Her Father's Child

Amaris Malfoy ducked beneath the low branch of a tree. Her head was yanked back; she untangled her flaming red hair from the branch. It was such a bother to have long hair.

"Amaris Kismet Malfoy!" a voice called, sounding very far off. "You get back here, it's time to leave for King's Cross!"

Amaris scowled at her mother's call and trudged back up to the house. Her father hated it when she called their home a house; he preferred to call it the Malfoy Manor. It was all the same to Amaris, a house was a house.

Her mother, Ginny, came into view. She was hauling Amarsis's trunks into the back of a car. She slammed the trunk shut. They had to go by way of Muggle transportation. "AMARIS KISMET MALFOY!" she yelled again.

"I'm here Mum, don't have a cow," Amaris said, sliding into the back seat.

"Good. You're going to be late. The train leaves at exactly 10 o'clock," Ginny said, starting the car.

"I know when it leaves, Mum," Amaris rolled her eyes. "I'm 16 for God's sake. Is Dad going to see me off?"

"No. Your father has an 'engagement' as he so delicately put it," said Ginny rather resentfully.

"Oh," Amaris said tonelessly. She should have expected it. Since when would her dad see her off to school? He never had.

The familiar ride took place in silence. Ginny only spoke once they had pulled up to King's Cross. "Here you are. I have to go, your father expects me to prepare dinner for some guests."

"You mean dark wizards," Amaris mumbled, getting out of the car.

She half waved to her mother and got on the train. She made it on seconds before it left. Amaris sat down in the hard compartment seat.

Amaris tilted her head back; she tried to think of when her life got so screwed up. It had been before she was born. Her mother had been in love with Harry Potter, but he had chosen some girl named Luna Lovegood over her. Her father had a fiancée, named Pansy Parkinson, but after the fall of Lord Voldemort her family had fled, and the engagement off.

Her granddad Lucius was intent on marrying his son off to another pureblood, and his options were limited. So limited in fact that Draco ended up marrying Ginny, as to continue the Malfoy bloodline. Then to her father and grandfather's displeasure, Amaris had been born instead of a male heir.

Ginny had a drinking problem, which Amaris guessed was based on her depression. Ginny had lost the love of her life, her family had been torn apart by the second war of Lord Voldemort, and married someone she didn't love.

Things weren't exactly fine for Amaris, either. She had a father who never paid attention to her, a mother who was a raving drunk, and not to mention Evelyn Potter, who Amaris hated as much as her soul would allow.

She hated Evelyn Potter for her guts, how everyone knew who she was because of her father, how she had everything Amaris ever wanted.

The train pulled to a stop in front of Hogwarts, Amaris gathered her things and headed up to school. This was her real home. No arrogant fathers here, or drunken mothers.

In the hallway after the feast, Amaris spied Potter, who was chatting with her best friend Danielle Weasley who was the daughter of Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. Danielle coincidentally was Amaris's cousin.

Amaris slammed her shoulder into Potter's. "Watch it, Potter."

"You watch it Malfoy," Potter snapped.

"Slip of the tongue, Miss Goody two shoes?" Amaris smirked.

"At least I'm not talking out of my arse!"

Amaris dug for her wand.

"NO MAGIC IN THE CORRIDORS!" Filch yelled to the girls. Filch ran over to them, but fell flat on his face first.

Amaris scowled and shot Potter one last dirty look before going back to her Common Room. She hated her. She hated the lot of them. Her cousins, everyone at this school. No one knew what she went through simply not trying to kill herself everyday. But then again, no one would ever understand her.

Amaris had many cousins at Hogwarts, all of them were in swotty Gryffindor. She was the only one who acted like a true wizard, she was in Slytherin. There was Winona who was 17, she was the daughter of Charlie and Tonks, and there was Trifine 17, daughter of Bill and Fleur, Edward also 17 son of Percy and Penelope. In her year there was Oliver who was Fred and Angelina's son, Christian, George and Alicia's son, and Danielle, Ron and Hermione's daughter.

As far as Amaris was concerned, she wasn't their family and they weren't hers.

Amaris began unpacking her trunk. A small silver dagger fell out of a robe pocket. The knife was a gift from her father, one of the few he had ever given her. It was an heirloom, which was the only he had given it to her. On the handle the words "Plurimus Putus Domus of Malfoy" when roughly translated meant "Most Pure House of Malfoy" in Latin. She stuffed the blade under some socks. She didn't want to think about her family.

"I have no family," she said to herself. "A family is something that watches out for you and cares about you. I don't have that. Therefore I have no family."

She saw the glimmer of the knife underneath the socks as she shut her drawer. How inviting the knife looked compared to life as it was. To think the power to end her suffering was just a flick of the wrist away. Amaris reached for the knob, but drew her hand back. No, she would get her revenge first.

Amaris sat on her bed looking out the window for a while. She traced over the intricate pattern on her bed cover. An old memory of when she had been a child came back to her.

"Do you know what your name means, Amaris?" her mother had asked.

"No, and I don't care! Amaris is a stupid name!" she had shouted.

"It means 'child of the moon'," Ginny had answered softly.

"That's dumb! I hate my name!"

"And do you know what your middle name means, Amaris? Do you know what Kismet means?"

"No! Don't tell me! I don't care! Kismet is a stupid name too!"

"Kismet means 'fate' or 'destiny'. Isn't that pretty Amaris?"

"No!" she had protested, stomping her feet.

Amaris had never seen much of her father growing up. He only spoke to her once a year, on her birthday. She had been born on a cold day in October. When she was 4 she used to wait all year for her dad to come talk to her on her birthday. Amaris was like a child on Christmas. All he had to say was, "Amaris" or "Hello", and she would go off.

But as she got older the words became even less on her birthday. Pretty soon they hadn't spoken in nine years. The last thing Amaris had ever heard from her father was when she had been 7. On her birthday she had asked him to play with her and Draco had responded, "No, I have more important things to do." Then he had hit her.

From then on Amaris lost the entire child innocence and happiness left in her. All that remained was bitterness and hatred for what her parents had done to her. Now Amaris was angry, and she was going to get revenge. She was going to do to them exactly as they had done to her.

It was as her grandfather used to always say, "Never forgive or forget."