Waxen

Chapter 1 - Second Year

September 1st, 1886

The train was duller in colour than Sebastian had remembered it last year. His trunk felt heavier in his hands as he drowned out the chatter of people by keeping in his head to the best of his ability. He almost felt like a ghost. The high wail from the train's top and the steam that overflowed took him from his thoughts, his dry freckled hand running over Anne's.

"I believe it is time," Abigail said, putting soft hands gingerly on the twins' shoulders. Abigail leaned close enough to the two that her deep blonde curls tickled Sebastian's right cheek. He nearly pushed her off, but was glad he had at least someone who seemed to care for him and Anne after last night, and decided against it.

Sebastian's father, Reuben, hadn't been very close to his older brother, Solomon. As a result, Sebastian and Anne rarely saw their uncle. They had last seen him during Easter of that year, but that was months ago. Easter, before that Christmas...he could not recall seeing the man more than two times a year in his entire life. But last night when he fell down the stairs to find he no longer had any parents, the rocks in his life to rely on, Solomon was the only person he'd thought to message.

He came a few hours after Sebastian had finished tying a piece of parchment to the leg of his family's owl, Rosemary. He wrote with the spare ink and quill by his bedside, no longer able to stomach being in the cellar library for any longer. He wrote with quaking hands, spilling the ink a few times on the wooden floor and dropping a number of large tears on the parchment, one in particular blurring his signature at the end. When his uncle arrived, oddly enough, he was not alone.

Solomon's wife had died nearly five years prior, around the time of his retirement at the Ministry of Magic as an Auror. Since, Sebastian had missed his aunt. Solomon wasn't the friendliest, but she had always shown kindness to him and Anne.

When Solomon came to their home late last night, a woman he'd soon found was named Abigail trailed behind him. She worked for the Ministry, he'd learned, and was a bit younger than Solomon. They had started dating recently, and according to Solomon, had insisted she come along upon reading the letter from behind him, a gasp escaping her lips. She helped Sebastian and Anne to bed, making them a lovely dinner that the two barely touched; and offering the comfort they desperately needed that Solomon did not seem capable of giving.

Why on earth she was with him, Sebastian could not tell. But in that moment, shaking and crying silently on his bed, he surprisingly didn't mind her offer of hugs, hands on their shoulders, and slightly soothing words.

She helped them get ready the next morning, asking if they even wanted to go back to school. The siblings, without missing a beat, looked at her in uttermost confusion. Their world had been turned upside down. The last thing they wanted was to disrupt the one thing they were looking forward to; the one place they would be fed, be cared for, and be safe.

The train blew its whistle once again, like a boiling teapot. Sebastian gave a thin lipped grin to Abigail as she led them to the train carriages. The bright red train made her hair look slightly ginger in the light, and made Anne's orange scarf a brighter hue. He'd thought her mad when she wanted to stay with their parent's cold, stiff bodies for the moments Sebastian wrote a call for help to their uncle. Yet, when she came back up with his late mother's scarf wrapped around her thin neck, Sebastian cried louder, throwing his arms around her in a earnest hug, his hands holding to her head the way their father used to hug them.

"I'll be here to pick up you both at the end of term. Please message me if you need anything. Anything at all, okay?" Abigail was gentle, but when she told you to do something, she meant it. She was an extremely convincing woman, much like his mother is. Was.