Closed Pull the Wool From My Eyes

[Sia Tofilau]

All her life, Sia had wanted to be someone special. Had worked hard to be someone her family could take pride in, who her friends and siblings could look up to. No amount of hard work was ever going to fix this though. It had been bad enough, finding out Sully was special. Was magical. The letter had caused such a fuss, Sia had spent months waiting for the other shoe to drop and everyone to reveal it was some huge prank. The second letter had arrived with much less fanfare, and Sia had watched Rene open it with a wrenching emptiness in her stomach. Some secret part of her had been hoping, waiting, for this magic society to realize there'd been some mistake, they'd missed Sia somehow and would make it up to her. But when the letter came, it wasn't for her. This world would never be for her.

Sia gripped her mobile tightly as René made another excited noise, letting him stray further down the cobbled street as she tried to reign in her emotions. She hated being here, hated being so close to all these amazing things she couldn't touch, but it wasn't René's fault, not really. Sia pushed down the hollow feeling in her chest and slipped her useless phone into her pocket before swallowing thickly and following her youngest brother down the street. She just had to keep it together, at least until René had whatever ridiculous biting cauldron or magic hat he needed, and then she could go home and scream over how unfair it all was.

 

[October Alcott]

Ever since she had left the magical world, October dreaded the rare occasions she had to come back to Obsidian Harbour. She had gotten used to walking in the muggle world, where nobody who knew her past would ever find her. The magical world was far too risky by comparison, and she found herself looking around constantly, terrified she would run into an old classmate. Even worse, Tristan could be lurking around here, for all she knew. October had worked so hard to distance her life from that humiliation, but being here it felt like her past was lurking around every corner, waiting to strike.

October was so focused on her past that she almost didn't register she was seeing a piece of her present. In the crowds of the harbour it was easy to miss an individual person, but there was no missing Sia. She was here. What was she doing here?! October froze, heart racing as she stared at her girlfriend from a distance, feeling like a deer in the headlights. An insane part of her mind thought she should hide, so Sia wouldn't find out she was a witch, but that was ridiculous. But... what was Sia doing here?! Had they been keeping the same secret all along? Or had she... figured it out, somehow? Hunted October down to confront her on her lies? That was ridiculous, but October couldn't help all the wild possibilities her mind raced through as she stood frozen mid-step.

 

[Sia Tofilau]

Sia grit her teeth, shoving her phone back in her pocket. Her parents had messaged her an image of René's shopping list, but she hadn't saved it and now the stupid thing barely worked. There was so much about magic she just didn't understand and she hated that she would never get to learn. Hated that René was prepping for a journey that she'd been cruelly blocked off from by sheer chance. At least he still had the hard copy of his list and Sia sighed, trying to focus on what they were here to do and not on the crawling, hurt creature tearing around in her chest.

"Rene! Don't run off," She called to her brother, eyes scanning the crowd till she caught sight of the top of her little brother's head. But something else caught her eye in the crowd and Sia's heart felt like it had actually skipped a beat, her entire body freezing as her eyes jumped back to a face that was so heartbreakingly familiar. "October?" Sia asked, quietly at first, stepping forward. It could be a tricky, easily, they were in a magical place after all, but despite her apparent mundanity, Sia just knew in her gut that she was actually looking at her girlfriend. She just couldn't figure out why. "Babe, what even are you doing here?" She said, stepping closer still, hand raised ever so slightly as if October would suddenly vanish in the strange stillness of the moment since their eyes had met.

 

[October Alcott]

The trance that October had fallen into at her first sight of Sia shattered when the other woman spoke, a tiny laugh of disbelief escaping her as October forced the tension from her muscles. How had this happened to her again?! She had never really understood the disbelief her dad had felt seeing Matt and April at the train station until now, and October found herself feeling a rare rush of sympathy for her father. "Oh, this is ridiculous." October couldn't help laughing, voice shaking slightly. "I was so sure you were a muggle." Even as she spoke, October tried to figure out the rest of the puzzle. Sia must have gone to another magic school - maybe Ilvermorny, or the other Hogwarts, she was fairly sure Sia didn't speak any other languages. That explained why they had never seen one another at Hogwarts. The weight she felt lift off her shoulders with the secret was an overwhelming relief, only slightly overshadowed by the fact that now she had to tell Sia about her dad's lycanthropy. "This is so weird. What... what school did you go to? It can't have been Hogwarts..." She said with a small laugh, embarrassingly feeling almost like she might cry.

 

[Sia Tofilau]

Sia felt her blood run cold when October used that word. Muggle. It came so easily from her lips and suddenly Sia felt like she was underwater. Like her brain was just treading water over some deep chasm that she knew she would start sinking down into if she so much as spared a moment to stop kicking and look down. October was asking her about schools now, laughing, looking small and unsure in a way that October never looked and Sia just knew. Felt like her head had just dropped below the water line. That once again she'd been the only one not allowed in. "You're one of them too," She said quietly, shoulders rigid as she tried to process the tangle of emotions she was feeling suddenly all at once. Confusion, hurt, betrayal, loneliness. Was Sia the only person in the entire country who wasn't secretly a witch or a wizard, was that it?

She shook her head as if to clear it, focusing back on October, still standing in front of her, possibly waiting for an answer to her question. "My brother," She said dully, waving a hand to where René had his face pressed against a shop window rather than try to explain it. There was nothing special about her and Sia wanted to leave. She'd wanted to leave the secret they'd gotten here, but she could handle seeing October here too. Knowing the one thing that had been her own, the one person she'd thought maybe could be her world, was again apart of something Sia could never even touch. "I should- We have stuff to buy," She said coldly, unable to keep eye contact with October as she brushed past to her try and catch up with René.

 

[October Alcott]

The smile died on October's lips as she took in Sia's expression, confusion rushing in to replace the nervous delight she had been feeling. Her heart sank further as Sia spoke, shocked at the tone and words both. One of them...? "One of... what?" October asked hesitantly, voice trembling slightly. "Sia, what's wrong?" She tensed as Sia tried to brush past her, the coldness of her girlfriend's demeanour sinking into her heart. She had never seen Sia like this, and it was terrifying. "Wait, talk to me, I don't understand. Is this... because I went to Hogwarts?" She asked hesitantly, grabbing Sia's arm to stop her leaving. Maybe... Sia had attended Beauxbatons, maybe she took their Quidditch rivalry more seriously. But... surely Sia would... speak French if she had, wouldn't she? She couldn't make the pieces add up, and it was terrifying October.

 

[Sia Tofilau]

Sia froze when October grabbed her, arms and shoulders tensing. October seemed to be playing innocent, as if she didn't know Sia was constantly the butt of the joke no matter who she was talking to. "Am I the only person not allowed in your bloody stupid, little club, is that it?" Sia spat, turning to face October. "Everyone else gets to be special and magical and I'm not allowed. You, both my brothers, half the bloody country apparently." She gripped her arms, trying to hold herself together and hold onto the rage and betrayal. Sia just knew if she let go of it for even just a second she'd start crying. And she still needed to pick up René's stupid books. "I mean, I guess I should have known there was something special about you. Didn't I always tell you?" She gave a wry laugh, alarmed when it came out choked and wet. "It's just so unfair. Haven't I always worked hard? Why I am the only one who doesn't get to be apart of this." She looked at October, eyes imploring, as if October could somehow snap her fingers and just fix the growing pit in Sia's stomach. She was a witch after all apparently, maybe she could.

 

[October Alcott]

October had been in fights before, been yelled at before, but she didn't think anyone had ever been as angry at her as Sia seemed to be right now. Certainly not anyone she loved. She opened and closed her mouth, trying to figure out where she had gone wrong when it hit her. Sia was a squib. Her heart hurt at the clear pain in her girlfriend's voice, but no matter how much she was hurting, October couldn't bite back her own hurt at the way Sia had spoken to her. "I'm... sorry you're hurting." She said slowly, voice stiff as she let go of Sia's arm and stepped back. "But I'm not... responsible for that. I didn't do anything to you. And I'm not... going to be talked to like I did. If... if you calm down enough to apologise, you know where I live." It was hard to talk around the lump in her throat but October did her best, giving Sia one last pain-filled look before apparating home, where she was free to let sobs consume her. Maybe it had been stupid to think she finally deserved love.

 

[Sia Tofilau]

October didn't make it better. Sia didn't know why she had expected the next things out of her girlfriend's mouth to somehow fix all this, but it still stung when they didn't. She scoffed, bitterly, when October said she could come apologize to her when she'd calmed down. She wanted to shout and scream, but she never got the chance, October disappearing with a pop of air that had Sia flinching back in surprise. "No one ever apologized to me!" She said furiously the empty air where October had been, wrapping her arms back around her torso. She could see René wandering back from where ever he'd been and wished she could have done what October did. Just popped out of existence. Squeezing her eyes shut, Sia took a few short, hiccuping breaths, trying valiantly to push the screaming unfairness back down so she could finish this shopping trip before falling apart in the privacy of her own apartment. Maybe the long, drive and then walk back home would help her get things back under control.