She looked around and didn't see anything at first, but then she heard a soft sobbing. Jamie turned to her left and saw a small child sitting on the steps, shoulders shaking. She walked over to the little girl and said softly, "Hey, my name is Jamie, would you like to come inside?" The girl nodded and stood up, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. Holding the girl's small hand, Jamie led her inside. "Someone just dropped her off." She explained to the four sets of questioning eyes on her and peered down to get a good look at the trembling girl. Red-blonde hair hung down to the tiny shoulders, wide purplish-gray eyes looked at everyone with a mixture of confusion and fear, tiny freckles dotted the bridge of her nose. Andrew got up from his seat, slowly approaching the little girl and kneeled down to her level, ⌠What's your name?" he asked in a gentle voice. Silence. Jamie noticed a small envelope pinned to the girl's jacket and took it off. She opened it and started to read out loud:
To the Little Angels Orphanage
I know that dropping this child on your doorstep and leaving wasn't a very considerate thing to do, but we had no choice. The child is four years old, her name is Jade Lily and she was born on May 10th 2010. We know that we should have come to the door with her, but we couldn't bear to see the realization on Jade's face. With no money and our deaths in the near future, you were the only hope we had to ensure Jade is cared for by someone, and hopefully, given a better life and family that can provide for her. Please help her find a wonderful loving family.
Thank you
Jade's Guardians
Putting the letter back in its envelope, Jamie once again looked down at the little girl, "Well, I guess I'll go get her situated. I think that there's still one bed on the girl's side." She picked Jade up and carried her upstairs, no protest was heard from her. The others began discussing matters after she was out of sight, like the lack of money coming in and the upcoming adoption day. Dreading the answer, Abigail asked, "Austin, how many kids do we have?" Looking through his papers he quickly answered, "Twelve boys and sixteen girls, eleven of those 28 are babies and toddlers." He looked to his boss , "And where does this new girl fit in?" "Well, she's four so that makes her the youngest girl here that's not wearing diapers." Abigail ended the discussion, and with hurried good-byes, all four either got to work or left. Jamie left the little girl on her new bed offering worn words of comfort. When the woman walked out of the room, Jade's eyes filled with tears, overwhelming loneliness cradling her to sleep.
Meanwhile, Abigail Morgan went to her office and proceeded to update the list of kids at the orphanage. When she finished, she frowned again to herself at the number of kids currently residing at the already-too-small orphanage, then put the list away and went to help Austin and Jamie.
Not too far away in the magical community, a young couple that had been married for little less than a year sat holding hands in the waiting room of St.Mungo's; the well known wizarding hospital. The man, only 24, would occasionally lean in and whisper to his wife, just 23, that everything was going to be alright. You see, both had fought in a war that cost the evil wizard Lord Voldermort, and many others to lose their lives. Through the terrible years of fighting and death, these two became fast friends and eventually fell in love, a light in dark times.
The young man was none other than Draco Malfoy, the son of a Voldermort's right hand man and a useful spy to the order in the last months of the war. Harry Potter himself would vouch for Draco now, for he had saved his life during the last battle. Draco's young bride was Ginerva Weasley, she too had come to trust Draco completely. And now here they were, sitting in St. Mungo's waiting for the results of the test she had taken earlier. Soon enough a mediwitch approached them and sat down in a chair in front of them. "I've got some good news, and some bad news.
Which would you like first?" she asked gently. Ginny answered for both of them, "The good. Please." She squeezed Draco's hand in anticipation. The young mediwitch looked at them and began, "Well, the good news is you have a wonderful, healthy six-year-old son, and you should be very proud of him." Draco's eyes closed as he remembered the day Gideon was born, exactly nine months after the best day of his life. He and Ginny had been trapped in a cave after luring Death Eaters into an Auror trap, a blast from someone's wand had caved them in.
And they had loved each other. Now Gideon was six, the apple of Ginny's eye, and the light of Draco's heart. The grip on his hand became tighter as the young woman with the clipboard went on, " However, I'm afraid that Gideon will be an only child." And proceeded to tell them the test results. It seemed Ginny, after Gideon was born, stressed her body to the point of breaking, and was unable to have more children. Ginny collapsed against Draco, not wanting to believe it, but the same time knowing it was true. Draco comforted Ginny as best he could without losing it himself. After sitting there for what seemed like hours, but was only minutes, Draco stood up and helped Ginny to her feet. He thanked the mediwitch, then, hand in hand, they slowly walked to the apparition point, and went home. Once there, they collapsed on the loveseat in the sitting room. And Draco held Ginny tight as her heart broke.
It had been a month since Jade had been dropped off, and she had slowly broken out of her lonely shell. The staff was surprised at her friendly demeanor after being so quiet and withdrawn. The twins, Taylor and Trevor, who were brought in the same day had been taken with her; lovingly calling her tiger and teasingly Jake, for she was quite the tomboy. They had even gone as far as to say they adopted her as their little sister! On any day, if you took a peek at Jade, Taylor, and Trevor, you would find them inseparable.
Today, they were playing outside with some of the other kids, when Jade, having too much fun to care about silly rocks, tripped over and fell. Emilie, who was closest to Jade, helped her get into a sitting position, while Rebecca and Hannah, as soon as they saw the blood, ran inside to find the closest adult. Rebecca and Hannah found Andrew and started to squeak out the situation. The twins were by her side in an instant; Trevor wiping her tears while Taylor tried to make her laugh. Andrew rushed outside, and forgetting how close the twins and Jade were, pushed them away and started to pick her up. Jade however didn't like the idea and let out a fresh howl of pain and anger.
Andrew quickly remembered the bond and said soothingly "It's okay, the boys will come with you." He then picked her up, walking quickly to the first floor bathroom and settling her down on the sink. Taylor and Trevor stood on each side of her to keep her calm. It took Andrew only a few minutes to clean Jade up and bandage her cut. With a 'You're all set,' and a popsicle, she was off to play, the twins right next to her; and this time, mindful of the Jade-hating rocks.
Meanwhile, at Malfoy manor, there was laughter ringing throughout the halls. Today, a couple was celebrating the 7th birthday of their son Gideon. As much fun as all the guests were having, the father of the birthday boy was wishing of something he would never have. For the last week, he had been daydreaming all of the time, and a child at the party threw him back into his own world...Katie. Ron and Hermione had brought their two children to the party; Isaac, their oldest, was a year younger than Gideon. Their second, only four, was Kathryn Alia, or Katie for short.
For some reason, Draco just could not keep his eyes off the youngest Weasley. Ever since their visit to St.Mungos a month ago, a small ache had slivered into his heart, an ache for a little girl of his own. But Draco couldn't tell Ginny, it would break her heart all over again. And so there he was, sitting in an armchair watching his beautiful son open presents, and wishing he had a little girl to pamper. Suddenly a hand touched his shoulder, Draco's head snapped to the connecting face, startled out of his trance. It was Molly Weasley. She smiled at her son-in-law, following his gaze to Katie, and noting the wishful look on his face.