Gemini

Gemini

Chapter 1: Dreams and Visions

"Twin wands, wielded by twin souls born under Gemini..."

Taken from the Gemini Prophecy

"You didn't complete the spell."

"Who's there?"

"That's not important. I want to get out of this place, and I need my transportation."

"G-Geno... H-help me..."

Geno woke with a start. Breathing heavily, she sat up in her bed and reached for a glass of water.

She had no idea why she kept having that horrible nightmare over and over again. In it, she was floating in a black mist - which seemed to talk - and trying to reach her friend Irina, who was slowly fading before her eyes as she was engulfed by the mist.

Geno drank the water so quickly that she nearly choked on it. Irina's scream was still ringing in her ears.

"G-Geno... H-help me..."

This wasn't real. It couldn't be. Irina was in Ukraine, where she was sent shortly after Easter after being expelled for stealing some supplies and attacking the Headmistress. Geno thought the story was rather strange, but she believed it; Irina had been acting very oddly around that time, and had been spending far too much time with Elektra.

Something dawned in Geno's mind, then. Elektra. The gray centaur had been their Special Studies teacher during most of the school year, and she had used some rather unorthodox methods on the students from the Avis house - from serving them dream-controlling potions, to kidnapping them and trying to teach them fighting skills. The dreams she had created looked as real as this one - could this be her doing as well?

Ultimately, Geno dismissed the idea. Elektra was gone now - she had quit around the same time Irina was expelled, and something inside Geno told her she would never see the insane female centaur again. This could be just wishful thinking, but the thought made her feel better.

This was probably just a crazy thing, Geno thought, reminding herself of the letters she and her other friends had tried to write to Irina, which were all sent back unread. She just doesn't want to talk to us, and we are all worrying over nothing...

With this in mind, she decided to lay down again and see if she could fall asleep.

***

"Good morning, sleepyhead."

Geno grumbled in response to her brother's greeting. Unlike her, Lipe was a morning person and was completely oblivious to the fact that not everybody woke up with the same cheerful disposition.

Their mother approached the breakfast table with a milk jug.

"Good morning, Geno. Sleep well?"

"Not really," Geno replied, as she picked up the jug and poured some milk into a glass.

Mrs. Aleixo sat and looked at her daughter.

"What's the matter, sweetheart?"

"I had a bad dream," Geno replied.

At that moment, someone knocked at the door.

"I'll get it," said Lipe, disappearing into the corridor.

"This is probably because you're still adjusting to your new bedroom," Mrs. Aleixo told Geno.

"Yeah, perhaps," she agreed, though she wasn't that sure.

The Aleixos had moved to the magical community known as Alvorada a few weeks before, when Mrs. Aleixo, who worked on marine magizoology for the Ministry of Magic, had been transferred to the Faro department in order to study a growing community of sea serpents. Even though one of her schoolmates, Dulce Zagalo, lived in Alvorada as well, the move had been difficult on Geno, who was still adjusting to this new place.

Most of the houses in Alvorada belonged to witches and wizards who were vacationing in Faro, which was why it looked almost deserted during most of the year, but immediately gained life at the start of August. This sudden outburst of people was confusing Geno the most, and the transition was very difficult for her.

Geno's thoughts were interrupted when Lipe reentered the kitchen, followed by a red-haired girl.

"It's just Dulce," he said, as he returned to his seat.

"Good morning, dear," Mrs. Aleixo told her. "Do you want to have breakfast with us?"

"Yes, please," Dulce replied energetically, staring eagerly at the plate of cinnamon pancakes on the table. She sat right next to Geno and grabbed a plate, filling it with an impressive amount of pancakes. Geno frowned. She had never seen Dulce behave like this at Ingarnal - Half-Pint was the avid eater in their house, while Dulce ate like all the others. She shuddered at the thought that the Zagalos would one day invite them for dinner, picturing a single piece of lettuce on her plate.

After spending about five minutes in silence gulping down her pancakes, Dulce turned to Mrs. Aleixo.

"My mother wants to know if you would lie to join us when we go shopping at the Citadel this afternoon," she said between mouthfuls.

Lipe's face brightened. "The Citadel?"

Even Geno's still sullen disposition brightened considerably. Having lived their entire life in Nazare, the Aleixo's shopping for magical supplies had always been made in a small square hidden inside the town, so Geno had never been to the Citadel before.

Mrs. Aleixo smiled to her guest. "Why certainly, Dulce. We'd love to go. In fact," she added, checking an open letter that was near the windowsill, "according to Gringotts, our money has already been transferred to a vault at the Citadel, so I think it would be a good idea to check out if everything is all right." She then turned to Geno. "Have you got your list of school supplies?"

"Yes, Mum," she replied. "It's upstairs."

"Then give it to me after breakfast so we don't forget it." Mrs. Aleixo then turned to Dulce. "You can tell your mother that we'd be delighted to go with you."

"I will," Dulce said, as she lifted her now empty plate. "But can I have some more pancakes before I go, please?"

***

"Are they here yet?" Dulce asked impatiently. Mrs. Zagalo frowned.

"For the hundredth time, it's too early," she replied, pointing at the grandfather clock in their living room.

"Okay," Dulce replied, frowning, and turned back towards her bedroom.

Mrs. Zagalo sighed and sat on the sofa.

"I have never seen Dulce act like this," she told her husband, who had entered the living room a few moments before to get his pipe. "That girl is actually getting on my nerves."

"Have a little patience with her, Zaida," Mr. Zagalo said with a smile. "That Genoveva is a friend of hers from school, and she's new here - obviously she's excited about it."

He kissed his wife's forehead and turned towards the corridor.

"Are you sure you don't want to go with us?" Mrs. Zagalo asked. "I don't know them very well yet."

"It's not that I don't want to," he replied, as he turned back to face her. "As you know, I have a meeting now, and I want to work on some things after I meet my associates."

Mrs. Zagalo sighed. "I understand. Well, have a nice meeting, dear."

As Mr. Zagalo turned to return to his office, he thought about his daughter's enthusiasm about their new neighbors. From what he recalled from the letters she used to write at school, Dulce liked Geno but more than once stated that the girl was "too boring"; her closest friend was actually a girl from Ceuta house - the one from the youngberry juice incident, if he was not mistaken. However, she was spending most of the holidays at the Aleixos, and had at least one meal a day there.

Well that last part is hardly surprising. He chuckled at the thought, reminding himself of his wife's disastrous cooking experiences.

He approached a large window in the corridor, and looked outside. He believed that Dulce was so excited to be around Genoveva Aleixo and her younger brother because she never had the company of children her age in Alvorada. Most of the community's inhabitants were childless or too old to have children who were still at school. The only exception was the Dumonts, who had a couple of daughters, but they only arrived at the very end of August and could only speak French, so it didn't count.

Brushing any thought about his daughter aside, Mr. Zagalo entered his office, where he found that the people he was expecting had already arrived. Four men with long black hair wearing dark purple robes and looking as identical as clones were standing up behind a blonde woman who was sitting down on a chair, playing with a deck of cards and looking extremely tired.

"Good afternoon, Miss Appleton," Mr. Zagalo said to the woman. He then looked at the men. "Gentlemen," he greeted, before turning back to the woman. "I'm surprised to see you here. I was expecting Temor."

"He hasn't returned yet," Miss Appleton said, "so as the next in command I was sent in his place."

"Where did he go?"

Miss Appleton sighed. "I thought you knew - we are searching for Elektra's whereabouts."

Mr. Zagalo raised an eyebrow. "But he has been gone for a month now."

"I know."

"Has he sent any news?"

"Not for the past two weeks."

"Strange... very strange... This is completely unlike Temor."

"I know," Miss Appleton replied, looking at her companions, who looked as impassive as before. "We are all getting extremely worried."

"Would you like to have a drink?" Mr. Zagalo asked them. Miss Appleton shook her head, while the men remained impassible.

"What else, besides Temor's disappearance, is troubling you, Miss Appleton?" Mr. Zagalo added while serving himself a firewhisky. "I have never seen you like this."

"Actually, it is related to Temor, but... Well, I don't want to worry you," she said swiftly, casting a glance at her companions.

"No no, please tell me what's the matter."

"Well..." she hesitated. "I had another vision."

Mr. Zagalo nearly choked on his drink. "What?"

"I haven't experienced anything so terrible since the massacre," she continued.

Mr. Zagalo's calm exterior faded. Rosalinde Appleton was a powerful Seer, and the visions he knew about had all came true.

"What did you see?" he asked, certain that he wouldn't like the answer.

"A dark chamber," she said in a very tired voice. "Between two tombs, I could see a girl holding a bloody knife... and Tenor dead on the floor."

Mr. Zagalo's glass fell to the floor, shattering into tiny pieces. One of the men moved quietly onto the spot and calmly collected the shattered glass, while his host tried to regain his speech.

"Who was the girl?" he finally managed to ask.

Miss Appleton shook her head. "I have never seen her before."

"Have you told Madam Zabini about what you have seen?" Mr. Zagalo said, trying to collect himself.

"And worry her even more? I wouldn't dare. Alyx is upset enough with the fact that he hasn't appeared to meet the rest of us. I'm not going to make her begin to imagine tragedies."

Mr. Zagalo raised an eyebrow. This was an excellent way to change the subject and try to keep his mind on something else.

"Meet the rest of you?" he asked. "Who are you referring to?"

"Me, Alyx, Gilderoy and Julia."

"Lockhart and Cassidy?" He was intrigued. "I thought they had remained at Ingarnal for the summer - after all, they are both in recovery, after this year's events."

"It was Professor Dumbledore's idea," Miss Appleton said. "He thought it would be good for the two of them if they spent the summer in a familiar place surrounded by familiar faces."

"And the three of you are the familiar faces, obviously," he said with a smirk. "Their old Hogwarts chums. What about the 'familiar place'?"

"Faraday Farm," Miss Appleton said quickly. "It used to belong to Julia's grandmother, who left it to Gilderoy." At Mr. Zagalo's inquisitive look, she added, "After the massacre, she had no more living relatives, and she had always been fond of him."

"She had one living relative," he corrected. "Julia."

"We didn't have the chance to explain to her what had really happened," she said sadly. "Besides, she wouldn't understand."

She paused, and began to play with her deck of cards again.

"I will forever regret the fact that I haven't managed to speak to Gilderoy all these years, and tell him what had happened to Julia," she said when she resumed her speech. "When I first heard the news about the Asterlyth's attack, I assumed that he knew that Julia had survived. I wanted to talk to him, but something stopped me." She sighed. "When I finally discovered that Dumbledore had no idea of their relationship, and therefore did not tell him the truth like he did to me and Alyx, I finally tried to contact him but he was gone."

"You had thirteen years to speak to him," Mr. Zagalo said.

"And I was unable to reach him all that time. He decided to stay away from anything that reminded him of her, and that included us."

"What about Faraday Farm?" Mr. Zagalo reminded. "From what you have told me, he inherited it, didn't he?"

"Oh, he moved there, yes. Possibly the only thing connected to Julia that he didn't try to detach himself from - but he did it to everything else. A charm was cast around the farm so that none of my letters, no matter what owl I used, would be able to enter. And Temor once tried to visit him and was repelled by a shield."

"He must have hired someone to do the spells for him," Mr. Zagalo joked. Miss Appleton frowned.

"He was a bit incompetent, I agree," she admitted, "and for a long time I thought he was really stupid, but the truth is that things didn't quite work for him because of his... condition."

"His condition?"

"Being the Golden Lion, of course," Miss Appleton said reproachfully, as if he was a stupid child who was missing the obvious. "Temor had told me that you had attended the meeting at Ingarnal." Mr. Zagalo nodded affirmatively, so she continued. "Then you should know about Ollivander having made special wands for Gilderoy and Julia. Do you know why?"

"Not really, but I know that it has to do with the Gemini Prophecy."

"Those wands are Gemini - twin wands, not only having the same core, but being made with the same wood and the same size. These new wands were made using Julia's old one - which was ruined when she was transfigurated - as a model. For some reason, part of Gilderoy's problem with magic was the fact that he had been using the wrong wand all these years." She smiled faintly. "Of course, him behaving like a pompous ass all the time also helped things to go wrong."

"But what wand did he use before?"

"His mother's. It's a long story," she said, gesturing with her hand. "I'm certain it would bore you."

"Oh no," Mr. Zagalo smiled. "I would love to listen to the story."

Miss Appleton tried to change the subject. "We are here to do business, aren't we?" she asked, a faint smile again on her lips. She dropped the cards on the desk and turned to one of her silent companions, who handed her a roll of parchment. "We have some contracts you need to sign -"

"I can sign them later," he said. "What happened to his mother?"

"I don't think I should be telling you this before the Memory Charm is completely broken," she replied with a glare. "Now, back to the contracts -"

"But, Miss Apple-"

Mr. Zagalo's interjection was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Dad," he heard Dulce's voice from the other side, "they're here. We'll be going now."

He rolled his eyes at his daughter's interruption, but kept his voice calm. "Very well, sweetheart, I'll be there in a moment." He then turned again to Miss Appleton. "If you will excuse me, my wife and daughter are going to the Citadel with some friends, and I have promised that I would greet our visitors before they leave."

"Of course," Miss Appleton said. It was obvious from her expression that she was relieved that his questioning about Gilderoy Lockhart's mother had been interrupted.

Not for long, Mr. Zagalo thought, smirking to himself, as he opened the door to his office and walked into the corridor. He usually had difficulties trying to question Temor whenever something made him curious, but Miss Appleton would be much easier to break. In a brief period of time, she had already given him some interesting information, and he was eager to learn more.

"Ah, Rodrigo, I'm glad you have arrived so quickly!" Mrs. Zagalo said, as she was adjusting her cloak. "We were about to leave."

He looked at the Aleixo children, who were next to Dulce, looking at him. In his opinion, they both looked too skinny and gawky, particularly the girl, and if it wasn't for their Sertorian bloodline he wouldn't have considered them to be interesting friends for his daughter.

"Mrs. Aleixo," he said, turning to their mother, and taking her hand, "what a pleasure to see you again."

"I hope you weren't too busy, Mr. Zagalo," she said, smiling.

"Not at all," he replied, "but if you will excuse me, I have business to attend to, so I shall be returning to my office."

"Of course," Mrs. Aleixo replied.

"Have a pleasant afternoon, dear," he said to his wife, kissing her cheek. He greeted the Aleixos with a nod before he turned to the door.

As he returned to the corridor, he saw that Miss Appleton was standing there, her eyes as big as saucers. She must have followed him in order to greet his wife and guests, but something had obviously stopped her.

"Miss Appleton," he said, visibly worried, "what is the matter?"

"That girl... The brunette, next to your daughter..." she whispered almost inaudibly, visibly terrified. "Who is she?"

"That is Genoveva Aleixo, one of the Sertorians that has been discovered this past year," he replied, intrigued. "Why?"

She looked at him, trembling. "That's the girl from my vision!"