Twin Souls

Title: Twin Souls
Author: ExcentrykeMuse
Fandom(s): Harry Potter Series / Pride & Prejudice (Wicked Stepmother Universe)
Pairings: Lily Evans/Darcy, (one sided) Lily/James
Rating: PG
Word Count: 6.6k
Warnings: pureblood culture, pureblood bigotry, kidnapping, slight accidental twincest, anti-pureblood bigotry
Prompt: for honeycombandfebruary who wanted pureblood!Lily and Darcy

Twin Souls

Electra sat with James at Madam Puddifoot’s and took a sip of tea.  It was early July and she had her glorious red hair in a chic chignon and was wearing light pink robes.  “I thought Sirius would have told you.  You are best friends.”

“Well, obviously he didn’t, Lily,” James said snidely back, not even looking at her.

Electra didn’t bother to let her eyes flick to him.  She had wanted to go to The Wicked Stepmother, but James wouldn’t believe that she now had a card.  He hadn’t even responded to her request when they’d written to each other over the past few days.

“Look.  Perhaps you and Sirius should talk—”

“About what?  About the fact that the girl that I have adored for over five years is a filthy pureblood?” he spat out and Electra paused, now looking directly into his hazel eyes.

A shiver ran down her spine and she set down her teacup.  “I had no idea you felt that way.”

“How could I feel anything but?” he demanded, shoving his teacup away.  “Look at you.  You’re dressed like a fancy poodle!”

Glancing down at her robes, she saw nothing wrong with them.  Wizard papa had wanted her to look pretty and had taken her out shopping.  She had felt loved, special.  Bellatrix had taken the day off from working at The Daily Prophet and had her in dark blues and purples, cackling as the two cousins posed for photographs together that Regulus obligingly took.

“Is this why Sirius has been locked up at Grimmauld Place?” James suddenly asked viciously, nearly swiping at the teapot.

Electra was pulled from her thoughts.  She looked up, choosing not to let her eyes tear up.  “Yes.  We’re twins, you see.”

“Twins?” he demanded, slapping his hand down on table.  “Twins?”

“I don’t see what you’re so angry about,” she whispered back, not liking the attention they were attracting.  Electra didn’t want to make a scene.  “Sirius is your best friend.  You’ve fancied me for years.  Isn’t it great that I’m his sister?”

“The Blacks are a twisted, dark—”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence, James Potter.  Your family are just as much purebloods as the Blacks!”

“I’m only fourth generation, Lily,” he told her firmly. “I couldn’t go to The Wicked Stepmother even if I wanted to.  I thought you had suddenly taken to pranking when you’d put it in your letter.”  He was now leaning forward, his eyes enraged.  “And now you’re a pureblood creampuff.  Not my lily flower.”

“I never was your lily flower.  I’m only here today because Sirius asked me to give you a chance now that I’m a pureblood and you’re a pureblood and maybe I’d know where you were coming from.”  She glanced to the side where the couple were definitely looking at them and not at each other.  Great.  Just great.

James looked surprised.  Swearing under his breath, he stood.  “The wonderful thing about you, Lily, is you were a Muggleborn.  You weren’t touched by their darkness or their stupid rules.”  He picked up her naked left hand and inspected her fingers.  “When is this going to change?”

“Later this month,” she answered in a small voice.

“I thought as much,” he ground out.  He looked into her green eyes and shook his head in disappointment before walking out.

She had never disappointed anyone before, and she actually rather hated it.  She didn’t like the look in James Potter’s eyes.  He’d always been so devoted to her, always trying to catch her attention.  Electra had assumed that would all stay the same, even if she found her birth family in Orion and Walburga Black. 

Then she had realized it.

James had stuck her with the bill.

It’s not as if she didn’t have galleons on her, but she didn’t think it was very wizardly of him.

Getting up and going out into the streets of Hogsmeade, she looked up at Hogwarts.  She would be starting her sixth year in just two months.  By Friday, there would be an announcement in The Prophet that she was no longer Lily June Evans, but Electra Calliope Black.  That she had been found.  That it had all been one horrible mistake.

“How’d it go?” Sirius asked when she returned home to London.

“You should have told me James Potter hated purebloods.”

Sirius opened his mouth to object, but then closed it quickly.  “I didn’t think it would extend to you.”

“Well, it did,” she told him, taking off her left slipper.  “Why doesn’t it extend to you?”

He smiled roguishly.  “I’m a special exception.”

She huffed at him.  “Well, a little warning would have been nice.  You should have also told him before I went.”

Sirius looked baffled.  “I did.”

“Then why did he keep calling me ‘Lily’ and insist he had no idea?”

“Habit?”

Electra looked unamused.  She walked across the room and sat down on a loveseat, picking up her foot and rubbing it.  “I have gone through an—intense though short process where I have come to accept the fact that I am not Lily Evans, but Electra Black.  He should respect that.”

“It’s not every day your wizard father kidnaps you from Platform 9¾,” Sirius agreed with a bark of a laugh.  “I thought James had noticed.  He was standing right next to me when I took off to grab you.”

“No,” she agreed carefully.  “It doesn’t seem like he did.” 

There was the sound of the floo connecting down in the kitchen and the twins looked at each other.  They looked nothing alike.  Sirius had rather haughty good looks with grey eyes and dark curling hair that he left hanging to his shoulders.  Electra, conversely, was entirely beautiful and only shared his high cheekbones.  She had, instead, deep auburn hair and emerald green eyes.  Her looks were a throwback to a Prewett great-grandmother.

“Whoever it is will be taken to Father’s study,” Sirius decided, coming and sitting next to Electra, picking up her foot and rubbing it.  “What’s wrong with your foot anyway?”

“I’m not used to these slippers.  They pinch.”

“Pinch, do they?” Sirius laughed, sounding a bit like a bark.  “I’ll talk to Bellatrix and see if there are any spells we can put on them to make them more comfortable. Narcissa will likely know, but she’s too wrapped up in Malfoy.”

They shared a look.

There was a sound in the hallway and a wizard, with curling brown hair and verdant green eyes, entered the sitting room.  Electra immediately removed her foot from Sirius’s grasp and set it on the floor.  Unfortunately, her slipper was still in the middle of the room.

Sirius took out his wand and whispered the slipper over to the loveseat.

“I beg your pardon,” the wizard said, bowing to them formally.  “I’m here to see Orion Black.”

“He’s not in his study?” Sirius checked, glancing over at Electra.  “Surely he must be home.”

“Your house elf showed me in here.”

Electra took in a deep breath.  That meant wizard papa was busy, and she was meant to play hostess.  Reaching down and quickly putting on her pinching slipper, she stood and brightly asked, “Might I interest you in tea while you wait?”

“That would be most efficacious.”

She clapped both her hands and Kreacher showed up.  He was rather obsequious to her, glad that the ‘daughter of the house’ had returned.  “Earl grey,” she ordered, “and my favorite sandwiches.”

A tea table was set up with three chairs and they were soon sitting around it.

The only problem was that they didn’t know this wizard’s name.  She wasn’t sure he knew theirs either.  Still, he was rather well dressed in hunting green robes.  Not recognizing him from Hogwarts, she wondered if he was from before their time.  Still, he was rather handsome.  Handsomer than James Potter surely with his stupid messy hair and his hastily put on robes.

She’d started noticing wizards this year.

Electra had noticed that James Potter wasn’t as dashing as he’d like to think.

She had noticed that Severus wasn’t much to look at, although he had once been a dear friend.

She had noticed that Narcissa’s beau, Lucius Malfoy, cut quite the figure.

This wizard, though, was certainly handsomer than even Lucius, and he was looking at her discretely over his teacup.

“I believe,” the wizard began, “you know my sister, Georgiana, from Hogwarts.”

Electra looked at Sirius and he looked pensive.

“Maybe Regulus knows her.  Which house is she in?”

“Slytherin.”

“Regulus, then,” Sirius decided.  “Electra and I are in Gryffindor.”

“Gryffindor?” the wizard asked.  “I had understood from Mr. Black that all Blacks were in Slytherin.  He seemed quite proud of that fact.”

“Except for us,” Sirius answered, sharing another quick look with his twin.  Electra knew that before she had entered the family, before Sirius had found her, there had been some bad blood between him and their father.  “We’re the dynamic duo.”

Electra had to keep from laughing into her tea.  Sirius must have read that in a Muggle cartoon from the 1950s.  Her green eyes fluttered to the wizard across from her, taking in his strong shoulders and she set aside her teacup.  “But enough about the Black twins,” she said.  “What about you, Mr.—”

“Darcy.  Darcy of Pemberley.”

That must be one of the ancient pureblood houses.  “Mr. Darcy.  Were you in Slytherin like your younger sister?”

“Ravenclaw.  I quite enjoyed my time there.”

She hummed.  “Sirius has often wondered why I wasn’t placed there.  I’m top of my class.”

“Prefect,” Sirius noted proudly.  “Set to be Head Girl, our Electra.  Beats out everyone for top spot.  We’re waiting on her O.W.L.s with great anticipation.”

“I must admit,” Darcy stated carefully.  “I had thought Orion only had two sons.”

Sirius hesitated.

“A story for our father,” Electra decided.  “Tell us, what year is Miss Darcy in?  I don’t remember a Darcy in our year.  Do you, Sirius?”

“Darcy?  Darcy… no.”  He was clearly thinking of all the witches he had snogged before they got their vined rings.

She stepped on his foot with the heel of her slipper and he nearly yelped.

“Georgiana is going into her fourth year.”

“—with Regulus then,” Electra proclaimed, thinking of her little brother who was more of an enigma than anything.  Sirius said he was being recruited by the Death Eaters already as a third year.  Electra thought it was a little young for that.  She knew Severus was being courted as a fifth year.  That’s what led to the whole “Mudblood” debacle near the lake, which had led to her crying in a broom cupboard, which had led to Sirius finding her and trying to kiss her, which had led to her magic reacting so badly that they had both been thrown across the room, which had led to Sirius daring to write to his Uncle Alphard about it, which had led to a conference of the Black family, which in turn had led to Orion Black doing research on her and then abducting her on the platform. 

Electra still shivered at the thought that her twin had kissed her, though it did have a good result in the end.

“Yes, with Regulus,” Sirius agreed a little darkly.  “Where is our brother?”

She shrugged.  “Out with friends?”

That certainly did not make Sirius happy if she was any judge of the twitch at the corner of his mouth.

Electra turned back to Darcy.  “Has she mentioned our brother?”

“Georgiana is friends with Apricot Selwyn.”

“Ah, yes, the Selwyns,” Sirius agreed, his voice a little dark.  “A good, old family.”

Electra remembered from her quick crash course to pureblood culture that the Selwyns were Sacred Twenty-Eight along with the Blacks.  Looking over to Darcy, she wondered, “Perhaps we should have her to tea.  There’s a few years between us, but interhouse cooperation is never a bad thing.  We can drag Regulus away from his friends for an afternoon.”

Sirius looked uninterested.  “Do you know any other purebloods?” Sirius asked her seriously.

She thought about it for a moment.  “A couple in Ravenclaw.”

He snorted.  “What will Father do with you?”

Not having a chance to answer, wizard papa showed up in the doorway at that exact moment and took in the scene before him.  “Electra!” he greeted.  “How it warms my soul to see you engaging in our pureblood traditions.”

She immediately stood and curtseyed to him, as she knew she was expected to.  “You have a guest, Papa.  Mr. Darcy of Pemberley—”  She indicated him with her hand.  Darcy was still regarding her.  “I’m afraid I was forced to entertain him, though Sirius was here.”

“Yes,” Orion agreed, looking over at his eldest son.  “Sirius.  I hope you have not been giving our family a bad name.”

“No, sir,” Sirius answered from his place on the loveseat.  “We were determining that Miss Georgiana Darcy was going into her fourth year in Slytherin and that we should know her better.”

Orion seemed surprised.  “Good, good.  I will leave you to help your sister with the invitations.—You may consult the family engagement diary, daughter.”  His grey eyes connected with her green.

The family engagement diary was a large calendar in a small sitting room that showed every member of the family’s engagements for the entire month.  Family members were booked up out to a year in advance and Electra’s debut was already scheduled for the month after she graduated Hogwarts.  Sirius’s European tour was already scheduled for that same summer.  He wanted to go with James Potter, but Orion Black was firmly against that.

Darcy stood and bowed to Electra.  “It has been my pleasure to know you, Miss Black.”

She stared at him perhaps a moment too long and Sirius kicked her in the leg.  Remembering herself, she offered her hand, and felt a spark.  Darcy quickly looked up and their green eyes connected, knowledge passing between them.  Picking up her fingers delicately, Darcy let her hand hover approximately two inches beneath his lips.  She could feel the weight of his vined ring on his left hand, her left middle finger being conspicuously naked, and she took back her hand when it was released.

“The privilege was mine,” she answered a little self-consciously.

He looked up at her with his verdant gaze, and she was once again struck by the color.

They stared at each other for several long moments until Sirius cleared his throat.

Glancing over at her brother, Electra saw that he had stood in recognition that their guest was leaving.

“He fancies the robes off of you,” Sirius told her in a stage whisper once Darcy had left with their wizard papa.

“No,” she answered back, lying blatantly.  “He was simply being polite.”

“No,” Sirius told her, sitting back down and stretching out his legs.  “He definitely fancied you.  I can tell these things.”

She turned and smirked at him.  “You tried to steal me from your best friend,” she reminded him.

“I gave you back, much good it did him.”  He grimaced at the biscuit he was holding and placed it back on his plate.  “Jamesie is so stupid.  He hates everything that’s remotely—stuffy.  No, not stuffy.  I hate everything that’s remotely stuffy.  He hates everything that’s pure, including himself.  He wears it like a badge of honor that he’s only fourth generation and can’t get into The Wicked Stepmother.”

“I don’t see why,” Electra answered as she retook her seat and took her slipper back off.  “I never hated you for being a pureblood.  I simply didn’t care.”

He grinned at her.  “That’s what I always liked about you, Elly.  You didn’t care about wizarding politics.  You were free from all that.”  He glanced over toward the door.  “Father will try to make you care or he’ll marry you off to someone who will care for you.”

She grimaced.  “This Dark Lord does seem a bit extreme.”

“He wants to maintain the purity of blood.  Thing is, Electra, that’s now your people.  You’ve got some thinking to do.”

Electra started.  She had never thought of it that way before.  She had simply disliked Death Eaters because they had hated her before, and she simply disliked bigoted thinking.  She never thought that simply by existing she was now on their side au naturelment. 

“I wonder what Darcy thinks,” Sirius mused.

“What does it matter what Darcy thinks?” Electra sniped, massaging her toes.  Darcy would naturally think what she thought, she decided.  “He could be here for any number of reasons.  I still don’t know if wizard papa has anything to do with the Takeover.”

Sirius looked over at her incredulously.  “If you say so.”

Her brother had picked up her slipper and was in the process of trying to stretch it when Kreacher came and called her to Orion Black’s study.  Sirius looked at her knowledgably before handing her shoe back over and she slipped in back on.  Her toes were still a little sore, but Electra acknowledged that Sirius had improved it.  She was still going to check with Bellatrix to see if there were any handy spells she could use.

She walked to the door and knocked, waiting to be called in, and found Orion and Darcy standing near the window.

“Ah,” Orion Black greeted, ushering her forward.  “Now, Electra,” he said, placing his hands on her shoulder.  “You have my full permission, but I realize you are only just sixteen years old and you are rather new to the family. You may ask for a postponement.”  He leaned forward and kissed her temple before inviting her forward, leaving the room.  He did, however, prop the door open.

Electra stood in the middle of the room and realized she was in a situation she was very much unfamiliar with.

She knew what to do with James Potter and his endless fascination.

She knew what to do with Severus Snape and his endless though cloaked devotion.

She didn’t know what to do with Darcy of Pemberley and his haughty expression and expectant face.

“Mr. Darcy,” she began, uncertain what else to say.  She didn’t know how to acknowledge what had passed between them, the magic.  She wasn’t even certain what kind of magic it was.

“Miss Black,” he began, bowing slightly.  “Your father told me of your peculiar history.”

“Peculiar,” she repeated, coming forward.  “I suppose that is an apt word.”

“I understand you have been wishing to go to The Wicked Stepmother.”

Her green eyes lit up.  “Oh, yes,” she answered.  “Very much.  My cousin Bellatrix told me all about how her husband Rodolphus took her there on marriage dates when they were courting.  It sounds heavenly.”  She blushed slightly and glanced out the window.  She sounded a little like a stupid, lovestruck girl.

“Well, then,” he answered.  “How should you like to go the day after next?”

She looked up at him expectantly.

“With me?” he added, although that was obvious.

Sirius had been right then.

“Do you like me so very much?” she asked quietly, a little uncertain of herself.  Did the magic mean something she did not know?

“Yes, Miss Black,” he answered, reaching out and touching the sleeve of her wrist, all he was allowed to do while wearing a vined ring.  “If you should like to come.”  He did not reference the magic.  His head was, however, tilted toward the door in silent warning.

He hadn’t told wizarding papa then.  That meant that there was something to tell.

She took a deep breath.  “Then, yes, Mr. Darcy,” she answered, receiving the silent message, “I should very much like to come.”

A tension around his shoulders relaxed although he appeared no less stern.  “Then shall we say half past ten?  I shall secure our table with the maître d’.”

“Yes, thank you,” she answered.  “And I shall be sure to send my card to Miss Darcy.  I do not know many purebloods and I am sure my wizard papa should like me to rectify that.”

“You did not have the opportunity,” Darcy told her.  He seemed uncertain what to say next.  Perhaps he was as unused to young witches as she was to grown wizards.  Perhaps, too, the magic had taken him by surprise.

“Wizard papa is waiting,” she murmured, indicating the door with her hand, and he nodded.

She offered her hand and he took it, the magic passing between them, and then she swept from the room, smiling at Orion as she went back to the sitting room.

“Told you,” Sirius crowed not two hours later.  “He fancied you.”

“Why was he here?” Electra wondered.

“Who knows,” Sirius decided.  “Perhaps Father owed him a gambling debt.” 

Electra stuck out her tongue.  She was coming up with her list for a garden party for next week.  Regulus.  Georgiana Darcy.  Lux Kingsley.  Maia Gaunt.  Sirius Black.  Her.  They needed one more wizard to even out numbers.

Sirius looked at it.  “Darcy mentioned Apricot Selwyn.  Invite her and Barty Crouch Jr. in Ravenclaw.  That leaves one more wizard.” 

Electra bit her lip.  “Can we have an uneven number?”

“Not for your first party.  Isn’t there a Selwyn brother or cousin?”

“Is he in Slytherin?”

“We can ask Regulus.”  He scratched in “wizard Selwyn.”  “There, we have it.  Now, we just need a date.”

“Hmm,” she murmured.  “Thursday, I think.  Everyone has off for summer, and all other social engagements will already be taking up the weekends.”

“Good point,” Sirius decided.  “I’ll just go find Reggie.”

“Are you sure you can find him?  He always seems to be somewhere else.”

“Well, if you can find Severus Snape, we can find Reggie,” Sirius told her outright.  “They’re bound to be hanging with the same crowd.”

Electra looked up.  “Rowle Finn, probably, wherever he’s hiding out.”

Sirius thought.  “No, no idea.  We’ll just have to ambush him.”

And they did ambush Regulus just as he was coming home after nine o’clock.

“Out with your Death Eater friends?” Sirius asked snidely.

Regulus looked up warily.  He was wearing dark robes and his hair was up in a tight bun so it wouldn’t get into his face.  Electra wondered what he had been getting up to all day.

“Reggie,” she greeted, leaning in for a hug.  “We’re throwing a garden party so we can meet Georgiana Darcy a week from Thursday.  You’re coming.”

“Darcy?” he asked.  “Quiet girl.  Whyever do you want to meet her?”

“Her brother is taking Elly to The Wicked Stepmother,” Sirius told him, poking Regulus in the shoulder.  “It would be good if she met his sister.  We’re inviting Barty Crouch Jr., Maia Gaunt, Lux Kingsley, you, Apricot Selwyn, and we need to know the name of Selwyn’s brother or cousin to even out the numbers.”

Regulus blinked his large grey eyes.  “There’s a brother and a cousin.  Aleksander is her twin, and Seximus Leopold is an older cousin.”

Sirius and Electra exchanged a look.  “Aleksander,” Electra decided.  “Better to invite the twin than the cousin.  He’ll be a year below us instead of several years above.”

“Well, then,” Sirius decided.  “That’s all we need, Reggie,” he said a little nastily.  “You will show up to your sister’s garden party, otherwise we’ll tell Father.”

“Since when are you his golden boy?” Regulus demanded.

“Since I found Electra,” he shot back.

Electra rolled her eyes.  “Wizards, enough of this.—Regulus, you look like you need a shower.  Sirius, go do something else.”

Sirius harrumphed.

Electra really didn’t care.

She went to sleep with visions of sugarplums in her mind.

Electra and Sirius, since that ill fated kiss, had become true friends.  She had always been wary of him and his pranking, but since he had taken her hand on Platform 9¾ when she was being dragged away from the Evanses by the Blacks and he told her, “Dearest, you know what they’re saying is true.  You felt it that night,” she had believed him and trusted him explicitly.

He was in her room three hours before she was set to go to tea with Darcy, helping her pick out what she was going to wear.

“Aren’t you supposed to be flying with Potter?”

“We’re having a fight.”

She turned around in her chair and looked at him.  “You and Potter never argue.”

“Well, that’s before he called you a ‘stuck up pureblood princess.’”  He was running his fingers through a feather that was meant to go in her hair.

Electra was stunned.  “He called me that?”

“Yep,” Sirius confirmed, popping the ‘p.’

She turned and looked down at her hairbrushes.  There was a sinking feeling in her stomach.  “Well, if he thinks of me like that, maybe there’s hope with Severus.”

“No,” Sirius suddenly demanded, rushing over to her and holding her gaze in her vanity mirror.  “You cannot go begging to that sniveling slug.”

“He’s my oldest friend.”

“I don’t care.  Jamesie is my oldest friend and we’re not talking.”

“A witch is not an island.”

“Of course you’re not an island!” Sirius cried, lifting up his hands dramatically over his head.  “You have me.  You have father.  Mother’s in the attic but you even have Bellatrix, mad as she is.  There’s this Darcy of Pemberley.  What about our picnic next week?  Lux Kingsley’s not a bad sort.”

“No, no, I don’t suppose she is,” Electra agreed as she picked up her brush and began to undo her nighttime braid.  Her lush auburn hair fell out over her shoulder.  “Barty Crouch isn’t so bad either.”

“See!  We have two Ravenclaws coming!”  Sirius sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

Electra was now paying attention to her hair.  “I suppose I can have Kreacher put it up for me,” she wondered to herself.

“Oh, he’ll love to do it.  He’ll trip all over himself for the privilege.”  Sirius fell over on the bed, bouncing on the mattress.  “What color are you going to wear?”

“Oh, the blue?” she considered.  “What do you think?”

Sirius immediately got up and went over to her wardrobe.  He took out a midnight blue. 

“No, not that one.  The periwinkle blue.”

He looked at her oddly but then started sifting through robes again before he found it.  “This one?”

“Yes.  Or do you think the green to match my eyes?”

“You don’t want him to think you’re trying to be Slytherin,” Sirius decided, taking out the robes and hanging them on a hook on the outside of her wardrobe.  “Do your blue slippers pinch?”

“I wear the gold.”

This seemed to confuse Sirius more than anything.

“Don’t think on it too hard,” she told him as she continued to brush out her hair.  Electra turned back to the mirror and looked at her reflection.  “Perhaps you better get out of here and send Kreacher in.”

“If you say so,” he murmured, coming up and kissing her on the top of the head.

“When do we go for our vined rings?”

He grimaced.

“Sirius,” she chided.

“He won’t be able to kiss you if you get a vined ring.”

“He wears a vined ring,” Electra reminded him, tapping him on the back of the hand with her brush, speaking of Darcy.  “He can’t kiss me anyway.”

“If I had been wearing a vined ring, we never would have discovered you were my lost sister.  Your birthday was all wrong.”

That was true.  If Sirius had been wearing a vined ring, he’d never have been able to kiss her.  Their magic never would have reacted so badly and he never would have gone searching for answers.  Electra still wasn’t certain how she had gone missing from her cradle at Grimmauld Place at the age of two months and ended up with the Evans family with a January birthday.

Orion Black, when she had asked him about it, told her the law wizards were handling it.

“But do you really think you should go around kissing every witch that takes your fancy?” she asked, catching his gaze in the mirror.  “You shouldn’t have been kissing your sister even if I look ‘pretty when I’m crying’.”

He grimaced.

“Do you want wizards kissing me?”

“Point well taken,” he agreed uncomfortably.  “We’ll discuss this later.  But I don’t want you deciding anything until we’ve decided—together.  We’re twins.  We’re two halves of one soul.”

She shifted uncomfortably.  Electra had read about that in several wizarding books as early as her second year.

Twins were said to be one soul split in two.  It was unusual for both twins to marry.  Usually one would marry and the second twin would remain a bachelor and live with his married twin and his wife (or husband, as the case would be).  As magic forbade any relationship between siblings, there was never any hint of scandal.

“Is that what you want?  Do you want me to marry and for you to live with us as the consummate bachelor?”

Sirius didn’t even have to think before answering.  “I can think of worse fates.”

She smiled at him.  “Such as?”

“Having a lost twin and being a consummate bachelor without a twin to moor me.”

Electra felt a sinking feeling in her stomach.  Reaching up, she took Sirius’s hand in her own and turned toward him.  “I never would have left you alone if I knew.  We must have both been sorted into Gryffindor so that we would be close to one another.”

“Yes, the old magic,” Sirius agreed with a grimace.  “I always thought it was my personality that got me sorted there.”

“It probably was,” she told him.  “After all, I’m the consummate Ravenclaw.  You never would have worked out in that house.”

He chuffed her.  “I’ll leave you to it.”

Electra emerged fully dressed two and a half hours later, ready for her tea with Darcy.  She had taken breakfast in her room, Sirius complaining in a note that she was taking too long, but she had ignored it.

Orion looked her over approvingly before escorting her through the floo to The Wicked Stepmother. 

The interior was burnished oak floorboards and high ceilings.  A podium stood off to the side with a little wizard standing behind it, looking at them as they stepped out of the floo.

“Ah, Mr. Black!” the maître d’ greeted, coming up to greet them, “and the inestimable Miss Black.  Welcome back, welcome back!”

The last time she had been there she had gotten her card, a deep grey only three shades away from black.  “Thank you.”

“Mr. Darcy is already here,” the maître d’ told them in a whisper.  “He arrived a full ten minutes early to secure the best view of the lake.”  He tapped the side of his nose.  “If you will just follow the sparks.”  He lifted his wand and pink sparks sprang from the end and drifted off down a hallway.

Orion turned to Electra and kissed her cheek.  “I will see you in an hour, my dear.”

Electra nodded and then followed the sparks down the hallway to a tearoom filled with small tables and witches and wizards in the latest fashions murmuring to each other.  Mr. Darcy was indeed sitting by the window and the table had an excellent view of a lake.

“I did not know that Knockturn Alley was near a park,” she greeted, offering him her hand.

Darcy stood and took it, a spark rushing between them, bowing over it, before he pulled out her chair.

“Hyde Park,” he told her.  “No one but purebloods are aware.  Diagon Alley is quite removed.”

“Indeed,” she answered.  She looked over at Darcy.  He was quite handsome with dark curling hair and green eyes.  He was also quite tall.  It was nice that he was also not wearing glasses unlike James Potter.

“You are regarding me.”

She startled.  “I was comparing you favorably to wizards in my year.”  She blushed.  “This is my first marriage date.”

“I am most gratified,” he responded a bit arrogantly.  “School boys are just that—school boys.  They cannot compare to a mature wizard of seven and twenty years.”  He was very sure of himself.  She liked that.  James Potter was sure of himself but he had no reason to be.  The magic had not chosen him.  Darcy had been chosen instead, and he knew it.  He was assured of her regard.

She blinked.  “Are you—”  She blushed again.  “I’m only sixteen.”

“That is not unusual, Miss Black.—but please.  Choose our tea.”

She picked up the menu and glanced down at it.  “What do you prefer?”

“It is for the lady to decide.”  Well, that wasn’t remotely helpful.  She looked at him.  He didn’t seem like he would like a floral blend.

Glancing over the menu, she decided that black tea was best and ordered Paris tea and shortbread. 

“What are your interests, Miss Black?”  It seemed like they’d be having the conversation by form then.  People were listening, after all.

“I’m quite good at potions,” she told him.  “I am in the Slug Club even though it was believed I was—”

“Yes, quite,” Darcy agreed.  “Ole Sluggy is quite skilled at recognizing talent.  You must be quite gifted.”

“My best class is charms.  I’ve invented this spell,” she leaned forward slightly and she noticed Darcy was listening closely.  She blushed.  “Well, I’ll just have to show you, at some point, won’t I?  I don’t want to ruin the surprise.”

“You are so certain of your abilities.”

“I have no reason not to be.”

“It is a wonder you were not discovered earlier.  It is unusual for a tenacious Muggleborn to come along.  Usually there is some other explanation, such as yourself.  Was it believed you were stolen away by the fairies?”

“Reggie said something of the sort,” she admitted.  “Wizard papa always believed a much more sinister form of magic.”

“And quite right, too.  I would be devastated if I misplaced Georgiana.”

Electra paused.  “Why would you be the one to misplace her?”

“Both of our parents are dead,” he answered.  “I am the one to look after her.”

She nodded.  “You’re very young to be head of your own household.”

“Yes,” he agreed.  “It is unfortunate.  It gives me, however, more personal freedom to choose my political alliances.  I must, of course, secure the line.”

Electra wondered what political alliances he could possibly be talking about.  “Are you in the wizengamot?” she asked.  Her wizard papa was.

“Indeed,” he agreed, though there seemed to be more of an answer behind her question.

“I have been urging Sirius to think of politics,” she told him, now that their teapot was whistling and she was busying herself with the tea things.  “He hasn’t been taking life very seriously until he pulled me off of Platform 9¾.  It seems I was some sort of turning point for the entire Black Family.”  She sighed as she offered him milk.  “I think I was some sort of ‘call to arms.’”

“I would think you are quite correct, Miss Black.”

“Yes,” she agreed carefully as she indicated a spoon, which sprang to life and began to stir her tea to her liking.  “I’m trying to figure it out.  Everyone thinks I’m going to break because I grew up with Muggles.”  She picked up her tea and took a sip. 

“I don’t think you’re going to break,” he told her quite firmly.  “I think you’re a little naïve, but I don’t think you’re going to break.”

“Well, then,” she pried, setting down her tea, “what is going on?”

He looked at her firmly with his green eyes, which were a dark green as opposed to her emerald gaze.  “The question,” he told her, “is how you were robbed out of your cradle.  The Evans family obviously couldn’t have done it because they’re Muggles.”

“No,” she agreed.  “No, I suppose they couldn’t have.”

“It was believed that you were taken for ransom, but that it went wrong.”

“But who?”

“The Prewetts.  You are, after all, a distant cousin and they are on the opposite side of the Takeover, and you look like a Prewett.  They should have been able to hide you with the Prewetts or the Weasleys, but it got jumbled, and you ended up abandoned in an orphanage where you were eventually given to the Evans family.”  He made a motion with his hand.  “They have been obliviated.  The Prewett family is being investigated.”

“You’re saying, then, that my family has taken a side in the Takeover.”

He regarded her carefully.  “Your family is very much decided in favor in pureblood rights.  This cannot surprise you, Miss Black.”

“No,” she agreed, thinking of James Potter.  “I suppose not.”  Taking another sip of her tea, she asked, “And you agree with them?”

“I am here, am I not?”

Electra nodded.  Changing the subject, she asked, “Has Georgiana received my invitation?”

“Yes,” he answered, “and she is grateful you included the Selwyn twins.”

“Good.”  She smiled, not certain exactly how to continue to the conversation.  But she shouldn’t have worried.  Darcy continued it for her.

“I must confess I don’t spend much time in London.  I prefer to be at Pemberley or visiting other friends’ estates.”

“Oh?”

“Pemberley is very fine in the horse chestnut season.”

“Magic makes it so we don’t all have to be gathered in one place,” Electra agreed.  “We can rest our heads wherever we wish and congregate when we see fit.”

“Yes,” he noted, taking a sip of his tea.  The shortbread remained untouched.  “Do you like living in London?”

“It’s been a fortnight.”

“Too soon to tell.”

“Much too soon,” she agreed.  “I know one thing.  The aching in my heart has eased now that I’ve found my twin.  It had subdued somewhat when I went to Hogwarts and both Sirius and I were in Gryffindor, but we weren’t friends.  We were kept largely apart, but now it’s much easier.”

“Have you agreed then, that you will marry and he will remain with you and your husband?”

She startled a little.  “Yes.  We decided this morning.”

“Then Regulus will carry on the family name.”

“I suppose he will.  Besides, Sirius had already decided to stay a bachelor since he didn’t know where I was.  The logistics have just changed.”

He regarded her.  Electra felt seen.  It was a piercing feeling.

“I understand that your twin has proved a difficult heir for your father.”

Electra shrugged.  “As I said, I believe I’ve proved a turning point.”  She thought of Sirius describing how he didn’t like stuffiness.  He seemed to like picking out her robes that morning.  He also seemed invested in her marriage date.  It was his life, too, after all.  Where she would go, he would follow.

Darcy looked at her and nodded.  “Would you care for a walk in Hyde Park?”

“Won’t we be seen?” she asked, a little confused.

“I’ll cast a ‘notice me not’ spell.”

Nodding, she put down her cup and allowed him to usher her out a back door and out into the park.  She took his arm and breathed in the fresh air.

“Am I right in thinking, Miss Black,” Darcy asked, “that our affinity for each other has confused you?”

She looked up at him and saw his verdant gaze looking back at her.  “You mean the spark.”

“Indeed.  It is very unusual for a twin to have a soulmate.  It’s believed that a twin does not have enough of a soul to be able to recognize another human being.”

Nodding, she murmured, “Let me guess, it only happens among purebloods.”

“You are quite correct.”

She paused and stared, looking out over the lake.  “The more I learn about myself, the more I realize I have yet to learn.”

Darcy placed his hand carefully over hers.  “You have time to learn, Miss Black,” he assured her.

“Electra,” she told him.  “My name is Electra.”

They smiled at each other, and they walked on.

The End.