The Outtakes

Cissy Malfoy: Know who you are

Year: Cissy - Fifth Year

Cissy Astoria Malfoy stared at herself in the mirror with a critical eye. She saw nothing out of the ordinary. Her honey blonde hair was thick and fell just past her shoulders. Her face was framed nicely so, her bangs not too long, and also a deep red color. Her skin was flawless, her face structure was soft like her mother's, but with a bit of the aristocratic look she'd gained from her father's side.

So what was wrong with her?

Cissy knew she was pretty, and she wasn't embarrassed or too modest to admit it. Calling herself pretty or being called pretty was like saying the sky was blue. Just a natural and common fact of life. After all, with a stunningly beautiful mother and a ruggedly handsome and aristocratic father, how could she not be? But something about herself felt . . . well wrong!

Cissy tapped a finger against her lips. Perhaps her personality? As a Gryffindor, she liked to think she was brave and loyal. She had courage. But she also liked to think she'd gained her mother's kindness, her father's pride, their humor and wit, and their easygoing attitudes. Was there something wrong with that?

"Ciss, how long are you going to stay in here and stare at yourself in my mirror?" Draco Lucius Malfoy II, her older brother, asked with a sigh. She was in the bathroom of his dorm, while he sat on his bed, studying from some book.

Cissy rolled her eyes as she looked back at the mirror. "Until I'm satisfied. Besides, why do you care? It's not like any of the guys or Beth is here."

"Why not do it in your room?" Draco asked curiously.

"Because the girls . . . they just don't understand," Cissy mumbled as she carefully ran her fingers through her bangs, before moving them behind her ear. "Drake, answer this question not as a brother, but as an objective person? Am I beautiful?"

Draco didn't even turn from his book. "Describe your idea of beautiful."

"Something more than just pretty," Cissy told him. "Where pretty seems like a weak word to use as a description. When you might stare at someone before realizing that it was beauty that captured your eye."

Draco sighed as he finally looked away from his book, and at his younger sister who now stood at the bathroom door, looking at him. "Hmm. I would say that you are . . . uncommonly pretty," he told her.

Cissy scowled a little. "What does that mean?"

"Well, that you are a kind of pretty that goes beyond the normal and not often seen. Maybe not beautiful, but close," Draco said.

Cissy still scowled. "Dad says that I look just like Mum."

"Dad lies. You have traits from him too," Draco pointed out.

"But Mum is beautiful. And if I look like her, then shouldn't I be too?" Cissy demanded.

"Dad is not objective. And as a brother, I think you are beautiful, Cissy. And just because I said uncommonly pretty, that doesn't mean others won't think you're beautiful. I'm just one opinion," Draco replied as he turned back his book. "Get a second opinion."

Cissy just sighed as she moved back to look in the mirror. "Drake, do you think there's something wrong with me?"

"You spend too much time looking at yourself in bathroom mirrors," Draco said immediately.

Cissy rolled her eyes again. "Seriously. Do you think something's wrong with me? Because I do."

"I think you hold yourself high, but worry too much," Draco answered. "Don't worry about yourself too much. Your ego will inflate until it explodes."