Draco Malfoy was terrified. He was really starting to regret volunteering to go on this mission. Hell, he hadn't even volunteered, the whole thing was his own idea.
When he left the wizarding world, he was freaking out. When the first truck passed him, he was ready to shit in his pants.
He had never been this far out of his comfort-zone, and he had become a Death Eater at sixteen. He tried not to reflect on, what that said about his childhood.
He had spoken briefly with Dean Thomas about what to expect from the muggle world, talking about it was one thing. Experiencing was something completely else. He was determined however, to show he could be trusted, and he wasn't biased against muggles.
When he had walked into Thomas's office, the guy had looked scared. When he told him about his intentions to go into the muggle world, he had stared at Draco as if he was insane.
Draco was starting to agree with him.
He hadn't known, what to expect from the orphanage, but this wasn't it.
He had seen pictures of Tom Riddle's first home, but this modern house with cheerful colors and a large garden littered with toys was far from the expectation he had of a dilapidated building from the 40's
This felt more like a home, than an institution, so he felt an obligation to knock politely on the door, rather than just walking in.
Opening the door, was a 6-year-old girl, with white blonde hair and two missing front teeth.
Dammit. He knew it was an orphanage, but he hadn't expected having to actually interact with children.
"Um- Hello?" He stammered out.
"Who're you?" she asked him, looking thoroughly unimpressed.
"I'm Draco Malfoy" He tried speaking gently. He had no idea, how to speak to a child. "Is there an adult somewhere…?" He trailed off.
The girl rolled her eyes. "Rose is in the kitchen, and Maeve is in the living room with the smaller kids."
"Can you lead me to them?"
"Maeve is probably busy, but you can come with me, I guess."
Draco went inside, and politely wiped his shoes on the mat. Two older boys, came running past them, one chasing the other with a foam sword. Draco couldn't help the small smile that crept onto his face.
The kitchen was very large, and in it, was a young woman, around her thirties. She turned around to look at the newcomers, with only a slight look of surprise.
"Hello. Is there something I can help you with? Visiting days are Tuesdays and Thursdays."
"Yes, I'm not here to visit, I'm afraid. Is there somewhere we can talk privately?" Draco glanced down at the girl.
"Ivy, could you please do me a favour, and tell Michael to come and take over for me in the kitchen?"
The girl looked up at Draco, narrowing her eyes as if to say "You be careful mister, you're in enemy territory"
He hadn't imagined one could be intimidated by a 6-year-old, but he stood, paralyzed, until the girl had skipped her way down the hall.
Rose led him in the other direction and up a staircase, into a small office, stocked with filing cabinets.
"Now, can I ask, what this is about?" She said, closing the door behind her.
"Yes. I don't know if you've seen the news, about a missing young woman, Hermione Granger?"
"Of course, I have, how could I not? It's all over the news on the telly, and the streets are littered with posters and flyers."
"Um, right. The thing is, that Hermione was adopted as a baby, and we have reason to believe, that her abduction has something to do with her, um – birth parents. Before her adoption, she was in this orphanage, but her file says nothing of her origins. I was wondering if you could tell me?"
She looked hesitant.
"I'm afraid, I can't tell you much without a warrant." She said carefully.
"Oh! Right, I have it right here." He fumbled, getting the piece of paper out of his pocket, praying to whatever deity was out there, that Kingsley had done a good job.
"Alright. That… Should be in order." She put the warrant in a desk drawer, and Draco let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
"We were actually talking about that case, the other night. Maeve is the one you should speak to though. She was the one who received her. But it will have to wait. We have many mouths that are hungry. It's dinner time, and at the moment it's only Maeve and me. I can only imagine the chaos if I were to sit alone with all the kids."
"Oh. Are they bad behaved?"
"Oh no. I'm just a really bad influence. You're welcome to join us though."
…
The table was huge enough for twenty people. At the moment, fifteen children were sitting around it, all in varying ages, the oldest, looking to be around seventeen. This served as a reminder to Draco, of how young he actually was himself. He still felt mentally closer to forty, and he was sure he looked older than he was as well, or else Rose would have never accepted that warrant from him. He wondered if they would ever be able to go back to school and be normal kids, when Hogwarts was rebuilt. He highly doubted that.
The mood at the table was cheerful and raucous. Only, when Maeve stepped through the door, did the kids calm down a little. Not out of fear, but out of respect. Maeve herself looked to be a little over fifty, with greying hair, and a caring, but stern demeanour. If she thought there was something odd about seeing another person at the table, she didn't let on.
They were having vegetable lasagne. A boy slammed his fork down on the table and crossed his arms.
"I'm not eating that! Veggies are disgusting!"
"Maybe. But not as disgusting as the scurvy you're going to have from lack of vitamin C" Rose said, with a scary smile, that made both Draco and the boy eat with gusto.
As a general, the children were speaking, laughing and enjoying their dinner. All except Ivy, who was sitting across from Draco, glaring at him, chewing aggressively.
After dinner, she grabbed his arm
"You're not supposed to be here!" She hissed at him.
Draco narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean by that?"
"You're different, I can feel it, and you need to leave."
Draco looked at the girl confusedly, but then he felt the slightest disturbance in his own powers, like something small was trying to push him away. A little witch. His frown turned into a grin, and he knelt down next to her
"Technically, by that definition, you're not supposed to be here either, then. You're like me." He told her in a low voice.
The girl's eyes widened.
"Yes." She whispered. "But I like it here. Rose and Maeve are nice. No one else want to adopt me because I'm strange."
"Oh no. You're not strange, you, are perfect. Never let anyone tell you otherwise." He smiled softly at her. "Now, unfortunately, I have to go talk with Maeve, but I promise you I'll come to visit you. It would seem we have something to talk about. Tuesdays and Thursdays, right?"
She hesitated. "You promise?"
"Promise"
He stood up, and Ivy went and hugged his legs, making him grin.
She ran out, and Draco went upstairs in search of Maeve. He found her in the same office, he had spoken to Rose in.
"I was wondering, when someone would come knocking. Rose said you were looking for Hermione?"
"Yes, we are. We have reason to suspect, it has something to do about her birth parents."
"I always thought it was a little suspicious, the way she arrived here, but I couldn't do much, other than take her in."
"How was it suspicious?"
"Well, most of the children arriving here, are brought by the authorities in some form or other. The police of social services for instance, but one night there was a knock on the door. It was very late, and outside, was a man, holding a baby, not more than four months old."
"Is it possible for you to describe him for me?"
He was thankful for his godfather's extra lessons in legilimency and occlumency, which allowed him to sneak into the woman's mind, almost undetected. He supposed it was a little unorthodox, doing it without permission, but it got the job done.
"He didn't seem like the type to have a child. I remember thinking that. He was wearing a leather jacket, and he had long black hair, and he had an earring as well. The only thing he said was 'Take care of her. Her name is Hermione.' And then he pushed her into my arms. She was the most adorable little thing."
The memory was a little hazy, which was only to be expected, considering how long ago the scene happened. It felt fuzzy, and out of focus, but when he saw the man, he had no doubt about the man's identity.
He didn't know what to make of that.
…
Harry was on his way to have dinner at the Burrow. It was usually a place to relax, and unwind, but now, he was too preoccupied. At least Ginny would be there. She could always make him feel better.
Entering the kitchen of the Burrow, he felt the familiar warmth of the Weasley home, but it was now tainted by melancholy. Molly still hadn't taken Fred's image off the clock. It would feel wrong to do so.
"Hello stranger" A gentle voice murmured into the back of his t-shirt, pale, freckled, delicate arms snaked around him from behind, and a grin broke out on his face.
"Ginny" He turned clumsily around in her embrace. Her arms weren't that long, but she was stubborn enough, not to let go.
She was beautiful. The most amazing girl in the world, and she loved him. Not the Chosen One or The Boy Who Lived, Just Harry. He leaned down and captured her lips in a kiss, ignoring George and Ron, who were making gagging noises in the background.
They pulled away, both looking dazed.
"Right, right, that's enough" Ron interrupted, moving in between his little sister and his best friends, making Harry laugh.
It was nice, feeling so light hearted. It was a shame it didn't happen more often these days.
…
After an amazing dinner (Thank you Mrs. Weasley) He went to help the Weasley matriarch in the kitchen.
"Thanks for dinner Mrs. Weasley. It was delicious." He smiled at her.
She tsk'ed, exasperatedly "Oh, Harry, enough of that nonsense. I've told you to call me Molly for three years now."
"Molly, then. Can I ask you something?"
"Of course, my boy, you can ask me anything" He was sure, that if he hadn't been standing too far out of her reach, she would have pinched his cheeks.
"It's just, that I'm working on a case right now, and it's involving Marlene McKinnon. I was wondering if you knew her at all?"
"Oh, of course I did." She said, her smile turning a bit stiff.
"Oh. Could you tell me about her? I mean, I knew she was friends with my parents."
Her eyes immediately softened.
"Yes, she was, wasn't she? They were in the Order together. They became a rather tight little group. Your parents, Frank and Alice, Remus, Sirius and Marlene. Peter as well of course, even if we prefer to forget him." She sighed. "Marlene was a very sociable young girl. She was a pureblood, from a good family. Not blood purists, but still, of good standing. For this reason, no one really wanted to speak of her situation."
"What situation?"
"For the longest time, I thought she and Sirius would be together. They were best friends, and so very close. But then one day, she turns up, out of the blue, and announces her pregnancy. She wasn't getting married. That simply wasn't done in pureblood society. She didn't care about that though. She always just did what she wanted. I think that's why she got along so great with Sirius. She wouldn't even tell us who the father was. I always thought that was suspicious. I believe she told Sirius though. He would have never given up until she told him."
"What happened then?"
Mrs. Weasley started crying "She had the most adorable little baby girl. Born with a whole head of brown curly hair. She was just the sweetest thing. But it wasn't to last. Only a little more than four months after her birth, their house was attacked by Death Eaters. The house was burned to the ground with Fiendfyre. There was nothing left to bury but dust"
Mrs. Weasley was openly sobbing now, and Harry went to embrace her.
"Sirius was so devastated. I really believe, that given time, they would have gotten together. Sirius definitely loved them both enough."
"Did you know the name of the baby?"
"No, no one did, just Marlene and Sirius I think. They always just called her 'Princess'" She chuckled wetly.
Harry smiled uneasily.
"Sirius loved you, no doubt about that, but she was the apple of his eye. And he really did treat her like a princess. Now, let's make some tea, yes? Can you find the cookies for me dear?"
Harry's mind was a great big hurricane, blowing him this way and that. He really didn't know how to process all these secrets that were suddenly coming to light.
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