Noon, Green Lane.
Woodstock, Oxfordshire. United Kingdom.


Green lane was an empty stretch of road, at parts. Those who lived in Woodstock knew that it was a long one- it wound around the top eastern corner of their little town and then ran on north for a very long while before coming to pass by the muggle factory, from which billowing clouds of steam floated dreamily from a pair of large grey pipes.

In between the last real house of Woodstock and this especially ugly factory however, was nothing but a crowd of forest trees to the left and vast plains of farming fields on the right. You didn't get many cars unless it was rush hour, so it was naturally a popular place for adventurous children to explore. Which leads us, case in point, to the twin sisters.

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"I think we're being followed," Raine Almasy was a scrawny thing at thirteen but her arms were strong and her shoulders braced. Fair blue eyes stared tensely at the road behind, which appeared shimmery underneath the beating heat of a late summer sun. She wrinkled her freckled nose with distaste. "In fact, I'm sure of it."

The two girls were both dressed in denim shorts and white tees, though Sanya wore a blue ribbon in her red curls. They held hands but only barely with fingers touching. The younger twin bit her lip anxiously. "It's him isn't he? He must be furious Raine. I knew we shouldn't have come this way..." she said this all very quickly with a lump in her throat.

"Bloody annoying is what he is," Raine grumbled as she finally began to make out a figure skimming around the corner. Several figures. He brought friends this time. Shit. Her sister made a whining sound. "Well you did break his arm."

Godric's socks, nobody was ever going to let her live that one down!

He was alive after all, wasn't he?

"Daniel Porter," she spat his name, "is a bully and just because I broke his arm, that doesn't mean he has a right to come after us like this." Of course Sanya shared this opinion but she didn't say so because it seemed like a rather spiteful thing to even think. The group of boys were still some ways away. Raine grabbed her sister's wrist and began walking briskly in the other direction.

"Can't even use my wand." The Gryffindor's sandals slapped angrily against the tarmac. "We can't take them all at once, we need to try and reach the chemical plant." There were adults there... and CCTV cameras. Muggles were terrified of those.

Sanya stumbled along, glancing back nervously. "They're gaining," she mewled in a quiet voice. "Why couldn't you have just left him afterwards? You had to threaten him with a lighter a-and now I don't even wanna know w-what they're g-go--"

All of a sudden the pair stopped and Raine whipped around to stare at her sister. The lighter! Roger's lighter!

"You're a genius. Genius Ravenclaw," she grinned and began patting down her pockets. "Go grab a branch, lots of leaves. Now." The lighter - a ruddy drugstore thing in yellow plastic - was found by the time Sanya came hopping down the incline of the bordering forest. In her arms were two wooden branches with crackling dry leaves. They had a good five minutes before the boys became more than dangers in the distance.

The girl had already figured out her sister's plan but didn't look none too pleased about it. "Papa is going to be really mad about this..."


Raine Almasy rolled her eyes- nevermind their father, they weren't about to be ambushed by a posy of muggle boys in broad daylight. She clicked down on the lighter and watched the flame shoot up quietly. At least not if she had anything to say about it.

The Lemon residence weren't none close to Woodstock town lest ye cut through through the fields on the way there, which was a daily practice of their one squib son. A hot noon sun was beatin' down on the sparse cabbage pastures by ol' Green Lane when Roger came trampling through the still growin' veggies with his bare feet.

He was a sight, in torn jeans and muddied shirt, not t'mention bloody grimy. The boy wiped the sweat of his forehead as he peered into the distance with a flummoxed look. The fuckin' hell was goin' on? Green Lane didn't get much business 'round this time- and even if he was sort of expectin' the Almasy twins t'be waiting up ahead for him, the fires were a nasty bit o'surprise.

"Oi!" he cupped his hands to his mouth, yelling. "Oi! Wot're ye two up to?" Quicker than a flash, he saw Raine's head turn. He only knew it were her and not Sanya 'cause she were always the first t'react like that. The lass made a gesture with 'er free arm- tellin' him to come on up on to the road.

And they weren't no question 'bout refusing. Roger sighed, squinting at his girls as he picked up the pace.

"You missed all the fun."

Raine Almasy still held the brightly burning branch in one hand, angled away from her form. Roger was climbing up the slight incline on to the Green Lane with a confused look. Sanya had dropped her torch the moment she saw him coming and it laid on the tarmac, eating through sparse wood and dry leaves- hungry.

The squib pulled himself up with a final lurch. "Wot fun? Settin' fire to ye town?" he was breathing hard and she could see now that it wasn't confusion but concern in his eyes. It made her uncomfortable and she wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand, swallowing.

"No. The muggle boys. You know, P-porter." Raine blinked and her sister cut in: "They were after us." The rest of it seemed self explanatory though an awkward pause ensued, in which Sanya began pacing along the road while Roger kicked testily at the burnt-out branch. "Put it down," he said in a tense voice- she threw the flame away and stepped back nimbly.

He was angry. They had never seen him angry, not really.

"It... it wasn't magic. I had your lighter. I didn't know what they were going to do," she stared at him with an odd, sick feeling in her chest. "I had to." They all knew that this had been her idea because Sanya would have rather fled than fight. But she didn't like the way he wasn't looking at her. "Roger."

And then his scowl shot to hers. "Ye could 'ave hurt ye selves!" he snapped. "Those blokes are goin' t'think ye girls are mental."

Stopping a couple of feet away, Sanya flinched and Raine felt it. That tone. It sounded so much like... like her mother or father. Reprimanding. She hated it and glared at the squib, lips pressed together.

"Do you think I'm mental?" she demanded. "Off her rocker, Raine Almasy. Breaking arms and burning boys. I suppose you thin--"

Roger cut her short. "I ain't thinkin' anything that 'asn't gone through ye batty 'ead. Ye know it weren't right, ye could 'ave run." He jabbed a finger at her and she flushed angrily. Sanya was quiet as a church mouse. This wasn't the reaction she had been expecting. They were safe, the bullies were gone and she had done a perfectly efficient job of scaring them away. He should have been laughing or... or something. Not this, certainly.

"I don't run." Raine's countenance smoothed into a vacant gaze. "I couldn't. They were giving me a bad feeling." That sounded less childish in her head. Roger sighed heatedly. "Bad feelin'. They were givin' ye a bad feelin'," he repeated. "An' what do I give ye?"

Glancing first at her sister and then at Roger, she slipped out the tiny lighter from earlier. It still felt warm in her palm. Raine held it up pointedly.


"Weapons, apparently." Nonchalantly, she tossed it to him. "We have to go now. My father needs to hear this from me first, can't trust those bloody muggles to get it straight."