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˚ ₊ ♡ ❰  NATURALLY ❱
*✧ ─── ❝ ❪ PICTURE PERFECT ❫ ❞
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˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ ACT ONE ── the unicorn disaster  🐍 ⁺⑅

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DREAMERS DUOLOGY  ⋆ 🐉.
♯ ❝ I'D LIKE TO THINK I AM ❞
CHAPTER THREE ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
˚ ₊ ♡ 1989 ─── year six
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     THE MORNING AFTER THE WELCOMING FEAST, MARIE-CLAIRE FOUND HERSELF AWAKE AT THE CRACK OF DAWN, red hair still untamed as she put her school uniform on. Unlike her unkept wisps of hair, her uniform was wrinkle free and her tie was neatly tucked in her blouse as she observed herself in her dormitory mirror before she turned on her heel to re-enter the large bedroom again to see her other three roommates still in a deep slumber.

     Lorraine was snoring louder than a mountain troll, but after six years, the sound had been nothing more than a soft breeze to the other girls who could ignore the thunderous sound with ease—and if it ever got as far that they could not, a simple pillow to the head had always been a successful strategy.

     Which always had been Maureen's pick of poison. Rather crude and loud with her closest companions, the curly haired girl was known to resort to violence quicker than a broom on steroids. 'Course the girl was elusive enough to never get caught, always the proper and polite pureblood princess in the spotlight. To quote most of the student body, sweet little Maureen couldn't even hurt a bowtruckle if she tried.

     If only they knew

     Sometimes Marie wished to be as carefree as Maureen could be among her friends. But while Maureen had been a pureblood, the girl had never experienced what is was like to belong to the ever so noble house of Rosier. The pressure was crushing the redhead most of the time. Sitting still and smiling politely had always been hard for the girl. While she and other girls came to play at the manner, all she wanted was to run wild in the rain that raged outside.

     But no, she was not meant to run wild, she was meant to sit and drink tea.

     She wondered if her friends lived like that sometimes

     Sighing, and dusted off her grey skirt one last time, Marie, without much of sound, gently walked across the room to gather her supplies of the day, kissing Meeko softly on his furry head before departing from her dorm. Even the Slytherin Common Room was deadly quiet as she descended down the stairs gracefully. The enchanted fire in the fireplace casted a mesmerising green glow over the room that reminded Marie-Claire of her own home. Eyes drifting to one of the many windows with a view of the Black Lake, a warm smile forming when she noticed a couple mermaids pass by.

    Hiking her bookbag further up her shoulder, the redhead left without another second wasted as she hurried the dungeon halls to go and grab something the eat from the Great Hall.

    As expected, young Marie-Claire was one of the only few souls up at the crack of dawn, and it could not even be said that even half of those present were fully awake yet. But she was already bouncing down the halls like she'd been awake for hours.

     Of the few present, Dumbledore and McGonagall seemed to most awake as the sat at the teachers table enjoying the delicious breakfast made by the house elves. And when she entered, Dumbledore's blue twinkling eyes caught her gaze over his half-moon spectacles like he knew all her secrets. A half-hearted smile spun itself on her face, reminding herself of the countless of lesson she had from her mother about acting like a proper lady of the house Rosier. Quickly averting her gaze once more, not wanting to gain any more attention from the headmaster, Marie gaze briefly wandered towards another table and locked onto the light blonde, almost silver haired first year donning the badger colours of Hufflepuff.

     Primrose caught her gaze, a ghost of a smile, found it on the innocent girl's face, a small glimmer of hope as she subtly pointed to the badger crest stitched on her robes—like a little I guess you were right.

     Marie held her perfectly crafted composure as she stared the girl down, a shift of her eyes to look at what the girl was pointing at before she turned around to reach the Slytherin table. And as Primrose soft smile fell, Marie-Claire finally let a genuine smile lift up the corners of her mouth, glad that the girl had been sorted in the house of the loyal and kind.

     A simple piece of toast with Jam and a cup of tea were all Marie-Claire picked out from the dozen or so options already on the table. With quick unlady-like gulps—ones that would make her mother screech like banshee at the mere sight of, Marie grabbed one more piece of toast and stood back up again.

     Trying not to bring any attention to herself, she tried to walk slowly, but even she couldn't contain her excitement when the door came closer and just when she picked up her pace, she almost slammed into someone coming into the Great Hall.

    The fiery red hair was a signature look, one that Marie sadly shared with the Gryffindor boy. However while his was as bright as the crackling fire of a dragon, hers was far less bright and could sometimes even disguise itself as a strange brown colour in the darkness.

     "We have to stop meeting like this." Charlie Weasley grinned, holding her shoulders as he steadied her.

     Marie scoffed, taking a step back, making Charlie's arm fall back to his side. "You need to stop running around like a headless chicken." She bit back, carefree and excited face morphing back into a calculated sneer.

     "Excuse you!" Charlie exclaimed loudly, making a few people look at them oddly. "you were running like you're being chased."

    Marie crossed her arms over her chest, cringing as the boy's voice remained far too flamboyant for such an early morning hour. "Just watch where you're going." She said quickly before brushing passed the tall redhead, leaving him once again staring after her in confusion.

    "Where are you going?" He called after her, but the girl only glanced over her shoulder before disappearing down the corridor.

     Charlie watched the hallway for a second longer before shaking his head and entering the Great Hall like he had planned to do in the first place.

    Luckily for him, the Gryffindor table was already fairly occupied as multiple first years enthusiastically conversed about their first day of classes.

    It didn't take long for the eleven year olds to notice him, as he had been the one to lead them back up the Gryffindor Tower like he was supposed to as a Prefect. They all greeted him, littering in a few questions before he had even sat down.

    But all he could think about was Marie-Claire Rosier and where she had been running off to in such a hurry.

· 。ﾟ☆: *.☽

     MARIE-CLAIRE COULD PLAY THE PERFECT DAUGHTER VERY WELL, SHE HAD A SILVER TONGUE, the perfect wit to even talk herself out of Azkaban if need be and a way of being far too persuasive for her own good. She prided herself with the mere fact she embodied the traits of Salazar Slytherin—her parents very much did so to. But as she stands here, the sun barely peeking above the tall trees, the morning wind still cold and harsh and eyes fixated on such magical beings, she wishes nothing more than forget all about those things, and run wild and free. To pick her own path, her own career, her own life.

     The beautiful gold foal shone brightly even without much light as it stood out around the fully grown pure white unicorns that grazed the grass in a relaxed manner. Marie was seated on the damp grass, a lazy smile on her face as she observed the herd she had been tracking after she overheard the burly gamekeeper talking about them at the end of their Christmas break. Of course finding them now after the summer was harder than she had liked, but luckily she had some ideas about where they might have wandered to.

     Brown eyes glimmered even brighter as one of the young foals came walking towards her, a couple of head turned to look at her, but the unicorns were already quite familiar with the redhead. And the fact that she was a girl, something unicorns clearly favoured helped also of course.

    She laughed as the little foal stumbled a bit over the uneven ground until it reached her. Marie smiled, wide and genuine at the adorable sight in front her before her eyes flickered back to the parchment she held in her lap.

    The drawing had captured the herd perfectly, which she was quite proud of, little notes and observations scrawled next to the sketch and it seemed the youngest foal was quite interested in her creation too as it stepped closer, sniffing the parchment. "You like that huh?" Marie spoke up, chuckles escaping her parted lips as the golden unicorn looked up at her when she spoke, even tilting its head comically as if it understood her. "I like it very much too, you look very handsome in it."

    Redirecting her gaze again to look up at the sky through the canopy of trees, Marie noticed that the dark navy colour, mixed with warm orange and yellows glows had morphed back into a light blue colour, no trace of the night remained, indicating that it was time to get back.

     She stood back up, gathering her supplies in her bag, and retrieving her wand that she had stuck in her hair, the perfect bun falling down and red strands fell down her shoulders in messy waves.

     With a simple flick of her wand, Marie muttered the Hot-Air charm and directed the stream of hot air towards her damp skirt, drying it off again before hiking her bag over her shoulder and smiling one last time a the young Unicorn before walking back to the school grounds, and hopefully remaining unseen.

     Marie was lucky enough that she was pretty good at sneaking around, the Forbidden Forrest after all wasn't named forbidden without reason and as the trees became more sparse and more light filtered through the canopy above her, the redhead carefully looked around before casually walking back up the hill, passing by Hagrid's cabin swift and silently, knowing that the giant man would be feeding the Hippogriffs at this time.

     Hurrying up the hill and back into the school, Marie was quick to go to the Great Hall and get her timetable from Snape.

     "Marie!" Lorraine Avery greeted her friend with a wide smile as she approached the table, Maureen still half asleep and leaning her head on her head mumbled out an incomprehensible greeting too.

     Maire smiled, a faint grin, only reserved for her friends creeping on her face as she sat across from the two girls. But before the girls could jump into a conversation, most likely about David Rowle, their current Quidditch Captain, and Lorraine's secret crush, or more so obsession, if you asked either Maureen, Marie-Claire or anyone other Slytherin, the familiar drawl of a certain Potions Professor filled their ears.

    "Rosier, Avery, Montague." In his ever so dramatic fashion, Severus Snape appeared next to them, dropping their timetable on the table and turned away again before any one of them could mutter a greeting.

    "You thing he applied for Rakepick's job again?" Maureen asked out loud as she skimmed over her timetable.

     "Of course he did." Lorraine replied softly, "He always does."

     "You think he'll be pissed about it again?" Marie wondered, thinking back to the disastrous altercation that took place back in the second week of their first term last year. Everyone had heard the argument between Severus Snape and Patricia Rakepick as they argued about who could teach the subject better.

     Of course Dumbledore sided with Rakepick, seeing as the woman had been teaching the subject for a couple years now. And sadly after that, everyone was faced with Snape's bitter mood after that during Potions, not even the Slytherin students had been safe that month.

     "Let's just agree to not spend more time around the man than necessary."

     Marie-Claire sighed, blowing a stray strand of hair out of her face, "Easier said then done. Father saw my O.W.L results."

     Both Maureen and Lorraine grimaced, both girl knowing how strict Marie's parents could be. The Rosier family was notorious for being picture perfect people. No scandal would ever be attached to their name, even though people would whisper about Percival and his afflictions with he-who-must-not-be-named. Of course no one dared to say anything remotely close to that to the man's face. He was cunning and intimidated and a well respected member of the Ministry of Magic and if you crossed him, you should be scared. And he held very high standards for his only daughter.

     And Lorraine and Maureen both knew how incredibly smart Marie truly was, she was very dedicating to showing everyone she could do no wrong. She was determined to prove everyone how smart she was and that had resulted in endless study sessions in the Common Room or the Library.

     When she had owled them about her results, especially the little E amongst O's for Potion, they knew that, that would disappoint Percival very much. And Marie being the ever so sweet obedient child, would only try to get her father to forgive her for it.

     "What did he do?"

      Marie didn't even have to ask her friend to elaborate, "He gotten into contact with Professor Snape, pulled in some sort of favour to get him to tutor me outside of class."

     "That bloody sucks." Maureen frowned.

     "Well, I should have studied harder I guess." Marie sighed, not looking at her friends who shared worried looks.

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