Hello all!

As you can see, I'm back with a new fic. I know I have a habit of posting a few chapters and then deleting, but I really hope that this won't happen with this one because I really like it and thus far I think you'll find it's pretty different than the usual I post. I combined a couple of elements I really like in a fic to create this - a child of Bellatrix & Rodolphus and a FredxOC story.

I have to give some fair warning with this, if you couldn't already tell from the rating...this fic will be a bit (or a great deal) more graphic than Heart of a Hufflepuff and other things I've posted. I'm giving it up front: there will be at the very least mention of sex, abuse and the language will probably be more graphic. I'm trying to make it a bit more real, okay?

But, with all that said, I'll shut up and let you read. Favs, Follows and Reviews are greatly appreciated. I really do love reviews. I honest to Merlin love hearing from you guys and it means a lot. Thanks :-)

Enjoy!

The heroine of this tale arrived in the world during the midst of one of the most horrible snowstorms Britain had seen on a frigid December night in 1977. She was a very scrawny and wrinkly baby, a very sad and unassuming sight to those who took the first looks at her. In fact, her own mother dared to call her an "ugly little creature," upon first glance at her new daughter. Her father said she looked rather like a walnut, or at least, like she had walnut skin.

Neither of them were impressed or enamored by their baby. They hadn't wanted her. They hadn't wanted a child. They hadn't even ever desired to do what was necessary to have a child with each other in the first place, but after immense pressure coming from their families that greatly annoyed them, they gave in. They'd decided, after realizing that they were indeed going to have a child that spring, that if it was going to happen, they'd like a boy. They'd selected a name for the son they supposed they had to have - Cygnus Rodolphus Lestrange, after the child's maternal grandfather and own father.

Now that they saw their child, they were almost disgusted. It wasn't a boy, it was a girl, a scrawny, red-faced, screaming girl who looked more like a discolored, undernourished Mandrake than an actual human child. The child was repulsive, especially to two parents who didn't want a child in the first place.

"Cissy, get this nasty little creature away from me," demanded the child's mother, as she stuck her nose up at the baby in the bassinet at her side. "I can't stand to look at it anymore."

"But, it's….she's your daughter, Bellatrix," a rather shocked looking young blonde woman replied, as she rose from her seat in the corner. "Your child, Rodolphus…."

Her ice-blue eyes flickered between Bellatrix, her sister, and her brother-in-law Rodolphus, who looked just as repulsed as his wife. The two of them, the two new parents only stared back at Narcissa. They clearly didn't understand that she believed they should have some sort of affection for the little human in the bassinet, or maybe they did, and just didn't care. Either way, their expressions made it quite obvious that they wanted the baby as far away from them as possible.

Narcissa sighed. She knew she wasn't going to get through to them. She knew just how cold the two could be. She couldn't think of two people less likely to be parents, and with that thought, she felt great waves of sympathy for the whining newborn in the beautiful Black family bassinet.

"Here, here," Narcissa cooed to the baby girl, lifting her into her arms. "You're alright, you're okay darling…."

Unlike her sister, she felt some kind of affection, even some sort of love towards the innocent, helpless new human she cradled against her chest. Sure, she did think the baby needed some meat on her bones, but having a baby in her arms brought a warmth to Narcissa's chest that was both unfamiliar and lovely. And she wanted Bellatrix - her sister and the child's mother - to feel just how nice that sensation felt.

"Bella, please, won't you just try….?" Narcissa inquired. She was being as sweet as possible, extending the baby towards her sister only slightly.

"Get the thing away from me, Cissy," repeated Bellatrix, both bored and repulsed. "I don't want it in my sight."

"...Rodolphus?" Narcissa offered.

Rodolphus only shook his head. Recognizing defeat, Narcissa clutched the child close and made her way towards the door, when she stopped in her tracks.

"What's her name?" Narcissa questioned, turning back to face the child's parents.

"I don't care," Bellatrix replied haughtily. She was scrambling to find her wand.

"Name it whatever the hell you want," Rodolphus added, putting in his piece. "It doesn't matter."

Narcissa scowled at their attitudes, and promptly left the room, not wanting to deal with either of them any longer. She rocked the baby against her chest, hushing its cries. She supposed the poor thing was either freezing cold, as it was so terribly scrawny, or hungry. The baby had just quieted as Narcissa entered the sitting room down the hallway, where Lucius, her husband, Rabastan, Rodolphus' brother, and Druella, Narcissa and Bellatrix's mother, had all been sitting, awaiting the baby's arrival.

"Let me see him!" Druella demanded impatiently, leaping out of her seat to approach her youngest daughter. "Hold him out, Narcissa, let me get a good look at him!"

"Her, mother," Narcissa corrected lowly.

"What?" Druella questioned, coming to an abrupt halt.

"It's a girl, mother," Narcissa said. "The baby is a girl."

"Oh," Druella mumbled with realization. "Oh."

Yes, Druella loved her daughters dearly, but she'd always hoped for a son, which she and her late husband were never able to have. She'd dreamed that this baby would be a grandson, a beautiful, handsome, and strong boy who'd grow to carry on the pureblood legacies of the Black and Lestrange families. Her disappointment in the baby's gender was anything but discreet.

"Well," sighed Druella, with much less enthusiasm. "Let me see her, then."

Narcissa proceeded to adjust the scrawny newborn girl in her arms, so that she was visible to everyone else in the room. Lucius rose to see, as did Rabastan, who continued to smoke his ebony pipe. As soon as Rabastan and Druella saw the child, they grimaced. Rabastan clicked his tongue and took a step back.

"That child won't make it," Rabastan commented. "Not in this cold. It looks diseased. Sick."

"She's just tiny, that's all," Lucius said. He agreed with Rabastan, but he said this to comfort his wife, he he could see had taken to the child.

"No," Druella shook her head. "That child is deformed. It'll be a miracle if she turns out normal….such a shame, we all wanted a healthy boy so badly….I suppose we'll just have to take her….what's the name, Narcissa?"

After a moment of pondering and glancing down at the squirming girl with pity, Narcissa decided to give her the name she'd saved for her own daughter someday.

"Marcelina Adelaide," she supplied. "Marcelina Adelaide Lestrange."

Marcelina Lestrange didn't die as an infant like everyone expected her to. She grew, albeit not much, but she did, and she grew into a toddler. She was still a very scrawny child, with Bellatrix's wilde dark hair and Rodolphus' stormy gray eyes. She was very quiet, and almost never vocalized anything, but that was probably a learned behavior. Whenever she did happen to make a noise or do anything that children tend to like to do - such as explore, play, etc. her parents punished her, and punished her harshly. Their favorite method of punishment, especially Bellatrix's, was the Cruciatus Curse.

Of course, her Aunt Narcissa, the only one who had any real amount of sympathy or affection for her, did not like the fact that she was tortured on a regular basis. She hated seeing an innocent child, who was only being a child, tortured. She repeatedly tried to talk Bellatrix out of it, but Bellatrix's answer was always the same.

"The child is my child, Narcissa, and I will raise her how I feel fit," Bellatrix would say. "I'll raise her to respect me. When you have a child of your own, you can raise it however you'd like."

But, because Bellatrix and Rodolphus were absent so often, doing their Death Eater duties with extreme diligence, Narcissa became like a stand-in mother to the small girl. She fed her meals, something Bellatrix and Rodolphus neglected - or straight up refused to do - even when they were home. She brushed her wild hair and bathed and dressed her, and read her stories at night when she couldn't sleep. She did her best to raise her right, even if she was convinced her niece would be mute for life and maybe even have brain damage from undergoing the Cruciatus Curse so often.

The duty of raising a niece became increasingly harder by the spring of 1980, when Narcissa and Lucius welcomed their own child into the world. Their son, Draco Lucius Malfoy arrived on June 5, 1980, just as spring began to roll into summer.

Draco was the healthy baby boy the Black family had waited for for such a long time. He was a beautiful baby, not scrawny or wrinkly like his older cousin. He was good natured and grew well, and immediately won over the affections of his parents, who doted on him as soon as he entered the world.

Narcissa still attempted to raise her niece with her son, though the job became hard because she loved her own son so much. She felt almost guilty, loving her own son more than her niece, but it was the reality of the fact. She still loved her niece, though, and when the time came for Bellatrix and Rodolphus to be shipped off to Azkaban after their Lord's fall, she and Lucius fought for custody of their niece before the Wizengamot.

"Mrs. Malfoy, I appreciate your concern for your niece," said Amelia Bones, one of the prominent Wizengamot members. "But, with a child of your own, it would be very difficult to raise a child with the kinds of….needs that she has. The Wizengamot has voted, and we have decided that it would be in the best interest of the child to place her with an adoptive family that has the time to give her the help she undoubtedly needs."

"But….but….who are you giving her to?" Narcissa inquired, clutching Lucius' hand for support. "Who?"

"We have decided to place her with Edgar and Josephine Morgan, from the Department of Mysteries," answered Barty Crouch, Sr. "They have graciously offered to take her in, since they have wanted a child for quite some time and were unable to have one. We have decided to do this in the best interest of the child…."

"You can't do this," Lucius piped up, seeing how distraught that his wife had become. "We're very important people, Mr. Crouch, we have connections…."

"Seeing as you just faced time in Azkaban on Death Eater charges, Mr. Malfoy, I wouldn't bet on all of your connections being as strong as they once were," Amelia Bones retorted. "Besides, this case is not a matter of prominence or importance, it's a matter of doing what's best for this little girl, and with all the evidence we've been presented, we've concluded that being placed with the Morgan family is what's best for this child."

"This Wizengamot hearing is therefore concluded," said a heavily-moustached wizard.

He banged his gavel against the desk before him, signifying that the hearing had truly come to an end, and as he did, all of the Wizengamot members rose from their seats as they started to exit. Narcissa Malfoy, still seated in the center before the seats reserved for members of the Wizengamot, collapsed into herself and started to weep. Lucius attempted to comfort her, all while giving each passing Wizengamot member a very cold look.

While the Malfoys lurked in the chamber, wallowing in their disappointment, Edgar and Josephine Morgan were waiting outside with hopeful and nervous hearts. They knew that inside of the chamber the Wizengamot was making their final decision on whether or not they were allowed to adopt a child. As two people who had desperately wanted a child their whole lives, they obviously wanted the answer to the question to be yes. By now, they had grown too old to have a child of their own. They'd been married for a long time, but their busy careers at the Department of Mysteries had taken time away from them, time they could've used to raise a family. Now, they were too old, and adopting this child would be their last chance at parenthood.

Of course, they knew that the child biologically belonged to Rodolphus and Bellatrix Lestrange, two of the worst Death Eaters that existed. They didn't care. They were smart enough to realize that the child wasn't inherently evil. They'd even met the child and had been allowed to spend time with her under Wizengamot supervision to see if they'd be good parental fits or not, and were immediately enamored with her.

She was tinier than most almost four-year-olds. She was silent. She never spoke, or talked any kind of baby talk like most small children, but the Ministry supervisor informed them that this was because she was used to being tortured any time she made any kind of noise. She loved having stories read to her, and she loved drawing pictures, even though they ended up being rather disturbing. Edgar and Josephine had been sitting with her when she drew a picture of a large lady in black and a large man in black, both pointing a wand at a grotesquely shaped child on the ground.

"Is that you?" the Ministry supervisor asked, pointing to the small, grotesque child.

The girl nodded.

"And that's your mum and dad?"

Again, the girl nodded.

Edgar and Josephine couldn't help but to feel bad for the girl. They couldn't imagine being so young and knowing so much pain, and their hearts went out to her. They wanted to take her in and love her and show her what parents were really supposed to be, and now, they could only hope that the Wizengamot ruled in their favor.

Amelia Bones was the first Wizengamot member to exit the chamber, and also the first that the Morgans saw. The approached her, hugging each other nervously, as the nerves nearly killed them.

"What's the verdict, Amelia?" Josephine inquired anxiously. "What was the decision?"

"We've got to know, please," Edgar begged.

Amelia Bones sighed, and then with a faint smile, informed them, "She's yours. She's all yours."

The two Morgans burst out with joyous tears, hugging and embracing and thanking Amelia incessantly, to the point where she had to stop them.

"You're welcome, you're welcome," Amelia laughed, a tad uncomfortable. "But, I've got to tell you - we had to modify her memory. Nothing major. You'll still have to explain to her that you're her new parents, that she's adopted in all. We've also gotten her to answer to Addie, since you two decided that's what you'd like to call her, after her middle name. We've only removed her memories of being tortured. She won't remember the Lestranges, she'll just not be able to remember any parents before you, like being an orphan. We thought it was best to remove those memories - imagine how horrible it'd be for a child to grow up with such pain?"

The Morgans nodded with understanding, as the door to another chamber swung open. The same witch from the Ministry that supervised their visits with the child walked the girl out, holding her hand. She whispered something to the little girl, before the child sprinted to the Morgan's, allowing and accepting their embrace.

For the first time, Marcelina Lestrange, now Addie Morgan, spoke.

"Mummy," she said, smiling as her small hands traced Josephine's cheeks. Doing the same to Edgar, she said, "And Daddy."