A Ghost's Broken Heart [Ondina]

[Deleted]

Ondina Nell Weasley

11.02.2024

Even though the clock on her laptop indicated that it was three in the afternoon, Harper had just woken up, her brain still not fully understanding that she had slept close to fifteen hours. The only thing worse than oversleeping was waking up from a nap and feeling the weight of exhaustion and reality crashing down at the same time. Naps only managed to push everything back and end up making them much worse than they had been previously. They weren’t worth the few minutes of disjointed dreams that they typically brought. Her problem with oversleeping was similar to that, but her body took most of the impact. It ached from lazily drifting in and out of sleep during the late morning and early afternoon, finally getting out of bed only because she heard her dad yell up the stairs that he would be gone until later that evening, her mum apparently having gone into work despite it being a Saturday.

The futile attempts to wake up ended with her perched on one of the chairs at the kitchen counter, her laptop stationed just far enough away that she could lay her head down on the granite countertop if she wanted to. The cool of the stone was somehow refreshing and Harper had half a mind to prop a few of the windows open just to get more of it. The only problem was that it was the first weekend in November, and the temperature had dipped considerably over the last few months. Halloween night, when she had traveled to Hogwarts on her bike, should have been an indication of what was to come. So instead of wrenching the windows open, Harper alternated each side of her face back and force on the counter, holding her cheek still until the heat of her body convected to the stone. It meant having to rotate her laptop around each time she had to switch to the other side, but it wasn’t like what she was doing was super important. The work was idealistic at best, and the possibility of it ever coming true was slim.

At least while she was still under her parents’ roof. The window pulled up had rows of dogs and puppies up for adoption in the local shelters. Harper knew that an animal with fur and Ondina could never coexist in the same living space and her parents wouldn’t allow it either. That didn’t mean she wasn’t allowed to look though. She liked the big ones – the German Shepherds, Mastiffs, Saint Bernards – that were larger than she was and definitely weighed more than her as well. In her experience they were always the sweetest animals, and she felt like she deserved something nice in her life after having to deal with her sister over the last six months. The reality of getting a dog meant moving out of the house, and Harper had prepared that part as well, a local listing site pulled up on a separate window behind the one with the dogs on it. She preferred looking at the puppies though.

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

IT WAS A SATURDAY AND SO, MERCIFULLY, Ondina was not required to show up at the Ministry. She had grown quite tired of pushing papers and smiling prettily at very dull businessmen. Plus, the smell of ink and coffee was starting to linger on her clothing and it made her feel absolutely ill. She enjoyed her day off the only way Ondina knew how.

When she woke up, around 1pm, her father was still pottering around the house and the sound of his shuffling was a comfort to her. Charlie Weasley was one of the few people in the house who looked somewhat happy to see her when she slipped downstairs. She pressed herself in to his side before he left, watching him apparate from the comfortable bubble of their sunroom. Alone, she then performed her daily breathing exercises.

To most, Ondina looked like a rather careless individual. Impulsive as she was mean. In reality, Ondina did care about some things, most especially her health. On the days she was not sick, Ondina spent at least an hour performing rigorous breathing exercises and stretching. Sometimes, she even did some yoga, if she felt like it. When she was done, she lay down and allowed what little sun there was to warm her for a moment. Sometimes she fell back asleep. This was done in complete privacy, nobody was allowed to see how carefully she curated her practises.

Ondina only roused again when she heard the sound of her sister clunking down the stairs. She had thought her sister was gone, Harper never slept late. She was much too free and easy with her time to spend it at home. Ondina thought she often slipped away so quickly because she was avoiding her. On the one hand, this thought pleased her in a sickening kind of way. On the other, it was rather irritating to be left so alone while her parents were so busy.

Slowly, Ondina slipped out of the sun room and strained her ears, listening for the sound of movement around the house. She heard the scraping of a stool in the kitchen and considered what she might like to do with that information. Of course, she decided to interrupt. She pushed the door to the kitchen open slowly, peeking her head around to see her sister slumped forward on her seat, her cheek pressed against the counter as she stared at a muggle laptop. Very ordinary.

Pushing her way in on silent feet, Ondina slipped across the room at record speed and peered over Harper's shoulder at what she was looking at on the machine. "Dogs?!" Ondina exclaimed, her face pinching with a mixture of anger and confusion as she looked at the array of images. Little mutts with floppy tongues and big hairy bodies. Ondina's worst nightmare. "You're not allowed a dog," She scoffed, reaching around her sister to grab the top of the laptop and snatch it away from her.

The bottom sagged dangerously as she held it aloft, shaking her head at her sister as she reached up and snapped it closed. If she'd been a little bit stronger she might have cracked the screen. She set the closed laptop on the counter carelessly and rolled her eyes. "Don't be silly, Harper." She warned her sister, stepping around the kitchen island and looping her way toward the fridge. "It doesn't suit you, you're the sensible one." She flashed a grin at her sister over her shoulder as she wrenched the fridge door open. Though her words could certainly be taken as a compliment, that was not how she meant them and it showed in her tone. She grabbed a bottle of greenish coloured juice and bumped the door shut again with her hip. She was purposefully chipper. 

@harper

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Ondina Nell Weasley

11.02.2024

She should have known better than to be so careless whilst in the kitchen. A webpage displaying a wide range of dogs (and with a simple click away, cats as well) out in the open was sure to invite all sorts of trouble. Harper had figured Ondina was still in her room or out on the town, doing whatever it was that her viperous brain told her to do. The click of the sun room door behind her went unnoticed, as did the soft padding of Ondina’s feet as she came up behind Harper. “Jesus Christ!” The elder girl almost jumped off of the stool when her laptop suddenly sported a hand at the top of it. After the brief moment of shock came one of doom. Ondina had seen the dogs, even explicitly brought it up already. Of course Harper wasn’t allowed a dog. Nobody was in this house. Had she been a little quicker with her finger on the track pad, she would have closed the dog website before her sister had spotted it, though how much better apartment listings were than dogs was yet to be seen. Each had their own kind of torment that Ondina could bring down on her.

Right now though, it looked as if most of the anger was being taken out on her poor laptop, Ondina’s nails loosely holding onto it from the screen as she began the criticism. This was exactly the reason why moving out was in the near future. Harper was prepared to snap at her sister to get the laptop back, but it was closed and placed back onto the countertop as Ondina made her escape to the fridge. She liked to think that she was decent at charming and fixing muggle objects, seeing as that was her job, but laptops were still out of her skill level and pay grade. Ondina was lucky she didn’t do more damage to Harper than giving her a racing pulse from the scare. “You’re right,” Harper called to her sister’s back. She seemed to be fishing around in the fridge for something. “That’s why I’m thinking of moving.” Harper should have felt proud making that declaration but she didn’t. She knew all too well that giving up information like that was going to make the time until she did move out a living hell. Ondina would probably amp up her attitude to get her out faster.

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

UNSCREWING THE TOP FROM HER GREEN JUICE, Ondina had lifted the lip to her mouth for a drink when she stopped midway. Her smile wavered just a little bit, because while she'd managed to sneak up on her sister and thwart any fantasy in her mind, Ondina had not been expecting Harper to counter it with something more surprising. Because while Ondina often complained about her sister, that didn't mean she was allowed to leave.

"Oh really..." Ondina said simply, her face dangerously calm as she screwed the cap back on her bottle without taking a drink. She had been sufficiently distracted. "I didn't know they paid you grease monkey's." She tilted her head in something resembling curiosity, though there was a sharpness to Ondina's thin face. She pulled herself on to the counter beside the fridge, heels knocking against the cupboard door as she watched Harper carefully.

"Why?" Ondina asked after a moment, and this was perhaps the most surprising reaction because Ondina truly did not understand Harper's rush to leave. She could not comprehend a single reason why her sister would be so eager to leave. "So you can get a dog?" Ondina snorted delicately, gripping the edge of the counter's edge at either side of her. "I mean, if you're that desperate I'm sure you could teach Xavier to bark." She kissed her teeth with a shrug, "It'd be cheaper." 

@harper

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Ondina Nell Weasley

11.02.2024

The dig at her job – being called a ‘grease monkey’ – made Harper break eye contact with her sister. Was that comment really necessary? They were the ones making muggle objects useable in their world. And besides, she knew she got paid more than Ondina did as an intern. The Ministry didn’t value those positions in the slightest. That was why they had high turn around rates of recent graduates. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that there were better paying fields elsewhere, and that was how she had come to find her job with the metal charmers.

The icky green drink Ondina was sipping on was placed back into the fridge as the younger girl hopped up onto the counter next to it. Harper opened her mouth to reprimand her about being up there, but fell short of doing so. She didn’t care what Ondina did anymore. Actions like that were bait to pull her into whatever little game that was being played. It had taken years for her to figure that out, but she knew it now. The same could be said about the probing ‘why?’ that followed, the one in regards to the possibility of moving out. Harper was still too naïve and answered that without a second thought, “No. Because I think it’s time to get out of mum and dad’s hair.” And away from Ondina. Escaping her in the house was only possible in two places: the safety of her bedroom and behind the locked bathroom door. Everywhere else was free game. It would be tough not being able to save as much money as she currently was by living at home, but she the peace and quiet would be well worth it.

“A pet is more of an afterthought. And if I had one, you wouldn’t be able to visit at all,” Harper pouted. She had a pair to do that. Ondina wouldn’t take kindly to that at all. Biting down on her lip, her hand instinctively reached out for her laptop, pulling it closer. If Ondina snapped, the laptop would be the first thing tossed. Last time it had been the tea set. As for Xavier, “That sounds like something you’d be better at. Then you could have a pet you aren’t allergic to.” Using her brother like that felt awful, but he also hadn’t been the nicest to her lately either. The odds of Ondina telling him what she had just said were slim as well, and Xavier wasn’t the type to believe either of his sisters without concrete evidence backing it up.

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

TO ANYBODY ELSE, HARPER'S REASON FOR moving out would sound perfectly plausible. For Ondina, it wasn't even worth thinking about. She didn't understand her sister's sudden revelation, and she didn't like it either. "'Out of their hair'?" She echoed disdainfully, looking around the kitchen and under her feet like that's where their parent's lived. "They're never here." Which was mostly true. One might figure their sudden absence had something to do with the fact that their most high maintenance child could suddenly fend for herself. Ondina disagreed.

Ondina's head swivelled and caught on Harper, unimpressed by her sister's attempt to cut at her. "Bold of you to assume I'd want to visit." Ondina spat, turning her nose up and shaking her head in disgust. "Whatever hovel you could afford wouldn't be worth it, anyway." She unclenched one of her hands from around the counter top so that she could examine her nails in boredom. She did that for at least a minute before she couldn't help herself from talking once more.

"Don't try and pawn Xavier on me," Ondina snapped, shaking her head rapidly. Her brother had always been odd. His unsettling and cloying silence like a living breathing thing. She had no patience for his inhuman coldness and unflappable composure. Harper was better, so emotional it was easy to manipulate her. If only for a reaction. "You can have him, I hear he's almost house-trained." She smirked, watching the way her sister clutched at her ugly, muggle laptop, pulling it towards herself. "And plus, there's no saying for sure that I'm not allergic to him." 

As she said this, she continued to convince herself that Harper wouldn't actually leave. She didn't have the guts. And if she did, well then all the more reason for her father to stay closer to home. She'd have her parent's undivided attention, just like she'd always wanted it. But then, the more she convinced herself, the less she liked the idea. Harper had to stay home. Ondina liked all of her things kept neatly and within reach.

Hopping off the counter, Ondina approached the island again with a manufactured casualness. Draping herself on the chair directly to Harper's left and reaching out to lay a purposeful hand on the top of her sister's precious machine, red painted nails gleaming. "You're not going to leave," She said surely, looking her sister in the eye deeply. Her smile was almost soft, but lacked any genuine warmth. "You're smarter than that." Shaking her head she pushed her hand along the cold cover until she could hook her fingers around one side. "Lemme see." She began dragging it towards her, maintaining her staring contest with her sister as she did. 

@harper

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Ondina Nell Weasley

11.02.2024

Harper mentally cursed herself once Ondina had turned her words back around on her. She knew that would happen and still gave her sister the ammunition to do so. In reality, it didn’t matter whether their parents were at home or not, or whether Harper was actually ‘in their hair’ at all. As far as Harper knew, she wasn’t, and she was positive they wouldn’t have had a problem with her sticking around for another year or two until she really found her footing in the working world. She wasn’t like her dad, who left school and immediately went to Romania to study dragons, or her mum, who basically graduated and then had her, forgoing her own career path until they were all in school. The independence Harper wanted to achieve by moving out was easily countered by Ondina’s statement, but living at home, even with the absence of their parents, was still living at home. She wanted her own place all to herself. “I probably make more than you do,” she muttered, not really intending to turn it into an argument unless it came to it. Interns probably made next to nothing, whereas she had a full-time position. Getting a small studio apartment or finding a roommate wouldn’t be that difficult either. She had thought through all of this already, which was probably something her sister was incapable of doing seeing as she was still hung up on the fact that Harper couldn’t leave. Whatever that meant.

“I don’t want him either,” she sent back. That was an awful thing to say, he was their brother after all. Lately he had been as cold and unreachable as Ondina had been her entire life. No surprise there since her sister had a way of trying to break down and beat all the normal out of everyone for her own enjoyment. Harper could tell this one was starting to bore her by the way she was looking at her nails. It didn’t last long though, with Ondina launching herself off of the counter and making her way to the island where Harper was. Of course she had to place her abhorrently colored nails on the laptop again. Harper let her take it, staring up at her sister as she relinquished her hold on the other end of the machine. If she fought back the laptop would end up broken with half the blame for it on her. At least if Ondina did anything to it now, it was all her fault.

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

HARPER MIGHT'VE BEEN RIGHT ABOUT ONDINA'S Ministry salary, but she had found ways to work around it's minuscule takings. The Purifier's were very generous when she performed accordingly, but she didn't say that - couldn't say that. So, instead she shrugged, narrowing her eyes, "I'm not planning to move out, though, am I?" The thought still rankled her, even if she found it completely preposterous. This was her sister throwing a tantrum because they'd argued. Goodness, she could be dramatic. Ondina had to simply curb her urge to quash it, so as not to give it any more weight than it deserved. 

Reaching for the laptop had been a spur of the moment decision. She wasn't going to force much else, but that didn't mean she couldn't critique her sister's poor flat choices. She snatched it up triumphantly, and with a few clacking clicks of her long nails, she found her sister's browser history. She leaned against the island as she perused the various listings - along with a few nasty animal rescue pages. Every few minutes she'd curl her top lip over her teeth in disgust, commenting nastily as she flicked through the links. "Ew, it looks mouldy." Or, "Ten flights up, are you crazy?" And finally, "Your taste in flats is as good as your taste in clothes."

As her attention span finally faded and she realised in scrolling that her sister seemed very serious indeed about her flat searches, something began boiling in Ondina's stomach. Her nostrils flaring as she lowered the laptop in to her gut to stare at Harper silently, her lips rubbing together as if to smear lipstick from one to the other - a force of habit. "Can't park a motorcycle in a twelve-story walk up," She commented after a moment of deliberation.

She moved as if to hand Harper the laptop, using one careless hand, but just before her sister could reach she let it slip from her hands. It dropped in the space between them, the plastic and glass crack echoing throughout the kitchen. Ondina dropped her head and lifted a hand to her parted mouth. The screen flickering through a massive spidering of cracks across its surface before it eventually went black. "Oops," She said, kissing her teeth as she pushed off from the island and very carefully walked around the mess. "My bad."

@harper

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Ondina Nell Weasley

11.02.2024

What sort of reasoning was that? Ondina, in her own way, continued to not make sense. Harper moving out was a good thing. Apparently the repetition that she was planning on leaving wasn’t working in the Pavlovian manner that Harper had intended it to. Her sister seemed to not understand that separation would mean she didn’t have to get fussy over everything Harper anymore, and vice versa. She wasn’t going to become some sort of Stockholm syndrome case just because Ondina didn’t want her to leave. “Mum and dad would love to have you all to themselves, I’m sure,” she commented, not sure if she wanted to pursue the matter anymore.

With her laptop scooped away from her (as she expected it to be), Harper watched her sister’s dagger-like nails click around on her keyboard violently. It was gross how much Ondina tried to compensate for her ugly attitude, and it was even worse that it had taken Harper this long to really see it. That was the only good thing Xavier had done for her, ever. Shifting in her seat at the counter, Harper observed her sister’s facial reactions as she eventually found one of the buildings that had been on the short list to check out. Of course there were criticisms to make, and Harper was already prepared with her own responses. “Ten flights is a good exercise. And the view isn’t that bad,” her finger found its way to the computer screen, showing what she was talking about. Ondina wouldn’t care, because in her world the other things already superseded the better parts of the apartment. She was positive about that one, because aside from the ‘mold’, which was not actually mold, it was within her price range and close to work.

“There’s a private lot around the corner. Unless you want me to keep it here? That way you can still see me every day.” Poking the sleeping bear was a great idea. Harper thought it was funny, a grin finding its way to her face as she reached out for the laptop as Ondina started to hand it back. She pushed it a bit too far though, and in a matter of seconds the laptop scraped against the tip of her fingers and was suddenly plummeting to the floor. The crunch of hard plastic and glass cracking was sickening, a few of the letters from the keyboard popping up and scattering across the floor as the laptop screen flickered between the apartment website and black. “Seriously Ondina?” Harper yelled, hopping off her chair and pushing at her sister’s shoulder so that she could get to her beloved laptop.

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

THE BITTERNESS IN HARPER'S TONE SAID IT ALL for Ondina. She'd always gotten more attention than her siblings, but that's what happened when you teetered on the brink of death, she wasn't going to apologise for that. "Like that's my fault," She remarked, a slight smirk on her face. It pleased her that it was true. That she never had to vie for her parents attention because it had always just been there. It was one of the few perks of being the 'sick one'. Though, that didn't mean that Harper could leave. It all seemed a little cowardly to her. Ondina was convinced she was doing it for the wrong reasons.

However, the more Ondina looked, the more she begun to realise that this was more than a tantrum. Her browser history was stocked with flat listings and estate agent sites. But, with every lance of criticism she threw, Harper seemed to bat away with a peaceful confidence. She was convinced, it would seem. "I know what you look like," Ondina said, casting a derisive look at her sister. It wasn't her visitation she required, but the safety that came in numbers. She couldn't tell Harper that, though. Not without appearing as weak as she felt. So, she did the only logical thing left to do, she tossed her sisters laptop on the floor.

Side-stepping the mess carelessly, Ondina pouted out her bottom lip as she turned her head and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Don't push me," She snapped, pushing her sister back weakly. But, Harper was already crouching down, scooping up the remains of her broken laptop. Ondina felt a stab of delight at the crime scene. "It slipped," She said innocently, strolling towards the doorway as if nothing had happened at all. "Not my fault your muggle tech is so fragile." Tilting her head, she stopped by the frame to turn back and add lightly, "I wonder if your little bike is the same..."

@harper

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Ondina Nell Weasley

11.02.2024

The strength to hold everything back when it came to Ondina had been waning over the years. Harper had barely any left and it took every ounce of her willpower not to retort like an immature child. Stooping to her sister’s level wouldn’t make her better in the end. Xavier saw it as Harper being a pushover; she wasn’t, she just wanted her siblings to understand that they didn’t need to act like idiots around her. That they could be normal like her. Instead she was treated with jeers, smashed personal belongings, and talked down to like she was an idiot. That was why moving out terrified Ondina so much. She would lose her control and she didn’t like that. Harper knew what her sister was comprised of, she had watched it incubate since they were children.

Deflecting Ondina’s feeble threat with a dismissive shake of her head, the smashing of the laptop quickly took precedent over all else. The shove Harper had given her sister was returned but considerably weaker than she had expected it to be from Ondina. Her hands were moving fast to try and gather all of the larger pieces underneath her, a mother hen protecting her egg even though it was too late. “Fuck off,” she swore, the word sounding off coming from her mouth. She was slipping, probably exactly in the manner Ondina wanted her to. And then it had to get worse once her bike was brought into the picture. The pieces of laptop in her hands were dropped onto the ground again as Harper stood up straight, jaw clenched. She didn’t feel any bigger or menacing than she normally did, but the pounding of her heartbeat in her ears and rush of adrenaline had Harper shaking in anger where she stood. “Touch my bike and you’ll be choking on your own tongue,” she threatened. “Nobody would even second guess that.”

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

CURSES NEVER FIT IN HARPER'S MOUTH THE WAY they did in Ondina's. So, whenever she did break and swear, she found an odd humour in it. It didn't have the same effect it might have otherwise, though there was certainly some power behind them as she spat at her angrily. Ondina snickered, rolling her eyes and feeling an unhealthy thrill at seeing her sister so off balance. She had always been good at getting under people's skin, Harper had been one of her very first test subjects. And in time, her sister had arranged herself to weather the storm, but Ondina still found a way in. And when she did, she seemed to rejoice.

"Ooh," Ondina jeered, her nostrils flaring as she smiled wickedly at her sister. "Don't give me a reason to retaliate." She said, as equally threatening as she seemed to lean towards Harper, as if she couldn't help herself from lingering just a moment longer. "You're no killer." And she said this like an insult, as if it were a weakness as she lifted a single brow and backed out of the room, leaving Harper to her empty threats and broken machinery. Soon, she may leave, but Ondina didn't think about that as she sauntered off. She thought about the cracks in her sisters easy facade, and she relished them.

[END]

@harper

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!