Hey everyone. This story was brought to you by Hogwarts Northern Winter Funfair's Build an Igloo, Hogwarts Southern Winter Funfair's Present Wrapping Station, Hogwarts Easter Winter Funfair's Polar Express, and December Event's Advent Calendar on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. For Build an Igloo I wrote for Layer 1 character Daphne Greensgrass. For Present Wrapping Station I wrote for Step 3 Get Your Corners Perfect and my prompt was "I should have known this would happen!". For Polar Express I wrote for the color prompt of evergreen. For Advent Calendar I wrote for the scenario prompt of The prince and the commoner meet in a forest when the prince accidentally injures the commoner. I hope you all enjoy Trees of Evergreen.
"I'll be back a little later," Daphne called from the front door.
This was a daily ritual for Daphne. She wake up and get dressed usually in her daily chore dress. She'd make breakfast for her parents and sister, Astoria, which usually consisted of a small hash and some eggs from the chicken hutch out back. After that she'd make her daily shopping list for the market which wasn't that difficult. She was the one who did most of the cooking after all. She knew what she needed most after.
So after she made sure that Astoria was set up with her breakfast and the list was ready. She pulled her cloak around her and headed out the door after telling her parents she'd be back later. Walking through the village she didn't take any notice to the commotion around her. She knew that something big was going on in the kingdom but what that something was she had no clue.
"Here for the usual, Daphne?" asked her favorite vendor Ms. Pansy Parkinson.
"Of course, Pansy," Daphne told the other girl.
Pansy was around the same age as Daphne if not a little older by a few months. The dark haired girl had always given Daphne a good deal on her shopping list. As Pansy gathered the items that Daphne had on her list the girls lapsed into conversation about the commotion.
"What's going on today?" Daphne asked Pansy she took one full bag from the other girl. "Is there some sort of festival or something going on?" She didn't think a festival was happening any time soon. They usually happened around the holidays.
"The prince is going to be visiting the village with his fiance," Pansy told Daphne in a whisper. "I hear she's a very pretty girl. Some red-head girl from a very rich kingdom across the way. His family is trying to make themselves look good. You know after King Lucius almost lost everything?"
Daphne knew about the hard times following King Lucius's failure of making friends with the Dark Wizard whose name no spoke. The king and most of his advisers lost everything and had to build back what resources they'd had. Daphne's father had been one of King Lucius's advisers who hadn't been so fortunate.
"I'm sorry," Pansy told Daphne. She always seemed to forget that Daphne was one of the people who'd been hurt the most because of King Lucius's short sighted sense of right and wrong. "I guess you don't really want to discuss him or his family."
"Don't let me stop you from joining the fun, Pans," Daphne told her friend kindly. "I have to deliver this lot back home and I might stop by later. But not enjoy the King's festivities."
Bidding Pansy good bye after paying for her items she started the walk back home. A glint of something caught her eye in the forest. She knew better than to follow it but something told her to go against her better judgement. Looking at the pack of food items she sighed as she plunged into the forest. Racing towards the glint she could hear the sounds of voice bickering back and forth with each other.
"You won't get away with this coward," came a regal sounding voice.
The voice sent a chill down Daphne's spine. She recognized the voice as that of Prince Draco. She and her sister had been best friends with Draco when their family fortunes had been better.
"Are you so sure?" asked a voice that Daphne also recognized as that of one of local business men's son's.
Moving through the evergreen trees to get a better view of what was going on Daphne prayed that nothing bad was about to happen. She was just about to make herself known to both men when the one in front of her ducked. The curse that had been heading towards the man kept heading straight on.
She doesn't know what it is that hits her. It feels like a stinging curse but much worse than that. Worse enough that tears start to leak from her eyes as she falls into the clearing the men are in. She hears a commotion and knows that one of the men has run off in fear. But all she can do is lay there on the ground clutching her bag of food that she should have gone home with.
"Are you alright, my lady?" comes the voice of the prince. She knew he wouldn't leave her side. Draco was a lot more kinder than his father. A fact that most people attribute to being raised mostly by his mother. "I didn't mean hit you."
She doesn't trust herself not to cry if she opened her mouth so she settles for shaking her vigorously. She is far from okay right now. She is mentally chiding herself and the while all she can see is the evergreen of the trees above them.
"Let's get you out of here," Draco says trying to help her sit up which only causes the pain to escalate. Slapping himself upside the head he quickly did the counter curse. "Is that a little bit better?"
Daphne sees him studying her in concern. "I should have known this would happen!" she exclaimed to herself. "You try to do something good to help someone else out and what do you get? You get attacked for your service." She slapped Draco's hand away as she stood up by herself.
"I'm sorry you got hurt," Draco told her defensively. "I was actually aiming for my attacker who subsequently got away when you fell through the tree line."
"I'm sorry for being in blinding pain and trying to help save your life, Your Majesty."
That one had stung Draco. He'd always thought of Daphne and Astoria as his friends not someone who needed to treat him with respect. Someone he could goof off with and be himself. He held out his hand to her. "No," he said. "I'm really sorry for what happened. All of it."
Taking the hand Draco held out to her Daphne felt a blush creep up on her cheeks. No one had ever apologized to her for anything in her life. Not when everyone she'd been friends had turned their backs on her after her father's downfall. Not when she and her sister were made the laughing stock of the village for defending the prince and his mother. Never. Perhaps things were starting to change.
"Let me help you take your shopping home?" Draco told her reaching to take the bag from her once delicate hands now calloused from hard work around the house. "It's the least the I can do."
Daphne agreed knowing Astoria would be happy to see Draco again. Letting Draco take the bag from her she lead him back through the evergreen trees towards the village she now called home. But as long as she lived she'd never forget that day under the trees of evergreen.
I hope you all enjoyed Trees of Evergreen.