Disclaimer - Everything is JKRowlings, except Victrilla.

Here is Chapter 3. Hope you like it. Remember to review. I wasn't quite sure about how the discussion between Trilla and George turned out at the end of the chapter. Tell me what you think. Chapter 4 my be a bit longer in coming out. I need to look up some facts in the second book, but I can't find it. I should have it out by this time next week, though.


My Saving Grace

Chapter 3:

Of Bonnets and Shining Armor

The owl swooped out of the rafters of the ceiling and landed gracefully in front of Trilla, a letter in its beak. Actually, it was more of a hawk than an owl. It didn't like to be pet and would bite you at a moments notice. Trilla shooed it away and watched as it took off and landed in front of Draco who let it steal some of his bacon. Only he could find affection for something just as cold hearted as himself.

The envelope read 'To Miss Victrilla Black' on the front of it in Lucius Malfoy's curly script. Trilla groaned. This means that she would actually write them a letter back. At least the letter wasn't to long.

Victrilla,

Draco has told me that you have taken to consorting with Potter and his friends and I am concerned to hear this. Also, you have not taken my advice. Break off contact with those Weasley boys. Both your Aunt and I are extremely disappointed in you. Considering that the reason you had to live with us growing up is because of Potter, we strongly urge you to reconsider your decision to befriend him.

Yours,

Lucius Malfoy

"Who's that from, Trilla?" Hermione asked and she, Ron, and Harry sat down next to her.

"My dear old uncle." Trilla replied as she crumpled the paper and threw it into the pumpkin juice where it floated for a second before sinking to the bottom of the glass.

"Your Uncle? Who's that?" Harry asked.

"Lucius Malfoy." Trilla replied coldly.

"Why would he be writing to you anyways?" Ron asked. "Doesn't he hate Gryffindors?"

"Of course he does. But I live with the Malfoys since my parents can't take care of me. The only reason I'm even going to write back is so he won't keep hounding me about this." Trilla reached into her bag and got out a piece of parchment and a quill.

"'Bout what?" Ron asked through a mouth full of pancakes.

"The stupid git told me not to be friends with Harry." Harry seemed to shrink a little at this so Trilla continued. "It's not like I'm about to start listening to him, Harry. I've been ignoring him for years." Trill started writing.

Dear Uncle Lucius,

Thank you for your concern, but I know what I am doing thank you. Also, seeing as I have never met my father, your ploy to get me to feel bad about befriending Harry Potter did not work.

Things are well here. Draco has made friends quickly at Hogwarts, though that isn't very surprising.

Hope things are going well at the Manor. Give my regards to Aunt Narcissa.

Victrilla Black

Trilla folded the letter and stuffed it into an envelope. The owl was still hovering around Draco at the Slytherin table. Trilla walked over and reached around Draco for the owl, who simply stared at her before biting her finger. Hard.

"Ouch," Trilla said, putting her bleeding finger in her mouth.

"I see that you got my father's letter, Victrilla." Draco said. His two cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, laughed. Trilla looked at them and wondered, not for the first time, if Draco had knocked the brains out of their heads at some point in time and put rocks in there instead.

"You know Malfoy, I remember your mother telling you to not snitch on people when we were little." Trilla tried to give the owl the letter again but pulled her hand back as the owl lunged for it.

"Must not have sunken in then." Draco looked at Trilla fighting with the owl and took the letter from her. "Here." The owl stood calmly as Draco tied the letter to its leg. "Bring this to Dad," he told it. With that it unfurled its wings and took flight. It circled the tables once or twice before flying out the window. Draco looked at Trilla expectantly.

"Don't hold your breath waiting for a thank you, Draco." Trilla said. Draco smirked.

"I seem to remember my mother telling you to thank someone if they do you a favor when we were little, Victrilla."

"Sorry. Must not have sunken in then," Trilla called over her shoulder as she walked back to the Gryffindor Table where the other were waiting for her.


"I'm stuffed," Fred said. He sat back in his chair and belched.

"Me too, Fred," George said, pushing his plate back a little ways.

Instead of eating everything in sight like Fred, George, Lee, Ron, and Harry seemed to be doing, Trilla was hording the candy for later. Already she had a pretty good stash of it in her bag. And people had asked her why she brought it to the feast. She knew that Fred and George would be after it later.

Halloween.

Trilla had always found this holiday fascinating. When she was small, she had wanted to go trick or treating like all the Muggle children did. One year she almost did. Trilla had been trying to sneak off to Elladora's house so that the two of them could go trick or treating together. But, Aunt Narcissa caught Trilla with her hand in the jar of floo powder and forbade her to go anywhere since she had not asked permission.

Elladora was a very distant cousin of her mothers. How exactly, Trilla wasn't sure, but it was very distant. Elle's father was a Longbottom and her mother was a Black. She spent the holidays with the Malfoy's though, and – Trilla had no idea how – had managed to befriend Draco. So she would come over during the school year when they were little sometimes as well. The funny thing was, she acted more like the Longbottom side of her family than the Black, and tended to show more Gryffindor like qualities, much to the disappointment of her godfather, Professor Snape.

Just as Trilla was thinking that she should write Elladora, Professor Quirrell ran into the room and stopped in the center.

"Troll! In the dungeons! TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS! Though you ought to know." And with that he passed out, face down, probably from the prospect of seeing the troll than anything else. At least that's what all the student's thought.

The entire hall erupted into screams. As one, the students got up and made for the door.

"SILENCE!" As suddenly as the screaming and stampeding started it stopped. Everyone stood still and looked at Dumbledore who was standing behind the staff table at the front of the room. "Prefects will lead their houses to the dormitories. Teachers will meet downstairs in the dungeons." Dumbledore nodded and the students began to file out quietly this time.

Trilla glanced ahead to make sure that Percy was far enough in front of them as to not be overheard. "Hey," Trilla said, "You weren't the ones that let the troll in, were you?"

"Sadly, we were not." Fred said.

"But it's a great idea," George added.

"Yeah, I'd like to congratulate whoever did." Fred said, laughing.

"This isn't funny guys. What if someone gets hurt?" The three simply looked at Trilla with blank faces.

"Madam Pomfrey can heal anything." Lee said. Fred and George nodded. Trilla just threw her hands up and walked ahead of them.

"What?" George called after her. "She can!"

"Women," Fred said, shaking his head.


"I thought you were going home for Christmas, Ron." Hermione said as she walked up to the group. Harry was being badly beaten by Ron in wizard's chess. Trilla sat watching the two.

"Change of plans. My parents went to Romania to visit Charlie." Ron scratched his chin deep in thought. "Knight to D4." The knight began to move and then stabbed a pawn through the chest. The little pawn exploded on impact and Ron swept the pieces off the board without a second thought.

"That is totally barbaric," Hermione said, clearly disgusted.

"That's wizard's chess." Ron watched Harry as he contemplated his next move.

"Well, you can go look in the library for more information on Nicholas Flamel."

"You're not still on about that now, are you?" Trilla asked.

"Mione," Ron groaned, "we've already looked there at least a hundred times." Hermione leaned in closer to the group.

"Not in the restricted section." Harry and Ron's shoulders slumped at that prospect. It was sure capture by Filtch. Trilla laughed at the looks on their faces. "And you can help them." Hermione added. "Happy Christmas."

"Great," Trilla said. "Just great."

"You can't complain," Harry said as his bishop destroyed Ron's knight, "she hasn't been on you about this since the beginning of November."

"So." Trilla smiled as she saw that it was George who had sat down next to her. "What did you're aunt and uncle say when you told them that you were going to spend Christmas here?"

"It basically translated to something in between good riddance and thank god." Harry laughed at this, as he knew all too well what Trilla was talking about.


"OI!" Trilla rolled over and tried to ignore the yells that were coming from the bottom of the stairs to the girl's dormitories.

"TRILLA! WAKE UP!" Trilla just pulled the covers over her head farther.

"ITS CHRISTMAS!"

"Fine, I'm up" Trilla grabbed her robe and slippers. Fred and George were waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. "But I'm not happy about it."

"Come, on Trilla, lets go open presents!" George said excitedly and ran down the stairs with Fred right behind him.

"Do you guys have any idea how early it is?" Trilla said, trailing behind them and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"About 5:30. Why?" Fred asked her. Trilla ignored him and sat down on the sofa in front of the fire. Fred and George were kneeling next to the Christmas Tree a few feet away looking at the labels on all the gifts.

"These are from Mum I think." George said, pulling out two lumpy packages.

"And there's one for Trilla, too." Fred added, throwing it towards her.

"Gah!" Trilla yelped. Her hand – eye coordination wasn't that great in the morning and the present from Mrs. Weasley hit her square in the face. Fred and George laughed. "Haha, very funny." Trilla ripped off the colorful paper and found a lumpy but warm sweater inside. It was the same color blue as her eyes and had a big V knitted on the front. Fred and George watched Trilla examine the sweater.

"It's not that great or anything. But they're really warm." George said.

"I love it," Trilla said, as she pulled the sweater over her head. "No ones ever made anything for me before." Fred and George looked at each other and smiled before pulling on their own sweaters.

Soon Trilla was sitting on the floor with the others, a small heap of presents in front of her. Besides the sweater, she got a pack of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans from Lee, a book of Useful, Everyday Jinxes (presumably to use on Draco) from Harry and Ron, a set of fancy quills and parchment from Hermione, a small makeup kit from Elladora, and some candy that made you grow fangs, claws, or wings depending on which one you ate from Fred. The Malfoy's sent her a beautiful green cloak. Everything that they had gotten her since her start at Hogwarts seemed to be green or silver. Apparently they were still trying to drive home the point that she was the hier of Slythering, or some such nonsence that she didn't want to hear. Trilla looked over at George expectantly waiting for his present.

'Later,' he mouthed at her.

'Ok,' she said silently.

"Well, I'm going to go make myself presentable." Trilla got up and walked back up to her room.

Trilla was beginning to like being the only girl in Gryffindor Tower. She could take the longest shower in the world and fuss over herself in the mirror for as long as she liked and no one was prodding her from behind, trying to get her to move faster. It would be too bad everyone would be back right after New Year's. This could definitely be gotten used to.

Harry and Ron were opening up their gifts by the time Victrilla had finished getting ready and had made her way down the stairs to the Common Room. Ron was dressed and wearing a sweater like hers and the twins. Harry too had one, but it was pulled over blue striped pajamas. At least there was one Weasley who let his friends sleep to a semi-descent hour in the morning.

"Come here and see what Harry got, Trilla," Ron called when he saw her coming down the stairs.

"Nice sweater," Harry said handing her the cloak.

"Dunno why mom always puts our initials on them. Its not like we're going to forget our names," said Ron.

"Yeah, we're not stupid," Fred said, walking down the stairs with George right behind him.

"We know we're called Gred and Forge," George said.

Trilla laughed and looked back at the cloak. At first she couldn't figure out what it was supposed to do. The cloak was made out of a silky material Trilla had never seen before. The boys watched Trilla as she put the cloak on and all but her head disappeared. "Nice cloak!" Trilla said, staring down at where her body should have been.

"Thanks."


All the teachers and students were sitting at one table, It turned out that besides Trilla, Harry, and the Weasley's, no one had stayed at Hogwarts. Trilla sat back and watched the others.

"No, Fred, I refuse to wear that thing." Percy tried to push away Fred who was holding just about the ugliest hat Trilla had ever seen.

"But, Percykins, it will go just perfectly with your hair." Fred made another lunge at him and missed. "Hold him down, will you, George?"

"No you don't," Percy threw himself off the bench as George tried to grab the back of his sweater. The twins looked at each other and grinned before getting up and chasing him around the table. The teachers all stopped talking and watched the scene unfold. "Trilla, call your boyfriend off!" Percy checked behind him and saw that Fred and George were gaining on him.

"Can't do that Percy," Trilla said, laughing along with the rest of the table.

"Why the bloody hell not?" Percy took another peek behind him and stopped abruptly and ducked. George was not expecting this and flipped over his back, landing with a thud.

"Because he's not my boyfriend."

"How did you learn to run so fast?" Percy was clutching a stitch in his side. They tied the bow under the lime green bonnet who ugliness was rivaled only by the pink bonnet Dumbledore had gotten from a cracker and was now sporting.

"Training with our good old friend Filtch," said Fred, sitting down again. Percy looked sideways at him from under the green bonnet.

"The midnight mile, you know," George winked.

"Boys," Professor McGonagall said, leaning down the table to look at them, "Don't give me any reason to give you a long overdue detention."

"Oh, Minerva, lighten up. I rather enjoy hearing about the Weasley's escapades. Besides, its Christmas." Dumbledore smiled as McGonagall rolled her eyes.


"Merry Christmas, Victrilla." George sat down next to Trilla in front of the Common Room fire and handed her a neatly wrapped package. Trilla took it and held it a moment before unwrapping it. Inside was a beautiful leather bound notebook. On the front was her name in gold letters – Victrilla Merope Black.

"George, its beautiful," Trilla said. The pages were soft and almost silky, not at all like normal parchment paper.

"It's a diary." George told her. "You needed to talk about things and if you can't talk with me at least you can write it all down."

"Thank you," Trilla said, setting the diary down in her lap.

"You're welcome." George smiled. "See you in the morning."

"See you." Trilla watched as George walked up to his dorm. It was the first Christmas that Trilla could remember that was truly happy. All of them had been filled with feasts and presents and decorations. Most had been disappointing and when Elladora was at Neville's, lonely. A few you could have called enjoyable, but this was the only one that was happy.


"Is he still unconscious?" Fred poked Harry's arm.

"Well, he's not exactly running around the castle, is he? Hermione set down a few chocolate frogs with the rest of the things people had sent Harry and threw away the empty cartons she had bought a few days earlier. "And, Ron, you will not eat these this time."

"Aw, 'Mione," Ron began, but he was cut off by Hermione.

"No, Ronald, these are for Harry."

"But he's not going to be eating much of anything for a while."

"Yes. And that's all thanks to You-Know-Who." Hermione shook her head. "Harry's gone through enough and deserves those chocolate frogs."

"Geez, Hermione, you make it sound like he's on his death bed," Fred said.

"Yeah, the bloke will wake up in a day or two, he's only unconscious," George added.

Hermione was glaring at Ron and didn't seem any happier with Fred and George. Trilla tried to smile at the argument, like she usually did. But she couldn't. The truth was eating away at her. He was back. Voldemort. The others didn't seem to grasp that fact. It was only Harry that might understand how she felt, because he past was wrapped up with Voldemort too, though in a very different way. She needed to think. To get away from everyone.

"Now look at what you did," Hermione said, pointing to the door closing behind Trilla.

"What did we say?" Fred asked looking at George.

"Dunno. I'll be back in a bit." George got up and walked out of the hospital wing without another word. 'where would she go?' George though for a minute before smiling to himself and setting off.

"Trilla?" George said tentatively. Trilla didn't answer. She rested her head on the window and let a few tears fall down her cheeks.

"I didn't want this to happen, George." She said quietly. George sat down next to her on the window seat in the library and looked out the window at the grounds below.

"Didn't want what to happen?" he prompted her.

"Voldemort. He's back." George reached up and stroked Trilla's hair, trying to comfort her.

"Not really. Dumbledore said You-Know-Who isn't really back yet. Harry took care of him for a while. He may not come back for years and years, or ever."

"Oh, he'll be back. He's to bent on it not to. And when he is back, he's going to come looking for me."

"Trilla, don't worry about any of that."

"You don't understand, George." Trilla looked up at him, her face streaked with tears. "Voldemort is my father. He'll want me on his side." She paused and waited for his reaction.

"Who in their right mind would have sex with him?"

"Right minds got nothing to do with it. My mother is Bellatrix Lestrange. She's insane."

"Oh, well, that explains it then." George said, smiling. Trilla looked at him searchingly.

"So you don't hate me?" She asked quietly, her voice trembling against her will.

"Of course not! Why would I?" George looked at her questioningly.

"Because of who my parents are." Trilla said barely above a whisper. "Because of what blood flows through my veins. Because of what I may be capable of." Trilla was terrified at the prospect of what she may be able to do. She was a powerful witch, nearly all of her professors had told her that. The Malfoy's had told her that long ago, but she refused to believe it. Even Hermione had commented on her charm work.

"Trilla look at me," George put a hand under Trilla's chin and gently tilted her face up at him. "You are not like him. You never will be like him."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because you care. You-Know-Who didn't care about making other people suffer. You are one of the kindest people I've ever known. You have compassion for people, I've seen it in your eyes." Trilla just stared into George's eyes not daring to believe what he said was true. George had never seen this side of Victrilla before. She was usually cheerful and quick to laugh at his jokes. She was quiet, but not brooding or depressed. And she was always confident in herself. "You've made your choice not to be like him. And that makes all the difference in the world."

Trilla smiled at George, who still was holding her face in his hands. They sat their staring into each others eyes for a long time. Trilla's eyes flitted down to George's lips and when she looked up she saw that George was looking at her lips too. He brought his eyes up and they locked with hers once again. George leaned towards Trilla who leaned in herself.

"If you're not checking out books, kindly move along."

Just as their lips were barely touching, they pulled away from each other. Trilla got up and left. George apologized to Madam Pince and followed Trilla out of the library.

"Why does this always seem to happen to us?" Trilla asked George quietly.

"Dunno. Just lucky I guess." Trilla gave a small smile. "So no more tears? No more worries?"

"No," Trilla said, "I think I'm good for now."

"Good. I don't want to have to put a cheering charm on you. Come on, lets see if we can wreak some havoc on the Slytherins, that will make you feel better. Always does for me." Trilla rolled her eyes and laughed. George smiled down at her. Things seemed to be back to normal. At least, as normal as could be at Hogwarts.

"Think you could get away from the Malfoy's this summer for a while, Trilla?"

"Um. I suppose I could." Trilla said.

"Want to come to the Burrow then?" George asked Trilla.

"I'd love to." George had the widest grin that Trilla had ever seen. "But I don't really know if the Malfoy's will let me. Uncle Lucius and your father aren't really on speaking terms."

"I'll come to your window late one night and you can climb down a rope made out of bed sheets, jump on my broom, and I'll bring you to the Burrow, safe and sound."

"Trying to be my knight in shining armor, are you, George?" Trilla asked.

"If you'll let me," George said, suddenly looking very serious.

"As long as you don't get to be like Sir Cadogan. Besides, you've already come to my rescue once today, haven't you?" George smiled. "Just one thing," Trilla said.

"Anything," George replied.

"Don't come to my window on a broomstick. I don't like flying very much."

"I'll keep that in mind." Trilla and George smiled at each other.


"So are you dating him?" Hermione asked. They were sitting in Trilla's room on her bed. Both knew that they should have been packing. The trains were leaving tomorrow. But both were happy to have some girl time away from the boys and had decided to make full use of it by doing what girls tend to do best. Gossip.

"Its more like a promise to date him." Trilla told her. "He didn't really ask me out."

"Are you sure? Kind of sounded like that to me," Hermione looked at Trilla skeptically. "Maybe you should ask him."

"I already did actually."

"And?" Hermione prompted.

"He said that he had it all planned out." Trilla told her. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"That is so typical of him. Fred and George, forever the pranksters." She shook her head.

"Makes it more exciting though, doesn't it? I wonder what he's planning," Trilla trailed off, deep in thought.

"You've got it bad, Trilla," Hermione said.

"I know,"