My first time outside, ever... Elizabetha mused as she stared at the open door and the swinging gate ahead of her. And the moat filled with man eating monsters, and various other barriers meant to keep what's in in and what's out out. Hopefully they would fail this one time. She was at the ground floor of her home prison, about to go out into the world for the first time, and shop for the first time, in a place she had only read about, using currency from a variety of vaults apparently left for her by her parents. Plus Mora and Sirius, who had both taken her as a makeshift heir due to genuine affection and lack of anyone better.
I bet it'll be dreadful out there... She continued to herself as she took her first step towards the door. She was dressed in her best, a mousy brown cloak on her shoulders and beneath it, an only slightly stained cream dress. She had bribed Nettle with a spider into using her magic to put her hair up. The phrase the half pixie had used, make your hair curl, had left Elizabetha pleasantly anxious and with lovely thick curls in her hair, replacing her usual tangled ringlets with a softer look before shoving a silver pin given to her by Mon Cheri in. And Jacob say's it's warm on the outside... What if I overheat?
She was suddenly overwhelmed by a huge urge to go back into Azkaban and away from the unknown outside, back to her mother and safety and Nettle and Sirius and Madam Barthahew and even Alfred, Hogwarts be damned, before she remembered how much she had wanted to go. How happy everyone else was that she got in. That she could come back when she needed.
How she needed new books and parchment anyways...
One wouldn't think it would be this hard to leave a prison.
Draco scowled left and right on his way through Diagon Alley, furious at everything that had led to him being left alone. His father was supposed to come with him but had instead been caught up in some ministry affair, like usual. Plus, he was pretty sure he had caught sight of Potter earlier, and while he usually loved a chance to heckle the Potter heir, he wasn't in the mood right now.
Suddenly he felt a tap on his shoulder and a raspy voice asking which way to... Had he heard right? Knockturn Alley? He whirled around, expecting to see some old hag, but to his surprise saw a pale girl with curly blondish hair who looked only a bit younger then him, dressed in surprisingly good quality cloaks, albeit very, very dirty ones. Who's this? He wondered.
Yet he was still cross, and anger over-won his curiosity. "What?" He snapped, and was surprised by the amused expression that passed over her previously nervous face.
"I said, dragonfly," Wait what? "Where is Knockturn Alley? Bellatrix recommended it to me in one of her calmer bouts." What?!
"You- you know my... aunt?" He asked, slightly dazed. If she meant Bellatrix Lestrange, then that meant she knew her in some way, to have mentioned her so casually.
"Maybe? ...Are you "that little brat Draco" that she mentioned? You sure look blond enough to be a Malfoy..." The girl looked rather pointedly up at his hair, and Draco flushed, whether from anger or embarrassment at his aunt's words he was unsure of.
"Well my name is Draco..." He began awkwardly, before the girl lit up.
"Oh! Suteki! You'll know how to get to the alley, then! Lead on, Dragonfly, please?" She said, and paused, waiting for him to move.
"I- Uh- I'm afraid... I don't know the way!" He finally yelped, and she shot him a bemused look.
"Why not?" She asked, and he snorted.
"Why would I? And I don't even know your name!" He told her, and she tilted her head cutely before nodding slowly.
"Da, good point. My name's Elizabetha, nice to meet you Dragonfly." She said, before bowing in an oddly gentlemanly gesture. When she straightened up she winked at him. "Now, even if you don't know the way to that particular alley, could you still help be around? I have to get things for school, and you look like you know your way around. I've never been here before..." Draco suddenly swelled with pride. She needs my help.
"Sure. Hogwarts?" A nod. "Will it be your first year?" Obviously so, he would have remembered someone like this, but he still had to ask. She nodded again, and Draco smirked. "Follow me."
And so he led her through all of Diagon Alley that she needed to go, happy to play a part. He didn't even ask about her blood status, for now. Of course, I'll have to know eventually. He thought regretfully. I hope she's pureblood. She's really nice, although her voice is weird. It sounds like she's never been without a cold in her life...
All was going well. At least until they ran into Potter.
Elizabetha looked back and forth between the boy with messy black hair and glasses, and her guide Draco. Or dragonfly... She thought happily.
"Yeah, but at least I don't hide behind my father all the time!" The glasses boy said, making her gaze snap to him. Was that actually an insult? What a horribly sad one...
"At least I have a father! Are you sorry you're an orphan, Potter?" Draco sneered, and she winced. I... probably should have told him that I'm an orphan too...
"Don't bring my parents into this, Malfoy!" The boy snarled, bringing the attention of several people surrounding them, including a couple of bright gingers who immediately stood behind said "Potter."
"I agree." She piped up, making the gazes of all involved swing to her. She wondered if anyone aside from Draco had noticed her standing there. "I probably should've mentioned this, Dragonfly, but my parents are dead as well, and that was more then slightly offensive. Then again, so was the comment about hiding behind your father. Jissai mondai, in the time I've known you I haven't seen your father once, and you've already chased off that weird guy with the torture device, so you're obviously not a coward." Technically, the torture device previously mentioned was just cloak coated with heating and warming charms someone had tried to convince her to buy, but the moment it touched her the horrid warmth of it had made her stifle a pained scream. Being raised in the cold corridors of Azkaban and the chilly embraces of dementors had left her so used to the cold that warmth was entirely foreign, even painful to her. "Plus... my god, these books are horrid." Everyone was looking at her blankly as she held up the gold colored tome written by some Lockhart idiot. "Really, vampires have no problem with beetle eyes, dieu!"
"Um... Elizabetha?" Draco began, looking a cross between flattered by something, thankful for the interruption, and furious at everything in existence. "Those... are the books we came for..." She froze, before scowling.
"Oh my heart! These things are useless and they expect us to learn from them? Are these people id- Dragonfly, are you alright?" While she had been ranting a pained expression had crossed everyone's face, and Draco was glaring at her pointedly.
"Can you stop tanking like that? It hurts my head..." He complained, and she cocked her head to the side.
"Talking like wh- Oh, did I slip into Gobbledegook? Sorry, I knew a goblin growing up. We always yelled at each other in it. Something about me not being a decent heir, usually, or that my hair was tangled, or some other rubbish." She finished. For several moments no one stopped moving, before one of the gingers halfheartedly asked "Who...?" To which Draco's usual holier than thou-ness reappeared.
"That's Elizabetha, one of the new students. She asked me for help earlier, so I was showing her around." Was it just her, or did everyone else's eyes widen in disbelief? "She's right, you know." he resumed with a nasty look at Potter. "These books are absolutely useless, my father says."
"See, there!" The boy practically yelled in triumph, before giving Elizabetha a look. "I told you he's obsessed with his father." She frowned.
"Ne, you said he hid behind his father. You never said anything about obsession. And what's so big about repeating what a parents said about something? I can't quote mine, as previously mentioned, but I quote Sirius all the time, and others too. It's normal. Now, back to these books..." She held a different tome up to a certain page, and pointed to a sentence. "Azkaban is not lifeless! There are rats everywhere. And me." Then, with an unimpressed huff she grabbed Draco's arm and flounced away, waving and calling goodbye over her shoulder.
Thus went her last day before Hogwarts. She made a friend, made some more... somewhat friends, somewhat people who wondered what the hell was wrong with her, and pointed out to several people the futility of Lockhart's works. For once, that award winning smile faltered as dozens of people left the crowd. It would soon falter again to a much greater degree after his first class with her.
I got reviews! Thank you, GreyElsewhere, I'm very happy that you liked this. I love getting compliments!
I also got another, which brought up some very good points. I'm going to try to answer some of those, and maybe fix this story up a bit thanks to it. I hope the person doesn't mind me doing this, but here's the review, and my answers are in italics and hopefully not too confusing:
anon: It has lots of potential, and you are well-tuned in your descriptions and storytelling, but there are a few things that are problematic.
1. Elizabetha is turning out to be an Anti-Sue of some kind. This is correct. I'm sorry. However, I have no idea when it comes to writing her any other way. Any suggestions?
2. While I guess it is (somewhat but not really) plausible for her to know that many languages (though typically she'd fall out of practice after not practicing with anyone else after a while) it doesn't make much sense for her to speak to other people (who do not know herself languages) in said languages. On that note, how do Elizabetha's polyglot abilities contribute to the plot? Do they have any function, or are they just extra power-ups for the protagonist? Once again, you are right. There is going to be several moments planned where she'll need to know those languages, for a few characters and habits I have planned for the future, but I can have her know a few less. I'll go back and try to fix this.
3. She is far too aware for her age, and far too sane for somebody who's lived her entire life in a prison with insane people, raised by literal soul suckers. I guess this point can be forgiven for the sake of the plot but I also highly doubt that she would be in good health living in Azkaban - nearly every prisoner there winds up looking malnourished and grimy. I may be wrong, but by far too aware do you mean too clever? If so, there's an easy explanation: I like characters like that. So I write them. She is in bad health, however, all of the chapters so far have been from her own point of view, and since to her there is no other way to look, she thinks it's normal. I'm planning that when I write from another person's point of view, they'll note things like that. And as for her sanity, you're correct yet again. I am probably writing her a bit too sane. But once again, I'm planning for her madness to emerge later on, but even then, it probably won't be that good, because this is the first time I've written an insane character. I've written depressed and a little bit odd, but actual madness, this is the first. I know she's going to be addicted to depression, basically, and I know she's going to be a bit of a sociopath, and she's going to be a bit random. Let's hope that's enough for now?
4. Being raised in Azkaban, how much does Elizabetha know about the outside world? How does she know she's in a prison? She knows because she's been told. The same way she knows that dementors are dementors, and a few other things. However, she doesn't know much. For instance, I plan for her to eventually find out about muggles, and be completely baffled by their existence.
Please note that I am not saying all this to hurt you in any way - this story has great potential, as long as you go about it the right way. I hope you take my constructive criticism into consideration. No problem! I love that you took the time to tell me this, because you did make some good points. Like, you're right, she should know a few less languages. And even then, I'd just love the fact that you've noticed me. I hope you'll continue to read this story. Thanks for your input!
Aaaaand that's it! Thank you for reading this, all of you! Byeeeeee!