Winchester, VA
United States"Maria, you know it makes sense," said her brother after a second.
"Yes I do!" she screamed at no one in particular.
"You know there is nothing more excruciating than what we did," said her…father? Yes. That is what he was, is, and will be, "But we did what we did, to protect you, protect you from public eye, and any kind of negative consequences of fame."
"Negative consequences?" asked Maria in disbelief, "So you did not want us in the public eye because it might have given us a big head? Is that what you think?"
"Yeah, dad, don't you think that if we were a family unit, and all together, that we might have over-came this? And what are you talking about, being in the public eye?" he said thinking at his father's wording, "What like celebrities? "
"Very much so," said Lilia, "You see, the Brandt family is sort of like royalty in the Charmed world. We are like the Queen's family in England-- everyone looks up to us. What with other circumstances regarding your birth—"
"What do you mean?" asked James.
"More on it later, but basically you two are the first male-female twin pair with Charmed powers," said Rodney, "In all of millennia we never had a male-female pair. Never. In a way you two are the most powerful beings in the world."
There was a dead silence. The twins were trying to process what they were told. Everything they thought they knew about themselves was now questioned. Their family's fortune: since they were royalty that meant that their mother (as they now had to learn to think of her) was perhaps not a talented surgeon, or that perhaps she used magic to be so talented, and that their father (as they now had to learn to think of him) was not a famous fictional writer but actually a historian who retold magic happenings at his old school, Hogwarts. Their stepparents, who they thought to be their real parents, were not their blood, and all the years of hurt and denial (especially for Maria) were not real and could have been avoided. For Maria, it was twice as worse as for James. Their parents told them that Maria lost most of her natural talent and most of her potential with separation, but James did not. Maria will have a hard time to adjust to her family and her true life. Out of the two of them, she was more Muggle.
"Say something for goodness sakes!" said their mother without her usual heavy accent.
Maria looked up.
"What do you want us to say?" she said with a hurt look on her face, "That we forgive you, that we understand you, that everything will be alright?"
"You're barking mad!" said James to their parents, "If you so much think that we will forgive you in the near future for the separation, you are mad! Neither of you helped us when we asked for help!"
"All those times, Mom, that I told you about weird dreams, off-center questions when I made things move or did things that I do not remember doing—"
"Finishing homework that I did not understand how to do and doing it right on top of it, hitting perfect scores at football and soccer matches and the fact that all girls are attracted to me—" continued James.
"Or all the guys!" continued Maria, "We have to rethink all that we have done and accomplished, because we really had an advantage that our peers did not have!"
"That is not true!" said Lilia, "You did not have an advantage that other kids did not have! Most of your friends are in fact part of the most powerful wizard families! Dasha, Yasic—"
"Adam, Lucien, Will. Will is actually your cousin," finished Rodney.
"Oh, that's great. Any other mystery family members?" said Maria sarcastically.
"No, I think that is it, right Lilia?" said Rodney seriously.
"So that sister that you told me that grandmother had to abort, is really—"
"No, Natasha is older than me," said Lilia sadly. Maria frowned; she really did feel a little bad for bringing that up.
"Just you wait," said Rodney, "The Elders will explain everything, and you will understand."
"I still don't believe all this! How can we be—" Maria was cut off.
The twins felt light-headed and out of breath, and their vision blurred and they blacked out. They were going to fall down on the hardwood floor backwards, but before they did, Rodney pulled out a wand and muttered an incantation when countless pillows materialized out of thin air under the twins, and they fell down lightly right on top of them.
"Do you think they will go easy on them?" asked Lilia, as she watched her husband pick their son and put him on the couch.
"Oh, I don't know," he answered as he picked Maria up to take her upstairs to the master bedroom, "They might be several years older before they wake up tomorrow. It all depends on how much clearance they are going to be given and how much the Elders decide to tell them."
"I hope it's not much," said Lilia, worry written across her face, "They had enough for today."
"I am not going to count on it," said Rodney as he put his daughter on top of the covers.
