THE OWL PROXY - james potter

one

"No. No, absolutely not. I'm not doing that."

With her back pressed up against the doorframe and her foot haphazardly keeping their front door open, a struggling Karawek Rice let out a huff that carried through to her shoulders. As she tugged tirelessly on her trunk's handle to no avail, her luggage too heavy for someone who hasn't exercised since flunking out of Little League Quidditch as a kid, it quickly became clear to her that her physical prowess was the root to only half of her frustration. The other half, unfortunately, was her sister's absolutely ridiculous scheme, one she hasn't shut up about since the moment Karawek first stepped out of the Beauxbatons carriage for the summer.

Kanda, who threw her head back like she had any right to be incredulous, guffawed. "What? You've barely even heard me out! I swear I've thought this through."

"Right," Karawek immediately shot back, the slight French accent in her words stark against her sister's overtly British one. She rolled her eyes. "You're not exactly well known for coming up with good plans. Remember Mum's take-your-kid-to-work day? And how it ended with you contaminating an entire floor of patients with mumblemumps because you just couldn't wait to get home?"

Kanda blanched. "We were nine! I was a different person then!"

"Right," she said again. Shaking her head, Karawek breathed out, "A different person. And I'm just supposed to believe that when you're right here trying to convince me to parent trap our boarding schools. Can you even hear a word you're saying?"

"Like I said," Kanda started, an exasperated but pleading tone to her voice, "I've thought this through."

Karawek just looked at her, unsure of how else to tell her no, and let her deadpan expression communicate everything she had and hadn't said about the whole idea for her. Then, without missing a beat, she made a show of continuing her efforts towards dragging her trunk in, heaving with another futile attempt as it scraped against the door threshold at her feet. It barely moved an inch.

"Look," Kanda started again. This time, Karawek could hear the strain in her words. "I know how crazy this sounds, but you know how Mum and Dad are. Please. Just let me explain."

As she felt her resolve breaking, it was all Karawek could do to tear her gaze away from her sister's pleading face and just give in. After all, hearing Kanda out wouldn't be a death sentence. It could just be a fun thought experiment, and it didn't mean she was saying yes. So, with one last huff, Karawek shot a defeated glance towards her sister.

"Fine," she said. "But first you have to help me bring this damned thing in."

~⋆~

When Kanda first stepped off of Hogwarts Express and onto Platform 9 and ¾ just a few days before Karawek was set to return from Beauxbatons, she knew she had a big problem she had no idea how to solve. It was, of course, a long time coming. As every school year passed, the talk about the O.W.L.s only became more and more frequent, and with all the extra extensions and tutoring her professors generously gave her to help her catch up, she really had no excuse to be so far behind.

(Well, if you asked her, she might argue otherwise. How else do you think she won Gryffindor the Quidditch Cup with the winning shot that broke their tie with Slytherin? She lived and breathed on that field.)

Listening to her best friend, Harper Stevens, gripe about the upcoming exams the entire ride home definitely did not help anything, but that was nothing compared to spotting her parents, dressed top to bottom in their work robes, standing in the crowd. How am I supposed to compete with that? she thought. Her mother, the best healer in the continent, and her father, the head of his own department in the ministry? Kanda was just lucky her sister, who was at the top of her class, wasn't here to pick her up too—the sight of all that success at once might have just done her in for good.