July 2021 | Cardiff, Wales

When Aaron Jones returned home for the summer, it was like a breath of fresh air. His last couple months at Hogwarts had been a depressing blur, with his decision to step down from the Quidditch team weighing on him heavily. But the moment he exited Platform 9 3/4 and crossed back to the muggle world, he felt that burden lifting. His family knew how passionate he was about the sport, but they were nowhere near as invested in it as he and his Hogwarts friends were. He knew he wouldn't be bombarded with questions, which was a relief.

On the drive home from King's Cross, Aaron regaled his parents about his classes and all the spells he had learned. They were more interested in his blossoming knowledge of the wizarding world than they were in his sports status, and although it would come up eventually, for now the thirteen-year-old could just talk about how nice it was to be home. That evening they had a meal of all of Aaron's favorite things and he was showered in love from his little sister. His twin brother was a bit quiet, but that's just how Avery was usually. That night when they went to their room together, they caught up a bit more properly and had a nice moment.

But as the next couple weeks passed, Aaron noticed quite a few changes had taken place at home. For one, his brother wasn't home very often. He had made some new friends at his secondary school, and apparently they were hanging out a lot this summer. It was weird, because Aaron was used to seeing his brother just reading at home or going to the library to hang out and study with his nerdy friends. But these new friends were inviting him to sleepovers and such. Although he asked Aaron the first sleepover if he wanted to come, Aaron found it awkward and had denied the invitation. And he wasn't invited again.

It felt weird reaching out to his own friends from primary school. A few of them had actually moved to other towns, and some were on summer vacations with their families so they couldn't meet up. When he did make a plan to meetup with his friend Johnathan from muggle school, it was really awkward for him. He couldn't talk much about his "boarding school" and so he mainly just listened to John talk about primary school and the drama surrounding familiar faces and new people Aaron had no clue about.

After that meeting, Aaron realized the gap between him and his muggle friends had grown exponentially just from not being able to talk at all during the school year. It's not like he could just casually send Chae with letters to them. This was a pretty upsetting revelation. In his own mind, he felt changes stirring too. He constantly felt restless, and his taekwondo wasn't helping. He felt like his voice was straining when he talked sometimes, and he was getting angry at random times. Usually upon realizing things that he'd missed out on at home and wasn't told about.

It was around July 20th that Aaron learned Avery was going to summer camp in August.

"Wait, what? You're leaving for weeks? But I'm home for once, and we're supposed to hang out," Aaron said, shocked at the revelation. Sure, they hadn't been spending the most time together the last few weeks, but Aaron had thought they still had a whole other month to do things.

"Well, I thought you were going to your summer camp like last year," Avery responded with raised eyebrows. Aaron frowned, his brows furrowing. Originally, he had considered going to the Hogwarts summer camp, but now hearing that his twin had just assumed as much was irksome.

"I never said that! So you made these plans based off an assumption?" Aaron found his voice was sharp and his rage was building rapidly with no real provocation.

"Well, all my friends are going, and it's not like you stuck around to hang with me last year," Avery retorted, his voice getting snippy as well. And their argument escalated quickly, eventually needing to be broken up by their parents. Aaron refused to see his brother's side of the story - even if in the back of his mind he knew he was getting angry for no reason - and ended up slamming the door to their room and cooling off in there.

In the end, he decided he wouldn't go to Hogwarts summer camp, just to spite his brother and make him feel bad for abandoning him. At least he'd have his own room for the month.

August 2021 | Cardiff, Wales

When Avery left for Summer camp during the first weekend of August, the two brothers still had not made up. His departure was met with icy indifference from Aaron. But the next day when the thirteen-year-old wizard woke up in their shared room alone, he felt the emptiness set in. A quiet sadness settled over him, but he didn't recognize it that way. He just felt betrayed and angry and he didn't want to think about it.

Instead, he looked at the pile of letters from his Hogwarts friends. A lot of them were going to the Hogwarts summer camp, and he was regretting his decision not to go. But at least he had Chae, and he could send letters to them if he wanted. But honestly- he didn't really want to talk to them through letters. That's why they all sat there unanswered. He was still a bit resentful of people like Lydia who had not even noticed his decision to step down from Quidditch. In the back of his mind, he knew that it was really his fault for essentially hiding it and avoiding his friends, but he was still going to choose to be upset. He had a right. They could have pushed to find out what was wrong. They should have noticed. His mixed feelings about his friends were confusing.

A few days after Avery had gone, Aaron headed down to breakfast as per usual. It was always a nice distraction, talking to his little sister over food about some of the cool spells he had learned. But for some reason, today his father decided to ask some hard-hitting questions.

"How's your team doing, son?" Aaron's brown eyes lifted from his sister to his father, who was looking at him with genuine curiosity. "Your Quidditch team? You haven't updated us in a bit, didn't land the Cup, huh?" Aaron tried to give his dad a look that would shut down the conversation.

"No, we didn't," Aaron said, in a tone that he believed would make his dad move on from the topic. He shoveled a spoonful of rice into his mouth, but for some reason, his father pressed on.

"You'll get 'em next year! Maybe we could stop by that Quidditch store before you head back to school again," Richard Jones went on, and Aaron saw his mother nodding in agreement and begin to talk about how maybe they could do the same as last year - if the next broom wasn't too much, they could sell his current one and pitch in the extra to make a new broom Aaron's early Christmas gift. Aaron huffed as they talked, but neither of his parents seemed to notice.

"Hey, I don't need a new broom!" Aaron eventually said, slamming his hands on the table and getting to his feet. He stormed from the dining room back upstairs, but not before catching the shocked looks on his parents' faces. He cooled off in his room, having locked the door and told his parents to go away when they came to check on him.

"I don't want to talk about Quidditch anymore," he said simply, when he joined the family hours later. And with that, his parents let the topic go. For a little while, at least.

It was just a week later that his father tried to poke Aaron repeatedly about the topic, clearly putting his nose where it didn't belong. "I quit the team!" Aaron finally yelled at his father, during a heated exchange between the two. "And I lied to you guys about it anyway, so you should be happy! There was never any net at the bottom! I broke bones from falling, and there's an iron ball in the game that goes around trying to murder people! And there was cheating! Everyone was always cheating!" Aaron found himself yelling louder than he thought, and his voice cracked. That last part actually had Aaron feeling emotional, and he twisted his face a bit to keep from crying like an idiot. He was so angry at his dad for bringing this up again. "Quidditch is a stupid sport anyway! Ground me if you have to!"

And he did get grounded, for yelling and for lying, when his mom found out. His dad had tried to keep getting him to talk, but Aaron refused. And for the rest of August, he confined himself to his room or the backyard, thinking about what a ridiculous and stupid sport Quidditch was, and how his dad was so annoying. The grounding just meant he couldn't go out and meet with friends, but he'd already established there were none around that he wanted to hang out with. His parents kept trying to get him to talk, but he was mad at them both.

As September first came closer, Aaron couldn't wait to get back to Hogwarts. Quidditch aside, he just wanted to be away from his parents.