THE OWL PROXY - james potter

two

Sitting on the ledge of her sister's bed in clothes that weren't her own, Karawek Rice took in a deep breath as she watched her reflection do the same, her brown eyes looking back up at her from the handheld mirror in her palms. Even though she still looked like herself, it felt as though she was staring into a portrait of Kanda instead, where her once long hair had been cut down to her chin and her wardrobe, full of pinks and purples, had been replaced with everything Gryffindor red. As it were, her appearance was only one of the many battles she had lost over the summer, but between the two twins, luckily her hair wasn't the biggest sacrifice either of them had to make.

Her gaze drifting towards the wall where Kanda's beloved Cleansweep Six sat up against, all the while very conscious of the way her short hair bounced as her head turned, Karawek tried not to feel relieved when she thought about how bad she was at riding it. Just like they had planned, the two of them had spent all summer long getting ready for the school year, where Kanda took the mornings to coach Karawek and Karawek took the evenings to tutor Kanda. But no matter how hard either of them tried, both of their predictions had been right—Kanda would never have been able to catch up by September 1st with just studying alone, and Karawek, who can barely even walk without slamming her shoulder into something, definitely fell on her arse one too many times.

She could still feel the bruises.

"Kanda," a teasing voice called out to her, startling her out of her thoughts. It was strange turning to a name that wasn't her own, something that Karawek was slowly getting used to during the past week or two of sleeping in Kanda's room, and it was even stranger turning to someone pretending to be... well, her. Karawek smiled down at her, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed over her chest. "Don't look so stressed. I already told you it's for the best—at the rate we were going, you'd blow our cover the second you stepped out onto the field."

At that, it was all Karawek could do to frown, a twinge of guilt causing her to gulp at the sight of her sister in her favorite pink cardigan. Though Kanda certainly did not fare any better in her studies, at least she was still going to try. Karawek, on the other hand, just gave up, the broom set to collect dust during the school year.

Looking down one last time at the mirror in her palms, she set it aside, ashamed.

"Not to mention how happy it made Mum and Dad I'm taking a hiatus," Kanda continued, ignoring the way her heart ached in her chest as she spoke. After all, Karawek was already doing a lot for her, and though she worried about what would come of her place on the team when she returned in sixth year, it was more important to her that Karawek felt confident they were doing the right thing. "They've been asking me to do this for years. They'll be so focused on this high they're bound to overlook any slip-ups we make between now and the train, which..."

They both looked at the clock perched on Kanda's bedstand.

"Leaves in exactly two hours from now. Are you all packed?"

Rolling her eyes, Karawek gestured towards the black trunk in the corner of the room, its outer shell absolutely drowning in—you guessed it—stickers of Kanda's favorite Quidditch team, the Montrose Magpies. "I've been ready since last night. I'm not like you, you know. The whole waiting until the last minute thing isn't really my style."

"Well, you're not really you anymore, remember?" Kanda walked up to the luggage and crouched down beside it. She lowered her voice so that their mum, Sunee, the unlucky half of their parents who had to take off work to see Karawek—er, Kanda—off, didn't have a chance of overhearing them from the kitchen downstairs. "Now, if I open this, will I find Kanda things or Kara things?"

Karawek blushed before, in the most convincing voice she could muster, saying, "Kanda things! I promise."

"You know," Kanda started, stifling a laugh. She was already unclasping the trunk. "For a girl who's going to pretend to be me for a year, you're really a terrible liar. Honestly, I'd be concerned if it wasn't so amusing."