Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ When the Spirit Breaks, When Does the Body Follow? ❯ Etude: Drabbles I-III ( Prologue )

Drabble I: Less-Than

Eileen Virginia Prince had terrible taste in men. It started when she was a Slytherin girl at Hogwarts. Sometimes, she discovered, the "bad boy" wasn't putting on an act. Desmond Greenbriar was all the awful adjectives one person could assign to another. She'd been taken in by his deep voice and curly brown hair, but she should have been minding his words. The way he disparaged her pet, her speech, and her marks, the way he and his friends leered when she walked by. The way he made her feel less-than.

He deserved that frog-vomiting hex she cast on him.

Drabble II: Brittle Smile

Hildy Heyerdahl approached her during study hour, her brow wrinkled and hands wringing.

"Out with it," Eileen said wearily, setting down her quill and gesturing at the other girl to sit.

Her Hufflepuff friend pulled up a chair and anxiously smoothed her robes before blurting, "Darvish Talon is spreading a rumor that you two snogged in a corner booth at Hog's Head."

Eileen gave a brittle smile. "I see." She rose abruptly, nearly upending her seat, and abandoned the library. When she found her now-erstwhile infatuation, her footsteps echoed like the clash of swords.

Pointing her wand, she cried, "SILENCIO!"

Drabble III: Experience

During her last year at magic school, she fell in love with William Giles, an older Ravenclaw boy. His dimpled cheeks and wild ginger hair matched his bright personality. Eileen was stunned when he introduced himself after the Sorting Hat ceremony.

He laughed at her dry jokes, she listened whilst he played piano (his favorite setlist was The Eventide Serenade by Caio the Composer). They were inseparable for all but the last month of the school year.

"Sorry, I thought you had experience," he said coolly as she shook with sobs. "That's what I heard from all the other blokes."