Rohesia Cassiopia Malfoy, the forgotten twin of Lucius, hidden behind his oppressive shadow, always understood she had one rule when she attended Hogwarts. Don't. Embarrass. The. Family. And, unfortunately for her, she did that day one when she got...
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O teach me how I should forget to think
Rohesia burst into the kitchen, anger and sorrow and annoyance and any emotion deemed negative bursting from her in endless ways. The kitchen was quiet, the elves not yet preparing food for dinner. She paced back and forth for a moment, ringing her hands together, trying to figure out what to do. Her brother, her twin, the boy who used to be her other half, he had the Dark Mark. He was part of the Dark Lord's army. She had heard her family talk about this. This uprising. The people they invited over were all so interested in blood purity.
Of course she had always worried about this. She had always wondered when there would be proof that her family was dabbling with someone soon to be known as one of the worst wizards in history, and now here it was. She hasn't seen the full thing on her brother's forearm, but she was confident. As much as she knew herself, she knew what Lucius had done. And the betrayal felt so deep to her core. She wanted to scream; so she did. Her cry reverberated off of the walls, off of the shelves of glassware and dishes, off of the empty tables where she was supposed to be sitting, polishing silver as punishment. And it wasn't enough. She needed more than just an outburst of anger. She needed to make something feel her pain.
She stalked towards the shelves of dishes, her fists balled tightly, nails digging into her palms. The word flashed through her head as she thrust her hands out; Bombarda. She hasn't spoken, had not drawn her wand, yet the spell reacted anyways. The stacks of dishes exploded, white pieces falling through the air around her as the glass of the cabinets shattered too, the impact of her spell far greater than she had thought. She didn't even pause to consider she had just non verbally cast before doing it again, her hands waving faster than she could think, each impact on the stacks of dishes pulling a little bit of pain out of her chest, until there were none left to break.
Then she sunk to the floor, energy spent. Tears fell from her eyes, making tracks down her cheeks, serpentine patterns that betrayed her, mimicking the house she should have been placed in. The house that would have made her parents love her still, the house that was her heritage. But what would have happened to her, now, if she had been? Would her arm too been adorned with a tattoo of slithering ink, cursed to make her follow a wizard whose ideals she did not believe in?
She didn't know what to do. She couldn't possibly fix this. And what would happen to her when the elves returned to work in the kitchens and saw her there, surrounded by all of their broken cookware? She'd be expelled, surely, and then truthfully have nowhere to go. Her family would never let her return home if that happened; she would be more a disgrace than she already was. She started to shake at the thought. She had gone too far this time and she would never be able to fix it now. Her hands shook as she sobbed, palms covering her eyes as the tears pooled there before dripping down onto the floor below.
And then, from nowhere, a pair of strong arms were wrapping about her shoulders, holding her tightly. Her instant reaction was to try and yank away, but a familiar voice filled her ears. "Hey, it's okay love, I've got you. It's going to be alright." It was James Potter. She couldn't seem to do a thing lately without him there as witness.
"Let me go," she said in a shaky voice, cut by hiccups for air and tears. "I don't need any help."
But he just seemed to hold her tighter to his chest, as she felt his hand run soothingly through her long, blonde hair. "You know you can let someone save you every once and awhile, Malfoy," he said, his voice half teasing in her ear. "You don't have to be the wounded knight for yourself every day. Let me have a turn." His words hit home, burrowing as deep as her spell in Charms had. "It's going to be alright, love, I promise. Now tell me. What's wrong?"
She shook her head, not wanting to share, not wanting to let him in to see those vulnerable parts of her, but he was persistent in his questioning. Finally, she sighed, sniffling, the tears refusing to continue. "It's my brother. I saw..." she trailed off, unsure if she should say the words out loud, making them real. "He has a Dark Mark," she said quietly, her whisper so soft she could barely hear it herself.
Potter went still, his hand not moving, the only sound their two beating hearts, both of which she could hear deafeningly loud. "Are you absolutely sure, Rohesia?" He asked finally, after a silence that stretched far too long between them. "If you are, we should tell someone." It wasn't often that James Potter suggested reporting something to teachers.
"No!" She said quickly, her head whipping back to look him in the eyes. "You can't do that!" Her eyes were wide and terrified.
"If you're right, Rohesia, that means they've infiltrated the school," James replied, voice serious. "That's incredibly dangerous and someone needs to know. They could...do something, I'm sure."
"James, no!" Rohesia protested, no longer shaking, her will as strong as it had ever been. "Lu is my twin. He's...as much a part of me as I am of him. You can't do that. I can't let him get expelled, or worse..." she shook her head, thinking of what wrath her parents would bring down on him if he embarrassed the family by being kicked out of school. "He's my family , James. I can't turn him in. I can help him, I know I can," she said, tone pleading. "If anyone can get to him, it's me."
"What makes you think he'll listen to you at all?" James asked, running a hand through his hair, fingers tugging slightly at a couple of shaggy bangs which hung down in front of his face. "I heard what he said to you today, after class. That didn't sound like someone who would listen. He sounded like a git."
"He is a git," Rossie muttered, shaking her head. "But he's also my brother. And more so, we're twins. It's just...different and I don't know how to explain it. I know the brother I love is in there somewhere. And if there was anyone out there who could get through to him, it'd be me. It has to be me." She meant every word that she said. She had to try and get to him and convince him to back out of whatever trouble he had gotten himself into.
James thought about it for a moment, his hand still running anxiously through his hair. "Fine. Fine, ok. You can have a chance to try and get him to see the light. I would want the same if it were one of my mates. But what do we do in the meantime?"
"In the meantime... I guess we figure out how the hell to keep me from getting expelled for all of this," she gestured at the mess surrounding them, the shattered bits of plates and glass still everywhere. "And I hope you have a brilliant plan for that because I have absolutely no idea what to do." She bit her lower lip, utterly distraught at the thought of someone walking in on them now.
"Well, Rohesia, it turns out you're in luck," James said, letting her go and sitting back, head up high and proud. "Because I actually can fix this." He withdrew his wand from his robes and held it up with a flair, beginning to mutter spells which worked wonders in the broken shards, mending the plates and the glass pane of the cabinet. Rohesia watched him slowly, wondering why he was doing all of this for her. What had she ever done to make anyone want to be her knight and rescue her? She wasn't sure, but she was grateful for him all the same.
And as she sat down to polish the silverware as her detention punishment, James sat beside her, telling jokes and making her smile. And the whole time, he didn't annoy her, not even once.
