a/n: here's another rewrite as i get the outline in order to finish this story. enjoy!
"So… you're adopted?" Anya Yaxley asked, lounging on her seat in their compartment on the Hogwarts Express. They were now well on their way to Hogwarts and the countryside was flying by outside the window as Des and her closest friend shared the train compartment. The sounds of excited students and the candy lady making her way down the train were muffled by their compartment door, which Desdemona had promptly shut tight after buying some cauldron cakes and licorice wands.
"I guess that's what they meant, yeah," Des said quietly from the seat across Anya, playing with the ends of her dark hair as she looked out the window. She could see a dark cloud hovering in the air in the direction they were heading. It must have been a hell of a storm coming to wreck their first night back.
"It would explain why they were so quick to decide on whether you would get marked," Anya added, "though, come to think of it, I'm not sure why they would have come to that decision so quickly even if you weren't their real kid. They did raise you, certainly they would have had hesitations like any other parent."
"I guess they aren't like any other parents, are they?" Des snapped, the wound still fresh.
"What about your brother? What did he say?"
"He didn't exactly own up to it. I don't think he thought I would ever find out."
It was difficult to forget the conversation Desdemona had had with her parents that day, considering it was all she could think about since they told her.
"There's something we've needed to tell you for quite a while now and, now that you're almost seventeen, we figured it was a good time to tell you."
Des looked nervously between her parents, worried about what was going to come out of their mouths next. This news didn't seem to be very good, judging by the grave look on her parents' faces.
"It's taken us a great deal of time to decide just when and how we were going to do this…" her father began, "but seeing that you are almost of age and could possibly be getting Marked upon the Dark Lord's return, we believe that you'll be mature enough to understand what it is we're about to tell you."
Desdemona felt her stomach churn. What had taken them so long to say? She couldn't possibly imagine anything being so difficult to tell her that they had to wait until she was of age.
"We want you to understand that we love you and have always cared for you, Desdemona," her mother started, "but seeing that you are coming of age soon, we figured that now would be the time that we told you about the night that we… found you."
"Found me?" Des asked, confused at the information. What did they mean found her?
"The day you were left on our doorstep," her father said.
Des looked between her parents, more puzzled than ever, before her mother broke the silence.
"Dmitri had just turned three the week before the night we found you. He was still receiving gifts and would answer the door every time to see if it was for him. One night, particularly late, the doorbell rang. Dmitri heard it and ran out of bed, rushing to answer before the house elves could. He came to our bedroom with Impa, who was holding you in her arms, and said someone had given him a baby," her mother said. "Your father and I were alarmed, thinking he was mistaking something else, when you started crying. We had just lost a child and, right away, I decided that we would take you in and raise you as our own."
Desdemona sat in complete and utter shock, her mouth hanging ajar as she processed what her mother had just said. This meant that she was not a Dolohov by blood.
"I'm not… your daughter?" Des finally stammered out, throat suddenly dry.
"You are our daughter," her father said, "perhaps not biologically, but in every other way."
"Not the one that matters," Des said standing from her seat and storming from the dining room, leaving her parents to sit silently at the table. In a society that looks so deeply into the purity of blood, Desdemona would be an outcast if anyone found out. She was raised on the importance of blood purity and keeping the oldest wizarding families pure of blood but now she didn't know what she was. Was whoever had given her up a pureblood? Was she half-blooded? Was she a Muggleborn, even? Thoughts of not coming from any family other than a magical one plagued her mind as she rushed up the stairs, charging back into her brother's room with tears stinging her eyes.
"Des… what's the matter?"
"You knew," she said, her voice wobbling as the hurt overpowered the anger she felt.
"What are you–"
"You knew and you never told me!" Des screamed, losing the battle as her tears spilled down her cheeks.
"I don't know–"
"You found me on the doorstep! I wasn't even part of this family and you knew the whole time!" Des cried, her voice cracking. She'd never felt more betrayed. She'd trusted Dmitri more than anyone and he'd lied to her for her whole life.
He'd been quiet after that… and that's how Des knew she was right. He had known and it was obvious he hadn't thought she would find out.
"It wasn't my place to tell you, Desdemona," he said, "it was not something you should have heard from me."
Des shook her head at him, turning around and storming out of his room and down the halls to hers, slamming the door behind her.
Des hadn't spoken to her parents or Dmitri for weeks after that, only eating in her room when the house elves brought her meals up. They were wise not to try and get her to talk because their efforts would have been pointless. It'd taken until September 1st for her to talk to any of them and the first word she had said to them in weeks had been 'goodbye.'
"You don't think you're being a bit too harsh about this?" Anya asked, "I mean, they did raise you. They could have left you outside or dumped you on someone else's doorstep that night. They didn't have to keep you."
"That isn't the point!" Des said, "The point is that they waited for so long!"
"Because they thought you were mature enough to handle the news." Anya said, "Evidently, you aren't. I would cut them some slack. They're you're parents."
"No, they aren't."
"You know what I mean, Des."
"How would you feel if your parents sat you down and told you that you had been found on a doorstep one night? I don't know anything anymore, Anya. For all I know, I could have been Muggleborn! How would you feel?"
"I'd be pretty upset," Anya admitted in defeat.
"Exactly. You'd be upset. And the one person you trust the most in the whole world didn't bother to tell you any of this, either. How would you feel then?"
"I get it, Des, you're upset. It's going to take you a while to get over it. I. Get. It."
Anya refused to hear any more of it and left the compartment to change into her school robes, leaving Desdemona alone with nothing but silence aside from the sound of the train barreling down the tracks and the pouring rain that had suddenly started. Des took her time alone to change into hers, mulling over the conversation with Anya. She wouldn't get it. She'd never get it. She came from a long line of pureblooded witches and wizards, part of one of those families that trimmed every blemish off the family tree. She was sure of her heritage and where she came from.
"For fuck's sake, I'm going through an identity crisis," she mumbled to herself as she straightened her Slytherin tie. She had no idea where she had come from and it's not like she had any leads to go on. She finished dressing and Anya came back, the mood between them still tense as Des got over her sensitivity about her "adoption." She'd just have to keep it a secret while at school for her last year. No way was she going to let the fact that she was no real Dolohov spread around the Slytherins. Her house was ruthless and would never let her live it down.
"Come on then," Anya said, getting up and packing her things without looking at her, "don't want to miss the carriages in this rain."
Des got up as well, slinging her bag over her shoulder as the train began to slow at Hogsmeade station. She looked out the window and up at Hogwarts, the lights beginning to glow in the dusk. She felt the train come to a full stop and left the compartment, preparing for a carriage ride up to the school and her last year at Hogwarts as a completely different person.
