Rose Lynn

"Rose Lynn is just a girl, dear. You can't expect her to take a liking to you right away."

"I know Cissa. It's just, she's as much as my heir was Draco."

I listened intently to the man I just learned was my father and his wife. I leaned against my bedroom door, waiting for them to leave.

"Rose Lynn isn't one of us. She's a half-blood and was raised by Muggles."

"She may not claim the Malfoy name but she's my daughter. There's no denying it, not with that hair. Why can't she just change her ways? Her only three friends are a Mudblood, a Blood-Traitor, and Weasel's wife's Squib cousin's kid. She should know I don't like these people."

"She's known them for two years, and you for only a month. Not to mention she's been called a Mudblood herself."

My anger has only ever come is sparse out bursts, and now I couldn't hold it. I opened the door. "Dare you say that again."

"Excuse me, young lady. Since when do you use that tone on a adult?" he replied coolly.

"Since when do you call your own flesh and blood's best friends names like that?"

"Your filthy Muggle mother must have been teaching you that."

"Don't bring Mummy into this. She had nothing to do with the way I was brought up."

"That's because she was a drug addicted slut. You were living on the street."

"She was fourteen when she had me. You knew that."

"I had plans for you. Your mother ran."

"At least somebody loved me. I can't say the same for you."

"Helen was foolish. Why do you think she's dead?"

"She wasn't foolish! Mummy had cancer. She was sick." I began to sob uncontrollably.

"If Headmaster Dumbledore hadn't alerted me, you'd be just like her."

"You're wrong! I'm just like any other filthy street-kid to you! You ever did care that I was living on the streets!""

His wife looked into my eyes. "She's had a hard life. I wish she could have known what Draco and I know. Rose Lynn, please don't do this. You have so much to learn."

Their son, he's eighteen, entered. "What's a Mudblood doing here?"

"Hello, sir. Nice to see you." Of course, it wasn't at all nice to be face to face with this guy. At least not until he finds out. He isn't going to like it.

"Until I find out what?" he asked. "You can't hide any thing from me, Mudblood, remember?"

"I will not," his father said, "allow you to call your half-sister such names."

"That would be the thing you don't like."

"What? Pansy she won't find out about this, will she?"

"Knowing her sister, yeah probably."

"What does Ivy have to do with this?"

"I wrote to Chhaya. Chhaya would probably write to Sarah-Beth. Sarah-Beth would probably write to Megan. Megan lives in the same city as Ivy. Ivy always pesters information out of Megan. Knowing Megan, she'll probably tell Ivy. Ivy always tells Pansy." There was a owl at my bedroom window. It carried a red envelope. "That's probably a Howler." I let the owl in. "It's probably for you."

Draco reached for the envelope. "Hand it over, Zeller. I don't want my owl to catch on fire."

I threw it at him. "You're welcome."

He opened it. "HOW COULD YOU! YOU COULD HAVE TOLD ME YOU HAD A HALF-SISTER. INSTEAD I HAD TO HEAR IT FROM IVY, WHO HEARD IT FROM SOME KID CALLED MOREHOUSE, WHO HEARD IT FROM SOME KID CALLED PERKS, WHO HEARD IT FROM SOME KID CALLED PREWET, WHO HEARD IT FROM ZELLER! I AM COMING OVER TO HAVE A WORD WITH BOTH OF YOU!"

"Told you so. Things travel fast."

"Rose Lynn, that was a very rude thing to say," Mrs. Malfoy warned.

"Sorry, madam. I didn't know you found that kind of thing offensive."

"Did I just hear you say something remotely civil?" Mr. Malfoy smirked. "I guess you finally realize you place in the world."

"That place would be dead. And yes, I have." A door slammed shut below us. "Somebody's here."

"DRACO!" Sure enough the yell from the Howler echoed from down stairs. "GET DOWN HERE! BRING YOUR SISTER!"

"I'M NOT HIS SISTER! I'M HIS HALF-SISTER!"

"Rose Lynn..." Mr. Malfoy glared at me.

"Sorry, sir!"

"Coming! Hurry up, I'm not fancying facing Pansy alone."

"Okay." I followed Draco down the stairs.

"Zeller." Ivy glared at me from her sister's side.

"Parkinson."

"Half-breed."

"Seeds-for-brains."

"Street-breed slut."

"Call me that again and your eye lid will be so black you won't be able to cover it with that ugly orange eyeshawdow."

"Rose Lynn, I heard that." Mr. Malfoy ran down the stairs. "Would you like the wand?"

"Parkinson started it!"

"The Parkinsons are friends. I expect you to call Pansy and Ivy by their first names. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal," I whispered though clenched teeth.

"Excuse me, Rose Lynn, but I don't think I heard you."

"Yes, Father. I understand." The name "Father" turned my stomach. I had never had to used the title on anybody before that this man didn't fit my expectations of who my "Father" was going to be.

"And what are these expectations?"

Oh crap, how could I have forgotten? These people can tell what I'm thinking. I must be stupid. "I wasn't expecting you be a wizard for one."

"You expecting me to be a Muggle? Why?"

"I figured that no wizard would get involved with Mummy. I guess I was wrong. Oh well, I always am."

"I want to understand something, Rose Lynn. Do you always beat up on yourself? First you think you are stupid and then you say you are always wrong."

"I guess that's because it's true. I can't think of myself as anything else." I shrugged. "It's just who I am. I can't change any more of me without not being me."

"I don't think I understand, Rose Lynn. What do you mean?"

"I'm Rosie Zeller. That's who I'll always be. The dumb, abandoned Hufflepuff with the blonde hair and brown eyes."

"You haven't been abandoned. You have a roof over your head and a family. You have people to take care of you."

Well, I wasn't so sure about people taking care of me, but hey, if they wanted to consider house-elves people, I would have personally alerted the media.

"That's cute," Draco said. "But we're not talking about house-elves. We're talking about us."

"Whatever. Can I go home now?" I was getting uneasy around my new "family unit." All I wanted was to be back on the streets of London with people I knew.

"You'd rather be there? Is something wrong with the Manor?" Mrs. Malfoy asked carefully. "Are you all right, dear?"

"I'd rather be with people who don't think I'm insane," I whispered. "Or where I can at least hear the rain and be myself."

I'm not sure if they heard me, but if they did, I knew that they now knew that I was a far call from what they had expected.