A/n: This is written in Nolanverse using the DCU storyline of Harley Quinn and The Joker. Some creative liberties have been taken, but I attempted to keep as close to the original storyline as possible. This takes place after The Dark Knight, when The Joker is captured and put back in Arkham Asylum. Review, thanks. )
Harleen Quinzel had always appeared to be a perfectly normal young woman. Everything about her was average; she was of average height, average build, she had blue eyes, and blonde hair. She was raised in a perfect nuclear family, with her mother, father, older brother, and their dog. Harleen was an elite gymnast, and had been the captain of her high school cheerleading squad. She received good grades, and was granted a full ride to Gotham University based upon academics and her achievements as a gymnast.
Harleen, though, had always known she was different. It was only in a subtle, twisted way, but it was always there. She often wondered why she would look at a stranger on the street, and suddenly imagine herself taking a knife to his neck. She wondered why she wished to see his blood on her hands. Harleen was always fighting off thoughts such as these, but she found, quite honestly, that blood fascinated her.
Of course, she knew enough to never voice these desires aloud. She was scared of the reaction if people discovered she was so macabre. She did so want to continue being the perfect girl she knew she must be...
To staunch her sick desires, sometimes Harleen took to cutting herself; only very shallow, enough to see the blood run up from her thigh like water from a spring. She enjoyed the way it felt, slick on her hands. The smell of it intoxicated her, and the pain...the pain was the part she enjoyed most. It was the most honest emotion she had ever felt. Whenever she held these sessions in her bathroom, she would fantasize about the day when someone would come along who could understand and validate her nature. But she feared that day would never come...
Although Harleen was, indeed, a very beautiful girl, she was not very often courted. That is not to say she was never pursued; she was often pursued. But Harleen had never liked boys, she liked men.
During her time at Gotham University, she found that college level classes, especially as she moved on to graduate school, were much harder to maintain passing grades in than the ones in high school. Harleen took to sleeping with her male professors in order to maintain the appearance of competence. Harleen was not an innocent woman, not a naive girl. She knew very well that her ambition could make her rich and famous; she decided very early on that she would profile Arkham Asylum's most disturbed criminals in a sensational book.
When, during her internship, Ms. Quinzel was assigned to counsel that criminal madman, The Joker, she knew this is what would make her book a hit. The Joker was her ticket to success.
Of course, that's where the mayhem began...