Written for:
Chocolate Frog Cards Challenge: Sacharissa Tugwood - External Beauty
Gringotts Prompts Bank: Romilda Vane, "Why is it that you search for your own beauty in the eyes of others?" - Emma Bleker *NEW*, A beauty spell (no known incantation), "Be content with what you have. You have enough to live a happy life." - Lailah Gifty Akita, Gin
433 words.
Pretty
Romilda stared into the mirror like it was the source of all her contentment, with glazed over eyes and a sickly smile.
She raised her wand to her hair and cast an incantation that took the damp from the shower brunette waves into tumbling, glamourous curls. She then pointed the wand at her own face, and whispered softly, feeling more and more normal with every passing second as her imperfections smoothed themselves out.
"You know you're beautiful, don't you?" a man asked, leaning against a bedpost with dark rings around his eyes beneath his shaggy mop of dark hair. He brushed a thumb against the stubble on his jaw as he considered her.
She smiled brightly. "Of course I do."
"Then why aren't you happy?"
Her eyebrows furrowed together. Of course she was happy. What on earth did he mean? Why was he always playing games?
"Face it, Romilda. Face the truth. You have your good lucks, you're nice house, a devilishly handsome boyfriend," he gestured to himself with a smirk, "but you're sitting here feeling empty, aren't you?"
"You don't know me," she warned, as if his words weren't getting to her.
"Yes, I do. I've known you a long time, Romilda." He laughed a little, at the answer sitting in plain sight in front of them. "Why is it that you search for your own beauty in the eyes of others?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" she asked, looking at him through the glass of the mirror. He looked back and sighed.
"You know what I mean. In the darkness, alone, you can look in that mirror and think you're beautiful. But in the light, with the crowds, you strive for their affection and approval like you'd be nothing without it."
She stared into the mirror and considered herself. She was beautiful. She knew that. But what was beauty without love? What was pretty without friends? What was attraction without affection.
"I'm not just talking about the mirror, love. You... You're heart... It's beautiful. You'e beatiful. Inside and out." Romilda snorted at the thought. She was certain he was the only one that believed that.
"Be content with what you have. You have enough to live a happy life. In fact, you owe it to yourself." Romilda picked up the tumbler in front of her and drained it of gin, wincing at its strength.
"You're wrong. You don't know what I've done. This beauty? It's skin deep. It's all I have. Inside, I'm a charred, black, withered little thing. One day, you'll see," she warned, before turning to walk away.