Note: here's a lil update on this one for you all. I honestly cannot stress enough just how grateful I am for all the support, encouragement and kindness you all show me. I have so many messages in my inbox I honestly struggle to keep up but I promise to do my best to reply when I can.

A little explanation for all those who asked about Hermione's age and her being admitted entry to Hogwarts a year early. Hermione's birthday in this has been changed. Her birthday is given in chapter 1. November 19th 1981 is when she was born in this particular fic. Making her ten years old when she is invited to Hogwarts. I haven't changed any of the other students birthdays so they will all be eleven. So she is the youngest in her year when they attend in the September 1991. I hope that clears it up for you and thank you for asking about it.

Enjoy the chapter and as always I send all my love ~ Nell xoxo

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~ December 21st 1982 ~ Sydenham, London ~

The rain battered off the dark pavements all around him. Bouncing up to hit his cream coloured dress robes. Soaking the silk material that probably cost more than half the muggles around him received as a monthly wage. His steps were brisk as he moved along the street, approaching Sydenham Hill. His eyes darting every which way, his senses on alert to ensure he wasn't followed. His plans were coming to fruition all around him. Plans that were far too important to risk having them spoiled now. Not now when he was so close to securing the future. He knew how important it was for him to get the heavily rapped bundle he clutched tightly under his robes to where it was needed.

The future of the world as he knew it, depended on it. A world that had only just begun to recover from what had been a devastating war. Where countless lives had been lost. Generations decimated, thanks to cold hard prejudice and hatred.

He was grateful for the dark, dreary streets that shrouded him, helping to conceal his very presence. The heavy rainfall drowning out his steps from listening ears around him. Though the weather wasn't exactly necessary. He was confident in his own power, after all, to hold up the disillusionment he had cast around himself.

He could see his destination now as he turned on to the correct street. The large building he was looking for stood proudly in front of him. This street just as busy as all the others had been. Unsuspecting muggles milling around him in various moods. Children were dotted around. Out unsupervised, at what he would deem a far too late time for youngsters to be out. Left to play and entertain themselves in a way he knew none of his kind ever would again. Not after tonight's news anyway. He knew all wizarding families would hold their children tighter when word broke. Not that he cared in any particular way. Childless and unmarried as he was.

As he drew closer to his destination he tightened his grip on the bundle in his arm. Reaching in to his pocket he pulled the fifteen inch wand out, the elder wood settling familiarly, if not a little resistant, in the palm of his hand as he cast a silencing charm on the little bundle in his arms. Not wanting any curious gazes to seek him out as he finally walked through the open gate of The Haven. He didn't hesitate or dawdle as he marched straight up to the heavy brown door.

He placed the bundle down on the doorstep content to leave without further fanfare, only hesitating when the blue grey eyes of the child he had saved caught his attention. Eyes scrunched in upset as the barely two month old screamed silently. The silencing charm he had placed on the baby doing its job wonderfully.

He tucked the blanket around the baby more securely as he pondered on what he ought to do. He had thought he had done enough when he had altered the child's magical core but it was clear he could not leave those eyes as they were, now that he had gotten a good look at them. They were far too noticeable and would be recognised immediately for the family they had come from. The family he had just saved this child from. Once she entered the grounds of Hogwarts looking like that the staff at the very least would know with little difficulty, exactly who spawned her and his plans would crumble. He could not risk such a thing.

Focusing back on the child's face, he pointed his wand. Softly muttering "Verum abscondere faciem taum" under his breath. Picturing brown eyes, a button nose and freckled cheeks in his minds eye as he felt his magic respond. Watching as the little girls face in front of him morphed into the face of a little girl so very different from her mothers. Casting a final few spells to block and hide her from ever being found, making her invisible to any attempt to trace her whereabouts. The little blonde tuffs atop her head lengthened, curling and darkening to a shade that matched the brown of her new eye colour. He shivered involuntary, partly due to the wind and partly because he realised he had taken the inspiration for her features from his sister. A girl he had loved fiercely but had long since lost to him. Shaking the image free, he straightened. Fishing inside his robes for the small piece of parchment he had already prepared.

After tucking the letter inside the blankets he had left wrapped around the child, he stood. Pushing the door bell of the door in front of him and moving to the gate.

He remained under his glamour. Concealing his presence from the middle aged muggle woman that had come to answer the door. Watching with a smile as the woman's eyes widened comically when she spotted the silently screaming baby. Not that she needed to be concerned, he thought. The child was fine and the silencing spell would ware off eventually. They should be grateful for the few hours peace they'd have before she was screaming loudly once more. He wasn't naïve enough to think she would be an easy child. Her parents weren't ones for abiding by the rules. She wouldn't be either. He almost felt pity for these muggles, unequipped as they were to handle a magical child. But they'd do their best and that was all that mattered.

"Oh goodness gracious! Eleanor!! Eleanor come quick!! It's a babe! Left outside" the muggle called in alarm, disbelief colouring her tone. He smirked in silent satisfaction as the letter was read and the baby swept up into gentle arms. He had done right in removing her from her parents he was sure. She would have been raised in the wrong way, taught to be ruthless and cruel instead of kind and forgiving. She'd be raised a soldier. A formidable one and despite her young age she already possessed powerful magic, he hated to think just what it could and would be twisted into if she were left with her birth parents.

'Oh good' he thought. The child was much better off here, just as he had realised before taking her. These people would take care of her. They would raise her right and the fact that they were much kinder than her parents (anyone would be) helped greatly.

He nodded once, watching as the child was carried inside, the door firmly pressed shut. Making a sharp turn he swished his wand and with a loud echoing crack he disappeared from the street. As if he had never been there at all, leaving behind The Haven home for girls and the child he had graciously saved. Content in the knowledge that for the foreseeable future she was not his problem to deal with. At least for a few years she wasn't. The muggles would have to deal with her. Not that he had any real desire to think much more on the situation.

He had more important tasks to oversee now.

~ December 25th 1982 ~ Location: Azkaban, North Sea ~

Her scream was piercing as she shook and sobbed. Her chains clanging loudly against rough stone.

Her eyes, now dull and sunken, screamed agony as they flashed at the guard in warning. The incompetent bald headed fool, stood just out of reach as he taunted her. Safe behind the bars that caged her, stopping any attempt she may have made to punish him for his slight.

The cuffs around her ankles and wrists, coupled with the magic suppressing wards that lined the cells also ensuring she couldn't. All she could do was scream out her anger and pain.

Scream and cry and sob.

The Daily Prophet article he held up, pressing it maliciously against the bars, had her heart crumbling as she looked upon the anguished face of her sister in all but blood and her sisters wife. Their two young daughters cradled in their arms. It made her feel powerless, her arms straining against her tethers. Reaching for the article.

For the girl that had been as close to her as her sister.

For her pseudo nieces.

For something.

Anything that would rid her of the hollow void that seeped within her bones. A hollowness that had nothing to do with the soul sucking Dementors that had so graciously paid her a visit earlier. They had not stayed long. Vile, disgusting creatures that they were fed off ones happiness and she had her entire happiness ripped away from her before she ended up here.

They couldn't feed of off what she did not possess.

She let out a humorous chuckle, unaware that she had gone quiet while her once brilliant mind failed to come up with a way to be of use to her sister, to her nieces.

"Oh no did I upset your feelings?" The man mock pouted at her. Laughing cruelly as he waved the paper. Her families tear stained faces catching in the dim light of the moon outside as it fought its way into her cell through the cracked stone.

"Poor, poor Mrs Malfoy. Oh how I savour seeing you like this. Pitiful little thing you are now, no?" He asked through laughter, tilting his head in faux sympathy. Clearly getting a right kick out of this.

She growled, launching herself forward, despite knowing it was futile. He stepped back in reflexivity. Fear flashing in his leering eyes before he barked a laugh. Realising she couldn't get to him as her movement forward caused her to snap backwards, stumbling into the wall behind her on shaky legs. Hissing in anger.

"Stupid, filthy little creature" she spat back. Trying to summon her usual icy indifference but his words had done the damage already. Slithered into and under her skin, bruising her already fragile mind and heart. His words striking venomously.

Rubbing salt into the internal wounds she had already opened herself at her failure. She forced her chin up, collecting herself as best she could. Locking all emotion from her face as she turned away from the pathetic man and took a deliberate seat on the grimy, damp covered floor. Hiding the weakness in her legs, as they shook with the barely restrained grief she felt.

She had failed. She had failed her sister, her family. She had failed her godchild and her last ditch attempt at gaining information from the only two people she could access had been fouled before she even had a chance to interrogate them.

Now she was locked up in this wretched place with no way out. She doubted her spineless husband would be of any use and her baby boy... goodness her baby boy would be left in his father's care. Lucius would teach him all the wrong things.

And Andromeda, her dear sweet sister, watched as she was, after the fall of the almighty dark lord, she sneered slightly, would be powerless to interfere. The ministry breathing down her neck at all times, monitoring her every move. More than likely driving her Andy up the wall because Merlin knew her sister had never had any sort of patience.

Not that she would ever find out.

Trapped here as she was.

She sighed, ignoring the man's continued insults and taunts. Letting her mind do what it had done best in her childhood. Taking her away from reality, getting lost within her own daydreams. Allowing the passing seconds and minutes to slip into meaningless entities.

Resigning herself. Though she couldn't resist the urge to laugh coldly, the sound grating like ice in the ears of all around her. Turning to look at the guard one last time.

"I never forget a face, let's hope I never have the chance to darken your doorway" she spat, ice dripping from every word. She turned back around. Forcing her chin up haughtily and shutting herself off completely.

Not bothering to wait for a response.

~ December 25th 1982 ~ The Haven, Sydenham, London ~

"Eleanor, I do not know what to do with this" the middle aged nanny cried out in alarm. Watching thick prickly vines encircle the tiny screaming baby they had taken in mere days before.

Yet again.

It was the fifth time in not so many days it had happened. Cutting their access off to the child that desperately needed their care. It was all a bit of a contradiction really. They couldn't understand why it kept happening.

How could plants grow out of nothing so quickly?

Why did they grow around the baby?

How did the plant know where the baby was? Because despite moving her crib countless times the plants still grew. Needing to be cut through bit by bit. Kitchen knifes weren't very effective tools in cutting through vines.

Eleanor came in and sighed. Wordlessly gesturing to the knife in a silent prompt to get on with it. The child's desperate wailing beginning to grate on the whole house.

The other children had complained countless times. The staff too and Matron Eleanor was the worst. In her mid forties the woman had little patience for screaming infants. They weren't very useful for very much at all.

Once the vines were cut through, the nanny rushed to the distraught child's side. Her cries of hunger and upset insistent and loud. A stark contrast to a few days ago when the child had screamed her discontent silently.

Picking the child up, the nanny bounced her gently, trying to soothe her as she brought the bottle of milk to the infants mouth. Tiny lips latching on and sucking greedily. Tears still streaming down dull brown fearful little eyes.

It was a pitiful sight. It tore at the Nanny's heart as she continued to whisper reassurances. She wondered silently what could cause a child so young to act in such a distraught manor. What was so horrifying that it had left a mere two month old child so distraught that sleep was barely existent to the tot and all her waking hours were spent screaming and crying.

She didn't think she had seen the girl smile once yet.

She paced over to the rocker that sat in the corner of the small make shift nursery. The girl tucked securely against her chest as she fed. Still crying those heart breaking tears. She sat, Matron Eleanor looking on with a scowl.

"I do wish she would stop that awful noise" the other woman sniffed before turning and stalking off now that the child was no longer trapped in a circle of thorns.

The nanny sighed, drawing all the calm she could into weary bones she began to hum lightly. Knowing it wouldn't do much to soothe little Hermione but she couldn't just do nothing. Rocking the girl, holding her and humming was all she could offer.

She prayed it would be enough.

It had to be.