Something was different about Sirius. He was born about two weeks before Mummy died. He always smiled at me but cried when Ginny came in. I think he somehow sensed that I needed someone in the house on my side so the only time he was ever mean to me was when Ginny was in the same room.

Ginny was relentless now that Mummy was gone. She ignored me and when she spoke to me it was only to say about how weird my features made me look. "They may have worked on your mother," she said snidely. "But you look completely abnormal!" I never said anything.

I never spoke at all. Or ate. I stopped eating and just sat at the dinner table staring at my plate but not touching a thing. At first my father was upset. He yelled for a while. Then he humored me but when he realized that I wasn't going to start talking or eating he just ignored it.

Ginny wasn't so easy. That only fueled her to be even meaner to me. She never said anything direct in front of my father. Only things like, "I feel terrible for those orphans out there," but when he wasn't there she was cruel and mean. I taught myself not to cry or to show any emotion.

The first week without eating I felt weak. But as time wore on, my body learned to function without food. I don't know how I survived an entire year without food, but I did. There were times I got sick, of course, but nothing I couldn't handle. I never spoke either. At school that only caused kids to be mean to me, but I made a friend. Ananda Manuel. Her mother was African and her father was from India. She understood me even when I never spoke. She spoke enough for the both of us. We had sleepovers and she convinced me to join her dance classes. I learned to tap and jazz and belly dancing. I wasn't very good at ballet like Ananda was because I started so late, but I was able to do the basic moves. It kept me out of the house and out of Ginny's clutches.

"So this weekend we can go to the shops with Mummy and we'll buy our costumes for Enri's party next weekend," Ananda said, proud that she had figured it out all by herself.

The two girls were sitting in their school cafeteria. Maleah had done what she did everyday; she opened her lunch and gave everything away while sitting with Ananda. They were both in their fourth out of five years at Magical Academy which was school before they each went off to secondary school for training.

Maleah smiled and just rolled her eyes.

"I'll have you know, Miss Maleah Lily Potter," Ananda said primly, correctly reading Maleah's look as always, "that I am a very smart person and complex thoughts such as these are a very big accomplishment."

Maleah raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, shut up!"

The two girls fell into giggles, Maleah's silent. No one understood how the two could be friends if Maleah never spoke, but the two nine year olds, who found out their birthdays were only a day apart-Ananda's on the 29th of July, Maleah's on the 30th-seemed to make it work..

"So, Mummy will ring your daddy tonight and schedule," Ananda said. Ananda knew better than to ring Ginny. She would never agree and always griped on Harry on letting Maleah have so much freedom when she was so "intolerant."

Maleah nodded and helped Ananda clean up when the bell for class rang.

"It's going to be so much fun! Mummy says that she'll even let us buy heels! Only small ones though," Ananda added sulkily. "But you can be sure that Cassandra Humphrey doesn't have any heels! She thinks she so cool because he father owns the Cannons."

Maleah shot her a look.

"Exactly!" Ananda agreed. "They still suck!"

There was obviously bad blood between Ananda and Cassandra. They'd been friends when younger but once thy started school, Cassandra had ditched Ananda. Whatever. Maleah shrugged and smiled sheepishly.

Ananda waved her hand. "Oh, it's not your fault. Plus, I would've never been friends with you, so Cassandra doesn't matter."

Maleah was always thankful for that.

"Well then, I guess it's settled," Harry said over the fire that evening.

He and Maleah were in his office when Ananda's mother, Kia, fire-called. He sat back down and looked at Maleah who was doing her homework on the floor of his office. "She's going to pick you two up from school tomorrow and you'll spend the weekend at her house and be back Monday after school."

Maleah smiled brightly at her father and he smiled softly in response. Sometimes in the middle of the night he'd find himself walking to her room and watching her sleep. She was so beautiful and looked amazingly like him and her mother. Perfect. He'd wonder how he'd ever not notice how beautiful she was. The moment Katia had died, he never wanted to forget.

Maleah went back to her homework and Harry back to his accounts when Ginny burst into the room. She glared at Maleah and made a show kissing Harry. "It's almost ten, darling, why are you still down here working?" she purred.

Harry sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I took a break. I'll be up in minutes."

Ginny smiled and left the room after shooting another glare at Maleah. Maleah just sneered back at the woman before returning to her homework. Fifteen minutes later Maleah stood and stretched. She caught her father's eye and left the room to go to sleep.

"How much money did your dad give you?" Ananda asked as they settled into her princess-style bedroom, inspired by muggle princess Grace Kelly.

Maleah lifted up three fingers.

"Hundred?"

Maleah shook her head.

"Thousand?" Ananda asked incredulously.

Maleah nodded. She waved her finger between them and smiled.

"Aw, you don't have to pay for me."

Maleah rolled her eyes.

"Well excuse me if I thought you were being generous," Ananda said rolling her eyes.

The two giggled.

"Eew, that's so tacky. It looks like something Cassandra Humphrey would wear," Ananda said referring to the orange dress hanging in the window of Valentino.

Maleah looked at the dress. She had to agree. It would be a beautiful dress, but it was tawdry. She took Ananda's hand and led her to the blue dress on the other side of the window. Ananda gasped. "It's just like a princess'. Oh, Mummy, I have to have it!"

Kia eyed the dress and the price tag shown. "Na-."

"Mummy!"

Kia sighed. "Okay, fine, but I still believe you are too young for a Valentino dress. You two should be shopping at Macy's or something."

The two girls pulled a face.

"Mummy, eew. That's for normal people!"

"I'll have you know," Kia said as she entered the store, "that I shop at Macy's, and the fairy costume you love so much is from Macy's. Just because it's a department store does not mean you cannot find fashionable items there."

"Okay, fine," Ananda groaned. "We'll go visit Macy's….after we buy the dress."

Ananda exchanged a look with Maleah and they both fell into laughter at the thought of shopping at Macy's.

Kia rolled her eyes and asked herself why she put up with the two girls.

Thanks for all the reviews, but I have an announcement. I'm taking a writing break. I know, I should've taken it before I posted the story, but… Anyway, it's not going to be long, I just have homework and things to finish so I won't have time to update every other day or something. Probably just once a week until May-that's when I'll have time to do anything else. As for the reviews asking why Ginny is like this, it will be revealed in later chapters. It wasn't my intent to have Ginny be hated, actually it was, but I hope you can see past that once her reason comes out.