Sighing, I sat crossed leg on the wearing sofa and hugged a pillow to my chest. Sev was upstairs, ignoring it as he always did, and I was sitting right in the middle of it all, watching them go back and forth at each other as though I didn't even exist. That's how it always was though. When the two of them were at it, suddenly their children were no longer alive, and it was just the two of them and their vicious arguing.

It hurt, watching them over and over again, but I couldn't help but not leave. I sat and watched every argument they've had since I was born, and I hated every minute of it. And yet, still, I found it fascinating. Fascinating in a sense that people who loved each other enough to have two children could go from all of that love to all of this hatred in a matter of minutes, hours, days, months, years. And the fighting did drag on for years.

I rested my chin on the heel of my hand and watched. He yelled, she yelled, then back to him. It was a pattern. One word, long paragraphs, fragments, a sentence. They followed the same format of fighting every time, and I couldn't help but wonder if they rehearsed before they put on a show. They had to, somewhere, know I sat and watched them over countless arguments, they had to know the affect it had on both Sev and I. It wasn't like that would stop them though.

With one final, dramatic sentence, daddy was out the door and mummy fell into a plush chair and sobbed. I stood and padded over to her chair, taking a seat on the arm and placing a hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay, mummy," I whispered, just as I always did when the fighting stopped. "I still love you."

Of course, I wasn't sure if I did love her or not. Her, daddy, or Sev to be honest. I was very fond of each of them, but if they called what they had love, then I didn't very much wish to be apart of it. I didn't believe love, as most people defined it, existed. Fondness though was an entirely different story. I held a high fondness for each of my family members, even if they did do a lot to upset me.

Mum looked up at me, her eyes already red and puffed, her thin lips pulled down to a frown. She lifted a thin hand and pushed dark strands of hair from my face.

"Go upstairs now, Ophelia."

Nodding, I stood again and scurried up the steps to leave mum to do her crying alone. It was all very well if I watched her and daddy goign at each other's throats, but I wasn't allowed to see her cry for some reason. It wasn't as though I didn't know mums were allowed to cry. Everyone was allowed to cry, especially older brothers.

My fingers danced along the doorknob to Sev's bedroom, I twisted it open and walked in. He was sitting on his bed with his knees hugged to his chest, Hogwarts books scattered along the sheets. I moved over to the bed and took a seat after moving a few books out of the way. He didn't look at me, but I smiled all the same.

"Are you okay?"

It was a silly question, I knew he was upset. But it was still polite to ask.

"Fine."

Placing a hand on his knee as I would do to mum's shoulder, I tilted my head and smiled again. He still refused to look at me, and I saw a tear fall from his eye. I always hated to see Sev cry, more than mum (when she let me see her cry), and more than when I cried myself. I didn't do it often, but when Sev cried, I wanted to cry too.

"We should go visit Lily today." I suggested, knowing his best friend would be able to cheer him up better than I could. I envied Lily in a way, to how close she was with my brother, closer than I was to him. It wasn't that fair.

"It's late."

"Oh." So it was. I could be unobservant at times. "Tomorrow then."

He gave a sort of stiff nod, and I crawled to sit myself beside him, leaning my head on his shoulder. I smiled a little as he rested his head ontop of mine, even though he didn't talk. Sev wasn't the most talkative, but when you got him in a good conversation, he could go on for quite some time. I enjoyed having conversations with Sev, whether it be about happy subjects like Hogwarts and friends, or unpleasant subjects like mum and dad. He was a good older brother.

It was a shame we were in two different Houses. Sev was placed in Slytherin, while the sorting hat saw it fit to place me in Ravenclaw instead. I didn't mind too much though, I enjoyed being a Ravenclaw, and saw that Sev enjoyed being in Slytherin, even if Lily was a Gryffindor. I suppose it was wrong of me to secretly enjoy the fact that Sev and Lily were in separate Houses, there was a slight hope the two fueding Houses would break away their friendship.

For Sev's sake. And for Lily's too, I suppose. I overheard him telling himself in the mirror that he loved her one day. I didn't want what happened to mum and dad to ever happen to my Sev.

"I'm going to bed now." he spoke suddenly.

I only nodded and slid my legs off the side of the bed, turning to look over my shoulder at my brother, giving him a brief hug goodbye.

"Nigh, Sev."

I smiled and glided out the door and down the hall to my own, little bedroom. Ignoring my mum's muffled sobs from down the staircase, just as Sev tried to ignore their fighting. Only I could ignore better than he could. He tried to, but he still heard. I tried to, and succeeded.

Closing the door behind me, I walked to my dresser to pick out pajamas and ready myself for bed. I would try to sleep in for as long as I could the next morning, after all it was the final day of summer vacation.

oXo

The final day of summer vacation seemed to waste away. I spent most of the day inside, sleeping upside down beneath my paper thin comforter, having the most peculiar dreams about unicorns. I wondered into the forest at school my First Year and sat with them before, sitting before real live unicorns who saw me as no threat. I wasn't supposed to go in the forest though, and got in trouble for doing so. I don't see how playing with unicorns was such an awful thing to do, but I never did it again.

People were mad at me for losing points from our House. And Sev was mad at me because he said I could get hurt. I don't like it when Sev's mad.

When I finally walked down the steps, I found daddy sprawled out on the sofa, and mum sitting in the kitchen muttering to herself. I stretched, yawned, and walked in to pour myself a glass of morning milk. Everyone else went undisturbed, although I was a tad upset when I read Sev's note on the fridge.

He had gone to go see Lily without me.

I took a seat across from mum at the table, watching as she spoke to herself. She had been doing that a lot lately, but I didn't see it as too weird, she must be where I got it from. Although, I never looked so sad when I talked to myself, I took to believe it was daddy's fault she did it, why she looked so sad. She mad daddy look sad too, and both of them made Sev look sad. All three of them made me sad too then, and I didn't want to be sad on the final day of summer.

"I'm going for a walk." I said, placing my glass in the sink, but mum didn't seem to hear me.

I left to walk back up the steps, to brush my teeth and hair, and to change out of my pajamas and into more appropriate clothes to go out in. That wasn't saying much though, all of my clothes had something off with them. My shorts were a bit short, my tank top had two holes down both sides, and so I hard to wear one of daddy's button down, black and silver striped shirts over it. The shirt was long on the sleeves, but it made me smile to wear something of daddy's, and that he let me wear it; he didn't even mind that I tied it up front instead of buttoning it, so it didn't go down too long.

My sandals were down by the door, I slipped them on and walked out, greeting the bright summer day with a smile. It was already starting to get cold, September first was pushing passed August thirty-first fast. It wasn't fair to poor August.

Breaking into a slight skip, I hurried away from Spinner's End and into whatever direction I felt like. I had a feeling both Sev and Lily were over at the Evans household, but I didn't want to check if they weren't there. Lily's sister was mean. I didn't have much of a fondness for her. Petunia, I think her name was. It was cute that their names were both flowers.

Absently, I found my way to the playground and sat myself down on a swing. I hadn't even noticed that I was there, but I didn't mind. Subconsciously, I wanted to have one final swing before leaving to school the following day. I wanted to swing so much, it seemed, that I went well passed darkness.

"Ophelia!"

Blinking, my swing halted to a stop, and I looked around the lamp-lit playground, and saw two people hurrying towards me.

"Mummy?"

"No, Ophelia, what are you doing?"

Oh, it was Sev and Lily. I smiled in greeting to them.

"Swinging." I said with a smile. "Do you want to join me?"

Lily gave me a half-hearted smile, holding her hand out to me. Blinking, I took it, then smiled a little and held my arm out for Sev to link with. He shook his head, but did so.

"We're going home then?"

"We're going home."

I pouted, and looked over my shoulder at the swingset. Summer was officially over.

They told me about their day, happily remniscing about how fun it was, the ice cream they ate, thinking about what would happen when they returned to school, and then random things like Hogsmeade visits and their latests visits to Diagon Alley. Sev, Lily, and I all went the week before, so I was able to recount the event with them when they recounted it again.

We dropped Lily off, and she promised to see us at the station the next day. Sev and I started back on our way home, quietly at first, until Sev started up.

"Is father home?"

"He was when I left. He was asleep though." I said softly. "Whenever I see him he's either yelling or asleep."

"You see him more than I do." He paused for a moment. "Why do you watch them?"

I shrugged. "It's the only time I see them together." I said. "And... Well it's interesting."

"Interesting?" he snorted.

"Depressing." I added, nodding a little. "That people in love could hurt each other so much."

"They don't love each other anymore, Ophelia."

"They aren't fond of each other anymore." I corrected.

"Huh?"

"Love's not real, Sev."

He seemed to fall behind for a moment, so I slowed for him to catch up. Smiling, I held my hand out to him as we rounded the corner to Spinner's End. He was quiet for the rest of the walk home, and stayed downstairs while I went up to bed.

We had to awake early though. School was tomorrow.