Title:His Princess
Author: Catalina Royce
Disclaimer: These stories are based on characters and situations created
and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books,
Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made
and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Summary: "He called me Virginia, and we played pretend."
Rating: G
Author's Note: A short one shot to distract me from The Myth of
Innocence.
He called me Virginia. Never Ginny, never Gin. Always Virginia. He was more refined, he explained, and he loved me as I was, and he couldn't bear to bastardise my name with a nickname that reminded him of an alcoholic drink.
So he called me Virginia, and we played pretend. I would be his princess, and he my prince. He would save me from my gloomy tower and whisk me away. He loved me more than anyone in the entire history of the world had ever loved. He'd whisper sweet promises through the pages of his soul, the night still and dead around us.
He was the perfect prince. He was arrogant, yes, and demanding. He never asked, just told. But he listened, and he comforted, which was more than Harry ever did. My prince promised me that he would stay forever, he reassured me that I was as good as my family.
We were two blind dreamers lucky enough to collide with each other. I loved him, and he could do no less. He'd been everything I hoped for on those long cold nights. I spent huddled them in my bed at the Burrow, fantasising about the man who would take me away from all this, about the man who would love me, rather than my family. Once upon a time, I'd thought it was Harry, but Harry was too focussed on being ordinary to be able to appreciate me and lift me out of the doldrums of normalcy.
When Tom came along, I fell like an angel plummeting out of heaven.
I spent hours, days writing to him. I told him of how much I loved my family, but how I always stood in the shadows. How it was my duty to look after the men in the house, because I was a female. I confessed that I was worried about Hogwarts, and scared the Harry wouldn't like me, and then I topped it all off by admitting that sometimes I felt so empty. I felt like I was devoid of emotions.. When I'd realised what I'd done, I could have died of shame.
In return, he placed me on a pedestal and fed me grapes in the form of his soul. He was my slave, and I was his.
He told me of his childhood, of how he had been left at an orphanage. He'd wished for brothers and sisters, he said. I told him that I'd gladly trade mine with him if he wanted them that much. He laughed and replied that he'd grown out of that phase, had had time to reconsider and had decided there were many benefits in being an only child. I'd had to agree with him. Just that day, Fred had jumped out from behind a suit of armour, covered in boils to scare me.
Tom said that I could have anything I wanted, if I put my mind to it. All I had to do was realise I had the power, and I could take anything I wanted. I was worried that it would be wrong, but he reassured me that it was fine, that there wasn't a right or wrong, only power and feebleness. He asked me which I would choose.
I didn't know. It took me a long time to ask which he had chosen.
"That should have been obvious, princess. I chose power."
I decided that I'd choose power, too, then. After that, he started telling me his dreams, and grape by little grape, I realised that the emptiness was slowly leaving me. I was becoming whole again, in a way I hadn't felt full in months. But just as my happiness would overcome me, I started feeling weak. I was tired, and I spoke to Tom, terrified that somehow I'd become feeble without knowing it.
He just hushed me and placed me back on the pedestal, ever so gently reminding me that I wasn't to fall into doubt again. I tried my hardest, I did try, but I toppled of the pedestal and threw Tom away.
When I had him back, I could do nothing to make up for it. He was as calm and patient as always, but I didn't believe that he would be able to forgive me, ever. I told him that next time I'd manage to stay on the pedestal, and he soothed me with another grape. This time, it was a memory of a little boy looking lost and forlorn, searching. Searching for me.
I loved Tom, then. And he once again started telling me his plans. He told me of how he'd rule the world, and everyone would be impressed with this poor boy that made good. He said that he would, of course, have me rule with him; princess to his prince.
And one night he told me that before we could rule the world, we would both have to make sacrifices. He brought me down into the Chamber. He was stronger, now, and I was feeling so much weaker. The thought feeble sprang into my mind, and I pushed it away with a terror that surpassed any I had known. I could not be feeble. Tom would hate me for that.
I asked him what I had to sacrifice.
"Nothing, princess. You already have."
I asked him what he had to sacrifice so we could be together.
"You."
I slept, then, and when I woke up my prince was gone. Harry stood in his place, looking worried and wearied. I burst into tears and wondered if my prince had finally broken the evil spell on my emotions, because surely this grief was because of fear.
Harry rocked me and I tried to make sense of the situation, but it wouldn't click.
My prince called me Virginia, and we played pretend. He was the evil sorcerer, pretending to be my knight in armour, and I? I pretended to be a princess. I pretended to be powerful.