The Brothers Grim

[Yulian Olaf]

The sky was grey and The Olaf family were settling down around a meal.
The Dining room was a large hall containing a long and sturdy dark wooden table with many seats.
At one end, Kristo Olaf sat with a goblet in his hand content with the meal he had just eaten.
The other end was where a tall woman - who in comparison to the rest of the Olaf family was short- named Rosa sat.
She was the mother to the others who sat around the table and although she was muggle-born married to a pureblood, whos relatives would have frowned upon them, she sat proudly at her end of the table her sons sat with her and the only child present who was not hers sat with Kristo.

Yulian was beside his twin, Yosif. They were smiling to each other and kicking one another beneath the table.
They were thirteen years old- Old enough to know better. But their older brother, Zdravko, was hardly a good example..
"Yulian!" Rosa hissed as Yulian kneed the table sending his goblet flying. "If you are finished then you may leave the table and go and bother somebody else."
The twins laughed and skidded from the table to the staircase, racing up the flight of stairs to the only room they frequently checked- The tapestry room.

The room was not of epic proportions but the walls were flooded with names.
Yulian took out a set of gobstones. "Shall we?" he said, turning to his twin brother with a smile.

 

[Yosif Olaf]

Yosif had followed his brother upstairs and to the tapestry room.
He had always followed in Yulian's footsteps ever since birth.
Yosif grinned as his brother took out the set of gobstones he had.
But then Yosif looked up to the tapestry and turned pale, his jaw dropping.
"Yulian.." He said weakly, swallowing hard, "Yulian!"
He grabbed onto his brother's shirt and pointed towards the place where Yakov's name was.
A line went down from that and there was a blank space.

 

[Yulian Olaf]

Yulian hissed at his brother as he felt his clothes being tugged at. "What?!" he said, turning to the tapestry. His face too went pale and he exchanged nervous looks with his brother.
"Do you think mum knows?" He whispered to Yosif, eyes flicking to the doorway to check nobody was lurking outside.
"..Do you think Yakov knows?"
Yulian moved swiftly from the room, racing down the great stone staircase and leaping the last few steps.
He ran to the lounge where he could hear music playing and he found Yakov, Zdravko, Viktoriya and Dominicus in there;
Zdravko was dancing wildly to the music, Viktoriya was playing wizards chess with Dominicus and Yakov was reading a magazine of wizarding rock music.

Yulian kicked Yakov, who was perched at one end of the old sofa, and shouted "Oi!".
He loved doing this; Breaking the news that he knew a big secret of his brothers was one of the most fun and nasty habits Yulian had.
"Something you want to tell us?" He said, folding his arms and raising one eyebrow.

 

[Yakov Olaf]

Yakov looked up from his magazine to the twin who had kicked him.
Sometimes even Yakov mixed Yulian and Yosif up.. But Yulian was the violent one.
"Can I help you, troll face?" Yakov said with a sneer but that sneer disappeared when he heard his brother asking him that question. It was a question he had worried about for a while now.
"It's not mine." Yakov snapped, causing Viktoriya and Dominicus to look up from their game of chess. Zdravko continued dancing.
"I ended it with her when I found out and I know what the tapestry says but it's wrong."
The tapestry was never wrong.
But Yakov hadn't seen Aaliyah in months and he didn't plan on seeing her again anytime soon.. Not since she was pregnant.

 

[Dominicus Olaf]

Dominicus stood up suddenly, knocking over the chess set and causing the pieces to smash.
"You-" the shock was tying his stomach in knots, "You," Dominicus said again, angrily waggling his finger at Yakov, "That girl.. You and her.. And she's pregnant?! You bloody idiot, Yakov!" Dom shouted at his brother. He really couldn't believe this.
He, an 18 year old wizard with a job and a lot of girls interested, had not done something this stupid. Not yet.. But then, of course, Dominicus was still crazy for Andromeda.

Dominicus shot his brother a death stare, grabbed his sisters hand and left the room.
There was a few minutes of silence from the other rooms in the house.. Just a few.. And then a thunderous roar.
Kristo Olaf had just heard the news.

 

[Yulian Olaf]

Yulian swore loudly.
"Merlins beard," he breathed as he heard their father storming towards the room.
Yulian grabbed Yosif's hand and pulled him to the smallest of the bookcases in the room.
He pulled down on a book titled 'Dragons, ye tales of'. A small section at the bottom moved aside and Yulian crawled in, yanking his brother through with him and sealing the entrance.
Of course, the whole family knew about this secret passage which led to a painting upstairs but most of the family were too tall to use it. This meant the twins- and Viktoriya should she want to- could hide in the passage way during a family arguement and could enjoy a game of gobstones while they waited for tempers to cool.
Playing gobstones was exactly what Yulian and Yosif did at that moment.

 

[Kristo Olaf]

"Yakov Branimir Damyan Olaf," Kristo shouted in his booming voice.
He knew that most of the children would scatter at this- The twins would no doubt be lurking somewhere in the walls of the mansion, Dominicus having taken Viktoriya upstairs to read to her so she needn't witness an enormous shouting match.
The only children still in the living room were Zdravko and Yakov.
"Is this true?!" His voice boomed. Rosa stood behind her husband trying to calm him down.
"Are you to be a father?!" Saying the word made him twice as angry.
"Kristo," Rosa pleaded from behind him, placing one of her small and delicate hands upon his toned back. "Please, let me talk to him."
Kristo was fuming but his wife's calming and genlte voice stopped him from moving any closer to Yakov.
He took a deep breath and stepped aside to let Mrs. Olaf through.
Rosa, who had a beautiful smile, had no expression upon her face. This suddenly changed to the one thing every male of the Olaf family feared most- The disappointed look.
"Yakov, darling," Rosa said sweetly, walking to her son and placing a soft hand upon his forehead. "Please answer your father's question."

 

[Yakov Olaf]

Yakov winced as his father spoke his full name. He was in big trouble.
His only defense was to stay strong, to not let his father get to him. And he succeeded.
However, when Mrs. Olaf placed a hand upon his forehead with a look of disappointment, he felt his heart sink and he could not control the floods of tears.
He wished his mother could be angry at him, could just shout or hit him but her calm tone was like a shard of glass scratching at him.
"I'm so sorry," was all he could say before Mrs. Olaf took him into her arms and cuddled him close to her chest.
She knew it was only a matter of time before something like this happened.

 

[Zdravko Olaf]

Zdravko was still dancing, eyes shut and ignoring the world.
It was only once Kristo waved his wand and shut off the music that Zdravko became aware of the world.
"Hey!" He said a little annoyed, forced from his happy place, "I was listening to that!"
He took one look at his brother in tears and rolled his eyes.
"Alright," he said, walking to the door, "I'll be in the kitchen with sausage rolls if you need me."