"But I don't want to be adopted," Tatiana said sadly to her Aunt Langley who had a tight grip on Tatiana's wrist. "I want to go back and live with Grandma!"

"Well, that's too bad. She's in Europe and can't get you. And I don't want you in my house for as long as I can keep it that way," Aunt Langley said bitterly glaring at her niece. She shoved the eight-year-old into her minivan and drove off to the adoption agency. Tatiana fiddled with the gauze that had been wrapped around her upper left arm from a nasty cut she'd gotten only the day before. "Don't touch that- I don't need your blood on my seats," Aunt Langley spat glancing angrily over to Tatiana who was in the front seat, not caring for her safety. They drove up to the agency and Tatiana was instructed to stay in the car while Aunt Langley went inside to get the papers.

What seemed like hours later, she finally came back to the car and sped off to her big mansion-like home. "You've got a year to get adopted or you go to the orphanage," Langley said not taking her eyes off the road. She gave a bitter smirk and Tatiana sunk down in her seat.

"I- I don't see why I can't just- "

"You will do as I tell you!" Langley interrupted. Tatiana just stayed silent the rest of the way.

They arrived at the house and Tatiana spotted her two cousins, Jimmy and Jessica playing croquet violently in the front yard. She hated her cousins- they were twins and always picked on her since she was a year younger. She slowly got out after her aunt and retrieved her suitcase from the back seat. She was half-glad it was summer and she didn't need to start at a new school right away. She went inside as quickly as possible and gulped as her hefty Uncle Sterling stepped in front of her blocking her movement. "Well hello, Tatiana. Not very pleasant to have you here.. You can sleep in this room," her uncle said leading her down the hall to a very small room, hardly the size of the bathroom. There was a mattress, a window, a dresser, and an old desk in there and nothing else. Tatiana hurried in sadly, hating that her only option was to live with these people. It was pure torture.

For the next eleven and three quarters of months, Tatiana hadn't celebrated her ninth birthday, nor Christmas which had been her favourite holiday before. She'd gotten one present for each and they could hardly be called presents. For Christmas her cousins had given her a mysterious box that had ended up flinging a giant fake spider at her when she opened it. She's cried in her room the rest of the day after it. For her birthday, a cop that had been investigating at her house, the same one that had saved her from bleeding dry at the scene, had brought her a box with three things in it: a necklace of her mother's, a strange jacket that could never be lost, stolen, dirty, torn, or shrunken or messed up that had belonged to her father, and a small bear her brother had named Mr. Fluffums(He was four when he got it). She'd thanked him, but knew it was another "I feel sorry for you" gift. She cried in her room again.

One day, she was walking into the kitchen for breakfast and found two letters addressed to her torn open on the kitchen table. Her aunt and uncle were talking excitedly.

"Who opened my letters?" Tatiana demanded.

"Oh, shush! I did, of course. But wonderful news! You're going to be adopted, whoopee!" her Aunt Langley said throwing a paper confirming a family had indeed already signed to adopt her, even without a meeting. She saw another note on the table and read it.

"B-But my grandmother! It says right here, from her, that she's returning early to care for me! Why can't I just go to her?" she said, feeling tears start to form in her eyes.

"The deed has been done, we'll make sure she get's the memo," Uncle Sterling said rolling his eyes.

Tatiana saw a phone number on the letter and grabbed a pen, quickly writing it on her palm before her aunt and uncle could see it. They told her to go re-pack her stuff and to pretty herself because she'd be meeting the family later in the day. She ran up to her room with the letter from her grandmother and locked the door behind her. She realized that in the almost-year she'd lived with these awful people, she'd never unpacked her things..

Tatiana put on a nice shirt and jeans, laced up her tennis shoes, and put on her mother's necklace, her father's coat, and put the small bear in a big pocket in the coat. She rushed through the kitchen and out the back door, not bothering to say where she was going.

She wandered the streets, it was nearly noon, and there was a warm breeze. She slumped onto a bench at the park near her school. She sat there and thought about how her new-new family might be. They'd never met... They'd probably hate her. No one in this town liked Tatiana.

She'd swiped the adoption confirmation letter from the kitchen and pulled it from her pocket. As she looked it over, she narrowed her eyes. This family was from London. Who would go so far just to adopt her? Before she could answer the question herself she heard someone walk up behind her.

A tall figure in a dark hooded cloak approached her. She rolled her sleeves up and slowly backed away from it. The figure loomed over her and she tripped backwards, falling on her butt. She trembled in fear and had no time to process what was happening as the figure emerged a hand holding a sort of stick. "You are going to cause too much trouble in the future," it said in a dark and voice. It pointed the stick at her and she raised her arms over her face.

"D-Don't hurt me, p-please..," she begged but before she could open her eyes and give it another look, it whispered to words, she saw a red light and suddenly her whole body was on fire. Not literally, but it felt like it. She felt searing pain flicking through her bones and veins. There wasn't a single part of her that didn't sting or burn. Then there was another flash of light and her left wrist began burning and the rest of the pain in her body dissolved.

She screamed and cried for help when she realized she was alone again. Blood was all over her forearm and she laid on the ground for what felt like millennia before a set of hands picked her up and rushed her to an ambulance setting her on a cot and the car taking off.

She managed to stop sobbing for a second long enough for a paramedic in the back(she guessed the one who had picked her up) to wipe off her arm with a wet towel and wrap it in gauze. Her tears kept coming and the paramedic offered her a hug of comfort until they reached the hospital and helped her into a room where a doctor immediately sent a nurse to call the cop she was familiar with and her aunt and uncle.

The cop arrived first. Tatiana's arm still felt like it had been pressed repeatedly with a soccer cleat, and she was curled up on a bed, absently staring at the television they had turned on for her. Her cheeks were tear-stained from suddenly bursting into tears every five minutes or so. He walked in and gave her a hug.

"Miss Mason, what happened?" he asked then looked at her arm and slowly unwrapped the blood-soaked-again gauze. He found a small "V" shape cut that was right in the middle of the underside of her left wrist and gave her a sad and somewhat disapproving look. "Miss Mason, hurting yourself won't make anything better."

She had tried several times to hurt herself so that she could stay in the hospital away from her family but she'd always failed. She opened her mouth to object that someone else had done it, but her Aunt rushed in, her face red. "As soon as someone gets that disgusting arm covered, we're going to that meeting," she barked, ordering a nurse to get more gauze and to wrap it up good so her arm doesn't bleed all over the people who were adopting her.

Tatiana sat there miserably as the nurse quickly wrapped up her arm. Her Aunt Langley had went back to the minivan, so the cop escorted her out. "Hang in there, Kiddo, I'm sure they'll be nice," he assured her, helping her into the van's backseat this time. She gave him a sad hug, an even sadder goodbye, and watched him as her aunt drove away, until she couldn't see him anymore.

While they waited on her new-new family, Aunt Langley made Tatiana hold her face under cold water until the tearstains were no longer noticeable. She walked out of the bathroom, all sniffley from crying once more before continuing to keep her face under the water.

She walked into the meeting room and saw a woman, and a man talking to her Aunt Langley and the adoption lady. A boy about eleven or twelve was sitting at the table poking at the bouquet of fake flowers in the middle of the table. He had messy bronze hair and she couldn't see his eyes from the way he was sitting.

She zipped up the coat and walked into the room over to him. "Hi..," she said in a small voice looking at him cautiously as if he'd jump up and hit her or make fun of what she was wearing or the bandage that was visible since her sleeves were still up.

He looked up at her and gave a small smile. "Hello," he said and extended his hand a little. "My name is Cedric." Tatiana saw his hand and shook it a little, amazed at how his hands seemed to engulf hers when he didn't seem much older than herself.

"I'm Tatiana..." She let her hand fall back to her side and fought back tears that were surely coming. He saw her expression get sadder and frowned.

"You look like you need a hug," he observed. Tatiana thought for a moment then gave a weak nod. Cedric stood from his chair and put his arms around the little blonde nine year old who would become his new sister.

Tatiana hadn't felt this safe in years when her family and her had gone to a children's haunted house for Halloween and something had jumped out and scared her. Her father had hugged her the same way, just as warm and comforting as Cedric was now.

"Maybe this won't be so terrible," she thought putting her arms around him and burring her head in his chest.

*Author's Note*

I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters from the books mentioned in this chapter. All of the Harry Potter characters and references belong to J. K. Rowling. She is a genius and I wish I was as a fantastic writer as she is.

Thanks, I hope you enjoy ^^

-Tatiana :3