Slytherin Princess | ✓

prologue

People adopt different types of defence mechanisms depending on why they need it or how they occur. Adelaide Ward adopted the defence of perfectionism and lying her way out of and through her problems and, usually, succeeded. And why she adopted it is even a doozy.

Thrown away at age eight for something she couldn't control: Adelaide made her toaster, television, and all the lights in her house explode. Obviously, it wasn't on purpose— no eight year old is truly that malicious, but it was just the effect of uncontrolled, new magic. Most muggleborn witches or wizards have problems learning to control the magic, as pureblood or half-blood wizards have someone to help them.

Adelaide was a half-blood witch, being her father was a wizard, but having him out of the picture made adapting to the new information hard. Instead of her mother helping her, Adelaide's mother decided to leave her at her town's Catholic Church due to the fact that she was "an exact replica of her devilish fther— the complete demon spawn." Lovely.

At least she wasn't alone in the convent, as another older girl, Alexa, was just like her. Alexa took her time and reassured Adelaide that what she'd done was completely normal for people like them: Witches, they did magic. From that moment on, Adelaide decided that she wanted to be the best at magic. Begging Alexa, who was nearly fourteen, to teach her what she knew about the "Wizarding World" and the magical school she went to, called Hogwarts, Adelaide listened and learned the best she could.

Books after books and hours of listening to Alexa drone on about the cool school, Adelaide learned how she would carry herself and what she needed to do to be the best and be the brightest witch Hogwarts had ever seen— it was one of her major downfalls: To be the best at everything. And one thing Alexa spoke badly about was the fight for blood purity.

Apparently, in the Wizarding World, there was a problem with witches and wizards believing magic should only belong to pureblooded families, not muggleborns or half-bloods. As Alexa ranted about the horrible students with messy ideals, Adelaide's mind whirled with ideas and plans to succeed and be the best. Though a bad ideal, she very well knew that purebloods would have more opportunities than if she kept her muggleborn status.

Devising the best plan she could think of with no reprecations (she hoped), Adelaide was ready for her cover story: Adelaide Ward, orphaned "Pureblood American Witch" who moved to England at a young age; mother, Angela Ward, died at birth, father, Andrew Dalus, died from Dragon Pox (apparently common in the wizarding world) and left her at a muggle convent. It was as good as her plan was going to get and she had no qualms about it. Her birth giver abandoned her despite Angela Ward being the only family Adelaide had and her father was nowhere to be seen due to the fact her mother left him when she found out he was a wizard. Brilliant.

Adelaide didn't mind dragging their name in the mud to get what she wanted; they've never done anything for her, only cause her pain, in her opinion.

For the eight years, Adelaide was with her mother, all she did was complain about how horrible her birth father was, never letting her ask questions about him. Then, at her single mistake, she gave Adelaide away, like an old present, to a bunch of woman who believed that they could throw water at her to "fix" her. Pitiful.

But Adelaide's amazing plan seemed to worked after a stern older woman came and began to ask questions about her to the Head Nun, Sister Gladys. She played the part of a happy little girl as Deputy Headmistress McGonagall, as she'd learned, explained to her about the school Alexa went to and how Adelaide was a witch. Taking the "new" information, she was ecstatic that she was finally going to the school in a month and a week.

The following week, Adelaide was brought to a wizarding high street where she bought my wand, robes, and supplies for my new school. There, she saw a large gruff looking man with a scrawny boy walking around the road, people moved out of the way for them. She frowned at the action, why was he so important?

Pushing aside any signs of disdain, Adelaide gathered the last of my materials, and made it back to the retched church and waited out her last month until she could finally go to the place she'd been waiting to go to for the last three years.