.Alaya.
The important thing is (he's beautiful, broken, free) taking care of yourself.
When she first saw him, it was at supper. On a second thought, a look back, she supposes he looks more like his brother than anything, but at first she didn't notice. She noticed nothing but his eyes bright, grayish blue, and the way his smile crinkled the corners of them, shining like a beacon towards her, even though he was looking at the boy (james) across from him.
She was drawn to him, curious and maybe a little bit... interested.
Interested, but... not in that way. She knew better than that, especially at this new school, a school that was so much more divided than the one she'd come from, or at least, the division here presented itself more drastically.
He was beautiful then, and free in his laughter, and as she watched him over the next few days, she noticed that that freedom was a recurring theme. Everything he did, he did for himself, or out of a personal desire to help a friend. He was brilliant, and beautiful, and witty, and precious and there it was again, ever present, that freedom. It would have been so easy to fall for him, and she saw other girls do so, watched as they'd swoon and giggle and stare longingly through thick lashes, and she saw him pass through more than one in the span of a week. It would have been so easy to fall, and she almost approached him, but then there was Lucius.
The kind, polite Lucius, and Bellatrix, beautiful, hilarious Bellatrix, both of them Slytherin, like her both of them slightly older and pureblood, and so so powerful, and they took her in, under their wings, and quickly, so quickly, she was one of them, and her status never questioned, and there was no one to attack her, and she was princess under Bella's queen, and it was known through their whole house.
And the beautiful, free boy with the dark hair and the blue gray blue like clouds eyes was forgotten, and everything was right again.
Lucius was the first to tell her he knew. Someone had seen the records and it was spreading like wildfire through the houses, making its way to their own, how the new Slytherin royalty was nothing but a mudblood impostor.
His eyes met hers, and she almost cried, but thought better of it, kept her control, as he asked her if it was true. Defiant and angry enough to cover her fear she nodded swiftly and he arched an eyebrow before sighing and leaning against the wall in the corridor next to her.
"Whatever shall we do with you, Pet?" He had asked her calmly, more stress on his face then his young years should have allowed. Silence echoed around them as he thought.
"I can take care of myself, you know." She almost whispered, voice low but steady.
There was a long silence before he stated, "And so you shall. Bella and I will be there for you, of course, but you will have to prove yourself worthy."
"Worthy?"
"We all know how handy you are with a wand, Pet. Use it to your advantage. Show them you aren't to be messed with, and you won't be."
"Oh yes, and you'll all think it so sporting, lets watch the mud blood play her silly games with her wand waving it like she deserves it, showing off like she's one of us when-"
"Stop that." He has slapped her then, enough to silence her raising voice. She gasped but said nothing else, frightened of the Malfoy, Laya? instead entreating him to go on. "You'll act as if you deserve it. You'll go about business as usual. You will not address the issue unless someone brings it up to you, and then you will not encourage of deny the rumors, you will answer with your wand. You're already notoriously trigger happy, it shouldn't be too hard for you. You will answer with your wand, do you hear me?"
"I hear you, Lucius, but honestly. What do I get out of this?"He smirked at her then, in an infuriating way that said he knew so much more than she.
"If you're lucky, and if you're very, very good, more than you could possibly dream."
So she did what he said, which is what she would have done anyway, really. And no one could know for sure, and she and Lucius swore to everyone else that it was all lies, and everything was fine and quiet again until Regulus stuck his nose where it didn't belong (and really, if the one was that much trouble, could his brother be any different?).
He said it, and Lucius held her back even though he had told her what to do, and she simmered angrily at the table.
And she simmered and simmered until she boiled and then she was gone, up from her seat, and Bella was laughing loudly and cheering as Lucius scolded them all for acting irrationally, and her wand was at Regulus' throat, and she knew the curse, knew the curse, and do it, just do it, just- "SAY IT!" She said, voice quivering, but wand steady. "Say it again, Regulus." Say that filthy word that talks so badly so accurately of my filthy blood so I can be justified when I make you hurt as much as you're trying to hurt me. "See? He's not so brave with a wand at his throat now is he? Even with his well within reach. Say it again, Black."
The Headmaster talked her down, she remembers, but vaguely. He demanded she stop, but she offered no apologizes.
"Not until he says it," she said. Not until I make him pay. "He deserves what he gets."
But somewhere along the line, Lucius nudged her towards the Headmaster, and without taking her eyes from Regulus she hopped down from her place above him on the table. On her way out the door of the Great Hall, his eyes, the ones like clouds, met hers and he gasped a little at her boldness. She let loose a laugh that she hoped to Gods made Bellatrix proud and proceeded out the door, ignoring the now lonely looking boy and his beautiful, free eyes, and thinking how if one brother was that bad, surely the other one wasn't worth her trouble either.
