CHAPTER 1

It had been two months since school started again. I'd spent the year fighting in a magical war and i hadn't seen my baby in over a year. She was three years old but to me she would always be the same little baby that i held in my arms when i was fifteen. I was currently in DADA, which were what we students called defence against the dark arts. Snape, yes he survived, was currently telling off a student for not doing their homework. I suddenly a note came flying to me through the window. I slowly opened it and all that it read was 'they're here.

'I immediately stood up, coursing my chair to fall back. Every eye in to room was looking at me. I turned to Snape and said quickly 'I have to leave, my babies here'. I heard a few gasps and someone say something along the lines of 'and i thought that i was a wild child.' I ran out of the room as fast as i could, all the while hearing the yells of my professor calling after me. I ran and ran. I ran to the great hall and burst through. I looked around in a panic like state. I had to see her; i had to see her even if it killed me. I could not see her in that room so i ran to one of the classrooms. It was professor Triganamies, she was teaching some seventh years when i barged in screaming, "Where is Dumbledore? Where is he!" she looked shocked for a moment then said, "He's in the court yard. Why, what is it child?" i smiled and said "she's here!" i ran out to the courtyard and when i made it to my destination, i heard the most beautiful, most wonderful sound in the world. It was giggling. I looked up and saw Amelia standing in front of Dumbledore with her hands out stretched for a partronus of an bird flying in front of her. All of a sudden, Dumbledore turned to me and smiled.

I looked at him and gave him a look asking if what i was seeing was real, he nodded slightly and i let out a breath i did not know i was holding. I took a step closer and i heard the bell ring signalling for all the students that it was now lunchtime. I could hear the pounding of feet on the stone floors of the castle, but i did not care. I took another step and had tears running down my face. I said just loud enough for her to hear, "Amelia, honey." She turned to me and smiled then exclaimed "MUMMY!" i smiled more and ran to her. I scooped her into my arms and spun her around. I hugged her close to me, never wanting to let her go. I kissed her hair and face. I was carrying her in my arms and telling her how much i missed her and how much i loved her when i noticed a bruise on her arm. My smile faulted slightly as i asked her where she got that bruise. Her smile faded immediately and she whispered, "I'm not opposed to say. I'll get into trouble." I smiled reassuringly and said, "Don't worry honey. You will not be in trouble; I will make sure of it. What happened?" She came in close, cupped her hands around my ear, and said softly "Mr Mars pushed me into the table! He did not say sorry. He said that i was not allowed to tell anyone. Mummy he hurt me..." she trailed off. I was frozen, I had sent my baby away with the Mars', jerry and Donna, so that she would not be harmed and even then, she was in danger. I was seeing red.

I put her down and stepped in front of her, as a means of protecting her. I pulled out my want and screeched out a spell that made a whip appear from the tip of my wand. I swung the whip around and wrapped it around the throat of Jerry. I pulled on it and it pulled him down onto the ground. I pulled him towards me, while he was clawing at the ground. I could hear the protests of his wife and the gasps of the other students and teachers; i could not care in the slightest. I dragged him to be in front of me and kicked his side coursing him to double over. He whimpered and i screamed out "HOW DARE YOU, YOU SON OF A BITCH! HOW DARE YOU HURT HER, HOW DARE YOU HURT HER! SHE'S A BABY, YOU ASSWHOLE!" he was shaking his head and i preformed a spell that made him tell me the truth no matter what. I asked him in my most sinister voice "did you push her into the table?" he had tears in his eyes and slowly nodded. I sneered at him and kicked him again. Then all of a sudden, something occurred to me. If he pushed her into the table then he could have hurt her before. I looked at Amelia who looked shocked then back at jerry. I said slowly "did you ever hurt her before? Did you ever touch her?" he let out a sob the said "yes... yes we did." I felt like my world was collapsing in around me. They had hurt my baby. I looked down at the pitiful, sorry excuse of a man lying below me. He hurt my baby! I jumped onto him and began to punch him. All the while people were trying to get me off him. I kept on hitting him screaming that i was going to kill him.

Harry and Ron were holding onto my arms, pulling me back. I was about to break away from them when Amelia ran up to me and said "Mummy, please don't. You are going to get into trouble. Please stop! Please!" i looked down at her small figure and calmed down. I hesitantly got her in my arms and stroked her. I said that i was sorry to her for scaring her. After about a minute i looked back at jerry and his wife and said, "Get out of here. Get away from her now. Pray that you never have a reason for me to ever see you again. If you ever come near her again, you will be wishing for death by the time I am done with you. Oh and our deals off." the look of pure terror that passed through their eyes was enough to tell me that i my words had been taken seriously. Donna helped her husband up onto his feet and they limped away towards the gates of the school. I noticeably calmed and looked down at the tear stricken face of my baby girl. She smiled at me and i said so softly that i was not sure that she heard me, "what did they do to you?" she said in a confident voice "mummy they were very mean. I did not like them. They used to spank me then they would send me to bed without my food. They would say for me to pack up my clothes and when i did not do it fast enough for them they would hit me like daddy hit you with the belt. Mummy i was scared, i was so scared..." i had tears streaming down my face when i said, "you don't need to be scared anymore. I am here; i will not let anything ever happen to you. I will not ever leave you again. I will not leave you. We will find somewhere to live where we can live together. I will get a job and you will not ever have to worry about anyone ever hurting you again. You will not have to worry about your daddy ever finding us again. We will be safe. We just need to wait for a few days so that i can find us a place then we can live there without anyone bothering us. Okay, just be a little more patient then we can be together forever." She said shyly "will i still be able to go to the library?" i gave a small smile and said, "of course, we can to the library once every week." She giggled and nodded.

I stood up and picked her up. I turned to Dumbledore; his face was in a thoughtful smirk when he said "Miss Gran" i cut him off by say "Renaldi, my name is Renaldi." He smiled knowingly and said "Miss Renaldi, Mr Malfoy please follow me." i turned to see a confused Malfoy. I turned back to harry and Ron and said "I'll tell you everything later in the common room, okay?" they nodded numbly. I followed the headmaster to his office, Amelia clutching my hand as she peered around the corridor admiring all the portraits. I smiled, bent down and picked her up. After a while, Malfoy said, "she looks a lot like you. You're going to have a lot of trouble keeping the boys away from her as she gets older.' I blushed and said softly "thanks, what do you think Dumbledore wants?" he shook his head and said, "I haven't the slightest idea." He was going to say something more when all a sudden Dumbledore stopped in front of us and said the password, lemon drops. He turned to us and said, "You will need to be very quiet when you enter my office. Phorks isn't feeling well." Malfoy and i turned to each other, trying to figure out what we had just heard. We followed the professor up the stairs. We took our seats and as the headmaster was about to start talking we heard a scream. I looked at Amelia, terrified that she had hurt herself; i saw her looking at a pile of ash. She came running to me saying "i didn't do anything mummy! It just... the bird just burst into fire!" i nodded and said, realising that the bird was actually a phoenix.

I nodded and said, "Don't worry, honey. Do you remember how i told you about that bird that lived forever, how it used to catch fire then from the ashes it would become a baby again." She nodded and said, "You said that it was called a pheoox, pheion, phe, pheo" i laughed and said "phoenix?" she nodded and went back to look at the little baby bird emerging from the ashes. I stared after her for a little while. I realised how much i missed her. I turned back to Dumbledore and said "Sorry professor. She is three. Everything is a big mystery for her." She nodded and said, "now then, Miss Renaldi please explains to me your behaviour. Why did you attack the man who has been looking after Amelia?" i froze and anger pulsed through my veins. I said through my teeth, "he hurt Amelia. He pushed her into the table, spanked her, and starved her. He hurt my baby girl. We had a deal that i would give him a hundred thousand galleons if he looked after her. In the deal, i said that he want allows to hurt her. He broke his word." I looked the headmaster in the eyes and said, "George has been looking for her and he's not going to stop until he has her. He will kill me and he will do what he did to me to her. I can't let that happen. I do not care what happens to me, I am going to go to hell anyway but i will not let her lose her innocence, not the way i did. I sent her with the Mars' so that she wouldn't be in danger. Therefore, that he wouldn't find her. During the war, every night i would worry myself sick, wondering if she was okay, if he had found her. I sent her away so that she could be safe from Voldemort and her father when really i should've been protecting her from the very people who were assigned to protect her. They gave me their word that they would protect her and not harm her. All that time she was being miss treated." He looked at me for a second and said with a sigh, "Well if that's the case then you were completely in your right. Now what are you going to do? You can't live on your own, not without completing your education. You won't be able to find any work. No one will let you live with them without being suspicious about who you are and what you're doing with a small child. Now i have a proposition for you. However the content of this conversation will not be allowed to leave this room if you are not to agree, do you understand?" i nodded silently.

He continued, "very well, now Mr Malfoy here has a dilemma and i think that the two of you can come to an agreement that you are both in need of each other. Mr Malfoy must marry a muggle born or a half-blood in order to prove to the ministry that he and his family don't care about blood status anymore, he needs to be married or at the very least engaged by the end of March, which isn't far off."