Hogwarts.
The name inspires a certain reaction amongst all beings of the hidden world. It's a faraway gleam in the eyes, a mischievous chuckle, a longing sigh, a curious tilt of the head, a serious nod of respect; it's something of myth and legend and it was no exaggeration when people said it was the finest institution for the education of young people of the magical orientation in Britain and perhaps even the world.
Each and every one of those reactions Olli had experienced and each and every one would amount to nothing. It was perplexing to her, that her mother would send her daughter's to a school on the other side of the world so they got an education, but sending them to Scotland was too big an ask. "That school will ruin our little family" she was fond of crying out whenever the topic was broached. The funny thing about that statement was that most people who weren't Imelda Goshawk agreed that the ruin of her little family had occurred roughly when her husband had caught her in a very compromising position ( wheelbarrow, for anyone who was remotely interested) with her brother-in-law.
But that was beside the point, the point was, Olli and her siblings had as much chance of attending as they did of being adopted by pooh bear. Come to think on it, Pooh bear would have made a better parent than her mother. Certainly more warm, and far less annoying. And the bear would never have encouraged his daughter's to " marry a rich man and divorce the sod" when asked what a good job was.
Thankfully, Olli had spent less than 2 months every year with her mother since age 7. This also meant however she spent next to no time with her dad which also led to the no time spent with her best friends or her beloved pets. This may have been tolerable if she was enjoying herself at her boarding school in Australia but the list of complaints the girl had about that school would fill a hefty investigative report.
The school was so unstructured, if she felt like it she could attend class a few times a week and get away with it, the uniform was exactly what was to be expected for a school run by nuns with rather alternative views to child education , the rules about not spending time with people not in your own classes made her head hurt and if she had to listen to another lecture about self-control from the nuns after some harmless fun, she would seriously consider really giving them something to lecture her for.
All in all, the girl was miserable most days. On one of these bright Sydney days that mocked her terrible mood she was sitting in secret behind the old greenhouses that had long since been given up on with her sister, Flora.
Heads on each-others shoulders, sitting in silence, the differences in their appearances were more marked than normal. Though the three sisters had been born triplets, they may as well have been babies picked at random from the nursery on their parent's way out. Where Olli was tall, lean, pale and had long since accepted that the comparisons between her and Wednesday Addams were inevitable, Flora was slim , tanned, and the picture of the blonde haired, blue eyed sweetheart. Their youngest sister Kelly had always been the spitting image of their mother, an ice queen from birth with the beautiful but haunted appearance and cold eyes of an actress.
The pair sat still, not speaking, just comfortably enjoying the presence of their best friend. Finally Flora broke her silence "so, has mummy dearest, called you this week?" referring to their Mother with a twisted snarl over their mother's name.
Olli's resentment of her mother paled in comparison to Flora's. Flora, in nature, was a kind, generous soul who was missing the ability to hurt just about anyone, This meant that she herself was as vulnerable as a kitten to other's hurting her. Her mother's betrayal and the cold indifference she experienced at her mother's hands had left a scar that had never healed. Olli on the other hand, had long since decided that her mother would only have to be in her life until she became a legal adult and therefore was less concerned by the neglect she dealt with not to mention that she had mastered the art of siphoning all her emotions into little compartments to be left alone until she errupted.
"Mum hasn't called, at last check in with the dragon queen, she had a new stepfather in the works, and was threatening to clean the house again, so nothing major" They both giggled at that. "Heard from Papa?" Olli asked, this however was asked with concern. For every time those girls screamed that they hated their mother, counted how many days they had left before they escaped, stayed out of the house to avoid their mother and her "gentlemen callers" ; they uttered a silent thankyou that they at least had the world's greatest Dad.
Imelda Cryer had hoodwinked Hank Goshawk into Marriage almost straight out of university. She had pressured him for months before he cracked and within a month of their marriage she began her new game of pressuring him for babies. By the time their four daughters had been born, they hated each other. She hated him for his refusal to do anything that would allow her to fulfil her social ambitions and he resented her frivolous behaviour and leaving the kids to be cared for by him, finally divorcing when their sister Elanora contracted a terminal illness. It was this act that severed the final ties between Imelda and her family.
" Hank ( for their father believed that calling him dad would create at an atmosphere of superiority in the household) called for us last night while you slept, he wanted to talk to us together or something, it was late, I was hungry, I don't particularly remember," Olli let out another peal of tinkling giggles " Flora, I will pay you 10 galleons and my last bertie botts banned baddies box to name a time you were not starving" Flora gently elbowed her sister gently, still treating her out of habit like something breakable, Olli wished she wouldn't. They stayed like this for hours, talking, laughing, once or twice singing
Their laughs echoed through the greenhouse, their words crashing into each other, their bodies mirroring the other's movements, this little weekly meeting making up for the irritation that was attending Sister Ella's College for Girls. At that moment, the phenomena of children who were born at the same moment sharing thoughts happened and at that second they agreed with a look, that something most definitely, had to change.