Dursley's End
The hall was empty besides the two small children sitting idly in the middle of the floor, there were boxes everywhere, opened and filled with mundane things. The blonde girl stood up with a picture frame in her hand, placing it neatly on the top of a nearby cabinet. While the red haired boy continued to read his book quietly.
“That usually goes there! But I feel like somethings missing.”
“A plate where you put keys in.” The red-haired boy spoke without his pale blue eyes leaving his book.
“Right!” The blonde once again rummaged through what’s inside the box. Her bright green eyes squinting with focus. “Found it! Rue, aren’t you gonna help out?”
“Its your idea to put things in place, mum said to just stay put.”
“Don’t you hate all these things cluttered up all around you!”
“I don’t really mind. We should be quiet or we’ll wake Ari up.”
“All you do is read books, you’re boring.” She said in a low voice, looking into the living room beside them where a smaller figure was breathing quietly.
“You read books too so you must be boring too.” He replied quickly rolling his eyes at his sister. “Just sit here and read with me.”
The blonde girl Estelle, rolled her eyes in a similar way as her brother and sat with him. He was reading comic books again, X-men. She quietly read with her brother, amused at the superpowers that the characters had.
A knock on the door could be heard through the quiet hall, Estelle flinched and the two looked at each others eyes, she stood up and slowly walked up to the front door with Ruelle following closely behind, a stool held in his chest.
“Who is it?” Estelle asked without opening the door, her voice quivering.
“Hello! Is this the home of Estelle and Ruelle Dursley?” a squeaky voice could be heard from the other side of the door. “Are your parents' home?”
Estelle’s mind ran quickly, she remembered her mother's words when she quickly left because of a sudden phone call. “Do not open the door for strangers. Do not tell them you’re home alone.”
“Yeah, they’re just up- upstairs!” her voice trembled as Ruelle tugged on her shirt. She looked at him, her green eyes shaking as he placed the stool below the peephole, she stepped on it looking out their door, but there was nothing, no one was standing outside their door. Estelle tilted her head trying to look side to side even though the peephole can only show little of what’s outside.
“Is there anyone there?” her confused tone made Ruelle perk up and tug at her shirt again. “Stop it, Rue! You’re gonna make me fall!”
“What do you see? Tia! I wanna see too!”
“Shhh! Be quiet!” Covering her brothers mouth with her small hand, she looked out at the peephole again. “There’s no one there!”
“I’m still here!” the voice proclaimed itself. “Is it not a good time?”
“Umm, yes! Please come back later!”
“Estelle let me see.” Ruelle tugged on her shirt again making her fall from the stool, instead of a loud thud, there was no sound when she fell, she hasn’t reached the ground yet, she was floating like a balloon stuck in place, as if gravity did not affect her.
“See?! You made me fall!” her actions exaggerated, crossing her arms, her hair moving slowly as if she was underwater.
“Why does it matter? We can fly anyway!”
“You’re being mean!” Estelle shrieked as she pushes him off the stool, he too like his sister floated with no regards to gravity.
“Ouch! Stop pulling my hair!”
“You’re pulling my hair!”
“This doesn’t seem to be a great time.” The squeaky voice, high in tone pulled the two out of their fight as they both fell with a thud. “I’ll come back later when your parents are home! But I’ll slip in your letters so you can read it in advance!” Just as the man finished his sentence, two letters fell off the letter box.
They both flinched and quickly glanced inside the living room. Estelle sighed, glad that their youngest was a heavy sleeper, unperturbed with the noise that they had made.
Estelle quickly picked up the letters. Both had a strange green writings instead of the normal black. She handed her brother the letter that had his name. She ripped her letter open as quickly as she can and so did her brother.
“Ms. D. Dursley, Top bunk bed, room in the furthest corner. Number 7 Wisteria stree- wait? How do they know I sleep on the top bunk bed?” Estelle scratched her head at the words in the envelope that she had ripped, thinking they must’ve been inside the house before.
“They know I sleep on the bottom one too! Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? Does this mean its magic that we can do?”
“Does this mean we’re not superheroes?”
“We’re not mutants! We’re magic!” Ruelle jumped with glee in his eyes. An affirmation of what they are was the least they expected from this letter. “Should we tell mum and dad now? You said we shouldn’t tell cause that’s what heroes do in the comics! But now we need to!”
“Calm down Rue!” Estelle’s voice quivered as her body vibrated, every muscle awake, her eyes shined with excitement. “It’s a school! So we don’t have to hide it anymore!”
The two started giggling and spinning around, their hands entangled with each other as the boxes around them began to float and spin with the two. Estelle stopped on her feet, breathing in and out, she grabbed Ruelle’s shoulder to stop him from spinning around like a ballerina.
“We need to be calm! We can’t freak out mum and dad.” She declares as the boxes around them started to carefully float down. “Let’s wait till they come home!”
Glancing inside the living room, their youngest still breathed quietly, they giggled at the sight as they sat at front of their door waiting, eager to tell their parents about their findings, about this new school, about what they can do. They sat there, chatting to themselves and eating the snacks that their mother had left them.
They sat there till night fell and everything around them had become quiet...
They sat there as they slept in each others shoulders leaning in a large box containing their books...
They sat there as morning came and the sunlight fell on their eyes...
They sat there, unaware of the horrible news that’s about to be brought by their estranged uncle...
A funeral, that wasn’t the place the twins had expected to break their news to their parents. The visitors had come and go, whispering to themselves, a series of tragic events. Their grandparents and father was gone, taken away by the sea in a tragic boating incident. Their mother, distraught at the news had hurriedly went to see them, only to end up in a car collision.
In just a span of a few hours, the twins had lost everything, their parents, their grandparents, the life they had expected to lead, all came crashing into a sea of flames. The two had no one but each other now, they have to protect their younger sister by themselves now. They held each others hands, while the other hand were clutching their own letters.
“Mum, Dad... Please... please come back” Ruelle’s quiet cries echoed through Estelles ears, his sobs made her squeezed his hand. “Eti... What.. what do we do now?”
Estelle didn’t utter a word, her eyes were red, yet no tears were falling from her eyes. The people around them were whispering, their words hushed but loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Poor children.” “Whose going to take care of them now?” “How about you do it?” “Are you crazy? Why would I do that?” “Aren’t you Vernon’s sister?” “I can’t take care of brats at this age!” “Just put them in foster care.” “I heard they left a huge sum of money.” “Do you want me to get in trouble with the law?” their words cruel and only relayed one thing, no one wanted to take them in. Even if they did, they would only be after what their parents had left them.
Estelle squeezed Ruelle’s hand once again, unsure of what she should say to her grieving twin little brother. She combed his hair and wiped his face with a hanky, his face red and swollen as tears kept falling from his pale blue eyes, they were the same eyes as father and grandmother.
“Rue... I.. I don’t know.” Her hands shook as she softly wipes his tears away.
“Estelle, Ruelle.” A voice of a man snapped the twos attention away from each other. He was a tall man, with jet black hair that was as unruly as it could get, his eyes were a striking bright green, the same way Estelle’s eyes were. The two green eyes met each other, his eyes looked troubled as he looked around. “Come and sit down, you two have been standing there for a while now.”
He was their uncle, more specifically their fathers cousin. The twins had rarely met him, there were some days when he would come by alongside his children for playdates, the twins would play with them even though they seem disinterested with their toys and always eager to go back to their home, they were always fidgeting and itching as if to say something while their father just sat with their father barely talking to each other.
They were odd balls, Estelle thought to herself. She eyed him carefully and could see his eyes full of worry, his eyebrows were drawn together as he looked around at the people who were whispering, they all averted their eyes, whispering to themselves “Its him, that kid. He prepared the funeral.”
“Come sit.” He says as he guided them, putting his hands on their back, they were warm, it reminded Estelle of her fathers. “Its okay to cry.” He said with a quiet tone, patting their backs lightly as they walked to their sits.
Estelle was scared, but she had to be strong. It was only her and Ruelle now and they have to care for their youngest. She can’t be weak, yet their uncles words echoed through her mind, she couldn’t help it anymore, her eyes squinted as tears fell, they fell and fell as she couldn’t hold it in anymore. They were gone, everyone was gone.
She cried and cried till she couldn’t breathe, her loud wails echoing through the place with everyone averting their eyes...
She cried as her families caskets were lowered to their graves...
She cried as she and Ruelle sat on the back of their uncles car clutching their small little sister between them, unaware of what they should do, they allowed their tiredness to take over and fell into a deep sleep.