Black Sheep [Harper]

[Deleted]

Xavier had been sitting on the stairs the entire time, listening with intense disinterest in the back and forth squabbling that was going on between his sisters. Listening to practically the same thing go on over and over again over the course of at least 16 years would drive anyone insane. He’s heard Harper’s muggle motorcycle approach their house, anyone would really with how loud it was, and he’d known she was home from wherever it was she was returning from. He didn’t keep up with her. He’d also known that Ondina had been downstairs at the same time, doing whatever it was she was doing to occupy her time. That was the exact reason he’d opted to stay upstairs. Putting both of those situations equaled exactly what was going on down there now. Again, exactly why he opted to stay upstairs. He got sick of it rather quickly. They were both disappointing really. Ondina often tried to carry herself as if she were superior to others and yet at home she was childish. She acted as if she was the youngest, by far, of the three of them. She always started it. Harper never helped. In one way or another, she always goaded Ondina. Gave her pity she didn’t need. Pushed her buttons. It was always something. And that what was made her disappointing. These were his sisters. The fight reached some sort of crescendo then. Someone yelling, probably Ondina. Some mutter words, probably Harper. And then he heard footsteps. They were coming towards the stairs now. A part of him wanted to go back to his room so he wouldn’t have to talk to whoever it was but he stayed in his seated position, arms resting on his slightly parted legs. He wanted to see who retreated.

Tag; @harper

[Deleted]

@xavier

Well that was a great conversation to come home to. Harper couldn’t help but roll her eyes over and over again at her sister’s childish antics. They had gotten old years ago. There had been exactly one year of reprieve on both ends of school. Her first year at Hogwarts, and the first year after graduating. Everything before and in between was a daily game to avoid the screaming banshee known as Ondina. The irony of it being that if Ondina did actually scream, she would be on the floor in a matter of seconds, half way to death’s door. Regardless, the post-graduation years were shaping up to be exactly the same as all the rest, and Harper was starting to get tired of it. She knew better and yet she was still the cause for most of the aggravation. If moving out and getting her own place was financially possible, she would have done it months ago. Unfortunately it wasn’t. As great of a job as being a metal charmer was, it didn’t pay that well. She would need more time to save up before jumping into a full attempt at adulthood.

Leaving the living room behind her in order to avoid whatever came next, Harper made the necessary strides towards the bottom of the stairs, her direct route to escape back to her bedroom. Hand taking hold of the banister, she swung her body around towards the steps effortlessly, only looking up once she noticed that Xavier was sitting near the top. She didn’t mean to sigh in the manner that she did as her eyes met his. It was more that she didn’t know if she was going to get another berating for being annoying, or whatever it was that he seemed to take annoyance in these days. Not like he was going to be interested in anything said between herself and Ondina. “Evening,” Harper said casually as she took another few steps up the stairs, only stopping again because she had realized that he may have just woken up. “Or is it morning for you?”

[Deleted]

Harper came around the corner then and she didn't spot him until she was just putting her foot up to ascend the first step. Of course it was Harper. Ondina had never and would never retreat from any fight she'd had, even ones she had with Harper. Especially with Harper. She always had to come out on top. Harper didn't have the same self-imposed restrictions. She exited when she wanted to. Her eyes met his and he immediately saw the way she deflated. That was fine, she was the one with the problem. Meanwhile, he could really care less if she said anything to him as she passed. Her decent nature wouldn't let her though. She spoke as she started climbing and he didn't respond to her. That is, until she asked him if it was morning for him. Implying that he may have just woken up. It wasn't a sleep night. He hadn't slept last night. Nor the previous night. The burning in his eyes had just set on around 4 in the morning so he had another day or two before he'd feel the need to sleep take over. He didn't know if Harper actually knew about him having insomnia or not; it wasn't something he hid but it wasn't something that he shared either. "No." he replied with a shake of his head. He didn't really make a move to give her more space to pass but she had just enough for her to squeeze by so he didn't feel the need. "Guess you and Ondina are in a mood again. I still don't understand why you both do that." he was still looking at her as he spoke, not offering any niceties or small talk like she had. She had to know that he'd heard them fighting. "You're the more confusing one."

Tag; @harper

[Deleted]

@xavier

A few more steps were made up the stairs, though it was becoming clear to Harper that her brother had no intent to move out of the way for her. That was…typical. Or at least it felt like she was always treated as the one in the way. Normal people didn’t sit at the top of the stairs, hogging the entire space. Normal people also typically treated their siblings like real human beings from time to time, something neither Xavier nor Ondina seemed able to do with her. It would be one thing if they ganged up on her and were vicious, but the each had their own little quirks to do it on their own sufficiently. Her own leniency had led to this though; if she had moved out right after graduation or been a better sister to them, maybe it wouldn’t have to be this way. Whatever it was though, it was too late now. She didn’t understand them, and they definitely did not understand her. The only difference was that she was willing to forgive and forget if they put force the effort, but that was something they were completely incapable of doing, each for their own silly reasons.

Xavier responded to her question about waking up with a resounding ‘no’, and Harper tilted her head to the side slightly, trying to figure out which he was responding to. This was his problem: he couldn’t be clear about anything, and then when she asked more questions, it was her fault for not knowing. That was exactly how this was going to go too. He continued, making it obvious that he had overheard the conversation she had just left. “And why is that?” Harper asked, trying her best not to sound irritated by his observation. Ondina had just unloaded everything on her, so there was no harm getting equal treatment from Xavier too. There was a reason they were siblings, after all.

[Deleted]

She was practically right in front of him now but he still didn't make any more room than what was already available to her. She sounded irritated as she spoke to him, which wasn't really any fault of his own. All of that blame could be put on the fact that she'd entertained Ondina by giving in to her goading. Ondina could be nasty, or attempt to be anyway. Anything she'd ever said to him he brushed off to the side considering the fact that she was too self-conscious and fragile to do any real harm with words. And she'd never raised her wand against him. She wasn't harmless but she couldn't hurt him. She couldn't even hurt Harper but he figured the older girl allowed it to happen. Which was why he was so confused by it. Did she allow it to happen? Did she really consciously decide to entertain Ondina's petty antics? "It's not hard to figure out why she is the way she is. You, on the other hand, don't have the same excuses," his voice was even while he spoke, brows pushed down in thought. "Do you like arguing with her? Do you get something out of that?" It was a waste of time. Ondina was going to continue being the way she was until she felt like she had some semblance of power. Until she felt like she was less fragile. Considering her sickness was going to be a part of her forever, it was safe to think Ondina would never change her ways. She was reckless, insecure, impulsive. She'd joined the Purifiers dangerously because of that. Of course Harper didn't know that but she had to know why Ondina was the way she was. He could be giving her too much credit. Maybe she didn't care.

Tag; @harper

[Deleted]

@xavier

Xavier gave her more obvious responses about Ondina, though she wondered if this was him telling her, or just using it as an example. She could never really figure it out with him. Everyone knew that Ondina wasn’t difficult to understand – it was figuring out a way to either break the force field she put up or giving in to her verbal lashings. Harper, for one, had grown extremely tired of the latter. Initially, she didn’t fight back. There were times before they were both in school where it came to a headway, but Hogwarts broke all of that up for the following seven years. The vast halls and separate common spaces kept them far enough apart from one another that Harper frankly could care less about being bitched out by her sister whilst at school. If it happened, she could leave, hopefully avoiding both siblings for the foreseeable future. That was a little difficult to do while living at home. Maybe this was the push she needed to escape from them and move into her own place.

Harper sighed as her brother asked her if she liked arguing with Ondina, partly because it felt like this conversation had been held before between herself and other interested parties, and also because she knew this would keep happening the longer she stayed there. Crossing her arms, she leaned back against the railing, shoulders slouching further down as she processed the question. “No? But I don’t think I should let her walk all over me either…” she explained slowly, mouth turning down into a frown. “Though I’m sure it always looks like she does.” Not like he would understand at all. From what she had seen, Xavier was impervious to Ondina’s infuriating outlook on literally everything. Sometimes she wished she could be the same way.

[Deleted]

His eyebrows were pushed down in slight irritation as she spoke. She sounded so unsure of herself and he didn’t know why it bothered him so much. Probably because she didn’t know. It wasn’t as if the question was complicated. The fact that she didn’t know why she continued to argue with Ondina only made him further question why she continued to do it. ”Yes, it does appear as if you let her walk over you. You take her bait every time,” he couldn’t quite keep the disappointment out of his voice as he repeated her words. It was probably expecting too much out of her, honestly. Just because he was her sister and she was the eldest didn’t necessarily mean that she had any sense. Seemed as if he was the only one around the house that had any. It definitely wasn’t coming from Ondina and, despite what they thought, it wasn’t coming from their parents considering they still treated Ondina like she would die any moment. Considering who she dealt with, that was still a possibility but once again, no one really knew that. On one hand, he really had more important things to do than to keep up with what his siblings did. They were both older than he was, both graduated. Still in the house, unfortunately, so still not quite out of the way. Still around to bother him with the noise of their arguments. ”The fact that you continue to take said bait shows that you continue to let her walk all over you. Or do you do it because you want to appease her. To make her feel like she has some sort of power over you?” For just a second his eyes slid past her down the steps to where he knew Ondina was, his words speeding out of his lips as he tried to piece together what it was about them that always equalled a fight.

Tag; @harper

[Deleted]

@xavier

Her pulse picked up slightly when Xavier said that she still took Ondina’s bait every single time. She knew that. And here she was, trying to make excuses for why it happened so often. Almost twenty years of dealing with her sister and she had yet to figure out how to rid herself of Ondina’s vice-like personality. The years of verbal lashings had clearly worked in the middle child’s favor, because here they were, both graduated and living at home, and it was still happening on an almost daily basis. It was starting to become clear why Xavier thought and acted the way he did, and she was stupid for being so oblivious for so long. Despite this revelation, which quite frankly had been lingering around for a while (Harper just needed someone to say it out loud to her for it to be put into action), she also had the feeling that it wasn’t going to make much of a difference at this point. Old habits die hard, and even if she moved out of the house or completely ignored Ondina going forward, there was no avoiding her sister forever. It was impossible. “If you think I want to make her happy by bowing down to her every whim, you’re misunderstanding this Xavier,” she said, briefly turning her head to look down the stairs as he did. Was Ondina’s warpath about to engulf the stairs as well? Harper wouldn’t put it past her to catch a few snippets of the current conversation and try to push her way into it, screaming her little head off the entire way. “Maybe I think she’s going to change at some point. I don’t know. Probably too late for that now.”

[Deleted]

With nothing to go on, no real thread of logic to follow on why she did what she did, he found himself hanging off of her silence expectantly. Waiting from some sort of cue or revelation to the behavior that she’d exhibited over the years they’d shared a living space together. She spoke and he almost held his breath, watching as she looked back down the stairs from where she’d emerged. Was she curious to know if Ondina would hear what she was about to say? Maybe she’d hear what they were saying but Xavier didn’t care. It didn’t have anything to do with him, and if Ondina got more fodder to torment her with, it wouldn’t really be his problem. She shouldn’t have had the weakness at all. She had allowed Ondina to become an issue for her, she’d allowed it to get this bad. And then she spoke again. Nonsense. Utter nonsense. Xavier had, unfortunately, expected more from her. The utter disappointment and almost anger that washed through him, turned his face into an impenetrable wall, only proved that. He took a long, deep inhale and blew out his breath audibly. ”You really are that stupid.” He said the words out loud, really cementing the idea in his head that his sister had said that, and believed it apparently, that Ondina would change. That she was willing to change. That, with everything she’d exhibited, she had the ability to change. It was just so… he hated to think in groups and assign her stupidity with the house she’d been in during her schooling but it was true. It was so Gryffindor. He’d given her too much credit. ”Even faced with all of that evidence? No. Ondina won’t change. Not unless she’s required to. And nothing is requiring that of her.” The end of that was said without resolve. Something was requiring it. It just wasn’t anything he thought Harper expected. Nor would it get her to change in any way that she probably wanted. ”She doesn’t respect anyone.” Not anyone in their current vicinity anyway. ”So yes. It’s too late for her. Too late for you to try and save her, if that is what you intended with arguing with her.”

Tag; @harper

[Deleted]

@xavier

Being called stupid by Xavier hurt a lot more than she had expected it to. Ondina’s scorching words and venom had built up and torn down a wall of tolerance, the sort that was struck down in an instant by Xavier’s singular word. On the other hand, how, or even why, she thought he would say anything less than that to her considering the topic of their conversation, was beyond her. This was obviously a long time coming from him, the last time they had shared more than a few words was probably months ago. For the most part, they ignored each other. At least she knew his true feelings on everything now.

Unable to respond in fear of being shut down again, Harper looked down at her feet, hoping that this would be the end of it and she would be allowed to pass, the safety of her bedroom only a few feet from the top of the stairs. She should have done that from the beginning, now that she thought about it. Then she could have continued under the delusion that her words were still chipping away at Ondina as if they actually mattered. Having him spell out everything for her was even more embarrassing than she thought it would be too, being called stupid the least of her worries now that he was going all in. Harper knew all of this already; she simply pulled the wool over her eyes on her own, assuming she could do something to change Ondina (and maybe break through to Xavier in the process as well). According to him, a change was impossible because their sister didn’t want it.

“Since you seem to know everything, what do I do then? Ignore her? Fight back more? Because I’ve tried those already, and she doesn’t let up. She continues to berate me, day in and day out no matter what I do.” Merlin, she could tell it sounded like she was whining. Xavier was going to capitalize off of that now too. Why couldn’t the two of them be normal? It wasn’t exactly a hard thing to manage. Feeding off of other people’s negativity was so toxic and unattractive that it was a wonder if either of them had any positive relationships at all. Harper was almost positive that they didn’t, and that ruining their only potentially positive one with her was their way of maintaining their moody behavior without anyone penetrating their weaponized egos. It was disgusting, in her opinion.

[Deleted]

The way she practically flinched and looked down at her feet while he spoke made his nostrils flair in annoyance. Was she listening? Did she even want to hear his advice in this? He didn't even know why he was telling her all of this. Because he wanted the fighting to stop? Yes, it got annoying and it disturbed him while he was trying to think, much less work on any new spell on his mind. Maybe it was some half-hearted thought to tell her in hopes that she would save herself the trouble. But here she was, looking like someone's lost pet as she focused on the ground instead of taking his words for what they were. Information. He took a deep, steady breath, thinking that he would just get up and go back to his room considering that his words were falling on deaf ears, when she spoke again. The whine in her voice made his nostrils flare once again. She sounded hurt. That was her fault, his words were blunt but they weren't said maliciously. Apparently she'd tried everything with Ondina and nothing seemed to work. Ondina could probably tell that she didn't mean anything she tried. Harper was too caring for that. Just the fact that they were having this conversation was evidence of that. She cared, genuinely cared about the things Ondina said to her. She was hurt by them, just as she was hurt by the things he'd just said. ”I hope I'm really not expected to have all of the answers," his voice was dry as he answered, looking at his sister with a bored look of disbelief on his face. ”You figure it out. You try everything again. You stop caring about the petty things she says to you. I don't know. Do what you want." he sighed, ”Unless you want to continue being miserable. What you're doing now works well for that, I believe."

Tag; blaise leo zabini

[Deleted]

@xavier

Xavier’s response was exactly what Harper had expected from him. He had taken the chance that she had left open, and went with it. Of course he did. That was the only thing he and Ondina knew how to do. They used their target’s slip ups and weaknesses against them, probably to hide their own insecurities. There were times where Harper had believed that if they had all been in Gryffindor together, they wouldn’t have any issues anymore. Being isolated from each other based on year and house had done a number on whatever relationship the three of them had before school ever started. If that was actually considered one prior to it all. A lot of time was spent coddling Ondina and her sickness, and a lot less time was focused on her and Xavier. She could understand why her brother was the way he was. The poor kid probably strived for attention, which was exactly why he locked himself in his room doing experiments, or whatever it was that he did these days. Talking it all out was apparently too difficult. “No, I guess I was stupid to expect that much from you,” she muttered, making sure it was just loud enough for her brother to hear it too. Jumping into an intellectual war with Xavier was going to be a loss on her end. Work and Ondina had already drained everything Harper had for the day, maybe even the rest of the week, and Xavier was doing a superb job at winning without going to war. His preemptive strikes had a hell of a sting.

The idea posed by her brother made sense. She could do whatever she wanted, and that left her with two choices: continue to fruitlessly try to change Ondina, or give up once and for all. Treat her younger sister the way that she was treated on a daily basis. A cold shoulder and pretending Ondina barely existed would be difficult considering they lived in the same house still and were forced to interact at times. “I think our definitions of misery differ,” Harper commented, turning as if she was preparing to walk up the stairs past him. He was the only obstacle to get to her bedroom, the last sanctuary she had in the house.