1:Disclaimer: I don't own it. You know this. Blah blah blah.

:AN: Yes, it has been a long time since my last update (those other "updates" don't really count because they weren't real chapters and I have since deleted them). But I am back now. And with vigor. So here is the newest installment of To Be Unknown! I hope you all like it!

I know that review-responses was a thing I was doing, but I don't know who has abandoned me and who hasn't and all that jazz and now there is that reply feature (I've been off of ff. net for awhile) so I'll just do a regular chapter for now and take it from there.


"I just find it curious, is all," the familiar voice cooed into Remus's ear as he leaned against the tree, studying his Charms work some more.

"What?" Remus asked, more than slightly annoyed. Where is she? He thought to himself. I'm starting to really dislike this whole invisible thing.

"Valentine's Day." Lada replied. Remus could feel her breath on his cheek, which meant that she was next to him, probably facing him.

"I mean, I understand the whole St. Valentine thing." She continued. "I mean, the religious aspect of honoring the saints. And obviously it became a tradition, like Christmas, and it has almost nothing to do with St. Valentine now, right?" Remus heard her sigh and he felt a weight on his left arm. Was she leaning on him?

"I've never liked Valentine's Day." He heard her say. "I don't see the point. But I do love to examine the behavior of species, including us - humans, you know? So I'm curious as to why everyone else is so infatuated with the holiday."

"I don't really like it, either." Remus found himself saying. It felt too awkward if he didn't say anything.

"Why's that?"

"Well..." He began, then paused. "I don't know."

"Have you ever received a Valentine?" Remus felt her hand on his arm.

"No."

"So that must be it, then."

Suddenly the weight on his left side and the warmth on his arm were gone and he watched the grass next to him collapse and rise again as Lada moved around. "You're leaving, then?" Remus inquired, a strange feeling passing over him.

"Yes." He heard Lada's voice from somewhere nearby. It was hard to tell where it was coming from.

"Oh." He said aloud, finding that a part of him didn't want her to go. "Well." He shrugged and set his gaze back on his Charms text. "See you later."

When there was no reply, Remus glanced up and looked around. "Lada?" He called out, but lowly so that the other students scattered nearby would not hear him.

She just left. He thought. She seemed... sad. He shook his head and looked back down at his open book. I wonder what's bothering her all of a sudden.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"I brought you a gift." Albus Dumbledore told the teenage girl who sat slumped in the chair before him.

"I'm not in the mood." Lada snapped. She looked up at her adoptive father and faltered a bit. "Sorry... I think I might be PMS-ing."

Albus chuckled. "Do you recall the day you met me?" He asked as he sat down on the chair perpendicular to hers.

Lada furrowed her brow for a moment, then shrugged. "Nope."

"You were very small," Albus said, "the day they brought you to me."

"Ah, yes." Lada said sarcastically. "The infamous 'they'." She paused. "So where's this gift you mentioned, eh, old man?"

The 'old man' gave Lada a brief smile before he handed her a folded piece of parchment. "This is a letter. I read it exactly sixteen years ago, twenty seconds after the first time I laid eyes on you."

The platinum-haired girl took the letter hesitantly and looked at it in her hands. "What?" She said aloud. She looked at Albus, then back at the letter, only to turn her attention to Albus again. "What does it say? Why haven't you showed this to me before?"

"Just read the letter." Albus said, giving her a small pat on the head before rising and walking toward the door. "I have business with some old friends of mine so I will see you in a fortnight when I return."

Lada nodded, only half paying attention as Albus exited the room. She was too busy studying the folded parchment in her hands. What does it say? She thought. Who wrote it? What do I do?

With a heavy sigh, she carefully unfolded the parchment and read the words on the page that lay before her.

To my darling Lada,

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What's her problem now? Why does she have to act so moody? Remus pondered as he made his way to the Room of Requirement. Now I can't concentrate.

"Lada?" He called out when he entered the room. "Are you - What..?"

Remus looked around the room, which looked much like a young girl's room. The walls were pink, there was a pink crib on one side of the room and various toys on the other. "Um." Remus gulped. This is too weird.

"Lada?" He called out once more. I didn't want this... stuff. She must be in here or else none of these things would be here. "Lada, I know you're in here. You don't have to wear that invisibility ring when it's just us, remember?" He looked around once more before he rolled his eyes toward the ceiling and let out a long, exaggerated sigh.

"Lada..." He said slowly. "You seemed kind of strange earlier, so I came to see what was wrong... Would you mind telling me what's with the miniature tea-set over there?"

"I used to pretend to make tea." He heard a muffled voice, but didn't know where it had come from. "It's mine. Or... I had one like it."

Her voice sounds different. "Are you all right?" Remus asked. "You sound..." He wasn't sure how to finish his sentence.

"My father wrote me a letter." He heard her say, her voice even lower than before.

"Dumbledore?" Remus raised his eyebrows. "That's nice..."

"No." This time she sounded stern. And then, softer, "Not Dumbledore."

Remus frowned. "Oh, that's right, you're adopted. So you know your real parents, then?"

"No." Came the quiet reply. Remus still could not make out just where her voice was coming from.

"Oh." He looked down at his feet, unsure of where to look now. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No one to talk to."

"I'm here."

"No."

"Oh... um... okay."

"You should go."

Remus nodded and slowly made his way to the door. Just before he reached for the door, he paused and turned around. "No." He shook his head. This is it, Moony. "You can talk to me. You have to talk to someone. It's clearly bothering you." He took a deep breath. "Look, you can keep the ring on and I'll just listen. You don't have to feel embarrassed."

"I don't know..."

"Just start talking." Remus interrupted, walking further into the room and taking a seat on the pink carpeted floor. "We'll start with the basics. For instance, why is this room so... pink?"

"My room was always pink. It was very girly until about five years ago, when I managed to convince your headmaster that just because I was a girl didn't mean that I was infatuated with the color pink."

Remus laughed. "So this was what your room looked like when you were young." He gestured in the direction of the crib. "Really young... So Dumbledore adopted you when you were a baby, then? Do you remember you real family?"

"Albus is my real family." Her response seemed to echo in the large room. "I wouldn't be me if he hadn't raised me."

"That's true, I suppose." Remus shrugged. "So... your biological family. Your parents. You said earlier that you don't know them, but do you remember them at all, from when you were little?"

The room was silent for awhile. "Lada?" Remus called out.

"I remember my mother." She answered immediately. "A little bit, I mean. I was almost a year old when Albus took me in, so I only remember that..."

"That what?"

"She smelled like... roses."

Remus glanced up at the word 'roses.' She's in front of me. He thought. But how far away is she?

"So... the letter." He continued. "Your rea- I mean, biological... Your birth father wrote it?"

"Yes."

"He sent it via an owl?"

"No. It came with me." There was a long pause in which Remus was trying to think of another question. "Albus found me on his doorstep sixteen years ago today. The letter was underneath me in my basket. He only just gave it to me today."

"Why didn't he give it to you before?" Remus asked. She's about four feet in front of me, I'm sure of it now.

"It says I should read it when I'm older. When I'm a woman, instead of a little girl."

"Really?" Remus practically exclaimed. She's a woman? But she's only my age. He sniffed and scratched his head. "Um, I mean... So what exactly did the letter say?" After a few moments silence, he steadied his gaze at where he was sure she was seated. "Lada? You can tell me, you know."

"It says they couldn't keep me." Her voice sounded thicker and he heard her clear her throat. "It says that... that the Atrum Conventio were after them."

"Atrum Conventio?" Remus wrinkled his brow. "Doesn't that just mean 'dark coven?' What's that?"

"I've heard Albus talk about them before. It's a tribe of women who travel for... something. They're not witches, but they're magical. They could be classified as magical creatures but no one knows much about them. I think they kill anyone who sees them... or something like that."

"So why were they after your family? I mean, your biological family?" Remus asked.

"I don't know. He just wrote that they took his first two children, two girls, but left his son."

"You mean, your brother."

"I suppose."

"So you have a brother, then?"

"No."

Remus scratched his head again in confusion. "I don't understand."

"The Atrum Conventio... They told him, my birth father... That they had... that they... killed... his two eldest daughters... Then they demanded that they hand over their youngest child... me."

"But they didn't hand you over, I'm assuming?" Remus asked.

"Right. They refused. So the coven, or whatever they are, they said... They gave them one day. They said that if my family didn't hand me over within one day then they would come back and kill all of them."

"So then what happened?"

"Then they left me on Albus's doorstep."

"So that's it?" Remus shook his head. "Well then maybe you still have family out there. Maybe they ran and that tribe couldn't find them. Or maybe -"

"No." Lada interrupted him. "The Atrium tribe... They're not like us... that's what makes them different from humans. You can't run from them. They know everything. I know, because Albus was worried that You-Know-Who would try to take control of them like he did with the dementors. Only the women, if they are women, they don't like Him for some reason and they declined his offer of allegiance."

"So..." Remus cleared his throat. "Your family..."

"They're dead."

"So why didn't the coven people ever go after you later on?"

"I don't know." Lada's voice sounded strained. "They would know, right? It's not like they can't find me. Only, I think Albus may have met one or two before so maybe... Maybe he convinced them to leave me alone? I don't know..."

"Wow." Remus blew out a long breath of air and looked at the floor.

"Yeah... I..." A strange noise emitted from her general direction.

Remus looked back up at where he assumed her position was. "Lada?"

"It's just that..!" She exclaimed. "Why would anyone do that?" Is she crying? "I mean, one life in exchange for three others? They could've just handed me over, you know? And then they'd be fine." She is crying. "That's not right... And what... what did those people want with my family? What do they want with me? I've never done anything to them!"

"Of course you haven't done anything to them." Remus said as he scooted toward her. "And maybe your family didn't do anything to them, either. Maybe those... women... are just insane."

"But how am I ever going to know?" Remus heard Lada say as he reached out for her. "What -!"

His hand was suddenly hit and he fell backwards slightly onto the pink carpet. Remus heard the shuffling noises that meant that Lada was rising to her feet, so he stood quickly as well.

"Lada!" He cried, exasperated. "I'm not going to hurt you!"

"Just leave me alone." Came a snappy reply. "Thanks for the chat, but I'm all talked out for the night. You can go now. Or, I'll go."

"Lada..." Remus reached out instinctively and grabbed hold of her arm. Lucky shot. He thought to himself. "Look, you shouldn't be alone right now. You don't need to pretend that you're fine when you're not."

"You don't know that." He barely heard her, she spoke in so low of a whisper.

Remus sighed and let his hand glide down to her wrist slowly. He reached out and held her hand with both hands, once he found it. Index finger... middle finger... ring finger. He felt around for a small metallic bump and then gently slid the band off of her finger.

Lada appeared instantly, her platinum blonde hair, usually tied into a bun or ponytail, was cascading down her back and around her shoulders. Her robes looked slightly wrinkled from, Remus assumed, sitting around on the floor. When Remus's gaze fell on her face, however, his heart sank deep into his chest. "Lada..." He whispered. "Don't cry."

"Oh, shut up." Lada grumbled, looking down at the floor.

Remus, still holding her one hand in his own, reached out with his other to tilt her chin up so that she would look at him. "Come here." He said softly.

Lada's bottom lip trembled and she stepped toward Remus, closing the distance between the two of them. He wrapped his arms around her back and patted her hair down as she took a deep breath into the crook of his neck, clutching to the front of his robes.

"Shhh." Remus hushed her. "It's gonna be okay..."


:AN: Okay, I've updated! Yes :) The next chapter will be up in a few days (a week, tops). Hope you guys liked it! Please review!