Also, guys, Sunlight will be updated within the next week or two. School starts August 15th and I have that week off work, so when I'm not doing homework, I'll be writing, no worries. However, when I have both work and school to deal with, I don't know how well I'll keep up, but I'll try!

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Christina speaks her first full sentence when she is a little over a year old.

"Where is mummy and daddy?"

There's a slight accent to it, but Christina knows that it'll fade in time when her previous life fades more like all memories do. She does her best to sound as British as she can, though, for the sake of the woman who had burst into the office she and Neville had teleported into.

The woman, who wore robes like she'd seen in the pictures around her new home, had black hair pulled tightly into a bun and glasses perched on her nose. Christina thought she looked quite like a librarian who had a fondness for sneaking children cookies when she wasn't glaring at them for talking loudly.

The woman had, upon entering the room to see the onesie-clad twins sitting on her desk, (or, in Neville's position, sleeping) frozen. Christina wasn't the best at seeing things yet, and she had hope in her heart that she wouldn't need glasses this go-around, so she couldn't really tell facial expressions that were very small, but she could hear the sharp intake of breath.

"Oh dear Merlin," the woman whispered, voice thick with a Scottish brogue.

And then the magic happened. Literally.

The best thing about being reborn was that she seemed to have been reborn to a family of witches, and to a girl who had previously been entranced in fiction, specifically about a little witch from a school in Salem who saved the world with the power of love… Well. One could understand how eager Christina was to see every bit and piece of magic that this life had to offer, even if she was stuck in the 80's.

"Expecto Patronum!" From the woman's wand burst a silver tabby cat when she cast, and then she spoke. "Albus Dumbledore; Albus, the Longbottom twins were portkeyed to my office. Alice and Frank are in trouble."

Oh.

Christina felt as though her heart had stopped. Her mum and dad were in trouble? Oh god. Every little instance where Christina had heard mention of the war that was rampaging through the Wizarding World flooded through her mind, all her unasked questions regarding how her little family never left the house and had to have their groceries brought to them by friends - and the most recent addition. The loud bang that had sounded through the entire house the second before she and Neville had teleported - portkeyed? - to this office.

Her magic curled inside her veins and what once was a steady flow of warmth became an inferno of terror that whipped around and started to shake the furniture of the room as the silver tabby cat fled the room, walking on air as if on solid ground.

Even though she wanted to demand answers from this woman, Christina was still only one year old, and her body reacted accordingly by bursting into tears. The woman swooped in to hold her to her chest, even as her screaming sobs woke Neville up who soon joined in on the crying.

She wanted her mum and dad.

She didn't know if she would get them.

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In the days that followed, Christina was a wreck that swung violently from screaming and crying to silent and observant. She and Neville had been bundled off to a home the size of a mansion where an old woman lived only moments after said old woman and an old man dressed in tacky robes had entered the glasses-woman's office.

Clearly, the old lady who had taken them to the mansion, was trying to stay calm, tucking them into what seemed a very old crib in a room with a very large window in it. She lit the lights with a flick of her wand and tucked a red-and-gold blanket around Christina and her brother. The little mobile that hung above the crib had dragons that hung from it, which was set into a slow, steady spin at the flick of the woman's wand, a steady lullaby playing from it.

Christina desperately wanted to stay awake, to demand who this woman was, where she and Neville had been taken, where her parents were - but she was exhausted from crying and screaming. Neville had already succumbed to the lullaby and exhaustion, and it wasn't long before she did, too.

The next morning, she woke to the distant sound of shouting.

It wasn't long before she learned the fate of her parents. Christina tried to focus on the pity she felt for Mary McDonald, who had been tortured to death to find the location of the Longbottom household, but the grief she felt over her parents seemed to overpower everything. Tortured to insanity, she overheard. In the Hospital for life.

She and Neville were now, at best, orphans. The old woman, their grandmother on their dad's side, would now be the one to raise them. It a year, Christina had lost a family and a life, gained another, and then repeated. Like some kind of fucked-up shower of life. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Christina didn't speak for two weeks unless it was to quietly sing to Neville when he woke up with nightmares, before Augusta could check on them.

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Christina remembered the moment Gran seemed to come to the conclusion that Neville was worth less because he hadn't shown signs of accidental magic like it were a scene in a movie she had watched on repeat for decades. It was when they were nearing the age of four, just after another 'visit' to see their insane parents in St. Mungo's where Gran would regale them with the tales of how amazing their parents were and how they, as the great Alice and Frank's children, would have to live up to that image - well. It was no secret that Christina hated these visits.

She and Neville were sitting in front of the fireplace, drawing in a coloring book of magical creatures that tried to evade their crayons. It was only when she looked up did she see that every crayon that she had wanted to use next would float over near her hand. Christina had grown so comfortable with her magic that she barely noticed these days when it flared up in response to her feelings and wants.

And then she saw Gran.

Augusta Longbottom was always a severe looking woman, which complimented her strict attitude and conservative ideals. However, Christina had never before seen her look at anything with such disappointment in her eyes. Wondering what had let her down, she looked - and saw Neville.

Neville, her baby brother, all toddler-chub and blonde curls and blue eyes. He'd never done a single thing wrong in his entire life, done nothing but be a light in her life that, in her darker moments where she only ever hated, (hated rebirth, hated death, hated life, hated the people around her…) would remind her that there were good things no matter what… And Gran was looking at him as though he had snuck a cookie and accidentally broke the jar.

Confused, Christina swung her head back to look at Gran, and realized that Gran was looking not only at Neville, but also at the crayons that had been floating previously. She realized just what about Neville had disappointed Gran.

Not since the day he was born had Neville performed any accidental magic that was large enough for them to see. Christina was sure that he had done some, she could feel the cackle in the air that told of emotion-charged magic and could, almost, feel that it was Neville's magic - but she'd yet to see it physically manifest.

And for some goddamn reason, this seemed to disappoint Gran in ways that would forever elude Christina.

It was after this that Uncle Algie came to stay and the combined forces of Gran and her Uncle rained down upon Neville constantly to try and get him to show a hint of magic. Trips to St. Mungo's became a weekly event in which Gran would tell tales of their dad as a child, always having magical accidents and exploits; though they were told at the same time, next to each other, Christina always got the feeling Gran was talking specifically to Neville.

When she and Neville were five, Uncle Algie pushed Neville down the stairs.

It wasn't a tall flight of stairs, it was the shortest one in the Longbottom Manor, the one that led from the raised floor of a private living room to a hall. Christina didn't realize what had happened, having been focusing on reading a book about dragons, until Neville burst into tears and Uncle Algie sighed audibly and grumbled.

"Nothing," he had groaned, even as he pointed his wand and mumbled a spell that would help Neville's bruises heal. "Not even a hint."

Christina dropped her book and ran to Neville, because a spell wasn't going to stop him from crying, wasn't going to fix the fact that someone who was family had purposefully put a child in danger.

"Nev," she cooed, wrapping her arms around her twin's shoulders and trying to cover his head with her long hair. "It's okay. You're okay. It was just a little tumble. You're okay."

"B-but it hu-urt," he stuttered between heaving breaths, tears stopped by breathing still wacked.

"I know, Nev, I know," Christina glared at the retreating back of Uncle Algie as he went down the hall, away from them. "A little pain won't kill you, I promise."
Many years later, Christina would pinpoint this moment as the first time she actively hated Gran and Uncle Algie and Neville's presence didn't temper it.

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So yeah, chapters for CW are going to be a lot shorter than Sunlight. I sort of wanted to write more, but also the next scene would be a good opening for the next chapter, soooo. But hey, I'm glad so many people who liked Sunlight are liking Chasing Wind! Chasing Wind is a darker take on rebirth compared to Sunlight, where I skipped a lot of Clara's developing years to get straight to the main story. Christina, however… To understand anything that might be part of the main storyline, we need to get through the childhood arc first. It gives a lot of background to future things. Plus, I like writing without referencing the original text so much, man, it goes faster.

Reviews fuel my writing energy! Smooches, nerds!