Accidental crossing

[Deleted]

Hogsmeade weekend. A time where the students had a chance to get out of the castle and spend time in the open air. When they got to Hogsmeade Penelope went straight for Honeydukes. After getting her fill of sweets in a bag, she made her wait to Dominic Maestro’s to see if she could buy some new sheet music to try out. She still had a little money left from her spending allowance that month, so she would see what they had. But before she could make it to the shop, she spotted a boy that she had had a crush on for quite some time. She froze in mid walk. He was right by the door of the music shop. How could she walk in there now. What if they made eye contact? Would they have to talk? What would she say? She could feel her face starting to burn. Just then, someone bumped into her. Pulling Penelope away from her thoughts, she looked at who it had been.

[cara june bainbridge]

penelope raisa bainbridge

Another weekend. Another trip to Hogsmeade. Cara felt like she had done this exact same thing for years. Wait, that was right. She had. It was automatic now. Robot-like. The weekend rolled around and off she would go, just like every other student at Hogwarts that was allowed to do so. This year brought in the addition of the other two school’s worth of seventh years, so the little wizarding town was even more crowded now. Not to mention that the excitement over the Triwizard Tournament had ceased to die down almost seven months into the school year, and visitors from all over the world were now milling about the streets hoping to get a glimpse of one of the champions. To add to that, the Ministry apparently seemed to think that they needed additional security as well. Hogsmeade was crowded and Cara hated it. The tournament was pointless and only served to interfere with the education that they were all at Hogwarts for. ‘Strengthening International Bonds’, or whatever the slogan of the tournament was, was all a show for the obvious distraction that they were setting up. Cara hadn’t forgotten what had happened to her housemates last year, and no amount of tournaments or festivities could ever cover that up.

Suffice to say, she was seething by the time she made it through one store and had moved onto the next. If she had thought Hogsmeade was bad after Valentine’s Day, when she had run into Dustin wandering about, this was worse. The finale of the second task being more recent had brought even more people in than usual, and more bodies meant cramped stores and lots of talking. If she had wanted to be bumped around and pushed she would have gone to a rock concert and dove headfirst into the pit. Hogsmeade was not supposed to be a mobbed, nor did she want it to be. It was irritating. Breaking free of the second store she had entered, she made her way down the street. To say walking was an easy task was an understatement. Every few people a bag or shoulder hit her. Thankfully height was on her side this time, and towering over others while swiftly passing by them didn’t help with fueling her ego.

The last stop for the day was Dominic Maestro’s, as it always was during her weekly excursion, but a slight problem arose as she tried stepping out of the crowd and towards the store. Some genius decided to stop right in the middle of the street. Didn’t they know how busy it was? “Move,” Cara commanded, keeping it level instead of barking it out like she normally would. Glancing down as she passed the person, she did a double-take. Of course it was one of her sisters. It was like some higher power always placed her into situations where she had to run into one of them. Though it was quite easy when one lived with her and the other three were pretty easy to pick out in a crowd if they were together. “You should know better than to stop in the middle of the street like that, Nelly,” she huffed. Cara knew she should have been happy that it was her sister and not some random that she ran into, but it still slipped out regardless.

[Deleted]

The body hit, Penelope was snapped out of her trance, and once again notice the busy street. She then looked at the person who had bumped into her. Cara. Out of all her siblings, it had to be the bossy one. She loved her sister, but she always wanted it to be her way. "S-s-sorry! I was just going to Dominic Maestro, when...." She paused. No she couldn't tell her sister about a crush that she had. Any crush that she ever had. She would probably go about telling her to man up and just go talk to the boy, or to just move on, that he wouldn't be worth it. And while she knew that one of those options were always true, she really didn't want to hear it from her sister. Any of her sisters. She probably wouldn't even tell Dustin about a crush that she had, unless she knew something was there.

Penelope looked at her sisters bags and looked around the crowd. She then remembered the direction she was bumped, "Are you going to get some music? Because that's what I wanted to go and get too. Do you want to stop together?" Her sister aggravated her sometime. And she was bossy, but she loved her, and she did want to spend more time with her. Being in different houses made it hard for them to spend lots of time together. And the library just didn't seem like a fun place to hang out. It was way to quiet, and kind of boring. But her sister seemed to like to study quite a bit, which seemed to be more annoying when teachers would look at her and their eyes would simply say "why can't you be like your sister"

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

penelope raisa bainbridge

Was Penelope…flustered? Surely bumping into someone, especially upon finding out it was a sibling, wasn’t that shocking. Cara hadn’t reacted that way, instead having defaulted to her normal tone and manner that she would have used on anyone in that situation. Maybe she lightened up a little because it was her sister, but the fact remained that she was still quite serious and most definitely critical over the fact that stopping in the middle of the street when people were walking everywhere was a dangerous thing to do. Not to mention rude. All she managed to do was cross her arms and raise an eyebrow while Penelope stammered out her intentions of going into the music store. There was absolutely no way she would get hot and bothered over something as simple as that. Cara quickly scanned their surroundings and the front of the store, but didn’t see anything that could have been a possible source of discomfort and panic. It was possible it was just her imagination though.

“It’s fine,” Cara sighed, finally responding to the apology. As long as her sister understood the repercussions of what she did, then there was no reason to keep going on about it. At the mention of going into the store together, Cara nodded her head slowly. That was where she had been intending to go in the first place. There was no harm in shopping with her sister. “I wanted to get more strings, so I don’t see why not,” she said rather airily as she headed towards the door of the shop. She didn’t actually need anything, nor did she really need a pretext to go into the store in the first place. Making it sound like she needed something though was all part of her shtick; it had to be more important than it actually was, because Penelope was now being enlightened by her presence. It was far simpler to have just said ‘yes let’s’ and gone into the store with her sister, but that wasn’t how her tongue was programmed anymore. She had to be this way or else she would come across as a pushover. Sometimes she got the feeling that Dustin wanted to be that way – the complete opposite of her. Someone in the family had to pull in the reigns, and she was the best suited for it.

[Deleted]

Penelope as glad that Cara left it at “It’s fine” instead of getting more into it. Especially with the crowd now bustling around them. One passer by bumped and pushed Penelope forward a little. She caught herself and stood back up, looking at her sister. Penelope smiled when she saw her sister nod slowly. It wasn’t a no, that was definitely a yes. Penelope loved spending time with her siblings. ”Strings are good, I still have some extra strings, I wanted to look at their sheet music and see if there was anything I wanted to buy.” Penelope knew that her sister always liked a purpose, so she would help her sister look for strings. That was a big difference about the two. True, Penelope wanted to get sheet music, but she would go into the shop either way.

After being bumped by another person, Penelope looked up at her sister ”Well let’s not keep standing here. Let’s go in!” She once again started to head over to the store, relieved to see that the boy that was there was no gone. Now she could enter without looking like an idiot. Not to mention, she didn't risk her sister noticing her blushing.

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

penelope raisa bainbridge

Ah yes, sheet music. There was a decent amount of ukulele sheet music in the store. Cara had run into other students that played, ones that were obviously more musically inclined than she was and ever would be (the type that were in the chorus and band, and could play half a dozen instruments on a whim), but the fact remained that she still loved the sound the little lute made when she plugged away on chords. For the most part, making up little songs on her own was more interesting than learning ones that already existed. There was no telling if her material was any good, because those songs were kept to herself when others weren’t around. She wasn’t necessarily embarrassed by them, more wary of the criticism that would most likely follow. She was supposed to be book smart and headstrong, not playing around with a musical instrument. Cara liked to think that the ukulele was what kept her grounded most of the time – made her realize that she didn’t always need to be so uppity. Now was a good example of that. She had snapped at Penelope, even though she didn’t know it was her to begin with, and yet her sister was still willing to invite her along into the store. Cara still wondered why they put up with her sometimes. At least she was aware of her own flaws. Some people could barely do that.

Cara followed Penelope towards the store. Knowing the owner, it would be kept as quiet as possible inside, the constant loop of relaxing music playing over the speaker system. That was exactly how she liked it. Keeping the crowds out was always a blessing in disguise, and sometimes she wondered if anyone else noticed it. Today was no different, of course, and Dominic Maestro’s was just as subdued as it always was. “What kind of music were you looking for?” Cara asked her sister as they stepped inside. “I can always help you pick out something…” That wasn’t too soft for her, right? As far as she could tell, they were the only two in the store aside from the owner. “I mean, if you can’t find something yourself that is.”

[Deleted]

To be honest, Penelope only fell in love with the violin because her sister enjoyed playing the Ukulele. She wasn’t even sure if she ever told Cara that. But now she plays because she has truly fallen in love with it. Penelope admired her sister, more than she ever showed. She loved how smart and passionate about learning her sister was. She wasn’t anything like that, and she never would be. But she admired her sister and she was really happy that she agreed to go to the shop with her.

When Penelope entered the shop, she took a deep breath. It was quiet. She walked in, keeping the door open for her sister. As the door shut behind the two walking in, Penelope closed her eyes, for only a second, to soak in the peace, and relaxing music playing. She smiled and looked up at her sister when she asked what kind of music. ”I haven't really decided yet. Something interesting.” Her smile only widened when Cara offered to help. ”I’d love that.” Then the idea struck her. She then gasped. ”What if we found some violin and and ukulele music that we can play together.” But then she remembered that her sister worked harder than anyone else at school. ”I mean, only if you want. I know you're busy. You wanted to get strings right? Maybe I can help get those.” What was she thinking. That was stupid. And an even worse save. Why would her sister want to spend time learning a song to play with her, when school was in full swing. Maybe during the summer. But Penelope still hopped that her sister would agree. Or at the least, still help her find some sheet music.

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

penelope raisa bainbridge

The look that Penelope gave her when she offered to help find sheet music sent a pang of happiness throughout her body. Why did she always worry about going too easy on them? There was nothing wrong with being nice to her sisters. It probably had something to do with the conflicting emotions that always followed, about whether or not she was going too easy on them. The triplets were slightly different than Kinsey or Dustin were. Different sets of rules were involved when it came to different family members. Cara had been very careful about that balance, as well as not showing too much favoritism towards one over the others. Her siblings didn’t even realize how tough it was sometimes. That was why bossing them around and telling them what to do was her go to emotional response. That way they were all treated the same. Obviously her twin received slightly more preferential treatment, but that was a completely different circumstance.

Still, the fluffy feeling of happiness floated around in her head as they wandered towards the sheet music section of the store. Penelope mentioned possibly getting something that would work for both the violin and ukulele. Cara doubted there would be something specifically made for those two instruments, but it was certainly worth a shot. “If you don’t mind looking all afternoon, I’m sure we’ll find something eventually.” She dragged her hand over a couple of books comprised of sheet music, noting that their titles were mostly percussion based. It was somewhat silly that they had those here, considering the majority of their clientele were students who definitely didn’t have access to large percussion instruments. This was going to take a lot longer than she thought… “If you could, that would be great actually,” Cara spoke up as Penelope offered to fetch her ukulele strings for her. “You should know what kind I need.” She was pretty sure Penelope did. They did talk about music on occasion, and the type of strings they used was a talking point from time to time.

[Deleted]

Penelope was in an interesting position in the family. She was the middle of a triplet girls in the family, but she was in the youngest set. So the older siblings seemed to take charge and helped their parents raise them. There were three of them. That meant that they could all go in three different directions. Luckily for their parents, them plus the number of kids they had before the triplets out numbered the three. The older siblings all took different approaches to this responsibility. Now that Penelope was older, she saw that sometimes her siblings had to be tough on them, or overly bossy. It wasn’t easy, the triplets didn’t make it easy.

The two girls walked over to the section of the store that sold sheet music when her sister seemed to agree to it. Penelope smiled at her ”I don’t mind, I got all my shopping done for today.” She lifted the Honeydukes bag that was filled with her favorite sweets. She had the rest of the day to spend at the shop, if it came down to it. And she loved the idea of spending more time with her sister. While Cara looked at one section of music, Penelope picked one relatively close to her sister. Sifting through, this section seemed to have mostly wind instruments, which definitely wasn’t what she was looking for. She enjoyed this store, because there was such a wide range of variety. Sometimes she liked to find the same song, or movement, for different instruments, one of those instruments being the violin, and comparing their looks. She liked to see the difference and imagining how they would sound together. But she was sure that she was usually wrong. She nodded when Cara spoke again. They had talked about their instruments, and Penelope had looked at her sister's ukulele multiple times. She knew what she would need. ”Yea, I’ll go grab those really fast.” She quickly left the sheet music section and walked over to the string section. She passed another student and smiled at them. She recognized this student from the orchestra. She muttered a quiet hello and passed on. Seeing the strings, she quickly looked for the proper strings. After grabbing them, she quickly came back to her sister. ”Found them, Here you are.” After handing the strings to her sister, Penelope again started to search the sheet music.

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

penelope raisa bainbridge

Despite stating that it could take all day to find the proper sheet music and Penelope being fine with it, Cara didn’t exactly want to be stuck in Dominic Maestro’s all afternoon. She loved the store, but there were other things to do, and contemplating whether one set of sheet music was better than another wasn’t currently on her list. The other problem was actually being able to find a booklet that contained material for both hers and Penelope’s instruments in tandem with each other. Cara supposed they could make do with whatever, and it wasn’t like it was impossible for her to write up a ukulele part to accompany her younger sister’s violin. It would just take a little while, and she would need the time to actually do that. It was one thing to purchase the music and have it to practice, whereas learning it by ear or transcribing it from another instrument was extremely time consuming. Cara was almost positive that she didn’t have that kind of time, and neither would Penelope, with upcoming tests and all. Making a mental note to herself to remind her sister about the impending tests, she nodded her head as Penelope went off to get the ukulele strings.

To pass the time, Cara flipped open a book of sheet music that had grabbed her attention. It wasn’t anything extremely special, just that it seemed to have various string instruments inside it. She had spent a decent amount of time in muggle music stores over her summer breaks getting acquainted with how they did things on the other side. From what she could tell, magical music stores tended to clump everything together based on instrument family. While that was fine and dandy, lesser utilized instruments, like the ukulele, were sometimes left out. She knew she could work off of guitar tabs or chords, but there was still a conversion factor to take into account, and that was just more time and effort put into it. Flipping over to another page, Cara felt Penelope handing the strings over before returning to her search as well. Turning the box over, Cara frowned. “Nelly,” she called, “these aren’t the correct strings. I use tenor strings, you got me baritone ones.” Cara tried to keep her voice even and firm, trying not to sound too disappointed, but it slipped out regardless. “It’s fine. Keep looking for music. I’ll go switch them out.”

[Deleted]

Honestly, Penelope didn’t realize what a problem it would be to find music for both instruments. She figured that if they couldn’t find one booklet that had both, they could just find the same song in both instruments. She knew that muggle stores sometimes worked that way, but she had really only payed attention to violin music while at school. She thought that would work very well, and if it didn’t, maybe she could ask her friend Brandon for some advice. As she went off to find the strings, Penelope thought about that time that she spent with Brandon playing music. She smiled at the memory of the fun sound they made together. The violin and the cello together was amazing.

She was so distracted by the thought about music and playing with her sister, and maybe having a chance to play with Brandon again, that she must have grabbed the wrong strings, because when she handed the strings to her sister, who was reading some sheet music at the time, she didn’t think anything of it. That was until her sister told her. With a little blush she looked back at the strings. She was right, they were wrong. ”Sorry, guess I got distracted.” She hopped her sister wouldn’t pry more. If she didn’t want to tell her sister about a crush that she had by the door, she for sure didn’t want to tell her sister about a boy that she spent time with behind a closed door. All they did was play music, but for some reason, she didn’t want to tell her perfect older sister that. Penelope then turned to look at another rack of sheet music as her Cara went off to correct Penelope’s mistake. She pulled one booklet out and skimmed through it, it didn’t have ukulele, but it was similar to something that she had played in the orchestra. Putting it back, Penelope pulled out another booklet. This one had some various string music, but the melody of the piece seemed to be a violin or a fiddle. She skimmed this one and decided that she wanted to buy it. But she still needed to look for one with a ukulele, so she moved on, holding the book in her hand, she moved to a third booklet.

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

penelope raisa bainbridge

Cara had no idea why Penelope was making such a big deal and getting flustered over a pack of ukulele strings. Mistakes happened. There was the possibility that the drop in her demeanor was because of the way Cara had talked to her, but she always talked like that to her siblings. At this point in time they were used to it. They knew it was for the best anyway. Paying attention was a valuable skill. She didn’t want to say that Penelope was bad at doing that, but if she had known anything about the ukulele, and specifically the one Cara owned, then she would have realized that she had grabbed the wrong strings. Being a violin player, Cara expected more from her sister.

Heading down the aisle that housed the strings, Cara swiftly placed the wrong ones back on the shelf and picked up the pack that she needed. Scanning over the label to double check they were the ones she needed, she happened to glance up and see another student standing at the end of the row she was in. Cara couldn’t tell what the person was doing, but she was starting to put the pieces together. They had to have been there when Penelope was getting the strings, since barely any time had passed. Tightening her grip on the new package of strings, she went back around to where her sister was standing. Now it was time to start asking questions.

Penelope was holding a book of sheet music by the time Cara returned, although she was still browsing through other ones. Stepping up next to her, Cara reached for the book to see what it was. “Will this one work?” she asked, maintaining her gaze on her sister. She really wanted to know what Penelope was so nervous about. “Do you know that person over there?” Cara questioned, keeping her voice lower than it had been. “You’re not normally like this.”

[Deleted]

While Cara left to pick out the proper strings for her instrument, Penelope continued to look through the sheet music that was in front of her. She placed the one that she had liked under her arm as she continued to look for one that included a Ukulele. As she did, she thought back to the time that she spent with Brandon. Maybe this was a good time for her to practice improvising. But maybe her sister would like that. Especially that she didn’t think she was good at it right now, and she would need to try different sounds.

By the time her sister came back, Penelope had found some sheet music that had a Ukulele in it. It was similar to something she had played previously, and she was looking through it, trying to figure out if it would work. Her sister came up. She nodded at her question. ”Yea, I think this one will work. We might need to play around with a few things, but it shouldn’t be that hard.” But then it happened. The dreaded question. She had figured it out. Penelope looked over at the boy. She quickly looked away, because just then, he had glanced over. ”He-he’s a boy from my transfiguration class. He’s really good.” She looked up at her sister with pleading eyes. ”It’s nothing. We’ve never even talked. But it’s nothing.” She hopped that her sister wouldn’t do anything. But the chances of her doing something were quite high now that she knew.

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

penelope raisa bainbridge

Cara was satisfied with the answer that the music book would work for both of them. That search ended up being a lot easier than she thought it would be. For a while there she started to get it in her head that it was either going to take all day or be impossible to find something that would work for both of their instruments. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility, since Penelope pointed out that they would need to work on this one a bit, but having something that was at least made for both would get them halfway there. There was something special about having to work hard to produce a proper song, and even more so from sheet music that wasn’t originally intended for it. In that regard, she was sure that her sister was more equipped to figuring it out than she was. Violin was much more difficult than plucking away on a ukulele was. Converting chords from guitar to ukulele was really the only thing Cara was any good at, and she was perfectly fine with admitting her lack of skill. It was only a hobby after all, not her life like school was. “I’ll buy it then,” she stated. “So you don’t waste all your money if you find anything else that you want.”

And then it happened. The question she had asked Penelope, about the boy in the other aisle, had an immediate effect on her sister. She looked over and back at the person in question at lightning speed, and Cara stood there, mouth almost falling agape. That was a hell of a reaction. She was pretty sure that this had never happened with any of her siblings before, and if it had, it hadn’t been around her. Penelope pointed out that she was in a class with the boy, and that he was relatively impressive in it. Her actual words were that he was ‘good’, but Cara knew what her sister meant. “Nothing sounds like something,” Cara teased. This was too good to be true! “You should talk to him. I’ll call him over if you want, and then let you have at it.” Penelope would never get around to it without a little push. Cara began to raise her arm to wave him over, should he look their way.

[OOC: Totally fine if you want Penelope to pull Cara's arm back down to stop her from calling the boy xD]

[Deleted]

Penelope couldn’t wait until she and her sister had time to get together and play the sheet music she had found. But she was well aware that they might wait until summer has started. That was fine by her, for now. Just the thought of playing with her sister. Also, she knew that she could practice it, and even make some adjustments on the music, so that when they did play together, it would sound even better. Penelope nodded and handed her sister the sheet music. ”Thanks.” She then pulled the sheet music from under her arm and looked at it. The violin part in this one looked difficult, mostly because of the speed it was written to be played. It also emulated some fiddle music that she had seen in some muggle stores. ”I think I’ll get this one too. It looks fun to try out.”

But then it happened. Her sister figured it out. Penelope wasn’t good at hiding it, she had to admit. She would need to work on that. There was no chance that her sister wouldn’t figure it out. She was smart, and observant. She had to know, and it was all Penelope’s fault. She shook her head, Cara knew. But she was hoping that her denying it would help. It didn’t. Of course it didn’t work. ”It’s nothing, I promise.” she said, lowering her voice, praying that her sister would drop the matter. Then it happened. The words that Penelope wished she wouldn’t hear. I’ll call him over. Penelope’s eyes widened. She gasped and held her breath. No, should wouldn’t. But then she began to raise her arm to call the boy over. Without a second thought, she grabbed her sister's arm and wrapped both arms around it, holding it to her chest tightly. ”No, please don't. I beg of you.” she whispered, looking up to her sister with pleading eyes.

cara june bainbridge
[OOC: Same as you said, you are more than welcome to pull away from her.]