That Orphan Girl

by sarahedgar

Nessa was 17, she had always been known as That Orphan Girl, She didnt Know who her parents were, no one did, her mother died giving birth and couldnt be identified, but could her father still be out there alive?, and did he know about her?

It all happened exactly 17 years go

It all happened exactly 17 years go.
It was a harsh cold mid January evening the wintery weather had engulfed
England in a white sheet of snow. Paul Fisher was driving home from his long day at work. The oncoming Blizzard was raging against his windshield.
He looking forward to going home so he could snuggle up onto his cosy sofa with his lovely wife and two kids and a steaming cup of hot chocolate.
He had a foul day at work and now his car had broken down a few miles from home, just his luck.
As he stepped out the car the icy snow howled past his ears. He rubbed his hands warming them up the coldness chilled through his body spreading Goosebumps up his arms. Deciding to take the quickest route home he walked towards a long alleyway behind some old derelict buildings, as he walked along he could hear the sounds of scavenging cats in the bins and owls hoot.
The wind was picking up, blocking his eyes from the sleet being blown, but suddenly something caught his eye, something disturbing.

From behind an old dustbin a woman's leg could bee seen around a pool of blood, he ran over and gasped.

The woman was sat up against the wall with her head bent down; a pink blood soaked blanket lay over her

The woman's face was covered by her brown bushy hair dusted with flakes of snow, he hesitated for a second then got the guts to peel the back her hair, her face was colourless and her lips were blue, her eyes lay open frozen.
She was clearly dead. The man stumbled back at the sight knocking the dustbin over with a loud clatter which echoed down the alley.

Then he heard the noise that would haunt his dreams for many years to come.

The scream from a baby could be heard.

He froze for a moment his body locked then he slowly lifted up the blanket which lay over the woman.

A small baby lay on the stone cold cobbles between the woman's legs she was a newborn covered in the blood and the remains of the amniotic sack.The woman must have died giving birth he thought.

The man stared transfixed then his mind set in, he wrapped the baby up in the blanket warming her up, he rang an ambulance of his mobile phone very fast despretly tring to explain to the woman where abouts he was. He waited and waited staring at the little baby snuggling into his arms.

She had little curls of white hair and grey orb like eyes, the baby's face started to look pink now,as the baby warmed up in the blanket she fell gently asleep in his arms.

The red and blue lights could be seen reflecting around the corner and the loud siren blaring, he waved the ambulance towards him.

Two paramedics got out and rushed towards the stone cold woman

'She's dead' said Paul realising is voice had gone

They got out a stretcher and lay her gently upon it pulling a white sheet over her body and face.

Paul showed the men the baby and they got into the ambulance and drove to hospital

A couple of days later the post mortem of the woman revealed that she had died of blood loss and also that she had been dead for around 48 hours The mother of the baby couldn't be identified, there were no records they could find of her anywhere.

Doctors were baffled to how the baby survived in such harsh conditions with no food or warmth and she was perfectly healthy the doctors called her 'their little miracle'.

Paul Fisher and his wife Susan visited the hospital that day to see her as he did save her life he brought with him the pink blanket which he noticed had the initials HG sewn upon it, he had genrously washed it.

It was the only thing she would have left to remind her of her heritage when she grew older plus a ring retrieved from the mother it was a silver banded ring with a purple heart with a D engraved on it.
17 years later

The orphanage where she grew up had gave her the name Nessa which means miracle in Hebrew

Nessa was now a beautiful young 17 year old, her hair was as fair as ever.

Her life was just starting but before she could start her new life she wanted to find out about her past.

She knew she was different to the other kids, she could do things they couldn't, things that only happen in storybooks.
When she was 8, two podgy girls called Veronica and Claudia also known as the gruesome twosome dragged Nessa by her hair into a empty cloakroom, They beat into her, she was covered in bruises and cuts but when she went and told Mrs Gillard her bruises disappeared and the twosome where tied together hanging upside down on the highest peg screaming, somehow Mrs Gillard didn't trust her from then on. Then, one day when she was 10 Nessa was staring dreamily at a lovely charm bracelet through a jewellers window but when she got home Mrs Gillard found it in her pocket and she got locked in her room for 3 days.
She never told anyone about her powers somehow all they ever did was get her into trouble the only time she ever appreciated them was when the twosome were staring through a bakers window at the giant cake for the mayor they had there chubby faces pressed hungrily against the window and the glass vanished sending them headfirst into the cake.
But however much she liked or hated her powers, she just wanted to be normal, she knew she would be outcast if she became a full witch so when she got a letter from a school called Hogwarts at the age of 11 she refused it telling the large giant man that she didn't want to be different from the other kids, she was already weird enough, he tried to convince her but she stuck her ground.She spend her time in 'normal' school hiding from bullys.

Now she was 17 she regretted the decision even though she tried to be normal she never fit in any where, she needed answers.

who was she?

Who were here parents?

She knew the story of how she was found and her mother being dead.

But what about her dad did he know about her?

Was he alive somewhere searching for his daughter or was he oblivious to the fact that he even one?

She had always dreamed of finding out about her parents. She often dreamed when she was little that her dad would come and rescue her from the orphanage but it never did happen.

It was a week before Christmas and Nessa was feeling lonely as it was her first Christmas away from the orphanage.
She was dreading it, it had never been great at christmas in the orphanage but at leat she wasnt alone.
She was living in a run down flat which was infested with mice and the smell of damp coming from all the walls made her feel sick.
She could not believe she would be waking up on Christmas morning in this gloomy old squalor and that she had no one to spend it with.

So she made a decision to find the answers to her questions but where to start…….

She looked at the only thing she had that connected her to a past it was the old scruffy pink blanket she had and the ring which was on her finger.

She examined them closely rubbing the sewn on initial between her fingers and thinking.

It was old worn blanket even when she was a baby ,so maybe it was her mothers when she was a child .HG could be her mothers initials .her mind turned to the purple love heart ring with letter D on it maybe her dads initial it seemed to fit.

There it was she had some grounds for her detective work even if what she predicted wasn't true.

Her first stop on her quest was the library a couple of streets across
It held records and newspaper clippings from years and years ago, she might be to find some evidence there.
She stepped out her flat into the blistering December weather, the snow was half way up her Knees and the wind was howling in her ear but despite this she carried on walking.

When she got to the library she shook the mountain of snow of her coat and emptied the water from her shoes. She strode to the reception desk and asked the woman how she could check for old news papers.
The woman escorted to the closest computer and showed her a program on the internet. Nessa thanked the woman for her help an started searching.

She thought she wouldn't find any thing, but she had to start with the basics.
She checked all the local newspapers from around the time she was born looking for any HG's or D's she spent at least 2 hours checking them all.

She gave up she would never find them she was destined to be an orphan for the rest of her life, she decided it best to try again tomorrow, she slammed her fist on keyboard in frustration

The woman from the desk gave her a disproving look she turned around and apologised but when she turned to face the screen she got the shock of her life the news reel skipped back to 6 months before she was born.

The bright in bold letters the heading of a newspaper read 'Husband Pleads for return of his missing Wife' she glanced down the page and there was a picture of a young man white blonde hair grey eyes similar too hers he glanced at the image taking every detail in

Had she found him?

No she was probably mistaken but then she read the text

Draco Malfoy age 28 pleads for the kidnappers to return his wife Hermione Granger safely. Mrs. Granger also age 28 had been kidnapped the previous week on 17th August around midnight. A Organization known as Death Eaters had Taken her hostage. No word to who, or what The Death Eaters are, Mr. Malfoy has told us it's top secret information.

Mrs. Granger is believed to be around 3 months pregnant with her 4th child as she already has 2 twin girls and a son. More information on page six.

Nessa's heart pumped faster than ever.

It all fitted the initials, the dates and even the man looked like her.

Have I found him?

She now was frantically searching the phone book page on the computer and she typed in the name Draco Malfoy into the search engine and to her suprise it was there on the screen his address before her very eyes.

She wrote it down and hurried out the library, she hauled down a taxi, the address wasn't that far away, better now then never.

The taxi pulled up outside the house, she paid the man then made her way towards the mansion gates.
The sight of this great old house surrounded by snow blew her away. She let herself in and strode up the path lined with a frozen ponds and Christmas decorations .

Nessa was reminded of the orphanage with all their decorations on the roof and lawn, the local people used to gather around when thety turned the lights on.
But Nessa thought these decorations were brighter and more welcoming so she didn't waist any time getting up the great stone steps and to the front door. She stood nervously and knocked on the handle shapedlike a sepant with a little red santa hat on.

With a loud creak that made the house seem older than it was, a tall blonde man answered. He looked down at the girl staring, she looked familiar.

Nessa recognized him as the man from the newspaper article on the internet though much older and with a grey tinge to his hair.

'Hello, can I help you with something?' he asked puzzled looking at the half frozen girl on his door step

'Yes as a matter of fact' she said giving him a smile 'I'm Nessa'

She held out her hand to greet the man when he gasped and almost fainted stumbling back, Nessa lurched forward attempting to help him.

'How did you get my wife's ring' he spluttered while lifting himself from the ground

Nessa looked towards the ring twisting it off her finger. She held the ring out and gave it to him, he took it examining it.

'It was my mothers ring' she said looking towards him as he gave her a confused look 'that's why I'm here I have reason to believe you are my dad' she smiled again.

'Oh my god' he blurted 'you can't be they killed her. They told me she had died'

'I'm sure you are mistaken' she cried' my mother died in child birth'

Draco lent up against a wall steadying his feet beneath him, as he was sure he would faint.
After reassuring himself, he invited her in as the cold wind was growing stronger.
They sat in the sitting room in the warm comfortable glow of the fire and began talking.

Nessa gazed around and set her eyes upon a moving portrait of two girls and a boy. One of the girls had white blond hair like her own and the other two had brown hair, they were dressed in beautiful dresses and the boy was dressed in what seemed to Nessa, as a black suit but instead of a jacket a cloak. Draco noticed she was looking at it and said.

'Those are my twin daughters and my son' he smiled proudly.

He could see the resemblance between his children and the girl sat before him. Nessa's gaze moved on to a smaller moving picture of a woman smiling, she had long curly brown hair, could this be Nessa's mother she had to ask Draco who she was. But before she could Draco spoke,

'That is my wife Hermione' Draco said with sorrow in his voice

'Was her last name Granger' Nessa said with an air of excitement.

Yes it was before we were married why?' Draco asked.

'Its just I have this blanket and it has her initials on it' she said as she removed it from her bag.

'Cuddles' he laughed.

'What' she muttered, more to her self than to Draco.

'It was my wife's, your mother's' accepting that she was in fact his daughter 'she took the darn thing everywhere with her, she was a bit to obsessed with it actually, especially when it was bed time and-

Realizing his newly found daughter was giving him a too-much-information look he changed the topic.

'I've been searching for her for 17 years, I never expected you to survive she was only 3 months pregnant at the time, I thought you'd gone with her' he cried

'I've been searching for you for three hours' she laughed

He managed a smile 'you must have your mother's talent brightest witch of this age you know'

'So are you magic' he asked beaming.

'Yes, kind of though I didn't go to that school' she replied.

'What you didn't go to Hogwarts, it's the best place in the world, its were I met your mother' he smiled reminiscing he loved telling the story of how they met 'we actually used to hate each other you know, it wasn't nice being on the receiving end of one of your mothers jinxes. You heard of Harry Potter?' he asked.

'No' she said, eagerly wanting to carry on with the story.

'Well Harry Potter used to be my worst enemy; your mother however was one of his best friends. But when the dark lord-

-Dark lord' she said 'who's that '

'Years and years ago lord –well no one says his name, well he tried to take over the Wizarding world'

'Wizarding world, you mean there's another planet with people on' she asked excitingly

'No its the same world just wizards hide them selves from muggles because they would try and get wizards and witches to do every thing for them or try to barbecue on a fire that's what they used to do'

'Muggles' she asked puzzled

'non- magical people, any ways on with the story, where was I again ,oh yea the dark lord well there was this huge battle between Harry and the dark lord ,he had killed Harry's parents when he was a baby but then when he went to kill Harry the spell backfired and made him kind of die, but then he came back to get revenge'

he took a sip of his tea the carried on.

'Back to your mother and I, Harry saved me, he killed the dark lord in the battle and after that we became good friends and your mother and I came closer until we fell in love, we got married, had a few kids and then she was pregnant with you that's when she got kidnapped by a death eater which were still the dark lords followers. They wanted your mum because Harry was her best friend sort of bait, I thought they killed her.the ministry sent a letter saying they found a body mangled up I assumed it was her as I never heard anything from the death eaters again. Then you show up at my door 17 years later and I can say I've never been happier, and I can't wait for you to meet your sisters and brother'.

'What are their names?' asked Nessa.

'Melanie and Phoebe are the twins their 21, it means dark and light because of their hair color Melanie has your mothers hair and Phoebe mine and I see you have inherited my hair and eyes too, your mothers nose and lips though you look the spitting image of her you know, its unreal' he replied proudly 'and my boy is 19 his name is Dainton, his name doesn't mean anything we just liked it'

'My name means miracle' she said

'And you are one' he added

She moved in with her father and siblings, she had the best Christmas ever she steadily became a fully qualified witch with the help of her sisters, she loved life and lived each day to the full .
Both their prayers had been answered Draco had the closure of his wife's disappearance and gained a daughter and Nessa could say she was no longer 'That orphan girl'.