WHO: Allyson Davies and Giada Dorny
WHAT: A fight and revelation!
WHERE: Their music store!
WHEN: TODAY



It didn’t take long for Allyson to perfect a schedule that neatly avoided her sister. It didn’t take very many awkward run ins for her to realise that Giada wasn’t about to apologize to her and that she really didn’t have a desire to speak to a sister that would abandon her in such a time of need. Not after she had done so much for her.

For example, the very store she was in. She didn’t have to venture out into this business. She didn’t have to risk the money (even if it was originally Giada’s) to open a store in which she knew nothing about. She didn’t have to run the books because Giada didn’t know much of anything about the financial side of things. There were a lot of things Ally didn’t have to do for her sister, and there were plenty of things she didn’t want to do either. But she did them anyway, because it was the right thing to do.

It hurt when Giada couldn’t return the favor in such a pivotal moment in her life. So much so, that Ally spent the last year being particularly careful to come to the store to run the numbers when her sister wasn’t around. She managed a pretty high success rate, except today, she was feeling a bit more groggy and sluggish than usual, causing her to completely lose track of time.

She startled when the office door opened behind her. Her eyes found the clock on the wall and her face fell slightly. She had stayed too long. Maybe it would just be Graeme, he was easier to make an escape from. Swiveling in her chair slightly, she glanced up from the corner of her eye to find she had no such luck.

“Oh hey,” she greeted evenly, looking back down to the budget she had been balancing.

Giada squirmed uncomfortably. She was notoriously bad at dealing with awkward situations and often just---stayed silent or left the room. It was most definitely the cause of many stressful days in her life, but avoidance was always her first way to go. She didn’t like conflict, she did not handle it well! Though, she could really not believe it had been over a year since she and Ally had found themselves in this weird place. Giada sorely missed her sister’s company, but every time she worked herself up to go and apologize, Ally’s anger at her about missing the funeral was revived, Giada’s mind raced back to the scathing words their mother spat at her and---she pushed away the idea of reconciling.

“Hi,” Giada said quietly, shifting the box under her arm. She had taken home a box of albums to do some inventory and put an anti-theft charms on them, but she’d only gotten through a quarter of them. She felt a bit under the weather and it didn’t help that Jackson had decided his knew curfew was now past midnight. Giada put the box on the counter and began to flip through them so that she could finish her job, but her eyes kept getting tugged to her sister.

Ally had continued to work diligently this past year even with the fallout. The store was making a name for itself and earning a good amount of revenue. Giada and Graeme, the true music lovers in this situation, had begin to think that maybe they could move past just selling music---what if they could find up and coming artists? What if they could record new music out of the spare back rooms that they hadn’t figured out what to do with? Ally would absolutely have the knowledge and tenacity to run something of that extent, and maybe it was just what the sisters needed to get back on track.

“So---” Giada started, her hands resting on the edge of the box, “Graeme and I have been talking, nothing---too serious, but----” She shrugged, finding it easier to talk to the back of Ally’s head than to her face, “---what do you think about opening a studio? A recording studio. Here.”

That business proposal could have gone much smoother, but Giada was marveled that she managed to get it out at all.

Ally tensed as Giada started to speak, unsure of what was about to be said. Maybe at long last she was going to apologize. Or say something to sooth the constant bitterness that was running under her skin. How Ally wished she could just wash it all away, she hated the feeling.

Her lips pursed as her sister stuttered out her idea. This was the first thing she was going to say to her in months. Yet another business venture for her to run. Didn’t Giada realise how much work the store was in itself? Or how much work adding a studio would add. Just where was she going to get the time? She had Roger and the twins to think of. She looked down at the budget she was working on. Yes, the store was doing well on its own. Self sufficient at this point, better than decent profits, you couldn’t ask for better from a new business. But it wasn’t enough to float a whole new venture of a studio on top of it. Not on its own.

If they did this, and the studio failed, it would take the store with it.

Ally put down her quill and turned to face her sister. “And just where do you think the money to support that is going to come from?”

“I----”

Well, obviously, Giada didn’t have a plan or a business agenda. It was just an idea and now she felt ridiculous for even opening her mouth. Ally could be silly, funny, and loud just like her, but when she went into super businesswoman Ravenclaw mode---well, Giada could not deal with that. Giada was the free-thinking, rainbows and butterflies sort of Ravenclaw that could write long epic poems on the edge of her three-foot long Transfiguration essay. Her mind drifted and went off on great adventures, so she knew that she needed Ally if this grand idea of hers was to ever get off the ground.

She picked at her fingernails, sniffling. She didn’t want to fight with Ally, but she didn’t want to just drop the idea about the studio. Giada and Graeme thought it was a really good idea and that they could really start something great.

“Well it wouldn’t be immediate,” she said, tilting her head in thought, “But I think it’s something we should think about. And we could start small; Graeme and I both have radio experience so we’d know about that part of it...” Giada let out a sigh. “I think it’s a good idea.”

Ally took a deep breath through her nose as Giada continued on. None of that answered her question. Did she even listen to her? “And the equipment? How much does that cost? Or the money it will cost to rent out the extra space to put this studio? This office isn’t big enough. We can’t take space away from the store. And we need legitimate space, we can’t use magic. Not unless we want another visit from Archie.”

Ally shook her head turning back to her work. “There isn’t the funds to support this. Sorry, but I think you are trying to take on more than you can handle. You should just focus on the store. Just because you think something is a good idea, doesn’t mean it will work out for the best in the long run.”

She might have had a bit of a condescending tone, but it was the truth. Ally knew how her sister got when things got to be too much. She shut down, or ran away. The last thing she needed on her plate was to salvage an unfinished project at the moment. She filed away the monthly budget she had just finished and stood smoothing out her skirt. It was past time she got home. “Anyways. I’ve been gone too long. I should go.”

Giada’s jaw dropped at how harsh her sister’s words came out. It was just an idea. A good one! It was a good idea and instead of bowing out and shutting her mouth about it all, Giada took a step forward as Ally made to leave.

“You can’t just drop it like that!” she said sharply, standing her ground. “Great things spur from little ideas, it’s...it’s something to think about! And...and you can’t make all the decisions! Graeme and I are just as invested in this store as you are, so--so you can’t just tell me no.”

Part of her felt like the bratty younger sister she never had been, but Giada knew that this wasn’t being bratty, this was their future! Sure the store was doing well, but didn’t Ally see the potential? They could do some amazing work! You don’t just shut down an idea because of figures and silly things like permits! The whole point of the store was to share muggle music with the wizarding community, so---

“I think we need to have a sit down.” Giada crossed her arms, lifting her chin. “I think this is worth putting everything aside to try and come up with a business plan.”

Allyson stiffened and tears instantly welled in her eyes as anger fumed to life in her chest. She could not take it anymore. Not one more second of Giada’s selfish demands and shortsightedness. “This is worth putting everything aside? This!?” She asked picking up one of the records out of the box Giada had brought back. “This is not worth more than family, Giada!”

Ally threw the record to the ground, stepping on it for good measure, feeling a bit satisfied at the crunch it made. “You need to come back to real life. You need to realize actions have consequences. Money doesn’t just magically appear. And I can’t-- I can not put anymore Vance money into this. So I’m saying no.” She folded her arms over her chest, swallowing thickly. If they wanted to get technical about it, Allyson was the one who was taking all the financial risk in this store, on Giada. She had every right to say no. Apparently Giada had forgotten this.

“You want to do this, you use your money. I’m not helping with it. The store is enough. Too much some days.” And is so many more ways than just one.

“ALLY!” Giada shrieked, jumping back, but then bending down to the ground to pick up the shattered record. That was not what she had meant, she had just thought---they should be able to act like professionals even when they couldn’t be in the same room as each other as siblings. That hurt, it hurt so much, but Giada was never going to agree with someone that thought she was being selfish for not ‘honoring’ the father that completely rejected her life, her husband, and her son. Why couldn’t Ally see that?

Repairing the record would be fruitless, and Giada jumped to her feet, hands out wide in shock and surprise. She had never seen Ally lash out in this manner, and though it startled her, maybe even frightened her a little, she only managed to react just as angrily. This was a fight that had been brewing for more than a year, and Giada supposed that there was no way she’d get out of it without a bit of screaming.

“Vance money?” Giada repeated, eyes wide with bewilderment. Her hand ran through her hair, stunned that out of all things, that was what her sister brought up. “What does that even mean? We put my inheritance into this store! I don’t want any more ‘Vance’ money, I don’t want anything from our parents that---that cast me aside like a bloody rag doll!”

“Are you really that blind, Giada? Have you really forgotten what your childhood was like? It was always about you. Mother’s precious child. She only ever had eyes for you. No matter what I did, it was always ‘that’s nice dear’ but you. Everything you did mattered. ‘That’s fabulous, Gia baby.’ ‘On no, don’t do that Gia. child. You’ll get hurt.’ She cried the first time you colored your hair.”

Ally’s chest was heaving as her tears spilled over onto her cheek. Year and years of trying to impress the mother clearly loved her little sister more was bubbling to the surface. And years of knowing why. “You are right. She didn’t care as much that I married Sam, but there are so many days that I wished she did. But once again, only Giada matters, precious child of the man she truly loved. The rest of us be damned.”

She grabbed another record from the box because she needed something in her hands, anything to stop her from physically lashing out at her sister. It cracked under the pressure she had put on it before she threw it to the floor. “And to top it all off you act completely disgraceful to the memory of a great man. He gave you everything. Loved you anyways, and you can’t even be bothered to show up to his funeral just because he listened to wishes of our stupid mother.”

Ally swiped angrily at her tears. “You couldn’t even show up to support me, when I have done everything I could possibly do for you. Selfish selfish child. You are not blameless here.”

“What?”

She understood what her sister had said, but nothing else had managed to slip past her lips. Giada stared, wide-eyed at Ally as every word, every syllable replayed over in her head. Bright-eyed and eternally optimistic was a way Giada had always been described, so her mother’s treatment of her in her early years had never been taken as more than a mother’s love. She and her mother---they were alike, that had been what Giada had always thought...and then she’d begun to break away. Muggle Studies, the Beatles, dating a muggleborn like Derek Dobbs----Giada had watched her mother turn from this golden ray of sunshine into a dark, menacing storm that constantly downpoured on everything that made her happy.

Her mind raced back to her last confrontation with her mother, at the wake when the older woman seemed nearly delusional with her rage. Giada hadn’t been able to understand, but now...it made sense. She was not her father’s daughter. She wasn’t actually----Her mother’s anger with her, being called her perfect thing...Patrick Vance dying brought to life the fact that he had turned a blind eye to the lies and deceit. There had been no need to hide it anymore, there was no one else in the world who could exploit this secret. No one except---

Giada took in a deep breath, stepping forward as her eyes narrowed into slits. Before Ally could respond, she pointed a stiff finger at her, “You knew?”

Ally knew. Ally knew that Giada had a different father, that her mother catered to her not because she was the youngest, but because she was someone else’s daughter. The man her mother truly loved? Ally knew, Ally had known and she’d never---she’d kept it to herself, even with all the years of torment that Giada had gone through, even after she was disowned and left to fend for herself, after her husband was kidnapped and tortured for marrying a pureblood, after her son was burnt off the family tapestry because of his mixed blood. Ally knew that Giada was the product of a mistake----did she think she deserved this treatment?

Giada wasn’t blameless, her sister believed. To Ally, she was a selfish, selfish child.

“Get out,” Giada said lowly, her hands shaking. She had done nothing wrong. She had done nothing wrong but be born, she had never once questioned her love for her family, it-----Ally didn’t want any more Vance money put into this business? Fine. Fine. Giada wasn’t a Vance, so---it didn’t matter. She didn’t need Ally’s money, she didn’t need----anything.

“Get out! Get out!”

“What was I suppose to say?” She let out quietly. Of course Ally knew. She had overheard their parents arguing about it years ago. But when exactly was she suppose to tell her. When she was eleven and still thought mother hung the moon? When she was fifteen and already was rebeling without any reason? When she got disowned? Allyson wasn’t about ready to hand over any additional reasons for her sister to walk out of her life. She was trying to keep the family together. “I did what I thought was best.”

Obviously she failed. Giada clearly wanted nothing to do with them, even when she did keep her secrets.

“No.” Ally refused straightening up to full height. “You have no right to kick me out of here. None.” Did she really think that would work? Throw yet another fit, and get just what she wanted yet again. Ally was tired of it. The store would fail without her, and she wasn’t walking away. This was just as much her store as it was Giada’s. If not more so.

“You lied to me, for years!” Giada shouted, the anger she was feeling completely foreign to the naturally peaceful person. She gritted her teeth, the pain in her chest starting to overwhelm her. But she refused to cry, because she’d spent far too many years crying over her lost family and their inability to understand her, for her to understand them. “For years you let me think that I was a disgrace to the family name, that I being selfish for loving someone no matter their bloodline! For years, Ally! I thought there was something wrong with me, I couldn’t understand why our----your parents couldn’t let me live like you! Everyday I still---”

Giada clenched her fists, looking down at the ground to regain any inch of composure. She couldn’t, she couldn’t.

“Everyday I ask myself if I made the right choice,” her voice wavered, but she would not cry. Not in front of her. “Because every day I have to think about how I was a disappointment, how they didn’t love me enough to move past these barbaric ideals---that I was some sort of mistake.”

She shook her head, actually letting out a short, miserable laugh. “I was a mistake. But Graeme isn’t. Jackson isn’t. I’m sorry you think I’m selfish, but I did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong, and you’re not going to guilt me into thinking I did because you were too scared to tell the truth.”

Giada took a step back, head still shaking. Her hands went up as if she were giving herself up, and she finally managed to look up at Ally. Tears finally struck her eyes, but she continued to glare angrily at the other woman.

“I don’t want anything to do with you,” she said, shaking her head and putting up her hand. “I’ll---we’ll sell our shares of the store, but I don’t want anything to do with you, not anymore.”

Ally pursed her lips as Giada yelled at her. She was twisting her words. Changing the things she said into vile misunderstandings. Allyson was doing what was best. This wasn’t her fault. And now Giada didn’t want anything to do with her. After everything she had done. After everything she had risked opening this store with her?

She had danced a fine line keeping friendly with both sides of the fight. She had risked the happiness of her own family just so Giada wouldn’t feel unloved, and this was how she was going to repay her. Allyson turned to the cabinet that she kept so painstakingly neat, wrenching the drawers open and ripping out files. She poured her heart and soul into this stupid stupid store for her sister. “Fine!” She ripped up budgets that she spent hours on. Invoices, documents, permits. She should burn them all. Destroy them just like her sister was destroying everything she had fought for.

She tore through everything until she finally found the deed to the store front, leaving a chaotic mess of ripped parchment and paper behind her as she clutched it in her hand and turned back to the woman she thought was a sister. “Have the damn store, since it is clearly what matters most to you. I wish you the best of luck running it without me.” She shoved the deed into Giada’s chest. Brushing past her sister she knocked the box of records to the floor as she left the office, slamming the door behind her.

Allyson let out a noise of pure frustration looking around at the store that meant so much more than her. Stupid Beatles. Stupid Rolling Stones. She pushed over the shelf of new releases that were taunting her of the loss of her sister. They weren’t worth it. None of this was. She couldn’t even breathe here anymore. She turned on the spot and was gone, regretting that she had even gotten out of bed that morning.