phase five

"They're gone."

1st June, 2013 - Katherson Residence, Hampstead, New Hampshire, US

"Nicholas James Katherson! What on earth did you do now?" A woman with rigorous brunette curls in her early thirties stormed into the room. "And why are your books all scattered around?"

"Mom," The boy with auburn hair and hazel eyes started.

"How many times have you made a mess because you want to try out wandless magic without proper supervision?" The woman bellowed.

"It was Lou!" The boy, Nicholas exclaimed.

"No! It was not! I was in my room finishing my transfiguration homework!" A girl with the same rigorous curls in chocolate brown with a pair of emerald green eyes defended.

"Alura! Stop lying!" Nicholas whined.

"Twins! I don't care who did it, but clean up the mess at once or no treacle tarts for a month." The mother warned and the twins pouted slightly.

"Yes Mom." They answered and quickly scrambled to pick up the mess as their mother left. Nicholas stood up after he heard footsteps going down the stairs and looked around to make sure no one was around, before shutting the door and muttered "Privatis modus maxima!"

"Alura!" He hushed. "What on earth were you thinking?"

"Oh, so you'd rather pack book by book into our pouch?" Alura argued.

"If you want to succeed, we need to be stealth!" Nicholas retorted.

"Fine Nick! I'm sorry, but that doesn't make our plan flawless!" Alura replied, shoving one book into the shelf exceptionally hard.

"We'll never get to phase six if you keeping messing up our packing." Nicholas returned.

"Our plan was to leave once summer starts, which is two weeks away!" Alura stated, holding up the detailed plan made on their bespoke tablet.

Project Genitor Inventum

Phase One: Earn and save enough money.

Phase Two: Research as much as we could about our genetics, ask Mom subtle questions and bribe nana and papa, save every information digitally.

Phase Three: Learn apparition, disillusionment charm and more advanced defensive and offensive magic.

Phase Four: make contact with Freya McKelsey and establish more.

Phase Five: Final preparations before departure on first day of summer 14/6

Phase Six: Departure with a cryptic note to Mom

Phase Seven: Establish our hub

Phase Eight: Observations and exploration

Phase Nine: Interrogation

Phase Ten: Hopefully we find our answer.

"Yes, and be as subtle as we can, before Mom finds out and we're doomed!" Nicholas replied. "Besides, we've already scanned every book in this house into our tablet, why do we need to pack our books?"

"Because, Nick." Alura started. "The secrets are often not within words, but papers!"

"Anyways!" Nicholas sighed.

"Let's elaborate." Alura gestured Nick to come over, who did so reluctantly. "We know that our father's middle name is James. He is in the UK. He is magical, but because of the scarcity of information we have, Ilvermony's library is not a big help. We scanned in newspapers between two years before our birth and two years after..."

"And we have a photo of Mom when she was younger in Hogwarts, probably in her last few years, next to her was a girl with curly blonde hair and a purple bandana." Nicholas finished.

"We know that Mom left because she said the British Magical Community is not safe for raising children. And deducted that she was probably involved with something." Alura started.

"We know that Mom's alias here is Jean Katherson, but she never told us her real name." Nicholas continued.

"We bribed nana and she told us Jean is part of Mom's real name." Alura recalled.

"And we still need missing persons record..." Nicholas stated.

"Which we can't get our hands on until we reach Britain." Alura finished.

"KIDS! DINNER'S READY!" The twins' mother, Jean Katherson called.

"COMING!" Alura yelled back as the two scrambled down the stairs. Jean was setting up the table with traditional English roasts and a light apple crumble with custard. She might've left in a hurry, but her roots were never forgotten.

"How do you feel twins, sophomore year's almost over." Jean asked.

"Dreading it. My SAGEs are one year closer now."Nicholas replied and Alura grimaced.

"You know back at Hogwarts, we used to have our SAGE equivalent, the OWLs in fifth year. That's your junior year." Jean said.

"That's sad Mom." Alura commented.

"I was a workaholic to the extreme back then. My roommate would force my book out of my hands and command me to sleep." Jean chuckled.

"Yeah I can imagine." Nick muttered, thinking of his mother's book filled room. You'd think she sleeps in a library if it wasn't for a wine red door with gold accents within the room named 'closet' and an identical door before the room with Jean's name on it.

"Mom, do you ever miss Britain?" Alura blurted out.

The table went silent with this question. The family of three knew that questions about their mother's past always triggered something within them. The hurt and regret of Jean, the many questions and confusion within Alura, and the weird unsettlement of not knowing his father within Nick.

"I do, Lou." Jean answered after a pregnant silence. "Everyday." She paused before continuing. "It's hard to imagine it's already been fifteen years since I left."

"What about your friends?" Alura prompted carefully.

"I miss them very much." Jean replied softly. "But times were different then, it was definitely not an accountable place to raise a child, let alone two at the age of eighteen." Jean concluded and silently prodded her plate of gravy and roast.

Nick gave a pointed glare towards his twin sister while he munched in his gravy covered bread. Alura just shrugged and continued her meal in silence.

"I'm sorry kids." Jean suddenly said. "I shouldn't have been harsh, you were just curious."

"It's alright." Alura smiled faintly.

"I never want to talk much about my past because it haunted me still. Because I would jump at any chance to return but I knew there was no turning back making this decision. I can still hear the voices of my friends, calling my name. I can still see their faces, smiling, laughing. I can relive every single moment I spent with them every time I close my eyes." Jean confessed and the twins stared at her as if another head grew on her neck. Never had their mother spoke so openly about her past. Not even when they were six and prodded her about where's their father for the whole year.

Quickly, Jean finished her apple crumble and rose, sending her dishes to the sink and walked upstairs to her room silently, leaving the twins agape.

"What happened?" Nick finally spoke after an awkward silence as their mother's room shut with a loud click.

"That happened." Alura replied.

—

Upstairs, Jean Cecilia Katherson quickly shut her door to her sanctuary, the only place where she can truly be herself, that she can forget her alias. Jean walked to her desk and absentmindedly pressed her thumb to the side of her desk. A hidden compartment popped out, revealing several moving pictures and a thick leather diary.

She hesitantly took the diary out and turned to the page bookmarked with a dried holly leaf. It has lost it's lively colour over the years, seemingly telling Jean how long it has been. 1st June, 1998

Dear Diary,

Today's the day. Wish me luck. I hope they will forgive me. And Happy Birthday, Jean Cecilia Katherson.

This will probably be my last time writing in here.

Farewell,

HJG

Teardrop marks were seen everywhere on the paper, blurring the ink on it. New ones were added onto it every year, but through the blurry ink mess she could still remember each stroke that was once visible on the paper.

How could she not?

That was the day Jean Cecilia Katherson was born.

That was the day Hermione Jean Granger went missing.

—

14th June, 2013 - Katherson Residence, Hampstead, New Hampshire, US

"Hey kids! How's last day?" Jean called out as she heard the front door bang close.

"It was fine. Glad it's finally summer." Nicholas yelled a reply.

"I thought you're working late tonight at the bookshop Mom!" Alura asked.

"Oh, turns out Lynne was free today and could cover Dom's shift." Their mother replied.

"Well, luckily we decided against going down to Donnish Attic." Alura said, making herself a glass of smoothie.

"Lou, come up here!" Nick yelled while Alura was enjoying her smoothie.

"WHAT?" Alura yelled back and strode upstairs.

"LOU!" Nick yelled again and Alura slammed the door open."

"What!" Alura asked, annoyed.

"Close the door!" Nick then hushed contrastingly.

"Oh! Right." Alura replied in realisation and quickly slammed the door shut.

"Finalise. Tonight. Everything ready?" Nick asked.

"We have supplies for at least three months. Our digital supplies, camping supplies, power banks enough to last us for four months, a power generator, all our researches, our magical supplies and basic necessities including my period pads, our food, and our money." Alura counted as she went through all the previously disillusioned bags.

"Do you have the moleskin pouch?" Nick asked.

"Yes I stole it from Mom." Alura replied.

"Good. Removed any tracing spells or any shellwork that is foreign to the product?" Nicked asked again.

"Done." Alura checked.

"Okay. Let's put everything into it now and attach it to you. Then we'll have dinner, come up to write the letter and disappear when Mom goes to shower." Nick concluded as they packed everything into their mother's magic pouch and safely fastened it to Alura's waist, hid behind a loose floral blouse.

"Do you think we'll succeed?" Alura asked after they're done.

"I hope so." Nick replied.

"But Mom is one powerful witch. Surely she might be able to trace us?" Alura queried.

"We just have to get to Britain, then even if she did find us, she won't be able to do anything, cause she will not go back." Nick said confidently and stood up from his bed.

"We'll turn in early tonight, then when Mom goes to shower at ten we'll apparate to Donna the Florist's at Somerville and take a cab from there to Boston." Nick decided.

"Our passports?" Alura asked.

"Mom keeps it in her third drawer, just snatch it on the way." Nick instructed.

"Okay."

"KIDS! DINNER!"

—

"Okay you two, I'm going to shower. Just don't open to the door we don't have guests. We might have an amazon delivery though, I ordered some new pillows to replace the old ones." Jean ordered and the twins nodded.

"Okay Mom, is it okay if I go to Gina's tomorrow?" Alura asked.

"Okay, as long as you don't miss curfew." Jean replied and went upstairs to shower.

"Okay. Game time." Nick said and Alura quickly casted a muffliato charm and tip toed upstairs, glad to find the door slightly ajar. She heard the shower turn on and a blissful 'ah' was heard faintly and she popped open the third drawer, revealing two red passports.

"Goodie." Alura whispered and snatched it, putting it into the pouch and left the room as she entered.

"Good to go?" Nick asked and Alura nodded, walking out to the backyard, they joined hands and the next second, all you see is beautifully trimmed blue and red salvias, pretty lavenders and a few myrtles here and there.

—

Jean walked out of the shower feeling refreshed as ever. After days of wallowing in the past, she felt newborn. She felt as if she could move on again. After getting changed into her nightdress, she walked out of the steam filled room to find the house absolutely quiet.

Oddly quiet.

With a bad feeling in her gut she hadn't felt for quite a while, she quickly picked up her wand and proceeded out of her room cautiously, ready to stun someone if needed.

"Alura? Nicholas?" Jean called but there was no answer. She descended the stairs into the living room where she last saw her twins, but everything was back in place, it was as if they never existed.

"ALURA? NICHOLAS?" Jean yelled again, and walked up to check their rooms.

She pushed open their doors quietly, to find Nicholas's bed made, the door connecting to Alura's room open, revealing an equally tidy bed in Alura's room. As she scouted around the room, she found a letter on Nicholas's desk.

Dear Mom

Hesitantly, she waved her wand over the letter to check for any jinxes and hexes, or even curses that tainted the letter, which came out negative. She then put down her wand and opened the letter seal trembly.

Dear Mom,

Please don't worry! We're not kidnapped, or killed. We left. Please don't come and find us, we will be back for Ilvermony in late August. We needed to explore, and we want to get to know you, not as Jean Katherson, but the real you. We also want to get to know us, not as Nicholas and Alura Katherson, but whatever our real surname is. Rest assured, we have planned this for years, since we started Ilvermony. We have enough supplies and saved up enough money (remember our summer jobs and chores?)

Please don't worry, we'll be back!

Love you to the moon and back,

Alura Lilith Katherson and Nicholas James Katherson

"Oh." Jean let out a gasp after an indefinite pause.

"Oh!" Jean gasped again and tears rolled down her face as she trembled uncontrollably. All the emotions and thoughts bottled up all these years since she left flooded her mind in one irreversible tsunami. She sat on her son's bed, and cried for hour and hours, until there weren't any tears left. She have tried, tried so hard to move on, to shield her children from her dangerous past. She have tried so hard to get into this new life, to settle down, to forget about it.

But I guess being the descendants of two thirds of the trio, generations of tricksters and daredevils, and a lines of pure ingenuity, what did she expect.

—

15th June, 2013 - Katherson Residence, Hampstead, New Hampshire, US

"JEAN?" A woman dressed in a white sleeveless blouse and dark blue jeans in her late fifties nodded on the front door of the Katherson Residence vigorously.

"JEAN?" The woman yelled again before fumbling the keys in her hands to enter the warm cozy house.

"JEAN?" The name was called again as she shut the front door.

"LOU? NICK?" She continued to yell out names while she searched the house for any people.

"JEAN? ALURA? NICHOLAS? ANYBODY?" The woman strode upstairs nervously. She quickly busted all the doors in the hallway open in search of her daughter and her grandchildren. When she reached the last door to the left, she heard quiet sobs echo through the door. Calithea Granger slowly came to a halt and twisted the door knob as softly as she could, pushing the door open, revealing her daughter sobbing on her grandson's bed, with a piece of tear stained paper in her hands.

"Hermione?" Calithea called softly. Jean- Hermione stilled refused to answer as she sobbed, and was quickly wrapped in a hug by her mother.

"Oh Hermione, what happened? Lynne said you weren't at the bookshop today and couldn't reach you anyway, no one answered the phone, or the texts..." Calithea asked softly, rubbing soothing circles on Hermione's back.

"They're gone." Hermione whispered, barely heard by anyone.

"What?" Calithea repeated.

"The twins." Hermione choked out. "They're gone."