Violet
I solemnly swear that I own nothing...I can only wish I did :p
I understand that child abandonment can be an offensive and sore subject for some people, therefore I would like to offer my apologies if I happen to offend a reader in some way…I truly do not mean to offend anyone.
He looked down at the sleeping newborn babe in his arms and brushed a wavy lock of her light blonde hair aside. This little wished away would require a nursery so he quickly cleared his personal sitting room and conjured a purple bassinet to match the babe's name, Violet, before fading back to the aboveground to talk with the child's mother.
He could tell something was off about the woman standing before him. She seemed too happy that her child was missing.
"Run a labyrinth!" She laughed as though he had suggested she jump off the nearest bridge to her death! "If I had to choose between that...that thing, and having my dreams come true I choose my dreams!"
Jareth was floored, speechless...appalled. This woman did not even hesitate to give her child away. In all his years, he had come across so many couples that wished for a child and could not have one, and here was this abysmal woman who was throwing hers away as if the babe were a doll that had lost her interest and she wanted a new toy!
"Here," the woman pushed a photograph into the Goblin King's chest. Jareth looked down at the picture to see a man smiling for the camera. "I don't want to see it again, ever, or for her to know what I look like and come looking for me in the near future, but it can know what her father looked like."
"IT!" Jareth shouted, finally finding his voice again after offering the woman a chance to reclaim her child or take her dreams, and getting laughed at for his offer! "I can promise you one thing," he hissed through gritted teeth. "Your dreams may come true, but you will never be satisfied! You will die longing for something that you will never remember!" With those words, he handed the woman her dreams and erased her memories of her daughter and himself. Before leaving, he grabbed a picture of the woman, so when the child grew up...she would know what a monster looked like.
O.o
"I cannot believe this. I refuse to believe this!" Jareth muttered to himself repeatedly as he held up a bottle of warm milk while the infant he cradled suckled. "Heartless!" He hissed disgustedly.
"I see little Violet has made her entrance," Ambry spoke up from the doors of the improvised nursery.
"I have not been this disgusted with a human in years!" He spat. "After centuries of collecting wished away children, not one parent or guardian has ever taken their dreams and dismissed the child as if they were throwing away a broken toy!" He hissed quietly, trying not to yell and scare the babe. "She's barely even a month along," he blinked back the tears that started fogging up his eyes, determined not to let them fall. "Do you know what I would give for a family of my own?" He whispered. Ambry hugged her brother and laid a kiss on the infant's cheek.
"Why do you not go and see Hermione?" Ambry suggested. Jareth looked up at his sister suspiciously.
"Why?" He asked, wiping away the drops of milk that dribbled out the corner of the little infant's mouth. He looked up to see the faraway look in his sister's eyes. "What did you See?" Jareth asked when Ambry finally blinked and became more aware of her surroundings. Ambry looked down at the child with a frown.
"Violet is a witch," she said quietly. Jareth stiffened.
"Are you sure?" He asked quietly. "Is that what you just Saw?" Ambry nodded and Jareth inhaled, holding his breath before releasing it.
"Her magic will manifest soon," she said quietly.
"Kingie!" A goblin shouted. Jareth hissed and kicked the giggling goblin while the infant wailed.
"I told you not to yell! You woke up the babe!" Jareth glared at the nodding goblin.
"But Kingie is needed in his office at Gringotts!" It continued talking loudly. Jareth delivered another kick before dismissing it.
"Can you take her for a few minutes?" Jareth held out the purple bundle to his sister. Ambry shook her head.
"I am sorry," she said quietly. "I have to meet with my fairies and you know how they are around small children." Jareth grumbled before stalking out of the newly made up nursery while rocking the wailing bundle.
O.o.O.o
'Jareth,' he repeated the name in his head for the millionth time. There was only one person he knew with that name and the Fae lived in the underground. That would explain why Hermione would think she was gone for one night in that realm and ended up being missing for four nights in this realm. Still, he could feel something changing. He could feel it in his core.
Lucius figured the change he was feeling had to do with Hermione and Jareth. He was a father first and foremost and he saw a change in Hermione when his worried eyes looked her over for any scratch, scrape, or bruise, or any type of harm that might have befallen his surrogate daughter. He even had Draco check her for dark curses and potions! His son had relieved his soul when he gave her a clean bill of health...yet she had, had a concussion.
'Jareth,' he came back to that name again. He glared at the goblins in the lobby as he made his way toward a hidden lift. The goblins simply scurried about their business and ignored the wizard who was always calling on their King. Lucius knew he had to see the Fae to sort out what happened...and to get to the bottom of this feeling he was having.
"What did you do to her!" Lucius Malfoy hissed over the wailing child.
"What did I do to whom?" Jareth asked, lifting an eyebrow while he tried to calm the babe in his arms. Lucius glared.
"To Hermione! What did you do to Hermione?!" He demanded. "She was gone for four days and the only thing she remembers is waking up in one of your rooms and having three glasses of wine!" Jareth laughed.
"I figured she was a lightweight, but not that much of a lightweight," he smirked.
"Well!" Lucius demanded after a few moments of pacing in the not-so-quiet office.
"Well what?" Jareth asked, deliberately playing ignorant.
"What did you do to her?" Lucius asked slowly, as if talking to a five-year-old child. Jareth rolled his eyes.
"I hardly think my personal life is any of your business," he drawled, knowing that would enrage the wizard, but how the wizard knew Hermione was what kept the Fae quiet. It seemed the wizard knew the witch quite well and judging from his actions, he seemed overprotective of her. This was not a person Jareth wished to tell of what happened between him and Hermione, not that he would have offered that information in the first place.
"Hermione's personal life is my business!" Lucius yelled, frightening the infant and causing her to wail even louder.
"I do not see how Hermione's personal life is your business!" Jareth glared. Lucius's hand twitched over the wand stashed away in his walking stick. Jareth lifted an eyebrow, daring the wizard to attempt to hex him.
"Hermione is like a daughter to my wife and me," Lucius said slowly, tensely. Jareth held the bridge of his nose between his index finger and thumb. So he definitely did not want the wizard to know that he had given his surrogate daughter her first experience in...he cleared his throat.
"Here," he handed the wailing babe to the wizard. Lucius frowned but didn't refuse the small child. He looked down into icy blue eyes, almost a very light grey, and his heart caught in his throat. The child's eyes were a perfect mixture of Narcissa's corn blue eyes and his stormy grey eyes.
"She's a witch," Lucius whispered, gently swaying the quieting infant. Jareth nodded and tried to keep his temper when he thought of how the babe was now his.
"Her mother refused to run and accepted her dreams instead," Jareth looked furious as he spoke. Lucius growled quietly, holding the whimpering infant closer to his chest and forgetting, altogether, about the reason he demanded an impromptu meeting with the Goblin King.
"You do remember that small decree about a witch or wizard not being kept by the Goblin Kingdom," Lucius said lightly. Jareth nodded dejectedly.
"What are you going to do?" Lucius asked. "If the Ministry finds out that you are keeping this child, whether the mother abandoned her or not, you may have another war on your hands."
"I know!" Jareth hissed. "I cannot even walk into the Ministry to tell them that the mother wished away the child and did not run for her because they will still blame me for kidnapping her!"
"You also cannot give her back to the magical world because, according to your rules, she is to become one of you now," Lucius pointed out the other problem. Jareth growled in frustration.
"What is a Fae to do?!" Jareth threw himself into his office chair, gracefully draping his legs over an armrest.
O.o
Lucius growled and slammed his fist into the wood of his desk. The sly Fae handed him the child to take his mind off of the reason he was there in the first place. 'And it worked!' He grumbled. He hated being outwitted by Jareth.
He chuckled. They took turns outwitting the other. It was a refreshing game they played, for both the Fae and the wizard. The only other person who could out Slytherin him was Hermione. 'They would be a good match.' As soon as that thought crossed his mind he grumbled again. 'Hermione is too good for him!' That was his unwavering opinion.
"Mi is too good for whom?" Lucius looked up at his smirking wife. "You talk out loud when you sulk Lucius," she chuckled. "Why so sullen?" She laughed at her glaring husband.
"I am not sulking nor am I sullen," he answered haughtily.
"Of course you are not," his wife said in a cooing tone with a small smile playing about her lips. He grumbled again, knowing she was teasing him. "So how do you know Jareth?" Her question caught him off guard and his elbow slipped from the desk. Narcissa smirked at her husband and waited for an answer.
"How do you know her?" Lucius asked curiously.
"Really Lucius? Her?" She smirked. "I know you better then that and besides...what mother would name her daughter Jareth?" She lifted an eyebrow. Lucius rolled his eyes.
"We talk investments," he answered.
"I wished Bellatrix away when I was five," Narcissa answered right after him. Lucius's elbow slipped off his desk again, this time in astonishment. "Smooth husband," she teased.
"And you ran the Labyrinth for her?!" Lucius's voice rose and Narcissa frowned at him.
"Well I didn't know what she would turn out to be when we grew up," she defended herself. Lucius laughed.
"Such irony," he murmured, and his wife silently agreed with him.
"It is not polite to talk behind someone's back." Lucius and Narcissa turned at the voice.
"Jareth," Lucius said tersely, covering his abused ears at the sound of the wailing infant, but still upset with the Fae for outwitting him. "You really should not kidnap children if you don't know how to care for them," he smirked. Jareth glared.
"I just came to clear my reputation and this is what I get," he muttered to a wailing Violet. Narcissa lifted an eyebrow. "I believe I used up half of the tricks in my book to get you to choose your dreams Narcissa," he frowned. "You were adamant that your mother would curse you into next year if you did not go home with your sister." Narcissa laughed.
"So you did," she smiled. "Really Jareth, you are rocking that child all wrong," she admonished him and grabbed the infant before he could get a word in. Baby Violet instantly quieted in Narcissa's arms.
"Well that is a step up from Lucius," Jareth smirked at the wizard. Lucius grumbled again. Narcissa gently swayed the infant, looking down at her in awe.
"What are you doing with a witch?" She asked. "The Ministry will come down on your head if they find out."
"You are looking at the very first child whose mother willingly abandoned her during King Jareth III's reign," Lucius said quietly. Narcissa gasped, holding the infant closer to herself while holding back tears.
"I really should not have heard that," Another new voice spoke up from the entrance to Lucius's study.
"Minister Shacklebolt," Lucius greeted, standing up from his chair behind his desk. Kingsley frowned at the wizard.
"I came to ask for those account ledgers my assistant had trouble balancing out and I stumble upon a violation to a treaty I believe was signed by your father before Merlin's time," he said to Jareth.
"Just before he released his reigns to me," Jareth confirmed. Kingsley shook his head.
"I am not Fudge," he said aloud. "Tell me what happened. I know you don't go around kidnapping children, especially witches and wizards."
"In my defence, I only wanted to find a loophole to sort all this out without unwillingly violating the treaty further," Jareth answered. "As to what happened, well, two days ago, in aboveground time, Violet's mother wished her away and did not even consider running for her daughter. I had to give her, her dreams instead and take the babe...who so happens to be a witch, as you already heard," he said brusquely, the reality of the story caused him to become livid.
"Who are the child's parents?" Kingsley asked. Jareth paused.
"The mother is a woman named Rachel Craftsen, a normal human. Your kind would call her a muggle," He answered. "From what I gathered the child's father passed and I," he said quietly, pausing, "I checked for other living relatives, but she has none." Kingsley breathed a sigh of apprehension.
"It is in your favour that Miss Violet Craftsen's only parent and guardian is not a part of our world," Kingsley said. "I can give you a month of our time to figure out how to solve your problem before I have to report this to the Ministry Family Archives. The department head will then make a case and most likely have it before the Wizengamot the next day."
"Thank you Minister," Jareth gave the wizard a tight smile. Kingsley nodded in acknowledgement.
"Now if you will both excuse us," Lucius said to his wife and Jareth.
...I do promise that Violet is going to be happy (^.^)...
Just wanted to say that I finished an eighth chapter to this story O.o
I am trying to stay a few chapters ahead of the chapter that I have already posted, but I am already becoming bogged with little things I have to get done before the school semester officially starts :p