Littlest Liddell
Alice found herself winking awake under her comforter to a louder-than-usual ruckus in her dorm room in the early morning. She could hardly stand the incessant noise her bed was accosted by most days, but this morning seemed particularly egregious. "Merlin, what's with them today?" She mumbled as her hand pierced through the dark green curtains that enveloped her bed. Her hand searched for a short while, dancing across her nightstand, before grasping onto her half-rim glasses, her fingers curiously scratching against a piece of parchment underneath them. She grabbed both and, after adjusting her glasses to her face, narrowed her eyes as she read over the paper. It was a letter that Professor Garlick had sent out to remind students of the upcoming parent visitation event. "Oh… right, that was today… great." She sighed deeply before ducking back into her sheets and staring at the wooden frame that kept her bed curtains up while stewing in her own thoughts. "So dumb..."
Alice walked into the great hall with a scowl plastered across her face. She overheard many students panicking or complaining about what the rest of the day might be like. Alice had already seen a handful of parents here and there as she passed them from her dormitory. She didn't bother to sit down and grabbed the first plate she saw that looked appetizing at the Gryffindor table. "HEY! That's mi-" Alice barely glanced at the first year, yelling at her as she apparated sausage links to fill his nostrils and launched a few pancakes into his mouth. Her frown softened slightly as she tussled the hair of the young boy as he sputtered on his new breakfast before disapparating to the balcony of Headmaster Blacks' office.
The view of the lake was beautiful, and it always managed to bring her some clarity when her mind seemed muddled. Black rarely spent time doing his job long enough for her to be afraid of being spotted by him. And knowing him, he would spend all day talking the ear off of each parent he met today about his lovely school and his brilliant management of it. Alice leaned into the stone railing, placed her plate beside her, and smiled softly while watching a Hufflepuff student do something in the lake below that looked an awful lot like drowning, "...Rout..." She looked down at her plate and toyed with the eggs while thinking about her mother and father. How was St.Mungo's treating them? Are they scared? Are they in pain? How many of fathers limited edition books were burned? Could mothers' favorite gardening tools have survived? They were outside after all. It could be possible they held out against the blaze… the thought of her mother's scorched gloves took away her appetite, and she tilted the plate over the edge with her finger while exhaling a deep breath. "Wow, wasteful as ever... what would Father say?"
A coy tone chimed in from behind her. Alice whipped around with her wand at the ready, her grip loosened at the shock of seeing an all too familiar face. A few feet away from her stood a tall, slender figure with dark brunette hair reaching down to their waist. The young woman sported a casual white day dress. "Elizabeth?" Alice stammered out. "Do you like it?" The slightly older girl grinned, twirled in a circle, and curtsied for Alice before sauntering to her side and leaning onto the railing. "The dress, I mean. I took it off the hands of the local clothing store around here... 'Happy Towels'? Something like that..."
Elizabeth pondered with a finger to her chin. "G-Gladrags..." Alice murmured while looking Elizabeth up and down and sliding her wand back into her robe. "Ah~! Gladrags~!" Elizabeth's grin grew wider while she pounded her fist into her other hand. "Nothing gets by you sis! Always had a steel trap up there, hm?" Elizabeth poked the front of Alice's head with a heavy enough tap to nock the back of her head against the stone pillar she was leaning against. "Ow..." Alice spoke quietly while rubbing the area on her head that was sure to welt soon. "Well? Aren't you going to ask?" Elizabeth raised her eyebrows while looking down at her now diminutive little sister. "Ask what?" Alice's eyes darted down onto a coin she had begun to nervously fiddle with it in her hand. "How mummy and daddy are doing? Can't hide anything from me sister dearest I know it's exactly what you were thinking about, brooding up here all alone. I know you've convinced yourself that you can or... SHOULD heal their burns. Well, I'm here to tell you they're getting along just fine! All better! Now you can stop all this Hogwarts nonsense and come with me! Just like we always dreamed! Traveling the world just you and me! We'll see the pyramids~ we'll see the great wall~ maybe even-" Alice stopped her sister's daydreaming by raising a finger to her sister's face in an accusatorial manner.
"You're lying... you crinkle your nose like that when you're lying..." Alice spoke sternly, "They're not fine, are they?" Elizabeth's deceptively warm smile faded quickly into a grimace, "What does it matter? With them toiling away in their hospital beds and us with our new gifts, we can do whatever we want whenever we want. Isn't that good enough? We're free now, I don't have to get married off to some son of some duke, and you don't have to study nonstop to follow in their footsteps. Stop wasting your time trying to help them, and come with me!" Elizabeth stomped a foot onto the ground like a child about to throw a tantrum. "I will! I just... I just need to figure out how to fix the damage I did... Professor Fig said the doctors aren't sure what kind of counter curse to use on them. Nothing seems to heal the burns I gave them that night."
Alice dejectedly sighed and continued, "This school is one of the world's most extensive reserves of magical knowledge. In one of these books, there has to be something to help..." Elizabeth groaned. "Ugh~ WHO CARES? If you put them all back together again you can bet they'll return to demanding things of us. Our lives are OUR lives! And you made sure of it with your little fire show! Part of me thinks you did it on purpose. You wanted to be free of them JUST as much as I did. You talked about it more than me!" Alice shoved her sister with both hands, pushing Elizabeth back slightly. "Oh! Violence! Always resorting to violence this one! Hahaha! Well, go on then! Set me on fire just like you did to them! Put me in the hospital, and you can be the only Liddell who can walk around freely!" Elizabeth mocked. "It was an accident!" Alice swung her fist wildly in her sister's direction. Elizabeth deftly moved to Alice's side, kicking her leg from under her. Alice fell to the ground, barely catching her fall before hitting the floor with her face. "You REALLY should have put some of those books down and played at least ONE sport, look how clumsy you are!" Elizabeth snickered. "SHUT UP!" Alice lashed out a hand towards Elizabeth's direction and fire blazed from her fingertips. Elizabeth, once again, was too quick for her younger sister and ducked out of the way. Behind her, the glass window overlooking the headmaster's balcony caught alight with the fire. It began to rapidly grow across the stone walls. "Uh oh, you did it again~ Temper temper..." Elizabeth put her hands on her hips and stared at the new mistake Alice had created. "Hmmm, everyone is busy down below... it'll take a while before anyone notices. MAYBE someone will figure out how to put the fire out before the school burns down, but... you got that special fire~ so who knows~? If only someone were here to stop i-" Alice slammed her fists into the ground. "...please..." Elizabeth turned around, kneeled next to her sister, and raised a hand next to her ear to prop it up, "Huh~? I didn't quite catch that~ could you speak up~?" Alice clenched her fists and spoke through gritted teeth. "Please... put out the fire... like you did last time..." Elizabeth sprang up and held her hand out towards the wall. "Such good manners!" With a flick of her wrist, Elizabeth whisked the fire away as if she was swatting away a fly. She knelt back down next to Alice and tussled her hand through her hair in a similar fashion Alice had used earlier on the boy who was choking on pancakes that morning. "I'll let you play doctor here, for now~ But I'll get bored eventually! Then you and I will travel the world... just like we promised each other..." Elizabeth leaned in and gently kissed the top of Alice's head. "And stop being such a drama queen about your last name. You know not using it doesn't take away the shame of what you've done, right? Hahaha besides... you take too long to find a solution to those burns, and you and I might be the only Liddells left! See you around little sis~ I'm rooting for you! Really!" Alice didn't lift her eyes from the floor when she heard her sister disapparate. Quitely she crawled to the railing and sat against it. She stared at the now scorched wall in front of her and began to fiddle with a galleon in her hands. Softly, she started to recite her current storehouse inventory as tears welled up in her eyes.