( Hogwarts )
Daphne followed her usual morning routine like it was any other day of the week, doing her utmost to act completely natural or perhaps as normal as possible, despite the knowledge that one of her few, true friends, was going to be faking his death today.
A part of her was touched by the fact that Harry trusted her enough to share the knowledge of the plot with her, but she also knew it wasn't a blind trust. It was a calculated, logical trust, just like Harry himself. She hadn't even shared the information with her family, choosing to hold her tongue on this matter for the time being.
Clipping her silky blonde hair back with her silver hairclips, she looked over at her half dressed friend, who was busy getting herself ready for the day ahead. "You should wake up earlier Tracy, that way you wouldn't have to rush about every morning," she advised evenly, for perhaps the hundredth time.
"I like my beauty sleep Daphne, there is nothing quite like a warm bed," Tracy replied sleepily, as she continued to get dressed.
She didn't bother to reply to her best friend's remarks; they had had this same or similar discussion hundreds of times since they started sharing a dorm room together in their first year, with her being the early bird out of the pair, while Tracy was most certainly the night owl.
Checking herself over within her glamour mirror, she nitpicked at her appearance, making minor, but necessary adjustments to her school robes to assure her appearance was picture perfect. Appearance was important; it was one of the very first lessons her mother had taught her as a child, quickly followed by her father explaining how appearance was important in either daily matters or political dealings.
She used a hair straightening charm on her hair, removing any hints of curls. Curls were babyish as far as she was concerned, and made her seem more like a porcelain baby doll than what a woman should look like, and curls always made her think of the dim witted Lavender Brown.
Truth be told, she didn't understand at all why Harry was even friends with Lavender Brown in the first place, since she was totally opposite to him in character and didn't appear to offer any advantages in terms of friendship. The Brown family, despite being pureblood, weren't wealthy or influential anymore, with only a couple of minor holdings to their family name, making it highly unlikely that Harry was friends with her due to business interests. Considering the matter for a couple more seconds, she was still at a loss, and concluded that she would have to ask him about it someday. She placed the final hairclip into place.
Finally satisfied with her appearance, she collected her school things, now ready to start the new school day and surprisingly eager to watch the upcoming drama.
"Are you ready Tracy?" she asked her friend, her book bag hanging fashionably from her shoulder.
"Give me a couple more minutes," Tracy voiced from the small bathroom they shared.
"I'll be waiting in the common room for you," she responded, while shaking her head in disapproval at her friend's behaviour, before leaving their shared dorm room. Despite Tracy's disorganized behaviour, she was an acceptable roommate, one who understood the need for personal boundaries and space and was considerate enough to bend and flex as the situation required.
As she walked into the common room she wondered if Blaise had even bothered to get her something for Valentine's Day, even as she took a free seat to one side of the room. The seat she had chosen was a deliberate choice, since it allowed her to watch the comings and goings of the other students without intentionally appearing to do so, which suited her just fine.
It was all a part of the great game that Slytherin house played every minute of every day within the school, the game of power and advantage, which would train them for the wider world where the stakes really mattered. In this situation being a lowly second year worked to her advantage, as due to her age, most people simply overlooked and dismissed her, allowing her to watch and learn without interference or people going on their guard.
Just like every other morning, Tracy wasn't just 'another couple of minutes,' but instead took a good ten minutes or so to get ready like usual. However it gave Daphne some time to think and consider her upcoming school day.
She personally predicted that most of their day's lessons would end up cancelled, as soon as Harry would have been 'murdered.' Not that she would mind her lessons being cancelled today, since she had some homework still to do. It would also get her out of astronomy lessons that evening, which she always loathed due to it upsetting her natural sleep cycle. To be fair, the teacher and the subject material itself was fine, better than most subjects taught in the school actually, it was only the late hours she disliked, and the unnecessary exposure to the elements, especially in the bitterly cold winter months.
Finally with her disorganised roommate joining her, the pair of them left the dungeon common room to start their day. Just like usual they fell into polite conversation as they walked the school halls, but talking about nothing personal that could be potentially eavesdropped upon and used against them. It was a good philosophy to assume that any conversation taking place outside of a locked, thoroughly searched, and warded room should be considered public knowledge.
As they walked, their friendly conversation was suddenly ended at the unexpected and hideous sight of a half naked dwarf, wandering round the corridors in a glorified diaper, with a pair of white feathered wings attached to his back. Wings which were clearly charmed to beat in time with his steps, a small pink bow rested in his off hand, with a love heart shaped quiver on the man's shoulder.
The pair of them watched in stunned silence as the dwarf cupid passed them by, before they just looked at each other, their faces both screaming, 'What the hell?'
Moving on for the sake of their sanity, she looked over to her friend, "That was just cheesy," Daphne voiced.
"I wonder if the Great Hall will be pink too?" Tracy asked aloud, as the pair of them climbed a set of moving stairs.
"I certainly hope not," she replied dryly.
Pink was one of the few colours she actively disliked. It was far too girly for her tastes and reminded her again of people like Lavender Brown. So the idea of the Great Hall being covered with over the top baby pink was like a horrible nightmare to her. Then there was the fact that she was rather conservative with her affections, not approving of over-the-top displays of affection in a public setting.
However, luck was not on her side, the school halls becoming increasingly pink and bubbly as Valentine's Day decorations started to cover the ancient stone walls, with heart shaped balloons hanging in the air. She felt a growing sense of dread.
'Maybe Harry had the right idea,' she noted warily, as more dwarves dressed up as cupids walked past them.
Resisting the strong urge to turn her nose up in disgust, one of the dwarves puffed on his wooden smoking pipe, as a rough, heavy, smoky smell assaulted her nose, causing her to cough and sputter in disgust at exhaling the thick black smoke. She waved the air clear with her hands.
"That's disgusting," she expressed, now waving her wand as she cast an air freshening charm to remove the foul stench from the air, before it could taint her clothes.
"Yup, I doubt I'll ever look at cupids the same way ever again," Tracy voiced in agreement with a slight frown. "Or dwarves for that matter, I thought their race was meant to be prideful."
"They must be outcasts, discarded by their clans and exiled to the surface world," Daphne offered thoughtfully, trying to remember more on the dwarven culture.
Dwarf clans were a mighty, proud race of warriors, who loved their drink and song and prodigious wealth. Dwarves were actually an awfully rare sight in Great Britain, ever since they had been driven from the island several centuries ago after losing several long, bloody wars against the goblins.
From the first day the two species collided, the two races had been at each other's throats; to the point that both sides regarded the other as their most hated foe, a foe to be crushed into submission without any mercy or pity. Most dwarves were short, much like their goblin foes, maybe only 4 to 5 foot tall on average, but they had a very sturdy build to them, making them very resilient in a fight, unlike the goblins who were lanky and thin, whose main strength came from their ability to field overwhelming numbers on the battlefield.
Reaching the giant doors leading into the great hall, pink and red heart shaped balloons filled the air, with various messages of love written upon them. She gave Tracy a look, who just grinned right back at her.
"Whatever you may think of Lockhart, you've got to give him an O for effort, even if it is a bit tacky," Tracy voiced.
"No, I don't," Daphne countered quickly with a huff. "The house elves probably did most of the work."
"Stop being so bitter Daphne, you're just annoyed with Blaise's lack of effort," Tracy argued, as she stepped into the redecorated great hall.
"Blaise's lack of effort has absolutely nothing to do with this," she huffed back, before following her friend.
The great hall was even more shocking than the entrance hall, with Valentine's Day decorations covering the walls and ceiling to the point that even the house banners had been altered and changed.
Slytherin's green and silver banner had been changed to pink and white, with the trademark snake now having dark red, heart shaped scales on its white body. The snake was coiled around a red heart, with the words 'love is binding' written underneath. The other house banners had been similarly altered, having their own minor modifications for the day, with words of love and affection printed on them.
'There goes our self respect,' she noted grimly, wondering why Professor Snape had allowed such tampering.
The tables themselves were virtually covered in different themed items, including flower pots of heart shaped flowers acting as decorations, the flowers changing between different shades. Even dark red rose petals dropped from the ceiling, only to disappear before they reached the floor or touched a person's head and shoulders. The traditional goblets had been replaced with cheesy pink glasses, with their knives and forks all having stylized hearts at their bases. A bunch of cupids then entered the hall, their bows hanging off their backs.
Taking her regular seat with her back against the wall, she reached for some toast just to realize the toast too had been altered. Instead of the square slices of toast, they were all shaped into more tacky love hearts. 'This is going to be a long day,' she noted grimly, wondering what madness had gripped the headmaster to allow this tasteless display for the holiday.
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