Chapter Text
The carriage jostled on a stray rock from its way to Hogwarts Express Station. Alon grunted softly, nearly dropping his book from his hands at the unexpected bump. His eyeglasses were askew from his temple, so he adjusted them with a sigh.
He went back to his book, skimming over the passages he’d read moments before the carriage bumped into rocks. He missed the part of Elizabeth’s reaction to Darcy’s arrangement of the wedding. What did she think about him now? Has Darcy changed? Oh, and he is equally annoyed by Lady Catherine de Bourgh but not very so.
His wolf ears relaxed on his head as he was taking in the safety of the carriage’s cabin. And more so to the people surrounding him.
His siblings were accompanying him to the train station. They were adorned in the finest travel robes, but their jewelry was scarce. There was no need to look so well-off when their presence would only be brief.
Each of them were doing their own business in the quiet cabin. Quiet for Alon was his beloved two older siblings chattering between themselves and the eldest doing business.
Maribel and Nimuel Tanglao-Castro, the second and third eldest respectively, were gossiping about a couple of maids having been caught lurking around a male bath house. As far as Alon could care, their servants could have their own lives… but he still smiled as Maribel recounted one of the maids dousing dirty water into the bath as revenge on her shitty husband.
Looking to his side, the eldest brother, and the Qatun of their clan, was reading through documents.
Crisanto Tanglao-Castro. A man who looks just like the youngest of the family, but with many differences to his physicality as well.
All of them had the same black-blue hair. Maribel and Nimuel had the waves, whereas Alon and Crisanto had the straightness. Each of them held tanned skin, but each of their beauty marks were in different places. Their eyes varied from sibling to sibling but were all the same brown. And their personalities could be no different, but that is no surprise.
Alon, with his humble long hair pulled into a neatly, but loose, ponytail. A wolf.
Maribel, with her wavy hair always tied into a lovely bun. A tiger.
Nimuel, in his wavy hair framing his face handsomely. A tiger as well.
And Crisanto, with a few strands out of place from his slicked back hair. And the eldest wolf of their family.
A paper in Alon’s face brought himself out of his musings, courtesy of Crisanto. The Venorxesin blinked, and took the paper out of his eldest brother’s hands. He set his book down, but not before bookmarking it.
Back in Fifth Year, before Alon rode the carriage that could’ve taken to Hogwarts, he had been riding in a different one, minus the presence of his two other siblings. Inside the cabin were him and Crisanto.
Crisanto, just like in Sixth Year, had been reading documents of clan affairs. Alon himself was reading a book, but it wasn’t Pride and Prejudice. He couldn’t remember the plot now, but it had something to do with a tragic romance in Italy by the names of Romeo and Juliet.
He had been brought out of his book by a paper on the page he was reading. A bit miffed but not wanting to cause trouble to one of his only other close family members alive, he quietly set his book down and got the paper out of it with no protest, and nothing that betrayed his inner feelings.
Alon was not surprised to see the names of prominent children of wizards in the paper.
Leander Prewett
Lewis Conwell
Ken Mansel
Joselyn Ada
Aubrey Lovel
……
It had been an expectation for him to make friends with the right sorts of people. Get connections for the recovering Tanglao Clan. It had been easy enough, and it was every bit logical. At the time.
But, he had noticed that the penmanship wasn’t his brother’s own.
“You don’t have to follow through with it,” Crisanto had said in the quietude of the carriage run by earth energy, making Alon look up curiously and confused with a tilt of his head. Why wouldn’t he have to follow through befriending the right sorts if not for the clan’s security?
Crisanto didn’t look at him, just flipping the next page to the document. “Just be a good student at Hogwarts, brother. That’s all I’ll need from you.”
Alon still doesn’t know if the “Romeo and Juliet” book survived the dragon attack, but he did buy another copy from Venorxesin vendors in their clan’s premises (Venorxesins are not bound by most of the rules set by the wizarding world, so they were free to possess certain muggle items). But what was different now wasn’t really on the book nor the number of people in the carriage, it was the content of the paper.
It was just a list of gifts to give to his friends at Hogwarts and which ones belong to who.
Just the other night, Alon had to write some things at the urgency of Crisanto. He was sleepy, and not completely conscious of what was happening. All he remembered vaguely was that he wrote some names on a paper. Once done, he crashed into his pillows.
“Make sure to look at the names on the notes for which ones go where. I don’t want a letter from you saying that you accidentally gave the pistachios to Amit nor the gold-flaked chocolates to Leander instead of Sebastian,” Crisanto said, flipping through another page.
Alon smiled with a laugh leaving his lips and flushed cheeks. Maribel and Nimuel, having paused their conversation when their brother talked, laughed with him. Even the eldest smiled as small as it was.
It was silly of Crisanto to say, but the warning was true. Alon, oftentimes, is forgetful of which presents goes to whom. That had led to awkward letters from the gifted to the youngest.
“I will, brother. Thank you,” Alon smiled wider at his brother. “And, thank you again for letting me give gifts to my friends.”
Crisanto hummed, but Alon could see his brother’s tail tip swishing slightly on his lap, and that was enough for him.
The carriage ride was now filled with the chatter of the four siblings. It felt like the old times, when they would only care about heading to a vacation spot in England or when they would talk trash about annoyingly controlling elders, or the next pretty person one of them saw. Though Alon hadn’t known what a pretty person was when he was much younger, he was just happy to be around his siblings. Soaking in their happiness and smiles.
As if the incident never happened.
The carriage was brought to a stop, but the siblings didn’t stop talking. It was only when the footman opened the doors did they quiet down.
The air became somber. Each sibling didn’t want to let their youngest to leave so soon again, but none of them made a move to urge him out first.
Alon swallowed, eyes downcast. “Can we have a bit more time?”
The footman, an elderly with understandingly kind eyes, smiled and closed the doors without another word.
When they closed, it was just him and his siblings. For only this moment.
Alon was pulled into a tight hug from the side. He recognized the natural perfume of jasmine and honey which belonged to his beloved sister Maribel. He leaned back, his soft but shorter wolf tail brushing against her, seeking the comfort of her embrace.
Maribel’s honey-brown eyes, so like Alon’s, glittered with unshed tears. It must be smudging her makeup, Alon mused, but his sister didn’t make any move to fix it nor to complain about it.
Nimuel joined the two youngests from behind. His powerful frame, honed from years of noble training, pressed against Alon’s shoulder. His own striped tail, a perfect mirror of Maribel’s, intertwined with the youngest wolf’s tail until one couldn’t tell where Alon’s could be buried beneath the fluffiness.
Crisanto watched the sight of his siblings giving comfort to each other. What he wouldn’t give to keep this moment forever, just a time for them to be them. Their inner beasts ached to shield the youngest from what had happened no thanks to the hell Alon had last year but he knew Alon had to go back to Hogwarts. Even with that in mind, he couldn’t resist joining to hold his beloved brother once more.
The noble carriage filled with the gentle rumble of purrs and strong comforting growls. It was a soft, natural song of the beastly siblings for each other.
They were heirs to a noble line, expected to act accordingly to the nature of what they were, who they were. But they casted aside all lessons of propriety, of what was right in the noble ways. At that moment, they were just a family of four orphans who only had each other.
If Alon could, he would just beg his siblings to keep him back home, but that wasn’t possible. Not because of what he has, but because he also has people waiting for him at Hogwarts. People who he loved about who weren’t just his siblings. Who he cherished just as much as he does to his family.
Still, Alon took in what he could, savoring this moment. It would be a long while until he could have this again. And even if he was back with them, it would be a much longer while for all of them to be like this. So he’ll have this for himself, no matter how short it will be.
And it was short because their footman knocked again. It was time for Alon to leave.
They slowly pulled apart from the tight embrace, and Alon knew they must look like an undignified mess of tails, robes, and limbs. But he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I have to go,” Alon muttered softly, not wanting to leave them.
Maribel smiled sadly, and she gently held Alon’s cheek to make him look at her. The youngest wolf found his sister’s love for him, and it never failed to make him bury back in her embrace.
“We’ll miss you, terribly so,” she murmured, her voice trembling into another batch of tears that she valiantly held back. “Come back to us soon, Alon.”
Nimuel, not one to be a watcher, rumbled lowly. “Keep your head up,” his broad hand gripped Alon’s shoulder, squeezing a silent reminder to be vigilant. “And never forget that you are a Tanglao, a Castro. Don’t let so much break you when you can fix it.”
Crisanto, to the quiet surprise for the trio, nuzzled into Alon’s neck, effectively scenting him in his powerful, brotherly comfort. “Every crackle of fire, every rush of water, every turn of rocks, and every light breeze,” he vowed solemnly. “We are here and we are there, little brother.”
Alon couldn’t stop a tear and two from his eyes, but he quickly wiped any more from falling under his glasses. He didn’t want to be seen as weak to his siblings, wanting to be strong for them. But he couldn’t stop his body from betraying him.
His smaller wolf ears flattened on his head, as his body shook with small tremors. “I’ll write. I’ll tell you what is going on, if anything has happened. I promise.”
The moments up to the train were agonizingly too fast for the wolf, but he was happy to see familiar faces from the train car.
After their emotional embrace in the carriage, Alon had to surrender his kris to Crisanto as he was not allowed to have it in Hogwarts. Then the siblings fixed themselves to look presentable in public. There was a number of scrutiny and barely disguised fear and disgust from the crowd of wizardkind, but they took it in stride. As in, by ignoring them.
Finally he was on board in his train car on the Hogwarts Express. His trunks and gifts were stashed in a separate compartment. Well, compartments because the sheer number of gifts Alon had to give outnumbered his trunks. It was a bit difficult and drew some stares, but it wasn't worth mentioning.
He waved to his siblings who were outside, in line together with their heads held high like the noble Venorxesins they were. It was disheartening to see, not after the moment they had, but it wasn’t something Alon wasn’t used to anymore.
BANG
His head nearly smacked into the window of his train car. It would have if he hadn’t been pressing the palm of one of his hands to the window. He wasn’t able to turn around to see just who barged in like that because he was engulfed into a hug by slender but toned arms wrapping themselves around his waist.
“ALON!” One voice, very familiar and lovely, beamed loudly. It made his wolf ears droop while a blush, very pink, bloomed on his face.
Alon cracked a small smile, gently patting his friend’s hands.
“Hello, Sebastian.”
He could practically feel the smile on his back from his shorter friend.
Another came into his cabin car, measured and light. He knew it was Ominis even if Sebastian was hogging his body. His other friend took the liberty to not join Sebastian in the hug. Alon turned his head to the side, smiling widely at his blind friend.
“Alon, it’s been a long while,” Ominis greeted lightly, but there was a slight annoyance in his blind eyes. “You haven’t written us back from our last letters.”
Alon had the decency to look sheepish. His smile dropped a little, and his ears flattened on his head. He hadn’t let go of Sebastian, just patting his clingy friend’s hands.
“Sorry, Ominis. Things came up back at the clan, so I didn't have time to write back,” Alon apologized, hoping his friend would understand.
Ominis hummed but took his answer. He knew all too well the duties that his wolf friend had, even if they were different species which made Alon appreciate this more.
“Did you get us presents?” Sebastian mumbled behind him.
Adorable, Alon thought fondly.
“Of course I did, but-”
“Can we have them?” Sebastian asked excitedly. He put his chin on top of Alon’s shoulder. He almost seemed to sparkle.
“When we get there.” Alon promised, but his friend pouted.
“Can I have them?” Sebastian whispered, pushing closer.
Alon gulped, but he shook his head, his smile turning nervous on his lips. He tried not to stare too deeply at his friend’s eyes. Ominis could see the bullshit happening in front of him.
“At Hogwarts. You’ll be the first to have your gift,” he promised, glad that his voice didn’t shake.
Sebastian’s cheer was drowned out by the shrill of the train’s whistle.
Alon blinked, and looked back out to the train car’s window. His siblings were still there. They may look cold to other wizards, but he could see the way their eyes never took themselves from him.
A smile, wider than what was supposed to be allowed for nobility of his kind, came. And his hand waved more freely than what is allowed for someone of his status in the clan.