Fairytale: Lady and the Tramp
OPTIONAL PROMPTS: (word) clumsy, (word) effervescent, and (object) tea leaves
The fork clinks loudly as it knocks painfully against the silver platter, but no one seems to notice. The marble halls are filled with idle chitchat and the swish of the ostentatiously crafted robes of the wealthy and powerful.
Andromeda feels the pearls twisted in her hair like rubies on a crown, and she beams, wider than is ladylike. "Don't you wish it would always be like this?"
Narcissa smooths her skirts and delicately furrows her eyebrows, "Like what?" she asks carefully cutting her dragon steak into pieces so small Andromeda is surprised she can still see them.
"Like- like," Andromeda can't quite form the sentence, but she gestures gracefully at the wide, expansive hall, the clink of champagne glasses, the smell of chocolate raspberry tarts, and the people laughing and eating and all so marvelously dressed, "like perfect," she finishes and sniffs the air like a dog that has smelled something so utterly wonderful it's unable to resist.
"Of course," Narcissa replies examining her straw blonde locks in the swirling silver scoop of a spoon.
And that is that.
—
If only, Andromeda thinks weeks and weeks later, it had stayed that way. The parties are still there, the fancy dress robes, the elegant tarts, but something- or someone rather- is there too.
"I 'ave seen it before," a tall boy handsomely dressed in scarlet robes remarks. He has coffee black skin and thick tight curls, and he reaches up to take a dainty sip of an effervescent minty smelling concoction before he continues. "A leader 'oo claims 'e will lead zem into a better place, while all ze while zey are drawn deeper and deeper into ze zrills of ze dark arts. You are not alzough; you do not seem to care." He studies her curiously and takes another sip of his lime green drink. Andromeda does not reply.
If only, if only she could just ignore all this and then everything would magically return to normal, and she would live life just as she had before. But it is impossible to ignore and traces of this new 'leader' are everywhere.
—
"Oh, Andromeda, he's wonderful. He calls himself the Dark Lord, and he has so many ideas- marvelous ideas 'Meda. He understands that we're better than those filthy mudbloods and halfbreeds and- he wants to do something about it!" Bellatrix cries joyously as she flops onto Andromeda's bed, coal black curls flying everywhere.
"Mother says ladies don't interfere with matters of mudbloods," Andromeda replies rearranging the earrings in her drawer by occasion.
"Pish, posh!" Bellatrix cries, "We'll still be ladies, we'll just be useful ones now."
Andromeda sighs.
—
"What dress should I wear to the ball?" Andromeda giggles to her friend, Maribella late one night as they sit crisscross on the thick carpet of the Slytherin girls dorm.
But unlike every other day, Maribella simply waves her hand dismissively. "Oh, who cares?" she says. "Did you hear what Lilianna says the Dark Lord plans to do tomorrow?"
Andromeda stares sullenly at the carpet.
—
"Narcissa," she calls, "Narcissa!" her Slytherin scarf flapping bird-like behind her as she runs up the stairs two at a time. "Do you want to walk down to the little shop in Hogsmeade and get some new stationary? My phoenix feather quill is a bit dull, and I ran entirely out of golden ink the other day."
"Not now, Andromeda," Narcissa calls. Her face is flushed with excitement, and she doesn't seem to care that neither her shoes or her earrings are matching her robes. "Lucius is taking me to meet more of the Dark Lord's followers! Do you want to come?"
"I can't today," Andromeda lies. "But next time." It is not that Andromeda cares for the mudbloods and halfbreeds so much as that she hates that 'Lord,' and the irresistible enticement of dark magic for taking away everything she loved about being a pureblood.
Andromeda is so disgruntled that she does not return to the tall towers of the castle at all. Instead she splashes through the edge of the lake, kicking river-smoothed pebbles with her bare toes. She has just kicked a particularly large pebble laden with grey spots when a voice calls out from behind her. "What's the rock ever done to you?"
Amdromeda spin around and gasps. "I shouldn't even be in the same area as you- you're a, you're a-"
"Muggleborn. Funnily enough I know that. Why aren't you in Hogwarts with your friends?" Ted Tonks is standing at the edge of the lakes his hands pressed deep into his pockets as he stares at her inquisitively.
"Why aren't you?" she shoots back venomously.
"Tired of third wheeling," he replies. "Anyway see you around, Princess," he says, and he leaves without a backward glance.
Andromeda wants to scream.
—
Unfortunately this is not the last she sees of Ted Tonks, suddenly he is everywhere- well everywhere her friends aren't. He is clumsy, and charming, and probably hasn't ever attended a grand ball, but worst of all- he's a mudblood. Andromeda knows mudbloods are inferior, but lately she's been searching for loopholes a bit too vigorously.
"Where have you been?" her friends all ask. "The Dark Lord's been wondering where you always are, and so have we for a matter of fact."
"I'm a prefect now," Andromeda says calmly, "I've been trying to do lots of extra work to get head girl."
It isn't true at all, and while yes, Andromeda is plenty busy with Ted Tonks and the way he grabs her hand to show her through the hidden corridors and secret doors and tell her all his stories, it's not the only reason she hasn't been at the meetings: she's been avoiding them. She hates the cramped dark meeting room and lately, everything about them has been feeling a little off to her, which is perfectly silly, she tells herself, I'm a pureblood after all.
—
One day, Bellatrix, spies Ted approaching Andromeda in the stone-lined corridors. Without a second thought she blasts him out of the way. "What did you do that for?" Andromeda replies, shocked and horrified.
"You're a lady," Bellatrix replies. "He's a mudblood, a magic stealer, a filthy tramp. He shouldn't even be trying to talk to you."
Andromeda can only stare, in horror at Ted's limp body.
"Don't feel sorry for him," Bellatrix says, her voice edged with warning. "He's a mudblood, worse than a doxie and twice as hard to kill," she laughs at her own joke, and Andromeda can feel her lunch rising in her stomach.
"Come on," Bellatrix says, and Andromeda has no choice but to follow.
Ted doesn't speak to her for three days, and suddenly the Dark Lord's ideals don't seem so practical to Andromeda anymore.
—
"I'm s-so s-sorry," she sobs, and she vows never to let this happen again.
Ted still looks upset, but he hugs her all the same. "It's going to be alright," he says, and Andromeda melts in his arms.
—
The next months are a blur of Ted and schoolwork and Ted and skipping meetings and Ted and prefect duties.
But one day, something changes. "Do you want to go to Hogsmeade?" Ted asks her "Like on a date?" His hands are in his pockets again, and he's rocking nervously on the balls of his feet, like clown balancing precariously on a red rubber ball.
"I'd love to," Andromeda replies, "But how about somewhere else I can't-"
"Let anyone see you. I know," Ted says as he grins, "but that's why we're going right now."
"What do you mean?" Andromeda asks.
"I mean," Ted says, "that there's more than one way into Hogsmeade."
—
They end up at some cute little Italian place with flowers on the windows sills and wine red table cloths.
They order spaghetti, and drink lemonade, and the whole restaurant probably cost less than a single goblet from home, but she loves it.
Ted's lips taste like lemons and sugar, and Andromeda wishes, with every ounce of her heart, that things would never change.
—
It happens in May. The morning sky is ruby red and glowing when Narcissa catches Andromeda at the top of the Astronomy tower, Ted in her arms.
The ensuing fallout is monstrous and horrendous and by the end of the next week the only Slytherin even talking to her is Maribella.
"I forgive you," Maribella promises, her rich skin glowing as the sky turns tangerine orange, "I know you didn't mean to do it." Then she reaches into her robes and pulls out a bracelet, silver and studded with emeralds. "And I want you to have this, as a token of my goodwill."
Andromeda holds out her wrist as her eyes fill with tears. "Thank you," she sniffs; she is too proper to cry out here, where anyone could see her. "You don't know how much this means to me. I- thank you."
Maribella smiles as she fashions the bracelet around Andromeda's pale wrist. But when the clasp has clicked sharply together, like a door snapping shut, she looks up, and Andromeda sees that her eyes are full of venom, not love and her smile is much more of a smirk.
"Wha- what did you do?" Andromeda stumbles backwards her voice so full of fear it might as well be written on her forehead
"Oh you'll see, blood traitor," Maribella hisses and Andromeda feels the bracelet tighten around her wrist like a viper.
Fruitlessly she tugs it, but already she knows it's pointless. And then, Andromeda feels the tears coming like a an avalanche, faster and faster until she can't hold them back anymore, and they spill out like pebbles from the lake.
There are people gathering now, staring at the Slytherin who dared show emotion, their looks almost accusatory, and Andromeda turns and runs.
"Ted," she cries, "Ted," and everyone is staring now and she feels oh so stupid so she turns again and locks herself in the second corner of the girls bathrooms.
Her wrists hurts and her eyes smart from crying, but most of all her heart aches. Maribella, she thinks, Narcissa, Bellatrix, Rabastan, mother, father, Lilianna because she know none of them will ever forgive her now.
—
"Come on," a girl's voice calls in her ear, soft and girlish. For a moment Andromeda thinks it's Narcissa come to wake her up for something far too early, but then she feels the crick in her neck and- is she sitting on a toilet? The girl smells of tulips and apples and when Andromeda opens her eyes she can see she's wearing a violently yellow dress dotted with polka dots.
"My name's Karen," she says, "Ted sent me to get you."
To her disgust Andromeda feels tears welling up in her eyes again. "Where is he?" she whispers, and Karen points slowly toward the bathroom door.
—
The next week is torturous. She sleeps in the Hufflepuff dorms with the other Hufflepuff girls -all pigtails and sundresses and too wide smiles. They are all overwhelmingly nice and understanding and far too compassionate, and they've conjured an extra bed for her to sleep on (and which tea leaves keep miraculously appearing out of). ("Don't be silly, you can't sleep on the floor!") But Andromeda is used to forest greens and shining silvers and everything here feels so so yellow. She feels like a vine in a field full of buttercups, creeping silently among them as though she means to strike.
—
Ted seems to have friends in every house and he introduces them to her happily until her head is swirling with names and faces, and she can hardly remember them all. At least, though she- or Ted- seems to have an ally in every class so she is never alone with the Slytherins.
—
It takes her a few days to notice, but eventually she finds out the bracelet is more than a painful trinket and that whenever she ventures too close to Ted- or any muggleborn- really, she feels it tightening, stronger and stronger until she fears her wrist will snap, and she has to bite her lip to stop from screaming.
"We'll get it off," Ted promises when he catches her digging her nails into her palm once again to fight off the pain in her wrist. Because Andromeda is a pureblood, and Merlin help them all if she's going to be controlled by some silly emerald bracelet.
Ted takes her to his friend Caleb who has a mop of has shaggy, unkempt brown strands and an entirely untrustworthy look about him.
"If you get it off, you can have it," he says and then looks at Andromeda as though he's said something wrong.
Andromeda only nods and whispers a quiet, "Thank you," to Ted.
It takes Caleb what seems like eternity to examine it in this light, and at that angle, and through this glass. They stand in silence and Andromeda hears the faint chatter of students in a distant corridor until it fades away and that is left is the deep, reassuring breaths of Ted standing beside her. She counts the buttons of Ted's coat and the amber threads of Caleb's scarf until, finally Caleb begins to straighten up, almost mechanically, and starts to work. He tries spells and keys and a rusted set of pliers, until as Andromeda stares out the window having long since lost interest, it pops off.
"Thanks," she says, and Ted nods.
"Always happy to help," Caleb replies in a weedy sort of voice, but he is not looking at them because his eyes are fixed, bewitched, on the broken bracelet as he holds it up to the light.
Andromeda and Ted depart, and she can not help but smile as Ted holds her hand, and she feels nothing else but the warm grasp of his fingers.
—
"If this was a fairytale," Andromeda says one night when the moon is just barely visible through the clouds. "We would be back with my parents and sister by now, enjoying jasmine tea and laughing at one of Narcissa's tales."
"But this isn't a fairytale," he replies, "I'm a mudblood, and you're a blood traitor, and the Dark Lord isn't some harmless baby you can grow used to as it grows or even the bad dwarf who learned his lessons and changed his ways. But," he says, "That doesn't mean everything isn't going to be okay."
Andromeda knows he's lying. It's a dangerous works they're living in now. But somehow she finds herself thinking, yes, this isn't a fairytale, and that's okay. Andromeda smiles.