Fred was looking around Summer's room, whilst she sat on her bed, fixing her earrings. He picked up a photograph in a diamond, heart-shaped frame, of two girls, one who he realised to be Summer, quite a bit younger than she was today, and the other, a child, perhaps eight or nine. She was giggling in the arms of the older girl, and they were both grinning and waving at the camera.

"Isn't that your sister?" Fred asked, in a voice so gentle, he was shocked to hear it himself. He brought the picture over to the girl on the bed, and she took it shakily from his hands.

"Y-Yeah..." She stared into the eyes of the little girl and felt herself not being able to control the tears that came next.

"It's okay," he pulled her closer to him, and stroked her hair ever so slightly, as she leaned into his chest- sniffling.

"No, it's not." She mumbled. "It should never have happened. It should have been me."

"Don't say that, you know it's not true."

"But it is. You don't know what happened." She spoke, intently focused on the corner of her bed as she did.
"He murdered the wrong sister."
Fred looked taken aback at her words.

"She was... killed? By who? Who would kill an innocent child?" Fred had guessed something bad had happened to her, from her family's odd behaviour that seemed to insinuate that something terrible had recently happened, to Summer's blunt ignorance earlier, and the change in her eldest brother's behaviour. But he had never guessed it was anything this heart breaking.

She took a deep breath to steady herself.
"Someone who only cares about appearances and nothing else," she paused to wipe away some of her tears, "Lucius Malfoy."

Fred looked uneasy at the statement.
"I knew he was unpleasant. I didn't know he was outright evil," he stated plainly, a saddened look etched on his face. "How could he do that? Why? Why did he do it?" Fred fumbled to find his words.

Paris in June was pleasantly warm. The Blanchets were out with friends in the city. However, the youngest sibling had a nasty fever, and was playing in her room, with Kalen, who had volunteered to stay with her.

"Alright, time for bed Felicity," Kalen grinned at the young girl dancing around her room with an enchanted witch doll, which sang sweet lullabies. Although these did not seem to make the girl sleepy, quite the opposite in actuality.

"What if I read you a story? You can pick your favourite!" He rummaged through her shelves until he found a pink cover with a fairy on the front.

...

Kalen was tucking Felicity into bed. He leaned over her sleepy figure, and kissed her on the forehead. But before he could stand, there was a blinding flash of light, and a massive chunk of the wall was blown away. Kalen took out his wand without hesitation, and picked Felicity up out of bed, holding her close to him as he went to investigate who was there.

Standing outside the room was a figure in a black travelling cloak, the only distinguishing detail of the man was his long, white hair.
"Lu-" Kalen was cut off by a spell hitting his face. The cruciatus curse. He fell to the floor, dropping both his wand and his sister in the process.

Resist! He thought to himself over and over, but it was no use, he had been completely unsuspecting and therefore utterly unprepared. But that was the last time he could think straight as the pain became even more unbearable.

Felicity had run behind a chair and cowered, crying her eyes out.
"I want mummy!" She screamed, and screamed, and screamed. Until Kalen saw a flash of green light, and suddenly she wasn't crying anymore. Her body slumped over on itself, her eyes still open, capturing the terror struck expression that had never left.

The boy begged to meet the same fate. Begged to be put to sleep forever. Begged to escape the nightmare he had found himself in. Begged for the pain to stop.

...

The Blanchet family knew something was wrong as soon as they saw the large hole blown into their upstairs. Mr Blanchet covered his family with his outspread arms as they cautiously approached the house.

None of them could have anticipated the scene they walked into upstairs. Kalen hunched over on the floor, sobbing his heart out, clutching his younger sister in his arms.
"Take... Take the curse off him, Daniel," Mrs Blanchet stuttered out, without taking her eyes off her two children.

He took out his wand and pointed it at Kalen, who only cried more in relief, as his muscles were no longer tensed to point of feeling like they would explode. Though he didn't move. It was like he didn't even realise they had arrived.

Mrs Blanchet and Summer now rushed over to them - uncontrollably wailing at the top of their lungs as they wrapped their arms around Felicity and Kalen. His grip on her didn't budge, however, and his fingers held her so tightly that his fingertips had become white.

Mr Blanchet was still staring in unbelievable shock- his knees weak. Hayden was trembling after punching the wall several times, so much so that his knuckles were now profusely bleeding. He wiped his hand carelessly on his shirt as he slid down that same wall, watching his family in front of him with an newfound emptiness behind his eyes.

She shook so violently after this retelling, that Fred had to hold her steady and make her take deep breaths.
"Rita Skeeter." Summer carried on to explain the why. "She had written an... article, rumour more like. She had been at our house to interview my father about something to do with the ministry. But she must have put some of her bugs around the house, I don't know how else she could have picked up a conversation between me and Hayden, where we were joking around, and he threatened to tell Rita I was the secret child of my mother and him- Lucius, which was obviously a joke. She wrote it as fact the next day. Everyone was talking about it, it was inescapable. The only thing is, she obviously couldn't tell who had said what, or even bothered to remember which one of us was which, so she put Felicity's name down instead of mine. It was supposed to be me..."

She finished, taking a shaky breath out as she did so. Fred looked at her as though trying to take in everything she just said.
"We used to be friends with the Malfoy's, and he betrayed us..." She took another pause to sniff.
"It's a lot, I know. I get it if you don't want to keep being friends, I probably freaked you out. I just, haven't been able to talk to anyone about it since it happened." She looked forlornly down, struggling to stop the tears flowing by now.

It was the first time she had properly talked to anyone about this. Her parents would get upset or change the subject, Hayden just pretended it hadn't happened, and Kalen was unreachable emotionally now.

"No. Of course I do. I just wish I could take even half of your pain, no one should ever have to go through that. Especially you." He wiped away some of her tears and pulled her in for a hug, which she didn't know how much she needed til now. Fred rubbed her back as she let out strangled sobs into his now wet t-shirt.
"The last person, I properly hugged, was-"
"Felicity?" He finished her sentence softly in her ear. She nodded.
"Well, we need to change how often you get hugs sunshine."

...

"I knew it. You two are unbelievable. Leave out poor Georgie why don't you. There was space for one more!" George stood in the entrance to her bedroom the next morning. Summer groggily sat up against her headboard and yawned.

"George? What are you-Fred? Since when did he sleep in here? Oh... Yeah."

"Oh yeah, what? Never mind, I already know the answer." He tried to keep a seriously angry look on his face, but gave up and winked at her.
"It's alright, we didn't do anything, right Fred? She nudged the half-asleep boy next to her. His hand was across her legs and he just tightened his grip, and mumbled to himself before closing his eyes again.

"Wake up! So you can tell your brother we didn't do anything last night." She shook him several times.

"Would that be such a bad thing?" He spoke in a deep, rough morning voice, which stirred something deep inside the girl.

"F- Fred!" She stammered out. "We didn't, I swear, I'm going to shower." And after getting free from his hold, she slipped on a silky robe and rushed out the door past George, who had his eyebrows raised at her, and to the bathroom.

When she arrived back, the twins were waiting for her, fully dressed. Fred wore a dark green shirt with a long sleeve black one underneath, and George wore a similar one, but different colours. They both had on jeans, and Fred had a hoodie swung over his left shoulder.
"Can't wait, I'm starving," George said with a skip in his step, as the three walked down the tall corridor.

Hayden seemed to be with Kalen in his room, although the low voices had turned to shouts between the pair, escalating louder and louder.
"Go downstairs guys, I'll meet you in the kitchen." They gave each other a doubtful look before nodding and had just reached the top of the staircase, when the bedroom door burst open and Hayden came flying through it.
"Yeah, real big man, when you're the only one who can use spells in there!" He stood up slowly, holding his head. Kalen was staring at him, spitting blood on the floor.

"You know you were fucking wrong, man! You can't say that shit to me!" Kalen's voice broke as he yelled.
"Okay, I won't use my words then." Hayden charged forwards and tackled his brother to the ground, landing punches all over Kalen's already bloody face.

"No! Stop it!" Summer screamed.
"You let her fucking die man! You did nothing!"
"You're the idiot... Who started the rumour about her in the first place!" Kalen choked out, finishing his sentence with a splutter of blood. He uppercut Hayden, who yelled out in pain, but remained on top. Summer finally sprung into action and leapt towards the two. Tears streamed down Hayden's face now.

"It was a joke! I didn't know she was watching us! I didn't know... I didn't know! I didn't-"
The twins tried to intervene but it was too late. In between Hayden's punches, one hit Summer instead of the intended Kalen. She screamed out in pain as his fist came into contact with her left eye.

Everything that happened next felt like slow motion. Kalen wrapped his arms around his sister's head for protection, by which time Fred and George had now restrained a tearful Hayden back. But it wasn't needed for long, the boy dropped to the ground and completely broke down.

"Let me deal with this, I'll see you downstairs."
They wanted to protest, but there was a tired look in her eyes, and they didn't want to push her further. When they were gone, she turned to her brothers.

"Are you okay Summer? I'm so sorry," Hayden rushed over and tried to pry Summer's hand away from her eye, to reveal a bloody cut. He looked down at his stained rings and shook. "Summer, I-"

"It's fine." She cut in, and held her hand back up to her face.

"But I promised you. I promised I was never gonna hurt you again."

"It was an accident."

"So was last time." Summer gave him a questioning look, and considered the matter dismissed.

"Come here... And you Kalen." She moved to sit in between them and held out her arms around their necks.
"We can't change the past. You both know that. But would she want us to be arguing right now? No. It doesn't matter who did what, it was a horrible accident, and the only person at fault for it is Lucius Malfoy."

Kalen shivered at the mention of him.
"Instead of focusing on what we don't have, focus on what we do have, okay? We still have each other."
She watched Hayden intently. It seemed once the tears had started he couldn't stop them. He rested his head on her shoulder and shook slightly. Kalen however just stared blankly ahead, nodding slowly.

"Look... I know... I know you guys probably would have preferred things to be the other way around, you know, Felicity be here right now instead of me, but-"

"Don't be stupid," Kalen muttered.

"Yeah Sum, we love you, don't say shit like that."
She paused, and felt hot tears threaten to leave her eyes. After months of questioning herself, and wishing it was her, she was finally voicing these thoughts, and hearing the actual replies, not just her own self-critical response, or Hayden's angry one.

"Now you know how I felt when I heard you two arguing then," Summer choked out.
"You two were all I had, and Kalen, I never got to see you, and Hayden... You just refused to talk about it. I felt so alone, I was hurting too. You're supposed to be my big brothers."

"I'm sorry Summer," Kalen whispered, just loud enough to be audible.

"I'm sorry too. This never should have happened." She felt Hayden start to get up next to her.

"I'm just g-gonna go to my room for a bit. I didn't mean to hit you, I'm sorry too..." Footsteps led away, and they heard the door close behind him.

"Come on Kalen, let's get up off the floor shall we."

"Yeah." It was then she took a good look at her brother's face, and realised how badly he was hurt.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He held a hand to his face, but quickly pulled it away, hissing in pain.

"Mum keeps a potions cabinet somewhere, and a medical one, those ought to fix me up. How's your eye?"

"Fine." She avoided looking him in the eye, and looked down at her feet as the silence became increasingly prolonged.

"Come here," Kalen broke the silence, and pulled her in for a hug, to which she happily stayed in her place, soaking in the feeling. It had been so long since he had hugged her, that she almost didn't recognise the feeling, but now she remembered. It was going to be okay.

❀❀❀

Breakfast wasn't laid out by the house elves due to the absence of her mother, which was normal during the weekends. She often filled her time with meaningless wizarding clubs to distract herself from the fact that she was losing another member of her family to Lucius Malfoy and the people he surrounded himself with.

Fred rushed over to her as soon as he heard the pattering of her feet on the cool floor. She giggled as he picked her up and squeezed her tight.
"Can't... Breathe..."
"Shit, sorry." He carefully placed her down and she sighed, plopping next to him on a barstool.
"How's your eye?"
"Fine," She lied. It was throbbing so unbearably that she had to concentrate on seeing.
"I know it's not." He went over to the sink to soak a flannel, and came back, dabbing the blood away. "Shit Summer, it looks painful."

"Where's George." She changed the subject, causing him to sigh, and put down the flannel.
"Sending a letter to home about a lunch, but that's probably not going to happen anymore is it."

"It's okay, we worked it out, although Kalen's hurt pretty bad."
"What about you though?"
"I told you, it's fine, just a little bruise. Now, what do you want for breakfast."
"I think you mean what do you want, I'm making it."

"Oh no you're not, you're my guest."
"Sit down." Fred rose to his full height, staring her down with a menacing glare.
"Or what?" She stood her ground, looking up at the tall boy, before they both burst into a fit of laughter.

"Nice going Sunshine, don't back down easily I see."
"I will just this once, only because I might need to just sit down for a second." She grabbed the kitchen counter, a little woozily, and found the barstool upon which she sat. Fred eyed her suspiciously.

"When did you last eat?" He asked, studying her pale face, the only colour being her reddening left eye.
"You saw me having dinner yesterday." Summer rolled her eyes and slumped her head on the surface, earning a moan of regret and pain.
"Actually I didn't. But whatever, I'm going to make french toast, hopefully, you'll gain your strength back."

"Mmm." She nodded dreamily.
"To be fair, you have had a fair few head injuries this month," he waited for her to catch on to what he just said, and when she did, he burst out laughing.
"Hey! It's got nothing to do with that!" Although she rubbed her head slightly and looked at her hand, as though that would tell her if her brain was okay.

"Relax, I'm only joking, Sum. You were already like that before." He once again glanced up from watching the pan he was stirring, just to see her staring at him with an over dramatised, offended scowl on her face.

"Right, that's it, I'm going to find George, he's much nicer to me." She was just standing up, when she felt herself being pulled back against someone's chest.

"And where exactly do you think you're going," Summer's breath caught in her throat, and Fred let go, as he began to plate their breakfast. "It's going to get cold, I'm sure you can stand me for a few more minutes, then go running to George."

"Talk of the devil," Summer said, as George himself entered the room, holding a white scrap of paper.

"Mum said they're spending the holidays with Charlie in Romania, but she'd be happy to in the summer," George passed the scrap to Fred, who read it and shrugged his shoulders.
"Alright, that's fine I guess, as long as it is with you, Summer?" She nodded her head.

"Well we can't exactly make your mum come back for a couple of hours can we," she laughed as she sat down at the dining table.

"What's this? French toast? Thanks, Fred," George took his brothers' seat and began digging into the plate before him.

"You're lucky I made an extra piece." He took a plate and sat down with the other two.

"Mm, this is really good, I didn't know you could cook."

"Growing up with a mum who wanted a girl so badly did this to me," he chuckled as he took another bite.