From when she was a little girl Lexie Zabini-Greengrass was thrown into the world of obedience and harsh pureblood pressure. Naturally she was quiet, and her feeble attempts to stand up for herself plummeted into silence after a quick rap or two. So Lexie was obedient, Lexie was polite. Lexie was perfect. But that wasn't Lexie. That was Alexandra. That was always Alexandra. Lexie hid behind Alexandra like a shield, and on the inside her blood pounded, her temper raged, and she plotted and thought. She could not be direct in her mutiny, or she would be kicked out and never see Clara. She both admired Clara, and feared for her, because Clara never hid behind Clarissa. She wanted to protect Clara from turning into Clarissa as all her cousin's had done. They were Bonnie who became Bonita, Laurie to Lauren, Mal to Mallory, Sherri to Sharrisa and Mel to Melissa, though they still went by their names.
Only Scorp and Heidi managed stay who they were by hiding, like Lexie, but it was different. Their parents didn't care as much. Their parents were either human beings or they were aloof. Her mother Daphne and her father Blaise were heartless and cold, and they wanted no less than perfection. They wanted to twist and mutate the core of her being, and Alexandra was a decoy she let them play around with. She didn't care about herself, only about preserving Clara. She didn't want Clara to have to hide, so she played with her as often as possible away from her parents. Playing with Clara was the only time Lexie swam to the surface of her conscious being. The only time Alexandra was tossed lazily aside. Lexie plotted. The moment she turned of age, she would take Clara. She would let Clara live, create a new life for them. And Alexandra would be nothing more than a nightmare left behind.
At least that was her plan.
Then she met someone who found the cracks in her shield of Alexandra no one else saw. Then she met someone who was determined to find Lexie. Then she met Hugo Weasley.
...
"Alexandra! Alexandra!" cried a shrill voice. "Get down here a once! You must play the piano for the party."
"I am right here mother." said a soft, dull voice. The shrill woman, dressed in fancy dress robes, turned around to see a young girl, barely eleven, sanding primly in front of her. She had long legs, long, golden and wavy hair, and a perfect face. Her lips were plump and rosey, her skin sun-kissed and even, her eyes were a lovely, though empty, brown, and her nose thin, though slightly long and rounded smoothly at the tip, her cheek bones high and her jaw bone loose and heart shaped. She wore a nee-length lacy white dress and a pale pink cardigan buttoned once in the middle, shined and polished black clogs donned on her feet and white socks folded over perfectly on top of them, she glided, rather than walked, over to the piano and began to play flawlessly under the shrill woman's watchful eye. Then she left, though Alexandra did not stop playing. When she finished one song she continued onto the next and then another and another. After a while guest's began to arrive, and Alexandra continued to play.
One thing though, one thing so minor that no one noticed it, was that Lexie played something, a quick series of notes, right in the middle of the wizards waltz, "Fair Witch Stirred Me in Her Glory Cauldron", and that caused the tiny Clara, asleep in her cradle, to awaken. Clara was a smart little girl. She could already speak, she could already learn, she already kept secrets and told lies and she had only just turned two years old. The only person she trusted was Lexie. She already knew who Alexandra was too, as though she could visibly see they were two different people. She knew not to trust Alexandra. Only Lexie.
So as she awakened, she grinned and sneaky little grin, clear blue eyes sparkling mischievously. She looked at her lock and thought about her mother. Oo her mother made her angry! She got as angry as she could and made a wish. For some reason, it always worked. Lexie said it was magic, and she shouldn't do it too much when other people are around because she wasn't supposed to have that much control over it.
But what did she care? She wanted to see Lexie. She wanted to see Lexie!
"I want to see Lexie." she murmured. Then she found herself in a rather compromising situation. Under the piano. Next to Alexandra.
"Alexandra?" she whispered at her feet. The feet tapped in a complicated series of movements that Lexie had told her to learn like that alphabet. It was called Morse. How queer, Lexie's feet, but Alexandra's hands playing the piano. She tried to piece together what the feet said.
Go... back... to.. your.. cradle... ... Lexie... will... come.. out.. later... to.. play... ... ...
Carla didn't like that. she wanted to play now. She Morsed that onto her sister's leg and the feet tapped again.
Maybe... ... but.. go.. to.. cradle... I... will... try... to.. stop...
Carla sighed and tried to get angry again.
"I wish I was back in the cradle." she murmured. What she didn't know was that Lexie was seeping to the surface against her own will through a crack in her shield. Another way to that is silent tears.
She swallowed them down and when she had composed her self and finished the song she taped the shrill woman the shoulder.
"Mother? My hands cramp an dreadful lot and I have played for such a long time. Would it be alright if perhaps someone were to take over the piano for the night?" she asked sweetly. At the moment she was Alexieandra, Alexandra filling out Lexie's will. Her mother never caught on and, because a friend she had been chatting with was listening in closely, she nodded.
"Of course you may. Would be such a dear as to keep an eye on Clarissa while you rest your hands? I'll have Pippy fetch you some hand oil to soak them in." Alexieandra nodded.
"It would be my pleasure mother, thank you very, very much."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"Clarissa?" Lexie called out in her sister's nursery. "I'm here." a happy gasp emitted from the cradle.
"Lexie!?" Lexie's eyes widened and she rushed to the cradle.
"Shh!" she hissed. "You must learn to be more quiet Clara! What if someone had heard you, just now? If someone had been with me and I had to be Alexandra? Then what? It's improper to have a nickname Clara, they might hurt you. You have to be sure we are alone."
"Are we alone?" Clara replied softly.
"Not anymore mistress, Pippy is here to server her mistress hand oil fore her aching fingers. Do the young mistresses have a secret they must tell Pippy?" said a small, lanky house elf. Lexie froze, and Clara gazed at her nervously. Clara wanted to tell Pippy. Of course she did. Clara loved house elves. So did Lexie. But Alexandra treated them like dirt. What could she do? Pippy could help them, but the other house elves.
"Just Pippy." she told her sister. She beckoned the house elf over. "Pippy, have we got a secret for you..."
...
This story will possibly be set in the same universe as "A bouquet of 2 Roses", hope you liked it, tell me what you think!
-Mary