Greetings all, this is my first venture into Daphne or Pansy, They're so underdeveloped as characters I wasn't really sure where to start, as always that stupid voice popped up inside my head head screaming "The start!" so I did as it said and here sits a story. I hope you like reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
She had been talking to a girl who was a half-blood before she was called up to the stool. The girls blood status was of little consequence to her, but to a lot of people that small fact would be enough to condemn them to a lifetime of cold indifference. She of course was a pureblood, an incredibly beautiful one. From an early age she had been taught to walk with her head held high, look down her nose on everyone and toss her golden hair with misplaced pride. She was surrounded with expensive clothes, priceless furniture and irreplaceable pieces of art.
She was a Greengrass, she had been promised to a pot-bellied violent alcoholic pig of man since she was six years old. She knew that she had to be a Slytherin, it wasn't expected f her; it was demanded. If she wasn't in Slytherin then she was disowned, she might be able to beg acceptance if she ended up in Ravenclaw, maybe. But she would no longer be presented at balls, she would probably stay in the castle at all holidays and Astoria would be crowned the golden girl instead of her.
So she had to toss her shimmering golden hair and smile confidently as the tattered hat was place on her head. A fitting crown for a not-quite-princess. The girl, the girl who wouldn't shut up before gave her a tentative smile, the girl girl that had been so so desperate to be a Gryffindor.
When the hat shouted that one word so loud to the whole hall nothing happened, a few claps from Slytherin, but mostly silence. She walked over keeping that blinding grin uncomfortably contorting her beautiful pale features. All of her willpower keeping the tears back, keeping that cocky stroll, keeping the world out of her head. She sat at the table next to Bulstrode, Millicent and Davis, Tracey. Half-bloods, both of them. She was automatically the focus of adoring eyes and many "Oh my gods" as in "Oh my god I can't believe I'm actually talking to a Greengrass" as in "Oh my god you're not a person you're a blood status no-one cares about". She skipped out as soon as the doors were open, running ahead of the crowds. Diamond tears fell from the golden girl
She sat on the cold stone steps, to the dungeons, unable and unwilling to descend, alone, into the green tinted shadows, half illuminated by the cold dancing flames. She didn't look up when someone sat next to her, whoever it was could announce their presence themselves, she didn't have to, she was a pure blood Slytherin, that was enough of a reason, right?
"Wipe your eyes Greengrass. People are coming and you have an image to uphold." The words and tone were rather harsh but the hand tentatively stroking her lower back was too soft to not be kind. As she looked up her bleary eyes focused on the pale skin of the girl next to her, dark eyes and dark hair, a face that was a little bit round and juvenile, but sweet and pretty.
"Are you OK now? I'm Pan..." she started before the blonde started speaking.
"Parkinson, Pansy, Slytherin... pureblood." She added for good measure, sweeping the remaining diamond tears off her face.
"Lets get you to our dorm then Greengrass, Daphne, pureblood." The smile on Pansy's face was small, but she was unused to genuine smiles, sneers or mocking smiles came all too easily to the smaller girl, no-one had made her smile for quite a while.
The Slytherin common room was everything Daphne had feared, she peered around the room that the mob of first years hadn't yet polluted with their excitement. The damp dark room she had been condemned to was decorated in black and green and objects that looked vaguely illegal were scattered around haphazardly, no doubt for "decoration". There was an entire wall coated in filthy tacky faux skulls, at least, she could only hope they were fake. As her eyes greedily ate up every shadowed corner of the room she hadn't noticed Pansy moving over to the ancient stone steps that curled into the unknown, she had disappeared into said abyss and all Daphne could do was follow her.
The confused Greengrass was greeted by a half open door and more stairs, taking her chance she decided that the door was probably half open for a reason. The warped wood pushed open easily and without a sound revealing a tastefully decorated room. To say that the fact the room wasn't as horrible as downstairs made Daphne relieved would be an understatement. The youngest of the Parkinson family lounged on a green silk covered bed, identical to every other one in the room. Her monogrammed luggage sat at the bottom of the bed, not as fancy as Daphne's was she noted somewhere in the back of her head with more than a dash of smugness.
"I was beginning to wonder if you'd been added to the wall downstairs." Pansy's voice sounded right with the sarcasm dripping from it. Daphne wasn't as at home in this strange new world as Pansy seemed to be. Daphne was still a little bit too hung up on the fact that she had been wistfully thinking that red and gold would have suited her much better.
The moment passed however and Daphne sat on her allocated bed, which was a little closer to Pansy's than any of the other beds were to each other. The window across the room from them looked out into the murky green water of the lake they had traversed only hours ago. There were to be no Romeo and Juliet scenes for the Slytherins, no dashing boy could ride a broomstick up to the window and whisk you away. No happy endings for the not-quite-princess. Just a fat man already drunk and half way to a heart attack.
The "fairytale" Daphne was forced to participate in was nothing like that which jumps out of the pages of a child's book, instead she saw her life as the small black leather bound journal bursting with angst and desperation, seeping out its own self-loathing. Instead of a dragon she had a giant squid and her entire family, instead of a happy ending she had a life of disappointment and anger already mapped out in front of her by her uncaring parents, instead of a prince she got a sarcastic little girl who was just as trapped as she was. A fitting life for a not-quite-princess.
Did you like it? Did you hate it? I can't hear you through the screen, just leave a review for me instead. Please? :) just let me know what you thought, whether I should continue or just run away with an albanian albino. Maybe if you review I'll stop babbling? Who knows? Its worth a try though, right.