Hello everyone, sorry for the wait. College is tough, I have no social life and barely enough time to sleep, so given the circumstances can you forgive me ?
Thank you to Bill Gopher (I blushed so hard when I read your review), AmeMyst (I hope this chapter will help you understand Daphne's reasoning a little bit better) and ctc1000 for your reviews. Seriously guys, thank you.
Disclaimer : I am basically a struggling wannabe artist student. Harry Potter is obviously not my propriety.
As I may have mentioned, in my precedent life, I wasn't a very good person. I lied, I cheated, I manipulated, I bullied in a daily basis and I loved to mock people…at least I did it in their faces instead of behind their backs. I thought I was being honest and true to myself whereas I was just being a bitch. After high school, I reevaluated my life and decided to change. I wanted to do some good, maybe earn a few karma points by helping people instead of tearing their fragile egos with my words. That's why I wanted to be a nurse. To become a better person. To be proud of myself for a change. Unfortunately I died before I could succeed in my resolution.
To say that I was irritated was an understatement.
Maybe the fact that I died saving a kid was the only reason I got lucky in the reincarnation roulette and was reborn so privileged as the Greengrass heiress instead of an animal like I expected when I first realized what happened to me.
A few months passed after my first birthday and I still didn't utter a word in front of my parents. For my defense, I wasn't being petty. I just had absolutely nothing to tell them. Tikki was still the one taking care of me so I communicated plenty with her and it was enough for me. She didn't tell my parents about my ability to speak and I got the impression she was afraid of them. She wasn't the only elf my parents owned. I knew they had two others though I didn't interact with either of them. Olly was the gardener and Kiki was the cook from what I gathered from Tikki's blabbering. My parents weren't cruel or harsh with their elves. They treated them pretty fairly considering how certain families cough*Malfoys*cough treated their elves but they were cold and acted like they owned them. And it may have been the truth in the eyes of society and the elves themselves but I knew that they deserved better. They weren't humans, so? Humans weren't that great. They were servants, so? That didn't mean they didn't have feelings and deserved common decency.
I loved my new parents. They weren't my real parents and would never replace them but I loved them in a can't help myself kind of way. When they held me when I was sleepy and murmured how much they loved me, how couldn't I? Maybe that was genetic, maybe I recognized them as my genitors and a part of me felt myself in them? I didn't know, but the fact remained that I loved them. But they were so far from being good parents that I couldn't help but look down on them.
Maybe I wasn't being fair. I knew that Selene was only twenty one which wasn't much older than me before I died but still…was it so hard to treat the elves a little better? Learn to say please and thank you and maybe stop being uppity jerks all the time? I know it was the pot calling the kettle black, I was not perfect but at least I'm trying…or well, I tried before dying a tragic death so given the circumstances, I think I can be forgiven.
It was apparent that the Greengrass were filthy rich. I could see it. We lived in a huge mansion à la Jane Austen and I was spoiled with everything a toddler could ever want…too bad I wasn't a toddler in my mind and the toys Cyrus and Selene kept pushing at me became victims of my pent up frustration and irritation. I wanted to go out and see the garden, I wanted to explore my new house but most of all, I wanted to walk damn it!
When I got tired of my too big of a room, I went crawling and exploring like the good indoctrinated servant of Dora the explorer that I didn't know I was.
Tikki was nowhere to be found and I was bored out of my mind, so I managed to escape my prison and started climbing the huge, ostentatious, useless and evil stairs one step at a time in search of something to do. It took me three pauses, an embarrassing amount of time and the sacrifice of my knees but I managed to climb those damn stairs. I ended up in a long hallway that I was in no shape or form ready to explore. Luckily I found a mirror and my curiosity got the better of me. I crawled until I was in front of the mirror only to realize a little too late that it was too high for me.
I nearly screeched.
How dare that inanimate object do this to me?
Doesn't it realize what I had to do to get to it? Was it mocking me?
I felt a strange warmth starting to grow behind my navel but I was too outraged to care about the weird reactions of my tiny body. I was still fuming when a strange thing happened (not the strangest because nothing would ever top being reincarnated in my sister's favorite book).
The mirror –as if apologizing for its rudeness- started to descend slowly until it touched the floor with a little thud.
My jaw dropped down. I was too flabbergasted to notice instantly my reflection.
I stared dumbly for a few seconds until my toddler's mind got distracted by my appearance.
I was freakishly cute. Seriously, I never saw a prettier baby than me and for once in my lif…lives, it wasn't my vanity doing the talking. I was Selene's mini carbon copy with the same blond platinum hair and big eerie lilac eyes. We could have passed for Targaryens for fuck's sake. I was a little fat with big chipmunk cheeks and chubby arms. And the only thing reminiscent of my father was my frown but even my eyebrows were colored a really pale blond and associated with my pouty baby lips, I looked adorable.
Damn!
With a face like that global domination would be a piece of cake!
Unfortunately, I couldn't fantasize on my plans because a) I didn't want to be reincarnated as a sheep in my next life and b) a female voice interrupted my train of though.
-Oh my, was that your first bout of accidental magic my dear? Your parents will be so proud, I remember Cyrus's first time doing magic. He put my husband's beard on fire, serves him right that lying piece of scu…
-Oh, shut your trap you old hag, for the last time I didn't cheat on you!
-Here we go again, muttered a third voice, sounding tired and bored.
-You shut up! You perfected the art of lying all your bloody life!
-As if you were a paragon of virtue yourself, you hypocrite bitch!
The woman shrieked in outrage but I was too busy searching for the source of the voices to marvel at her creative threats against her supposed husband.
-I'm pretty sure you're the reason I'm dead, so even if I did cheat on you by now, we're even! Roared the man.
-Not on your death.
Hesitantly –the situation was so strange, it wasn't even funny- I lifted my head to discover two portraits in a screaming match, as if it was perfectly normal. The woman and the man were yelling at each other face and looked ready to commit murder. A few portraits were suspiciously empty as if their habitants escaped when the two weren't looking.
What. The. Hell.
It was one thing to know about magic. But witness it? It was something entirely different. It was in the midst of the revelation that my new world was so much bigger than my precedent and that I was different from before, that my parents decided to remember my existence.
-Daphne what are you doing here?
Rethinking my life and having an identity crisis, lady, what do you think I'm doing?
.
.
.
I felt a finger caressing my cheek gently and waking me from the haze of my nap.
-We can't stay here anymore, Cyrus. The dark lord practically won already, whispered Selene.
She was the one caressing me and it was so out of character for her to speak with such fear in her voice that I nearly got up and ask her what was wrong (she may have had zero parental skills, but she was mine and she shouldn't be this scared). But she just said it. The dark lord, Voldemort, has practically won. There was a war raging on out there but I was so busy trying to accept my new condition, so wrapped up in my own bubble that not once, did I think about the terrorist that was killing and torturing real people out there. It wasn't a story I once read anymore. It was real. And I was living it. I felt ashamed for forgetting about it.
I had absolutely no intention to fight in the war. I wasn't brave, nor was I particularly altruistic or self-sacrificing. I was just me. But the least I could do was think of the victims and the innocents.
-Nothing will happen to us, Selene. We're neutral. The dark can't harm us and the light won't.
-But you don't know that, whispered harshly Selene.
-We're neutral. My family has always been neutral. The war doesn't concern us.
-Is that what you're going to say to the dark lord when he'll ask you to choose a side? You know just as I, that your opinions and beliefs won't matter to him. And if you think the light side will protect us, then you're being naïf.
-You're overacting. Our wards are strong and nobody knows about Daphne. They can't threaten her.
I nearly jumped at the sound of my name, but managed to continue feigning sleep.
-I wasn't asking, Cyrus. We can't stay here anymore. The war is too dangerous. Either you come with us or you don't, it doesn't matter. But I'm taking Daphne and hiding with my mother.
-You can't take my daughter away from me!
-I can and I will. She's my daughter too and nothing's more important than her.
I felt warmth blossoming in my chest all of a sudden and tears gathering in my eyes. I decided to take back every single bad thought I had about Selene Greengrass.
-Selene, please, just think for a moment. If we hide now, when will we stop? The dark lord doesn't care about our family. You said it, he has already won. Do you think he'll limit himself to the British islands? It's only a matter of time before he focuses on the rest of Europe and if you think he won't go to Greece, then you're being daft.
-I will run and hide as long as I have to, to protect my daughter from being in the presence of deatheaters, oh don't look at me like that, we all know to whom your clients are loyal.
I felt my new mother gathering me in her arms and her lips on my forehead. For the first time since I was reborn, I felt safe with her.
-Cyrus, I'm going with or without you, but I'd prefer for you to come with us.
My father stayed silent and I suddenly regretted not being able to ask him to stay with us. Cyrus and Selene Greengrass weren't perfect. They had numerous flaws. But I loved them nonetheless and I wanted us to stay together.
Well, it could have been worse...Kidding...mostly. Seriously, how was it ? Let me know, it would be very helpful to know what you think of Daphne and the direction you think this story will take. As for my English...reassure me, it's not that bad, right ?
And because my french readers have let me down, I have to ask you this...Have you seen the new Avengers trailer ? The amount of Tony Stark pain was completely unnecessary. UNNECESSARY, I TELL YOU.
LS.