It was easy to avoid my father for the last month and a half of school.
At home, not so much.
It's hard to avoid someone when you live in the same house as them. I spent most of the summer squirrelled away in my room with Victoria playing devil's advocate with the two of us.
"Ha!" she declared, bursting into my room one day in late August, "Ha, ha, ha."
"Do I want to ask?" I said tiredly, not looking up from the essay I was almost finished writing.
Well, editing. I had had plenty of time to finish my homework within the first week of being home, now I was just obsessively going back over it again and again because I had nothing better to do.
"We've got our school letters, and we have to go get our supplies. Together."
"I don't need to go," I pointed out.
"Dad always forces us to go. Otherwise, I would have bowed out years ago."
"I think he'll make an exception."
"Are you willing to bet on that?"
I finally dropped my quill and looked up at my sister.
"How much have you got?"
"Oh, you're that cocky, now are you? What happened to the sweet sister I had this time last year."
"Life's too short to be worrying about what other people think about you," I said grimly.
Victoria didn't know what I meant - I hadn't told her, and neither had our father. That much I could be sure of when it came to him.
"Dad!" she called.
I was sure he either wasn't going to hear her or just wasn't going to come, but he must have been in his office and not realised where she was, because less than thirty seconds later he appeared in my doorway.
He looked like he immediately regretted it.
"Do we have to go to Diagon Alley to get our school supplies?"
"Of course we do, Victoria, it's the same every year," he replied testily.
"Freya too, right?"
"Well, if she wants to."
"What?" Victoria exclaimed, her mouth agape.
"If you'll excuse me, I have work to do."
He left, leaving Victoria to turn to me, still gaping.
"How much do you owe me?"
"We never shook on it."
"You're just trying to get out of it."
"How... why? Why would he say that? What happened between the two of you? I've watched you try to avoid each other all summer, and it's just about driving me insane."
"Insanity is a serious thing, not something to joke about," I said, stifling a laugh.
Victoria collapsed down on my bed, her arms spread wide as she sighed.
"If you want me to pay attention to you, mission accomplished. I'm already talking to you."
"I want you to answer my questions, Freya. You've been avoiding them. What happened?"
"Would you believe me if I said nothing?"
"No."
"Well, it's the only answer you're getting."
YOU ARE READING
Broken Feathers || Marauders Era
FanfictionFor Freya Sallow, it seemed like she had the worst luck in the world. She was born into a high achieving pureblood family, with sky-high expectations of her from the moment she opened her eyes. Her mother died when she was young, leaving her to be r...
