Title: Five Things That Never Happened To Ophelia
Fandom: Hamlet
Rating: G
Length: ~600 words
Content notes: AU wherein Ophelia says what she thinks.
Author notes: Badges: Female Characters, Lord of the Fives
Summary: Five things that never happened to Ophelia.



1 – Laertes
Her brother is lowering himself into the brook gently, inch by inch, and with much grimacing. She's afloat already, and his antics make her giggle so much she has trouble keeping herself above water.
"It's cold!" he gruffs in her direction, and that just makes her giggle all the harder.
"I don't know how you stand such a sport," he says when he finally manages to get all of himself into the water, "all I want to do is get out again, I think I'll catch death out here."
"Nonsense," she says and flicks water at his face, then turns and launches into a front crawl. He shakes his head, then follows, but he can't catch her, no matter how he tries.
Finally, she's out of breath, and stops, with Laertes ten feet behind. He catches up to her and comes up for breath.
"Isn't it marvellous?" she exclaims and throws her arms up. He shakes off the drops off water that fall on his face from that. He can't help but smile at her exuberance as he answers.
"I prefer fencing."
"Suit yourself," she says, and is off again, back to where they came from.

2 – Polonius
"What's up, Dad," she says when she finds her father late one night at his desk, head in his hands.
"Your brother," he murmurs, and tries to get past her, but she's in his way.
"What about him?"
Polonius frowns. "Has he written to you at all? About...how he spends his time?"
"You mean, your money?"
"Ophelia."
"It's true, isn't it? Was that what that was about?"
In lieu of an answer, Polonius throws up his hands. "One worries, daughter. One worries."
Ophelia smiles. "He'll be as honest with me as he is with you, which is not at all. You probably don't want to know."
Polonius sighs and goes back to his desk.

3 – Gertrude
"Your game's up, queen," she spits out defiantly, on the edge of the water. "What's your will with me now?"
"Sweet girl," the queen says, and inches closer. Ophelia can see the murder in her eyes – she saw it in Laertes' not too long ago. She's clinging to the shreds of her sanity here, but this is one thing she can recognise.
She does what comes naturally, and the queen doesn't follow. Keep your pretty dress from ruin, Ophelia thinks as she makes her way downstream, I've always held my life in higher esteem than clothes.

4 – Hamlet
She sheds tears on his grave, of course she does – she did love him once, as young things do, but she's different now.
"What a pair we would have made," she says when she finally calms.

5 – Horatio
She tucks her – now short – hair under the brim of the new hat he's bought for her, adjusts the jacket she's wearing, with the buttons all on the wrong side. He appears behind her and they look at her in the mirror together.
"It'll pass," he says and lightly touches her shoulder. She marvels at how lightly he carries his grief, though she reckons that, much as for anyone, what he shows the world isn't all that's going on inside.
"Let's go," he says, suitcase in hand. She smiles and follows him outside.