Sister Struggles

[Lizzie Parker-Taylor]

"Come on, just a quick fly?" Lizzie took hold of Caro's wrist, squeezing imploringly. "We haven't done anything together in forever and we live together again now, even if you're on the other side of the castle, let's go outside and throw a quaffle around and catch up!" She smiled encouragingly. Caro had never been the keenest on running around outside with her and dad, but she had never been this reluctant before. She had barely looked at Lizzie since arriving at Hogwarts, and Lizzie didn't know where this standoffishness had come from. Had she done or said something wrong over the holidays? Lizzie didn't want to drift even further from the baby sister she already barely got along with, but how to reconnect with someone who didn't seem interested at all?

 

[Caro Taylor]

Caro scowled, yanking her wrist away from Lizzie with a bit of trouble. Who did she think she was?! Caro had barely even gotten here yet and Lizzie was already trying to make Caro be just like her again, drag her back into Lizzie's shadow, where any time Caro tried anything Lizzie did she was labelled the less talented sister, the less capable sister, trying her hardest but never as good as the golden child. Well Caro wasn't gonna let it happen. Not this time. Lizzie could shine all she wanted on the Quidditch field, but Caro wouldn't be going near it, thank you very much. This was the start of her adventure, her time to find her own path to greatness. "Leave me alone!" Caro snapped, stepping back and glaring at Lizzie. "I said, I don't wanna hang out with you! I can make my own friends, just go away!" She stormed back, deeper into the castle, hurrying to leave Lizzie behind.

 

[Sophie Wilson]

Sophie was taking a walk through the school on her own, trying to mentally map out where everything was. The last thing she wanted was to be one of those firsties that got lost on the first day and other people laughed at, or worse, pitied. The school was big and still impressive to her, even though she really didn't want to admit it. Amber's descriptions really hadn't done it justice, if she was honest. But then again, Amber's imagination had always lacked a little bit.

She was just walking through the Entrance Hall to see what other places it connected to when she heard two girls arguing. The older one of the two seemed to be trying to convince the younger to do something with her. But the younger wasn't having it. It sounded oddly familiar to her, even though in her own experience the subject had never been flying. She knew at once that these two were sisters, and not just because they looked similar. The younger girl pulled away from the older and walked in Sophie's direction. For a moment, Sophie was sure she wasn't going to say or do anything but just as the girl had almost passed her, she said something almost without thinking about it. "Older sisters can suck, huh?" She heard herself say. For a second she contemplated running away after saying it and pretending it hadn't happened, but she was actually a little curious about this girl now. If her sister was anything like Amber, she had to feel just as stifled as Sophie did.

 

[Caro Taylor]

Caro's mind was roiling with bitterness and distrust of Lizzie, and it took a second for the strange girl's words to actually pierce her thoughts. It was an excellent point though, and Caro slowed to a stop, nodding and turning to look at the girl. "They do." She said, sending a frowning glance back at where she had left Lizzie, but her older sister was gone, no doubt swanning off to go fly around and make everyone love her, just like usual. "Is yours here too?"

 

[Sophie Wilson]

Sophie nodded, feeling a kinship to this girl already at the tone she had when talking about her own sister. It seemed all too familiar. This girl's sister even looked to be a similar age to Amber. Maybe they were in the same year? "Yep." She said as she walked with her. "You're speaking to the often forgotten younger sister of Princess Amber Wilson, the first." She snorted. "Beloved by all, the sweetest and most gentle girl in the world that has the best grades in the school and a ton of friends, she also looks adorable all the time and is never caught not smiling. She may be an actual robot, the jury is still out on that front." The words came out of her mouth without thinking and she paused. "Well. I guess I exaggerate a bit. If you ever see a girl that looks like me but slightly taller, dressed in pastel, and followed by a tall redhead, it's probably her." She sighed. "At least I'm not in the same house as her." Okay, enough sharing of her own. "So, what's yours like?"

 

[Caro Taylor]

Caro couldn't hold back a small, disbelieving laugh. She had never met anyone before who understood what it was like to live in the shadow of such a shining sister, but even though Amber sounded like a different kind of person, Sophie's feelings about her sounded identical to how Caro felt about her own sister. "She sounds awful to live with." She said sympathetically. "Lizzie's more of a jock, everyone loves her because she was born with a stupid broom in her hand or whatever. Our family runs a ski lodge and she's always helped dad out with teaching people so they can oooh and aah over what a prodigy she is, then they come back to the lodge and it's blah blah Lizzie blah all the time, everyone just loves her sooooo much." She rolled her eyes. "It's the worst. I'm not in the same house as her either, thank god, but there's no way I can even think about playing Quidditch, everyone would just compare me to her."

 

[Sophie Wilson]

Sophie grimaced at Caro's description of her sister. "Wow, yours sounds bad too." She said, nodding. "I don't really like jocks all that much, at least in my experience they tend to be jerks." Which mostly came from books, not that she would mention that. "Sorry to say yours sounds awful to live with too. What year is she in?" She was curious if Amber would know her. Though they didn't seem like the types to be friends. "A ski lodge sounds pretty cool, though." She admitted. "I mean, I'd probably be hopeless on skis but you know, for people that do actually have a sense of balance it might be fun." She shrugged. "Do you want to play quidditch, though?" Sophie couldn't imagine why, but she still wanted to be supportive in a small way. "I'd say just go for it if you do... though I think quidditch is sorta lame, no offense."She just didn't get why there were people flying after little balls like their life depended on it. It was silly to her. "If you're not in your sister's house and you're not in mine, which one are you in?" She asked the other girl as she glanced at her. "I'm in the nerd house, the bird one." She knew the name but it felt funnier to just describe it in words. "And my sister's in the one for total wimps." She snorted. "Hufflepuff, the name alone is enough to make me want to throw up glitter." Only after saying it she realized this girl might be in that house. Well, if that was the case at least she had attempted friendship even if it was short-lived.

 

[Caro Taylor]

Caro sighed, nodding slowly. "I wish she was a jerk." She mumbled. "She's sooooo nice and funny and interesting, everyone always loves her. She's perfect, and I'm just the other one." Caro scowled, resentment dripping from her tone. It wasn't even that Lizzie was better than her at everything, but nobody saw any value in the things Caro was good at, like her accomplishments didn't matter. "She's a third year... what about your sister?" She hesitated, suddenly not sure how to talk about home now that she wasn't there. "Skiing is... actually pretty fun, once you get the hang of it. Ice skating's always been my favourite though."

Caro shrugged, still not sure how she felt about Quidditch. "I dunno... Quidditch is fine, but playing it all the time would get boring. And I don't wanna have to play against her, I just know I'd lose and everyone would go on about it." She sighed, looking away, and was relieved when the other girl changed the subject. "I'm in Slytherin, and Lizzie's in Gryffindor. I think the hat was gonna put me with her, but I asked it not to." She pulled a face.

 

[Sophie Wilson]

Sophie sighed. She knew exactly what the girl was saying. "I wish Amber was a jerk too, sometimes. It would be easier if everyone didn't just fall over themselves loving her so much. It sounds like we have similar situations." Eerily similar, even. Caro was describing her own feelings pretty well, which was honestly a bit unnerving and in any other circumstance, Sophie would probably have found an excuse to leave. She didn't like talking about feelings. But at the same time, she had never met someone else that felt the same way about a sister. "I'm not very good at sports." She said with a shrug. "And honestly, it's a bit of a waste of time. Isn't it? At least Amber is as rubbish at it as I am, that's one thing she doesn't beat me in." She smiled a bit. "I'm better on a broom." She added. "Though still, I don't know why anyone would play Quidditch for fun."

"My sister is a third year too!" She told Caro, starting to get a little bit creeped out by the similarities. "But she's in Hufflepuff. I'm in Ravenclaw." She paused. "So I guess between the four of us, we've got all houses covered. I think the hat might have put me in Hufflepuff too, it said I would do well there." She scoffed. "As if, if they're all like Amber I would probably have been expelled for murder in about a week. But Ravenclaw isn't all that great either. Some of the girls are so loud, and one brought in a dead animal into the dorm." She wrinkled her nose. "Well, a skeleton anyway. Why would anyone do that? It gave me the creeps."

 

[Caro Taylor]

Caro nodded thoughtfully, looking the other girl over again. She had never met anyone who felt the same way about their sister as she did before, and it was surprisingly refreshing. Maybe Caro was finally going to get a friend all her own, for the first time. "I'm Caro, by the way. I just realised I didn't know your name..." She said quickly. "Silly how that happens, isn't it?" She smiled, hoping to steer the conversation away from their sisters, get to know the other girl a little. "Quidditch is pretty boring." She agreed. "I've always liked sports where you don't need other people better, just flying by yourself is fun, and ice skating is awesome."

Caro pulled a face as the girl described her rooommates. "Ew! That's so gross! My roommates are just boring and some are kind of snobby, nobody's actually been gross.... why did she even do that?"

 

[Sophie Wilson]

Sophie hadn't really expected to make many friends here at Hogwarts, especially not this soon. But she liked Caro, at least, she liked complaining with her. Never before had she met someone she had this in common with, so it was refreshing. It was surprising when the other girl introduced herself, they had been talking so much that it hadn't even occurred to her that they didn't know each other's name. "Oh, right. I'm Sophie." She told her, giving her a nod.

She couldn't really relate to Caro's enjoyment of flying and ice skating, as she had never really enjoyed anything like that. She didn't really want to talk about how much she disliked things Caro liked, though, that would make a bad impression. Since when did she care about impressing someone? Well, she didn't. She did not. She just wanted to change the subect.

She was glad her story about the dorm had gotten a reaction. It was a bit ridiculous and gross. "Yes! It's disgusting. Snobby and boring sounds loads better than the weirdo group I got. At least snobby people are easy to shut up." She shrugged. "This girl fancies herself some sort of genius or something. She's been talking about animating the skeleton. I told her that if she does that it's going out the window. No contest. I'm not living in a room with living zombie skeletons." She shuddered. "She just seems weird." She hesitated. "What's Slytherin like, anyway? Is it any good?"

 

[Caro Taylor]

"Nice to meet you, Sophie." Caro smiled. It felt good to be making a friend here already. Sophie seemed nice, and actually sensible, and it was refreshing to just talk with someone so easily. Usually her conversations with people turned into Caro listening to their stories for hours on end, and as much as she enjoyed that, it felt freeing to chat with someone on the same level, and share some stories of her own.

Caro winced. "That sounds so gross, your dorm must be awful... I'd throw the whole girl out the window if she was trying to bring a gross zombie to life in our room." Caro shrugged uncertainly at Sophie's next question, her own roommates now seeming much tamer by comparison. "Slytherin is just... sort of damp and boring. It's down in the dungeon, so we don't have any windows and everything's kinda nasty. The people don't really talk much, but they seem sort of stuck up for the most part. This one girl in my dorm actually talks like she's from the past, I swear no joke she packed doilies to put on her bedside tables. What kinda kid owns doilies?!"

 

[Sophie Wilson]

Sophie nodded eagerly at Caro's exclamation of it sounding gross. It was always nice to get some validation when she was complaining. It was a shame Caro wasn't in Ravenclaw like her, she would have actually liked her being her dorm-mate. She still would have preferred to have more privacy in a room of her own, but if she had to sleep in a room with other girls she wished she at least liked the girls. She laughed at Caro's suggestion of throwing the girl out of the window. "If she wasn't a head taller than me, I would consider it."

Caro's description of the Slytherin Common Room made Sophie glad she was sorted into Ravenclaw. She loved the view from the windows and the idea that they were high up in the air. A dungeon would stifle her. Sophie laughed in disbelief as Caro described one of the girls in her dorm. "Doilies?" She asked, catching her breath. She didn't laugh very often but the mental image was too funny. "Doilies!? What year is she from? You should ask her that, like. Hey what time were you traveling from when your time turner malfunctioned and spit you out here?" She shook her head, smiling in disbelief. "I can't believe that, I'm starting to like dead lizard girl more and more."

 

[Caro Taylor]

Caro giggled at Sophie's comment about lizard girl, nodding in agreement. "She talks like she's from a couple of hundred years ago too, it's so annoying, like, who do you think you are?" She pulled a face. "Slytherin sucks, it's so boring." As she and Sophie continued their conversation, comparing roommates and classes, the two made their way up to the common room to chat more, forging what felt like to Caro the beginning of the first real lasting friendship she had ever made.

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