Sibling Rivarly

[Jadyn Heaton]

The library was empty the night Jadyn found herself pacing up and down it. She had so much on her mind and so little time to actually think about it. How in the world could that have possibly happened? The sorting had happened several days ago and Jadyn had gotten into Gryffindor, as she had expected, but her brother sent a lovely shock through Jadyn’s body that she had not quite recovered from and would not until she talked to Zach. He got sorted into Slytherin! It was the only thought that had radiated through her mind over the past few days, afraid as to what this meant as far as their relationship. They would not have nearly as much time together as they had normally had when they were at home.

Nervous, Jadyn went to a chair and sat in it, breathing deep cleansing breaths which she tried to use to relax her, though their attempts were useless in the war against her mind. She wasn’t exactly sure what happened when Zachary put the hat on but for all she knew, Zach told the blasted thing to put her in Slytherin. The only thing she kept feeling was that sinking sensation that had ruined the entire feast as well as plenty of other important moments, such as being lead through the castle for the first time and entering her common room for the first time. The experiences felt incomplete, like she was missing something. That missing piece, Jadyn knew, was her brother at her side, experiencing the same things with her exactly as she did. That was how life always was. And now it was totally different. It was so much more confusing and Jadyn didn’t know what to do about it.

She sat there in her chair and waited for her brother to show up. She had taken to this habit, waiting for him to enter the library at various intervals during the day, determined to meet him. He seemed to have been avoiding her and she was determined to find him, to get some answers, to know exactly what happened when he slipped the hat on. Snarling silently under her breath, she sat up straight in the seat as the door opened and a body moved into the space.

 

[Zachary Heaton]

Among the hobbies that Zachary persuade, being sneaky was among them. The young boy already knew how to creep into places that he didn’t belong, and had recently picked up on sneaky about to avoid a certain person. Namely, his twin. The two had been sorted into different houses, but they were so much more than just that. They were opposing houses. If Zachary abided by how Slytherin’s were meant to behave, he was to hate his sister. This did not set well with him. His “twin feelings” hinted that Jadyn wasn’t pleased at this either.

So, he took to avoiding her. He knew this could not last forever, just till classes start, because there was bound to be a shared class between the two. The sorting remained fresh in his mind. The hat has basically told him that he would have done well in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, but his selfishness put him in Slytherin. Zachary had never thought of himself as selfish, but he had began to believe the hat. The only person he ever put before himself was his twin. He even mistreated his own brother because Bryan got more attention then him.

So, it was true. The way he had treated Bryan for all these years were finally effecting him. Zachary felt slightly pained when he was placed in Slytherin because he felt his relationship with his father plummet even more. Jacob would not be pleased, he wanted his son in Ravenclaw.

With his moral consensus resting heavily on his mind, the boy turned to the library. Already, he was pondering about how to get into the restricted section. Imagine the information that it held! Besides, he figured the last place Jadyn would set foot in without reason to would be the library. What he didn’t think about was the fact that Jadyn did have a reason to be there; to find her twin. Zachary opened the door to the library and was greeted with a rather familiar face. It wasn’t exactly pleasant looking either.

 

[Jadyn Heaton]

Sure enough, the body was none other than the exact person she had been looking for over the past days. Later on, she would thank herself for being so clever as to go to the library, the last place Zachary would expect her to be. For now, however, she was focusing on the fact that the pair was finally face to face. She rose out of the chair as he approached her and circled around him, almost as if she was trying to look him over, to see if he had changed at all now that he was in Slytherin.

“Well,” she started after several agonizing moments. Her glare stopped at his feet and made its way up to her brother’s eyes, staring intently into them, trying to see if there was anything behind them that was different. “You seem to be the same Zach as you were before all of…” Pausing, the girl looked for the right word to use, but couldn’t find one. “…of this.”

The small girl took a deep breath in an effort to calm the emotions which were slowly taking over her. There was a mixture of anger, sadness, upset, and confusion all coursing through her body, melding with the adrenaline of finally confronting him. Combined, this alchemy made tears well up in her eyes, despite her efforts to choke them back. “Zach, what happened? What did the hat tell you? Or what did you tell it? What are mum and dad going to say? We were supposed to be in the same house, Zach. Twins together forever. Remember?” Everything escaped her in a mess of tears, her accent coming through more strongly than it had in a while; at least since they had been in New Zealand.

Finally losing control over herself she collapsed onto her brother’s shoulder and cried silently. This had been building up inside of her for several days now. Trying to choke it all back and ignore it had worked as a temporary bandage but the glue had come undone from her skin and burst under the building pressure of the emotional wreck she was.

 

[Zachary Heaton]

Zachary knew what his twin was doing as she was circling. She was looking for change, perhaps expecting a glance of evil to be reflected in his eye? He already knew that getting sorted into Slytherin was a bad thing. As far as he knew, nobody in his family had been in Slytherin on either side of the family. All he knew is that when his father talked about the houses, Slytherin always rolled off his tongue in a disgusted way.

“I’m the same,” he said quietly, after Jadyn got done examining. It was the truth; a few days in the house hadn’t changed him. If anything, his face reflected worry. “When I got to the hat, I was thinking that it was unfair that you were always first,” Zachary started, knowing that he couldn’t leave out the details, “I told the hat it was up to him. He said I would do well with you, or in Ravenclaw because I’m intelligential, but that I was truly a Slytherin because I always put myself first.” Zachary turned away at the last part, looking out over the grounds. Of all the words that his family described him as, selfish was never one of them. “But it’s not true, is it? I’d put you before myself.” He knew, deep down inside, that it wasn’t enough to just put his twin before himself.

The boy turned back around to face his twin. “Dad won’t be happy. He doesn’t like Slytherin. I think something happened in his past. Something that wasn’t good. I think I remind him of that bad thing, whatever it is.” Zachary had the sinking impression that Jacob thought he was evil. Maybe he had sensed that the boy twin was evil long ago, which is why he favored Jadyn.

Then the tears came from Jadyn. Zach had been anticipating these since the sorting. He could do nothing but embrace her. “I’m not evil,” he said firmly, as if that was any reassurance.

 

[Jadyn Heaton]

Her fear of change in her brother should have inhibited her from allowing him to embrace her but, at the same time, she knew deep down that Zachary was still the same Zachary she knew, still her twin brother whom she had been deeply connected to since… Well, since conception. The two had always been together, not only siblings but best friends, something she greatly appreciated from him. If she needed his support or advice in something, he was there for her. Perhaps it was simply the fact she couldn’t sneak into his room in the middle of the night while their parents were sleeping and sit on the end of his bed and talk to him anymore that bothered her so much. Whatever it was, she did not like the feeling it gave her.

Taking a deep breath, Jadyn looked up at Zach again when he told her he was not evil and wiped her eyes, staring into his again. “I know you would put me before you, Zach. We both know that, and so does our family.” Pausing, she took another deep breath, closed her eyes, and slowly let the air fall out of her lungs, her diaphragm collapsing again, her center tasking in the energy form the room to calm her. “It’s just so weird, you know? Like, It’s not even that we’re in different houses. This would be a totally different situation if you were in Ravenclaw. But it’s Slytherin, Zach. What’s daddy going to say?” Without realizing it, she had called him daddy rather than dad, something she only did when she really needed him, needed to just run into his arms and feel him comforting her. That was what she needed in that moment, to be able to go to her father and hear what he had to say about the situation. But that wasn’t possible.

Then it dawned on her. Her eyes lit up, though it was not an excited light, it was a light that said she was thinking clearly and logically, or so she thought anyway. “Zach, we need to write them and tell them what houses we’re in. I want mom and dad to know I got Gryffindor and they should know about you, too. I’m sure they’ll be proud, right? I mean, you’re their son, it’s not like they’re going to disown you or anything, right?” Without waiting for an answer from him, she took a roll of parchment, quill, and ink out of her bag, sat down at the table again, and began writing.

 

[Zachary Heaton]

"Dad won't say anything. He's going to act like nothing ever happened, as long as I don't screw things up even more," Zachary said, hoping it was true. His mother would support him no matter what house he was in, but he wasn't sure about his father. He expected his relationship with Jacob was about to get worse. The worst part about it all was there was little hope of another family member joining him. He was already distant in his own family, this would set him even further apart.

Then Jadyn got an idea. Write a letter home. Zachary knew it had to be done. "Yes, I suspect we should tell them," he said, sitting down beside her. "You should probably tell them about me getting into Slytherin first. Get the bad news over first." The young boy was thankful that he wouldn't be home to experience his father's reaction. He felt slightly sympathetic for Yvette and Bryan, who would most likely be there when the letter arrived.

"Do you think I would have been a Slytherin if we went to Hogwarts back home?" Zachary asked. Home meant back in England, and he knew Jadyn would know what he meant. Everyone in his family knew that all Zachary wanted to do was go back to England. "I mean, I'll admit that I've been in a foul mood since the move. Maybe that's some of it?" he mused, watching his twin write the letter. "Mum'll be happy for you. She wanted both of us in Gryffindor."