Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise from the Harry Potter world.
Once upon a time there was a little girl who resembled a princess in a fairy tale, with fair skin dusted with light freckles, big, chocolate brown eyes, full pink stained lips and blonde tresses that fell around her in perfect waves. She, everyone agreed, was perfect.
It was quite a surprise when this beautiful little girl found a friend in the lanky, blue haired boy with a manic grin, who seemed to always tag along with her aunt's family. She wondered whether this boy, who one could liken to a court jester, was her cousin too, but when she asked, was given quite a perplexing answer.
"No, my dear, he isn't really," her mother, who was a queen without the cold regal air they so often possessed, explained gently. "But in a way, yes, he is." The little girl frowned at that, stumped for understanding. She disliked the feeling, for she was always the brightest little girl in the room, so she just nodded as if she understood and skipped away.
The blue haired boy was very kind though, she realised as she grew older. Their years of childish play and adventures in the garden were over now that he had left for Hogwarts- a castle the little girl had yet to rule over. It made her sad, but he never failed to make her laugh with his constant letters, often containing the latest reason he had gotten in trouble.
"It was my friend Finn's fault," he insisted through his messily scribbled lettering. The little girl would laugh at this, feeling comforted by his words. Although he was no longer close by, instead living miles away, it was still pleasing to hear from him. It reminded her that despite the distance, he was still her court jester.
It was that thought that made time fly and just as the little girl blinked, it seemed it was time to leave home herself. Ever the picture of grace, she held her tears in until it was just herself and her mother in her bedroom, delicate tears trickling down her face as her mother held her tight.
"I'm going to miss you, my little darling," her mother sobbed, clutching her little princess. "Be safe."
"Look after Domi," was all the little girl said, pulling away from her mother. By this stage, she was already learning how to become regal and picturesque. But, also, distant. Her spilt tears did not matter, the little girl thought to herself sadly. She was far too beautiful to be pitied by anyone.
So when she reunited with the blue haired boy, who she realised could now control his hair colour with his fantastical powers, she was different.
"You're kind of different," he said thoughtfully, pulling a face. "I liked the old you better." As he said this, he witnessed her lash out for the first time, a sliver of the anger within her sparking.
"Your hair is different," she argued hotly, pointing to the mop of brown he was sporting. "And anyway, it's ugly. Blue hair made you stand out and now you don't." In that moment, the little girl learnt words hurt and later, she was startled to find she had begun to use them like the weapons they were. But still not quite there yet, the princess hugged her jester, pleading for him to stay. And he did, forgiving her at once, which was something she never quite learnt herself.
"It's okay," he shrugged, perplexing the girl. "You're kind of right though. I just wanted to fit in." Startled by his confession, she hugged him again, whispering kindly, "I like the real you better." The blue haired boy's mouth quirked at that.
"I like the real you better too." The girl smiled at that, flashing her pearly white teeth. That was something she'd remember for a long time, but not for long enough.
A few years later, the little girl was certainly no longer little, with a slender, but curvaceous body that few people had and features that made her look beautiful beyond her years. Her court jester however, looked much the same, a fact that caused much relief to her. So much was changing around her, the girl realised, with her sister, Domi, attending Hogwarts, her aunts and uncles having children and herself becoming a girl she no longer recognised.
She told the blue haired boy, who now wore an allocated different shade of hair each day, about her thoughts on a sweltering summer's day. He fell into a thoughtful stance just as he always did when he had delivered displeasing news to her ears.
"You've changed, that's true," he mused, lying beside her in the shade of one of the many trees at Hogwarts. "I don't like the way you act around other boys. It's like you dumb yourself down for their attention."
She frowned at this. So maybe it was true, true that the girl who had once been the brightest little girl in the room was no longer so clever. But weren't the boys and the all the attention worth it? But she daren't speak her thoughts out loud though; her jester had very strong opinions of such things.
"You wouldn't mind if it was for you," she said instead, turning to face him. Playing her favourite game, she positioned her body seductively, her lips pouting while she twirled her hair brainlessly. The blue haired boy's hair and face turned red for a brief second as he forgot how to breathe. At this, the girl smiled victoriously, knowing she had won the argument. Not once did she stop to think that perhaps it wasn't a good thing she was right.
But all the same, her court jester remained by her side even whilst she gallivanted about with the rest of her court, drinking merrily with the other beautiful court ladies and, later in her evenings, leaving mysteriously late at night with handsome suitors. He even comforted her one midnight when she had lain underneath the sheets, vulnerable, naked and crying about the last prince who left her in the night.
"He took everything," the girl, who had unexpectedly become a woman that night, sobbed into his arms. "Everything."
"Not everything," he said firmly, his hair turning a sombre black. "You still have me." The princess dried her eyes at this, wrapping her arms tightly around him and willed herself to be washed over by the comforting scent of the blue haired jester. Somehow, when she had her arms wrapped around another boy, he had become a man. Strong, powerful and mature; the only hint of youth was his blue hair. She thought of her jester differently after that, although throughout the rest of the year he continued to remind her that he was much the same.
But the girl herself was no longer the same after that and grew up even faster. One night of dancing with monsters had cursed the beautiful princess to become an ugly thing after dark, a creature of great outward beauty and great inner torment. She drunk until dawn, flirted recklessly with pig-like men and, the worst crime of all, pushed the blue haired boy away when he tried to help her.
"You're sick," he argued, while carrying her bridal style, away from a particularly nasty gathering and away from the mob of monsters she called 'friends', who had made her who she was. "You need help."
"NoIdon't," the princess slurred, her clever tongue subdued by the drinks she had gulped down earlier. "I'm fine."
The blue haired boy looked at her with disapproval, the usual hint of humour in his face nowhere to be found. "What happened to you?" He asked, swallowing hard to keep the tears from forming on his face. The girl was cruel in this way; she always made him feel the need to be braver in her presence. To be more like the shining knight in armour and not the court jester who played a background role in the most exciting of stories. Specifically, ones like hers.
"Nothing!" The girl snapped eventually, fire catching flame at her icy words. "What happened to you- you used to be fun."
"And you used to be an actual person," he glared, his eyes filled with a strange emotion she had never felt from him. Sure, other girls conveyed similar emotions all the time, but never, had he shown such feelings towards her before. He was just the kind boy who made her laugh and her eyes shine.
"I still am," she replied feebly, grasping onto any straw of power she had left. He made her feel powerless, a feeling she hated, and remained silent until he lowered her onto a bed in her dormitory.
"I can't help it," the girl said suddenly, grabbing the boy's attention as he went to turn the door knob. "No one would like me if I was."
"I would," he said simply, moving to sit beside her on the bed. She scoffed at that, running a shaking hand through her still (miraculously) perfect, bouncy mound of curls.
"No you wouldn't," she said bitterly. "That's what Dom's for: the smart, socially aware princess with sarcasm for a special talent. She's already playing that role, so I'm stuck playing mine."
The blue haired boy's hair turns green at that, a colour the girl had since learnt was to convey his scepticism or disbelief. There was tired silence between them until he spoke, his hair fading back to blue.
"Then I'll play mine and love you no matter what," he announced, moving in closer, leaving the princess breathless at the feeling of a sudden surge of an energy rush. Then, he closed in the distance between them and for a second, they create enough magic for him to forget the whiskey on her breath.
"I love you," he whispered when she fell asleep moments later, a tear running down his face as he saw her for the last time that day, sprawled across the bed with her low cut party dress still on, and the magic was undone.
When the girl awoke from her beauty sleep in the morning, both of them agreed that what they had was just friendship and nothing more. She was a princess, after all, and he was the funny jester with blue hair. They did not belong with each other in a conventional sense and she, despite her nightly habits, wished to appear conventionally attractive to her court. And though this pierced through the blue haired boy's carefully carefree armour, he was not surprised in the least by her feelings. She acted cruel these days, level with her vanity and emotionally coldness to match her outward beauty, her elegance and deceptive perfection. But the jester, even as he went to leave the castle that was one she owned now to, was still ever the knight he was never meant to be. And it was all for her, the cruel, cruel princess with everyone wrapped around her nimble little finger.
"You're so overprotective," she remarked, whilst on one of their rare afternoons together. The blue haired boy quirked an eyebrow at that, gesturing for her to lay beside him on the ground. The princess, who had forgotten all about their adventures in the garden, shook her head and continued to stand. She wouldn't get her skirt dirty, she explained to the blue haired boy, whose hair turned green as he shook his head at her, pouting. The girl took in a sharp breath, for his lips suddenly looked irresistible and as she laid down beside him, arranging her skirt around her carefully, she convinced herself he had put her under some sort of trance.
"I wasn't expecting you to do that," the boy admitted, his hair turning purple in amazement. "You're usually such a princess."
It was the princess's turn to raise an eyebrow, but she did not have to echo her thoughts aloud. Her jester already knew, from ironic look that had formed upon his adorable, angelic features. The princess shook her head internally; what was wrong with her?
"You okay?" He said, looking concerned as he turned to face her. Little did he know that it made it worse, for the girl became entrapped by his unconventional beauty which radiated from his features. He was never beautiful to her before, she thought. Before, he had always been a lanky, blue eyed boy with a manic grin; a joker. Well, a jester really. Her court jester.
"You don't get in trouble that much anymore," she remarked suddenly, ignoring the jabs her heart felt every time she dared to look at his face.
"Well, I kinda realised that I would have pass Hogwarts to become an auror," the boy, no, man said, laughing. She too laughed, but for a different reason. Her jester, an auror?
"Are you sure you want to become an auror?" She then frowned, rare, heavy, concern forming upon her light features. "I don't want anything to happen to you."
He frowned in return, feeling both pleased and annoyed by her worries. "I'll be fine," he said quickly, before whispering. "Why, are you worried?" She moved closer to him and he could feel danger and recklessness streaking through his usually carefully carefree heart. He didn't even blink when the princess kissed him, moving her hands down his strong chest while fingering all the faded scars he had from playing Quidditch. To her, he was already a warrior, a thought that made his heart swell in pride and joy. Over the years he had wanted nothing but to protect her and now that he was with her, he felt like he finally could. When he finally pulled away, she murmured, "Don't stop," before pressing her body against his. Hesitant for only a moment, he ran his hands down her willowy frame and for the first time in forever, the girl let down her guard.
"I'm worried about you," she admitted, as she raked her slender fingers through his unruly, blue hair. Laying on top of him, she let her tears shed. He pulled her closer to him, whispering words of comfort.
"Don't be, I'll always be here with you," he promised the trembling girl, who was embarrassed to have let her cold, regal façade crumble away. But she needn't be worried, he didn't mind in the slightest. The girl before him was much like the girl he had met all those years ago and grinned a crazy smile for, even though he remembered not feeling like smiling much. The princess in his arms was almost the same as the one he had fallen for all those years ago, the one with rosy cheeks and pudgy arms spotted with little freckles. This girl, not the one he had known his years at Hogwarts, was the only one for him. Feeling a smile light up on the blue haired boy's face, he realised how wonderful it felt to know that.
But alas, the princess was not one to give up the life she had so carefully created for herself. Fairy tales, love, soulmates and even princesses and knights in shining armour were things of fiction, she convinced herself as the blue haired boy pressed loving kisses on her neck. A life like that wasn't one she deserved, she thought. Princesses like her were prizes to be won, not people to be cherished. And because of the monsters at night, though the boy kissed her farewell later that night with the notion that they were meant to be, the princess fell down the rabbit hole once again. This time, she'd dug one for herself.
And that is why he finally left the princess, after finding her in the bed of another man, tears streaking down his face as he walked out of her life. They continued to fall until years passed by and he married the girl's sister, Dominique, who had hair like fire and loved him fiercely like he wished the girl would have done. Dominique knew he would never quite love her the way he once loved her sister, but still chose to love the blue haired man, who now had streaks of grey in subtle places, anyway. They had three kids and true, they never owned a castle or lived like royals, but it was always enough for them.
As for the princess, what ever happened to her? She lived quite a miracle for a girl like her, being scouted for a modelling agency early on after graduating, before marrying a millionaire whom she did not love and in return, he did not love her back. She had only one child, one she raised like a princess and when her husband finally divorced her after falling in love with a real woman, sucked up the sympathy of fans from her modelling days. After all, it gave her an excuse to continue her nightly habits, even in old age. But nevertheless, she always missed the boy with blue hair, whom she had seen on many occasions but had never spoken to. Each time she would try, her courage would leave her and instead, her cold façade would consume her until she would no longer want to talk to him. Over her lifetime, she would never pluck up the courage, instead talking to her sister and waiting for the crumbs she would drop about her jester. It was not ideal, but the princess realised she had missed her chance many years ago, when she was young and foolish. In fact, she still was and always would be; such is the life of a person like her.
If only she knew that the boy would blue hair thought of her every second of the day until the day he forgot everything: his godfather, the man with the odd scar, his grandmothers, who both had sad smiles, his god siblings, who were forever a rowdy bunch of children in his memory, his technically- not- really- cousins, who he had caused such mischief with; especially the one he married, with red hair that resembled fire. But most precious of all the things he forgot was her, who was forever always the blonde haired princess, with slight freckles and the brightest personality he had ever seen. Young and stumbling around the Burrow garden with him, imagining a more exciting life than either ever ended up living.
Alas, such is the luck of a perfectly cold princess.
Thanks for reading! Obviously it's not mandatory, but I appreciate any and all reviews, favourites etcetera. 'Till the next time (or story),
Knutforyourthoughts