Dahlia hoisted her book bag a little higher on her shoulder and waited outside the Great Hall entrance. Almost every morning she did this, waiting for her friends and her twin brother to be done their breakfast so they could all go to their lessons together. On Mondays, most of the second years took a late breakfast given their early morning study break. Dahlia however tended to have her Breakfast early so she could get as much studying in as possible before lessons started. Which meant she was usually coming down from the Library to collect her friends.

Whenever the doors of the Great Hall opened Dahlia peeked inside but she still couldn't catch sight of her fellow Hufflepuffs or her friends from Gryffindor. She hadn't seen her brother the day before given the fact that she usually spent her weekends within the Library or in her own common room especially given the cold weather lately (even back home where winters tended to be colder than they were here in Scotland, Dahlia was more often found inside with a good book than out in the snow with her siblings) She wanted to ask him whether the Gryffindors were going to the upcoming Yule ball. She wanted to go with Keegan but she wasn't sure if she was supposed to wait for him to ask her or if it just wasn't the thing second years did. If her brother was going than they could just go as a clump and she could get a few dances alone with Keegan without causing suspicion.

"C'mon Erik, where are you?"

Erik had been rather scarce the day before, ever since he had a mishap with one of the NEWT student’s potions. Apparently it would take about a week to wear off, and he’d have facial hair and other irritating problems until school was out. Now it was his birthday—he was suppose to be 13, but he definitely didn’t feel it.

He was standing at around six feet tall and hitting plenty of things or running into things he was usually short enough to avoid. But not this week!

Luckily, the Great Hall doorway was large enough for a giant to walk through, so Erik jut scratched his head and walked on by without much a thought—then he heard his name.

Midwalk, the boy spun around and looked to see who had spoken his name. Then his eyes landed on his Hufflepuff twin. Erik’s much older face twisted into a half-cringe before he turned back around and started to continue walking away from the Great Hall.

But nobody could miss how much the Gryffindor and the Hufflepuff looked alike how the scraggily eyebrows, the paunchy nose, and the tense lips all looked like  they should belong to Erik. 

Dahlia's green blue eyes had been scanning the mix of students that were slowly emerging from the Great Hall making their ways towards their morning classes. A tall older Gryffindor had looked her way suddenly and she felt her stomach jolt when, for the briefest moments, their eyes met. Dahlia let out a gasp she was barely aware of. Call it twin intuition or maybe just suspicion but she had no doubt in her mind that the apparent seventeen year old was actually her brother. Maybe it was the likeness between his usual self and his older self or the striking resemblance between this student and pictures of their dad from when he was a senior, whatever it was Dahlia knew it meant one thing for sure, this meant trouble.

Erik had turned and was trying to slink away which would have been a much easier feat when he was a few feet shorter. Dahlia hurried to catch up with him. She gave him one of those 'you know you're in trouble so make this quick' looks their mother was famous for, "Should I even ask?"

Looking up, way up, at Erik was a weird sensation. Dahlia was small and petite in stature just like her sister but even standing at 4'10" she was only a few inches shorter than the average thirteen year old and she was likely to have one more growth spurt before she stopped growing. She had always been pretty much on par with her twin when it came to growing and she couldn't help wonder what she was going to look like in five years seeing a clear example of how well Erik was going to grow right in front of her eyes.