HAPPIER | HONEY

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I POUR MY HEART
INTO YOUR HANDS

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DECEMBER 30, 2024

Christmas had just passed, and Tamara felt that she had gotten somewhere with her sister. She had hoped that they could rekindle her relationship with the young woman that looked exactly like her. Tamara missed the relationship she had with her sister before her brother’s death, the day he passed had marked the deterioration of their sisterhood and Tamara hated it. Christmas had been civil and seemed to Tamara making a better situation and leading towards them being sisters once more. That was why, on the Monday after Christmas, on her day off Tamara made her way to St. Mungo’s where her sister worked, hoping that she would be there. While Tamara couldn’t cook, she had bought muffins and placed them in a cute little basket to give to her sister. Of course, when she arrived and questioned the front desk about Tia being there, they were regretful to inform her that her sister was not in. Tamara, defeated, made her way to the tearoom that was located within the hospital. Upon entering, she looked around before finding a little seat and sitting down, pulling out her mundane phone to text her sister. Perhaps she could meet with her somewhere…if she wanted to that was.

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TAG honey satheesh varma

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[honey satheesh varma]

The days after Christmas at the hospital were always bittersweet. Most people didn't really desire to be at a hospital on Christmas Day, or Boxing Day, or any other day of the year, though the wards of St. Mungo's were typically filled with as much holiday cheer as the nurses and Healers could manage to bring to the patients and their visitors. Five days later, a Christmas garland still hung above the entrance to the tearoom, and a small Christmas tree still stood in the corner, the flickering light above it reflecting off of the spherical ornaments that hung on its branches.

Maybe St. Mungo's wasn't everyone's first thought of a place where they could find joy, but Honey had seen it for herself. Families were brought together, something that she especially loved for the sake of the children who were there. The Santa Claus hat that she had worn on Christmas Day was still in the back somewhere, she knew; she'd kept it on the entire day, neither realizing nor caring that she had put it on so that it was lopsided to begin with.

Humming a Christmas carol as she worked, she heard someone enter the tearoom and turned. From the young woman's appearance—literally everything about her—she appeared to be Tia, the Trainee Mediwitch with whom she had gotten locked in the supply cupboard. She was out of her uniform, Honey noticed, so it must have been her day off; still, it was clearly Tia, seated with a gift basket in front of her.

Honey, with no reason to believe that it wasn't Tia, greeted her accordingly. "Hi, Tia," she spoke, wanting to acknowledge the younger woman's presence while also realizing that the Trainee Mediwitch had pulled out a mobile phone—probably one of the new ones that had been recently approved by the Ministry, Honey assumed.

@tamara

[Deleted]

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I POUR MY HEART
INTO YOUR HANDS

[attr="class","next"] The brunette wasn’t exactly used to being called her sister’s name. Usually, it was the other way around when it came to their time at Hogwarts. She remembered Tia was always complaining about being mistaken for Tamara, mostly because the latter was well known, popular and a member of the Quidditch team. Now, Tamara was in her sister’s domain, and it seemed that she had made her name for herself. The sound of an unknown voice spoke, saying hello but calling her by the wrong name. She glanced up, taking in the woman with dark hair and glasses, someone that surely knew Tia for working there. She thrust her phone back into her pocket and plastered on a soft smile, “You know, this would be the first time I’ve been confused for Tia.”

She was still shell-shocked by the change of name, that she realized a few seconds later that she had not introduced herself after her revelation. “Sorry, I’m Tamara – Tia’s sister,” she said with a smile on her face, of course, the latter part wasn’t needed. She was sure that the woman could put two and two together since the idea of doppelgangers was somewhat foreign and unlike when it came to the two sisters.

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TAG honey satheesh varma

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[honey satheesh varma]

The woman whom Honey presumed to be Tia looked up in her direction as she was spoken to and soon put away the mobile phone that she was using. "You know," the younger woman smiled at her, "this would be the first time I’ve been confused for Tia."

From behind her glasses, Honey blinked, almost tempted to remove her eyewear and clean the lenses on her apron. That was Tia before her; she had no doubt in her mind about that. Even if Tia were trying to fool her and pretend that it wasn't actually her sitting there, saying that it was the first time that she had been mistaken for herself was rather odd. If she were to try to pretend to be not-herself, Honey thought, she would have denied all knowledge of who she actually was.

While Honey mulled it over, not-Tia spoke again. "Sorry," she apologized, "I'm Tamara—Tia's sister."

That Tia had a twin sister—probably identical, Honey guessed—made a lot more sense than the theories that she had been mulling over in her head. Kissing Tia before they'd been freed from the supply cupboard had been embarrassing, but hopefully it hadn't been so embarrassing that Tia had decided to abandon her previous identity. That was good to know.

Honey smiled, hoping that she hadn't looked too idiotic to Tia's sister. "Sorry," she also apologized, "I didn't know that she—you—I didn't realize Tia had a twin." It hadn't come up in their conversation while they were locked in the cupboard together, as far as she could remember.

@tamara

[Deleted]

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I POUR MY HEART
INTO YOUR HANDS

[attr="class","next"] The girl revealed that she hadn’t known that Tia had a twin, and she didn’t blame her at all. Tia was always a very private person, and because of their lack of a relationship, she was sure that Tia never spoke about her. Sometimes they didn’t feel like sisters, because they were continually fighting since their fourth year, after the death of RJ. Their sisterhood had deteriorated over time, and Tamara was sure that it hurt Tia as much as it had hurt her. She shook her head, letting out a soft laugh, “Oh—don’t apologize. Tia’s really private; I’m not surprised that she kept me a secret,” she said with a smile on her face. “Are you a friend of hers?” she questioned softly, trying to strike up a conversation between herself and the female before her.

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TAG honey satheesh varma

NOTES sorry it's so short!

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[honey satheesh varma]

Tamara told her not to apologize; Tia was private, she said, so she wasn't surprised that she hadn't mentioned her at all. "Are you a friend of hers?"

Honey didn't know how to answer the question that Tamara had posed. Would Tia consider her a friend? What if she answered one way and then Tamara brought it up in conversation with her sister? Honey usually tried to avoid cursing, but her internal monologue was a string of expletives mixed with panic. "I—I don’t know her very well, but, um, she comes here to the tearoom occasionally," Honey responded. It wasn't untrue; in fact, she and Tia had conversed about the peppermint tea while they were locked in the supply cupboard together.

"She's very nice," Honey noted. "She's actually encouraged me to get the qualifications I'd need to train as a Healer, though I'm still considering it." It was a lot of time, and she had already put so much effort into owning and operating the tearoom. "But I'm not sure I'd want to give up owning the tearoom, honestly," she laughed. Maybe it was strange of her to enjoy it so much, but she did.

@tamara

[Deleted]

[googlefont="Open Sans Condensed:300"]

I POUR MY HEART
INTO YOUR HANDS

[attr="class","next"] The girl seemed to hesitate at answering the question that Tamara had proposed to her, and she almost smiled. Tia was somewhat that always seemed to have a tough time voicing if she was friends with someone or not, or maybe that was just how Tamara saw it. In the beginning, a friend of Tamara was a friend of Tia’s and vice versa, of course, but over the years their friends had changed and been slightly different. She smiled, nodding her head as the woman responded to her question and revealed that her sister was very nice. She wanted to laugh, she was sure that Tia was kind to others, but the girl continued.

“That’s Tia, always the encouraging sister,” she said with a soft smile on her face. Even though the two of them had gone separate ways once they had gotten to Hogwarts, she always felt like Tia was the encouraging push that she needed to accomplish anything. She was the reason that she tried out for Quidditch after all, and if it hadn’t been for that push, she would have never been captain the final year.

“Could you do both?” she questioned with a raised eyebrow, “I’ve never been one for medicine and such, blood kind of freaks me out, but couldn’t you go part-time on both? Have someone help you out running the tea-shop while you switch between the two?”

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TAG honey satheesh varma

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[honey satheesh varma]

"That’s Tia, always the encouraging sister," said Tamara of her twin. It was one of those comments where Honey couldn't exactly tell if the person was being serious—or at least complimentary—about it, so she gave a half-hearted nod.

That didn't mean that she was ruling out training as a Healer. It would be the most difficult thing that she had ever done in her life; Honey didn't doubt that for a second. She had seen for years how hard everyone at St. Mungo's worked to make sure that their patients would receive the best care possible. For most people, the hospital was really the only choice that they had, but that didn't matter. Most of the Healers seemed to put their all into what they did.

"Could you do both?"

Both? Honey's raised eyebrow matched Tamara's. Did this girl think that she was really that talented? Running the tea shop wasn't exactly back-breaking work—not since she had been doing it for so long and had fallen into a routine with it long ago—but… both?

"I’ve never been one for medicine and such," Tamara clarified, saying that she was freaked out at the sight of blood, "but couldn’t you go part-time on both? Have someone help you out running the tea shop while you switch between the two?"

Honey almost wanted to ask if she was mental, though she knew that would have come across as exceedingly rude. Still… Her? Managing all of that? She was at a loss for words. "I—I mean, there's really no way I…" Honey hesitated, nearly backing directly into the countertop behind her. "Me? You're joking. I—I didn't even go to Hogwarts… I'd need the OWLs, and the NEWTs… I've got a few—I sat the exams—but not all of the ones needed for Healer training…"

@tamara

[Deleted]

[googlefont="Open Sans Condensed:300"]

I POUR MY HEART
INTO YOUR HANDS

[attr="class","next"] Tamara wasn’t sure what it took to be a Healer nor what it took to run the tea shop, but she knew people that had two jobs that they worked part-time in both. She didn’t mean to offend, but by the look on the girl’s face, she seemed to have shocked her – or else, seemed to be confused on why she would offer that kind of idea. She swallowed, waiting for the girl to speak and call her some rude names or laugh in her face, but she didn’t. Instead said that there was no way she could, saying that she was joking and that she didn’t even go to Hogwarts—that she didn’t have all the exams and scores she needed to enter the Healer training.

Tamara’s eyes widened slightly at the outburst, and she put her hands up as if trying to defuse the situation, “I—I'm sorry, I—” she laughed before shaking her heads, running her hands through her hair. “I didn’t mean to offend or—make you upset for bringing that up. I don’t know what it takes to do both jobs; I was—I was offering an idea, I’m sorry,” she breathed out.

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TAG honey satheesh varma

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[honey satheesh varma]

Tamara put her hands up in defense and kept apologizing, though Honey wasn't sure what for. "I didn’t mean to offend or—make you upset for bringing that up. I don’t know what it takes to do both jobs; I was—I was offering an idea, I’m sorry," the younger woman told her in exasperation.

"No, no, no… I—" Honey cut in quickly, trying to clarify so that Tamara wouldn't continue to fret over the idea that she had offended her. She wasn't upset by the suggestion; she was just a little bit overwhelmed at the thought that anyone would think her capable enough to do such a thing. She, who had only stepped into Hogwarts before the school's Halloween event twice before, to sit her OWLs and then her NEWTs. "I—I'm not offended. I'm flattered," she admitted, smiling a little to put Tamara back at ease. "I couldn't imagine, really… even changing careers. The Healers here are all so talented…"

@tamara