Sol got up from his desk after a series of knocks on his door. He got up and saw that the handle to his door kept jiggling. Smiling, he opened the door and saw his younger sister look up at him.

“Soul, mama’s calling,” Faye raised her arms over her head and Sol picked her up.

“So~l”, he corrected her.

“So~ul.”

“S~ol.”

“S~oul.”

Sol sighed, “…I’ll just ask Mom to teach you after Christmas.” December had rolled around and the students left for their homes as Hogwarts’ Christmas break started. And Sol was no different. Having said goodbye to his friends, he was now back with his family and his sister who had just begun to form sentences.

It deeply saddened him to have missed her first words. As expected, they weren’t “Brother” or “Sol”. Coming downstairs with Faye in his arms, he went into the kitchen and saw his mother cooking.

As the oil sizzled in the pan, the kitchen hood above the stove sucked in all of the smoke. His mother flipped the patties with a spatula.

“You called, mom?” Sol asked.

Without looking back, she nodded, “Yeah, I did. Set the table for me, would you dear?”

“Got it,” he walked out of the kitchen with Faye still in his arms.

“And set Faye down in her chair. What time is it?”

Sol looked at a nearby wall clock, “8:52 p.m.”

“Turn on the TV for her. Cartoon Network is airing the rerun for ‘The Powerpuff Girls at 9 o’clock.”

“That one with the three girls with superpowers?” Sol asked as he sat his sister in her high chair in front of the TV.

“That’s the one,” his mother’s voice came from the kitchen as the oil sizzled again.

Sol turned on the TV and put it on Cartoon Network. He then left his sister and went to set the table. He continued his small talk as he placed the mats, “I don’t recall you ever remembering names of cartoons before.”

“Well, if only I had a child who actually watched cartoons,” his mother laughed. “Fortunately, my daughter is normal.”

“Why are you calling me weird?” Sol interjected. “I just read books, nothing much.”

“They were textbooks, Sol. Not story books. Textbooks. And not just that books above your level and newspapers. Blasted newspapers. When I was your age, you couldn’t even see me near one. I was usually playing dolls with your aunt.”

“With Aunt Juniper?” Sol’s ears perked up. “Ah, right. She existed. Well, where is she? I don’t think I’ve ever seen her.”

“Your aunt’s a free spirit. Even I haven’t seen her since you were born. Though with how she is, it wouldn’t be a surprise if she came in bursting right now!”

“No, not that. I don’t think I’ve seen her in your wedding photos either.”

“Well, you know you’re father’s a muggle, right? Some people weren’t too happy about me marrying him. Particularly, your grandparents.”

“Really now? I think you’ve told me about you being from a pure-blood family.” Sol went into the kitchen and took out the glasses and plates from the cupboards.

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“Yeah,” his mother took out a patty from the pan, strained the oil from it, and placed it on a plate with the others, “well, your grandma, my mother thought I would be in Slytherin, fall in love with a pureblood boy and marry him, keep the bloodline pure and all. But unfortunately for her, both us sisters have been nothing but disappointments.”

“Aunt Juniper too?”

“Yeah, well, no. Unlike me, she never got married. Too much energy to do so. And even worse, she got into Gryffindor.” His mother laughed with a reminiscent expression.

“Worse for grandmother, you mean?” Sol took the various dishes that were already plated and set them down on the table.

“That’s right. Anyways, after my marriage, I haven’t talked to them ever since.”

His mother, Selene finished frying the last patty and placed it on the plate, and took it out of the kitchen. Sol had just finished setting the table. Giving him a peck on the cheek, she thanked him and set the last dish down before going upstairs and calling her husband.

Sol walked to the living room and sat on a sofa beside his sister’s high chair. The TV flashed a colorful cartoon with a simplistic art style. Faye’s eyes were glued to it nonetheless.

He watched the show for a while before asking her, “Which Powerpuff girl do you want to be?”

“I can be a Powerpuff girl?” she asked with widened eyes. On her small and round face, that expression looked adorable.

“We can do more amazing things th-” Sol caught himself. “Let’s not.” He coughed and changed his words, “If you wish hard enough.”

“Really!?” she said in skewed pronunciation. “Then can I be Buttercup?”

“You can be,” he smiled.

“Yay!”

Sol felt someone behind him, so, he turned to look behind him. His mother stood behind him with a wry smile.

Sol returned that gesture with a bitter one, “There’s nothing more crushing than unfulfilled dreams. Best not get her hopes.”

“You don’t trust your sister?” she asked. His father, Tom was already at the dining table. Selene sat on the chair beside him. Sol picked up the high chair with Faye on it and put it near their mother.

Sol took his seat and replied, “This not a matter of trust, mom. I simply don’t expect anything of her. I’m a bit conflicted, honestly.”

“You don’t want her to become a wizard? I thought you of all people would support her.”

“50-50,” Sol took a patty and some side dishes on his plate before beginning to eat. Swallowing, he continued, “I don’t want her to become a wizard because there’s a risk of death in almost every job except the desk jobs, and knowing Faye-” he looked at his sister who was bouncing around in her high chair, “-she won’t be satisfied with sitting around.”

“Then you want her to be a muggle. Just because you don’t want her to get hurt?” Selene narrowed her eyes.

“That should be y-” Sol exhaled. “Right, my mom’s a wizard. She was raised that way.” He nodded, “Yeah, I do. That’s not wrong. But I don’t think she’ll like being a muggle either in a family with a witch and a wizard. Envy is going to eat away at her.”

“Such a cynic….” Selene shook her head. She nudged her husband, “Tom, tell him something.”

He hastily put his cutleries down and gestured some words towards Sol. Sol read them and nodded, “So, basically, you’re telling me to deal with it when the time comes?”

Tom nodded. Sol sliced a piece of the patty off and stabbed it with his fork, “You’re really just stating the obvious, dad. I never said I was going to do anything about it. Really, what can I do?”

Tom watched as Sol ate the piece and gestured, “Then why are we talking about this?”

“Ugh,” Selene groaned. “Teach him not to be such Debbie-downer.”

Sol coughed and drank some water, “Man, never thought someone would’ve used that on me.”

“Don’t like it?”

“Can’t say.”

“Fine, but no more of this depressing talk out of you. Leave your sister’s future up to her.”

“Got it, mom.” They then spent the rest of their dinner time talking about other things and when they were done, his mother asked him to get Faye ready for bed.

Sol took his sister upstairs and into the washroom. There was a set of small plastic stairs that Faye would stand on to see herself in the mirror. Sol wet her toothbrush and applied her favorite toothpaste to it before brushing her teeth.

“Spit,” upon Sol’s command, she bent over and spat the toothpaste into the sink. After a few cycles of this, he washed her mouth with water and made her gargle the water before spitting it out.

After brushing, he took her to her room which was next to his, and changed her into her pajamas. She lay down on her bed and Sol tucked her in.

As he was tucking her in, she looked at him expectantly. Sol smiled in resignation and went into the nearby bookshelf filled with children’s storybooks. “So, what shall we read today?”

“Little Red Riding Hood!”

“Okay but-” he got the book out of the shelf and sat on the bed near her legs, “-you have to sleep early because tomorrow’s?”

“Christmas!” she finished his sentence.

“That’s right!” Sol grinned. “Then let’s start with the story, shall we?” He began reading.