Centuries of Ooze [Holly]

[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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March 2nd, 2029

The convenience of working so close to Hogsmeade was not lost on Juniper in the slightest. Since she had begun teaching, she occasionally stopped by her parents’ house Friday evenings to have dinner with them and do a bit of catch-up. This Friday wasn’t any different, and after packing up her work bag, Juniper made the trek down from the campus and to Hogsmeade. The weather was horrendous, a whipping wind that pelted her with hard, cold rain drops the entire way. She had half the mind to turn back around and apparate home but had made it more than halfway already. Sunk-cost fallacy won out again and Juniper trudged on. Her shoes had already flooded, a mix of muddy rainwater weighing her down her feet as she stomped through puddle after puddle. Not to mention that the rest of her was completely soaked through.

When she arrived at the McGonagall home, she pushed through the back door to avoid tracking mud and water through the entire house. The puddle that surrounded her as she shook off like a wet dog was something to behold, and Juniper grimaced as she plucked her sopping wet bag off of her shoulder and put it on the floor. ”Mum!” she called out, assuming her parents had heard her enter through the back. ”I might need your wand too. I’m drenched!” There wasn’t any response from her mother, which she only realized as she also stripped her jacket off and hung it on a hook next to the back door. Considering neither parent came to see what was going on with her, she assumed they weren’t home. Which was totally on her for not checking beforehand.

Not wanting to go further into the house until she was dried off, Juniper began pulling pieces of clothing off of her body until there was a pile of mushy, wet fabric at her feet. A long sigh escaped her as she stared down at it, and then blasted herself with the warming charm she had been shown by Rhys the year prior. Her clammy, gross-feeling skin immediately warmed as the sensation washed over her. With that complete, she was free to move about the house, albeit just down to her undergarments. That was sort of the problem she had run into. Thankfully, she was fairly certain her parents still had some of her old clothes in her room.

Feeling incredibly out of place in the home she grew up in and basically naked, Juniper left the safety of the mudroom and started to stealthily make her way towards the front of the house and the stairs. The soft pounding of her feet on the wood floorboards and the grandfather clock were the only sounds in the entire house, which only made it even eerier. When was the last time she’d been here on her own? Making it to the foot of the stairs safely, and now convinced that her parents weren’t home at all, she started her ascent. Once she was in her old bedroom, she was safe…

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[holly proserpina mcgonagall]

March 2, 2029

Trails of mascara streaked Holly's face as she stared straight upwards at the ceiling of what had once been her bedroom, her body limp atop the duvet. The room had long since been converted into a standard spare bedroom for the use of any guests that her parents happened to have, though that usually ended up being her anyway. It didn't matter to her that neither of her parents were home, either. For her entire adult life, Holly had continued to rely on her parents to help her deal with whatever got thrown her way that was too difficult for her—or boring or time-consuming. Having been broken up with by her latest boyfriend earlier that same day, she had gone directly to her parents' house after work. She wasn't in the mood to go out to a pub or club, and she knew that her parents would show her sympathy.

Holed up in her room, she was surprised when the voice she heard over the sounds of the foul weather outside didn't belong to either of her parents. Instead, it was her younger sister, Juniper, who had spoken, apparently addressing their mother. Holly guessed that their parents could have arrived back to the house at the same time as Juniper, but she heard nothing after that to suggest that they were actually there.

With the sound of Juniper's coming up the stairs, Holly debated getting up and shutting her bedroom door so that Juniper wouldn't see her there. The two of them butted heads at the best of times, and Holly could just imagine how that conversation would go.

juniper minerva mcgonagall

[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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Even though the house was empty, each step up the stairs made her wonder if it actually was. They didn’t creak like it was completely void of life aside from herself. She couldn’t place it, but there was usually a feeling it gave when it was like that. Now that she was heading to the second floor, she started to worry that maybe she’d been wrong, and her parents were home. It wasn’t logical considering the entire house was dark. The only lights that had been on when she got there were the ones above the front and back doors, and the tip of her wand which she lit as she climbed. Creak, creak, creak the steps went, cold under her bare feet. Even though her warming charm still enveloped her, it didn’t seem to cover when she actively touched a cold surface. In a few more steps, that wouldn’t matter. She’d have dry clothes on and nothing to worry about. It was too bad that she hadn’t had a spare shirt or two in her bottomless purse, which seemed to house everything but what she needed actually needed.

Hitting the landing on the second floor, Juniper turned to head down the hall towards her bedroom, which sat all the way at the end. She wasn’t expecting to see light creeping out of the room that was once Holly’s. ’Shit,’ was the only thought that went through her head as she snuffed out her lumos spell. So someone was home after all! Juniper wavered at the top step, wondering what her next move was going to be. She wouldn’t care if her mother saw her basically naked, but anyone else in the family would make it incredibly awkward. Especially if they weren’t alone. Why they hadn’t answered when she called a few minutes earlier was strange, but she figured the rain was hitting hard enough on the roof that it may have been difficult to hear.

Not hearing any voices, she started to wonder if maybe her parents had just left the light on by accident before leaving. They were usually pretty good about that, but she’d seen stranger things. Deciding to chance her luck, she slowly crept forward towards the room, peeking her head around the doorframe to double-check just in case someone was there. She nearly jumped back as she saw a pair of legs sticking out on the bed before realizing that it was her sister laying on it. ”Err…Holls?” she called quietly, unsure if Holly was awake or not. Juniper hadn’t forgotten her current situation, but it mattered less to her if her sister saw her like this. It’d still be weird though.

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[holly proserpina mcgonagall]

March 2, 2029

"Err… Holls?"

Holly hadn't gotten up to shut the bedroom door, and Juniper had realized that she was there. Great. She glanced over at her younger sister languidly, expecting her to be in her typical know-it-all mode. Somehow, she wasn't, but there was something else that made Holly jump: Juniper was walking around in her underwear.

"Merlin's f**king beard!" Holly shrieked. Scrambling to sit up, she flailed for a second before grabbing the pillow that had been beneath her head and lobbing it in Juniper's direction. Any thought that maybe she had fallen asleep and wound up inside a dream was corrected with how quickly she startled. They were sisters, so it wasn't anything that Holly hadn't seen before, but still. What had possessed Juniper to walk around without hardly anything on?

juniper minerva mcgonagall

[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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Apparently Juniper had scared her sister, and she wasn't sure if it was because she'd suddenly appeared in the hallway or her lack of clothes. Maybe a bit of both to warrant that kind of reaction. A pillow flew through the air, making its way through the doorframe and hitting Juniper in the legs. If that had been any sort of spell, she would have taken it full force, her fight or flight completely turned off inside her parents' home. It weighed almost nothing, but the brief act of pillowed violence added to her frustration of the evening. She was already trying to warm up after being soaked through and now she had her sister tossing feathered pillows at her out of nowhere.

To be fair to Holly, seeing your sister standing in the hallway practically naked was a bit of a shock, especially considering neither of them had lived with one another consistently in almost twenty years. Their age gap tended to allow for that. "Sorry for ruining your quiet moment or whatever," she responded in an annoyed tone as she kicked the pillow back into the bedroom. Holly didn't deserve it to be nicely handed over after that. It could pick up all of the dust on the floor, for all she cared. "I get fucking soaked and then a pillow tossed at me. My lucky day..." Juniper mumbled as she continued past the room and down the remainder of the hall into her old bedroom.

Unlike her sister's room, hers was still 'hers', in the sense that some personal items still belonged and it hadn't been completely converted into a guest room the moment she moved out. Fishing an old Hufflepuff sweater and joggers that matched out of one of her drawers, she sat on her bed for a few seconds before deciding to walk back towards Holly's room. Why was she here in the first place? That seemed odd to Juniper. Making her way back down the hallway again, she stopped at the doorway and leaned on it. "Did you hear me when I called?" she asked. It wasn't supposed to be accusatory, but there were only so many tones she had when speaking to her sister. And that seemed to be one of the main ones.

holly proserpina mcgonagall ● 381

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[holly proserpina mcgonagall]

March 2, 2029

The pillow hit Juniper's legs, but the way she reacted to it would have made someone think that it had hit her in the face, thought Holly. Juniper was obviously in a mood of her own, which was evident by how she kicked the pillow back into the room and offered an apology that made her sound like she was still about sixteen. She proceeded to say something under her breath about having gotten soaked, only to get a pillow thrown at her.

Holly, who lacked the emotional intelligence to work through her and her sister's frustrations, ignored Juniper's griping, sighed, and resumed looking up at the ceiling in her absence. Lost in her own thoughts, she wasn't sure how long it was before Juniper returned, asking her if she had heard her when she called.

She had, Holly wanted to tell her, but what had she wanted her to do? Juniper had been looking for their mother, and she wasn't there. "I'm not Mum," she pointed out, still watching the ceiling above her. "I'm not that old… yet." She also had to question how she had ended up with such a demanding little sister. Instead of getting a sister with whom she could do fun things, she'd gotten a constant argument instead.

juniper minerva mcgonagall

[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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Juniper swore that it was like talking to a wall sometimes when it came to Holly. It had never not been like that, and it sort of made her own childhood suck a little. She only had her siblings to look up to, and there was Holly, seven years her senior, not being a good role model in the slightest. Ewan was a different story altogether, but Juniper liked to think they had managed past the age difference since she got out of school. She knew now that there were some aspects about life that were impossible to understand while still disillusioned by Hogwarts and having a general lack of worldly knowledge. Now she sort of got it.

What she would never understand, though, was Holly. Juniper was convinced that there was some sort of jealously involved though had never outright said it. She certainly would have never been able to get away with running to their parents whenever she broke a nail. Had she done so right after breaking up with Rhys the first time? Yes. Because she had nowhere else to go at the time. She was also only twenty-two at the time and hadn’t known anything but living with Rhys. Holly just put on the pity act every time she was broken up with, and Juniper had grown tired of it. Which was a perfect wrap around to what her sister was currently saying about not being old yet.

Juniper snorted and rolled her eyes at the comment. Right, well, you aren’t young either.” As if she was one to talk. Thirty was rounding the corner. Life wasn’t slowing down at all, and if she was feeling pressured to hit certain life goals, she couldn’t imagine what it was like for Holly. That also wasn’t Juniper’s problem. ”Did they go to the Hog’s Head or something?” she asked, in reference to their parents. It was sort of strange that they were out in this weather, but empty nesters were bound to do what they wanted.

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[holly proserpina mcgonagall]

March 2, 2029

With a snide remark about her age, Juniper rolled her eyes again. Holly was thrilled to know that her younger sister's maturity level hadn't changed since she had moved out of the family home. It was especially rich coming from her, she thought, because Juniper was getting closer to thirty herself. Holly held her tongue, but the anticipated follow-up insult from Juniper didn't come.

Returning to the subject of their parents, her sister asked, "Did they go to the Hog’s Head or something?"

"Don't know." Holly actually looked back at her sister then, wanting her to understand that she was answering her honestly. "They weren't home when I got here," she added. Rubbing at her right eye with the side of her hand, she ended up smudging the mascara trail coming from it. "I thought they came home with you."

juniper minerva mcgonagall

[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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"Why would they be with me?" she asked, slightly confused about where that assumption had come from. Did Holly think that the three of them hung out all the time or something? Just because she worked so close to home now didn't mean that she found her way to the house at every free moment she had. She wasn't the one that ran to mummy and daddy whenever something 'awful' happened to her.

Juniper hadn't noticed the smeared makeup when she first went by Holly's room. Her glasses had been blotted with water droplets from the rain outside, and only now that she was drying off did she decide to clean them. Smudges were bad enough; water streaks were unbearable. She weighed the option of bringing up her sister's current, pitiful state, trying to decide if she really cared about hearing the sob story this time. It was already going to be repeated to their parents once they got home because they were going to ask. Having two of their children show up unannounced like this was definitely different for them. On the other hand, Juniper wanted the dirt. To know that she was doing better in her own life currently than Holly was. That probably made her an awful sibling by a multitude of ways, but she didn't care.

"You look like shite," Juniper commented as she put her now pristine and clean glasses back on. Nothing new there for Holly though. Juniper didn't even need to guess what the cause was. It always ended up being the same. "What idiot was it this time?" she asked. She didn't dare step all the way into the room, lest another pillow got launched her way. The security of the door frame was perfect for her. She could duck behind it and run off to her old bedroom if the need arose. There were plenty of strong door-locking spells to keep Holly at bay until their parents got home.

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[holly proserpina mcgonagall]

March 2, 2029

Juniper questioned why their parents would have been with her, though the answer seemed pretty obvious to Holly. She'd called out for their mother, who Holly knew hadn't been home prior to that. That was just basic… mathematics or something like that. Instead of getting into it, however, Holly just shrugged her shoulders. They had to come back at some point.

Completely unrelated to where their parents were, Juniper point out to her, "You look like shite." Holly didn't know why she might have expected something a little nicer from Juniper, of all people. Still, her own sister couldn't have hyped her up? "What idiot was it this time?"

"It was David, my boyfriend, but what do you care?" Holly sniffed. Juniper was just going to gloat.

juniper minerva mcgonagall

[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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Juniper bit her tongue. Which one was David again? Was this the same one from a few years prior or a different David? Then again, they all sort of blended together in her brain. Each was just as pathetic and annoying as the last, all bolstered by her sister’s poor decision making. Juniper did feel a little bad though, but just a smidge. She understood the difficulties of a relationship and the heartbreak that could come along with it. But at some point, wasn’t Holly entirely responsible for all of it? She knew that was a cruel position to take on it…yet her sister didn’t do anything to help herself in all of it. Especially at her age. Anyways…

”I guess I don’t,” Juniper responded, mostly because there was no point in lying. They both knew she didn’t. ”Is he worth it to still be called your boyfriend?” she added immediately after. It was a good question in her opinion. Because based on Holly’s typical choices, the answer would be no. Not that she was one to speak. Sneaking around with Rhys like they were a couple of horny teenagers again. At least she was nothing but consistent.

She leaned against the doorframe harder, knowing that she was reducing her chances of escaping unscathed by doing so. If she got thwacked by a pillow, she would probably deserve it. At this point, she didn’t really care. ”Not for nothing Holls…but have you ever thought about finding someone that was a little more respectable? That will actually treat you better than this?” She didn’t even know what David had done, nor did it matter to her, but getting reduced to such an ugly state clearly wasn’t worth it. Juniper had enough self-respect to know that. As for her sister, well, Holly had done the same for years. Expecting her to change now would be a bit strange.

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