The Muggle orphanage smelled of disinfectant, dried spit, and urine. The Malfoys in their tailored robes looked very out of place among the sickly yellow walls that were covered in children's drawings.

Unsurprisingly, Dumbledore looked right at home.

"I've taken the liberty of having Anne bring out little Hermione," he said as the Malfoy's approached him. "Delightful woman."

"Does she know about, er- us?" Lucius asked, shaking his head when Dumbledore held out a peppermint stick.

The headmaster nodded, "Anne's mother was a witch. She noticed the signs in Hermione almost immediately. Peppermint, Narcissa?"

"No, thank you."

Narcissa felt a twinge of pity as she studied the drawings on the wall. Most were of stick figure children, but there were quite a few animals depicted as well. There were a few blobs that were striped orange-and-black that she assumed were meant to be tigers, and she internally decided to enroll Draco in art classes as soon as he was old enough to hold a crayon.

"Ah!" Dumbledore's pleased voice cut across her thoughts, "Here we are. Lucius, Narcissa, allow me to introduce your daughter- Hermione."

Narcissa thought it was awfully presumptive of Dumbledore to call the girl their daughter when they had not even met the child yet, but she nonetheless found herself drawing closer to the woman who had brought Hermione through the double doors behind Dumbledore. The woman was thin and sour-faced with colorless hair that clung to her skull. Had the Malfoys bothered to look at her, they might have been unnerved by the glare of open hostility that was upon her face. Fortunately for them, they were much too interested in the little girl to notice the woman carrying her.

At least she's pretty, Narcissa thought as she examined the child.

The girl had soft, golden brown curls that fell in ringlets around her ears. Her face was pretty, with a button nose and a frowning mouth. Large honey brown eyes watched Narcissa gravely, and then flicked over to Lucius.

Narcissa stole a glance at her husband, and was surprised to see the soft smile that had crept across his face.

"Hello, Hermione," Dumbledore said, reaching out to take the toddler's hand. Narcissa bit back a laugh as the girl slid her fingers out his grasp, and fixed him with a reproachful look.

"Mama?" She looked expectantly around the room, "Mama come?"

Something ached in her chest as she watched the girl look around for her dead mother, and she wished that she had brought Draco.

Dumbledore let out a sigh, "No, Hermione. She is not coming. But your new Mama is here. Narcissa, perhaps you could take the child?"

She looked at him as if he had asked her to go waltz with a Hippogriff. "I don't know if that's appropriate yet, Dumbledore, she doesn't even know who we are."

Lucius, who had always been one to tackle a problem head-on, took the situation into his own hands.

"Hello, Hermione," he gave a little bow, and held out his arms, "May I hold you?"

The girl eyed him uncertainly, but raised her arms in consent.

"That's a good girl," a grin stretched across his face as he lifted the girl away from the woman, and settled her into his arms. "I'm going to be your new Papa, and my wife," he nodded at Narcissa, "will be your new Mother. How does that sound?"

Narcissa watched the girl look over at her with the same serious expression, and then back at Lucius. "Mama come?"

Lucius shook his head gently, "No, your Mama is gone. But Papa is here." He smiled, "And your little brother is waiting at home to meet you."

From the corner of her eye, Narcissa saw Dumbledore's grin.

"We've got a room decorated just for you, I think you're going to like it, it's got your name above to door-"

While Lucius told the girl all about the wonders of Malfoy Manor, Narcissa followed Anne and Dumbledore into a cramped office and signed the papers. Anne said nothing, but jabbed her finger towards the signature line on each of the forms, and left it at that.

"Has she seen a Healer recently?" Narcissa asked as she signed what felt like the 90th form.

Dumbledore sucked his peppermint and nodded, "She saw a Healer the night of the attack, and she's also seen a Doctor- a Muggle Healer," he explained when Narcissa's face scrunched up in confusion. "Both gave her a clean bill of health."

Narcissa looked around the dingy office and privately wondered if her clean bill of health had been compromised during her stay.

"Done!" Anne announced in a high, shrill voice. She fished around the drawers of her desk and pulled a large grubby envelope free. After stuffing a fistful of papers into it she passed it to Narcissa. "You may take her now."

"Ah, there's one last thing," Dumbledore said. He pulled a scroll from his sleeve, and unrolled it. "This will officially make Hermione a part of the Malfoy family for the purposes of our world. Lucius, would you come in here for a moment?"

Narcissa was surprised to find that there was still room in the tiny office for Lucius and the child.

"You may wish to change her middle name as well," suggested Dumbledore with a meaningful look, "Something that might speak of her purer roots."

Narcissa glared at the infuriating old man, "Doesn't she have a middle name already?"

Dumbledore shrugged, "I was simply suggesting that you pick out something a little more connected."

"Perhaps we could have a few moments to speak alone," Lucius cut in. "This is a delicate subject, and we might have an easier time picking the perfect name if we had some privacy."

Anne did not look thrilled about leaving the three alone in her office, but she nonetheless allowed Dumbledore to lead her into the corridor. As soon as the door was shut, Narcissa rounded on her husband.

"You know he's only doing this to force us to bond with the child!"

"It's not that big of a deal," Lucius was gently bouncing Hermione in his arms, "we'll pick a name to shut up Dumbledore-"

"We didn't agree to this!"

Lucius slowly met her gaze, "Cissy, in the scheme of things this is nothing. We knew we would be raising her, taking her into our lives as a member of our family. You know how important names can be, don't you want to have some part in picking hers?"

"No," she looked away from his penetrating gaze. How could she put into words how wrong this felt? "Draco is our child."

"And once this paper has been signed, Hermione will be our child as well."

She flinched as if she had been struck, "You can't mean that?" Her eyes flicked over his face, searching for some sign that he was joking. She found none. "Lucius, this is a muggleborn, do you realize what we're doing to our family by taking her in?" She barely registered the child shrinking away from her harsh tone, burrowing into Lucius' robes.

"We are saving our family. If accepting a mud-muggleborn into our house will save our son I will embrace a dozen new children. The Dark Lord thinks she is going to be my heir in all but name, if we are going to pull this off we need to at least attempt to care for the child."

"I agreed to raise her. I agreed to make sure that she is fed, clothed, schooled, taken care of. I never agreed to name her."

"Cissy, it's a small thing-"

Narcissa interrupted him, "Name her what you want. I'll have no part of it."

His gaze darkened. Keeping one arm firmly around Hermione, he jerked the parchment towards him and used the quill Dumbledore had left to complete the form. Then, without looking at her, he shoved the form towards her and stormed out of the office.

Her eyes sought out the name that he had written, and her lip curled in distaste.

Hermione Narcissa Malfoy

She was half-tempted to scratch the name out and write in a new one. Her only assumption was that by naming the child after her Lucius hoped to endear her to the girl. Well, he could try all he wanted. The child was not her daughter, and she never would be.

Then, with a scowl, she scrawled her signature over the line marked "Mother".

A/N: Thank you for reading! And a huge thank you to those who reviewed/followed/favorited, I was beginning to have doubts about this story, so I'm really grateful for your comments.

A couple of notes:

The main pairing in this story will be Bellamione (eventually)

The main storyline begins in the sixth book, but there are going to be a few chapters before that highlighting key events in Hermione's childhood/in the first few books that I think are important.

Please review and let me know what you think!

Happy New Year!