6 Minutes (Yvonne)

[brody christopher dubois]

September 1(?), 2021
Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

It hadn't been hard to see the set of twins who had been Sorted just before he and his own twin brother had been Sorted into their own Houses at Ilvermorny. They were identical, both with names that started with "Y", and they were two of the prettiest girls Brody and his brother had ever laid their eyes on. Maybe the brothers had elbowed one another as the first girl and then her sister had stepped into the center of the Gordian Knot on the floor, but it wasn't until they had gotten their wands that Brody got the chance to talk to the twin who had been chosen for the same House as he had: Horned Serpent.

Brody knew that he wasn't exactly a ladies' man; there were plenty of guys in their grade who looked like they definitely had more experience than he did when it came to conversing with girls, but he had a chance and he took it. He knew that he would regret it if he didn't say anything to her, and the worst that could happen was that he would blow it and really regret the rest of his school career. He looked around to see if he could find his brother to act as his wingman, but he was too far away to grab him without making it painfully obvious what he was doing.

He sucked in a breath and hoped that his breath smelled normal, if not pleasant, as he moved a few steps closer to the brunette. "Hey," he smiled at her, trying his best to keep his wand at his side so that he wouldn't do anything stupid with it accidentally—even if he was excited to be holding his own wand for the very first time. "Uh, I'm Brody," he introduced himself, nearly lifting his right hand for a handshake before thinking the better of it. He didn't want to end up jinxing this girl on their first day of school.

yvonne rae de snaijer

[yvonne rae de snaijer]

i don’t trust my headspace.

The months that passed leading up to September felt like a simple blur. Forming together to create a time-lapse that the eldest De Snaijer couldn’t even remember. March Fourth felt like yesterday, the day that Yvonne and her younger twin: Yvette turned eleven. The prime time for most children to receive their letters, congratulating them on enrolment within a wizarding school. Upon the waking hour of March fifth, the Friday felt like no other, until an owl dropped a letter through the slit of their front door. Excitement filled the home, their mother and father, who had met and grew alongside each other in Ilvermorny, excited for their younger children.

Yvonne and Yvette’s older sister had already set an example of what was to expect for the twins, especially since she had officially three years of experience prior to the girl’s beginning. But with September 1st finally arriving and Yvonne holding tightly onto the hands of her twin, nerves chewed away at her gut. The twins were identical, spitting image of one another, with their only differences residing in the beauty marks upon their cheeks, two residing on Yvonne’s right while Yvette’s are on the left. Or even the way their hair was styled. Yvette was known to keep hers down, while Yvonne preferred it up, in pony tails or buns, or even with a nice braid tied in somewhere. They also both sported glasses but Yvonne preferred contacts while Yvette was strangely afraid of them. And their names both began with Y. What was there to not compare? As Yvonne looked around, she took notice of the students and the similarities of them all, even sure she spotted a pair of twins, like Yvette and herself.

The De Snaijer didn’t even realise her name was being called until Yvette pinched her — back into the land of the living. And with nervousness, she took to the centre of the floor where the Gordian Knot resided, waiting her result. The crystal upon the Serpent soon lit up, revealing the first downfall for the De Snaijer’s. Yvonne had instantly been separated from their eldest sister, who resided in Wampus. Yvette came soon after and was housed into the one they called Thunderbird. The rest of the sorting passed like a faint memory, but Yvonne’s fist remained clenched the whole night, even up to when they received their wands and had to be separated by House. She held onto her sister until the last moments, watching as she walked off to the left, tears in her eyes as she did so, but Yvonne looked away the minute she felt tears threaten her own eyes, stinging them lightly.

Yvonne looked up at the sound of what seemed to be — someone speaking to her — the truth of her anger slowly disappearing and the mask of happiness clouding it. ”Hey.” She smiled, reflecting the mood. She pushed her braid to the side, so it rested over her right shoulder while her wand rested in her left hand. Typical lefties. ”Nice to meet you. I’m Yvonne.” Out of instinct she raised her right hand for a handshake, simple common manners she had always been taught to perform. ”Horned…Serpent right?”

brody christopher dubois & sorry this took a while!

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[brody christopher dubois]

"Hey," the girl smiled at him. Brody took that as a good sign; she could have just called him a loser or told him to go away, so that was positive. She readjusted the braid that her hair was in and said that it was nice to meet him. Her name was Yvonne, she said, which Brody thought was pretty. He didn't think that he had met another Yvonne before—at least not anyone else around his age.

"Horned… Serpent?"

Yvonne, too, had raised her right hand for a handshake, and Brody was glad that it wasn't just him. He probably could have given one of those half-waves, but that felt weird given their proximity to one another. He shifted his wand into his left hand, pointed it downwards just to be safe, and shook Yvonne's hand with his right.

"Nice to meet you, Yvonne," he said. "And yeah." He nodded. "Horned Serpent. My twin brother went to Thunderbird, though." Brody didn't want to seem creepy by asking about her twin, though it was pretty obvious that they were identical. By mentioning his brother first, hopefully that would break the ice.

yvonne rae de snaijer

[yvonne rae de snaijer]

i don’t trust my headspace.

YVONNE WASN’T MUCH of a talker in most situations. But now with Yvette and their elder sister separated from her as well…Talking was the only thing she could rely on to make some kind of friend. The Brody boy seemed friendly enough, but that was most people on big events like this. Maybe after a few days spent by his side, they’d be sick of one another. But who knew? Only time could tell. Their hand shake was neutral, like most introductions but Brody’s face and body language screamed nervousness. It was easy to tell when you had an anxious twin-sister. It must have been easy for him as well, since he was a twin too.

Though it seemed as if fate had pulled at the strings again, once Brody mentioned his twin had been housed into Thunderbird. ”Just like…Yvette.” She mumbled. If only she could swap with his brother, take his place alongside her sister so things wouldn’t be so…Foreign anymore. Ilvermorny as a whole was confusing, but it would have been comforting to overcome her confusion alongside her siblings. Not alone. ”So. You’re a twin too huh?” She asked, forcing a smile on her lips. ”Identical? Fraternal?” The change of topic was something to relieve Yvonne from her own anxiety, especially with the start of classes beginning…So soon.

brody christopher dubois

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[brody christopher dubois]

"Just like… Yvette," Yvonne said of her sister as soon as Brody mentioned into which House his own twin had gone. Yvette, obviously, had to be her twin sister's name. It was pretty cool, at least to Brody, that the four of them had ended up in the same two Houses. Even if he and Yvonne were separated from their respective twin siblings and vice versa, Ilvermorny wasn't so big that they wouldn't be able to see each other around.

"So," Yvonne started, "you're a twin, too, huh?"

"Yeah," Brody laughed, relaxing a little. "I'm a twin, too." It wasn't as though he hadn't met other people with twins before, but he liked that he could use that fact about himself to break the ice.

"Identical? Fraternal?"

"Identical," Brody nodded, going on to introduce his brother by name, as Yvonne had done with Yvette. He and his twin had tried to use their looking almost exactly alike to their advantage a few times over the years, of course, but they probably wouldn't be able to pull that off from separate Houses. Elementary school had been nice while it had lasted, he guessed.

"We have an older brother, too," Brody added, not wanting to leave him out, "but he's in Wampus, and he's already been here for two years." In other words, their brother was significantly cooler than they were, since he knew his way around the castle and had friends and all of those things that they had yet to conquer. (Aside from the "friends" thing… Maybe.)

"You and Yvette are identical, too, right?" he asked, turning their conversation back to the twin factor. The girls had looked like they were identical, though some fraternal twins looked almost alike.

yvonne rae de snaijer
OOC: I had to gloss over the presently nameless brothers' names. Haha.

[yvonne rae de snaijer]

i don’t trust my headspace.

NODDING AS SHE smiled down at her fellow Horned Serpent peer Yvonne tried her hardest to keep a brave smile. Strangely enough, finding out she was separated from her elder sister felt like a relief, considering Yvonne felt most times her sister was more of an agony aunt, rather than the sibling to look up to. But Yvette…Well Yvette was different. Yvette had been clung to her since birth. Her other half to the split egg they were formed from, scientific terms of course. Being separated proved how much Yvonne was truly attached to her. What was she going to do without her? Surely Ilvermorny was small enough where they would share classes and be somewhat together but…It wasn’t the same.

”Oh cool!” She chirped, at the discovery Brody and his twin were identical and the fact they had an older brother. The second fact led to Yvonne’s eyes widening in surprise, her own sister was in Wampus…And even the same age as Brody’s older brother. ”By any chance…Are you the elder twin, or is your brother?” Her theory as of now was Merlin must have messed with their parents lives somehow. They were literally the same bunch of people! Just different by sex/gender!

”Yeah! We are.” She smiled. ”Only difference between us are the beauty marks.” She told him, her right index finger pointing up at the two spot-like marks on her cheek. ”Mine are on the right. Hers are on the left. But what about you and your brother? How are the two of you different?”

brody christopher dubois & it’s all good!

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[brody christopher dubois]

Yvonne expressed that it was cool that he and his twin brother were identical, and she asked which one of the two of them was older.

"I am," Brody grinned, "by a few minutes. I don't really use it against him… most of the time." Occasionally, he would use his status as the elder twin to his advantage in an argument with his brother, but he was still technically the middle child of three, too.

It was pretty funny to hear how similar he and his brother were to Yvonne and her sister. She and Yvette were also identical, she confirmed to him. "Only difference between us are the beauty marks," she explained, pointing to two marks on her cheek. "Mine are on the right. Hers are on the left. But what about you and your brother? How are the two of you different?"

"Our parents tried the color-coding thing for maybe a week or two after we were born," Brody laughed, "but they sorta gave that one up." He was glad, though, that they had; he had never been confined to one color of clothing for his entire childhood. "My brother has a birthmark on his back," Brody suggested, "but that's not really helpful for most people…" When they were in diapers, maybe, or if they had their shirts off…

"So where are you from?" he asked her. She didn't have a heavy accent from anywhere, as far as he could tell, though she could probably tell from his accent that he was from New England. "We're from Maine, so not real far from here." He felt bad for anyone who was from farther away, though he wasn't too concerned about getting homesick. Even being separated from his brothers at school didn't seem so bad, though it would be a little bit weird not to have his twin right beside him all the time.

As their parents had told them before they had left for Ilvermorny, it would be a new experience, but they would have their older brother to help them if they needed it. Everybody else in their year was in the same position of just having gotten their first wands and having to figure out how everything at their new school worked, so Brody didn't really mind the thought that it would take some adjustment. As dorky as it sounded, he liked learning new things. It wouldn't be as much to take in as it would be for the No-Maj-borns, but there were probably things that hadn't come up in his older brother's letters home.

yvonne rae de snaijer

[yvonne rae de snaijer]

i don’t trust my headspace.

YVONNE FELT HER lips draw into a grin, the similar expression Brody held for himself. It was nice, having someone extremely like you, at least from first impressions and even glances. ”I do the same with Yvette.” She admitted, letting out a brief laugh as she did so. His response only led the Horned Serpent to laugh a little longer, her hand lifting to cover her smile as she did so. ”Colour coding?” She repeated. ”I can imagine why. He was probably wearing a colour you weren’t wearing and the two of you wanted to swap or something.” It seemed like an awful plan to give to babies and toddlers anyway, they were always intrigued by the things they couldn’t have. ”Unless the two of you are…At a beach together I doubt that’ll be useful.” She added on.

”Maybe you should draw some kind of mark, distinguish the two of you. I don’t wanna confuse him for you.” At his next statement, Yvonne’s eyes lit up. Maine had sights Yvonne had always wanted to see, mountains she wanted to explore and even Acadia National Park. Her parents had been there a few times, with photos as evidence. ”I already envy you…I’m from Iowa. Not too far from Davenport. But still in a smaller area.” Even though Yvonne had only been in Ilvermorny for shy of just two hours, she was already homesick. She loved the comfort of her own home and Ilvermorny was only making her uncomfortable. Though it was nice Brody was around.

brody christopher dubois

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[brody christopher dubois]

Yvonne laughed and said that she did the same thing with Yvette, holding their birth order against her occasionally. Brody knew it was one of those things that didn't really matter much in the long run, nor did it really matter to anyone who wasn't him or his twin. As far as anybody else was concerned, they were just twins; which one of them had managed to come out into the world first was irrelevant some eleven years after the fact.

Even so, it was amusing to Brody how much he and his brother had in common with Yvonne and Yvette. It might have been almost scary, but it was nice to know that he had met somebody who was so similar to him—and on their very first day at Ilvermorny! Yvonne covered her smile as she laughed, and she asked about the color-coding their parents had attempted, saying that she could imagine why. Unless they were at a beach together, it wouldn't have been easy to tell the two of them apart, she said, plus what if they had wanted to swap the colors that they wore?

Brody chuckled. Fortunately, it had been a non-issue, though Yvonne suggested that maybe he could draw a mark to keep her from confusing the two of them. "I'll figure it out," Brody assured her. "Maybe we can do hand stamps or something? I mean, we bought enough ink for our school supplies," he joked. Something to the effect of, "This book is the property of Brody Dubois," would have been a little tacky, maybe, but at least it would have the benefit of clearing up other people's confusion.

When he mentioned Maine, though, the look on Yvonne's face was nearly shocking. Even without her speaking at first, Brody could tell that her reaction was positive, which he couldn't say that he minded. "I already envy you…" she said to him. "I'm from Iowa. Not too far from Davenport. But still in a smaller area."

"Iowa…" Brody, unfortunately, couldn't match Yvonne's excitement about Maine. He couldn't say that he knew too much about the state, though he wouldn't have had a problem pointing it out on a map. Even if he could think back to a geography unit to dig up something about Iowa, that would be better than nothing at all. "Isn't there a lot of… corn and stuff out there?" Oh, no, she probably thought that he was a loser now. At least most people only knew Maine for lobster, right?

yvonne rae de snaijer

[yvonne rae de snaijer]

i don’t trust my headspace.

FINDING SOMEONE THAT SEEMED to have similar interests, a twin of their own and was…the older twin was incredibly strange. Scary almost. Though, in the six odd minutes Yvonne had gotten to know Brody, he was interesting. And fairly…Cute. But she didn’t want to admit it to herself, to prevent her cheeks from flushing a dark shade of crimson. At his suggestion, using hand stamps or ink from the many supplies they seemed to bring, Yvonne laughed again, nodding as she held her hand up over her smile. ”Good plan! Though I don’t your brother would be happy to have ink over him daily.” She could see Brody splattering ink to differentiate themselves rather than ink himself, but the reminder that they were colour-coded babies was still a funny though.

At the response of her home town, lips raised as Brody’s mind drew a blank. Until he actually guessed correctly! ”Yeah! Corn!” Though that achievement had been obtained by the No-Majs, the De Snaijer had no interest in corn unless she was eating it. ”Told you. Nothing interesting about Iowa at all.” She added on with a laugh.

brody christopher dubois

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[brody christopher dubois]

"Good plan!" Yvonne exclaimed at his stamp idea. "Though I don’t your brother would be happy to have ink over him daily," she considered, which was a pretty good point.

"I'll just take one for the team," Brody offered. He really didn't mind getting inky if his brother wasn't thrilled by the idea. "I mean, it's not like it won't wash off…" Hopefully he wouldn't forget about the stamp and end up with ink smudges all over the place… "And it's not like my mom's gonna yell at me 'cause I wasted my ink." They were at boarding school now. "Actually, never mind… She'd probably just send one of the owls with a howler," he said, correcting his line of thought with a sheepish smile.

He was pleased to know, though, that he hadn't been wrong about the corn in Iowa. "Told you. Nothing interesting about Iowa at all," Yvonne claimed.

Brody laughed, too, and shook his head. "I'm sure there's something cool about Iowa," he assured her, "but I've just never been there." Maybe he would have a reason to go there someday. "I can tell you all about Maine, though," he offered in return, "or, uh, owls?"

yvonne rae de snaijer

[yvonne rae de snaijer]

i don’t trust my headspace.

BRODY WAS EVERYTHING YVONNE LIKED in a friend. It was odd, considering the only friends the De Snaijer had were her sisters, both younger and older (but it was more evident she preferred Yvette over their elder sister anyway.) He was funny, open to ideas that most people wouldn’t opt to…And she had just known him for roughly six minutes. The first impression from him was doing fairly well. ”It will, but it’s a pain.” She said, adding on even though she agreed. The brunette found herself quietly snickering at his additions, knowing her mother would do the same if she had decided to randomly dot her younger twin to tell the differences between them.

Yvonne shook her head in disagreement. Iowa literally had no other fame except for the ridiculousness of their corn. It was funny considering that was the only achievement the No-Majs could produce for themselves. ”I’d like that. In person or in owls.”

brody christopher dubois & maybe one more each then we can end this?

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[brody christopher dubois]

"It will," Yvonne agreed with him about getting ink to wash off, "but it's a pain." Ideally, Brody thought, he would be careful enough that he wouldn't ever spill his ink, either. He had only really used pens and pencils, from having gone to a No-Maj school, so he thought that it wouldn't be a terrible idea for him to get some writing practice in to ensure that his handwriting with a quill wasn't too sloppy.

Yvonne also said that she liked the idea of his telling her more about his home state, whether that was in person or by owl. As much as he loved his owl, Hoot, and owls in general, Brody didn't see much reason in having the birds make the journey over to Yvonne on his behalf when they had both been Sorted into Horned Serpent.

"Yeah," he nodded. Really, he just liked the idea of having an excuse to talk to her again. "Maybe once we've, uh, learned our way around here a bit?" he suggested. Maine could wait, since they still had to find their way around their new school.

yvonne rae de snaijer

[yvonne rae de snaijer]

i don’t trust my headspace.

YVONNE FOUND HERSELF NODDING AT the slightly taller boy, noting that it would be a good idea. The two hadn’t exactly been at Ilvermorny for long, nor had they had any official tours yet…Until she heard the loud shuffles from older students, long robes brushing against the floor. ”Sounds…Perfect.” She murmured over to him, eyes wide watching the students head towards the front. Maybe they were important members for each house?

”Is this where we separate by boy and girl?” She joked, looking down at him. Six minutes was clearly not enough time to get to know someone.

brody christopher dubois & you can end it!

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[brody christopher dubois]

As their introduction to Ilvermorny progressed, a few of the older students appeared towards the front of where they were standing. They looked like they were definitely important, and as though they needed to be paying attention to them instead of their conversations amongst themselves.

Yvonne asked if that was where they had to separate themselves off by gender. That looked to be the case to Brody, too, and he nodded. "Yeah," he said. "I think it is." He had only spent a few minutes conversing with her, but he didn't really want it to come to such an abrupt end. "Uh, I'll see you around, I guess, Yvonne?"

yvonne rae de snaijer
Fin!