Chapter Eighteen

A/N: Thank you to ObsessedwReading for reviewing the last chapter.

Although it had been exciting to meet up with Fred on New Year's Eve, where they chatted until long after the sparks from the dragon fireworks had faded from the sky above the Burrow, Selena far preferred their return to school, where she knew she could see her friend any time she wished to.

The first week back, the work was simple, as she would have expected it to be, to get the students back into the rhythm of their schooling, and miraculously, they seemed to have a great deal more free time on their hands. However, feeling guilty about her preoccupations, Selena did not spend this time with Fred- instead, she spent it with her brother.

Teddy seemed to still be having trouble making friends and sat alone at almost every mealtime. It broke Selena's heart to see her brother so lonely, and more than once she had asked if they could sit together, always to be refused by her strict-ruling Head of House. Nonetheless, she always made sure to smile widely at her twin whenever he looked in her direction, which was often, as he had nothing else to do, and spent all the free time she had at his side. She had even taken to speaking with different groups of Gryffindors, to see if they would make friends with Teddy, so that she would not have to bear his wistful glances so often. So far she had been unsuccessful in this, but had resolved to keep trying.

Selena hurried into the lunch hall. Having missed breakfast that morning, her stomach had been rumbling since before even her first lesson, and she still had not had a chance to see her brother that day. She could see him now, sat alone at the Gryffindor table. The girl cast a quick glance towards the top table; her Head of House's seat stood empty. With no one here to stop her, she sidled over to her twin and took the seat next to her.

Teddy stared incredulously at her as she reached for a sandwich. "What are you doing here?" he asked in a whisper, as if he was trying to keep it a secret that she was at the wrong table. Selena shrugged nonchalantly.

"I'm having lunch." she answered simply. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"But you can't sit at this table." Teddy pointed out, speaking slowly as if he thought she did not understand him. "You're a Hufflepuff."

"Teddy, look around." she instructed him. Her brother did not even attempt to obey. "No one cares."

With a reluctant sigh, Teddy nodded his head, accepting her point as the truth. However, his eyes still flitted around every once in a while, as if he feared someone would come and carry his sister off for sitting at the wrong table. There was a strange balance between protective and fearful that Selena had always found in her twin, one she had never seen in any other person in her life, aside, perhaps, from herself. 'Another strange thing about us.' she thought. 'Perhaps it's just something about twins.'

"So, how have you been?" she asked, a little uncomfortable. Teddy still seemed on edge, which, naturally, put her on edge as well. There was a strong bond between them, only partly formed of magic, which meant that she could feel what her brother felt, always, even if there was a great distance between them- or so she had been told, for admittedly, she had never been more than a few dozen feet away from Teddy.

"I don't like it here." the boy admitted, hanging his head in shame at the admission. Since they had been very young, just like all other magical children in Britain, they had dreamed of the day when they would come to Hogwarts; it was almost painful to see that dream shattered. "No one talks to me. They've all made friendship groups and I've been left out of them, because everyone thinks I'm strange, moping around all the time. The only person I want to spend time with is you, but I never get to do that, because you're a Hufflepuff."

"But you aren't always going to get to spend time with me, Teddy." Teddy jerked backwards away from his sister, his eyes wide as if she had struck him. There was a harshness to Selena's voice that he had never heard before. "That's the point. Gran wrote to me the other week. She said that Hogwarts was doing us good, even if we don't like it. I think that was what she meant. When we grow up, we'll have different lives, different homes, different friends, different families. We'll have to be apart then, so we have to learn to be apart now. We can't just cling to each other for the rest of our lives."

"But," Teddy responded, sniffling. "We're twins."

"I know that." Selena told him, softening her voice as she wrapped her arms tightly around her brother. "We always will be. But we can't just be twins, Teddy. We need to be people too."

Without another word, Selena prised her brother's arms from her and rose from the table, crossing the Hall to the Hufflepuff table, where she took her usual seat beside Fred. The question was clear in his eyes as she sat, but Selena left it unanswered. It was best that way.

Selena looked down at the dish in front of her and sighed. Soup. It was chestnut, an old favourite of hers, and was piping hot with a comforting smell. 'I'll have to eat it quickly.' she thought. 'Tears make ripples in soup that everyone can see.'

The next day, Selena did not go to sit beside her brother, or the next, or the next. She left him alone and did not even meet his eye, though he stared at her all through each mealtime, as if pleading for her to come and eat with him again.

But Selena would not allow her resolve to weaken, and she sat at her place by Fred's side every day. If he noticed her soup being diluted with tears, the redheaded boy never said a thing.

A/N: Please review!