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She´s mad but she´s magic.
There´s no lie in her fire.
-Charles Bukowski
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The Lannister Mansion is gigantic, embarassingly so, and Margaery can already feel the goosebumps growing on her skin and her hands begin to sweat.
She can feel her smile become meaner and that´s never a good sign.
She hates Loras (she doesn´t) for making her come here just because he wants to see his precious boyfriend.
Isn´t she already doing enough for him?
Margaery beginns touching her hair, curled to perfection, her blue tips fitting perfectly to the midnight blue of her dress, and smoothes down the silk of her gown.
Loras walks up the big staircase next to her and she can see him roll his eyes out of the corner of her eye.
„Stop it Marge, you look gorgeous like always!"
She wishes he would stop mocking her.
-weird, little Margaery. Golden boy Loras.-
Inside it´s even more overdone. The walls are decorated in gold and red, banners with the old Lannister Lion hanging from the walls.
Margaery feels like she set foot into the griffindor common room or something.
The room is full of people, a lot off whom Margaery knows from seeing but just as many strangers.
There are the Starks in one corner, all copper hair and brown and green colours, the Baratheons in another.
Even some Boltons and Greyjoys are strutting around the hall.
Margaery tries to stay close to Loras, to not get lost, just the thought of running into Joffrey makes her shiver.
But of course as soon as Loras sees Renly in between his family he squeezes her arm and is gone.
She sighs, smile still in place so it at least looks like she´s in control of herself and the situation.
A glance of bright red catches her eye and she turns a little to her left only to see Sansa Stark leaning on a wall.
The other girl looks great in her green dress and Margaery can´t help but feel jelaous.
But then she sees the look on Sansa Starks face and knows she shouldn´t be.
Her face is pale, even more so under the bright colour of her hair, her eyes seem empty and tired and everything about her posture screams that she wants to be here as much as Margaery herself.
For a moment Margaery thinks about going up to her but she quickly deflects that idea.
The two of them wouldn´t be good for each other.
Instead she makes her way over to the bar, asking the waiter for a glass of champagne, knowing that at parties like these nobody is going to card her.
She sipps slowly on the drink, just so she looks busy.
-God you are pathetic Margaery.-
On the other side of the room she can see Loras and Renly standing together, laughing, hands brushing together every now and again and she shakes her head, feeling so so stupid standing here by herself while her „boyfriend" is obviously occupied flirting with her brother.
She wishes she had someone who would make these horrible events a little bit more worthwile.
Before she can completely drown in her self hating thoughts the doors open once again and in walks Viserys Targaryen, his sisters forearm gripped firmly in his long thin fingers.
Both of them look breathtaking, him in a black tuxedo and her in a dark dress reaching mid thigh that makes her pale legs look endless, even though she is shorter than Margaery herself.
But Viserys face looks too sharp and clean and too hard and Daenerys looks uncomfortable, her with braids decorated silver hair shielding her face and Margaery remembers school yesterday and the bruises on her face.
The small silver haired girl says something and her brother fiercely whispers something in her ear.
Daenerys just nods.
Margaery realizes that she is the only one watching the scene and she feels rude, quickly turning her head away.
Her champagne glass is empty and she asks for another one, liking the warm feeling in her stomach and how the alcohol seems to make the smile on her face become more genuine.
She doesn´t take her time with this one, downing it instead like it´s a shot of vodka.
The guy at the bar looks at her for a second when she asks for a third one, but she just smirks and leans over, showing her cleavage, the alcohol making her braver and bolder than she is.
She get´s her drink.
The Tyrell girl wishes for something stronger, the bubbly and fruity taste not fitting her mood.
She remembers Loras house parties, all the people she hates, everybody who torments her on a daily basis filling her home, making her feel scared in a place that had always been her one safe haven.
She remembers stealing a bottle of vodka and hiding in her room, trying not to sob and not to make a sound, the alcohol burning her throat and tears burning her eyes.
Loras doesn´t look for her once, doesn´t try to include her.
She knows he is in one of the bathrooms, sticking his tongue down her fake boyfriends throat.
She keeps drinking till the clear liquid isn´t disgusting anymore and till she passes out.
Margaery wishes for one of those drinks now, the ones that make forgetting easier and that fit her mood.
She doesn´t want good tasting party drinks that make her stomach feel a little warm and that´s it.
Too absorbed in her own thoughts she forgets to pay attention, forgets to keep her guard up and the dark shadow that´s looming over her startles her.
-stupid Margaery, stupid stupid stupid.-
Joffrey smiles down at her, mean and scary and mocking, and she wonders if that is what her smirks look like.
They are alone, and she´s relieved for a second, at least he doesn´t have one of his goons with him.
But that also means that nobody is gonna notice if he does anthing and Margaery tries to be inconspicious while she searchs the crowd at the other end of the room for Loras.
Joffrey steps closer and Margaery tries not to give in and take a step back.
For everybody else the young Lannister probably looks dashing, his black tuxedo fitting perfectly, his blue tie complementing his eyes, his golden hair slicked back, but Margaery only sees the Monster he is.
"Well well if this isn´t little Margaery Tyrell. What do you think you are doing here, making everyboy loose their appetite while having to look at your disgusting weird face."
She knows that his words aren´t true, knows he is just a stupid boy but his words hit her where it hurts and just the sound of his voice makes her dizzy and nauseaus and makes breathing harder.
-weird, little Margaery. Nobody wants you here.-
She swallows, her nails biting into her skin, neck flushing. Where is her brother?
"I was invited."
She hates how her voice sounds, all weak and pathetic, her smile long gone, not strong enough to withstand his words.
Joffrey laughs, all low and mocking and posessive, making shivers run down her spine.
His face comes closer to hers, his hot breath on her nose making her want to throw up.
"Oh no, you don´t really believe that, do you? Your brother was invited, you know, the Tyrell people like, the one people care about. He only brought you along because he feels sorry for you, being all alone, without anyone caring if you dissapeared or not,"
His hand grips her upper arm, going all the way around her bizeps and she can´t help but whimper.
His eyes look cold and crazy and violent and Margaery wonders why nobody is noticing, doing anything.
She tries to avert her eyes.
"Look at me."
His voice is getting seething, dangerous and she wonders what she did that this boy in front of her hates her so much, that everybody hates her so much.
"I said look at me! Nobody wants you here, don´t you see? You are all alone and nobody cares. They don´t even see you, they don´t notice you. You are just a liability.
Nobody wants you. So how about I be a genleman and bring you home, doesn´t that sound nice?"
Margaery knows she doesn´t have a choice.
His hand on her arm is unrelenting while he drags her out of the ballroom and down a corridor, away from everybody.
She knows she lost and while she is scared, so so scared she can feel her heart beating in every pore of her body, she can´t concentrate on anything else but on the fact that he´s right, that Loras is somewhere off with Renly and he won´t notice that she´s gone, doesn´t care that he brought her here, made her be in a room with everybody who makes her feel weak.
If he doesn´t find her at the end of the evening he´ll just assume she went home, he´ll think "silly little Margaery couldn´t handle being normal for one evening. No wonder nobody likes her, she´ll just have to try harder."
Joffrey is dragging her to a door at the end of the hall, and Margaery has simply accepted that whatever comes next is going to be horrible when there is a voice behind them.
"Hey!"
It´s soft and feminine and firm but most important it makes Joffrey stop and turn around.
There behind them with her silver hair and pale skin and dark dress, looking like a queen in the low lights of the corridor stands Daenerys Targaryen.
There is a smile on her full lips and her eyes are locked on Margaery.
"I´ve been searching for you all night! I need somebody to dance with."
At first Margaery is sure she means Joffrey, but then the other Girl walks up to them, ignores the blonde boys confusion, and takes her hand.
"I thought we were supposed to meet at the bar but when I looked you were gone. Good thing I found you!"
The smile is still on her lips but the look in the other girls eyes tells Margaery that Daenerys knows full well that it was indeed a good thing that she found the two of them.
Margaery clears her thoat.
"Y-Yeah. Yeah, sorry. I was waiting for you but Joffrey wanted to show me something."
Daenerys shrugs her shoulders, her gaze still on Margaery, firm and comforting and concentrated just on her.
And it´s so funny that she´s never spoken a word with this girl before, except for their encounter in school, and now she´s holding her hand, being saved.
"Well, though luck for Joffrey because I´m stealing you away."
And with that Daenerys´ eyes leave Margaerys face for the first time and concentrate on Joffrey.
Her eyes are daring him to say something and Joffrey looks furious, seething and for a moment margaery thinks something horrible is going to happen, but then he let´s her arm go and, with one last look at the two of them, turns around and leaves.
Margaery breathes in deeply for the first time in ten minutes.
Her knees are weak and her heart is racing and she feels like sobbing.
Leaning back against the wall behind her she sinks down against it, her mind trying to catch up with everything that´s just happened.
Daenerys is still there, standing in front of her and Margery notices that they are still holding hands.
For a few minutes they just stay like this, Margaery trying to get her breathing under control and the other girl just being next to her, offering a kind of unspoken comfort.
"You okay Tyrell girl?"
Margaery let´s out a laugh that sounds more like she´s choking.
"No, no not really. But thanks, for before."
She looks up and Daenerys just shrugs.
„I saw him grab your arm and drag you out and I just knew that there was nothing good coming out of that."
Her face goes dark for a moment and margaery thinks maybe the other girl is talking from experience. She remembers Viserys and his cold thin hands and shivers.
„My name, it´s Margaery by the way"
Now it´s Daenerys turn to laugh.
"I know. I´m Daenerys."
"Yeah, I … know."
Margaery feels akward suddenly, sitting there on the ground of some dark corridor with some girl she barely knows holding her hand while they are making introductions.
Both of them are silent for a few seconds, then Daenerys gives her hand a squeeze and pulls her up.
"Come on, I know a place we can go."
Margaery follows without question.