Author's note: Please be aware that I own ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, everything, except my made OC(s), belongs to the wonderful Lady J.K. Rowling. THIS IS Pre-Harry Potter and during the Harry Potter era! I would very much like to hear your thoughts :) So, welcome back readers! I hope you enjoy this one as much as you have the other Harry Potter stories! If you can't tell, I am a Sirius Black girl. I would, however, like to try to do a Fred or George Weasley fan-fiction later on, just because I adore them both so much. I just have to bring myself to write it :) Wish me luck! Keep your heads up and Enjoy!

Chapter 1

UPDATED: 9/28/2022

1975, December

Albus stood back from his brother just a little, as he sat in the cemetery looking at the gravestones before him and mentally reading the names of their tragic family. Albus felt his heart clench and ache. "I am so sorry Aberforth," he said to his brother that cold December night.

"I did not ask you here for your unwanted sympathies, Albus," Aberforth said coldly, looking at his son's gravestone, and then that of the rest of his family.

Percival Dumbledore 1848-1898 - Kendra Dumbledore 1851-1899

Ariana Kendra Dumbledore 1885-1899

Modesty Rose Barebones 1917-1948

Fay Rose Barebone 1937-1948

Adrianus A.P. Dumbledore 1945-1973 - Iris Livia Y. 1947-1968

Aurelius P.W. Dumbledore 1908-1975

While neither Modesty, Fay, nor Iris was related by blood or marriage to the Dumbledore family, Aberforth's son, Aurelius, and grandson, Adrianus, had loved the two women so much before their deaths that both men had asked that they bury them as family. Modesty had come to them, in the Wizarding world, to find his son, Aurelius, after a horrifying event had taken place upon her. The young woman had been violated by a wizard in America and become pregnant. She had described it as any normal human would when attacked by a witch or wizard. 'Evil magic' had been used on her to allow this wizard to do as he pleased after he'd held her captive for weeks, torturing her. When MACUSA, having finally found the wizard and arrested him, they'd helped Modesty, tried wiping her memory. But it hadn't worked. She'd run from them upon seeing their wands, fearing them she made her way to Europe, tracing down her older adoptive brother, Credence. When she'd found him, after being assisted by a Witch who helped her into the Wizarding World and to find the man, she'd been six months pregnant. Credence, now known to the residents of his village as Aurelius, had taken the muggle woman into his home with a warm welcome and without a questionable thought. Protected her. Then, he'd lost her and Fey to illness. It had broken Aurelius to bury them.

Iris had loved Adrianus, his grandson, and when Iris had become pregnant her family hid her, ripped her baby girl from her after dear Iris gave birth, and sent the newborn babe to them, the Dumbledore's'. Then, her family dealt her more blows. Iris's family had put her in a Mental hospital when the young witch had merely been upset, they had taken her child from her. At least they'd allowed her to name Adriana, at least he hoped Iris had given her daughter such a name in honor of her love for the girl's father. But Iris had dealt them a good blow in return for their cruelty, however, in turn, she had hurt Adrianus and their daughter by ending her life, not even a year after giving birth to her child. Her family had contacted them once about her death and told them that if they did not claim the body and bury her then they would have her buried as an unknown. They had disowned her upon her death in retaliation for her killing herself.

"Aurelius never could bring himself to walk through this cemetery after he lost them. After we lost them. Couldn't look at the names. Especially after she died, he couldn't even say her name. I helped raise these children Albus, aside from my son that I was cheated of, and they all seemed to be taken from me in such a brutal way." Aberforth said with a sigh of pain, fighting back his tears as he looked at the gravestone with his son's name on it. This was so painful. Excruciating. "I have failed, brother. I failed our sister, failed mother, then I failed my son, and then I continued to fail… I failed you even. Each one Aurelius raised, each one I helped that man raise, have all been killed. His son, his dear little niece, such a sweet girl she was, oh how much she adored Aurelius. Her mother loved him too. But all were taken from him. From us… Dead. So young in life… and then, in the middle of the night, while walking home, he is killed by a dark wizard. I can't take another death, Albus…"

Worried and now terrified his brother was going to say something dreadful, he stepped closer to the man and then heard the sound of little feet in the snow, and there he saw a little seven-year-old Adriana dressed in her dark red winter cloak and dark blue winter made dress to keep her warm, her head of dark brown- almost black, curly hair covered partially by her hood as the snow began to slowly come down on them thickly in the cold December night. Her nordic blue eyes watered and were cast down to the snow. She looked haunted. Hurting. Abandoned. Oh, how that expression on her broke Albus. So young and she was haunted by such hardships. Albus looked back at his brother even more worried than he had been before. "Aberforth?"

"I can't do it, Albus… She's yours to raise now. I am sorry." He said, standing and beginning to walk from the cemetery.

Albus was struck to the core with fear and shock. There was no way he could raise a child! He had other children to look after, she needed tutoring, she needed attention he knew he could not give her! What was his brother thinking! He was not the fatherly material. While he adored all the children he'd educated at the school, he had n children of his own for many reasons. It wasn't that he didn't like children, he just had none. Never adopted either. "Aberforth!" He called after his brother.

"She is not my responsibility any longer Albus!" he called back, his heart shredding as he left the cemetery, his great-granddaughter, and his brother there in aching pain. "If you cannot raise her, then find someone who can!" he said, his voice cracking under the emotional pain he was putting them all through.

Looking at his great-grand-niece, Albus held his arm out for her and watched her slowly walk to him, her little suitcase in her hands in front of her, her little feet and knees gently tapping the hard case as she went to him. Her little sniffs she was holding back as the tears began to roll down her cheeks shredded Albus. Once she was to him, he took her suitcase from her little hands that seemed to be frozen to his warm old ones, then rested a gentle hand on the top of her hood then wrapped an arm around her and disapparated out of the cemetery, returning to the school.

It was Christmas vacation right now, so he had time to find someone to take her. Albus, as much as he wanted to keep her at his side and actually say he had the pleasure to raise her, he knew he wouldn't be able to. He personally knew he would not be a fit parent. At least, he didn't think he would be. Walking her to a common room, Albus sighed at the Fat Lady's portrait and requested entrance. "Thank you, my Lady," Albus said politely as soon as the portrait moved and opened for them.

"Always the pleasure, Headmaster," the lady said softly, her sweet yet sad look she directed to the sad child beside the Headmaster as she opened the pathway to Gryffindor Tower as he walked the child in.

The sound of late-night laughter filled their ears as he came into the common room and found his mischievous group of Gryffindors' and a few of their lady classmates all huddled around the fire and on the sofa, eating snacks and drinking their Christmas weather sweet drinks. The shock on their faces of thinking they were in trouble had them all quickly silencing their laughter. "Miss McKinnon, Miss Evans, would you both be ever so kind as to take Adriana up to the showers and find her an empty bed for the time being?" he asked them politely.

Shocked and rather confused, Lily and Marlene both nodded and climbed off the red sofa and made their way to the little girl cloaked in a wet red cloak, likely damp from the snow. But as the Headmaster handed her hand to Lily and the little girl took hold of Marlene's hand with her other, their hands chilled with how freezing she was to them. Both girls shared a concerned look as Lily knelt down and took the little suitcase and walked the little one up into the girl's dormitory with Marlene.

While Lily found and made a bed in their Dorm for the little girl, Marlene walked her to the showers and grabbed a clean towel for the child to use before she got the water running for her, letting the little one use her shampoo and condition and body wash. Professor Dumbledore had said her name was Adriana, such a lovely name for the little thing, she was so precious, but she looked heartbroken. Tormented.

Opening the suitcase to see if she could go ahead and find a pair of pajamas, Lily found more blankets and a handmade pillow with a few articles of clothing. Finding two-night dresses, both were thankfully winter nightdresses, Lily pulled them both out to let Adriana decide what she wanted to dress in. Lily looked and found Marlene walking out of the showering room with a wrapped-up Adriana all clean. Her skin was pink from the warm or hot shower Lily hoped she had taken. Letting her get her clothing, Lily and Marlene gave her privacy to dress, then they sat on Marlene's bed beside the one Lily had gotten ready for Adriana and watched her just sitting there, dazing at the iron wood stove in the center of the room. They didn't know what to do. They didn't want to leave her here like this.

"So," Marlene started first with a smile, "Your name is Adriana?" she asked curiously.

"Yes," Adriana answered softly.

Their hearts melted just a little at her soft, yet sad, voice. But she continued to stare at the stove.

"How old are you, Adriana?" Lily asked her.

"Seven," she answered, again her voice was soft, almost like a whisper.

Smiling, Marlene and Lily wanted to gush at just how precious this child was. But they held it in, as well as their heartache for the girl. "Seven? That's a fun age," Marlene said with a smile, then her smile faded just a little. "Adriana? Can I ask you a question?" Marlene asked her carefully.

Turning to look at the pretty girls that had helped her, Adriana nodded at her.

"Why did Professor Dumbledore bring you here to the school? Is he perhaps watching you for your parents?" she asked, hoping she didn't hit a raw spot. But as soon as she asked, Marlene regretted the question as the little girl's blue eyes watered and the tears rolled down her cheeks. "I'm sorry-"

"I never had a momma, papa was an Auror, and grandpa was killed a few nights ago coming home from work late." Adriana answered through her tears, "Grandpa Aberforth gave me to uncle Albus," she said, wiping the tears from her face with the back of her sleeves as she cried.

Heartbroken for the child, Lily and Marlene both moved over to the girl's bed and they both wrapped her up in their arms and held her, letting her cry as much as she wanted to. By the time she had cried herself to sleep, Lily and Marlene had gotten ready for bed themselves and gone down to say goodnight before heading to bed.

She came awake with a jerk, her eyes heavy, her mind foggy and confused as she came awake in a place that was not her room. She had hoped it had been a bad dream, but as she blinked her tired eyes, Adriana sat up in her bed, wrapping her mix-matched patched-together blanket of moons, broomsticks, boiling cauldrons, bats, a paw-print or two, a silhouette of a wolf howling to a moon and other witchy looking patches spread all around and walked down the stone stairs to the fire place and sofa. She blinked curiously as the fireplace came to life. The shock of it puffing and then a sudden roar of fire being there had her frozen to move any further to the sofa. After standing there for a moment, she tip-toed closer to the sofa before crawling up onto the soft and comfortable seat in front of the fireplace, sitting there looking into the fireplace before she fell back asleep.

"She is so precious,"

"I know, oh my gosh,"

Hearing people near her, waking her up, even if they were whispering, Adriana must have been coming out of her sleep anyways to hear them softly whispering. Feeling the need to stretch, Adriana sighed as she turned almost on her back, still very much thankful to be wrapped up in her oversized blanket cocooned around her, and stretched a good long stretch that her back arched up and her toes curling as she yawned a little mewed yawn then sighed at how wonderful that stretch had been before she slumped back down into the sofa and started blinking her tiredness from her eyes. Her brow suddenly frowned at the handful of people around her and the sofa, all of them being girls. Thinking she was still dreaming, Adriana rubbed her eyes and blinked several more times at them as they awed at her. Practically fawning over a seven-year-old.

Realizing she was very much awake- unfortunately, because she loved sleeping, she sat up on the sofa on her knees and looked at them, then around the room of what she could see and saw a group of boys on the steps blocking the stairway and just stared at them curiously and chuckling as they watched. When one of them finally made eye contact, that being the chubby blond, he gently swatted his friend nearest him, a boy with glasses and a mess of curls, and pointed at her. Finally having some of their attention, she finally spoke, "Little help would be nice," she said calmly soft.

Chuckling at the kid's comment, James stood up from his comfortable spot he'd had on the steps and walked down to the girls crowding the kid and jokingly made his way through them and lifted her off the sofa, grabbing her blanket for her as well before setting her on her feet, "There you are Little Wisp," he said handing her the oversized blanket.

"Thank you," she said, taking her blanket from him and opened it out onto the floor nice and neatly leaving them all curious.

They all watched her in her floor-length powder blue, long-sleeved night dress while she opened up her very large, patched-together blanket and began to fold the large item before picking it up in her tiny arms.

Heading for the stairs Adriana attempted walking up the steep and narrow steps, "Stupid stairs," she muttered, looking around her blanket held against her front to walk up. She just couldn't seem to find her footing. "I know how to walk, I swear I do," she told herself, but everyone was watching with amusement and in total adoration. Several of the girls there had siblings back home, not as young as her possibly compared to themselves, but still, they were fawning over the idea of a kid. And it was honestly scaring the boys as they watched the 6th and 7th-year girls who'd stayed for Winter break.

Adriana had finally managed to get to the girl's dorm's door and made her way inside. It was ten minutes later she came down dressed in a burgundy jumper with a cream-colored long-sleeved turtleneck shirt, black hoses, and little boots on her feet, her long curly hair bouncing as she came down the steps and went to the door. But when it wouldn't open, she placed her hands against the entrance of their common room and simply leaned against it, "Hello?" she asked softly, gently knocking on the other side. When there was no answer, she sighed and walked back to the room and looked at the girls, pointing at the door. "It's not opening," she said obviously.'

"Professor Dumbledore didn't want you leaving the tower," one of the girls said and shrugged, "We'd already had breakfast, so he asked us to stay up here and keep you company. There's breakfast over there on the side table, still nice and hot under the tray." The seventh-year girl said taking a seat on the sofa and opened her book to read.

The boys covered their mouths as soon as Mechelle said what she did to the kid, and the dropped expression plus the level glare the kid gave her while their Head Girl was completely oblivious to the child's annoyed expression. They found it entirely entertaining. However, when her head turned to them, they couldn't help but try to swallow their laughter, and then her annoyed expression sparked with an idea. "This should be good," Remus whispered. The boys did not understand why Professor Dumbledore wanted the girl to stay in the Tower, the school was safe… Well… To a degree it was. When she looked at the girls now all giggling, she took a step towards them when one of the girls popped up and said, "Why don't we doll her up!"

"I'll grab my makeup kit!"

"I'll grab my curler!"

The boys began to burst into belly rolls of laughter at the girl blanching.

"My hair is already-"

"It'll define your curls! Oh, this is so exciting! I only have brothers I don't get to do little girl's hair!" she squealed.

"Oh, I think I have some clothes that don't fit me, I can make a few outfits with them I think!"

The girls all seemed to jump with dramatic excitement and rushed between the boys on the steps and to their Dorms to get their things.

Actually feeling a cold, slimy thing slither down her spine, Adriana rushed to the boys, one in particular, and almost flattened him down against the stairs, "Help me," she begged him.

Unable to help it, James laughed and eased her a bit off him after she had nearly plowed him over, and down the few steps and looked up to the girl's dorm door. Shaking his head a little as he looked at her, "You're going to have to face them even if you manage to flee them." He told her, "Why not get it over with now?" he asked her.

"Just because I'm a little girl does not mean I want someone pulling on my hair and fluffing my curls up… Or makeup, yuck, and the idea of someone else dressing me-" Adriana froze as the door opened and the sound of the girls filtered through the common room, "Get me to Lily or Mars- is that her name, Mars?" she asked, suddenly realizing she couldn't remember the other girl's name.

"Marlene, love," Sirius answered her with chuckling amusement, she looked as afraid of the older girls as they could be.

"Whatever, get me to one of them, they can keep those crazies at bay, pleeeease!" she begged them.

"Ah, come on James, can't hurt to give the kid a little help. I mean, even we would run if they tried this." Remus said, coming off his amusement.

"Yeah, but you have a way to escape, I do not," Adriana added to him.

Sighing with a soft laugh and shake of his head, James nodded, "Alright, alright, come on Wisp." James said, taking her little hand and ended up rushing to the door to their common room, the rest of his buddies behind him as they made their escape. They had just cleared the first stairs when the girls came out in a panic looking for her.

"Those Marauders are in so much trouble!" Mechelle snapped with anger.

"Well, shit, sounds like she's right pissed off,"

"No shit, Padfoot," James grumbled as they hid under the staircase against the wall, their tower was just two staircases above them right now. But the second they heard the girl's shoes hitting the stone steps, James felt his stomach twist with some worry. If Mechelle caught them with the kid he knew they'd all get detentions, and the kid would likely get a scolding if Professor Dumbledore found out about this. What was he thinking again? Oh, right he liked being the hero to little ladies. "Oh brother," he breathed. When he felt Adriana shuffling between them and out of his arms as they hid flush against the wall they all were curious as she checked Remus's jacket pockets and Peter's. "Are you measuring their pockets?" He asked.

"Which one's bigger?" she asked herself, "Right, um," turning to them she sighed, not wishing to do this at all, then she suddenly shrank and her body shifted into something neither of them saw coming…. A blood-red fox kit, tall ears, big blue eyes, tiny legs, and a long tail… A very long tail. They blinked some at her and then watched her jumping at Peter's jacket, the boy was quick to realize that had been why she had been sticking her hand in their pockets. Picking her up Peter dropped her in his large deep pocket just as Mechelle and her 'follower' friends came down the last staircase above them and shouted out they had found them and ran to the group of boys.

"Where is she, Potter!" Mechelle snapped.

Turning to Mechelle, James's brow frowned at her as he turned to look at her, "Easy there Mechelle, the school is perfectly safe-"

"No! Damn it, James!" Mechelle growled, her fists clenched and her face pulling into fearful worry, "The kid has no family to look after her. Professor Dumbledore didn't want her wandering around because he is trying to gather people to interview to adopt her. Right now he is talking with Magical Children's Affairs and the Minister of Magic to get documentation for this situation so that when someone can adopt her, he has the documents! He doesn't want her to see them coming and going or, them to see her and try to converse with her before he can talk to her. I didn't want to say anything while she was in the common room, we thought…. A makeover or something fun would distract her from the trauma she's had to go through... I mean, her mother killed herself a year after she was born and taken from her- forbidden from ever seeing or talking to her own child, her father was killed on a job two years ago, her grandfather was killed just a few nights ago and her great-grandfather handed her off to Professor Dumbledore because he couldn't take the thought of her being killed or her death on his watch like the rest of his family, so he asked the Headmaster to either raise her himself or to find someone who will and keep her safe!" Mechelle explained. And she only knew this because of the early internship she was being allowed to shadow starting her last year at Hogwarts. She had a wonderful teacher. Because of this, Mechelle had been granted the opportunity to hear about this child's situation, via the Headmaster's approval as well as her workplace instructor. "I have to find her before she finds something in here that she doesn't need to find," she pleaded. "Please, tell me you guys hid her somewhere?" she begged.

Feeling like he wanted to throw up for doing this now that he knew, James wanted to throw up even more now for what he was about to say next. Shaking his head, James took a calm swallow, "No, I'm sorry. We did let her out- we didn't know about this, I swear," he said quickly when Mechelle took a deep breath to likely scream at him, but she stopped when he explained they hadn't known. But it was true, they hadn't known, "but if we see her, we'll bring her right back, promise." He said, raising his right hand in an oath manner.

Closing her eyes with defeat, Mechelle sighed and ran her hands through her hair, and ran off with the other girls. Watching the group of five girls running down the steps when the sound of little sniffles came from Peter's jacket pocket. When the fifth year took his coat off and held it up for them all to not have to lean over to see the kit inside, they found her balled up, large ears laying back and her head partially tucked. And as sad as that information was, they couldn't help but all think this had to be the cutest little thing they'd seen. "Wisp?" James asked calmly, slipping his hand into Peter's jacket pocket she was in and gently brushing the back of two fingers along her ears, "Come on Wisp." After a moment of just gliding the back of his knuckles over her ears, he pulled his hand out of the pocket and watched her lift her head up and out before resting her little chin and fluffy cheeks on the rim of the pocket she was still sitting in, her downcast blue eyes watering and full of deep sadness.

She had known about most of that, she really did. Except for the part about her mother killing herself. Had she really been taken from her mother? Forbidden to have ever been seen, heard, or know her?

"I see I have made the mistake of not speaking with her before this," an elderly man's voice came from behind them, startling them all to turn to the man there with Professor McGonagall watching on with her own sadness. "Adriana, why don't you come with me. Understandably we have something to discuss." Professor Dumbledore said and watched with a heavy heart as the little fox carefully jumped out of Peter's jacket pocket and morphed back into her seven-year-old self before taking her great-granduncle's hand and walked away with him.

Still curious, Sirius gently shook his head from the shock that a kid had turned into an Animagus right in front of them. "How did she-"

"That is a discussion for another time, Mr. Black, now, I must ask you all to swear a silence to what you just witnessed," Minerva asked nervously.

Confused further, Sirius, James, and Peter shared a look then looked back to their professor, "Secrecy of silence?" they asked.

"She's a seven-year-old illegal Animagus," Remus spoke up carefully not to say it too loud.

Looking at Mr. Lupin, Minerva took in a nervous breath as she nodded, "Yes." She answered. "But I need you all to swear not to say a word. She… She accidentally got ahold of her father's Animagus potion and… well, you all know the rest," she said softly.

As the boys watched her, they all seemed to think she was sweating. But her words claiming that 'they should know the rest' worried them. "Um, wha-what do you mean by that, Professor?" Peter asked nervously. He'd gotten a slight elbow in his side by Remus and a foot slightly kicked back into his shin, making him bite his tongue as to not shout and began to limp a little.

Giving them a curious look, McGonagall raised her brow, "From the Animagus lessons you all received in class, both mine as well as Defense Against the Dark Arts." She stated plainly.

Calming much from their spike of panic, the boys that were not currently limping nodded, "Oh, right, ye-yes, that lesson," Sirius laughed nervously then swallowed his tongue for a second when McGonagall gave him that look that she always gave him when he was either in trouble or was not believed.

"Hm," she verbalized simply, turned, and headed off.

Clearing his throat from the nervousness, Sirius took a breath to calm himself, "Well," he started, "that was interesting,"

"Sirius!" A girl called up as she ran to them with a smile on her face.

Turning at the sweet voice he dreamt of just about every night, Sirius smiled and turned to see Marlene running her way up the stairs to them, her friend Annie with her. Fixing his shirt, Sirius clapped James on his arm as he grinned, "So sorry gentlemen, but I have a date, you coming or not Wormtail?" Sirius teased the boy.

Blinking and his brow frowning, Peter began to stutter, "Bu-but I-I-"

"Shut up man and come on," Sirius said, grabbing his buddy and pulled him along with the girls, his hand slipping in with Marlene's and Peter charmingly offering Annie his arm for her to take, who gladly took his offered arm.

Adriana sat in the chair with the Social Worker for Magical Children Affairs, plus Mechelle who she had learned was actually an early intern for this witch after Albus had sent someone to fetch the 7th-year girl. The Social Worker was lovely. Dark skin, brown eyes, tight curls she had pulled back up into a lovely bun, and her thick accent was out of Adriana's little world, it had the child so mesmerized. Her name was Abeba Wilson, who just happened to have a daughter of her own about Adriana's age. She had simply introduced herself and explained she was here to help Adriana, Albus had said the rest for her to make him the bad guy and Mrs. Wilson the hero to Adriana.

"Mrs. Wilson is merely here as an over-seer my dear," Albus explained calmly. Taking a calm breath, he released it in a sigh of regret. "Adriana, you know I love you, you are always going to be family to me, but I have no good experience in raising a child, and the care you need is something I just cannot possibly give you. You need a mother, and father to guide you, watch you, and educate you where I could not possibly do so. Not right now. And honestly, I feel you'd be safer in the hands of someone not a… Well…" He truly didn't know how to say it. He didn't want her to believe that he and Aberforth were disowning her or entirely abandoning her, well, abandoning, maybe depending on how someone looked at it. But the thought of her thinking they were disowning her? Never. She would always be a Dumbledore, but he knew what his brother meant in the cemetery. She was safer away from them.

Her eyes burned with misting tears as she looked at Albus, "Not a Dumbledore?" she whispered painfully.

Wanting to say no, Albus sighed, and his shoulder slumped, "Well, in a matter of reasons, yes, but this does not mean we want to do this. We are merely doing this out of your care. What is best for you. Aberforth and I, we both love you, we both loved your father, your grandfather. And we love you," he told her. "But this is for your safety, for your wellbeing. You understand that? Don't you?" he asked her with some concern.

Fidgeting in her seat, Adriana's body was slumped in the chair, her muscles trembling as she fought herself to not cry. She hadn't cried this much since her father had died, but even then, she hadn't cried or hurt this much. Unable to look at her great-granduncle, Adriana nervously and anxiously tapped her little feet gently together inwardly, the tips of her boots making a soft 'pat, pat' sound as she fidgeted. Her fingers together, locking them and unlocking them as she sucked on her bottom lip as she nodded to what he was saying. Even if it was for her own good, her safety even, or her wellbeing, this still felt like she was being abandoned into the hands of people she didn't know! "You will have to go with her for a time though, Hogwarts is not a place for a child of your age. I wish I could keep you here darling, but the fact is that you are not eleven, and not a student, and there is no one to really watch over you… Professor McGonagall has gathered your things for you. With school resuming in the next few days, and I have to make sure all the students have a bed and a safe place for you. So, Mrs. Wilson will find a home, they will watch over you until a more permanent family can be found." Albus told her. To say this was breaking his heart was a complete understatement. This might just give him a heart attack once they leave. Looking to Mrs. Wilson when she stood from the seat beside sitting off to the side between him and Adriana, young Miss Wrights was standing slightly behind Mrs. Wilson's chair, as the witch carefully approached the child and calmly spoke to the upset Adriana. Albus had to say he was shocked that Mrs. Wilson had gotten a nod from the child.

Sliding off the tall chair with Mrs. Wilson's help, Adriana's trembling hand took hold of her calm and warm soft hand and walked out with her. "Professor McGonagall shall meet us at ze door to leave," Mrs. Wilson told her softly, "Mechelle," Mrs. Wilson asked for her intern, watching from over her shoulder as the young intern jumped into action and moved after them as they left the Headmaster's office.

Albus felt his chest clench painfully as he watched Abeba and Mechelle take Adriana from his office, and upon the door closing, Albus leaned into his desk, his hands covering his face and his elbows resting on his ancient desk, Albus began to weep. The look she had on her was a look of utmost betrayal a child could have ever given him. His own family. His blood.

Adriana walked down the stairs from the Headmaster's office, her great-granduncle, to the front of Hogwarts and passed the Great Hall where she saw James and Lily, James trying to flirt.

"Awe, come on Evans, just one date," James pleaded with her with an excited laugh as she shook her head at his, trying to ignore his teasing pleas until her eyes found the mess of long bouncy curls being walked out the front of Hogwarts by a witch and, "Mechelle?" She called curiously, moving from the table she was sitting at and rushed down the short way into the halls, Mechelle said something to the witch who continued to walk Adriana towards the open doors where Professor McGonagall stood with an equally upset and almost weepy face as she handed Adriana's suitcase to the witch and kept her head held high, fighting every ounce she had to not look at the child or she would for sure cry for the girl.

"She will be cared for," Mrs. Wilson said with confidence.

Nodding her head once to the witch in silence, McGonagall gave her a very weak and barely audible, "Thank you, Abeba,"

He had a smile on his face, he was close, so close to getting her to say yes to a date, but then his grinning smile fell in a heartbeat the instant he and Adriana's eyes met. "Wisp?" James asked walking out from the Great Hall, walking out after Lily. Seeing the kid and the witch walking to the front of the school to leave. James became curious and suddenly filled with worry. He saw her internally screaming for help, weepy, but silently crying as the witch walked them past the Professor, her little hand had come up, as if she were reaching out to him, almost as if she was asking him to come and take her, and he'd willingly stepped forward and walked after them, "Hey!" he called for the witch. But the witch had ignored him, and Adriana's hand fell quickly. Then she was gone. The witch had disapparated right off Hogwarts property. Suddenly slammed with a flood of panic, James jolted forward, "Adriana!" he'd called, trying to run to the spot he knew they'd been, but Professor McGonagall's hands had grabbed him by his arms, stopping him from going through the front doors. He thought no one could do that unless it was Professor Dumbledore. "Professor?"

"She can't stay here, Potter. The Headmaster has done what was best for her. She'll be temporarily under a Foster-care until someone adopts her." McGonagall explained.

James's heart dropped and he swore he paled three shades, but Lily's panicked "What!" from behind him had definitely gotten his attention. Turning he noticed Lily and Mechelle arguing, but he couldn't hear a thing with his ears ringing. Looking back to his Professor, James stumbled back away from her, almost tripped over his feet but bumping into Lily and Mechelle had thankfully stopped him from falling, but he stumbled again, trying to keep himself from hitting the ground, "Sorry," he mumbled to them then took off into a stumbling run up the stairs and to the headmaster's office.

Seeing his behavior shifting to something she had never seen, Lily felt worried for him as he bumped into them, Mechelle thankfully stopped him from falling as Lily grabbed his arm by the sleeve of his long-sleeved orange sweater, "James?"

"Potter, are you alright?" Mechelle asked him. But it was like he hadn't heard her or Lily when he looked at them, mumbled a numb sorry, and then bolted.

"Potter!" McGonagall shouted with deep concern, all three witches dashed after him.

Making it to the Headmaster's office, James found the door shut and very locked. Knocking on the door and calling for the Professor turned into banging on the door and trying to demand the man open the damn door. "Please! Professor, you can't do this!"

"I can and I have!" Albus shouted from the other side of the door, "Return to your common room or prepare to be dealt detentions the rest of your years here, Potter!"

"James Potter!" McGonagall scolded him, she was out of breath as she, Mechelle, and Lily reached him. "Leave the Headmaster be!" she snapped and sent the two girls off with him back to their common room.

However, it seemed that Mrs. Abeba Wilson's promise had been forcefully broken when someone immediately came to collect Adriana.

The Yaxley's.

Abeba had fought tooth and nail for days, but for some reason, the Head of her department had forced her to allow the child to be collected, not adopted by any means at all. Adriana had been collected like a product. Albus had explained the family situation to her. All of it. And she knew that the Yaxley's were anything but a loving family after what they'd done to their own daughter. And Iris's brother seemed to be the worst of them. He and his wife had come for the girl, his wife had been silent the entire time, eyes downcast and reserved as he spoke to Abeba. Abeba had gone directly to Albus with fear for the child and the Headmaster had been infuriated. Questioning how they could get her removed from the Yaxley's custody.

"We can do nothing!" Abeba scolded him, "Aberforth left her to you, you left her to me, the moment she became my case as well as an Orphan by being handed over to me she was free game to them!" Abeba snapped at the Wizard.

Raging with a fury beyond his own understanding he thought he'd ever been able to hold in him. Albus felt as if he had a dragon breathing fire into his veins. "They never wanted her in the first place! What the hell could they want with her now!" Albus snapped.

"Marriage, Albus," McGonagall said plainly. "They have nothing but sons, hardly any daughters, while the sons can marry and carry the name, the daughters are used as bargaining chips!" she said with terrified outrage. She felt her blood pressure spiking dangerously. Albus had nearly had a heart attack the night Adriana had been handed over to Abeba, but now it seemed it was her turn.

"We have to do something! Anything!" Albus shouted as he paced his office.

January 1976

Adriana's life since then had been a living Hell.

They'd given her brutally and degrading teachers, and forced her to learn the piano, which wouldn't have been so horrible had Corban Yaxley and his sons not been brutal towards her, smacking her with a small switch that could cause her to miss a note or turn with the intensions to scold them only to remind herself to bite her tongue. They even forced her into etiquette lessons, sit straight- which is something she really should learn either way as to not have a slouching and painful back as she got older, to eat a certain way, and forcefully cut her long bouncy and curly hair to a shorter length, thankfully not above her shoulders, but they'd taken a good six inches off, and then, because they did not like the way her hair puffed out more, they'd painfully pulled and tightened her hair back and up into a bun. They even made her wear irritating rich and uptight outfits she knew she'd never have worn had she not been forced to do it. They called her an ungrateful cry-baby, loud, irritating, and clumsy when the father or one of the sons would shove her. They even sent her to bed without supper on more than one occasion for no reason given to her other than her being irritating that day. She'd been lucky to eat a full meal in the few weeks the Yaxley's had her, she'd mostly lived off water and fruit. And that was because of Yaxley's wife. And she never escaped from the injuries. However, even through all of the abuse, mental, emotional, and physical, Adriana had not once cried out or cried in front of them, nor shouted in pain if she could help it when she was hurt, and she hardly spoke to them, not even the wife.

Corban Yaxley was a brute towards her. The latest injury was to her little hands, when the instructor had tapped her hands when her fingers stiffened and she hit the wrong two keys by accident and scolded her, Yaxley had walked right up, called her incompetent, and told the Tutor the best way to cure a whining child in this instance was to shut the Piano cover upon their hands. That, out of everything the men of the Yaxley family had done to her, had been the first time she had screamed out in pain and cried aloud. Needless to say, the Piano Tutor had kept his mouth shut but had immediately checked her fingers after Yaxley had walked away laughing. However, he had told her neither one of them had a choice to have her play on. Or they'd both be dealt more than what she had just gone through. So, she played through the pain, and her tears and the tutor had merely verbally corrected her, placing his hands over her trembling little hands and helping her play slowly. No one, not one moment of her being with them, had saved her. She was beginning to lose hope over the next few months.

June 1976

However, this particular day, her hair had been curled with an iron against her painful silence, she knew if she said anything the curling iron might just be the next thing used against her. She had burn scars already on the back of her neck and the back of her right hand and shoved into a dress that a child might have worn in the early 1900s possibly. Corseted fitted, the skirt was long enough that the lace of the dress could almost tickle the tops of her toes, white stockings, and of course, painfully pinching summer shoes.

The dress was a soft white with a light blue sheer silk sewn overtop the white material to give the dress a rich appearance, a square neckline for her young age, and cape sleeve. She would have asked what the occasion was, however, she feared asking. She never asked questions. Never spoke to them if she could avoid it. She knew why they were curling her hair, their youngest son, about four years older than herself, had shoved her into a corner wall of the manor and the side of her head had been bruised with a little bit of broken skin above her temple at her hair line. Yaxley, the father, had come with a 'gift' for her and had forced her to wear the items. Pale blue studs for her pierced ears and a pale blue silk tie-around choker necklace to possibly hide the small bruises on the side of her throat where their middle son had choked her in the middle of the night. The only bruises 7 were more pronounced than much of the others around her throat were the thumb, the index finger, and the middle finger of the boy's hand. He knew if he purchased the item, he could not go that large to hide all of the bruises, but if there was something there, plus light makeup applied, then no one should notice. None of the Noble families noticed, their noses were all too busy being stuck in the air to care.

"Make sure to cover the bruises, lightly, not too much, it'll rub off on the silk necklace, I don't want that thing ruined, you've no idea how much I had to pay for that," Yaxley told his wife then left the girl's room.

Sirius sighed as he walked into a large building dressed in his suit with his family. He'd invited James as his guest, he hadn't wanted to ask Marlene and his family or the rest of the Witches or Wizards here to leave a nasty taste in her mouth or discourage her in any way. He would not have his girlfriend mistreated by these people. The floor-to-ceiling open windows were all open to let in the fresh air of summer. Unfortunately, he could not have come looking casual, let alone like a slob as he did walking around his home, his mother would have had his butt in a sling and then some. His hair was combed back, his suit was perfect, not a crease was there on him- ugh, it was ridiculous, but it gave him some sense of self-respect when he dressed himself of how and when the occasions called for this level of pampering. Even James had gotten all fancy for this party. His best friend's parents had been unable to attend, but his father had brought him. After the incident back in December when Adriana had been taken, James had contacted his parents immediately, begging them to take the girl in, then they'd gotten the news that a family had collected her already. However, there was some hope for them to get Adriana, who was apparently not being called Adriana, but by her first legal name, unfortunately, he and James were never told who had collected her nor what her legal name was. Fleamont had his papers locked away and secured very well that neither of them nor Remus, could get to them. The boys were all very blind to the full situation, and even Lily knew nothing, she was also beside herself for the girl. Mechelle had been unable to tell them anything about the case, for fears of breaking her code of ethics when involving an open case/investigation. And that was how the freshly graduated girl had left it for them.

"Do these events always make you feel like you're in the Dragon's cave about to be eaten?" James whispered to Sirius as they walked in and then around the large banquet setting in the Estate the heads of the Noble families had all pitched in to rent for a few days. This event would be a three-day event, giving one day for setting things up, one day for the families to come and converse, and the third for clean up. The patio doors were all opened around them to let them all walk in and out freely to events outside to wander through the maze or the tall path through a garden into the woods. It was a real romantic setting.

Softly chuckling, Sirius nodded as he grabbed a cracker topped with cream and a fancy topper, popping it into his mouth. Finishing his little snack, Sirius grabbed a passing cup from a tray and tucked a hand into his pants pocket, and took a drink to wash the cracker and cream down before he answered. "Yes, unfortunately, normally you leave feeling as if the Dragon toasted you a good one before chewing you to ashes then spitting you back out just to stomp on the remains to add insults to injuries." He joked.

"Sirius Orion Black, get over here now," his mother scolded under the growled breath from a short distance from them, her wide eyes glaring at the two boys, her youngest son close by her, and his father. "We are here for a reason, not just to be present," she continued. Huffing, she took the glass of white wine from his hand as he and his friend came up to them and finished the drink herself and set the empty drink on a passing-by tray gently as the Yaxley's walked up to them, Corban was smiling his usual cocky grin, his little wife softly smiling, her eyes fluttering down to the floor as they approached and their sons walking just like their father. With a snobbish stick up their arses and an air of ego. Walburga Black did not much care for the Yaxley's, well, mostly it was Corban she disliked, and the man's sons were no better than their arrogant father. But the girl was a new addition. Last she saw them two years ago they had no daughter. Her brow raised curiously at them now. It made her now understand why he'd said he was interested in tying their bloodlines. She had thought his wife had become pregnant and was expecting to meet an infant and then refuse the man's offer. But this girl was maybe eight years old, lovely also. She had the Yaxley family blue eyes, but not the blonde hair.

"Wisp?"

Her eldest son and his friend's shocked whispered name had Walburga Black's head snapping to her son, her grey eyes wide as they both shared a look, "You know this girl?" she asked.

Opening his mouth to answer, Sirius instantly shut his mouth as the family stopped before them.

"Walburga, Orion, what a wonderful pleasure to see you again," Corban Yaxley said with a large but very fake smile as he moved the girl to stand before him, his large hands resting on her shoulders, "I'd like you all to meet- Potter?" he asked, seeing the boy standing there, his green eyes glancing between him and Cordelia. When Corban got no answer but a nod, the boy clamping his mouth closed tightly, Yaxley's brow frowned curiously but shook it off and returned his attention back to Walburga, "I'd like your family to meet my niece, Cordelia Adriana Iris Rose Yaxley… With a bit of Dumbledore in her bloodline. She's my sister's daughter." He said, his smile still very much forced into place.

* To reflect on the fox Animagus, I absolutely love Fox's, it's the main reason I love using it as an Animagus for at least one of my characters, whereas I used it for both original female characters in my Marauder's Fox 1 and 2. So, just in case anyone was annoyed or curious why I used the Fox again, that is why. I love Fox's.