Who together?"

"She took me to him," Dora shrugged, making her brothers stare at her in horror. "He wasn't awful, just asked me to show him how I morph. He's really powerful, you know—"

"He's dead," Silas muttered, being shushed by his twin and receiving a glare from Dora.

"Aunt Bella said she has nothing to fear from the Dark Lord because she is faithful," Dora said coldly. "I wouldn't doubt her knowledge of his whereabouts. I'd go look for him too if I weren't a kid, and stuck here."

"Mum wouldn't like that," Charlie sighed, "but I think she'd understand."

Will shook his head. "Dad would not be happy, though."

Dora crossed her arms. "Well, I can't make him happy anyway. It's not my fault I got taken away."

"He knows that," Will said earnestly. "He just wishes that it hadn't happen, and that you and Ronan weren't having such a hard time now. Dad loves all of us, Dora."

The other twins nodded in agreement. "Look," said Regis to Dora uncertainly, "if you won't curse us, we won't prank you."

Dora merely huffed, "You pranked me first: he deserved it."

"You can help each other," Charlie said to the three Metamorphagus. "Experiment and have fun. You might be able to learn some new morphs and things like that from each other."

"Do you hate not being like me?" asked Dora out of the blue.

Everyone looked at Charlie for the answer, and he scowled before replying, "I don't want to be like you and get kidnapped for the Dark Lord. It's cool to morph and all that, but I don't want to be hurt."

"Yeah," Will said with a shrug, "but being normal hasn't helped either. Charlie was the mean one while you were gone, Dora."

"I'm not mean," Dora huffed at Will, turning to her twin curiously. "Why, what happened to you while I was gone?"

"No one understood why I was angry except Mum and Dad, and they didn't even try to get you back," Charlie answered. "Mum always says it was because it wouldn't have worked and you might have gotten hurt, but I don't know about that."

Dora regarded her twin with a sad smile. "Thanks," she told him. "I used to scream at Bella and Rod that I wanted to go home, that I wanted you and Mum, but they always told me no. And I hurt Ronan a couple times because he was always telling me 'they're not going to let you go.'"

"It's weird," Will said thoughtfully. "Why did Rodolphus ask his dad to bring you back to us if they refused to give you back in the first place?"

"I'm sure it's because Rodolphus thought I was safer here if something happened to them," Dora answered.

"Yeah, Ronan's grandfather seems really mean," Regis agreed.

"Actually," Dora said in a more quiet voice, "Desmond is only mean when he wants us to behave. I think Rodolphus was more worried about what Bella's dad would do if no one was there to stop him. Desmond is kind of old, and I don't think he'd be able to keep Cygnus from hurting me if he tried something again. Cygnus is evil."

"Really?" Charlie asked her. "I know Mum hates him, and she doesn't like talking about him...or her mother."

"He likes to hurt little girls," Dora mumbled. "Bella told me that he hurt her and our mum, and he tried to hurt me too, but Rodolphus stopped him. He's evil; he's far worse than Desmond. I know Rodolphus kept me safe by having his father send me here—though I think Desmond wanted to get rid of me anyway—but I wish that I could help Ronan."

"You'll see him at school," Silas shrugged. "You're in the same year, aren't you?"

"Yeah," nodded Dora. "Well, we need to get to bed before Mum comes back."

"Or before Percy comes to tell us off," Charlie chuckled.

"He hasn't yelled at us recently," Silas said. "He's been ignoring us. I don't know what he's up to."

Dora raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps leave him alone? If he isn't bothering you, don't bother him."

Will chuckled. "Percy always yelled at them, though. I was kind of getting used to it."

"Look," Dora said to Silas and Regis, "it bothers him when things are out of place. He doesn't like people to be loud and do annoying little pranks, but Mum asked him to step back and let her and Dad deal with you two. Percy's trying to mind his own business. Leave him alone."

"Come on, Dora," Silas said to her. "Don't you think it's funny to trick people? You should help us and see what it's like."

"No," Dora said firmly. "Percy's nice to me. I'm not going to prank him."

"Do something to Mum," Charlie suggested. "Or Dad."

"Noooo, not Mum," Will said warningly. "Remember, she said if you two prank someone, they have every right to curse you back?"

"She can't hurt me more than Bella and Rod," Dora scoffed. "Maybe. We'll talk about it later. Let's go before Mum comes to see what we're talking about."

She hurried from the room, and as she climbed the stairs to her room, she saw her mother walk out of their room and head for the stairs. "We're going to bed," she said, and Andromeda looked around, then smiled and nodded. "Goodnight," her mother said, then moved to look over the banister at Silas and Regis, who had been whispering to each other and laughing quietly. "Come on, you two," she yawned.

The twins hurried on up the stairs and went into their rooms, Dora continuing up to hers and pausing until she heard her mother's door shut. She wasn't sure what to do about the other twins, but she wasn't going to let them hurt Percy if she could help it. Percy was about as innocent as Ronan, in her eyes, and didn't deserve their pranks. She would make sure the other twins treated him better.

I cannot wait to see the person that Ronan grows to be, and I look forward to Dora defending Percy xD Hogwarts for Dora and Charlie is coming up soon, and I can't wait to get that all done!

Also we're having an insane windstorm right now and I miss the blue sky. I keep hearing stuff clunking around in the backyard.

Trixie Black Lestrange