Snake Eyes [Ondina]

[Deleted]

Ondina Nell Weasley

Work was finally done for the day. Harper didn’t have that feeling about her career as a metal charmer all that often, but today was one of those special ones. There had been recent breakthroughs, which honestly weren’t all that amazing, but they had captivated her coworkers enough to start working longer hours and draining resources left and right. She was there to tinker and have fun with muggle stuff. Charming radios to make them work similarly to walkie-talkies wasn’t exactly anything ingenious, nor practical in this day and age. But it never took a lot to impress and woo over witches and wizards. While all of them were heavily invested on doing that, she had spent her time catching up on all of their regular missed work – like checking up on snitches to see if their charms were still solid before sending them to the Quidditch committee where they would be distributed to teams. Those were slightly more important than the other things they charmed, and she felt like it went to a good cause. Hopefully that wasn’t too selfish since she enjoyed watching the sport be played…

Returning home, Harper parked her motorcycle in the driveway and slid off of it, her legs feeling like jelly. This always seemed to happen after sitting at her desk all day. It was like all of her muscles went into a comatose state, only to decide to revive themselves the second she tried to use them to walk. Stretching a little as she walked inside the house, Harper dropped her helmet on top of the shoe rack next to the door and tossed her jacket over her normal hook. From the silence inside the house, she assumed no one else was home yet. She was pretty sure her parents were both currently in Romania playing with the dragons. If work didn’t require her to be there every day, she would have joined them in a heartbeat. Exhausted, Harper moved towards the couch and fell face first down onto it. There was little resistance from the cushions, and she sank into them, feeling the stress of the work day starting to drift away.

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

THE EVENING SUN WAS SHINING, splitting its way through the Weasley's home and itching Ondina's skin lightly. Summer was Ondina's second least favourite time of year, right after spring. It was too warm, and really, Ondina simply hated to sweat.

She sat, a bowl of gluten free granola in front of her at the breakfast nook, sunglasses perched on the top of her head. She'd awoken with nipping eyes that morning, the whites shot through with red. Along with a heavy layer of make up, the glasses helped hide the signs of illness whenever she ventured out. But that day Ondina hadn't gone very many places. She'd moped in bed until well in to the afternoon before spending a good couple of hours dressing with a pristine vigilance. She'd go out that night, when the air cooled and the bee's slept.

So, she ate breakfast at dinner time, moving only when the god awful growl of her sisters bike echoed down the dirt driveway, and even then it was only to spin on her stool. Ondina could hear Harper from a mile away, her daft bike, her heavy footed walk. She didn't appear to approach anything with the same caution as her younger sister. It irked Ondina.

When she heard the tell tale slump of her sister throwing herself across the furniture, Ondina stood, walking to join her sister in the living room. She leaned against the frame of the door, bowl still in hand.

"Your awful Muggle machine is stinking up the drive again," Ondina said in greeting, twirling the spoon in her bowl as she watched the back of her sister's head. "I'd hate to have to tell mummy it's getting to my chest..." Ondina hadn't even peeked out the window to see if she'd parked the thing close, but for some reason she took an odd pleasure in slipping the empty threat toward her sister. So relaxed with a face full of couch cushions. Ondina spooned granola into her mouth, chewing passive aggressively. 

@harper

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Ondina Nell Weasley

The telltale creak of the floorboards in the hallway alerted her of someone else’s presence. Seeing as she knew her parents were gone and Xavier wouldn’t really bother her, that left Ondina. The footsteps stopped at the edge of the living room, by the door, and Harper didn’t have time to lift her head from the cushions before Ondina’s voice pierced the silence. Expecting anything other than a complaint about the motorcycle was foolish – there had been problems with that since day one. Harper had done her best to charm the parts to avoid fumes from emitting themselves into the surrounding environment. There were limits to everything though, and that happened to be one of them. She could make the bike fly, waterproof, and even fix it with the swish of her wand. But using an alternative form of fuel was not possible at this point in time. The muggle models weren’t equipped to function in that capacity. Had she purchased a magical motorcycle, it was standard. Unfortunately, the magical kind lacked a certain something when it came to riding. The powerful roar of the engine was mimicked, made to sound like a muggle one so the average person wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Harper wasn’t stupid, as much as her sister would probably like to think she was, so she bought her muggle bike instead.

The threat of the fumes exacerbating Ondina’s condition left Harper with a sigh that happened all too often while the two siblings were home at the same time. What should have been a real concern was used as a weapon. Calling it a tool was too nice for Ondina. “I parked it exactly one-hundred meters from the house,” Harper responded as she flipped her body around to face her sister, arms crossing her chest. She knew the repercussions if the motorcycle really did cause an attack. That was one of the stipulations of living at home. If the bike caused Ondina harm, then either it had to be moved off the property, or Harper would have to move out. She hated that the one thing she wanted to do was treated like a taboo. “You’re free to count it out. If you can make it that far,” she added, raising her eyebrows challengingly. The odds of that happening were basically nil; especially since it appeared that she was eating. There weren’t too many things Harper would defend ferociously, but her motorcycle was always one of them. It was her baby after all.

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

IT TOOK VERY LITTLE TO RILE ONDINA. She was easily ruffled, almost as if she enjoyed the heat of her own powerful temper. Unfortunately, most of the time when Ondina lost it she lost her breath too. So instead of yelling, as she often wished to do, Ondina had taken to conveying her perpetual mood in other ways. Like rankling her unassuming sister, who was so easily nipped with her delicate Muggle-like sensibilities. However, Harper could bite back.

"Hmph," Ondina huffed, her nose wrinkling as she rounded the sofa to face her sister. "Don't take that tone with me..." She hated her illness being used as ammo, but then again Ondina shouldn't have expected any less after going for Harper's weak link. But she didn't think about that, she simply thought about the annoyance of being answered back.

"You're surely brave because mum and dad aren't here!" Ondina hissed, lip curled back as she lifted the toe of her boot and kicked at the side of Harper's calf. "Do you save up all your comebacks for when they're gone?" Stilling holding her bowl, she nudged at Harper's leg again. "Get your filthy overalls off the couch, I'm getting tired." It was funny how away from anyone Ondina had to appear strong toward, how quickly she reverted to the childish ways of her youth. 

@harper

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Ondina Nell Weasley

So Ondina was in one of those moods today. The better question here would have been something closer to ‘when wasn’t she in a mood’? There was always something, even if it didn’t seem like there was on a surface level. Mismatching her clothes probably put her in more of a tizzy these days than anything else. Having had to live with her pre-Hogwarts years, Harper felt for the poor girls that had to put up with her sister’s nonsense for seven years. While it was a load off of her own back, she was simply piling it onto helpless victims. At times though, Harper was glad they got the full brunt of it all. Now that Ondina was graduated though, she had reverted back to how she always was at home. Harper had a glimmer of hope that her sister would change after graduation, but those were unattainable dreams. Making it eighteen years without deviating from her path once solidified that this was going to be Ondina’s course for the remainder of her life. Surely it was depressing, being angry and upset over the littlest things all the time.

Watching her sister react to her comments with narrowed eyes, Harper hoped that it would end there. There was no reason to argue over the motorcycle; that subject had beaten to death a thousand times since the machine first came home. Ignoring the chastising, Harper removed her gaze from Ondina and instead onto the ceiling. That was a more interesting thing to look at than her sister yapping at her over something that would never change. She wouldn’t have to take that ‘tone’ with her if she wasn’t a colossal bitch all the time. Harper expected it to end at that – which was silly of her. The relatively meaningless comments about her being brave because their parents weren’t there to bear witnesses were nothing compared to the kicks that were aimed at her leg. The first one made contact, and the look of annoyance that came over her face would have been enough for a normal person to not attempt it a second time. The second jab in her direction was narrowly avoided as she managed to bring her leg closer to her body, reeling away from the boot. “You’re one to talk, Dina.” Harper retorted, purposely using the nickname her sister hated vehemently. “Apparently not tired enough to whine about it.” Despite her remarks, Harper still moved herself from a laying position to a sitting one, and as far away on the couch from Ondina as she could possibly get. “I seem to have forgotten where you keep that potion of yours. The one for the attacks. Keeping that mouth of yours shut every once in a while would spare me the trouble of having to find it,” she bravely uttered, making sure to keep her eyes flicking over to Ondina to see her reaction. It was a baseless threat; Harper knew exactly where the potions for the asthma attacks were kept. Letting Ondina suffer through one would be awful of her to do. She had seen too many to count over the years, and that was the last sort of torture she would ever wish upon someone.

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

ONDINA HAD PURPOSEFULLY AIMED AT HER SISTER'S LEG WITH FORCE. A nudge that packed a little bit of a punch, and when she wheeled in for another she met the edge of the couch as her sister pulled away. Her lip pulling back as Harper used that awful nickname. 'Dina', it was a terrible shortening. Lazy and something you'd call your dog. Harper knew how it irked Ondina, which she knew was exactly why she'd used it.

"Dina is something you call a dog, Harper." Ondina spat, eyes like slits as she glared at her sister. "My name is Ondina, in case all those fumes you're working with have gone to your big head." And with that she turned and sat in the space Harper reluctantly made for her. Today was a day when Ondina's head felt filled with cotton wool, and everyone must know about how awful it made her.

Turning her head slowly, as if it was balanced on a well oiled cog, Ondina caught the flippant nastiness in Harper's tone. Her sister was a weak, sweet girl most of the time. But she had that same bite everyone berated Ondina for having. She just used it more covertly.

"You think you're better than me," Ondina said slowly, but her rage was building and with it her tone grew resonance. "But I can take care of myself. And I'd rather choke than let you're greasy, meddling fingers any where near me or my potion." Her voice wheezed at the end, not quite an attack but close enough. Ondina had forgotten how much she could dislike being in the company of her family. She liked it better when they just did things for her.

@harper

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Ondina Nell Weasley

Harper squashed the laugh that so desperately wanted to escape from her as her sister glared at her, instead taking a deep breath in and out, mouth struggling to remain in an even grin. Calling a dog ‘Dina’ would be adorable – clearly something her sister didn’t seem to get. But dogs and Dina did not go hand in hand (much to a young Harper’s dismay), so it was hilarious that the comparison was even being made in the first place. There was something about inhaling fumes, and Harper shook her head, rolling her eyes just enough to make it look like she was listening. “Yes, yes, your name is Ondina. My bad. I guess when your lungs actually work properly, inhaling fumes happens. I’ll be more careful, for your sake.” As she spoke, Ondina had made her seat where Harper’s legs had just been. It was so much easier for her to ask politely to make space, but that wasn’t Ondina. She didn’t understand why she held out for the hope that her sister would act like a normal person someday; it hadn’t happened yet, so it probably never would.

Threatening the potions wasn’t smart. It wasn’t even a typical Harper thing. Pettiness was Ondina’s game, after all. A sigh came out of her mouth as Ondina tried to make it sound like this was all a personal issue. Technically she wasn’t wrong, but the problem was her, not Harper. At least most of the time. Today was slightly different than usual; more combative, more intense exchanges that Harper would normally avoid for the sake of not wanting to attract drama. “And you think everyone should bow to your every whim, Ondina. That’s not how this works. You don’t understand that even if I make threats like that, they’re baseless and I’d still help. Especially if you didn’t want it.” There. She capitulated. Showed her weakness. Now Ondina was going to rip her apart for giving in.

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

ONDINA HATED THAT FOR THE MOST PART, HARPER WAS WINNING. Because it was a competition. Everything was a competition and every situation required a loser. Ondina was intent on winning this particular battle, but her sister was feeling rather snarky that day. Ondina felt for certain that it didn't suit the somewhat demure appearance of her older sister. There was only room for one bitch, after all.

"Is that all you got?" Ondina asked, head tilted and nostrils flaring. "Old news, Harp. And petty, too" She reprimanded hypocritically, a dull edge to her tone as she looked down at the perfectly filed cuticle of a red painted nail. "You need better ammunition."

Perhaps it was the impending sickness that urged Ondina to delve deeper. The more shallow stabs were failing to hit the mark, she felt compelled to go deeper. Drive the knife home, and of course that meant fully implicating her sister as the real antagonist. But for Harper to fire back with an exposed kind of honesty relaxed Ondina's features momentarily. She had been expecting something truly nasty in return, because after all, that's what she would have done. But Ondina was not to be deterred, she let her dark eyes bear deep in to Harper's.

"Why should I want anything less?" She asked blatantly, her head tilting slightly, and she truly meant it, too. "That's your problem, Harper. You can't think big, but let me give you a little advice..." Her lips were slow in enunciating, drawing out her breaths for optimum effect. "Next time you make a threat like that..." Lips curling at the corners, Ondina moved dangerously close to her sister, invading that precious space she'd relcutantly given up. "Mean it."

Relaxing back in to her seat, Ondina quirked her brows and gave Harper a look akin to disgust. "Because at least then I could respect you." 

@harper

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Ondina Nell Weasley

This was stupid, and Harper knew it. At least Ondina had it right by calling it petty. Anyone looking at this from the outside would think they were children still, squabbling over the same issues they had been dealing with their entire lives. There were times where Harper grew tired of it, knowing that all she had to do was make the first move and find her own apartment. Not only would it remove her from this daily idiocy, but she would be able to finally escape Ondina again, something she had been dying to do since the second her sister graduated. Separation via bedroom walls and houses in Hogwarts apparently was not enough to fix this insanely strained relationship they had. Moving out would be the last nail in the coffin that they probably both needed. “Sorry. All those fumes have addled my brain, remember?” She hated self-deprecation, especially around her sister, but it was the only way to really piss Ondina off these days. Making it look like she wasn’t harmed by the childish bashing that Ondina consistently and constantly gave her whenever they interacted. It would be one thing if it was warranted, and while it was sometimes, today’s problem was not.

Merlin she was full of herself, not that Harper was surprised by the response she got. There were times where she thought she had broken through the wall of ice, where her honesty might finally melt away just a smidge of it. But this was Ondina. Every attempt at chipping at it was met with a redoubling effort to build the wall back up again, enough so that Harper was pretty sure that Ondina was afraid of what would happen if she let go for just a second. Obviously she would be taken advantage of, but Harper would be nicer about it than anyone else would. Right now, it looked like her sister was starting to double down again, leaning in closer and getting that look Harper knew all too well. These intimidation tactics might have worked on first years, but not on her, at least not anymore. If things ever got too bad, all Harper had to do was pack up and leave. “That’s too much effort for you,” she said, immediately biting onto her lower lip in regret. She felt her pulse pick-up, knowing that she had just gone all in once again. “And don’t waste your time. You’ll never have any respect for me. We both know that, Ondina.” It hurt a little, acknowledging something that she had already known for years. But that was how it was with her siblings. Ondina looked down on her and Xavier thought she had the intelligence comparable to a pebble, if not less. Somehow, it was wrong to be normal in this house.

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

IT WAS WITH THE SAME SICK, CHILDISH SNARK that Ondina smirked at Harper with satisfaction. It hitched her cheeks and made her skin look papery, but she didn't care, because that same unsatisfied pettiness that was in her, was in her sister. "Well, at least you finally said it." She simpered, showing her teeth. That was the basis of their relationship. The back and forth, that if anybody were to witness, would be considered an empty and outdated exchange. In the moment, though, Ondina didn't care. All she wanted was to win.

Though, her sister seemed unwilling to back down. Not entirely unusual, but usually she gave in for silly arguments like this. Having far littler patience for it than Ondina. She had the stamina for it. Having honed her spitefulness to a sharp edge. Harper never had, until now it seemed. "You think you know me so well, hm?" Ondina asked without really needing an answer, her eyes nothing but slits, skin wrinkling.

"You don't know what I'm capable of." Ondina had been gearing up to go further, her anger building in her chest, tightening it like a drum. But her sisters tone halted the progress. Why did she have to go and feel sorry for herself? A slither of hurt dimming behind her eyes. Ondina pressed her lips together, furious at her sister for pulling such a pathetic move.

"What...?" She breathed, shaking her head before she reached over and shoved her sisters shoulder abruptly. "That's pathetic!" She exclaimed, her expression baffled. "You know, I was almost impressed, you were actually going the distance for a second there." Rather than feel sorry for her sister, or acknowledge any truth in her claim, Ondina decided to get angry instead. "But, no, you had to go and ruin it by feeling sorry for yourself."

Ondina looked down at her nails, thoroughly bored with the conversation all of a sudden. Though perhaps deep down, beyond years of built-in intolerance, Ondina felt that hurt in her sister's eyes. She didn't let it show, though. Didn't even give it a moment to flourish. "No wonder I'll never respect you." She said flatly, face faintly pink under a half dozen layers of make up. She didn't look up, didn't even give her sister a moment of her attention. The thrill of it was gone. 

@harper

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Ondina Nell Weasley

Harper could feel the disgusting smirk Ondina had on her face pierce into her. Why did it always end up this way? She couldn’t even walk into the house and try to relax without being attacked and then feeling like her only escape was to throw herself under the bus constantly. Even if she won, and that was a loose definition on what winning consisted of when around Ondina, there was never a total victory. Getting her sister in a tizzy only ever resulted in a shouting match that would end with something close to an asthma attack and then a scolding from their parents for getting Ondina to that point in the first place. Again, that was all assuming parents were around in the first place, and that Ondina simply wasn’t faking her attacks to get out of a situation she thought she was going to actually lose. Harper wouldn’t put it past her to do that. There was enough pettiness here to last a lifetime for some folks. This was just another stupid, pointless conversation that they had entered into. And calling it a conversation was being nice.

The eye roll inducing attempts at puffing out her chest weren’t working on Harper. Ondina should have known that by now. Those were simple questions asked; of course she knew her sister well, and trying to blow it up like she was some dark, emotional fiction antagonist wasn’t working in the slightest. Harper was almost positive that those same exact words had been uttered at some other point in time, during an equally pointless argument. That should have ended it right there. Harper had half the mind to get off the couch and walk away, leaving her sister to sizzle on the sofa alone. But Ondina had other things in mind, shoving her back without warning and then exploding into another tirade of anger-fueled words. A nerve had definitely been touched there. She waited until Ondina finished before sliding off of the couch and heading towards the edge of the living room. It was time to end this, because nothing was going to come from it. Harper knew that. Ondina knew it. Everyone in the family knew it. “Don’t put words in my mouth,” she countered back. “I’m just stating the facts.” Ondina had said it herself as well. She was never going to respect anything Harper did. Why even pretend in the first place? That was something she had come to terms with years ago. It was hard to try and beg for pity when it was never going to happen. “I do feel sorry for you though…and you can’t make me change that,” Harper said before heading towards the stairs and to her escape.

[Harper End]

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

THIS WAS A COMMON DAY IN THE WEASLEY household. At least by Ondina's standards. She'd never relished quiet, and wasn't the type to back down. She was simply sick of being seen as weak. And maybe her actions only proved as much. But, Ondina had always figured as long as she was yelling the loudest - by her meek standards. Then, at least nobody was talking over her. Though she had yet to figure out how to erase that pitying look people tended to give her. That Harper always to give her.

"I'm not putting anything in your goddamn mouth, Harper." Ondina spat, teeth grinding as she looked ahead. "Don't patronise me." But, her sister still looked dull. There was no more juice left in her, dry this round. But, there would be more. She had an ever replenishing well of it. Ondina would just have to come back for more later.

She sat back in the cushions and watched in her peripheral vision as Harper stood up and made to leave, her sad parting words building something in Ondina's chest so that, with Harper's back to her she twisted and yelled over the sofa, "Stop wasting your sorry's on me, Harper!" Her voice croaked briefly at the end. "I don't f*cking need them!" She was glad that her sister was gone when she turned back, hunching over her knees to wheeze and wheeze and wheeze until her vision turned back at the edges. A sorry sight.

[ONDINA END]

@harper

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!