Hi all, I have decided to try my hand at writing ff. Not sure where this story will go! This is chapter one so please bear with me and comments and reviews are encouraged!
Harry Potter and all unoriginal characters are the ownership of miss JK Rowling.
Rose-Lily Minerva Potter was angry. Angry at the world, angry at her brother and angry about the dreadful people she was forced to call family.
Ten-year-old Rose-Lily could only do so much to defend herself against her gigantic mammoth of a cousin, Dudley Dursley. At the innocent age of seven Dudley had invented a game he liked to call, 'Potter Hunting'. The game in question involved Dudley and his gang of thugs chasing and ambushing the Potter twins. Ah, the tender age of seven. Since then, whenever it was warm enough to roam outside of the Dursley house, the game was played. Never mind that if Dudley had any brains, then 'Potter pursuit' would have been a much better name but then again Rose was surprised that the big oaf could remember to breathe let alone be capable of intellectual thought.
Today was no different and it was the start of springtime, Dudley decided it was just warm enough for another season of 'Potter Hunting' to begin. However, ten-year-old Rose-Lily was tired of running and with anger, inside of her that was as red and wild as her hair, she wanted to fight. Like an angry tomcat, she could hiss and scratch and generally maim her cousin to the best of her ability. His gang was another story. Which is also why Rose-Lily was angry at her coward of a brother, though she loved him he was much to easily defeated by Potter Hunting and so hadn't moved a foot to help Rose-Lily in her violent rebellion. He had watched in terror as Dudley's gang descended upon the girl as if they were hunters and she was an elk. Hissed as Piers Polkiss sucker punched her and closed his eyes when Dudley got his twin on the ground and sent a kick towards Rose-Lily's face.
Which lead her to this exact moment, walking through the streets of Little Whinging before detouring far from Privet Drive. Rose-Lily knew that she was currently a scary sight, two black eyes were forming, and she had a vicious nose bleed which she had given up trying to cease. As a result, the blood dripped angrily down her face onto her ratty t-shirt and she could just barely taste the copper of her own blood on her tongue. Rose-Lily walked while formulating excuses to her aunt for ruining the shirt and plans of revenge on Dudley in her head. Honestly, she would have won against her cousin if Piers Polkiss hadn't surprised her with such a dirty punch to her stomach which had winded her and gave Dudley's gang the upper hand. Rose-Lily made a turn into the nearby nature park of Little Whinging and then onto a unused path towards the woods, her destination clear in her mind. There was a beautiful little clearing she went to when she wanted to be alone and this was certainly one of those times.
Kicking rocks and cursing under her breath she made her way to her favorite place while thinking to herself. Rose-Lily was worth ten of Dursley and her family refused to see it. In fact, she loathed calling Vernon and Petunia family, they were no better than common criminals with the way they treated herself and her twin. When Rose-Lily could she vowed to get vengeance on the poor excuses of life. It didn't matter that Rose-Lily was at the top of her class and had been asked several times to skip grades (to the outright refusal of her uncle). No, Petunia crooned over Dudley when he managed to get a C+ and had placed the grade on the fridge but none of Rose-Lily's A+'s ever made it anywhere but the garbage. Dudley got everything, including a family that loved him as well as two bedrooms while Rose-Lily and Harry SHARED A CUPBOARD. Not to mention the things Vernon did when he was angry, she winced thinking of the beating she had gotten only two months ago when Rose-Lily had cooked soup which had burnt Vernon's tongue. Her ribs still ached at the thought of that particular beating, but she brushed the thought aside. Rose-Lily's hair crackled with energy as it always did when she was quite this angry and it snapped dangerously when she came to HER favorite clearing.
Usually her clearing was a divine sight. A secret she had discovered during the first season of Potter hunting and one she hadn't even divulged to her twin. It wasn't that she didn't love Harry, she did. It was just that they shared everything and she wanted something that was hers, and hers alone. So, the circular clearing was hers. It always shone with crisp grass and tangling limbs of the outside trees, as though the willows were protecting her from the Dursleys. The clearing was her haven in the summer when Potter hunting was open season because her cousin was too daft and scared to venture this far into the woods. It was almost a ritual now, where she would sit crossed in the middle of her clearing and just dream of better days. Except now as she was. At the ring of willows, Rose-Lily saw a peculiar sight.
There was a family there, in HER clearing that almost deflated Rose-Lily's anger. Almost. The scene in front of her while odd was enviable. For a second her anger lessened as the sadness of knowing she would never experience this type of family time herself filled her. Rose-Lily heard a tinkling laugh that made her heart clench, she would never hear her own mother laugh in a situation such as this. Three blonde figures sat on a large blanket while an odd looking picnic basket was near them, Rose-Lily could swear she just saw a plate of food levitate out of the basket but she blinked furiously, angry that she had let her brother use their glasses today and now her poor vision was playing tricks on her. Her near-sightedness made seeing the trio clearly basically impossible, despite her furious squinting to make out new details.
Rose-Lily wasn't planning on being seen by the odd family, but the levitation had frankly freaked her out and as she moved back in shock, she stepped on a branch which loudly snapped. All three heads whipped towards the source of the sound. Briefly, the family wondered who could have possibly been out this far into the woods, it was quite a few kilometers away from the nearest community. The largest figure jumped up with a foreign object in his hand and pointed it directly at her. She squinted as hard as she could but couldn't make out what the object was. Without her glasses, the family was simply too far away to be able to see anything more than vague outlines and colors.
"Come out at once and reveal yourself before I shoot!" The stranger shouted in a posh accent, one that Rose-Lily didn't recognize. Though from the tone she would guess this stranger was a male yet, the long hair made the assumption questionable. This was not how Rose-Lily had pictured her day going and she was not dying like this. Not before she had a chance to ruin the lives of her aunt and uncle. So, hesitantly with her arms high, she walked into the clearing. Hearing a feminine gasp, she slowly walked closer and closer to the family until she could make out the details of the three strangers. The boy looked around her age with white blond hair and had his nose scrunched up in disgust while the women looked pale and had a hand daintily raised to her mouth in shock. Rose-Lily remembered briefly how she looked as if she had just survived a brawl, which she had before she turned her attention to the man who held a gun on her. Except, it wasn't a gun at all. It was a bloody twig.
"What are you playing at Mister, threatening to shoot me with A TWIG" Rose-Lily yelled angrily as her eyes met the man with the twig. His eyebrows raised for a millisecond before a knowing look entered his eyes and then one of disgust.
"Narcissa, it's a filthy mudblood" He turned to the woman and then spoke to her again, "Must be why she could pass through the Muggle Repellent charms without detection."
Rose-Lily didn't know what the man was talking about, but she reckoned he was nutters making up words and playing pretend with a twig. What she did know was that the word, that the man had referred to her as were meant to be an insult. Though she didn't understand what a mudblood was, the way his eyes looked her up and down and his lips curled into a sneer she could tell it wasn't a nice thing to say. Of course, Rose-Lily knew she actually was currently filthy with her own blood but that did not mean she would allow a stranger to insult her like that. Her red hair crackled again, her previous anger remembered, and she sneered at him with the same ferocious look that he gave her.
"I am not a filthy mudblood thank you very much! If you think I enjoy having a nose that won't stop bleeding, then you're just daft." she bit out the insult at the end with the same anger she had put into her fight with Dudley. Rose-Lily had learned that trick from Petunia, say whatever important things had to be said before finishing with an insult to keep from getting cut off by the recipient of the insult. Though Petunia Dursley was a vile woman, the girl knew how to sling an insult hard enough to smack even the proudest of people in the face.
Lucius's eyebrows raised as he replied, "Fine if you're not a mudblood, what are you."
Lucius stared at the girl intently, although if she wasn't a mudblood then, he surmised she was probably a half-blood whose magical parent hadn't told her about magic yet. There was also the option that she was, in fact, a mudblood and was just denying it because she didn't know what the word meant. Both of which made sense and was almost definitely the reason why she had referred to his wand as a twig. The scrawny girl looked about seven, so he knew there wasn't a chance she was attending Hogwarts yet.
"I'm a who, not a what. thank you very much! I'm Rose-Lily Minerva Potter, who are you?" Rose-Lily didn't stick out her hand in greeting and a part of her thought of the danger of telling a complete stranger her name. As well, the thought quickly flashed through her of how rude it was to refuse to offer a hand in introductions, Vernon would smack her if he ever got wind of this insubordination. At this thought, the little witch flinched and the action did not escape the eyes of both Malfoy's.
It must have been the blood loss making her act so stupid she told herself and vaguely she realized her head felt rather fuzzy. So fuzzy in fact that she completely missed the gasp of recognition from Narcissa and the glaring look shared between the two parents. Narcissa shakily rose herself to her feet standing beside her husband while she thought of her late friend, Lily Potter. Though Narcissa was five years older than the young witch they had befriended each other in the Hogwarts library. It was there that Lily had peppered the pureblood with questions about the transfiguration mastery Narcissa had planned on completing once graduated from Hogwarts. A plan that had quickly disintegrated when the wizarding war had consumed the Malfoy family.
They had been fast friends since that moment because Lily was the only one who believed that Narcissa was capable of completing the mastery. This young girl was quite clearly Lily's child as she was the spitting image of the late witch. The only difference that Narcissa could discern was the wild nature of the child's hair. The curls were so wild they reminded her at once of Narcissa's sister, Bellatrix. James Potter's hair had also been quite crazy but currently, Rose-Lily's hair crackled with so much magic, it much more resembled a furious Bellatrix. The most concerning part the Malfoy's noted was the dark black eyes the young girl was currently sporting as well as the seemingly never-ending stream of blood from her nose which by now reached the very bottom of Rose-Lily's shirt and showed no chances of stopping.
Before Narcissa or Lucius had a chance to reply, the young witch lurched forward unsteadily and fell in a faint. Narcissa sprung forward and wrapped her arms around the young girl, not caring that her brand-new lilac robes were being soaked in blood or that the very rare moment between the Malfoy's had been ruined.
She blurted out to her husband that she was heading to before attempting side-along apparition to the hospital. Two-person apparition proved to be extremely difficult when the second person was incapacitated and Narcissa felt a small pain knowing she had been spliched.
Lucius watched as his wife disapparated from the clearing, Lucius was internally cursing Severus Snape for ever suggesting the location for a picnic. In fact, for ever becoming his friend, this moment had been precious Lord knows the Malfoy's never had a chance to remove their masks of the prim purebloods and simply be a family. Life just seems to love throwing curveballs. Knowing his wife would be occupied for the near future as she had just met her good friend's daughter who was clearly gravely injured, he looked to his son. The boy was shell shocked by what had just gone down in less than ten minutes and was a little angry as well. This picnic that he had begged for, was supposed to be a birthday present and was because he barely saw his father though he found it hard to be mad at a girl so obviously injured for ruining the day. It was just that, although Draco knew his family loved him they were just SO busy that getting time alone just the three of them was always an extremely difficult task.
"Well, Happy Birthday, Draco you can receive your presents when we return from St. Mungos"
With a swish of his wand, the picnic was packed away and Lucius held out his arm to his child without words, Draco held his arm properly and with a faint pop, they disapparated from the clearing.
As the two male, Malfoy's headed into the lobby of , Lucius inquired with the welcome witch as too where the two females were and he was frostily directed to a room on the first floor. St. Mungos emitted a sterile hospital spell and was not a place one ever wanted to visit willingly. They cured the worst injuries and diseases. Draco trailed behind his father, but they were both greeted with an unusual sight, Narcissa Malfoy clutching her side yelling at all the healers fussing over her while drenched in blood.
"Lady Malfoy, I have to get you to the second floor you've been spliched!"
"I AM NOT LEAVING ROSE-LILY'S SIDE DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME" Narcissa screamed shrilly at the incompetent healers one hand clutching tightly to the hand of the little girl who was currently in a hospital bed and her other hand on her torso, where she had been spliched from attempting to side-along Rose-Lily. Right now, Narcissa Malfoy looked every bit as powerful as Merlin but was most definitely the opposite definition of a prim pureblood housewife. Lady Malfoy had never before looked so much like her wild sister Bellatrix, her hair was wild and no longer lay flat also edges of the hair seemed to be dripped in blood. Her robes, were ruined and Lucius hoped for a moment no one would see the disarray his wife was in. Her demeanor though was the starkest difference, Narcissa's cold unfeeling mask she displayed to the public had fallen and her entire face displayed her fear for the little witch lying unconscious in the hospital bed.
In a soft voice, the healer asked if she could bring a bed next to the little girl and Narcissa nodded in affirmation not even noticing her husbands entrance until his hand clasped her shoulder supportively. Communication occurred without words between the Malfoy's as Narcissa allowed herself to be helped into a hospital bed where healers immediately began to heal her spliching wound.
Draco didn't think he had seen this much blood ever in his life, a thought Lucius also had as he broke eye contact with his wife. Draco looked almost as pale as his white-blond hair and had a hand over his mouth in shock at the sight. He trembled in the doorway gazing into the room that was covered with so much blood that it looked like a battlefield. Lucius flicked his head ever so slightly and without a word Draco turned and left the room. Although he had barely entered. Draco sat on the floor just outside the hospital room and thought vaguely that his world would never be the same.
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