T'is My Identity
"I am not deceitful," you murmur. "If I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world."
You stare at the girl in front of her. The girl is brave and confident. She knows how to make her own decisions. She is rebellious.
She is everything you are not. And you are the only person who sees her, because she is the girl in the mirror.
She is you, when you're away from the confines of society. She is you when you do not have to be the perfect pureblood daughter. When you're not a trophy wife-in-training. And you despise her because you have never been able to be her.
But today is different. Today, you want to break the shackles the world has put you in. Today you want to stand up for what you think.
Today, you want to embrace the girl in the mirror.
For one last time, you let your face morph into the woman the world sees you as. And you realise the face now staring back at you is not you. The mask is a person who is submissive, who is a mere puppet of the will of others, who does not smile for the sake of smiling, but that of appearance.
It is just a mask you've been forced to wear for as long as you remember, until one day, you couldn't separate the it from the real you. You despised the girl in this mirror, but you hate this fake you even more.
You let the mask fall and point your wand at the mirror that has trapped the real you for so long.
"Reducto!"
There. The prison is gone, and for the first time in your life, you feel free.
"We cannot give in to their will," you say as step down the stairs from and enter the common room. Your voice is free and has a new confidence behind it. People turn their heads to look at you, some surprised, some wary, some nodding. But there are those who have already given up. Your sister falls in this group, and you hate her—hate them—for it.
"This is our house. Our identity. Just because most of the people who led the war were Slytherins doesn't mean the others have right to take our identity away."
Theo sighs. "That is all right, Daphne, but what can we do? Against the Ministry?"
You shake your head at him. "I don't know about you, but I sat around and waited on the sidelines the whole war. I knew what I wanted, but I didn't work for it. And I've never regretted anything in my life before.
"What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? I'm not forcing any of you to do anything, but I'm going to fight this."
Astoria looks up. "You've changed." She says it like a fact.
"No, I've let my mind free of the prison of my own creation." Her expressions says she doesn't understand, but someone else does. It is unexpected, at the very least. You hadn't even known he was here.
"She is right." He lets out a humourless laugh. "My mother, who is hailed a hero now, is a Slytherin. Slughorn, Snape, my aunt Andromeda Tonks—all Slytherins. I just want to say, this thing the Ministry has come up with, eradicating our house—this is not right. Even if they take the name away, the kids who would have got sorted here would still be the same people.
"But that is not what matters. What matters is that the badge, the tie, the scarf we've worn with pride; the house we've cheered for in each Quidditch match; the people we've hexed into the next century in the common room but still presented a strong front out of these four walls, it will all be gone if we don't stand up now and fight for what we believe in."
"Thank you, Draco." You smile, and there is nothing fake in your expression. His nod says he understands.
"What can we do, even?" a fourth year boy asks.
You feel your lips tug up into a smirk. "We're Slytherins, not some foolish Gryffindors. We rebel not with force but with the cunning of our minds."
Your hand aches from the constant writing. You look up, and across from you, Draco is massaging his hand as well. You shake your head a little and turn back to the letter you're writing to send to the Apothecary owner, who, very conveniently, is a Slytherin.
You all have been doing this whole day. The Slytherin house keeps a record of all graduates in the common room. It was your idea to write letters to all former Slytherins to ask them for their views, but discussing it with others, the simple plan morphed into the first step of a rebellion.
Now, letters are being sent out asking if they are still true to the House that housed them for their seven years at Hogwarts. If they still take pride in being cunning and ambitions. Are they willing to fight for it? If yes, they are to immediately shut down their businesses or any other facilities they provide for all others in protest. No violence is needed; it is just a simple act of defiance.
It won't take people long enough to come face-to-face with the fact that more than a fourth of the society is Slytherin (it being the only house where people never migrate to the muggle world) and that the society can't operate on three legs.
The Slytherin common room is already under lockdown, and despite your previous indecision, the positive responses to almost all the letters that have been sent has filled you with satisfaction, even though you're not sure if this small resistance will get you all what you want—to be able to say you're a Slytherin freely and with pride.
As you suck at the end of your quill, you idly wonder how long it will take for people to find where the base of this non-violence movement is and to put a stopper at it.
It is two evenings and a million knocks on the door of the common room later that a stag patronus floats in.
"Hello," it says, before the voice steadies. "This is Harry Potter, and I would like to have a peaceful conversation with whoever the leader is."
For some reason, you think the leader should go talk with Potter. You start when every face turns to look in your direction. You voice your opinion on the matter, but they still don't avert their gazes. "What?" you ask, a little more harshly than intended.
"What what, Daphne?" Theo snickers. "Isn't it clear who the leader is?"
It hits you so suddenly, you mumble incoherently and they all laugh. Then you glare and point towards Draco. "He should go and talk."
The boy in question shakes his head. "No, Daphne," he says, "you are the one we're all following. We would still be sitting, waiting for someone to come tell us this common room and the dorms were going to be shut down if not for you."
You feel your old mask creeping up and struggle to force it down. "Okay," you say, "okay, I'll go." Standing up, you turn to look at the people present in the room. "Lock the door immediately after I leave. If someone enters as I go, don't worry about me; attack with all you have. When I return, don't open up until it is my voice you hear. And if I don't return in a couple of hours, barricade the door with more spells and keep the work on through the Malfoy Manor floo."
After getting an affirmative reply from everyone, you start undoing the spells on the common room portrait hole. Potter is waiting alone, leaning on the wall opposite the door, but you don't let your guard down.
"Daphne Greengrass?" he asks in surprise when he notices you.
You are not in mood of small talk, and somehow his expression of bewilderment irks you. "What do you want to say, Potter?"
"What are you doing here?"
"You asked for the leader. Here I am." You tap your foot in impatience. "Are you here to convince me we're wrong? Do you honestly believe the problem lies with Slytherin and not the beliefs and practices of the wizarding society as a whole? That the Ministry is not at fault and Slytherins are?"
Potter lets out a breath after a long silence. "No, I don't, okay?" He pauses, as if deliberating whether to say what's on his mind. Apparently he decides to do so, because he continues: "You know, the Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin, really." You gape at him. "I'm serious. And Dumbledore said it was my choice to be a Gryffindor that makes me different from Voldemort, but I think he was wrong. It was my choices, all right, but I would have been still Harry had I been a Slytherin."
You're too surprised for words, but you shake it off. "Then why aren't you against Ministry's idea to wipe off the house that could have been your identity?" you ask. "Maybe because you are, after all, a Gryffindor, really. But Slytherin is what I am." You point in the direction of the common room. "What we all are. And we'll fight until the end for the right to keep our identity."
Potter stares at you, and the silence eats at your ears, but you're determined not to break the silence before he does.
"Can I join you guys in there?" he asks, and it is definitely not something you could have imagined him saying even in your wildest dreams.
"If this is a trap, Potter, I swear—"
"It isn't," he says. "Here," he holds out a hand, his wand lying on his open palm. "Keep this if it makes you believe me."
You reach out for his hand and enclose his fingers around his wand. "I think you should keep this on you. I can't guarantee people won't attack you once inside."
Potter chuckles nervously, and you can't help but smile. Turning back in the direction of the door, you send a patronus, even though you know Draco and the others could perhaps hear you if you raised your voice.
"I think that spell proves Slytherins are not necessarily evil," Potter says, as if thinking out loud. You smile internally at this small win. And as the door opens, you can't help but feel your hops rise, that maybe, just maybe, with Potter on your side, this little rebellion wouldn't be all for naught.
Word Count: 1804
Prompts used:
From Hogwarts Assignments
• History of Magic #1 — Write about someone leading a rebellion.
From National Multiple Personality Day Event (Hogwarts)
• Write about someone taking a good look at themselves and their personality. Do they like what they see or not? Do they think there are any changes they need to make to be a better version of themselves? If so, what are they and are they successful?
From Gringotts
• (quote) "I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world."
• (quote) "What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable?"
From Chocolate Frog Card Club
• (Bronze) Daphne Greengrass — Write about Daphne Greengrass