"Welcome home, bitch!" Francisca held her arms out as soon as the front door fell shut and I ran into them.

"Hi, bitch," I laughed.

Francisca's and my relationship was a weird thing.

We hadn't really gotten along at first, always annoyed by one another. But after I'd gotten cut off from Valerie and hadn't known what else to do other than turning to my sister, we'd gotten pretty close - but still always annoyed each other. And calling the other bitch had basically become our love language.

Francisca always used to say that she had always found me super annoying and hated me, but the older I'd gotten, the more acceptable I had become.

And the common hatred towards one certain person at home also brought us closer to one another.

"Mum said you had news?" I let go of her and lead us to the kitchen, where I had been helping setting the table before I'd heard the front door open.

My sister nodded giddily. "I got my results two days ago! I'm now officially a Healer at St. Mungo's! I passed!"

"Yesss!" I joined in on her excited squealing and hugged her again. We were laughing, bobbing up and down together. "I'm so proud of you! I knew you could do it!"

Francisca let go again and sighed happily. "I'm so relieved. All of the studying has come to an end!"

Now it was my turn to sigh. "Don't rub it in. I've got my final exams coming up, and then there's the NEWTs next year, and the training for whatever job I want to do after that.... Ugh."

"Girl, live in the moment for a moment, please," Francisca laughed. "You've got holidays now."

My smile returned and I set the last fork down. "True."

"Is dinner already finished, Mum?" Francisca asked Mum when she turned off the stove. Mum nodded. "Would you mind getting your father?"

"Yes," Francisca and I said in unison, before looking at each other amusedly.

"Girls," Mum scolded us and I sighed.

"Fine." I took a deep breath, not moving from my spot. "DINNER'S READY!!!"

Mum rolled her eyes. "I could've done that myself, Freya."

"Then why didn't you?" I flopped down on my usual chair, pouring me some iced tea.

"Don't sass me, young lady," Mum smiled. Then she heaved the heavy pot onto the table, just when my father entered the room and wordlessly took his usual seat.

"Thank's for cooking, Mum," I said while eying my father taking a pile of the pasta.

She smiled at me and sat down. I knew that Mum didn't like cooking and she had let it slip once that she really loved it when people didn't take her cooking as read. So I had made it my job to always compliment her meals, since they actually always tasted great.

"Is this vegetarian?" The man said from his corner.

Mum's grip on her knife and fork tightened. "No."

Francisca didn't even try to hide her annoyance. "Not all of our cholesterol levels are too high. If you really want to eat less meat you can easily sort it out."

Needless to say, he didn't leave the meat, but the tomatoes on his plate.

Fact was that he always complained when we just ate vegetables, too. One couldn't please him, so we'd stopped trying. There was always either too much or too less meat, and I sometimes wanted him to choke on his damned meat.

But when I said something similar to that, Mum always gave me a scolding look, followed by words similar to 'he's still your father'. I knew that, but that didn't change the fact that he was an arse.

Honestly, that was one thing I really didn't miss when I was at school.

This man was the definition of toxic. A narcissistic, egotistical, stupid and mentally ill man that didn't realise that he had problems, so he made that everyone else's problem.

While I exchanged stories with Mum and Francisca over dinner, the man kept eating wordlessly and stood up after having finished, putting his crockery on top of the dishwasher.

When he closed the kitchen door behind him, Francisca sighed and leant back. "Finally."

"That's not the dishwasher," I stated the obvious, my eyes on the plate. "Great to know that he hasn't changed."

Mum took her wand out and pointed it at the man's plate. It floated up, the dishwasher opened and the plate, fork and knife sorted themselves into the machine. "He's got holidays now, too, so he does even less."

"Oh no," I groaned. I hated it when I had to share my free time with him. "That means I'll stay in my room throughout the holidays."

"I recommend that," Francisca agreed. "That always worked for me."

Mum sighed. "Yeah, and I have a shared room with him, so no privacy at all. That's why I'm always at work. At least I get appreciated at the hospital."

I had just finished my dinner, so I stood up to sit down on Mum's lap. I hugged her. "We appreciate you, too. You're the best and we love you very much. Please get a divorce, for your own good."

As usual, she shook her head. She didn't even care to elaborate anymore, because that was always the same conversation. He paid for the electricity bills and he would never pay to move out, so we would have to, which we didn't want.

Oh, home sweet home.

When it was five minutes to nine o'clock, Mum left for the hospital and I was alone with Francisca.

I was buzzing to see her again, so we went to her room, snuggled up under a blanket on her little sofa on her personal balcony and continued to exchange stories while looking at the peaceful and quiet city.

"So, how are things with Aleya, Valerie and Lina?"

I sighed. I was never really in the mood to talk about them. "As always. They are going to France during the holidays. Maybe Mum's told you. I didn't get asked whether I wanted to tag along."

"Oh," was my sister's reaction. "Well, you don't need them. You have me, we're besties for life already." She kicked my leg. "And you managed to befriend the marauders, haven't you?"

I blushed, because at the mention of the marauders my mind always drifted off to one particular boy. "More Remus and Sirius, but I still get along well with James and Peter. They're all really nice."

"Is Potter still fawning over that redhead?" She smirked and I snorted. Funny how the whole school had always known about his crush, only Lily Evans herself didn't want to see it.

It really had to be obvious, because my sister had been four years ahead of us, back when she'd still been a student at Hogwarts.

"Yes," I chuckled. "Still with no success, but he keeps trying."

Francisca grinned. "Cute."

Cute indeed.

We were sitting in silence for a little while longer.

"When do you have to go to work again?" I asked. These were going to be boring holidays when Anna wasn't here and when I only had my father around to keep me company. So I'd have to always stay in my room or leave the house completely, going for strolls or going shopping, although I didn't even like doing that.

"Tomorrow, at eleven o'clock," Francisca answered. "We can make ourself some fancy breakfast, if you like?"

I nodded. We'd always turn the music up and have fun, singing along whenever we were alone in the kitchen. Those were some of my favourite moments with my sister.

But if I could only make and have breakfast with her, and if my father was always at home as well, then maybe I'd actually do my homework straight away and start learning for the finals in time.

Always look on the bright side of life, right?

My school starts tomorrow, and I'm in my final year so it will be really hard and a lot to learn, but I really hope that I'll be able to keep updating so often.

Idontwannagotoschoolimmacryyyyy😭😭

But stay happy, ig

Xoxo, your fangirl