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Chapter One

On the Path Home

July 2008

Claire fiddled with the pendant around her neck, lightly brushing it with her fingers. She looked up at the scratched sign telling her that she was in front of the Hog's Head, and gave a raspy sigh. Giving up her life was not something she did lightly.
At this time of night, the place was mercifully empty. Only the old barman stood, cleaning glasses with an expression of dull boredom etched on his face. He barely raised his head as Claire passed, but grunted into his thick beard which at least told her that he had acknowledged her presence.

Climbing the stairs, Claire thought back to what had brought her here. Ten years of hard work at the Ministry, ten years of toil making absolutely sure that they knew what they were doing. Now it had come to this. She gave an exhausted grunt, much like the one the barman had given downstairs, and finally approached an old wooden door on the landing.

This was her last chance. Go through the door and give up her life. Turn around, and carry on living. She knocked.
A short man with a large pointed nose and wearing a pink bowler hat answered.

'Claire... I wasn't expecting you.'

'No one was Saul.' Claire replied and she shouldered past him into the room.

The room was, by all accounts, a tip. A bed lay in the far corner, it's mattress turned on its side and torn in several places. Books lay strewn across the floor, some with pages ripped out, some stained and bloody. The only window was covered in a poster showing strange symbols and what Claire assumed, to be a map of the Solar System. Saul closed the door and gave Claire a disgruntled look.

'I'm sorry I didn't make much of an effort to tidy up.'

Claire gave a weak smile, though she noticed Saul did not return it.

'Not a concern, you've evidently been busy.'

'Busy’s not the half of it. If I haven't got the minister barking in one ear to sort of the Troll regulatory documents, I've got my wife barking in the other ear. But you clearly didn't come here to listen to an old man moan about his current existence.'

Claire nodded. She approached the poster covering the window and traced a finger along one of the symbols. 'All this hard work can't be doing you any good Saul. Take a night off, see the wife, take her out to dinner.'

Saul's face crumpled into something Claire assumed was insult. He dashed forward, picking up books from the floor. When he got to the poster, he tore it from the wall and out of Claire's view.

'What do you want Claire. You're stalling, I know you. Telling me that I shouldn't be here? You, of all people shouldn't be here. You should be at home, spending time with the twins. How old are they now?'

'One week.'

'A week old and you've already grown bored of them? What are you going to do for the rest of their lifetimes?'
Claire's hands were beginning to shake. She moved to the mattress, turned it straight and sat down, placing her trembling hands in her lap.

'Actually... it's about the twins. The reason I'm here.'

'Oh?' Saul raised an eyebrow as he dropped a pile of books into the corner.

'It's them.'

The remaining book Saul was holding dropped to the floor with a clunk. Without bothering to pick it up, he hurried over and sat next to Claire.

'Are you... sure?'

'Positive. I assume I don't have to tell you what this means?'

Saul looked mournfully at his feet and bit his upper lip. 'Surely... you don't have to.'

'Jenny and Cleo will be much safer in the muggle world, until they have to go to Hogwarts, I'll be safer.'

A boom of thunder sounded outside followed by the shattering crack of rain. 'I don't suppose I can talk you out of it?'

'I wish you could Saul... I wish you could.'

'Then keep them safe. Keep them hidden. God knows what would happen if the wrong people found out about them.'
Claire smiled, sincerely this time. She patted Saul twice on the shoulder as she rose from the torn mattress.

'I promise you Saul, I'm not going to let anything happen to them.'

From the look on Claire's face, Saul knew she wouldn't.

June 2019

The ground was covered in bugs. Ants crawled up and down fallen logs, taking snippets of leaves up and into a nest. Spiders prowled amongst them, daring any ant to make the wrong move and end up as dinner. Insects weren’t confined to the ground either. In the air, flies and midges swished overhead while a trio of bee’s ignored all other proceedings, and hurried from flower to flower.
Jenny Abel looked over the scene before her, panting. A clatter from behind told her her brother was not far away.

‘So many bugs.’ she said viewing the scene before her. Her brother, Cleo came running up beside her.

‘Bet you two pounds you can’t walk through without getting attacked.’

‘Where did you get two pounds from?’

Cleo shrugged. He picked up a fallen stick and after shaking off a couple of ants began to prod at a branch containing a whole host of them.

‘Stop it.’ Jenny said nudging her brother.

‘I will if you walk through.’

‘You’re an idiot.’

Cleo gave Jenny an amused look, but dropped it almost instantly. Jenny appeared to be approaching one of her moods.

‘Come on, Mrs Braithwaite’s probably waiting for us.’

Cleo sighed, dropping the stick onto the floor. Jenny assumed that if the ants had any realisation of what was going on, they’d be shaking their fists in Cleo’s direction.

The short walk back onto the playing field was unmarred, apart from a quick jump over a stream. While others would have been too afraid to make such a jump, Jenny had made it far too often to be afraid of it.

‘This is not a time to run away Jenny, and you Cleo. I’ll have words with you at the end of the day.’
Jenny’s mood was on lockdown. She’d have loved to punch her brother for getting them in trouble but she wasn’t too keen on causing more trouble for herself than she was in already.

The truth was, neither Jenny nor Cleo tended to get in much trouble. The odd reprimand here or there but nothing that suggested a serious lack of respect for authority. Not that Mrs Braithwaite wanted to call them out on their respective trouble making activities. Both of them were a great credit to the school and to impose any sort of sanctions on them would come back to bite her after a while.
Academically, they were both rather average. Jenny tended to get high marks in English, while Cleo excelled in Science. It was out of the classroom that showed their skill. Jenny had one several trophy’s for playing the clarinet and Cleo was captain of the school’s football team. What the school would do in a month’s time when they left, no one seemed to know.

‘Before we finish for the day. I want everyone to walk around the field collecting as many leaves as you can.’
Jenny fell behind Cleo as he began to pick up leaves. She nudged him slightly as recompense for getting them in trouble in the first place.

‘You are so going to pay for that.’ Cleo said, shoving a tattered leaf into his hand.

‘We’ll see.’

Jenny knew his brother’s threat was empty. It was the same thing he said when they had accidently spilt pain down the stairs, or when they had broken the television.

The warm June they had been enjoying meant that Jenny and Cleo often walked home from school alone. Living less than ten minutes away from the school had its advantages, and if they wanted to, they could simply cut through the woods behind the school.

‘Do you really want to go to Sorenhall? What if were split up? Jamie say’s his sister and brother aren’t in any of the same classes.’
Jenny lowered her head, kicking a stone across the field. ‘We’ll have to make new friends.’
Cleo shrugged ‘I don’t want to make new friends.’

The path through the woods led across several streams that rolled back and forth, eventually leading out to a river, and over a crevice in the rock. Usually people went down the stone steps and back up again, but for the adventurous, there was a fallen tree as a bridge.

‘You gonna wimp out today?’ Cleo asked his sister as the ground hardened into rock, the fallen tree clearly visible ahead.

‘Why, just because I don’t want to risk breaking my neck falling down?’
Cleo began to make chicken sounds but a stopped when he saw that Jenny was getting ready to hit him again

‘Go on, go over the log and we’ll be even.’

Jenny sighed ‘Fine, I’ll go over the stupid log.’

She had done it several times before, but both had been times she had been pushed into doing it by Cleo. The log was stuck quite firmly into the ground so there was no worry of it rolling over.

Jenny gave Cleo one irritated look then placed a foot on a stubbly knot in the tree.

Her balance wasn't perfect, Jenny hadn't won any awards for gymnastics or any sporting event really. The only thing she had been close to winning was the most recent sports day when she had almost won a hundred metres sprint. If she was quick, it was possible her feet wouldn't have such a huge effect on the tree and she would make it across safely. Well, there was only one way to be sure.

Her last attempt burnt into her mind. That time she had taken it extremely slowly, the time before she had ran across. Both times she made it with no scarring or injuries of any kind.

She gave a deep breath then stepped forward, over the gap. Her body shifted slightly to the left but she countered it, her arms outstretched hoping her balance would keep her on that level.

Foot forward, then another one. It was slow progress. She daren't turn her head backwards to see Cleo's expression. No doubt he was as anxious as she was. Jenny knew that Cleo would hate himself profusely if anything happened to her.

Around halfway through she stumbled. A small knot in the tree caught her by surprise. It was in just the right place to cause her trouble. She fell forwards, her hands outstretched hoping to grab a hold of something, anything to save her. She heard Cleo's exasperated cry behind her as she fell.

The log rolled and begin to fall and everything turned one hundred times slower. She could see the world twisting as gravity took its toll on both her and the log. With one last grunt she pushed herself forwards smashing against the other side of the crevice her hands grasping onto hanging roots and a nub in the crevice side.

'Help me Cleo!'

Cleo gave his a brief look then hurried down the path and then up again on the other side. He looked down at his sister, offering an arm in support. She reached up and grasped onto her brothers arm.

'I can't hold you.' Cleo's face showed strain as he attempted to pull Jenny up. He grunted then fell back again, unable to carry his sister's weight.

Then something strange happened. Something which affected both Cleo and Jenny. Jenny began to rise. At first she thought it was Cleo, finally muscling the strength to pull her up. Then she realised that Cleo himself was just as shocked as she was. She was floating. Rising slowly upwards. Cleo's disgruntled moan made her let go of her brothers arm. She was moving sideways, over to a soft patch of ground, then she began to descend until her feet touched down on terra firma.

Her breaths were deep and slow. She touched her legs, imagining he fist to go right through them as though they were nothing but air. The dull pain she felt upon hitting herself in the thigh told her she was herself, or as much as she could be.

'Are you... okay?' Cleo asked turning to face her.

'Well, I'm not hanging on the side of a crevice anymore... so yeah.'

Cleo stared at her. His mouth half open. Jenny bit her lip.

'That was-'

'I felt it too.' Cleo said 'I mean... it wasn't just you who flew up into the air. I felt... stronger. Just before you flew. I mean yours was more impressive admittedly but-'

Jenny rushed forward and embraced her brother in a deep hug.

'What...what's going on?' she asked. The look on Cleo's face told her that he knew as much as she did.