Chapter 1
1964
Pandora
Axel and Adelle Rosier never expected to have twins, neither did they really want twins. They only planned for the one boy the mediwitch said they'd have. They already had the name ‘Evan’ picked out for him. It was his grandfather's name. A name to carry on the family legacy.
It took them a year to name Pandora.
It didn't matter anyway. She was just going to marry into another old wizarding family. She wouldn't carry the family legacy. What did it matter what they called her before her memory even worked?
It probably would have taken longer to name her, if it were for her annoying habit of getting in the way. It made them realize they should probably call her something. At least that way, they’d have something to yell on the days when she was especially annoying. They were quite pleased with what they came up with.
Pandora had just learned how to walk and had a penchant for shiny objects. The nanny laughed and called her little raven, sweet magpie before tossing her something harmless. But Pandora grew tired of playing with keys, glitter glue, and marbles.
Adelle was setting up for some important state dinner. She set the table with the expensive crystal dishes. The crystal dishes that cast rainbows when they caught the sun. The crystal dishes that glittered in the candle light.
Pandora had never seen anything like it. She was entranced. She had to get a closer look at it.
She stood on her stubby little legs and slowly wobbled to the side of the table. The table was above her head but that didn’t deter her.
She had to look.
She grabbed the side of the table to try to pull herself up higher.
The table fell. On top of her. Bringing the expensive crystal crashing to the floor.
When Adell heard the crash, she ran in to find Pandora stuck blubbering under the table.
"Foolish child," she scolded while the nanny lifted the table off her daughter. "Look what you've done."
She turned to Axel for support. He was still reading in the living room, not even bothering to get up at the cacophony. He probably could have prevented the disaster if he'd bothered to look up. But he didn't. So there's no use lingering on it.
"She always does this," Adelle complained, once again vying for Axel's attention. Her voice rose to a yell. "She gets into things she's not supposed to, and she breaks them! Ruins them!"
"Ma'am," the nanny pleaded with Adelle. " She's just a child. They do things like this-"
"Perhaps we finally have a name for her then," Axel interrupted, completely ignoring the nanny.
Adelle's eyebrows rose. "Well we can't very well call her tornado"
"I was thinking more in terms of Greek mythology. How does Pandora sound to you?"
"Pandora…" Adelle repeated slowly, a sharp smile spreading over her lips. "The girl who couldn't leave well enough alone. The girl who had to meddle in things she shouldn't and doomed humanity for it… " She couldn't keep in her snort of laughter. "Yeah I'd say it fits."
"Perfect, we finally got that handled." Axel said as if the act of naming his daughter was a chore. Before turning back to his newspaper he couldn't help but add, "hopefully the constant reminder of her nature will teach her to be more cautious in the future."
Lily
For as long as Lily could remember she had one gift, and that was fixing things. When mom was sad, Lily would cheer her up. When money was tight, she’d draft a budget for her family. She always knew what to do.
The only time her talent had failed was the day she discovered she had magic.
Lily was sitting on her staircase. It was past her bedtime, but she wasn't tired. So she lingered there playing with her dolls. She liked their bright and colorful outfits, but most of all, she loved their shoes. They all had some sort of bright high heels. She couldn't wait till she was older and her feet fit into shoes like that. They just didn't make them in her size. Mom said that even if they did, she wouldn't get Lily any, seeing as how she'd just grow out of them in a year. Lily didn't see how this was remotely fair.
As she made the dolls take turns trying flipping in the air, she heard voices rise from the kitchen downstairs. She strained her ears to listen. She couldn't hear what they were saying but she could hear the frustration from they're words. Occasionally their voices would rise to a shout. She caught miscellaneous words here and there, but she couldn't make out much. A clump rose in her throat. She knew when her talent was needed.
"I don't care what her teacher's say, we don't have the money-"
"Petunia is very gifted. Her teachers say she miles ahead of all her classmates-"
"She's ten. It's easy to be miles ahead of your classmates when they're still figuring out division-"
Her parents went back and forth, not not noticing that Petunia still sat there. At the dinner table. With her knees brought up to her chest. Lily barely had to glance at her to know she was upset.
She stormed into the room and tried to get between her parents. Couldn’t they see that they were making Petunia sad?
They ignored her and talked over her attempts to get their attention. At one point, her mom actually lifted her out of the way before continuing their argument right where they left off.
Lily suppressed the urge to stamp her foot, knowing it would get her nowhere. Instead, she decided to focus on what she can fix.
Petunia met Lily's eyes as she walked into the room. Lily was surprised to find mist gathered in her sister's eyes before she swiped them away.
Lily didn't know what was going on. She did, however, know that her sister was sad. She did the only thing she could think of. She ran up and gave her a hug.
Petunia laughed into her hair..
'"what's wrong?" Lily asked over their parents yelling. She may have been young, but she knew in order to fix a problem, she needed to know what the problem was.
"Oh, it's not a big deal." Petunia rubbed her eyes again. "I'm running out of stuff to do at school. My teacher wanted me to try out a more advanced one. It looked really cool."
"I don't care what you say, John. Our daughter needs this to flourish"
"So what? We'll pay for this fancy private school even though it adds a whole hour on to our daily commute-"
"I cannot believe how selfish you're being right now-"
"Oh well," Petunia gave a shaking smile that was closer to a grimace. "It probably won't happen anyway. Mom and dad can't afford it."
"Ellen, you're being unreasonable. At eight years old, it doesn't matter if we send her to the school down the street or the school that personally educated the Queen."
"You know that's not true. She'll vanish with the class sizes of her current school."
"It's bloody second year. It's not like it's that hard-"
"Maybe…" Lily lost her train of thought. She couldn't focus with her parents yelling like that. "Maybe I can sell my dolls."
Petunia gave a little laugh but Lily wasn't deterred. " Not all of them," she continued, assuming that was the hold up.
"Listen all I'm saying, is we can reevaluate when she's older"
"She'll be behind! She wouldn't have gotten the good foundation the other kids would have. Do you want that for our daughter?"
Lily wished they'd be quiet. They were just making noise. She was actually trying to solve stuff and they kept interrupting her. Irritation clouded her voice as she said a little louder. "Stacy from class said she had a yard sale. She sold some of the dolls she didn't play with anymore. Not even her favorites. She made fifteen pounds! That's gotta make a dent in it!"
"I don't know what the bloody hell you're trying to accuse me of, Ellen"
"I think you know exactly what I'm saying-"
"Well then explain it to me!"
"You're letting your selfishness get in the way of what's best for our daughter!"
"Can you all just be quiet," Lily screamed out of nowhere covering her ears with her hands. She needed to actually think!
It took her a moment to realize the room had gone quiet.
She hadn't realized she closed her eyes in her outburst, but apparently she had. When she opened them, her whole family was staring at her.
She almost never lost it like that. She couldn't. She didn't mean to. They were mad at her, and she just made this whole situation worse when all she really wanted to do was help.
"Mom, dad… I'm so sorry…" she trailed off when she realized their mouths were moving. They were trying to shape words. They were trying to shape words but nothing was coming out.
Lily's eyes widened in horror. Had she wished them to lose their voices, like some kinda freaky Friday incident? She took a step forward. They all seemed to flinch back in unison. Even Petunia, who at least made an effort to hide it.
So she did do this
She wished them this way somehow. She ruined them. She broke them. She messed them up. She was supposed to make things better. She always made things better. It was her job. She was good at it. This was never supposed to happen.
She didn't know how to make it better. She didn't know how to fix it.
Out of ideas, Lily did the only thing she could think of. She ran
When Lily finally made her way back to the house, she found it infested with people in funny clothes. They were gathered in the kitchen. Two of them were running around with dumb pointy sticks. Each member of her family was being interviewed. She saw the stranger’s dumb pointy little hats going up and down in time with whatever her family was saying.
Her family was talking.
Could Lily have dreamt this entire thing? Then who were these people?
She needed to check on her family and make sure they’re okay. However, as she moved towards them, someone stepped in her way. He was dressed for Halloween, like the others, except he also had a long white beard.
The man lowered himself to a crouch in order to meet Lily's eyes. "Hello, I understand there was a bit of an incident here."
Panic shot through Lily like a lightning bolt. "I didn't mean to-"
"I'm not worried about that dear. Your family is fine. No harm, no foul. I just want to know how you did it. What did you say?"
Lily was confused, but the man seemed calm. There was no tension in his shoulders to indicate anger, so she cautiously continued. "I… I didn't say anything. Well I asked them to stop… but I've done that before and nothing like this has ever happened before!" Lily choked up on the last word and a sob escaped from her throat before she could stop it.
"Shhhh, deep breaths." The strange man tapped his fingers on his thigh while Lily shakily inhaled. "So you didn't use a spell? No incantation? Secret wish?"
"No! It was an accident!" Lily insisted. "I swear!"
She was on the verge of tears again but she noticed something peculiar. There was a glimmer in the man's eye, as if he was happy. "That's very powerful magic Miss Evans." Lily didn't know what to say to that. She didn't think she used magic, but she supposed that's what it must be, given the circumstances.
The man smiled but it lacked warmth. "I'm Dumbledore. Let me tell you about my school."