Oooh, oooh, oooh, I know! I know!!!

Melina refrained from actually saying it out loud as she raised her hand. Muggle fairy tales?

Merlin's polka-dot socks, that's brilliant!!!!


"Yes, professor," she beamed. "Snow White was a beautiful princess raised outside the Dark Forest of Germany. Her Stepmother was an evil queen- you see, both Snow White's real parents had died, which happens a lot in Muggle fairy tales- oh, but anyway. The evil queen was quite vain and wished to be the fairest woman in the land. She consulted with her "magic mirror", as the Muggles call it, which told her everyday that she indeed was the fairest. Until one fateful day." Here she paused for effect.

"Going about her daily trip to the mirror, the queen was horrified to hear that she was most certainly not the fairest anymore. To add insult to injury, the mirror showed her that it was her own step-daughter, Snow White, who had kicked her out of first place. She was furious! She called a local huntsman to her and told him to take Snow White into the forest and kill her. She even provided the bloke with a small box in which to put the poor girl's heart so that the queen could see that she was really dead. Sick woman," she shook her head.

"The huntsman takes Snow White to the forest, but can't bring himself to kill such a sweet, innocent girl. He tells her of the queen's plot and warns her to run away. He then kills a pig and puts its heart in the box. The queen was either nearsighted or had never actually seen a real human heart, because she bought his lie hook, line, and sinker."

"Meanwhile, Snow White runs through the forest, terrified, and happens upon a little cottage. She goes inside and finds no one home. She sees 7 little chairs and 7 little beds and assumes that the cottage is full of children. She also assumes they have no mother because the place is a disaster. So she cleans up the whole house and falls asleep across their beds that night, completely exhausted. That's when the 7 dwarves- the real occupents of the cottage- return from their work in the mines."

"First they freak out that their house is clean, and then that some strange human girl is sprawled out across their beds. Snow White is equally freaked out when they wake her up. But when she tells them of the queen's plot to kill her, they take pity upon her and allow her to stay, offering their protection. She in turn offers to cook and clean for them- kind of like a reverse-house elf thing. Well, it was a win-win for all of them."

"Unfortunately, the nasty queen went to her mirror to hear him tell her she was all fabulous again, when he says 'Nope- Snow White's still more beautiful than you are!' Well, now she's livid. She uses a potion to transfigure herself into the image of an old beggar woman and finds Snow White at the cottage when the dwarves are at work. The 'beggar woman' offers Snow White a shiny red apple, which she'd secretly poisoned. Snow White accepts what she believes to be the kind gesture and takes a nice juicy bite. Seconds later, she falls to the floor in a death-like dream state." Melina sighed with a dreamy sadness.

"So the dwarves come home and find Snow White, and they're heartbroken. They create a coffin out of glass and gold and set it on a dias, so that her beauty would never decay in the earth. It sat there until one day, when a prince from a neighboring kingdom happened upon it. He stopped to gaze at the girl. Overwhelmed with sadness at such a beautiful life cut short, he opens the lid of the coffin and places a single kiss on her red lips. His act of pure unselfish love breaks the death-spell on Snow White, and her eyes flutter open. The prince lifts her up and returns her to the overjoyed dwarves, and promises to return after he'd slain the wicked queen. And when he does, he comes back for her and takes her back to his kingdom where they both lived happily ever after." Sigh. What a beautiful story.


The 11-year old was so caught up in her reverie that she didn't even hear any of the upperclassmen snickering, rolling their eyes, and gagging themselves.