Disclaimer: The OC’s in this story as well as the plot were all created by me, All other things mentioned in this chapter and this story as a whole are property of J.K Rowling. The lyrics below are by Within Temptation and the story title comes from Taylor Swift. Thank you for reading.
Do you hear these words.
Do you feel the wounds.
I'll never help you through.
Shelena steadily made her way through the crowd, her long blonde hair flowing widely behind her. She couldn’t believe her luck, the first one of these stupid ‘soiree’ things that she’d attended and she’d run into Coralie Bennett herself. She could admit, she hadn’t expected to see the pathetic girl for at least another few parties- she wasn’t complaining, at least this way she wouldn’t need to come again.
Suddenly, she found herself being tugged to the side but before she could make any sort of noise she noticed that it was in fact her brother. She smirked at him, excited to see his expression when she told him the good news.
“Where were you?” He whispered furiously, his expression changing into a smile as a couple of old ladies walked past. Shelena rolled her eyes- that was her brother, always the charmer.
“I found Bennett” She replied, tugging the edges of her mouth into a wicked smile. Leo’s smile quickly faded and his eyes shone with anger.
“You did what?” He spat, his voice still in a low whisper. Shelena sighed loudly, sometimes her brother could be so slow.
“I found the Bennett girl” She repeated slowly before pausing. “You know, the youngest one? The one you wanted?”
“Why the hell did you do that?” Leo replied before pulling his sister down the hallway and towards the front door.
“Because you weren’t obviously going to do anything” Shelena spat back. “It’s my life on the line here, not yours, mine. I’m not going to bloody well sit back and watch as you send petty little letters to the Bennett girls. I’m going to do something about it” She turned on her heel, sending the blonde hair flying around with her and made to head back towards the party but was pulled back by her brother. There was a pulling at her navel as she gritted her teeth together and before she knew it she was standing back on their street.
With a broken smile, Coralie allowed Jacob to sit her down on the couch before he headed towards his room to bring her down a blanket, nodding to Violet as he disappeared. Violet watched her little sister carefully for a minute before she sighed and sat down next to her, resting her sister’s hand in her lap and using her hands to brush the hair out of Coralie’s face.
It pained her to see her once carefree sister like this; she could remember the times when Coralie used to always smile no matter what had been thrown at her. She always admired her for that. But nowadays, Coralie was failing to keep that smile around when something went wrong. She wondered if Coralie had never been moved to Hogwarts and to England as a whole whether everything would have played out the same.
With a deep breath, Violet let her head rest on the top of the couch and closed her eyes for a minute- still subconsciously stroking her sister’s hair. Coralie quickly fell to sleep.
“Cor” A voice whispered and Coralie scrunched up her eyes; the voice sighed loudly before pushing Coralie on the shoulder. She groaned and begrudgingly opened her eyes to see Angus standing above her. “We need to move, Mum’s waking up soon and Jacob says we need to pretend nothing happened” Coralie nodded and stood up from the couch.
“Violet’s already in bed?” She asked sleepily and Angus nodded as they both fell into silence as they climbed the stairs, they quickly muttered tired goodbyes before they went their separate ways. Some hours later, Coralie rolled onto her side and groaned as the bright sun hit her face- it seemed obvious now that she’d forgotten to close her curtains last night.
Knowing that there was no way she’d ever get back to sleep now, she swung her legs over the side of the bed. She headed down the kitchen straight away and popped some toast in the toaster before waiting for it to pop back up; when it did she quickly buttered it and spread nutella over it before taking a large bit and sitting down at the table.
“Morning dear” Marcelle grinned, as she got her own breakfast ready. Coralie smiled at her in response, taking in her mother’s appearance in. Her mother was gorgeous without trying, even at eight o’clock in the morning with her hair tied back into a bun; she was still the definition of beauty. “How was last night?” She asked, making herself a cup of tea.
“It was good” Coralie lied, though she knew her mother didn’t expect anything, not yet anyway. Marcelle nodded, taking the seat next to Coralie at the table.
“What time did it end?” She asked, taking a bite out of her toast as she flipped carelessly through the Daily Prophet. Despite her cool actions, Coralie could tell that her mother was bursting to ask about the party and so Coralie decided to tease her a little.
“Bout one I suppose” She answered casually and her mother sighed, putting down the newspaper to look at Coralie. She sent her daughter and look that said ‘I give up, just tell me’ and Coralie chuckled. “It was alright mother, nothing exciting happened and Grandmama was just as annoying as always” Marcelle sighed and went back to her newspaper. “I’m heading off to the library” Coralie said, standing up from the table and pushing her chair back in.
Once in the library that her mother had demanded was put in, Coralie searched down the aisles before she came upon a book labelled ‘Fairy tales’. She’d never seen the book before and so she pulled it out, using her hand to clear some of the dust. Moving towards the armchairs, she collapsed into one and opened the padlock.
On the very first page was a little note, handwritten in by a neat scrawl that read:
Two girls born in the same year, entwined by the blood of our families.
To live as one and to die as one. Hear my words, Let this blessing be a curse.
Coralie placed the book back on the table and stared down at it. It was clear to her what it was- her grandmother, on her mother’s side, had talked about the ancient magic many times when Coralie was just starting to show her powers. The ancient magic referred to a time when witches and wizards did not use their wands for magic, Coralie’s grandmother had pointed out that they still had them only they weren’t use unless in private due to muggle servants in homes. Instead, magic was used by a wave of their hands and some old words. The words used were generally self-explanatory to the kind of spell wanting to be performed unlike the spells used nowadays.
The ancient magic had been faded out, according to her grandmother, due to the fact that it was hard to control especially for young children and so wands were being started to be used.
With another read off the spell, Coralie shut the book tightly and locked it back up before leaving the library, the book clasped tightly in her hand. She figured it was worth reading over while she was at Hogwarts, maybe even worth showing to Lily- she was sure her friend would enjoy it somewhat.
The next morning came and passed without much excitement, it wasn’t until 10:30 when Angus and Coralie were saying goodbye to everyone- this time Marcelle, Allisyn and Haley had come to see them off, that things started to get interesting.
It had been Coralie’s idea to come at that specific time as the platform was then busy and therefore there was only a slim chance that she would run into Sirius or Cory. She was still terrified of what would happen if she saw either of them. It had seemed perfectly intelligent at the time but standing on the actual platform, she’d sworn she’d seen a flash on black hair more than once.
“Be good, my angels” Marcelle gushed, holding Coralie’s face tightly before placing a kiss on her cheek and then hugging her tightly. She did the same thing to Angus who turned beet red as some girls from his year walked passed and giggled.
“We will mother, you don’t need to worry” Coralie replied, touching her mother’s arm to reassure her- Marcelle smiled at the gesture before letting the others say goodbye.
“Keep smiling sis” Allisyn whispered causing Coralie to smile at the familiar comment; it had been her sister’s line for as long as she could remember.
“Owl me and remember to have fun” Jacob said, hugging his sister as tightly to him as humanly possible before letting Violet take over.
“Be strong Coralie, it’s not worth it otherwise” Coralie nodded and gave her sister’s hand a little squeeze before releasing it and hugging Haley quickly.
“See you next holidays” Marcelle said as Coralie and Angus climbed onto the Hogwarts Express. They both yelled back replies as the train began to head off; they smiled at each other warmly before heading down the corridor to find their respective friends.
The first two weeks back passed quickly and before anyone knew it, it was the second weekend back and the first Quidditch game for the term. Gryffindor was playing against Hufflepuff, and so between Mary and Azure- she’d never have the chance to conveniently forget. Though it seemed Lily shared the same views, the two of them found themselves wrapping up with anything Gryffindor-ish they could find on Saturday morning.
“You can head down to breakfast, if you want Lily. I need to reply to my mother’s owl before I forget” She explained as Lily slipped on her knee high boots.
“Are you sure you don’t mind?” She asked kindly, and Coralie nodded. “I would wait, but I’m starved to be honest”
“It doesn’t surprise me, you skipped dinner last night to finish that Charms essay” Lily chuckled slightly before heading down the stairs. Only Coralie and Mary were left in the dormitory, though Mary was still in the bathroom and had told the other two girls not to worry about waiting for her.
Wrapping around her Gryffindor scarf, Coralie pulled out some parchment and a quill and jotted down a quick reply to the letter she had received the night before. Once she was finished, she placed the letter back in her trunk for her to send after the Quidditch game and went down stairs.
And there in the Common Room was Cory, standing with his back to the girls’ staircase though he quickly turned around when he heard her footsteps.
“Hey” He whispered, an awkwardness hanging in the air from the events of James’ party.
“Cory, about what happened at the party” She started as Cory deferred his gaze to his feet.
“It’s fine Coralie” He replied before she had a chance to say anything. She sighed and went to speak again as Mary came bundling down the stairs. Coralie watched with wide eyes as Mary came over to them and slipped her hand into Cory’s.
“Hey Cors, you ready for the game?” She asked, as bubbly as ever, and Coralie nodded softly in response. "Are you ready to go Cory?”
“Yeah” Cory whispered, frowning softly at Coralie as he was led away by Mary. Coralie sighed before frowning and making her way out of the portrait. As she reached the Great Hall, she quickly slipped into the spare spot next to Lily and listened carefully to what Kiki was going on about. She’d noticed on the train that something was wrong with the usually talkative girl that was Kiki Soho and had been meaning to bring up, but sitting there at the Gryffindor table- she doubted she needed to anymore.
Coralie silently ate her breakfast before she followed Lily and Kiki- the other girls had gone on before them, down to the Quidditch pitch. They passed James who was finishing off a muffin as he walked towards the changing rooms; he made a point of asking Lily for a good luck kiss which she responded with a rude hand gesture. Eventually they made it to the stands and joined the other girls, Remus and Peter.
Soon enough the game began and Coralie didn’t pay much attention to what was going on, she only clapped and cheered when her friends did and smiled at Azure, who was beater for Hufflepuff, whenever she flew close enough by. Though she was paying enough attention to notice how interested her brother seemed to be, which was odd considering he wasn’t a big Quidditch fan, like herself.
Things began to get exciting when Sirius hit a bludger in the direction of Azure, who didn’t look very happy at all. It was then that Coralie decided to tune into the commentator whom was a Hufflepuff that she’d never met before.
“And oh, Simons looks frustrated now. She’s gripping her beater’s bat tightly and she’s flying towards Black- do you think she realises she hasn’t got a bludger?” He asked McGonagall, who was too busy watching the scene unfold to answer him. In fact all the stands were silent as they watched Azure flying towards Sirius with wicked speed. As she came closer, she juggled her bat between her hands before swinging it at Sirius’ head with every inch of strength she had.
Sirius’ chuckle quickly filled the pitch but was faded out by a deafening crack. “I think Simons realised she didn’t have a bludger” The commentator stated, his mouth wide open like much of the crowd and the other players as Sirius grabbed onto his nose.
“Foul!” He shouted as both teams touched down. He looked absolutely livid and was sending Azure a death glare though he was shouting at Madam Hooch.
“Captain Potter, your call” Madam Hooch said, staring at James with an annoyed expression- she wasn’t a fan of being screamed at. Sirius sighed with relief, knowing that his best friend would side with him.
“Play on” James replied, turning on his heel and heading back to where his team was standing, waiting for him. Madam Hooch nodded, a small twinkle appearing in her eyes as she walked off.
“What?” Sirius yelled, following after James and pushing his best friend slightly. He couldn’t believe his luck, first he gets whacked in the face with a beater’s bat by a fourth year girl in Hufflepuff and then his best friend sides with her.
“Don’t pretend like you don’t know what that was for” James replied, mounting his broom and pushing off into the sky. Somehow, Quidditch seemed more worthwhile to Coralie now.
Authors Note: First of all I’d like to thank you guys, for the last two chapters I got a much bigger response than I thought I would so thank you to everyone!
In the previous chapter I asked you guys whether you preferred long or short chapters, like I imagined you would, you guys said longer ones and therefore I’m going to attempt to make the following chapters at least 2,000 words. I’d like to apologise to you about how slowly I’ve been updating lately, I’m going to try and work on getting quicker update so you guys don’t have to wait nearly half as long.
I have one question for guys now, I’d really, really love to know who your favourite character is so far in Tied Together with a Smile so go on, leave a review and tell me so I know who to include more of next time. I’ll see you guys then, thanks for reading!
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