[Harry Potter] Everything She Hates

Estella Malfoy hated many things. She hated the Marauders' childish pranks and thought they were tasteless. She hated the noisy Gryffindor Quidditch stands, which ruined her mood for playing. Most of all, she hated Sirius Black, the boy to whom she was bound by a ridiculous marriage contract. Of course, they hated her just as much. After all, a spoiled, sharp-tongued Slytherin heiress deserved to be hated by everyone. Until one day, James Potter realized that he had actually started looking forward to her next provocation. Sirius Black realized that the flush on her cheeks when she was embarrassed was far more appealing than her lofty indifference. And the considerate pen pal she'd never met sent her one last letter: "You said you hate half-bloods. So I suppose I should disappear." Estella suddenly felt that perhaps what she hated had never been these things themselves. She hated that they made her start to care, and that she was afraid she might have cared all along. Estella always felt that her father and brother hadn't done very well in the family-required course, "How to Walk a Tightrope with Grace." Her father, Abraxas Malfoy, always smiled and told her, "My dear star, you can do whatever you like. The family and your brother will always have your back." Estella nodded elegantly on the outside, while inwardly grumbling furiously: In reality, I'm the one keeping this family afloat! When Lucius disapproved of her spending all her time with Gryffindor "blood traitors," Estella merely sneered. "When Father passes away, I'll inherit everything the family owns, including the vault at Gringotts, the portraits at Malfoy Manor, and you, my foolish brother." In reality, Abraxas had a very well-thought-out plan: His son Lucius openly joining the Death Eaters was the main investment. His daughter Estella secretly spending time with the future leading members of the Order of the Phoenix was a way of diversifying the risk. Though he couldn't agree with his daughter's "choice of friends," when he thought of his little princess, whom the family had spoiled since childhood... Well, let her do as she liked. The son was still the main bet, anyway. Years later, after the Dark Lord fell, the Malfoy family once again narrowly escaped being purged, thanks to the clever maneuvering of their heiress, who had "close ties to key members of the Order of the Phoenix." They kept their ancestral manor and vault. Abraxas elegantly sipped his tea and smiled at his furious son Lucius. "See? I told you long ago that your sister could do whatever she liked. And look, she managed to... keep us afloat." Content warnings: 1. A fluffy, low-stakes romance with a female protagonist, mostly set in the Marauders' era. James/Lily and Sirius/Lily are not endgame. The main pairings are James, Sirius, and Regulus. Remus and Snape have hidden routes. 2. Some characters and settings overlap with the author's other story, Hilda Potter's Life and Lies. You don't need to have read it to follow this one. 3. The female lead is an arrogant elitist, a spoiled heiress, self-serving, vicious, and sharp-tongued. She has a character growth arc. 4. The story features all kinds of school bullying, and the female lead is the ringleader. The warnings include, but are not limited to, the above. Theme: Step bravely out of your comfort zone and grow