Of Tulips and Windmills

[Melanie White]

When Melanie was young she moved from New Zealand to The Netherlands. Everything was new, the language which was really hard to learn and the people were different from the Kiwis. Living in the Netherlands was whole different experience, the first years she felt out of place in the country. ''Benjamin kom op, we moeten gaan!'' Melanie was getting annoyed by her older brother, he was still on his room fixing his hair or something, at least that was what Melanie thought he was doing. Melanie rolled her eyes and waited for her brother to get out of his frigging room, so they could both go outside. After a minute her brother was ready and she took her jacket from the hall,the Dutch weather was pretty bad and today had begun as a rainy day. A brown bag was hanging over Melanie her left shoulder, the bag was filled with candy and drinks. They was literally one wizarding shop in the Netherlands and it was close to where they lived. Normal magical kids could not enter the place without supervising of a older witch of wizard, but they knew the owner and Melanie and Benjamin could always enter the store. Melanie usually spoke Dutch to her brother, but sometimes she would speak English, she loved both languages. ''Seriously Benjamin, how on earth did it took you so long to get ready?'' The store mainly sold important magical things, such as cauldrons and books. Benjamin and Melanie went to this store a lot since it was their only connection to the magical world. Their mother is a Muggle and their father is a Wizard, their father works at the Ministry in Amsterdam. It is a little subdivision that they have there, Melanie was very proud of that job and wanted to work there too when she was older. ''Soms denk ik echt dat je niet bij me hoort hoor.'' Melanie loved her brother, but he could be so stupid.

It was not like that Melanie hated her brother, but her personality was nothing like her brothers. At least they did not looked the same so she could always say that he was just a friend instead of family. When Melanie found out that Benjamin could do magic too, she was literally shocked. Her opinion on it was that only smart people could become a witch or wizard and from what she had seen of her brother he was not the brightest kid on the block. The dress that Melanie was wearing under the jacket was recently new bought at the closet Primark to their village. Melanie loved clothes and she hoped that there was a spell that created clothes for her. The streets were pretty busy on this time of the day and some people greeted them. ''Goedenmiddag.'' Melanie replied with a fake voice, she hated greeting people, she did not even give a flying salamander about them. They were walking through the park that was in front of their house, it was fairly big and something was always happening in there. When Melanie turned around to look at her brother she had lost him. ''Where is he off to?'' Melanie whispered to herself, she was going to search this park for her brother, but he was probably looking at a squirrel that had just jumped from a tree. ''Benjamin, waarom kun je nou nooit normaal mee doen.'' Melanie loved her brother, but when he was lost in these situations, it annoyed Melanie to bits.

Spoiler: Little Book of Translation

Benjamin kom op, we moeten gaan!
Benjamin come on, we have to go!
Soms denk ik echt dat je niet bij me hoort hoor
Sometimes I think that you do not belong with me
Goedenmiddag
Good Afternoon
Benjamin, waarom kun je nou nooit normaal mee doen
Benjamin, why can't you act normal for once?
(In dutch the ? is not required there.) In Dutch it is more of a rhetorical question that does not need an answer.

 

[Benjamin White]

Benjamin stood before the mirror in the bathroom, he took a tube of gel and squeezed it so that the stuff came on his hand, Ben rubbed his hands and did the sticky stuff in his hair. ''Ik ben bijna klaar, zeurkous!'' He loved his young twin sister, but sometimes she could be really annoying. When he was finished with his hair, he washed his hands, turned out the light from the bathroom and walked down the stairs. Benjamin looked at some pictures on the wall as he walked downstairs ''Waarom ben je niet meer zoals toen? Klein, schattig en lief.'' He said with a big smile to his twin sister. ''Somehow it went wrong with you'' Like Melanie, Benjamin spoke English every now and then, so he would not forget it. Benjamin looked at his sister with a confused look ''Ik doe er lang over? Jij bent meestal diegene die er een halfuur over doet.'' He grabbed his coat from the hall and looked through the side window to the rain outside, made a disapproving sound and put on his coat. The weather in the Netherlands was quite.. strangely, the one time it was hot and nice, and then you had another big rainstorm.

Ben heard the fake voice of Melanie as she greeted someone and had to gently smile, what a wonderful person she was sometimes. As they walked through the park, he looked around, and from the corner of his eye he saw a girl sitting on a bench, in his eyes she was pretty cute, and quietly walked to the girl so Melanie wouldn't notice it.

Spoiler: Translation

Ik ben bijna klaar, zeurkous!
I'm almost done, sourpuss!

Waarom ben je niet meer zoals toen? Klein, schattig en lief.
Why you are nothing like before? Small, cute and sweet.

Ik doe er lang over? Jij bent meestal diegene die er een halfuur over doet.
I'm doing taking long? You're usually the one who takes about half an hour.

 

[Melanie White]

When Benjamin whined about her taking long times to fix her hair, she would always roll her eyeballs and looked for something to pester him about. The park was kind of nice and some ducks were happily squeaking in the pond. Melanie did not like any animals, they were still useless, but she had to keep up the veil of being normal. Normal people fed the ducks breadcrumbs, Melanie had fed them rat poison once a day later sixteen ducks had died. ''Bejamin als je binnen tien tellen niet voor me staat, ga ik je echt wat aan doen hoor!'' Melanie shouted trough the park some muggles looked her way, some were trying to find ''Benjamin'' thinking it was a dog or something. When Melanie finally found her older brother she found him almost drooling over a girl that was sitting in the park. ''Very cute Romeo, but keep your thoughts inside your pants please.'' Melanie rolled her eyes and waited for Benjamin to leave the poor Muggle girl alone. The look that Melanie shot the girl was more of an apologizing one. Melanie brushed her slim hand trough her long brown hair and sighed in relieve. Her brother had not died or shown Magic to Muggles.

Melanie opened her bag and retrieved a large package of Haribo gummy bears, they were Melanies favourite candy. She always picked the red gummy bears which tasted like strawberry and she always gave Benjamin the apple ones, which she hugely disliked. ''Wil jij er ook een Ben?'' Melanie said with a devious smirk on her face, she had her hand full with handpicked green bears. Mel did not want to go to the shop immediately and chose to sit down on the damp grass. The weather was not as bad as expected and she had thrown her jacket on the ground and she was sitting on that. Melanie did not even want a boyfriend, she had more important stuff to do. Why did her brother always needed flirt with poor muggles. They both would attend Hogwarts, she could only hope that the sorting hat would spare her and would get her out of her misery, well with misery her brother that is. ''Which house do you prefer?''Some Dutch natives were looking at them strangely, they both spoke perfectly Dutch, but when they spoke English they had a fairly thick Kiwi accent. Melanied did not really care about a house, she just wanted lots of friends and maybe some power.

Spoiler: Little Book of Translation

Bejamin als je binnen tien tellen niet voor me staat, ga ik je echt wat aan doen hoor!
Benjamin if you do not stand in front of me in ten seconds, I am going to harm you.
(We use it more as an expression the last part, it roughly translated means hurting or harming, but not like hitting.)
Wil jij er ook een Ben?
Do you want one Ben?

 

[Benjamin White]

Benjamin had already forgotten Melanie, and was in full conversation with the girl. ''Dus, ehh.. Hoe komt het dat ik zo'n mooie meid zoals jou nog nooit eerder heb gezien hier?'' He saw that the girl laughed softly. and began to laugh himself. Benja hoped that Melanie did not know that he was gone, so he could talk to the girl, slightly longer. ''Vind je het erg als ik naast je kom zitten?'' He spoke with his sweet voice to the girl and hoped she did not mind that at all. Benjamin saw that the girl quietly nodded yes and was about to sit down until he heard the voice of his sister saying ''Very cute Romeo, but keep your thoughts inside your pants please.'' He turned around and saw Melanie standing next to him, Benja sighed loudly and closed his eyelids shortly, with an irritated look, he looked at his sister, and stood up. He looked back at the girl and gave her a quick wink and walked away from her.

Benjamin still had an irritated look in his eyes and looked at Melanie when she asked him something. ''Nobody wants the green ones Mel, and I certainly do not want them.'' The rest of the time Benjamin remained silent and irritated, why she'd always had to ruin his good moments, Benja did nothing wrong to her? If Melanie would do such a thing again, he would really shoot his temper. When his sister spoke to him, he gave a short answer ''I don't know it.. Yet.''

Spoiler: Translation

Dus, ehh.. Hoe komt het dat ik zo'n mooie meid zoals jou nog nooit eerder heb gezien hier?
So, uh.. How come that I have never seen such a pretty girl like you've before?

Vind je het erg als ik naast je kom zitten?
Do you mind if I sit next to you?