CHAPTER TWO:
fashionably late — falling in reverse
( 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆, 𝟏𝟓 )
Meredith wished dearly to still be in a pretty French Chateau surrounded by mountains you could see for miles. Oh, to be eating the most delicious food while being surrounded by serenading nymphs and surrounded by beautiful people dressed in blue silk. How she wished she began her fifth term at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and graduated at the top of class in her seventh before becoming the youngest Minister of International Magical Cooperation.
That being said, she wasn't entirely sure that she fit in there. The students liked her well enough, she wasn't a complete nuisance to the professors, and she worked hard enough to be at the top of school. However, Beauxbatons was famous for only accepting those who were 'truly' French, save for a few neighbouring countries. It was a strange and elitist policy that hardly benefited anyone.
She was French on her Mother, Arlette Darling's ( nee Chapelle ), side but British on her mildly absentee father's side. In most cases, she wouldn't have been offered a place, especially since she primarily lived in Britain, but her Mother's name had convinced the half-giant Headmistress Maxime to allow her a place. However, when her mother had passed over the summer due to Cancer ( a Muggle ailment that the Wizarding World had yet to find a cure for ), she had received an owl that she would no longer be allowed to return due to losing her 'French side'.
She didn't really get it. I was born half French, what does my Mother dying have anything to do with that? Am I suddenly only British? If my father died, what does that make me?
Following her mother's death, Meredith had been thrown off the deep end especially since she was expected to take her fifth year exams and her father had no intention of homeschooling her. Thankfully, due to her British Heritage and her Pureblood Family name, her father Randolph Darling who was still a rather big name in the Wizarding World, had managed to secure her a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was highly unconventional for one to join Hogwarts at such a late year especially due to their House System, but she would have to make do. She always did.
Adapt, show them whose in power.
So she had packed up all her possessions in the same shade of blue, tossed them into the attic and headed off to Diagon Alley to purchase all her necessary Hogwarts materials. Based on the book list, Hogwarts even seemed a little behind Beauxbatons, so she would have no problem catching up with the lot. No, she would pull ahead of them. She had easily been one of the top students at Beauxbatons, who's to say she couldn't do that at Hogwarts?
The year before, Maxime had brought a selected group of students to partake and watch the Triwizard Tournament held at Hogwarts. She was set to go, but she had come down with a contagious case of Dragon Pox ( bloody Jean Favre and his delightfully American spin-the-bottle game ), and had spent the remainder of her time in isolation, with only some scathing reviews of the articles Rita Skeeter wrote ( she couldn't bear to read the actual simpering idiotic articles ).
"Goodness, you must be Ms Darling. I am Professor McGonagall. I usually come to collect the first years but I suppose this year we will have something more exciting." She was an elderly but stern looking woman who wore a dark pointed hat with a large feather perched in it. It looked rather comical. Was this the fashion of the British witches? She gave Meredith a once over, before turning, the tails of her robe swishing behind her and chastising the group of tittering first years.
Meredith decided that she liked her.
The first years looked nervous, whispering amongst themselves. At Beauaxbatons, showing fear like this showed weakness, even on your first day. Everyone held their noses up strutted like they feared nothing. Probably the thing which moulded her overconfident cocky behaviour that just seemed to fascinate the students here. Particularly the boy on the train.
Draco Malfoy, he had said. She immediately recognised the name. Part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight and obsessed with blood purity. Her mother had practically been French pureblood royalty, as one of the oldest French wizarding families with ties to high-ranking Ministry official, but had decided to marry her father, who was a Darling, one of the lesser known remaining pureblood families and took his name.
The silver haired boy had stared at her with his mouth gaping like a fish. He hardly spoke two words and when he did, he insulted her family name. Strange boy.
Meredith nearly walked right into the horde of first years as they paused at a towering door. The Great Hall, she assumed. The door creaked open and a flurry of whispers spread across the hall like wildfire. Why, never seen a fifth year transfer before?
But Meredith still held her head high, looking straight ahead, and strutted into the Hall like she had walked down it ever morning for the past years like the rest of them, like she already belonged.
Adapt, show them who is in power.
Truthfully, it was one of the only valuable things her absentee father may have ever said to her, but they were words she lived by and for the better.
"Enjoying the view?" She winked at a group of chattering students sitting on her left who were dressed in robes lined with rich red. Gryffindor students. Two boys, with a shock of orange hair atop their head and looked almost identical, chorused playfully, "Immensely. Go on."
Meredith knew she was at the very least mildly attractive. She had inherited her mother's cunning eyes and perfectly arched brows, her father's flawless completion and lush dark hair that tumbled down her back and framed her face well. Some of her classmates at Beauxbatons had even thought her to be part Veela ( she wasn't, she checked against the past seven generations of Chapelles and Darlings ), it was no surprise that the Hogwarts students thought the same. Ah, there goes your confidence again.
She laughs softly, shaking her head, before turning back and facing what appeared to be a...singing hat? It opened its leather mouth and loudly sang a chirpy tune about the danger Hogwarts was in. Lovely. She desperately hoped that the hat liked to spout utter rubbish for entertainment and nothing would interrupt her three years of studies here. She suspected that that would not be the case.
She seemed to be the at the last of the list. The hat would occasionally almost randomly assign a house to a student, shouting out one of the four in mere seconds, and other times it seemed to have fallen asleep atop their heads. Meredith hoped that it would just hurry, because her stomach was beginning to growl. She hadn't the appetite to try some funny looking jellybeans that a boy had offered her previously but she wished she did now despite its mildly disgusting brown colour. Merlin, this was taking forever.
"Darling, Meredith." Professor McGonagall finally announced, much to the anticipation of the rest of the hall, "She is a transfer from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and will be joining us for her fifth year here at Hogwarts. Do welcome her warmly." Meredith hurried up the stairs and shoved the hat atop her head. She hoped dearly that none of the first year midgets had a case of the lice.
"Now, you're not a first year." The Hat mused. Obviously.
Meredith sat with her hands laced across her lap, patiently waiting for the verdict. It seemed to take much longer than usual. She had heard of the houses of course. The brave Gryffindors, the just and loyal Hufflepuffs, the wise Ravenclaws, and of course, Slytherin for the cunning and ambitious. She had tried to trace the lineage of the houses against hers, but the Darlings who had attended Hogwarts had been in all the different houses, with no distinguishable trend. Although, she did not have a inclination toward a house either.
She supposed no one was truly only one of the houses. Maybe the Hat sorted based upon what the wearer wanted to be. It essentially controlled how the student would grow up in the following seven years. What a fascinating power it had; she just wished it had the power of 'speed' as it was taking an awfully long time and her stomach was beginning to eat itself.
The Hat did not speak for the minutes following, merely humming and muttering to itself, and she could see the rest of the students becoming a mixture of nervous and bored. Meredith herself was becoming rather bored as there was only so much entertainment sitting straight on a stool with a giant leather hat on her head. After what seemed like an eternity, it finally opened its large leather mouth and announced to the room in its booming voice, "Slytherin!"
The table of the students sitting on the far left burst into a fit of exuberant applause, catcalls, and hoots of approval. She scanned the room, observing the other reactions. It was mixed. Some, like the orange-haired twins, clapped loudly and threw her a thumbs up, but some threw her dirty looks. She of course had heard rumours of the Slytherins rather...undesirable reputations but she beamed anyways as she hopped off the stool. She would be a Slytherin, and a damn proud Slytherin at that.
Meredith eyeballed a few empty spots and flounced over to the nearest one. Just as she sat, sliding her legs into the bench ( it was rather inconvenient ), she nearly jumped at the sound of an unfortunately familiar voice.
"Hello, Darling."
it's!! the!! line!! i wanted her to transfer instead of starting out at Hogwarts since day one to speed up the storyline a bit and develop the story and relationship when they are at a more mature age. i am so excited to write about them being cute together.