The weird sisters.
During the Honey's time in England, a family called the Saxtons had moved in next to their house. There was Kenny Saxton and his wife Martha Saxton nee Rue, and their two nieces Layla and Vida.
Vida and Layla were identical twins, though you would guess that on the first try. If you were to look at them you would see that Vida had light-blond hair and deep-blue eyes, while Layla had ebony-black hair and dark-brown eyes, but if you took those factors away you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between them.
Kenny had scruffy black hair and blue eyes, he always had a clean shaven face. Martha had red hair and green eyes, and looked like a woman who wouldn't hurt a fly; the other Saxtons new better though.
Their new house was fairly large with a basement and attic. It had a kitchen, dinning room, living room, five bedrooms, each bedroom had it's own bathroom, and more than a few other spare rooms. Kenny and Martha shared the biggest bedroom while the twins shared the second biggest, the other rooms were left alone or used for other things.
What I've told you about the Saxton family makes them seem like a fairly normal family, but we all know better than that. We'll get to know more about them later with Harry and Matilda.
When the Jenny, Matilda and Harry got home, they set to work making Harry feel at home. The room next to Matilda's was cleared out and turned into Harry's bedroom, they painted the walls, put in a big bed, and filled the room with toys, books, games and other things that a child usually had. Harry was overwhelmed by the amount of kindness shown to him my Jenny and Matilda, but they assured him that they were only doing what any other family would do. Harry had nightmares where he would be back at the Dursleys, so Matilda had taken to sleeping in his bed or vies-versa to stop them. The twins quickly trusted each other like normal siblings, despite only being together for under a month.
One night, Harry had a particular bad nightmare that made him question himself. As soon as he woke up Matilda was immediately there, hugging him as he calmed down.
"Matilda, why did you want me?" Harry questioned.
"Harry, you're my brother, I would never have left you at that horrible place!" Matilda exclaimed.
"Why not send me to a orphanage?"
"We're twins, we're family, and I love you."
"Why would someone love a freak?"
"Don't listen to what those people told you, your not a freak, they are."
"But I do all these weird things."
"Like what?"
"I turned my teachers hair another colour, my hair grows back when cut, I managed to get myself on the school roof without climbing…"
"Harry, it's okay, don't worry. Why don't we read a book to calm down?"
Matilda made a beckoning motion with her finger to Harry's bookcase. To her brother's amazement, a book floated out of the collection of books and into her hand.
"You're not the only one that's gifted." she said.
When it came time for school the siblings had to separate because of Matilda's high intelligence putting her in a older year. Thankfully, Amanda and Lavender, two of Matilda's friends, helped Harry in class.
The new teacher, Mrs Clark, called for the attention of the class.
"Now, we are getting two new students. Please be kind around them because one of them cannot speak. Layla, Vida, come in please."
Vida and Layla walked into the classroom holding each others hand, both wore a white dress with a red cardigan and shoes. The only difference in their clothes was that Layla wore a bandana around her neck.
"Would you like to say anything?" Mrs Clark asked.
The twins shook their heads.
"Right, you can go sit on Harry's table. Harry, raise your hand."
Harry raised his hand and the twins sat in the empty seats on his table.
"Hi, I'm Harry." Harry introduced himself.
The twins looked at him.
"I'm Vida, this is my sister Layla." Vida said.
Since it was Vida who spoke, Harry correctly guessed that Layla was the mute.
Over the lesson Harry noticed that the twins kept on sneaking quick glances at him. When the class was over the twins walked up to him.
"We recognised you as our neighbour." Vida said as they walked onto the playground. "What's your last name?"
"It's Honey-Potter, it used to be just Potter before I was adopted my Miss Honey." Harry explained.
Matilda walked up to the three as they reached the newly installed swing set on the playground.
"Hey, Harry. Who are these two?" Matilda asked politely.
"These two are Vida and Layla Saxton, they're our neighbours."
The twins looked slightly confused.
"How come you aren't in our class? You're our age." Vida asked.
"Not to brag," Matilda said honestly. "But I'm smarter than people my age so I've been moved up in the years."
"Well, would you and your mother like to come over to our house soon, uncle Kenny and aunt Martha would like to meet who we're living next to."
"We'll be sure to tell mom." Matilda said.
A few days later the Honeys were standing outside of the Saxton's home. Martha answered the door.
"Ah, the Honeys. Please, come in."
They were lead to the living room where the rest of the Saxton family was waiting. Kenny waited until they were all seated before speaking.
"I'm going to cut to the chase. Harry, Matilda, have you noticed anything unusual happening about you?"
The Honeys froze.
"Like what?" Matilda asked.
"Things moving on their own accord, things changing from one thing to another, that sort of stuff."
"Ahhh…" was the siblings' answer.
"Like this." Kenny said. He then took out a wooden stick and waved it at a vase, the vase then floated in the air.
"What uncle Kenny is saying is, we believe you can do magic." Vida said.
"Magic?" asked Harry. "You mean the things we do are magic?"
"Yes." Kenny said. "Magic exists and you both are a witch and wizard."
"I guess it makes sense, are there many?" Jenny asked.
"There's a whole magic community," Martha said. "Some children do grow up not knowing they're magic until they get their letters to a magic school when they're eleven. Most of them are muggle-borns - magic people born with no magic roots - but some are like you two, being raised unknown about their magic heritage because they lost their parents."
"Then why tell us now?" Jenny asked.
"Harry and Matilda belong to an ancient and powerful line of magic, the Potters, they are the last of the Potter line. If they learn magic before they receive their letters they will be able to do the things expected of them from the magic world." Kenny explained. "And the fact that Harry is famous in the magic world and learning magic will help protect him from the negatives of his fame."
"What!" Harry cried.
"Your famous, Harry. When you were a baby a evil man tried to kill you but couldn't and died instead, in the magical world your known as the boy-who-lived." Martha explained.
"When we saw you we recognised your scar and worked out you had no knowledge of magic." Vida said. "And when we saw Matilda, we were surprised even more because we heard that she had died at birth. We told uncle Kenny and he was the one who decided you needed to know the truth."
"There are people out there who will want to take advantage of both of you because of who you are, we decided to help prevent that from happening by informing you of your heritage."
"This is a lot for us to take in." Jenny said, sounding stressed.
"We understand that. It was a lot for Vida and Layla to take in when we told them." Martha said. "How about we have some dinner to calm us down, then we can answer some of the questions you'll have."
A few weeks after being told about magic, things seemed better for Harry and Matilda, Matilda even learned that her powers were a form of wandless magic over levitation. They made quick friends with the twins and learnt some magic along with them. They also learnt some things about the twins.
Since Vida and Layla lived with their aunt and uncle and hadn't previously known about magic at one point, they didn't have their parents and when they did have them their parents either didn't tell them about magic or didn't know about magic. The twins didn't like to speak about their parents, it brought up soar memories for them. They also put on a façade in public, in public they acted emotionless and only stuck to each other, when in real life they were friendly and outgoing. And they were very protective of each other and their friends.
One time, one of the bullies who had popped up - since bullies had been no existent under the Trunchbull's rule - had tried picking on Matilda since she was in the class above him yet younger. When the twins had found out he had ended up on the floor with the twins sitting on him, no-body knew how they did it but no-body questioned how.
The two sets of siblings were staying at the Saxton house for the night while Kenny Martha and Jenny were at an adults thing when Harry asked a question that had been bugging him.
"Why haven't we been left a babysitter?" Harry asked.
It was true, even though they were all only seven, they Saxtons hadn't hired a baby-sitter to take care of them.
"Probably something to do with most of the baby-sitters in the country getting a warning not to take on a job where the children's last names are Saxton." Vida said simply.
"How'd you warrant that?" Matilda asked.
The twins looked back in their memories. "Well…"
(Flashback)
The six year-old Saxton twins sat on their chair as their baby-sitter said goodbye to their aunt and uncle.
"Goodbye Mr and Mrs Saxton." she said. "I'll make sure to take care of them."
But once Kenny and Martha left her demeanour had changed.
"Listen you two," she had spat once she turned to them. "You stay out of my way in your room or else."
Vida and Layla turned their eyes to meet before looking back at their sitter with blank faces.
[20 minutes later]
Paramedics carted the twins' hysterical baby-sitter out of the house strapped to a stretcher. She was white as a sheet, her eyes were darting everywhere and was mumbling thing about demon children.
Watching from a window were the twins with slight smile on their faces. The sitter's eyes settled on them and they waved, she then launched into a fresh round of hysterics.
"That's got to be a new record." Vida said to Layla.
When Kenny and Martha returned home and saw all the commotion they knew what had happened.
"That's the thirty-sixth one." Kenny groaned.
(End Flashback)
Vida and Layla looked at the siblings.
"You don't want to know." Vida said.
One day the four had been heading home late from the school.
Vida and Layla suddenly nudged Matilda and Harry with their arms.
"Don't look back, we're being followed by three men."
They picked up their pace as discretely as they could, but the men picked up their pace. They then found their path blocked by two other men and had no choice but to try and escape down an alley.
"What are children doing out at a time like this without your mommies?" one of them said in a patronising voice.
"Sorry, but we've been told not to speak to strangers." Vida growled out.
"Awe, look, she's trying to be tuff." said another in an equally patronising voice.
The four found their way blocked by a chain link fence.
"Stay close." Vida whispered to her friends.
The four turned to face the five men blocking their way out.
"Excuse me, but your blocking our way out." Vida said, her voice betraying no emotion.
"So we are," said the one who seemed to be the leader. "But I'm afraid we're not moving."
"And why's that?" Vida asked.
"Because we're hungry, and little children make the sweetest of foods."
Matilda watched in fear as the men transformed into something else. Their teeth grew long and sharp, their ears pointed and ragged, their fingers became talons, their eyes became yellow with black slits, and their skin became like gray scales. They looked like demons.
Matilda was so scared that she couldn't use her wandless magic to blast the men away.
Vida and Layla however, remained emotionless and had their hands in their pockets in a show of casualness.
"I think something's wrong with those two, boss. They're not acting like the other two." one of the demons rasped out, pointing to the twins.
The leader's forked tongue poked out from between his teeth. "Then allow me to instil some fear into them."
The leader then jumped forward with super-human speed, talons poised to attack. Matilda and Harry screamed and looked away, not willing to see their best friends attacked by the demon.
…To be continued…
I know it's cruel to leave you on a cliff-hanger like this, but I think what happens next works better if it's on another chapter.