Aphrodite and Cupid

Slowly Gisele found herself warming to Franki's words. The feeling of complete isolation that had befallen her was very lonely and Gisele began to realize that she really did need a friend for the times ahead. And Franki was here (and as she had made abundantly clear, willing). F**k it. Franki Malfoy, you just got yourself a new best friend. So in response to her words she let her stiff body loosen slightly. She tried to relax and looked up at the Slythirin girl. "Fine. What's your brilliant plan now? For me to go tell her how I feel? Because I can garentee I'm not doing that."

Gisele may have already internally resigned to accept Franki's help but she wasn't going to the let the girl off the hook super easy. Gisele had never been the type of girl to spill her secrets to the rest of the girls at sleepovers and she it was hard to kick habits overnight. People had to work to gain her affections. And even though Gisele was sure she was going to let Franki into her life in the most intimate of ways, part of her still wanted to make Franki work for it. But the vulnerable part of Gisele allowed Franki a sad smile, asking for forgiveness for her ungrateful attitude.

Franki smile as Gisele finally conceded that Franki's help was needed and, to an extent, wanted. Though Franki seemed easy going and a natural in social situations, lately she had felt as though no one who spoke to her actually wanted to. Honestly, if she was being honest with herself, Franki was becoming a bit paranoid. Last year, she considered everyone, even strangers, a friend. Now everyone seemed to be out to get her. To see someone willing to go out on a limb to be her friend returned some feeling of normalcy to the blonde Slytherin. Perhaps her social life was not completely in shatters if someone wanted to be around her.

Gisele looked sadly at Franki and Franki sighed. "Oh don't do that, I have a thing for puppy eyes." She giggled. "No, you don't have to tell her. That won't do much until we know what exactly she feels. For now, we study her. Together." She offered a strengthening smile.

Gisele listened to Franki's words of encouragement and couldn't decide whether they were annoyingly cheerful or were actually making her feel better. Eventually, she settled on the latter. Gisele felt a genuine affection growing for the girl who was so willing to throw herself into her problems with nothing to gain. It was the kind of decent, honorable thing that Gisele had just never gotten good at. 

Despite their tainted blood, the Delacours were still considered to be a part of Pureblood society. Their wealth, beauty, and history of power gave them enough influence in the wizarding world to be respected, though they would never become a superpower family. Gisele was grateful for her family's status among wizards - it made her privy to the gossip and scandal of the pureblood world while still keeping her own relatively low expectations. The Delacour twins would have probably been able to swindle their way out of their up and coming betrothals if they hadn't happened to be so completely beautiful. One of Giseles many guilty pleasures happened to be listening to the woman of society gossip away. From her idle evesdropping Gisele had more or less gathered the details of the fall of the great Malfoy family. She wondered how Franki was taking this change, as the girl showed no outward signs of upset. 

Eager to veer the subject away from her, Gisele offered a new topic of conversation. "What about you? You have someone special in your life?"

Gisele was a very hard girl to read, which wasn't exactly typical of teenage girls, especially when surrounded by the angst of about a hundred other teenage girls. Franki did not know exactly how the girl felt about having this help and aide thrust upon her without much reason to oppose it, but she fancied that she had seen some expression of relief and gratitude, for which Franki found all her payment. All of the thanks, and secrets she alone would be able to guard and enjoy, was good enough for her.

Gisele spoke again and Franki blinked a few times, confused about having the conversation so quickly turned around on her. The proverbial lamp was pointed on her, blinding her, and freezing her mind. Someone special... did Gisele mean her owl? Elvin was special, right?

Franki's mind eventually caught up and she said, "Oh. Um, no, not really. I met my husband to be." Franki rolled her eyes. "Daedalus d'Eath. I don't know when the d'Eaths became purebloods but-" she shrugged. "I think they did it to piss me off. He's cute, and sort of funny, but I wished the purebloods didn't live in medieval times, y'know?" Franki knew her words were risky- they went against what the purebloods stood for. But Gisele had spilled a secret, Franki thought leveling the playing field might comfort the girl.

Yes, this topic was much more comfortable. As the spotlight shifted off of Gisele she felt a wave a relaxation wash over her. No matter how much she liked to talk, listening was always easier. Especially when the topic of conversation revolved around Melissa. "Ah, yes. I think I heard about that." Gisele said with a slight nod of her head. It would have normally been small news (neither the d'Eaths or Malfoys were very prominent pureblood families) but with the fall of Malfoy manor their merger had become a symbol of peace between the two clans. Unfortunately, it seemed that the youngsters weren't willing to play along. 

Gisele had a possible d'Eath of her own. Damien had recently been placed on the list of possible suiters as his family rose in power. The idea that Gisele and Franki might some day be sister-in-laws was both sickening and comforting. At least there would be someone to talk to at the family reunions. "I suppose I'll be willing when the time comes." Gisele mused, back on the subject of pureblood practices. "But that's just because I don't have anyone else I'd rather have." Sure, she would rather be with Millie than Damien but it had become clear over the summer that the strawberry blonde just didn't like her like that. So Gisele was settling for friendship. And even that looked questionable right now.

Gisele spoke of resigning herself to an arranged marriage and Franki sighed, resting her cheek on her hand, her elbow propped up on the table. "It's so stupid to me," she said with a sigh. "They tell us we're the most powerful wizards and witches, but we don't have the power to marry who we want. It's like breeding pedigree dogs to keep the line pure." She rolled her eyes. This was Franki's problem. Her tongue was just a bit too loose on these delicate subjects when she thought she was among trusted company. This was why her friends looked down on her.

She sighed again, before perking up. "What about classes? You much be getting O's in every class, huh?"

((muse fail))