WHO: Victoria & Briony Mulciber WHAT: A complicated history WHEN: Various points in their childhood WHERE: Misc. places! WARNINGS: N/A
Victoria, Age 9 | Briony, Age 4
“I can see you,” Victoria drawled, curtain of messy blonde hair spilling off her shoulder as she tilted her head towards the door.
A tiny head, a shinier shade of blonde than Victoria’s, peered out from hallway and then abruptly disappeared. Ignoring the spy, Victoria went back to reading her book.
A giggle erupted from the younger girl, her head eased back in the doorway. This was Briony’s favorite game. She ducked back behind the wall any time her sister so much as blinked. After a few rounds, she appeared fully in the doorway and her sing-songy voice filled the room. “Whatcha doiin’?”
Victoria rolled her eyes, hiding the barely there smile by biting into her lip and tossing her head back. “Reading, obviously,” she sniffed and tilted the book forward so that her sister could see the neat typeprint. It was shining, highlighted where Victoria had last left off. “Mummy is taking Rose out to get her things for Hogwarts. I’ll be going to Hogwarts in a few years too, and it's never too early to study.”
She smiled, clearly pleased with herself. She was sure Evelyn would approve of her middle daughter’s self-motivation too.
“Pfft-” Bri had fully intruded on Victoria’s room now, peering over the book at words she couldn’t even begin to understand. Instead, she made a fart noise with her mouth, pinching her nose and scrunching her face to make her displeasure known. “Hogfarts,” she erupted in laughter at her own joke and lumbered up to sit beside her sister.
“Mommy said she’ll be a-prised if they let you in,” she said happily. At four years old, Briony couldn’t understand the weight of her mother’s words. All she knew was that she didn’t want her sister to go off and leave her alone. “Then you can stay here with me!”
Victoria sucked in a wounded breath, blinking at her sister. “No,” she said, licked her lips and shifted on the bed. Mummy wouldn’t say that, Bri must have misheard. “Mummy didn’t -- um,” she swallowed down the burning feeling in her throat.
“I don’t want to stay here with you,” Victoria rallied like she always did, by lashing out. “You can -- argh! Quit hugging me!”
Victoria, Age 11 | Briony, Age 6
“Why can’t I go too?!” Bri clung to her sister’s waist, tears streaming down her small, pink cheeks. When climbing in Vic’s trunk had proved unsuccessful, she’d resorted to begging. “I’ll be good, I promise!”
Her tiny pleas were lost in the hustle and bustle of the Hogwarts Express platform. The nervous jitters of a new school year hung heavy in the air, punctuated with emotional goodbyes from families crowding the train.
And then there were the youngest Mulciber daughters, two tiny blonde mops standing alone next to a massive trunk. Their mother had wandered off the moment Rose had boarded.
Now it was Vic’s turn. But her younger sister’s grip was firm.
Vic’s neck was craned, her eyes furiously searching the crowd for her mother, even as Bri threw herself at older girl. It was Vic’s first day of Hogwarts, Evelyn would be back to wish her luck, to hug her, just as she did every year for Rose. Surely.
“Bri,” Vic sighed, abandoning her search to wrap her arms tightly around her sister.
“You shouldn’t cry like that, you're making a scene. Who will be my friend if I’m covered in your sno -- no shhh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Don’t cry.”
Vic smoothed her little sister’s hair back, trying to be soothing. “It’s just not your turn yet, ok?”
“It’s not fair!” her little voice was shrill. Only the judgemental eyes of the other parents kept Briony from having a full-on meltdown. She knew that somehow her mother would find out if she did. “Who’s gonna play with me when you’re gone?” They’d both felt Rose’s absence when she left — their large house somehow emptier and yet claustrophobic with their mother’s watchful eye now trained on her youngest daughters. Now she’d be the only one left.
The thought that Vic would leave her alone with their mother incensed her (though she was hardly mature enough to understand her own anger), and she pulled away from her embrace, arms folded across her chest. “Fiiine,” she whined. “I’m glad you’re going!”
Vic frowned, glancing around at the curious onlookers who found their little family drama oh so interesting. “Don’t say that,” she muttered, and leaned forward to softly nudge her little sister’s shoulder. A mother passing by smiled at the two of them, like Bri’s tears were the sweetest thing.
Bri seemed resolute in her pouting however, so Vic gave a sly, dramatic sigh, seemingly occupied with her trunk. “Merlin, me too. Think of all that parchment I’ll save if I don’t have to send any owls to a brat like you. You’d probably burn my letters right?”
The littlest Mulciber frowned. “I’m not allowed to play with fire.”
Vic hid her smile in her curtain of hair and wrapped her arms around her sister, squeezing. “Guess I’ll try my luck and send some then. To annoy you of course.”
Victoria, Age 14 | Briony, Age 9
The night was quiet, but the muffled voices downstairs rose in a crescendo that had woken Briony from a fitful night’s sleep. She’d heard about Rose on the WWN, a blip of breaking news that cut through the tension in the Mulciber household. Even Evelyn couldn’t shield her daughters from the truth, but she could send them off to bed while she dealt with the fallout.
“Vic?” came a little voice from the darkness of her older sister’s bedroom. “Vic, I can’t sleep.” Now it was at the edge of the bed.
Vic continued to glare at the wall, the only acknowledgement that she’d heard her sister was a deep sigh.
She’d been called home, an understandable (calculated) request in the wake of the news that the eldest Mulciber girl was a Death Eater. Arrested Death Eater.
Vic had been summoned during breakfast, the judging eyes of every student on her back as she’d left the Hall. Vic had glared at every one.
“What a coincidence, me either,” she said with some bite.
Her sister’s tone didn’t dissuade Bri, who shuffled forward until her knees hit Vic’s bed — punctuated with an “ow” — and then she scrambled up to lay beside her. It had been years since she’d slept in Vic’s room. It was undeniable that the two sisters had grown apart since Vic had left for Hogwarts, even if neither had really acknowledged it.
You could blame the age difference (what teenager wants to hang out with her 9-year-old sister?), but Bri’s time alone with their mother certainly hadn’t helped. Evelyn’s influence creeped into the younger girl’s thoughts and values, altering her perception of her sisters. But that had faded when the news broke.
“Vic…” Bri reached out in the dark, touching her sister’s shoulder. “What’s gonna happen to Rose?”
“She’s going to Ibiza to sip cocktails and bask until she sunburns,” Vic uttered sarcastically. “She’s going to Azkaban, club Death Eather.” Along with many of the people Vic and Bri called friends and family. But not their mother.
The glimmer of hope Bri had that Rose might be released was crushed by Vic’s words. Tears welled in her eyes — she didn’t exactly know why. Maybe it was because Rose was her sister, a kid like her. Maybe it was because she knew, somehow, that things were going to change.
“Are- are we gonna get to see her again?” Bri sniffled.
At the sound of Bri’s tears, Vic stiffened and then closed her eyes. Well, fuck.
Slowly, Vic turned over until she was facing her baby sister, feeling her anger crumble in the face of those big manipulative eyes.
“Hey, stop that,” she said, guilt making the words more feeble than she intended. “Crying isn’t going to bring Rose back. Or make her rethink those cult robes.”
She hesitated for a moment before she pressed closer until their noses touched. Bri was only 9, sheltered by their mother and without the same knowledge of what Rose’s arrest would really mean for the family. Vic was used to the whispers, had been the halfblood Gryffindor embarrassment for years now hadn’t she? And while she was not quite a pureblood, having a publicly known Death Eater in the family certainly painted one with a brush.
Ugh. The incoming moral hypocrisy would probably make her eyes roll so hard they’d fall out of her head.
But at the base of it all, they’d lost their sister. For all Vic’s jealousy, Rose was her hero too. A foolish one for getting caught, but their older sister just the same.
“I don’t know,” Vic answered Bri honestly, wrapping her fingers around her sister’s. “But you still have me, you know. I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me.”
Bri clutched her sister’s hands desperately, even the thought of Vic leaving her sending her into a mini-panic. The sniffles came harder. She couldn’t shake the rising emotions, the frustrated feeling of being afraid of something you couldn’t wholly comprehend.
“Promise?”
“Duh, idiot,” Vic drawled, attitude softened by the small smile. “You know, with Rose gone, Mum will need us to step up.” To fill the void. And for Vic, maybe finally getting her mother to recognize that her second daughter was exceptional too.
Despite the loss of Rose, Vic felt the familiar rush of determination at the thought. “Think you can do that?” She squeezed her sister’s hand.
Quelled slightly by her sister’s confidence and reassuring squeeze, Bri sucked in a breath. Vic wasn’t crying. Rose probably wasn’t crying. She, too, could be strong. “Y-yes,” she stammered, her tears beginning to dry. Her enthusiasm may not have been genuine, but she could put on a brave face. “I can!”
Victoria, Age 16 | Briony, Age 11
Bri wiped a single crocodile tear from her eye and turned from her mother’s retreating form with a small huff toward the awaiting Hogwarts Express. The platformed buzzed around them with activity — the laughter of old school friends reuniting, the blubbering of families saying a tearful goodbye for the first time.
And then there were the two Mulciber girls, alone again in a sea of faces.
Evelyn had left Bri with a firm hug, not wanting to cause a scene as her youngest faced her first year at Hogwarts. And, truthfully, Bri preferred it that way. Unlike years before, it was finally her time to board the train. The excitement she felt was palpable.
She placed a hand on her trolley, casting a look of disdain toward her sister, who seemed to be waiting for her to move. “I’m fine,” she said. “Don’t you have any friends to sit with?”
Vic scoffed at the attitude, pushing her blond hair back from her face in an irritated manner.
Not really was the honest answer, but Bri didn't need to know that.
“Duh, I was waiting to see how long it would take you to turn into a complete blubbering mess once Mum turned around.” She clicked her tongue against her teeth. “Your eyeliner smudged.”
With a cry of disgust, Bri swung around to her trunk, bending over as she attempted to peer at her reflection in the brass locks that adorned it. For good measure, she gave a gentle wipe under her eyes and then glared up at Vic.
“Thank Merlin I don’t have to worry about being a loser Gryffindor like you.”
Vic’s smirk tightened into a scowl, jaw taught with anger. Something far more brittle twisted in her chest.
It had been like this for over a year, a slow but steady change after Rose’s incarceration that pit the sisters against one another. Vic had been at Hogwarts, proud and determined and sure that her mother would notice her efforts this time. Not realizing of course that Evelyn had turned her attentions to her youngest daughter. Vic’s return that summer hadn’t been what she expected.
Vic shouldn't have been surprised.
“I’ll be shocked if they let you in at all,” she shot back, smile curving cruelly. “Don’t worry sis, Hufflepuff might take you. They take all the scraps.”
Bri glowered, even as panic rose in her chest. Though still preferable to Gryffindor, Hufflepuff would be a strike on her reputation. No, she’d be in Slytherin like her mother and sister before her. She knew it.
If you’d asked her to highlight the moment Vic had become so insufferable, Bri would have said she’d always been that way. The gap between them had steadily grown since she stepped off that Hogwarts platform for the first time. But now it was like they’d never been close at all. Somehow.
“As long as I don’t end up with you,” Bri clipped back at her sister, hands gripping the trolley as she started for the train. “Just leave me alone, ok?”