Abby perched on the white couch in the parlor, holding a bottle of nail polish in one hand as she moved the tiny brush over her toenails in quick, sure strokes. At every unexpected noise, she paused and looked up, waiting for Aileen to come home. She'd spread out a towel underneath her feet, but she knew very well that she wasn't supposed to have nail polish anywhere near Aileen's expensive couches. Still, the cushions were much more comfortable than the floor and the kitchen counters! That was her excuse and she was sticking to it.

At the snap-crackle-pop in the fireplace, Abby jumped, and then deftly eased out of the couch and sat on the floor. She set the nail polish bottle to the side, and as the click-clack of Aileen's heels sounded, she remembered the towel and grabbed it from its spot on the cushion. She'd just set it under her feet as Aileen entered the room. Her older sister spotted her and did a double-take.

Abby gave her a disarming smile, noticing the way Aileen's eyes flicked to the couch. She hoped the cushions weren't rumpled.

"Hello!" she chirped, too cheerfully.

Her sister's eyes narrowed. "If you were painting your nails on the couch..." she warned, continuing to glance at Abby as she set her things down by the stairway.

"I wasn't!" Abby claimed, sounding mildly offended.

"Because if even one drop has spilled onto that fabric, it's very difficult to Scourgify, and I would have-"

"I wasn't!" Abby repeated, more defensively.

"And you really shouldn't be painting your nails on the floor in here, either," Aileen told her as she walked through the parlor and through the connecting doors to the kitchen. "If you must use nail polish, go into the kitchen, or the restroom." Abby began to feel like Roxy the crup, doomed to spend most of her life in spill-safe areas.

She made a face behind Aileen's back.

When Aileen returned, her feet were bare, her hair fell loosely around her face in soft curls, and she'd taken off her jewelry. She wore a cowl-necked sweater dress that brought out the blue in her eyes. Abby admired her style, and thought privately that Aileen could make a potato sack look chic.

Her older sister sat primly on the couch, where the last rays of sunlight filtered through the windows and made patterns on the fabric. She glanced at the bottle of nail polish, and without a word, Abby screwed the cap on tightly.

As Aileen looked at her for a few moments, Abby began to wonder if the nail polish lecture would continue. She opened her mouth to cut her off, but Aileen spoke first.

"What are your plans for the Holidays?"

Abby cocked her head at her, and then stood up and sat on the couch beside her, making sure her toes were raised off the floor. She felt a sudden pang of fear that Aileen would try to send her back to their parent's place, and covered it up with a grin.

"Spending time with you, of course," she nudged her arm affectionately with one elbow. Aileen gave her an amused look.

"And? Besides that?"

"Buying you lots of expensive gifts. Singing carols every night and making gingerbread cookies," she joked. "Oh, and finding a red and green collar for Roxy, because she needs one for Christmas."

It wasn't the dog, was it?  Was Aileen sending her away because of the crup?

Aileen's mouth twisted to the side, which meant she was annoyed or considering something, or both.

"As you know," Aileen began, and Abby nearly groaned. The 'as you know' signaled the beginning of Aileen's professor-mode. "I will have three weeks of vacation this winter. Thank Merlin..." she muttered, pushing back a stray curl behind her ear. "One of those weeks, I plan to travel to Egypt to take care of a few things that I wasn't able to over the summer. However, I don't want you staying here all alone, and I don't-"

"But I'll be fine!" Abby interrupted, getting nervous. "I'll have Roxy here, and I'm sixteen, so I can certainly-"

"No," Aileen shook her head. "Roxy won't be staying here either. I'll need to find a-"

"No!" Abby exclaimed. "You can't send her back now!" Abby's face paled as she shook her head vehemently. Her sister opened her mouth, but Abby babbled on. "She has a home here. She's used to the place, and she's used to me. It would be like... like abandoning her!"

"Abby!" Aileen interjected sharply. "I'm not sending her back. Will you calm down for a moment and listen, please?"

Abby nodded, confused.

"What I was going to say is that I need to find one of those... pet motels for her," she waved her hand in the air. "While we're gone. Because if you want to, you could come with me, and-"

"To Egypt?! Really?" she interrupted again, a genuine grin spreading across her face. "The shopping!" Abby breathed. "And the sights! And the shopping!"

"Yes," Aileen replied wryly, running a hand through her hair. "We'll do some of that. And..." she paused, studying her. "I was also considering showing you some of what I do, during excavations. An introduction, I suppose you could say."

Abby blinked at her, part of her brain still focused on the shopping, and the other part working furiously to understand what Aileen was suggesting. "I... you mean..." She frowned. "It's going to be like... like not shopping? Like... work?"

"Think of it as an educational experience." So basically, work.

Abby normally tried to avoid work of any kind. Yet, Aileen was actually asking her to get involved in something important in her life. Abby looked hesitant, but nodded. "Except, what about... won't it require magic?" she glanced away, hating to say the word out loud and admit her shortcomings.

"Not all of it," Aileen replied smoothly. Abby wondered for a moment if her sister had run through this conversation in her mind before. "There are some things you can learn; identifying, translating, organizing, even digging," she teased about the last one, "that require very little magic. The tasks that do require spells, I believe I can find... alternatives." Distaste flitted across Aileen's face. Abby knew that look. It meant she was thinking of muggle alternatives and wasn't happy about it.

Abby frowned as Aileen's intentions began to sink in. This sounded an awful lot like work. Work of the ambitious, get paid everyday sort.

"It all depends on what you want," Aileen continued. "If you don't like it, you don't have to keep doing it, and we'll only be there for a week. It's just that you'll be turning seventeen next fall and I want to make sure you have options."

Abby stared at her. "Mother wants to marry me off when I'm seventeen. She's been planning it since I was like, eleven. You know that." Her parents had wanted her out of their hair ever since they'd been forced to face her lack of magical abilities.

"I know that," Aileen agreed grimly. "What if... what if it doesn't turn out the way you expect?"

Abby's face clouded over and her lower lip jutted out. "What if no one wants me, you mean."

Aileen gave her a stern look. "No. Don't be silly. All I'm saying is, you shouldn't have to be dependent. If you want to get married, that's fine. But if you decide you want something else, or you want both, then you have choices."

She reached over and patted her hand gently. "I know it's a lot to think about. But you're smart, Abby. You are," she insisted at the skeptical look on her face. "When you put your mind to it, you're good at history, runes, wand theory.  All those subjects. There are jobs out there that don't require you to use the information in a practical way. I can help you be on your own, find you a career... if that's what you want."

"But Aileen," her voice rose in a whine, and she swallowed hard, completely taken aback by all this.

"Think about it," Aileen told her, glancing away when tears pricked in Abby's eyes.

Her sister wasn't normally very affectionate. She did hand-pats and shoulder-pats, not hugs. So when Aileen bent down and gave her a kiss on the forehead, and then disappeared into the kitchen to give her privacy, Abby was stunned.

She remained sitting, both overwhelmed and grateful. Shocked and hopeful. Then angry and disbelieving. What was Aileen thinking? She couldn't do any of this. She couldn't live up to her sister's expectations. Nothing she learned mattered because she already knew she wouldn't be able to use it, that people would reject her. Abby would rather be a glorified housewife than embarrass herself by working in a record store, like that other squib she'd heard about. She had no skills, and she'd never worked a day in her life. Her mother always said a witch was useless without a wand.

Abby suddenly got up and sprinted for the stairs, stomping up them loudly because she knew the noise would irritate Aileen. What was her sister thinking, filling her head with ideas, dangling opportunities over her nose like candy. She'd never cared about her before! Where was she when Abby had needed her over the years, needed a person to talk to that wasn't her parents or the family house elf. She'd had to park her trunk on Aileen's front porch to get her attention.

And that was the problem.

She just wanted to get rid of her, get her out of this house, Abby decided, slamming the door of her bedroom and sitting on her bed. She curled up on her comforter and sniffled,  jumping back in surprise when Roxy the crup crept out of the covers and licked her hand.

"I'm not doing it. She's crazy," Abby told the animal, who let out a dog-sigh and rested her snout on her arm. Roxy gazed at her loyally, eyes large and mournful.

"Absolutely barmy," she went on, sniffling again.

---

Aileen had heard the commotion upstairs and bit back a sigh. She'd hoped, perhaps foolishly, that Abby would be excited and grateful about this opportunity instead of fearful and sullen. She also hoped that she hadn't been making empty promises about finding her a career and something to do when the girl turned seventeen.

She wasn't even sure exactly why she was bothering, especially when she knew it went against their mother's wishes.

It was just that... her sister had no real life experience. No skills, at least none that she could use in the magical world. No wand. She remembered how trapped she'd felt after graduating from Hogwarts and jumping into a marriage that her parents had arranged for her. Oz had been nice enough, but things hadn't worked out, and she hadn't been happy. Surely someone like her sister would be much worse off in that situation.

She didn't want Abby to have to be in that situation. So if Aileen could help her out somehow, even just by exposing her to different ideas, then she would. They'd go to Egypt together, and that was final, Aileen decided, leaning against the kitchen counter and staring off into space pensively. She'd drag her there kicking and screaming, if she had to. Abby might have brought a crup home and won that round, but she wasn't getting out of this one.

And if all else failed, there was the shopping.