7th February 2020

Nigrum flos Mortis chpt4

Why can't little boys be nice to each other?

Lucius stepped out into muggle London and to the small alleyway next to the Leaky Cauldron, he looked down at the address and apparated to another alleyway near the office. Conjuring a set of documents that made it seem like he was Harry's appointed guardian in case all other options had been exhausted, which would be the case. He stepped through the door and walk to the receptionist.

"Good afternoon, I am Lucius Malfoy. I recently read an article regarding a boy that due to unfortunate circumstances has no know relatives that are capable of caring for him, his name is Harry Potter. I have legal documentation stating that I am a potential guardian signed by his late parents." Lucius presented the papers, the receptionist's eyes widened and went to the phone, asking if a Joan was currently busy. She then gestured for Lucius to wait a moment, he was disgusted the lack of decorum but hid it behind an impassive face not wanting to jeopardize his chances of meeting the child.

"Sir, if you could please could take a seat, the social worker will be with you in a moment." She then gestured to a set of very underwhelming chairs, near what Lucius assumed was a muggle playpen for young children. Lucius decided to just stand in the waiting area, wishing that the muggles would hurry up. Luckily a moment later a slightly dishevelled looking women walked out of a door to the right of the waiting room.

"Mr Malfoy, I assume?" She stuck out her hand, Lucius assumed to be shaken. Still wanting to make a good impression, Lucius graciously grasped the muggles hand and shook it. "I am Joan Davis, Harry's social worker. I am responsible for facilitating Harry's adoption, which if all the paperwork is correct, will be happening soon. Please come through to my office, we need to go over everything." Ms Davis turned around and walked back through the door, Lucius following behind.

"Now as you most probably know, Harry was found to be a victim of child abuse from his previous guardians. Which has resulted in him being removed from their custody. I need to verify this paperwork and then will explain the situation to you." Ms Davis sat down in the chair behind the desk, Lucius doing so in one of the two in front of it. The social worker began to examine each part of the documents Lucius had conjured. Wanting this to proceed as a quicker rate Lucius cast a compulsion on the women to believe that the papers were infallible and that he was the next guardian.

"Seems like the documents are all in favour. Lucky you found out in the papers, there is barely anything in Harry or his parents. Not even a will." The struck Lucius, despite being primarily located in the Wizarding World the Potters would have most probably ensured through Gringotts that their will was executed in both worlds. Thinking about it there had been no reading of the will in the wizarding world either, remembering Severus going about it at the time.

"Surprisingly, in the past month at the hospital, Harry has recovered quickly. His body will take time to recover from the abuse completely, and the doctors have stated that he will never grow fully due to being deprived of food. As for psychologically, he seems to have recovered… he hasn't really opened up to anyone but is no longer terrified of interacting with the hospital staff and myself. He is currently placed at St. Peter's orphanage in Surrey, and according to the matron Harry is doing okay."

"When will I be able to take Harry home?" Lucius interjected, wanting to not waste more time.

"Well, I'll need to do a home inspection and perform multiple checks in during the transition period. So probably within the next two weeks," Two weeks!? That was too much time for someone else find out about Harry and simply steal him. "However, you can visit him today if you like. Probably would be better actually, get him used to you. That would be good, he could check if it was the Harry Potter, then cast a strong compulsion for the muggle to speed up the process and have the boy by the end of the day.

"That sounds great, I do hope the boy takes well to me. Shall we head to the orphanage now?" Lucius stood up, Ms Davis nodded her head. She picked up what Lucius assumed were keys to the vehicles muggles used to get around.

"Ah, we won't be needing those," Lucius sent a petrificus totalus at the social worker, placed her in a chair and made his way back into the main office. He sent a quick obliviate at the receptionist, removing his name from their interactions. Leaving the rest of the memory so that if any wizard capable of legilimens checked, it would just be a forgetful receptionist. Going back into the office, he cast a simple muggle-repelling charm on the door, so no one would find that both inhabitants had left. Lucius grabbed a hold of Ms Davis, cast a concealment charm on both of them and apparated to an alleyway near the orphanage. Turning to the social worker, Lucius quickly obliviated the stunning and journey from her mind and encouraged her mind to create a memory of them both travelling in her vehicle for fifty minutes, and then leaving it a couple of roads away from the orphanage. He removed the concealment charm and cast an ennervate on the women, and stepped out into the pavement.

"Are you alright? You almost collapsed against the side of the building." Lucius faked concern at the social worker, making up a reason as to why the last few minutes would be blurry.

"I, I am fine. Just had a lot of work, and it must of have caught up to me. I am so sorry; I hope this doesn't look I am unable to care for my wards?" Lucius shook his head and then turned to look at the orphanage. It was a quite small building and looked rather neglected. No matter that muggles were a lower species than wizards, he would not wish these living conditions on any child, let alone the wizarding worlds supposed saviour.

"Well here we are, we'll go into the reception and get one of the nuns to bring Harry to the meeting room." They both made their way inside the building and were greeted by an older woman that wore a chain with a rather large cross on her neck. The women, Sister Paula, guided them into a room and told them to wait whilst she gathered the children and promptly left before Lucius could tell her that he already had a child in mind. Lucius turned to Ms Davis,

"Why is she rounding up all the children, I just would like to see Harry?" Ms Davis then made a sheepish face.

"We were hoping to see if you were willing to adopt another child as well. As well, I would like to see if you can identify Harry, one last check you could say." Lucius schooled his expression and sent her a small smile. Well, he was certainly not here to adopt a muggle and he could easily identify a child with a lightning scar. He took a seat and hoped that the children would appear soon.

Harry was cowering in a toilet stall, the boys had found all the food he hadn't eaten and had been storing under his bed. They had called a weirdo and stupid, Billy had even spat at him. So he ran to the toilets and had locked himself inside the stall for a while, he knew he had missed the lunch bell, but he was too scared to leave. What would the Sisters do once they found out? H didn't want to be kicked out!

Despite not being able to eat it, Harry had found comfort in knowing that he could access food anytime he wanted. In the past two weeks that harry had been orphanage the boys his age and slightly older had started to pick on him. They had never hit him, but he had heard them whisper about how quiet he was, and that he was weird. It was nothing as bad as the Dursley's, and Harry didn't want to be taken away so he didn't tell any of the Sisters.

Harry sniffled then heard his age groups' adoption bell ring. The orphanage had four additional bells to the meal bells, each for a different age group, 4-6, 8-10,11-13 and 14-18. The last adoption bells for his age group were rung the most apparent, the last two barely ever. One girl said that in the last adoption bell hadn't been rung in a year.

Not wanting to upset the Sisters he made his way to the greeting room, where all the children his age would gather to greet the potential adopters. Billy shoved him to the end of the line, saying he didn't want his chances of being adopted ruined because he stood near the weird kid. Harry said nothing and stayed at the end of the line, waiting for Sister Paula to lead them into the room. He knew that he would be passed over, he was so scrawny and weird, what adult would want him? Aunt and Uncle had shown him that no one would want him as their child.