The smell of soot drifted through the room, finding cracks and corners to hide in. Everywhere there was ash throughout the room, as if someone hadn't cleaned in days. A midst the soot a young girl was twirling a stick, and humming, her eyes focused on the task before her. As she moved the stick, the ash drifted up and formed a cyclone that started to take form, but before it could take any shape, a loud voice startled the girl, and the ash fell to the floor.
"What is going on here?" The voice in question came from a tall brunette who looked like she could be no more than twenty-seven, her eyes piercing green, and her hair tied back into a tight french braid. She was wearing the official signia of the ministry of magic, as well as the pin that labelled her the ministress. "What are you doing? This place is filthy and mother will be back any moment."
"S-sorry." The younger girl stuttered, as the older girl walked briskly over to her and pulled her up by her arm. As she did ash fell from her blouse and skirt, littering the floor even more. The younger girl's bright blonde hair looking almost the same color as her older sister, and a mark of soot on her cheek where she had obviously brushed back her hair.
"I honestly don't know what is the matter with you, you are 15 years old, when are you going to act like it. Honestly, Julietta." She took out a stick of similiar size to the younger girl and did a few sharp movements, muttering under her breath. The soot fell off of the younger girls clothing as if it were never there. The older girl then inspected the room, while Julietta rubbed her cheek, but in doing so only smeared more soot on herself. "Go clean up, because no magic in the world is going to relieve you of this mess. I honestly don't know what you were doing, and performing magic outside of school. You're lucky I'm the ministress or I assure you, you would be meeting in the ministry tonight." She said. Julietta didn't reply, instead just nodded her head. Her older sister turned and began to do a series of complex wand movements, leaving Julietta to go clean up.
She walked up the stairs of their house, found herself in her room. Pulling her hair out of the loose braid, she looked at herself, the total opposite of her sister, whose eyes were green and her hair brown, she was blue eyed and blonde, and not just blonde, but white blond. Her sister, Cosette, was after all only her half-sister. They shared a mother and that was all. Julietta's father had been a wizard, unlike Cosette's father, who was a muggle.
After Julietta was cleaned up, she walked back down stairs to find that everything there had been perfectly organized, as was Cosette's standards. "Good, now you look halfway presentable." Cosette said to Julietta. She walked around her sister, and started to braid her hair.
"You're pulling my hair!" Julietta said, trying to pull away from her sister. But Cosette just seemed to pull tighter.
"Non-sense, if you don't do it tight your hair will just slip out." She said, before nudging her sister towards the kitchen. Julietta followed her sister's lead, sitting at the table, her sister doing some type of wand work to further fit her view of how the world should look.
Just the, Julietta could see her mother walk in the door. "Oh, sorry I am late, I had to go to a neighbor's house who has a sick thestral. Poor thing won't eat, won't do anything. It was ghastly after all, because the thestral is invisible to me and the man was quite horrible too, always shouting in german, and berating me and--- oh Julietta, don't you look wonderful, are you ready?"
"Yea mum, ummm, Ezekiel said he would meet us there.... You don't mind do you?" Julietta said, but she could see out of the corner of her eyes that her sister turned and gave her a look.
"Isn't that that gryffindor boy? The one who got caught stealing a bludger and left it to bounce around one of the girls bathrooms all night until some unsuspecting girl came across it?" Cosette asked, her eyes not even looking at Julietta.
