Sitting around reading the new book she had just gotten she sighs and gets up and heads upstairs and gets dressed in warm clothing as it was snowing out. She head downstairs and puts her down feather coat on along with the new scarf and wool knit hat her so called grandmother made for her along with the leather gloves Cristiano gave to her. She opens the door when her "mother" stops her.
"Where are you going Christina Grace?" she asks.
She was annoyed that Christi had been putting on a happy act and was denying it.
"Out for a walk." She said then left.
Christi sighs and walks through the village of where they live. She gets to the park where her mother used to take her as a child and she sighs and sits down.
"Well, well, well, well what do we have here?" Christi hears from beside her.
She looks over and sees Draco standing there.
"What do you want Draco?"
"Taking a stroll. Mother and Father are in the Caribbean on holiday. What are you doing here?"
"Taking a walk. I can't stand being locked up in my house any longer. It has to do with what's bugging me. I felt like I couldn't breathe so I walked out of the house."
"Bummer." He said.
"Yea." She said as he sat next to her.
They just sat there in a comfortable silence for a while until her father comes storming over.
"Christina Grace Polizzi, what are you doing with the likes of him? Haven't your mother and I told you to avoid the Malfoy's at all costs?"
"Yes, but I don't care. He's nice and besides. Why should I listen to you? You've lied to me my entire life. Yes, I know the dirty secret that I'm not your kid. I heard you and mum talking the night I got my Hogwarts letter. You didn't want me ending up in Slytherin like my no good father but I did and since then you've been treating me differently so I've been acting differently." She snaps.
"Well sweetie…"
"Don't! Don't even say that you didn't mean what you said! Yes you did! Just leave me alone!" she says getting up and walking away in tears.
Draco gets up and follows her as seeing the man she always thought of as her father just stood there.
Draco catches up to her and he grabs her and pulls her into his arms hugging her.
"Gods Draco this isn't fair." She weeps into his chest.
Draco just hugs her and lets her cry.
After a few moments she calms down.
"Thanks." She said softly.
"No problem. Is that what you told Uncle Sev? What you just told your…ummm…I have no idea on what to call him."
"Yea and something else which I don't want to talk about either."
"Okay, well it's just me up at the manor. Do you want to come over and hang out? We can play Wizard's chest and keep busy for a while."
"Thank you but no. I should head home. I want to hang with my little brother. Even though we're not related he's still my brother."
Draco nods then looks at her.
"I understand. If you need anything just owl me."
She smiles and nods.
She heads home.
Walking into the house she quickly sheds her cap, scarf, gloves and coat then scampers upstairs.
She goes into her brothers room and looks at him.
"Hey, you wanna play that new board game you just got?"
"Yea! I'll set it up in the living room!" he cries happily grabbing Mouse Trap and scampering downstairs.
Christi giggles and follows her brother.
£Malfoy Manor£
Draco heads up to his room and lies back on his bed Christi's words ringing in his head.
"If you keep thinking so hard you're going to get lines on your forehead and your head just might pop." Came the familiar voice.
Draco looks up and smiles seeing his pseudo uncle and hugged him.
"Sorry. Just thinking about something a friend said."
"Crabbe, Goyle, or Zambini was here?" Severus asks as the two head downstairs.
"No, I went for a walk in the village and ran into a friend and she was upset and her so called father came over and she said some stuff to him so it's playing over and over in my head."
"Oh and do I know this friend?"
Draco smirks.
"Christi Polizzi."
"And what did she say?" Severus asks.
"She said quote 'Yes, I know the dirty secret that I'm not your kid. I heard you and mum talking the night I got my Hogwarts letter. You didn't want me ending up in Slytherin like my no good father but I did and since then you've been treating me differently so I've been acting differently'. What does that mean? I asked if she told you that and she said yea but then she said she told you something else that she didn't want to talk about. What's going on? I mean she seems really upset over this. More so now that she told him that she knows."
Severus pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "I can't tell you what is going on Draco. What I can tell you is this: just make sure that you are there for Christi and when she's ready she'll talk to you. I'll try talking to her again and see if I can help her any."
"It's bad isn't it? Something bad is going on with her."
"Draco, drop it. Drop it until she is ready to come and talk to you about it. Right now she is really confused and things are really confusing for her right now. Don't push the subject with her right now."
Draco nods and sighs. He was just worried about her.
"Do you know where she is now?" he asks.
"She went home to hang out with her 'brother'."
Snape nods and heads over to where Christi lived.
Arriving there he walks up the path and knocks on the door.
It opens a moment later and Nicole looks at him.
"Yes can I help you?"
"Mrs. Polizzi, I'm Severus Snape, one of your daughter's professor's at Hogwarts. She came to me right before school let out for the holiday break with a personal matter that had her greatly upset and I just wanted to speak with her to see how she was doing." Explains Snape.
"You came all this way just to speak with her now? And I am her mother. Why didn't she come to me with this so called problem but come to you? And you came all this way just to speak to her?"
"I'm not sure ma'am but is she here and I was in the village visiting my godson." He tells her.
"Fine, I'll get her. Come on in out of the cold."
He nods and walks inside and waits just inside the foyer and waits.
A moment later Christi comes downstairs and looks at him.
"Professor!" she gasps.
"Miss. Polizzi."
"What brings you here?"
"Visiting some family and I just wanted to check on you."
She nods.
"Is there somewhere private we can speak?"
She nods and grabs her coat and everything then she heads out and waits for him to follow.
They silently walk down the little park nearby where Christi and Draco were before.
"So the problem you came to me about is it still happening?" he asks.
"Yea, but they've stopped since I've been home. If you can call it that. Not to mention tension with my parents…if I can call them that have been treating me differently ever since school started and I got put into Slytherin. Ever since I got my Hogwarts letter I just haven't felt like I belong there and I'm right. I don't."
"I heard."
"How!"
"Draco, I was visiting him and he voiced his concerns."
"Wow, that's really sweet of him."
"He cares deeply for his friends. He looks out for them and he's worried about you."
"I guess I can talk to him about what's going on."
"I'm sure he'd appreciate that. You don't have to tell him everything. Just what you want to tell him."
She smiles and hugs him.
"Thank you." She says softly.
She knew that she could go and talk to him about anything and he wouldn't tell another soul.
