Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Chapter Four! Balance
Mallory learned how to spin a negative into a positive a long time ago. Turning former inconveniences into something that could benefit her narrative positively. For example, when your parents forget your tenth birthday, you can spend it engorging in as much cake as a new ten year old would desire. Or when your father completely ignores your pitiful existence, you can sneak into his office and educate yourself on his job. Hoping that he'll love you if you show interest in his passions. Instead, you discover your own penchant for stats and figures, (look at that, two positives!). Yes, others may deem it miserable and exhausting to have to constantly change your reality, so you don't waste away. But Mallory will continue to do as she has always done and protect herself. When no one in the world will be your hero you have to become your own.
In Mallory's story she's not the naïve lost soul or the bumbling side character. Deep down Mallory knows she's the anti-hero in the eyes of everyone else. Cruel and selfish, throughout her life Mal will encounter many a foe who wish for her downfall.
What ordinary people don't understand though is that the real world is brutal. There are upsides to coming from a loving family, Mallory knows this. While she may appear indifferent to the sufferings of others, someone who has experienced the warmth of a mother's embrace will have an abundance of compassion. Those that love share and those who don't, defend.
Positives and negatives, pros and cons, light and dark. These pairs make up the world and decide who will have an awful Monday or who will emerge victorious. Either way Mallory excels when it comes to warping the truth.
Today however, she is unsure if anything remotely hopeful can come from the letter she currently holds in her hand.
The first week of school had been relatively calm, albeit exhausting. She attended her classes, maintained a classy appearance, argued pointlessly with her best friend, and even tried to involve herself in a Weasley scheme (still a work in progress). All in all, a very normal week for a sixteen-year-old.
This morning Mallory woke up to a freshness in the air and a yearning for peace. As it was a Saturday, Hogsmeade felt like the perfect destination to just clear her head and wander around aimlessly, except not entirely without a goal (Mallory's brain would never stop calculating). She had planned to invite Yvonne and try and sort through whatever issues they were having. Despite her ability to thrive alone, that didn't mean Mal desired to look like a loser with no friends for the whole year! Besides, Yvonne was funny and would have unearthed tonnes of gossip by now. First week back at school gossip was always shocking. Mallory needed to bask in the misery of others for a while.
She successfully de-frizzed her hair and put on a denim maxi skirt, paired with a sheer green blouse. All while ignoring her infuriatingly obnoxious roommates, then she made her way to the Great Hall.
