Written for Fairytales, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, task number 1.
I used as extra prompts the word " strength" and the time period Trio Era, this story taking place one year after the Battle of Hogwarts and the dialogue" I know we can do this if we stick together! As weak we may be on our own –together we are stronger than all of them together."
The two boys and one girl looked at each other and smiled. They couldn't believe how far they had gotten. It was amazing, really.
Even if they worked so hard to reach this point, even if they knew they deserved this, they still asked themselves how could persons like them have gotten so lucky.
They had always had been outcasts.
When they were at Hogwarts they were outcasts, not following blindly Draco Malfoy " the self-absorbed Slytherin prince " and his lackeys, Crabbe and Goyle.
Oh, in front of the other houses they were the " perfect Slytherin team", obeying the orders their head of house have given to them on their very first night at Hogwarts.
" Welcome to Slytherin! Here you all will be like a family. Outside of these walls, you will stand united, you will not fight with each other or show any disagreement you may have at your fellow Slytherins, any quarrels will be discussed inside the common room . You will protect each other and you will alert me immediately if any of you will be hurt or punished by the other professors. Fail to obey these rules and you will regret it!"
Theo and Blaise had respected their head of house orders, on the outside, in front of the other houses they were the perfect Slytherins, but inside they had fought with the others more than Potter and Malfoy ever did.
And so had Daphne. To the rest of the school she was "the Slytherin Ice Queen", untouchable, made to rule the Slytherin house, but she really wasn't, inside the common room she was ostracized for associating with them, the outcasts, the ones that hated Malfoy and his pureblood bigotry.
Blaise didn't believe the pureblood nonsense the other were raised to believe thanks to his father who worked for the Italian Ministry of Magic. He knew that the muggleborns were the future, that given time they would bring Britain in line with the other countries, the Wizarding world of the United Kingdom was far behind, thanks to the war and the bigotry.
Theo had actually believed the " pureblood nonsense"; he was raised to believe it, until, one day, when his parents were gone on a business trip and they left him with his grandfather, who wasn't a stuck up pureblood and a death eater as his parents were. He had always told him that his parents were wrong, and he shouldn't listened to them.
Probably that's why he took him in the muggle world, when the opportunity aroused, to change his view, to show him that his parents weren't right, to prove him that muggles weren't " stupid animal freaks", as his father called them. Oh! And how it changed him! He had met her, his best friend, his light in the darkness, his strength, his other half and the mother of his unborn son.
At seven he was a child who worshiped his parents, who believed their every word and who tried with all his power to make them proud. He was so indoctrinated, so set in his ways, so disgusted to be near muggles that he had run away from his grandfather, thus meeting Lianna; the best thing that had ever happened to him.
It was love at first sight. She had forever changed his view on muggles, for her he had changed, for her he had become a better person. She had changed him.
He stayed in contact with her through his grandfather, who was delighted to help, after of course, scolded him for running away and scaring him to death.
On Hogwarts Express Theo had met Blaise and they had hit of from the start, beginning a friendship as strong as the one between Potter and Weasly.
Daphne had become their friend later; she had maintained " the ice cold demeanor", even inside the common room, but after a time she began talking with them saying " You are the only ones here I can have a proper conversation", but they both knew it was more than that, they also were the only ones that weren't stuck up brats who followed in their fathers footsteps as future death eaters.
And that's how they had become " the three outcasts", when it became obvious that they weren't supporting the pureblood supremacy and more so when Malfoy had found out a letter from Lianna, who in time had become Blaise and Daphne's best friend too. From then on their life had become a living hell, they were bullied inside their common room; everybody in Slytherin had been against them, even Daphne's own sister, Astoria.
They kept a low profile and focused on learning, they wanted to be someone after Hogwarts, they wanted to be Potions Masters and Healers, they wanted to changed the world for the better. These were their dreams and hopes; that's what had kept them moving.
They remained together, their friendship growing even stronger with each attack , they had their own motto and they said it every time life got hard at Hogwarts: " I know we can do this if we stick together! As weak we may be on our own –together we are stronger than all of them together.", one of them will always say. And the others will respond:
"Ay! One for all and all for one", as the three musketeers, Daphne being their very own feminine counterpart of D'Artagnan.
They were the perfect Slytherins outside the common room, agreeing with whatever Malfoy said and even aiding him, had he any need of help. They felt awful insulting muggleborns, being mean all the time to the others, saying that their parents were filth, that they didn't deserve to be at Hogwarts, their best friend being a muggle; but they couldn't help it, professor Snape's orders. They owned that to him.
Somehow, he had made Malfoy to keep his mouth shut about Lianna, and Theo didn't want to think how his parents would have reacted had they found out. That's when they had found out where his loyalties truly were, and he started teaching them occlumency so they could protect themselves from mind attacks.
And after the battle they still were outcasts, outcasts from their former classmates because they didn't fight for the Dark lord and outcasts of the light side, because they didn't knew they fought for them.
They worked hard to change the world's view of them, but making people see their true selves, to trust them wasn't an easy task to begin with; of course it helped having the Golden Girl on their side, it seemed that Lianna and Hermione were childhood friends and she quickly, past aside, had become their friend too.
But in the end they had succeeded. They were no longer former Slytherins, considered death eaters, but well respected members of the Wizarding community.
And now, here they were, ready to accept the award "Best Potions Master/Mistress" of the century" for the most innovating potions since the invention of the wolfsbane: the cure for long exposure at Cruciatus, mind healing potion which gives and reinstates the initial functions of human mind and as well as lost memories.
" Theodore Nott! Daphne and Blaise Zabini!"
The three smiled again and went on the stage to take their rewards, looking back at Lianna Nott who was waving happily at them with one hand, the other rested on her very pregnant belly.
Their childhood wishes and dreams had come true, they were someone and they had changed the world, but most of all they were happy and together.