𝒯𝒽ℯ 𝒫𝓇ℴ𝓂𝒾𝓈ℯ𝒹 𝒪𝓃ℯ | 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐟𝐨𝐲 |

#1 Family Values & Traditions

"This is so tight, mother."

"Just keep breathing. Tight is good, it emphasizes your curves, darling."

I looked at myself in the big mirror in front of me. The golden, floating silk played around my lower body like pure sunlight and the tight fabric around my chest suited me like a second skin. I couldn't lie, the dress was stunning, and it indeed let me appear as a beautiful young woman, but I knew that I wouldn't survive the night if I just couldn't breathe.

But like mother always said: beauty is pain and beauty shows our wealth. One of the most value family traits.

The Fox family was one of the wealthiest families in the Wizarding World since decades, especially because Merlin linked in the family history. But as good as that sounds, being a part of a superior family and a Merlin descendant by blood did bring a burden with it. A big one, to be honest. Probably a bigger one than I ever could handle in the way my parents were so eager about.

"Look at you", a pair of arms came around my body and the face of my sister appeared over my right shoulder as she looked at my dress in the mirror in front of us. She herself looked stunning as ever. "You look beautiful, little bird."

"Says the girl who rocks the emerald green dream", I snickered as I looked at the floor length, breathtaking dress Maribel was wearing.

Even though she denied it all the time, Maribel was always not just the older, but also the prettier sister of us. To tell the truth, I always felt as if I was in her shadow. With everything.

"You both look wonderful, my girls", our mother smiled lovingly from where she stood, directing the elf in front of her to show her the jewelery the shop could offer. Another one was trimming the hem width of my dress and a third was lacing the corset of Maribels'.

Buying dressing gowns for banquets, feasts or brunches from other wealthy families wasn't something new for us; it was almost as normal and natural like breathing. I grew up with this kind of family trips, so it wasn't special that my mother already planned everything out for the Yule Ball taking place at Hogwarts this year, before the next one even started, or before me and my sister even returned to our school.

I wasn't really eager to attend the ball, even though I didn't really have a chance to decline the dance. I was a Fox, and Fox ancestors attended, danced, showed their faces on big events like that - despite the fact it was just a school ball.

Maribel didn't seem to be annoyed about that. She smiled at herself in the mirror, looking down at her slim, but simple womanly body in probably the most gorgeous dress in her wardrobe so far and didn't seem to share a single thought about any concern or what she really wanted.

But I guess that's because she already thought about a certain dark-haired boy seeing her in this dress.

Maribel and I were completely different, not just in our appearance but mostly in the way we handled things.

With her hair being brown just like our parents' were, was mine in a golden color. Maribels' skin was pale, while mine was added with sprinkled freckles on my nose. Just our eyes were in the same light-green color.

While I was impulsive and sassy sometimes, she was the friendly and calm one of us. While I didn't enjoy banquets and balls including dancing and socializing with people I didn't know and who probably just wanted to know me because of my family's name and the connections it would bring, Maribel loves great, exciting events and looks she got as soon as she stepped in the room. She loved to dance on these evenings until our unicorn and cart was ready to take us home. Instead of silently accepting the weight on my shoulders coming with our family like Maribel managed, all I did was using the Fox name in the best way possible to get what I want or being sick of it. While she's open to socialize with new people, I liked spending my time alone at the astronomy tower to simply look at the stars or read to my own. While she incarnated the best tempers of the Slytherin house - being ambitious, cunning in the best and friendliest way possible, I was the literally embodiment of a sassy little rich girl.