As Pure As The Driven Snow - Coriolanus Snow

chapter four

Coriolanus Crassus Xanthos Snow's point of view.
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Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule.

A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens.
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"Maude Ivory Baird!"

A little girl, with long and wavy blonde hair looked everywhere around her, visibly frightened, shocked and stressed. The girl on her left pushed her a little, and the named Maude Ivory started walking to the stage, where she have been called. Coriolanus could see her legs shaking, and the first thing he thought was that his feet will never touch the University's ground. He was doomed. She was, what, twelve? She looked like she was ten, not a lot more. Even if she couldn't be younger than Reaping age, she may only have celebrated twelve only three to four weeks ago. She walked so delicately, like a dandelion petal flying in the breeze, she would be dead before the end of the countdown. What a shame he would have to face and to inflict to his family, failing because of a stupid little girl dying. He squinted his eyes when he saw she was looking for something in her dress. A girl in the crowd screamed "Now, Maude Ivory!" and the little girl took out her hand of her pocket, with a long and slithering thing between her fingers. It's only when she put it in the dress of a ginger girl, much older than her, that he recognised the thing as a little snake. Everything went quickly after that, and as the redhead screamed as she was being tortured by the worst army of the worst dictator possible, the crowd in the amphitheater exploded with noises.

"Did you see that?"
"What did she drop down her dress?"
"A lizard?"
"I saw a snake!"
"Did she kill her?"
"She looks so cute and sweet, how could she do something like that?" Kara gasped.
"The ginger girl looked so nasty, I just know she deserved it!"
"Shhht, Caecilia! You cannot say someone deserved to be bitten by a snake! It's not nice!"

Seeing the shambles and listening to all they were saying about Maude Ivory, Coriolanus thought that maybe he was not that doomed yet. If she had the Capitol's attention, all he had to do was trying to keep it. How? He did not know, but maybe he could play the sensible cord, showing her as the cute little girl who has been reaped from her family at such a young age, and for this snake story... She was able to defend herself and courageous. This was a good thing. Maybe the Snow's name wouldn't face such a disgrace, after all. At least, Coriolanus promised himself he would do anything he could to save them from this disgrace. He hasn't been playing pretend for years for this resulting in nothing all because of Casca Highbottom's new lubie of mentoring in the Hunger Games. His gaze came back to the big screen at the exact moment when the round mayor grabbed Maude Ivory by the back of her clothes, violently, and threw her further, running towards the ginger girl on the ground. She was pitiful like that, rolling again and again in dust, screaming, crying, throwing her limbs everywhere, trying to rip her clothes from her body to get rid of the snake.

"Mayfair? Mayfair?" He cried. "My daughter needs help!"

Coriolanus' tribute walked the stairs up the stage as the mayor tried to help his daughter, and the orange, black and white stripped little snake soon came out of the dress of the jiggling girl on the floor. She was now covered in coal dust, her hair messy, and her pride visibly broken as she saw the Capitol's cameras on her. Coriolanus would have died of shame if he was her, already feeling the second hand embarrassment hard to handle. The mayor's daughter got up, and her father went straight to Maude Ivory, that he slapped. Hard. Very hard. The sound of his hand on this little girl's face echoed on the place's walls, and even the amphitheater became quiet. She fell to the ground, her hand to her redden cheek, on the verge of tears, and the Peacekeepers grabbed the mayor to take him away as he tried to hit her a second time. Maybe Caecilia was right, and she deserved it. Coriolanus was pretty sure that such an awful man couldn't birth nothing but an awful baby, you just had to look at his father and him. Awful from father to son.