The Ravenclaw tower was everything Helixa had ever dreamed it to be. Marble pillars standing proudly around the edges of an airy room, lesser nymphs to the statue of Rowena that took precedence above them all and a startling contract to the deep blue hues that calmed a base part of Helixa’s soul. The bookcases were elegantly filled, looked organised and Helixa doubted she was amongst the sort of people that would cram books into shelves without assigning them their proper place. She was, in fact, probably amongst the people that were most like her in the world and she should be thrilled by that fact, but there was quite a significant problem.

She might be amongst people that were like her but they weren’t so like her as to be part of her and Helixa rolled over in her brand new four-poster bed, buried her face into the pillows, and cried as she knew her sister was somewhere in the chilly dungeons. It had never occurred to her that it would hurt to be apart from her sister: it had never occurred to her that they would be apart at all in fact. Their synonymy was inevitable, all-encompassing, comforting and Helixa felt quite sure that she was reduced already – she felt like a shadow of the girl she had been this morning, or like her shadow had been cut from her being and banished to another part of the castle because a stupid, raggedy hat had decided that they were different enough that they had to be apart. Never mind that they had shared every thought and experience all their life.

Lix lifted her face from the soft pillow, the comfort not enough to lift her mood, and there, in the next bed, was somebody who wasn’t Syna. She narrowed her eyes and swiped angrily at her face, try to stem the flow of tears before the redhead saw them in the dim glow of the braziers. She had no way of knowing what this new, unknown entity would say about her tears because she just didn’t know anything about this Idunn Fraser. Lix had no reason to dislike her as such, but she wasn’t her sister, didn’t lie like her, didn’t breathe like her, the smells and sounds were all wrong and it hurt parts of Helixa’s heart she didn’t know could hurt until today. How could the Sorting Hat believe they belonged in different houses?

She sniffled and sat up, needing gravity to help her breathe after the crying had left her with a blocked nose, propping herself up against the headboard. From underneath her pillow she pulled her wand, the same wood and length as her sister’s and with a unicorn hair core that came from the same creature in each, a twin in every way. She held it tight against her chest, wrapping her arms around it and herself and willing Syna to feel her embrace because she knew however rotten she was feeling, her sister felt it just as keenly.

Eventually Helixa Hyslop fell asleep and as she did the tip of her wand glowed at precisely the same time its twin, and hers, also fell to slumber in the Slytherin dungeon.