For the 'Dads and Daughters' Challenge on the HPFC.
Prompts: Narcissa and Cygnus Black.
Once upon a time, there lived a little girl called Cissa.
Six-year-old Cissa walks down the hallway of her almost-castle house, her ruined dress hanging off her small frame limply, her small face streaked with dirt.
Bella was always Mama's favourite, Cissa thinks bitterly. And now Meda's leaving, and I'm all alone. She feels her bottom lip start to quiver, and her grip tightens around the tattered fairytale book.
"Cissa?"
She looks up at her Daddy with wide, teary eyes. "Nobody likes me!" the wail escapes her lips before she can stop it. "M-meda's leaving, and Mama doesn't l-l-like me!" She blinks hard, trying to keep the tears from flowing down her cheeks.
"Cissa, I still like you," Daddy says softly, lifting her up and placing her on his lap. "And why would you say that Mama doesn't like you? Of course she does."
"No she d-d-doesn't!" she cries. "And you're just saying that! Because I'm not a proper lady, like Bella, see?" she gestures to her mud-splattered fancy dress that she was supposed to wear to Meda's farewell party, before she accidentally tripped in the garden and got yelled at by Mama.
He seems to be trying to restrain a smile, but puts on a serious face when Cissa's small, tear- and dirt-stained face turns towards him, reproachful. "Why are you smiling?" she demands, putting a dirt-streaked hand on her hip, making the dress even muddier than it already is. "It's not funny!"
"Okay, Cissa," he says soothingly. He catches sight of the storybook and quickly says, "Look, why not you go wash your face and hands-" he glances at the state of his youngest daughter again and has to restrain another grin, "and I'll read you a story?"
Her small face immediately brightens. "Okay," she chirps, and slides off his laps, rejoining him five minutes later. "I'm ready, Daddy!"
He opens the book and begins to read. "Once upon a time," he reads, "there lived a beautiful princess who lived in a castle..."
Once upon a time, there lived a little girl named Cissa, who lived in an almost-castle with her Daddy and her Mama and her two beautiful sisters, Bella and Meda.
( But Bella turned bad and Meda fell into disgrace and Mama and Daddy disappeared, and her fairytale-story was broken as her heart. )