Narcissa Black sat on her four poster bed in the girls' dormitories of the Slytherin wing of the Hogwarts dungeons, combing her long blonde hair. Amara sat watching her, mesmerized.
"You know… he really likes you," she said in monotone, sounding like she was in a dream. Narcissa stopped brushing her hair and looked at her best friend, confused. She didn't want to think about who she hoped "he" was.
"Who?" she asked, acting innocent. Happy with her hair, she stood up and flicked it over her shoulder.
"Lucius," Amara said, out of her dream-like trance. Narcissa froze, but then carried on towards the stairs and into the Slytherin common room. Unfortunately, Lucius was already in there. She was too late to spot him, and he had already spotted her, killing her chances of doing a double take and facing Amara instead.
"Narcissa," Lucius called to her, smiling at her miffed expression. Almost everyone in the common room froze, except for the naïve first years, who had no idea what was going on. They eventually caught on, and stopped talking; looking around in bewilderment at what everyone had stopped for. Narcissa shot Lucius an icy glare that only made him smile more, thus making him look more handsome and Narcissa angrier. She floated down the stairs like a fallen angel, her hair flowing behind her, soft and white like a bride's veil.
"Lucius," she said, sounding polite with the ease of long practice. His gaze did not falter and neither did hers. They were alike in so many ways and everyone but them noticed this. They were both too stubborn to admit it to themselves, let alone others. Almost everyone in the room was holding their breath, not daring to make a sound.
"Look at the time! We better go have breakfast!" Argon announced, followed by murmurs of agreement and hunger. Slowly, but surely, the common room emptied. Narcissa, Amara, Lucius and Argon were the last to leave. Narcissa purposefully put Amara and Argon between her and Lucius at the table in the great hall, but her appetite wasn't complying with her. The rest of the day dragged but she managed to satisfactorily avoid Lucius; that is until she got back to the common room in the evening.
"Cissa," she heard behind her as she entered and made a bee line for the girl's dormitories. She clenched her teeth together and turned to face him, her hands balled into fists. She relaxed them for fear of punching that handsomely smug grin off his beautiful face. "Did you forget?"
"Forget what?" she asked, snapping at him. He looked unfazed, only happier.
"Detention," he said matter-of-factly, and an orchestra practically erupted inside Narcissa's heart. She put it down to rage, and clutched her middle to quieten it. As the last violin solos were dying away, she felt it was safe to reply.
"Oh, right." He chuckled at her and she blushed at the fact that she could make him do something that made him look so… beautiful.
"I'll see you there," he said, smiling at her. Her breath caught in her throat as it did when she saw her reflection in the mirror sometimes. But this time it felt a lot better. Before she could form a coherent thought he was gone and she ran up to the girls' dormitories to shower before detention.
Andromeda arrived at Professor Webb's office just as Rabastan did. He smiled his trademark smile at her but she ignored it; now that nobody was around she didn't have to pretend to like him. He became annoyed at her momentarily, grabbing her wrist just as she was about to open the door. Meda's head snapped up to look at them, her eyes burning with fury that he had the audacity to touch her.
"What is wrong with you?" she snarled, pulling her wrist from his grasp.
"You. You're acting weird," he said, blocking the door from her with his body. She immediately backed away slightly.
"Hmm, maybe because you're blackmailing me into pretending I love you," she said thoughtfully, folding her arms and scowling at him.
"Look," he sighed, running his hand through his hair and sighing. "I didn't mean to, but you're with that Muggle-born all the time, and it's so wrong. I'm just trying to help you."
Andromeda laughed. "Help me? By making me miserable? You and I clearly have different definitions of the word 'help'." She tried pushing past him but his body was too wide and she was very small compared to him. Giving up, she glared at him and ordered him to move.
He looked deep in thought for a moment, and then moved. "Only because you'll have to act like my girlfriend in there." He shrugged, and beamed widely. Andromeda froze, her hand on the doorknob. A deep cough echoed throughout the stone hallway, and Andromeda turned to see Ted standing there, looking annoyed, and glowering at Rabastan.
"Rabastan," he nodded, his eyes narrowing further.
"Ted," Rabastan nodded, with a coy smile on his face.
"I'll be there in a minute," Meda said to Rabastan, her eyes wide with pleading to give her and Ted a few seconds alone. He stared at her for a moment, and then entered the office reluctantly. The minute the door shut, Andromeda ran into Ted's arms, burying her face in his chest.
"Hi," he laughed, holding her close.
"Hi," she said, though it came out muffled.
"You ok?" Ted asked, sounding really concerned. A muffled affirmation followed, and he chuckled. Another cough came, and the couple turned to see Professor Webb with one eyebrow raised at them. The two practically leaped apart, and turned bright red. "We were just… going inside," Ted said, pointing to the door and then entering the room.
Andromeda followed shortly, and had to sit in between Rabastan and Ted, much to her chagrin. Bella and Rodolphus were already in there, looking annoyed, as were Narcissa and Lucius. Professor Webb was, needless to say, incredibly confused. He handed out old, dilapidated books to the students. They looked disgusted.
"What's this?" Rodolphus asked, fingering the crumbling front cover, and tracing the word "Cinderella" with his forefinger. Bella didn't even touch it.
"It's something you're going to get to know and love very well," Professor Webb replied, looking smug that he knew something the others most certainly didn't.
"The Little Mermaid," Narcissa whispered, reading the title of her and Lucius' book. "What on earth…?" Professor Webb just smiled at her knowingly.
"Read the first words of the book, everyone, all together now," he instructed, and they all looked at him as if he had grown another head and sprouted a tail. Andromeda blew the dust off her book, and along with it, half of the pages. "The Swan Princess" was emblazoned on it in gold writing, still just about visible. She scrunched her nose up in disgust at the title.
"Once upon a time," all of them read in unison, not managing to utter another word before a slight feeling of dizziness flooded over them. A bright, pinkish light blinded them momentarily, and when it had faded they were no longer in Professor Webb's office, or in each other's company. In fact, they had no idea where on earth they were, but the truth is, they weren't actually anywhere on this earth.
Bellatrix awoke to find herself in a dingy old attic, lying in a creaky, decrepit bed. She felt around for her wand, but it was nowhere to be found. She cursed silently, and, creeping down the stairs, tried to remember every wand-less spell she could think of. None of them could do any satisfactory damage to another person, in Bella's eyes.
"CINDEREEEEELLA!" a shriek came, echoing through the house and startling Bella half to death. She leapt into the nearest room to hide there. "CINDEREEEEELLA!" the shriek came again, and the door was yanked open by a girl about Bella's age, but much, much uglier. Her hooked nose almost touched her lip, and warts were sprinkled all over her bright pink face. Her clearly dyed hair sat in a mess on top of her head, and, Bella couldn't help noticing, it resembled a dead animal. The most disconcerting thing, though, was that it smelled like one too. "There you are!" the girl screamed, even though she had found Bella.
"Me?" Bella replied, startled and scared. The girl rolled her huge brown eyes that practically popped out of her sockets. Bella couldn't tell if this was with rage, or simply how she normally looked.
"Yes you! I need you to tie up the back of my dress!" the girl ordered, and Bella couldn't help but comply. She tied up the back of the frilly blue and pink utterly hideous dress. "Tighter!" the girl ordered, but Bella could pull it no tighter. The girl wasn't exactly what you'd call… petite. Quite the contrary, Bella couldn't wrap her arms around the girl and make her fingers touch.
"It won't go any tighter!" Bella yelled, sighing and flopping down on the bed. It nearly collapsed underneath her. She hated to think what would've happened if the girl had flopped down onto the bed. The girl looked as if Bella had slapped her.
"Excuse me! But how dare you talk to me like that, I have half the mind to tell mother not to let you go to the ball! Of course, I could also convince her to let you go," the girl looked smug at her blackmailing proposal, but Bella had no idea what she was going on about.
"I don't want to go to any ball!" Bella cringed, images of thousands of women in frilly dresses matching the girl's, dancing around with posh, Muggle men. The Muggle-ness of it all was what made her cringe most, but the dresses came close second. The girl looked shocked, but composed her face.
"Fine! But if you're using… reverse p-sigh-coll-o-gee, on me then it won't work!" she replied, before making an overly dramatic exit. Bella immediately looked for a way to escape.
Narcissa found herself under water, but found she could breathe. Her blue and green scaly tail shimmered in the rays of light that penetrated the water. Her first instinct was to swim upwards, but when she found it incredibly easy, she noticed her tail. At first sight, she found it ugly, and disfiguring, especially where the scales fizzled out into skin. But after a while she noticed the way it shimmered, and how the blue in it matched her eyes perfectly. At the surface, Cissa looked around, and saw land not far off. It looked particularly inviting, as the patch of sky surrounding the land turned gold in the setting sun, and with nowhere to go, she started to swim towards it. A castle soon came into sight, and she felt elated, clambering up onto some rocks by the beach.
"Prince Lucius?" a man called, walking down the beach. Narcissa hid herself partially under the water, until she realised who the man was calling. Lucius? She swam down the beach, searching the golden sand with her eyes, and there sat Lucius, skipping stones on the water. Narcissa couldn't help but laugh at the fact that all the stones just sank as soon as they touched the waves. She concealed herself as long as she could, finding that she felt extremely graceful as a mermaid. The mermaids in the lake at Hogwarts looked nothing like her, and certainly weren't as graceful. She only hoped that she could speak English above the water. As her head emerged above the breaking waves, Lucius jumped back a mile.
"FUCK!" he swore, and Narcissa burst out laughing again.
"You know, you're really bad at skipping stones?" she said in between her laughter, shaking her head at him. He rubbed his eyes and stared at her. Partly because all she had on her upper half was a skimpy bra made of shells. Her milky white skin was completely bare. This distracted him from thinking of a good comeback.
"Narcissa?" he asked, in disbelief. She pulled herself up onto the beach, revealing her tail. Lucius' eyes nearly popped out. "What happened to you?"
"Oh, I just thought I'd slip on my mermaid tail and go for a swim," she said sarcastically. "What does it look like?!"
"Jeez, so-rry," he said, shaking himself out of it, and pretending he hadn't noticed the fact that she was half-naked.
"Now are you done drooling over me so maybe we could figure out how this happened?" Cissa said, inwardly smiling at the way he stared at her. This sparked Lucius.
"Yes, I am, now that you've opened your mouth and ruined it," he retorted. Narcissa rolled her eyes.
"Seriously, what are we going to do?" she asked, realising that she was practically relying on Lucius. It scared her, but she didn't exactly have her wand hidden in a pocket on her tail.
"Well, unfortunately, I should turn you back into a human," Lucius replied, feeling around for his wand and swearing when he couldn't find it. Narcissa groaned.
"I like being a mermaid anyway," she said moodily. "As long as I don't look like the ones in the lake."
"Well," Lucius said, cocking his head to the side. "I wouldn't say that. Maybe if you scrunch your face up a bit." Narcissa scowled at him. "Like that! Perfect."
"You are the most insufferable, condescending…" Narcissa went on to call him every name under the sun. They sat there for quite a while as she recited them. Lucius just sat there grinning at her.
"Your body, however, doesn't look anything like theirs," he said thoughtfully, but with a cheeky grin, once she had finished. Her face almost turned purple, with anger and embarrassment.
"Prince Lucius?!" the voice came, getting louder as the man came closer.
"Prince?" Lucius and Narcissa said in unison, her voice disgusted and his delighted, yet confused. Cissa didn't find this hard to believe though, after all, she was a mermaid, it wasn't fair that she got to be something more interesting. She dived into the water gracefully and was reluctant to emerge.
"Meet me here at sunset, Prince," she whispered, before her head sunk beneath the gently lapping waves. Lucius whispered a half hearted affirmation as he watched the shadow beneath the water glide away, and then ran down the beach towards whoever was calling him.
Andromeda, Ted and Rabastan materialized right in the middle of a ball. Pastel coloured drapes hung from the high, domed ceiling, people in matching pastel suits and dresses danced around the room in a circular motion, making Meda dizzy, and ice sculptures in the shape of swans were dotted around the large room, amidst the mouth watering food. Hues of the lightest pinks, blues and yellows Meda had ever seen seemed to blend together in the form of the grand ballroom they were standing in.
"PRINCESS!" the dancers, spectators, and everybody else cheered as they spotted Andromeda. She felt like crawling into a hole and hiding, and Ted and Rabastan were equally confused. Meda forced a smile and waved at her fans, and noticed that she was wearing a dress not unlike the other girls in the room, but adorned with more jewels and frilled cloth. The boys were also dressed as weirdly as her.
"Why are they calling you princess?" Rabastan asked through gritted teeth and a fake smile, though he still looked impeccably handsome, especially in the Victorian style clothing.
"How should I know?" Meda retorted. She tapped on the shoulder of a passing boy and asked him, "Erm… why are they calling me princess?" He stared at her wide eyed, squeaked something incoherent and ran off. Andromeda sighed in frustration.
"Smooth move," Rabastan said. Ted scowled at him, but said nothing.
"What do we do now?" Meda asked, just as a group of giggling girls, her age and younger, in matching frilly dresses came and dragged her away.
"Oh my god," the oldest looking of the girls swooned. "As if you were talking to them without fainting!"
"Who?" Meda asked, confused.
"Prince Rabastan and Ted! The hottest brothers in the whole kingdom! Rabastan's your fiancée!" the oldest girl said, fanning herself with her hand and then looking at Meda jealously.
"Brothers?! Fiancée?!" Andromeda screeched. The girls eyed her suspiciously, and started to whisper about her. She couldn't have cared less. Since when were Rabastan and Ted brothers? she thought.
"Yes, Princess. Are you feeling alright?" the girl touched Meda's head but she swatted her hand away. Not wanting to look like a fool again, she played along with being a princess.
"I'm fine," she murmured, still coming to terms with everything she'd learnt.
Later on, when the girl's wouldn't disappear, Andromeda snuck outside after distracting them by starting a discussion about which brother was hotter. She needed fresh air badly, but she wasn't the only one. Outside, the stars glittered brightly in the midnight blue sky that faded into purple on the horizon, the looming silhouette of the white castle stood behind her, and Meda was reminded of Hogwarts. She breathed in the fresh air, standing there on the marble balcony, basking in the glow of the full moon. Ted stood feet away from her, staring at her lovingly with his deep brown eyes. It was then that she noticed him, and nearly jumped half a mile.
"You scared me," she said, starting towards him when she recognized who it was. He chuckled, and she hugged him. He nestled his face in her black hair.
"I'm sorry," came his muffled reply. Andromeda sighed.
"Where are we?" she asked half heartedly, knowing he wouldn't know the answer.
"I don't know…" he replied, obviously annoyed at this fact. He shivered. "It's cold out here; do you want to go inside?"
"Yeah, you go in, I'll be there in a minute," Meda said, but he wrapped his red velvet waistcoat around her nonetheless. The dress she was wearing had material covering her arms, but they weren't exactly worthy of being called sleeves.
When Ted had gone inside, she walked up to the golden railings that separated her from a lengthy drop, and looked out over her "kingdom". She was practically like royalty in reality, but this was different. A large lake sat not too far from Meda, home to about a hundred gorgeous white swans, the starry sky and full moon reflected in its inky blue waters. She watched the swans prune themselves and drift along the lake effortlessly. Some of them were asleep, blissfully unaware of the ball going on inside. Andromeda envied them, and yawned, realising how tired she was, and it surprised her.
"Tired, fiancée dear?" Rabastan asked, behind her. Andromeda wished with all her heart that she was one of those swans and not herself at that moment. But she wasn't a swan, and she had to face Rabastan.
"Look, I thought pretending to be your girlfriend was bad, but this… this tops everything! I will never marry you, not in this world, or any other!" Meda snarled. Her voice echoed off the castle and out into space, alarming some of the swans who flew off into the night. Andromeda watched them disappear into the darkness with sadness. They had abandoned her.
"Well that's too bad," Rabastan replied, a lot more quietly. "Because our guests are leaving, princess, and this was our engagement party."
Andromeda fumed in silence for a moment, and stomped past Rabastan and back into the ballroom which was half empty. People bid her goodbye as she strolled across the room, but she ignored them. Ted was reluctantly getting into a carriage by another man, who claimed to be taking him back to his own castle. Meda caught up to him just as the carriage was pulling out.
"I'll be back as soon as I can!" he shouted from the window. The horses whinnied and ran faster, making the carriage rock. Everyone around Andromeda started whispering, but she ran back into the castle and up the first flight of stairs she could find.