Anyone familiar with how awful I am at updating will be happy to know that I already have 14,000 words of this written and ready to go, hurrah! Reviews, follows and faves are always appreciated, I love getting any kind of feedback.

Natalia Romanova was ten years, eleven months and twenty three days old when she was confirmed a witch.

She'd worked it out for herself when she had been six years, two months and eight days old, after she turned her Mistress' hair into a spider's web, complete with nesting Black Widow spider. (She'd read about them once, on one of the few times she'd been allowed to read for pleasure, and had been fascinated ever since.)

She'd suffered for it after, of course, the training getting harder every day, but the knowledge that she was different, that she was special beyond her small minded Mistress' belief, buoyed her up through the years.

She realised she could change her appearance at the age of seven years and three days old, when she objected to her Mistress shaving her hair clean off, so grew it back. Her Mistress had looked like she would hit her, so she had ran as far and as fast as she could, wishing fervently that her hair wasn't as vibrantly red, or her eyes so uniquely green, or that she was so very, very tiny.

Her Mistress had given up after twelve hours, where Natalia had stood right in front of her Mistress yet had not been recognised.

Natalia received three letters, that day in mid-November, one from each of the closest three prestigious Wizarding Academies; Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, and Hogwarts. Each told her that their school would best suit her considerable talents.

Her Mistress instructed young Natalia to choose the school with the darkest reputation, Durmstrang, to further her loyalty to the Motherland. That it was close by, and she had connections on the inside of the school (Natalia discovered her Mistress and the Headmaster of Durmstrang in a very compromising situation one night, whilst she had been practising disillusionment charms in her fifth year) was simply an added bonus.

But Natalia had no passion for the Dark Arts, no thirst for blood, or desire for power in those early days, so she turned down Great Durmstrang's offer.

Her fellow Orphans urged her to choose the school with the sweetest reputation, where the gentile and graceful learned. Where Light was assuredly spilt on the shadows the Dark Arts had thrown, and she could learn to harness her magic in a safe and delicate manner. Her French was exemplary; her poise second to none within the Orphanage, and her grace could rival any ballerina's. France was warm, or so she had read, and the sun would lighten her ruddy hair to a golden hue, so her fellow Orphans whispered to her enviously.

But Natalia had no desire to be tanned, graceful, and full of light. She felt the darkness within her and was comforted by it, knowing it was there. To have it eradicated would, she felt, feel wrong, and she would always be waiting, fearful, for it to return.

So she thanked The Madame, and graciously declined Fair Beaubaton's offer.

Her heart called for her to choose the school with the most mixed reputation, where both Great and Terrible wizards had studied, and she felt that perhaps she could belong.

She researched the Houses of Hogwarts and their characteristics and felt even more strongly that there may be a place for her.

For she was cunning and ambitious, even in those innocent days of turning door handles into mice.

Her mind, too, was brilliant, quick to process new data and just as quick to recall it when needed. She never forgot any wrongdoing to either her or those Orphans closest to her and she plotted every revenge meticulously; yet, she was never caught.

Her young heart yearned for the acceptance of a house, and longed to have pride in something other than not failing her Mistress' latest Test.

So she replied to Headmistress McGonagall, accepting the offer of a home within the Great Walls of Hogwarts, and feeling somewhat at peace with herself for the first time since she had passed a Test and ultimately doomed another Orphan to fail.

Keep an eye out for the rest of this, which I will be uploading soon, *promise*, if you liked it. If you didn't, it's no problem :) ILY all xx