“George Weasley came to see you again?” Michael Maddy walked in carrying a bag of food and asked casually.
“That’s my patient’s private information. No comment.” Chloe Aiken glanced at him, quickly finished the last few words in the case file, and put it away.
“Not like I have any obsession with prying into people’s business.” Michael rolled his eyes.
He pulled a sandwich and a bottle of milk from the brown paper bag and slid them across to her.
“I just caught a glimpse of him coming down the stairs a moment ago.”
“By the way, have you ever thought about moving? This clinic is in a seriously out-of-the-way spot, and it’s on the third floor — it’s a nightmare to find.”
Chloe didn’t answer right away.
She looked at the milk in her hand with faint distaste.
“This milk is cold!”
“Just heat it yourself.” Michael shrugged and pushed his own sandwich and milk across too.
“While you’re at it, warm mine up — the sandwich is cold as well. Everything was on sale. Cold is normal.”
“And here I thought you learned a Heating Charm at Hogwarts.” Chloe gave him a withering look, though the milk in the glass bottle in her hand had already started to bubble faintly.
“Not to your level, though.” Michael grinned and snatched the warm milk from her hand, then immediately hissed and grabbed his earlobe to cool it down.
“I’m not moving.” Chloe finally answered the question from a few minutes ago.
“Renovating is a massive hassle, and I already have enough clients. I don’t need more.”
Michael gave a distracted nod and glanced back at the fireplace.
“It’s freezing today. Make the fire bigger.”
“You’re such a handful.” She said it, but she still pointed at the fireplace.
A flash of flame flickered across her fingertips, and the fire in the hearth leapt up at once.
“That really is a fantastic power.” Michael said, sounding genuinely impressed.
“We save a fortune on firewood and coal every year.”
Chloe watched her twin brother’s thrifty, calculating expression and shook her head with an amused smile.
She tossed him the warmed sandwich.
Chloe Aiken and Michael Maddy were fraternal twins.
Apart from sharing the same light blond hair, they had almost nothing in common, even their surnames were split, one taking their mother’s and one taking their father’s.
Their parents had divorced very early on.
Their mother, Maria Aiken, was a Muggle.
Their father, Rox Maddy, was a wizard.
The trouble was that Rox had never told Maria the truth about who he was before they married.
The year Chloe and Michael turned 6, Michael had a magical outburst.
That was how Maria finally learned the truth about Rox.
Maria was someone who could not tolerate deception.
It wasn’t that Maria cared about Rox being a wizard, it was that the vows at their wedding had been built on a lie from the very start.
That, Maria could not accept.
Maria walked out on Rox and took Chloe with her.
Chloe, who had shown no sign of magical ability at all.
Chloe had known her brother would be a wizard, at 6 years old, he’d shattered every window in his room during a magical outburst.
But only she knew why Michael had done it.
Even Michael’s own memory of that moment had gone hazy.
That was the day she summoned fire for the very first time.
The flames shot up from the carpet.
It startled Michael, and his magic exploded outward.
Maria and Rox had been busy calming Michael down and arguing with each other.
Neither of them noticed the corner of carpet that had been singed.
Chloe never told anyone.
The fighting had frightened her badly.
She understood exactly why Maria had chosen to take her, because she’d shown no magic.
She didn’t want to be left behind.
She wanted to go with Maria.
Until she was 11, every prayer before sleep was the same: please don’t let me be a witch.
And things worked out exactly as she’d wished.
Michael wrote to say he’d be starting at Hogwarts, while she never received an acceptance letter.
It was only then that Chloe understood she was something different from Michael.
Not a witch.
Just a child fire had chosen to favor.
“Can I stay at your apartment tonight? Dad’s gone on a work trip anyway.” Michael yawned, blinking drowsily at Chloe.
Ever since Maria and Rox divorced, the two of them had apparently made a silent agreement to spend the rest of their lives never crossing paths again.
Chloe and Michael had stayed in contact behind their parents’ backs the whole time.
Rox Maddy worked as a curse-breaker at Gringotts and was away on assignment more often than not.
Maria Aiken was a doctor, and ordinarily just as buried in work.
Chloe had rented an apartment near her practice for convenience.
She only went home on weekends to stay with Maria.
Michael made a habit of finding excuses to sleep over there anyway.
“Sure — I aired out your blanket a couple of days ago, as it happens.” Chloe smiled and nodded.
➤ Next: The Burrow
Enjoying Harry’s quiet life?
Drop a stone to support our daily updates!
☕✨
~ 💎 WEEKLY POWER GOALS 💎 ~
🔥 50 Stones = +1 Bonus Ch | 100 Stones = +3 Bonus Ch (Resets Monday!) 📦📖
Please tap [Add to Library] so you never miss another warm afternoon in London.
(*´ᵕ`)
Thank you for reading and keeping this gentle story alive!