Hi everyone! So this is the second to last chapter, I know I've been churning them out at record speed, and it's just because I've been on a roll.
I really hope you're enjoying my little snippets into Blaise and Daphne's life. When I started writing this for a challenge I didn't expect to actually end up liking the pair, but I must admit I've grown quite fond of them!
Please, please, please leave a review if you like my writing. I haven't had many reviews yet so I'm not sure if there's areas that I could improve in - any constructive criticism is welcome, as are any general comments of course!
I've had a lot of fun writing these, and am waiting for the inspiration for the final chapter, Lust, to come to me.
Enjoy
xoxo
Chapter 6: Sloth
Daphne turned her face towards the sun. There was really nothing better than sunbathing, she thought. To simply lie, oblivious to the world, soaking in the warming rays.
Maybe she really was a 'snake' after all.
And here in Villefranche-Sur-Mer in southern France she was enjoying her weekend away from the Hogwarts castle by doing exactly that. Lying poolside on a sunbathing recliner, a soft sea breeze floating its' way above the villa walls.
They had returned to Hogwarts to start their seventh year, only to find the war on the outside of the castle had finally found its' way inside the castle's protective arms. Snape was now the Headmaster, the Carrows roamed the halls, less than a quarter of the students remained at the castle, and the school memories that Daphne clung to in her mind were but bitter remnants of a past that was being shredded violently by the new regime.
Daphne, thankfully, had the protection of her blood within Hogwarts and had so far remained relatively unscathed.
Even so, it was impossible to completely ignore the random absences of students, the silent tears of those who were branded mudbloods, the barbed comments from their teachers, or the ever-so-slowly diminishing hope of the student body as reports arrived by owl every day bearing news of death, torture, and the newest Ministerial actions against the "filth that infests the Wizarding World".
Daphne knew, however, that her safety and that of her family was reliant on her ignorance, so she tried her hardest to remain oblivious.
She curled up by the fire reading her novels - she had developed a deep-seated love for fiction since the beginning of the war - and would disappear within their pages, trying to escape a world that she could see was tearing itself apart.
She ordered luxury items by mail, and with the other girls in Slytherin, and with a few purebloods from the other houses, she had established a 'girls club' where the group would gather in a classroom and listen to music and eat treats from the kitchen and exchange makeup tips.
She knew Blaise thought it was all rather superficial and that she was demeaning herself by engaging in such trivial pursuits, but she liked the silliness of it all. Who could be upset with a classic Phoenix song on the wireless? Why couldn't she just lose herself in trivialities like which type of fur lining in the new Milan catalogue of Witch Fashion? would be the biggest hit in the coming winter?
He just didn't understand.
Or maybe he understood all too well. Daphne hadn't been completely oblivious this year, she had seen the way Blaise wrote religiously in his new journal, the way that his eyes turned blank when the Carrows started telling them about the move to classify muggles as 'fauna' rather than as humans.
He just handled things differently.
One of the best parts of being a pureblood in this new order was that she had the right to escape Hogwarts on weekends. As part of the new regime the Ministry had announced that young witches and wizards at Hogwarts had been seriously deprived of a true 'pureblood education' and that they those who had families in the House of Purebloods were permitted to return home on weekends so that their parents and guardians could tutor them in the roles and responsibilities that came with their lineage.
As if they didn't already know their roles.
They were brought up in these circles, and no one who had reached the entry age for Hogwarts would be lacking in the core foundations of being a pureblood heir. It was the reason they were all sent to their Madame Nori lessons as children - to learn the ways of their world.
But Daphne didn't complain, because it allowed her to go to one of her family villas and relax most weekends. Last week she had floo-ed to Florence, Italy. She had wanted to catch up with some friends who lived there, and had spent a lovely weekend spending time with people who were not wholly invested in a war.
And this weekend she had felt like getting a tan, so to Villefranche-Sur-Mer she went.
A door slammed somewhere, and Daphne stretched, not bothering to look up at the disturbance. She decided it was high time she rolled over - she didn't want to have a lopsided tan when she returned.
As she settled herself once more a shadow passed over her face, and she opened one sleepy eye to see its source.
Blaise was standing, hands on hips, above her.
"Move. You're blocking my sun" she ordered him.
Blaise didn't move.
"Blaise! Don't be a prat! Go and annoy someone who can't cast the Pustulising Hex wandless" she said, closing her eyes once more.
The shadow didn't move.
Finally having had enough, Daphne sat up on her towel and looked up at Blaise.
He looked furious, and she raised her eyebrows. It wasn't like him to get so reactionary.
"What?" she asked him, curious. She rarely saw him worked up into a temper, so obviously something had touched a nerve.
"My mother" he said.
"Ah" she nodded. His mother was one of the few people on the planet that could get under his skin. Daphne knew that Blaise loved his mother dearly, but that her actions both in the past and present made him want to hate her despite himself.
"What's she done now" she asked.
Blaise let out a sigh, and sat down next to Daphne. He stared fixedly ahead, jaw tight with reigned-in emotion.
"She's decided to join the Muggle Gamekeepers" he said. "Roger Fairsword invited her, and you know mother...if a single rich elite Wizard asks her to jump she just asks how high" he said.
Until they enter marital bliss that is, thought Daphne silently. It was an unspoken rule between them that his mother's habit for getting married to wealthy Wizards who seemed to die soon after was a taboo subject.
The Muggle Gamekeepers were a particularly heinous group that the Ministry had established. The idea was that because muggles and mudbloods were really just animals, it would be possible to hold hunting parties to hunt them. There was a group of witches and wizards who were calling themselves 'Gamekeepers', and they would 'keep' muggles and mudbloods in the dungeons of their homes, feeding them and making them 'ripe' before, as a group, they would set them free in some woods and 'go hunting'.
It made Daphne's stomach churn in revolt.
Blaise looked absolutely horrified at the thought that his mother was joining such a group. He turned his head to look at Daphne.
"I don't think she actually wants to hunt, but I think she doesn't mind the part where they keep their 'pets' in the dungeon. Daph, what do I do? Pretending none of this is going on is all well and good, but that's my house! If I don't do something then aren't I responsible?"
Daphne looked at Blaise for a long time after that. He was pale, the shadows beneath his eyes were extremely pronounced. It looked as if he hadn't slept last night, or even the night before perhaps. There was a hollow look in his eyes, the look of someone who has just realised that one of the stable figures in his life might be nothing like he had imagined (not that Daphne would ever call Ms Zabini a stable influence).
Daphne shrugged. "What can you do Blaise?" she said. "It's not like doing anything is going to help anyone, is it? Your mother probably just knows that getting herself into the Ministry elite is going to be an extra shield when the final showdown comes. We all know that this war is looking more and more like ending in His favour as the days go by. No one has seen hair nor hide of Potter for months, and besides, do you really think that a seventeen year old boy is suddenly going to save them all?
Face it Blaise, the most we can do is sit back at let it all happen. Sera sera and all that." she said, waving her hands at the end to emphasise her point.
It was true, sometimes the only way to survive was to 'go with the flow' so to speak. To just accept things as they were at face value.
If she spent her life trying to follow some moral compass, she doubted she would ever get anywhere. The world was full of shades of grey, and those that seemed intent on putting everything in categories of 'dark' and 'light' tended on being the ones who got killed first.
That's not saying she thought any of the actions of this Ministry were anything but monstrous.
But she knew that, in order to preserve herself and those she loved, that she needed to lie low, to continue on as she had been. Maybe one day, when things were more settled, she could start to work on righting thing.
For the moment it was just too dangerous to contemplate such things.
"Don't you see Blaise? If we ever want to do anything then for the moment we have to do nothing!" she said, hoping he would see reason.
"So for the time being, you just need to go along with it. And when your mum starts keeping her 'pets' you just make sure that they're looked after, well fed and healthy, and that will give them the best chance of escape when the hunt happens" she said.
Blaise looked at her, and suddenly all the anger he seemed to be holding in, all the internal turmoil he had been going through only moments previously, was suddenly swept away.
He looked at Daphne in resignation.
She was right. For the moment all they could do was go along with it all.
At least then at the end, when it was all over, there would be some normal people left to get things running again.
He nodded once, and then without saying another word he got to his feet and headed back towards the villa. Daphne suspected he was going to floo home.
She leant down and picked up her ice-cool lemonade that was sitting on the ground next to her chair, and after having had a few sips she settled back into the recliner, angling her chin skyward to ensure maximum sun exposure.
Sometimes, she mused, sometimes it was particularly hard doing nothing.
A/N: I'd also like to make a special mention to AtheneDi who is, at the present time, my only reviewer. I'm glad you like it AtheneDi! Like I said before, I've really enjoyed writing it!