"The brightest flame will defeat the deathly chill of seven Decembers."
Castor and Pollux Jones, transfer students from Ilvermorny, are now attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. After the unexpected death of their mother, they move t...
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The day began like any other.
It started with a low groan of pain, then the rustling of bedsheets, and the sound of someone thrashing about down the hall. The groans would turn to pleas and eventually Castor Mya Jones would wake from her nightmares with a harsh scream, bolting upright in bed and panting for air that would not enter her lungs. Pollux Dio Jones would burst into his sister's room, wasting no time in pulling her into his arms and offering the only comfort he could give her.
Pollux Dio Jones had never felt so helpless.
He thought he knew the feeling when Castor, Harry, and Cedric were taken from the maze, the way the professors and Aurors scrambled to find out how they had disappeared from Hogwarts grounds entirely. He thought he felt helpless when they'd returned, when all he could do was hold his twin as she shook and sobbed in his arms. When Harry was forced to tell the story of that night in the cemetery, still bleedings and clutching at Cedric's lifeless body. But this?
This was so much worse.
Because Castor's nightmares would never go away. They would only fade with time but would still be present in the back of her mind. He knew very well that it would take a lot longer than just a few weeks for Castor to begin to heal from that horrible night back in June. Since the day they'd arrived back home in London, he'd been woken in the middle of the night by the sound of his twin's terrified, pain-filled screams. They echoed through the empty house louder than anything he'd ever heard before, and every shrill tone of his sister's voice dug the knife deeper into his heart that he couldn't do anything about it.
"Was it the same dream?" He whispered, though he very well knew the answer. Castor sniffled, wiped the tears from her cheeks and nodded.
"Yea." Her voice crackled slightly. Her throat had healed thanks to Madame Pomfrey's wonderous tonics, but they did little to lessen the empty feeling in her heart every time she walked back through the front door of the Jones estate.
Because she was alive, and Nathan Jones was dead.
Yet another person who had sacrificed themself for her and her brother. Another person she'd loved and cared about, gone. All because the universe had willed it so.
"Come on." Pollux stood from his seat on the edge of her bed, smiling down at her as he turned to exit her bedroom. "Let's go."
"Where are we going?" Castor was already pulling away the covers, looking out the window to check the weather. The warm rays of the early July sun gleamed through the stained glass windows of her bedroom.
"On an adventure!" Pollux's voice echoed from down the hall, and she turned to her doorway, tilting her head when she realized she'd never heard him leave.
"Adventure to where?" She called back as she changed into clean clothes. A pair of dark shorts were pulled over sheer stockings, followed by a loose black tank top and her well-worn Doc Martens. She tied a grey flannel around her hips just in case they were out a bit later than usual.
