A Black night
At the end of her day in Hogwarts, Lorelei asked to borrow Smokey, Hemera's owl in order to inform everyone. Of course her cousin agreed, she just asked her to give her own letter to the bird, and after the excitement of discovering her common house vanished she started to write.
'Coucou maman et papa,
Ici tout va bien. Harry and I just got sorted. He's in another house than me, I think you already anticipated that, we never were the kind of twin who does the same. I'm in Slytherin.
My house is amazing. We're under water. I'm fascinated by all the fish I can see from my window. And according to Emma there's even a giant squid in the lake.
In my room there are two other girls: Daphne Greengrass and Pansy Parkinson. Daphne seems nice, but Pansy is already a bit annoying. Don't think we'll be best friends.
And I made a friend on the train. His name is Theodore Nott. He is very nice. He likes the music I made him listen to. He is a Slytherin as well. Hope we will stick together.
Have fun at Aunty Lia's dinner.
Bisous,
Rory.'
As soon as she had finished, the girl accompanied by Daphne, who also had a letter to send, walked toward the west tower's owlery to send their letters, they had an hour to do so and Hemera had given them clear instructions on how to find the room, going as far as to give them a piece of parchment with it.
After twenty minutes they found it. As the two first years step inside they found Harry, Ron and another red and gold.
"Rhys, were you also sending a letter home?" Asked Lorelei to her twin. Well, it was a rhetorical question. She knew he was, but she was polite and that way she could introduce her new friend to her twin.
"Ouais, mind if I give yours to Hedwig as well?" The blond offered with a warm smile.
"Merci." She answered happily. "Can you introduce me to your new friend?" She realized they were the only one talking the other ones looking at each other suspiciously.
"Of course, it's Neville Longbottom and you already know Ron Weasley. Neville, here's my twin Lorelei and her friend…"introduced the blonde waiting for the girl to introduce herself.
"Oh where are my manners? I'm Daphne Greengrass. Please meet you."Said the woman with a mundane tone. Lorelei really liked her, she didn't say anything about Rhys being a Gryffindor, even though the green and the red didn't get along, well she wasn't very warm to other ones, but she didn't like Ron. Neville she knew was the child of two members of the order her family was involved with, so he shouldn't be that bad.
"You really look like Harry." Exclaimed Neville with wonder. It wasn't ill intended but for the girl it was a stupid remark, like saying that a sheep had wool.
"Well that's the principle of twins." She said a bit annoyed, before realizing what she said.
"Of course it is the principle of twins." Repeated the boy, a bit embarrassed by the blonde girl's reaction. She had no intention of ridiculing the boy. She was just fed up with this remark, everyone around her had said that: her aunt, her uncle, her neighbors, her grandma, even her own parents. It's easy to differentiate them. She's a girl, he's a boy.
"Don't be mean, snake." Almost screamed Ron, who was awfully silent before. He was red, almost as his hair, boiling with rage, it seemed.
"It wasn't ill intended, sorry..." said the green eyed girl apologetically to the boy. One more reason to annoy Ron. She wondered if the boy just liked to stir the pot between Gryffindor and Slytherin or just dislike her.
"But you know that we are snakes in Slytherin, right, so it's a pretty shitty insult." Explained Daphne calmly, looking at Ron as if he was saying something stupid. Which he was, as always.
"Come on, let's not fight. Let's go back to our common room. I think you wanted to play exploding snap Ron."Tempered Harry, before heading out. The ginger and the brown haired boy followed in a dire silence.
The Slytherin girls followed them out of the room one minute later.
"How can Harry get along with an idiot? Said Lorelei grumpily.
"That's because he is your sibling. I also hate my sister's friends. They are so full of themselves." Announced Daphne with a smile that the girl understood as: sorry, it's always like that.
In the meantime in Wales, in the magic village of Draig ar Carmarthen, a very uncomfortable dinner was taking place.
In the middle of a big dining room ten adults were eating in a silence so thick you could cut it with your butter knife.
The only noises present at the table were mastication and the cutlery hitting the plate, sometimes interrupted by the laughter of two children picking through the door.
The Tonks, in particular, were awfully silent. Andromeda seemed anxious facing the sister who hadn't talked to her in almost twenty years.
Cornelia, Regulus and Sirius had tried to start a conversation, but it was always dying after a few minutes.
Because of that, none of the guests seemed happy, the host seemed worse at the end of the table, sighing and looking at Cornelia and Sirius hoping for help. After all, this mess was their idea.
But luckily for him, four owls landed on the table in multiple scricks which made most of the adults look up from their plates with a smile finally showing.
Obéron was the first one to open a letter, it was the one from Harry.
"What does it say, cheri?!" Asked Margot La Guivre with excitement.
"Our little boy was sorted into Gryffindor. He is so happy to be with his favorite cousins Marcus, Tyran and Ruby." He explained with a big contagious smile as a little grin appeared on Remus."He made some friends: Ron and Neville. They are funny, but Ron doesn't really think before speaking, which angered his twin twice."The man finished laughing out loud.
"Sounds like my Lory." Said Mrs. La Guivre with an amused smile. She had always been in tune with her emotions, as she should. "How about your child Narcissa?"
"Without much surprise Draco's a snake, like most Black." Said the woman with a little voice that was unusual for the proud lady.
"Just like our Lorelei!" Exclaimed Obéron with a triumphal grin. "Hope they'll get along!"
"I'm sure they will. Just give them a few days. " Said Andromeda trying to help her younger sister to feel welcome.
"Well according to Hemera, Rory's first friend is a certain Theodore Nott. My daughter likes him. He is quiet and understanding." Explained Sirius proudly."What does Marcus think about Rhys' new friends Reg?"
"Well you know him. He doesn't want to give his opinion now. He doesn't know them properly." Said Regulus Black with a calm tone.
"It's very noble of him." Complemented Ted Tonks.
"Ruby thinks they are a bit too loud, especially Ron. Apparently he asked her 'how the hell a blind person could go to Hogwarts'." Explained Remus very much tired, it wasn't the first time a person asked his child how she could do magic if she couldn't see properly.
"Let me send my words to that child. How could anyone be that clueless!" Almost screamed Regulus. "I've met her a few times while visiting my brother and she is such a lovely girl. Very much hard working."
"And it's not because you're disabled that you can't do anything. I've met so many impressive blind or mute wizards in my career!" Added Ted with anger.
"Thank you for your concern." Said the werewolf with an amused grin as two children entered the room.
Both of them looked very concerned. They were scanning the room with their big eyes.
"We heard some noise. What's going on paps'?" Asked a black haired boy darting his brown eyes on Regulus.
"Nothing Vincent, we were just having a conversation." Comforted the father while quickly hugging the boy.
"Sure. Come on Apollo. I have to show you my new Gameboy!" Happily said Vincent while taking Ophelia's hand.
"Apollo? Did you choose it yourself, love?" Asked Mrs. Black with caution. She didn't want to scare the child by being too excited about it, as the doctor had explained to her.
"Yep." Explained the youngest of the Black family. "We looked it up with Vincent!"
"Oh, and why this one?" Wondered Sirius out loud with a smile, while putting his child on his lap. Finally his child started to know who he was. They knew early on that they didn't have a little girl. Their first magical accident was turning all the skirts of the people present in the primary school into trousers just because they didn't want to wear one. Now Sirius was sure it was a little boy.
The children then started rumbling about how they discovered that Hemera was a goddess of the light and since they looked so much alike, he wanted a name with the same meaning and they found Apollo.
In the meantime Narcissa looked at the situation not knowing what was going on. Shortly after the two ten years old ran back to the living room to play Gameboy.
"How's Nymphadora training doing?" Asked Sirius trying to include Narcissa who didn't know her niece was a nephew.
"Oh she's very good if you knew Cissy…" Andromeda realized she just called her sister her childhood nickname, she was scared it would start something bad. Even though she agreed to have dinner with herself and her husband.
"I'm so proud of her, Andy." Answered the blonde with a tiny shy smile.
The Black sisters looked at each other with some expression teenagers would have before asking a witch/wizard on their first date. Regulus felt like laughing. The legendary Black awkwardness reminded him the first time he tried to ask his husband on a date. Tried because he wasn't able to do it the first time, ended up asking him for transfiguration notes. Nor the second time either. In the end his husband was the first one to ask him on a date. Even his big brother suffered from it, the younger boy had to encourage him to ask his wife out when they were still in Hogwarts.
The rest of the evening was joyfully filled with conversations about their children's well being.
Not too bad for a first meeting. Sirius was happy to finally have all his family in one room without anyone trying to hex the other. He wished James and Lily could have witnessed that.