It was only twenty four years ago when an eleven year old brunette girl walked through the doors of the Great Hall of Hogwarts and sat upon a three legged stool where an elderly grey-haired woman named Professor Minerva McGonagall placed an ancient talking hat on her little head. That little girl was named Contessa Marks, a pureblood witch. She was instantly sorted into Slytherin house like most of her family.
The Marks family was a rich old pureblood family that was starting to slowly become extinct by the time little Contessa was born. Her great grandmother, Desdemona Marks, had agreed to the wishes of her children to allow them the choice to marry either pureblood or halfblood spouses. The family was not at all like most ancient pureblood families, such as the Blacks who shunned those who did not keep to the pureblood ways in their family. Desdemona kept the strong dislike of muggleborns in the family, but had started to encourage the marriage to purebloods and halfbloods.
Contessa enjoyed her years at Hogwarts. She became quite close to a young wizard, just two years older than her, who she started to have strong feelings for. The boy, Severus Snape, was in Slytherin house with her. The girl kept her feelings a secret until the day Severus graduated. She knew he had feelings for Lily Evans, a red haired Gryffindor girl of the same year as Severus. Contessa felt like she couldn't compete with the girl. Lily was indeed beautiful for a muggleborn witch. She was intelligent for her age and was always passing her classes at the top of her year. Contessa agreed silently that Lily would be a perfect match for Severus.
The day Severus graduated from Hogwarts was the day that Contessa became brave and walked up to her crush to tell him just exactly how she felt. That day changed everything. The last two years of her time at Hogwarts was spent sending letters to Severus and receiving letters from him. They were starting to fall in love with each other. Right after Contessa graduated from Hogwarts, Severus and her lived together for a few months. Living together seemed to cause problems for the young couple. They often fought with each other over little unimportant things. The two of them decided to go their separate ways. Unfortunately, Contessa was pregnant when the two ended their relationship. She did not know until a few months later after she had met a halfblood wizard named
Nicholas Fallon.
Contessa and Nicholas married right before Contessa was due to give birth to her baby. About two months later on a warm day in August, Lavinia Aurelia Fallon was born. Contessa felt safer giving her daughter Nicholas's last name rather than her biological father's name. Lavinia was a quiet child, very obedient and rarely fussing. Contessa could tell that Lavinia was truly Snape's child. Nia was a very mysterious child. The truth of Lavinia's lineage was kept a secret from both Nicholas and Lavinia.
Lavinia was joined three years later by a little sister, Abigail. The two girls did not get along very well. Nia was very reserved while Abi was the opposite of her big sister. She preferred to be loud and the center of attention, to talk and make people laugh. Lavinia strongly disliked her baby sister, but she put up with the brat for her mother.
Two more years went by and Patrick Fallon was born, the last of the family. Nia and Patrick were very close and Nia was often near her brother, making sure he was safe.
Lavinia, being an almost pure-blood witch, was bound to show some sort of signs as a witch early on in life. Any time Lavinia got angry, something would break, usually a glass, a goblet, or a plate. Even when Contessa locked up the plates and glasses, something would still break when her oldest child would get a bad temper. The first time was when Abigail, then a year old, took a toy from then four year old Lavinia. It was Lavinia's favorite toy and she rarely let someone touch her favorite toy. Lavinia became infuriated with her little sister and screamed and cried and ran to her mother complaining that Abi had taken her toy. As soon as the first scream came from her mouth, a cup that was sitting on the table in the room shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. When she ran to her mother, who was in the kitchen making sure that the evening meal was being prepared properly by the small kitchen staff, a few plates broke and crashed to the floor. Contessa knew her daughter was showing the early signs of magic.
Lavinia still did not know that Nicholas was not her biological father.