chapter three,
wild child
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AS CALAMITY'S CHILD, DAPHNE likes to think that chaos pursues her and not the other way around.
It tends to hang over her shoulder like a silent shadow, creeping around and catching her off guard whenever life is trundling by a little too smoothly. To her knowledge, mischief isn't in her blood, but it seems that she falls fate to it far too often for it not to be at least slightly hereditary. She seems to have an exceptional talent for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, for tripping into the gaping rabbit hole of her own premeditated mistakes — at this point, mayhem is her middle name!
Of course, when she finds herself sauntering toward Slughorn's office, Daphne starts to wish that she had a more normal middle name, and that she had been more pious and saintly in her time at Hogwarts. How did Joan of Arc make it look so easy?
Maybe this is it for me, Daphne wonders as she continues down the hallway. Maybe I'll have to be sent back home to grand-mère in Lyon, or even worse: Atlas in Liverpool.
She clings to her fluorite in terror.
The dungeons are chilly and everything tends to echo, so it's an immense relief to finally reach her Head of House's grand office. There's a crackling hearth on the opposite side of the room, directly behind his armchair in an attempt to give him the majority of the heat that the leaping flames exude. A long mahogany desk cluttered with trinkets and stray books sits before his velvety chair, the great lamp that's teetering on the edge slightly tinted green. Many portraits hang on his dark walls, but there's one of the current Slytherin Quidditch team that sticks out to her in particular, the players having solemn glares that contrast Professor Slughorn's infectious grin. A tall cupboard is tucked in the corner, filled to the brim with his finest drinks. There are tins of biscuits and sweets alike on his mantelpiece, surrounded by plants that may have been gifted to him by Professor Sprout judging from the terracotta pots that are starkly different to the otherwise shadowy colour palette of his office.
Professor Slughorn himself is a stout man with twinkling peridot eyes and a few strands of flaxen hair plastered to his large forehead. He's coddled in a fancy embroidered waistcoat and a pair of designer trousers, his neat tie poking outwards ever so slightly. ( Daphne has deduced that he has exceptionally expensive taste in just about everything ). A pair of wiry reading glasses are balanced on the bridge of his nose as he flits through the paper in anticipation of her arrival, a quill in hand as he goes over the daily crossword very carefully. He vaguely reminds Daphne of a walrus, but she feels like that's a bit mean to think.
"Ah, hello, dear girl!" he greets in his jovial, booming voice when he notices her. He gestures to the chair before him. "Have a seat, why don't you?"
She offers him a tight lipped smile, perching on the ridiculously comfortable chair offered to her and focusing in on a black ink speckle that stains his desk. It helps her to avoid his burning stare.
"Merlin's beard, you look just like your mother," he goes on cheerily. "I knew the both of your parents. Yes, a lovely young couple they were. Atlas was always a bit of a character himself, just like his brother, but Louise seemed to bring out the best in him. Such a shame that she was—"
"Professor," Daphne ventures, a tremor in her hand, the one with her mother's ring on it. "Why am I here, exactly?"
"Oh, yes," Slughorn claps his hands together. "I've been meaning to talk to you about the situation of your... performance in classes."
That wasn't what she had been expecting.
She frowns. "What about it?"
He pauses to grapple for the right words. "It is inadequate, to say the least, Miss Charpentier. Your grades are growing to be rather abysmal compared to your top marks back at Beauxbatons. Is anything the matter that could be affecting your school work?"
Yes, Daphne thinks to herself bitterly. My mother died tragically a few months ago and isn't even cold in her grave while I have to sit and work through an impossibly shite curriculum that makes no sense at all, miles and miles away from her.
Instead, she says: "No, everything's perfectly fine with me."
"Interesting." Slughorn rifles about in a biscuit tin for a minute, picking out a custard cream and then offering her one to most likely soften the blow. "Miss Charpentier, would you ever consider going to see a tutor? I think it could help you immensely, especially with all of your exams coming up soon."
She grits her teeth. "It wouldn't be my first choice."
Daphne has a snazzy reputation for falling out with her tutors no matter what she does. They tend to give up on her after a single session.
"Here, there's one girl I think it would pay to have as your tutor," he reasons. "Her name is Lily Evans, and she'd be more than happy. I believe she's in your Potions class, no?"
"Is there really nothing else I can do, Professor?" Daphne pleads.
"I'm afraid not. Unless you can improve your grades without any additional support, then I suggest you go and see her. Perhaps, you could go once and see whether or not it would be of any help."
Daphne pauses to think. "Yeah," she reasons. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to try."
"Splendid!" he exclaims. "You should go to the library to meet with Lily this Sunday at noon. I believe that's when she tends to do these tutoring sessions. Good day! Tell your father I say hello."
As Daphne rises to leave, her docs clicking on the diamond-shaped tiles, she turns that name over in her head, thinking and thinking to make sure she doesn't forget it. Lily Evans, Lily Evans, Lily Evans. It's like a mantra embedded in her mind, like music to her ears. She begins to feel as though she was overreacting. Really, how bad could one tutoring session with this girl be?
Maybe we'll even get on well?
author's note!
this one was super short but i couldn't think of any more ways to make it longer so i hope this is acceptable xx 😍😘😰
slughorn's office is absolutely bamboozling to me bc i think that he has a different + bigger one that wasn't in the dungeons when he comes back in the half-blood prince so i'm assuming that his old one was in the normal place but idk??? i'm just making things up as i go along tbh