Our Little One

.~*~.Our little one. ~*~.

Chapter One

Olivia

***************************************

This part of the chapter is from Lucius Malfoy's point of view.

~*~*~*~

We look at the young girl in front of us. The story the nurse told about her life is still going around in our minds. We've made our decision, and we can only hope that she can accept us as well.

"You are Olivia, aren't you?" I ask. She startles, and takes a step backwards. She looks totally terrified, like I had threatened her.

Then she seems to calm down. "Yes, I am," she replies. "Who are you?" She still looks very scared.

"These gentlemen are interested in adopting you, Olivia," the nurse says, placing a soothing hand on the girl's shoulder. "They aren't going to hurt you in any way."

I feel Remus's hand trembling in my own. I understand him well. This is horrible -- simply horrible. No one should be afraid like that -- especially not anyone at her age. "We aren't going to hurt you, Olivia," I explain. "We'd never hurt you. We only want to know if you'd like to have a home."

"Who are you?" she asks again. Then, a little bit cautiously, "Are you married?"

I force myself to smile a little bit. "Yes, we are married," I tell her. "My name is Lucius Malfoy. This is my husband, Remus Lupin Malfoy."

"We'd like to adopt you," Remus tells her again. "We want to give you a home."

"Give me a home?" she asks. "Why would anyone want to take me to their home? I can't even cast proper spells." She still looks very cautious, but at least she's not as afraid as before. Good sign. At least I hope it's a good sign.

"That doesn't matter," I tell her firmly. "We couldn't care less about whether you can use magic or not. And you are good at Potions, are you?" Of course I know that she is that. The nurse has told that she's been brewing different potions every day since she learned her first one.

"I -- I guess so." She looks at us, looking very doubtful. "But why would anyone want me? All people want little children. Little girls, who play with dolls and love princess dresses and want a nice pink room. You looked at the younger girls at first -- I saw it."

I feel a little bit guilty. She's right. We were thinking about taking a younger girl, right. But now, the more I think about it, the more I find it impossible to us. I wouldn't be able to handle a little child. "You see, we --" I begin, but I get interrupted.

"We were looking at the younger ones, because we didn't know that there were any older," Remus tells her. "We only wanted a child, and we thought that there weren't any older. I know that it would be possible for me to handle a little girl, but I don't think that Lucius would find it as easy." He gives me a teasing smile. "I looked at him while this morning, and I noticed that we can't take a little girl like we had thought. An older one, though, would be very good -- just like you."

"My only son left home five years ago," I tell her. "I didn't think I'd miss him, but now I've come to notice that I do. We see him very often, of course, but our home is now very quiet. We want someone to read the books in the libraries again. Someone to once again explore the gardens, to annoy the house-elves, to look at the fish in the aquariums, to walk in the corridors, to live in the rooms."

"Not to mention someone to again worry about boys," Remus says with a smile, "and to wear the family jewellery, and to amaze people in parties. And, of course, someone we could buy new jewellery and clothes and stuff to."

She looks at us, a little bit doubtful. Then a little smirk begins to play in the corners of her lips. "'Worry about boys'?" she echoes softly. "You mean that your son worried about boys?"

"Why, of course," I reply, smiling. "Or, if you aren't sure, you should maybe ask his boyfriend. I'm sure he could answer your question."

She smiles a little bit. Then the smile fades away. "I still can't imagine why anyone would want me," she says. "I'm not good at magic, nor am I beautiful -- I'm not even cute like the younger girls. I'm not happy and smiling, and I'm scared of nearly everyone. And I'm shy and quiet, and not intelligent."

"I don't think so," I reply. "As we said, we couldn't care less about whether you're good at magic or not. You're good at Potions, and only very intelligent ones are. And you will be beautiful. We want to make you happy and smiling, and we want to make sure that you don't have to be scared or shy or quiet any more."

She stares at me. Then she says, with a very quiet voice, "You can't be serious." Nothing more, only one simple sentence. And that sentence is enough to tell how terrible her past has been.

"But we are." Remus squeezes my hand tightly while talking to her. "Lucius said it just like it is. We want to give you a real home, Olivia. The only thing we don't know is if you want a home." He gives her a little smile before asking, "Do you?"

She's silent for a while. A very long while. We all wait for an answer from her.

Then, at last, she speaks. "I do," is all she says.

She doesn't have to say anything more.

"When can we come to fetch her?" I ask from the nurse.

"Well, it's usually at least few days," she begins. "You know, all the bureaucracy and the like. And when she's older than usually, it's --"

"We'll return tomorrow," I interrupt her. "Is that soon enough?"

"But I can't --" she tries to say, but I interrupt her once again.

"Tomorrow, you said. Right?"

She opens her mouth, but closes it then. She nods, and says then, "Tomorrow. Right, Mr. Malfoy."

"This is the first thing you should learn," I say to Olivia, smirking a bit. "When we adopt you, you'll become a Malfoy. And a Malfoy always gets what he -- or she -- wants. Never accept a negative answer."

She looks confused at first, but then she begins to smile. It's not a big smile, and it fades soon, but it's a smile, and very pretty one. "I'll try to remember that," she whispers.

"Good. We'll come back tomorrow. Pack your stuff and prepare for moving to the Malfoy Manor. What's your favourite colour?"

"Err... What?" she asks, totally confused because of my sudden change of subject.

"What's your favourite colour? We have to prepare a room for you. And I bet that Remus would love to buy some clothes for you. Would you?" I ask then, looking at my husband. He smiles and nods. He's not as obsessive as Draco -- who could be? -- but he loves shopping. Especially shopping for clothes.

"Umm... Green," she replies. "Green, and sometimes silver, or blue or black." Then she smiles again, that slow-coming and fast-going, pretty smile. "But I don't think that the colour helps you to pick up clothes of the right size."

"You're right," Remus laughs. "Lucius isn't very aware of those things. Most of his clothes are tailored especially for him, so he doesn't have to care about the size. But if you have some clothes that fit you perfectly, I'd like to have a look at them to see what's your size."

"Are you really serious?" she asks, still doubtful. "Why would anyone want to buy anything for me? Isn't that only waste of money? I already have some clothes -- not maybe many and not very pretty, but clothes."

"Are you serious yourself?" Remus asks as a reply. "You're going to be our daughter. We want to give you pretty clothes and stuff. We want you to look as beautiful as you only can, and we want you to be happy." He smiles a bit. "Could you now show me those clothes?"

"I guess I could." The two walk away, Olivia showing the way. She still looks very shy and cautious, but at least she's talking with Remus. It's not a big surprise -- nearly everyone seems to like Remus. I don't wonder that; he's simply the best person in the whole wide world.

"That's a miracle," the nurse says, when they're out from the sight. She sounds impressed.

"What's a miracle?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. "That someone wants to adopt her?"

"No -- that she smiled. And many times. We've counted every time, and it hasn't been very difficult. After she came here, she's smiled two times. One of them was at Christmas, when the little children presented a play -- they were awfully cute, I admit that. And another time was when our youngest child, a two-month-old little girl, got adopted."

"Two times?" I echo. "It's really about the time then! If she smiles twice as much in a moment with us than in a year here, I think that we can maybe make her happy."

"I hope so," the nurse says. "But I must warn you - it won't be easy." With that she turns around and walks away.

I stare after her. Then I shrug, turn to the direction where I saw my husband and soon-to-be-daughter going, and walk away as well.

~*~

"I -- I don't know what to say." Olivia stands in the doorway of her room and stares around it.

"I take that as a sign that you like this," I say, glancing sideways to Remus and smirking. "Remus really did wonderful work, if you ask me."

"That's -- that's just incredible." She takes some steps inside the room and looks once again around her.

I follow her gaze around the room. I must admit that Remus and the house-elves did really good work with it. The walls are light, silvery grey -- pretty different from the original dark grey, it was so dark that it was nearly black. There is a big four-poster bed with forest-green curtains and beddings in the other end of the room. It's the same colour as the large, fluffy carpet covering the cold stone floor. A little bit from it stands the wardrobe, made of leaf-green wood with some engravings; the dressing table is in another corner, opposite to the bed, and it's coloured with a bluish green shade that reminds me of the sea. On the other end of the room I see a big, soft green desk, accompanied with a chair of the same colour. The curtains of large windows are green, and they're tied on the sides with chains of pure silver -- well, that's clearly the house-elves' doing, as Remus couldn't do that himself. There are silver and green candles in candlesticks all over the room, and I can see one big wall hanging - it's green and silver, and it has the Malfoy crest in it, as well as the cover of the bed.

She places her little suitcase on the floor and walks a little bit forward again. She still looks all around her like she didn't believe this to be true.

"Go and look inside the wardrobe," I urge her. "Remus did some shopping yesterday, and there are also some dresses in Malfoy colours my ex-wife left behind when we had a divorce."

She walks cautiously to the other end of the room. I and Remus follow her, some steps behind her. She opens the doors of the wardrobe. And stares.

"Do you like them?" Remus asks, carefully.

"I -- I adore them." She hastily fingers the dresses, shirts, trousers and skirts, all in good order. Then she takes one shirt -- it's pale green, with some black snake-figures in the sleeves. "This is -- this is beautiful. Absolutely."

"Thanks," Remus says, grinning. He walks forward and stops standing next to Olivia. She takes some steps backwards, looking startled. Remus, however, doesn't seem to notice. "Look at this one," he urges, taking out a long, misty green dress. "This wasn't ever Narcissa's -- Lucius's ex-wife's. It has been in Malfoy family for centuries. It's a tradition that every daughter of Malfoy family wears this for their sixteenth birthday, and of course also after that. It's yours now."

She takes the dress from Remus's hands and looks at it for very long time. It's beautiful, for anything that I know about women's clothes -- which is not that much. I've seen a painting of my grandmother in that dress on her sixteenth birthday. It's the only picture where Grandmother looks actually beautiful, and it's all because of the dress.

At last she speaks. "This is wonderful," she whispers. "And -- and you say that I can wear this on my birthday?" She looks up at both me and Remus. "You can't be serious."

"Not only you can wear it, but you absolutely have to," I tell her, smirking slightly. "And honestly, Olivia, if you once more doubt if we're serious or not, do please remember that we've already adopted you. We wouldn't have done that if we weren't grave serious about this whole thing."

"Sorry about him," Remus says to her, winking and motioning towards me. "He never thinks before he speaks." He carefully takes the dress from her hands and places it back into the wardrobe. "But there's one thing I'd like to show you -- and it has nothing to do with me. It's completely from Lucius."

She looks curious as she follows Remus to the dressing table. She takes a fast glance over it. I do also. I see all the hair brushes, ribbons, perfume bottles, hair pins and other stuff laid there in a good order. Remus really doesn't left anything undone.

I see also a little box. It's pure silver, and I know it's covered with green velvet from the inside. "Can I put my jewellery inside that?" she asks shyly.

Remus laughs. "Of course you can -- it's yours," he replies. "But look inside it at first. That's the thing that Lucius did."

She does so. I hear her surprised gasp and grin a little bit. I'm not surprised. I kind of expected that kind of reaction.

She stares at the jewellery in front of her. It's mostly silver and emeralds, but also some golden stuff and other jewels, like sapphires, or obsidian. Necklaces, earrings, rings, bracelets -- anything a young girl could ever want. "But -- what are all these --" She isn't able to finish her sentence.

"The Malfoy jewellery," I tell her. "It's gone down in my family for generations after generations. It's all yours now. I and Remus don't care very much about women's jewellery, as you can maybe imagine, and Draco doesn't, either. So, as our adopted daughter and therefore a Malfoy, you get them all."

"That's -- that's impossible." She closes the box and turns around. "How can I ever repay you all this?" she asks, simply stunned.

"You don't have to," I say, snapping my tongue inwardly. She's so uncertain and surprised about everything! "As I said, you are our daughter. We want only the best for you. The biggest thing you could do for us is to wear those clothes and jewellery -- they aren't meant only for parties. My mother wore a full ball dress every single day in her life, and no one ever wondered about it. If you're a Malfoy, you can't overdress -- even less, if you're in the Malfoy Manor."

She smiles a bit. I once again adore her slow-coming, fast-fading smile. It still fades away almost immediately, but it stays on her lips a bit longer than ever before I've seen it.

I'm going to make her smiling always.

~*~*~*~

This part of the chapter is from Olivia's POV.

~*~*~*~

I see the men who are coming nearer to me, and I'm terrified. I'm only fourteen, and I don't want to die yet. And I know that I'm going to die if they get me.

One of them comes nearer. He raises his hand, trying to touch me. I take a step backwards to avoid him. He follows me, as well as all his companions.

The sleeve of his shirt falls down when he reaches out towards me. I see a tattoo on his forearm: a green skull, with a snake going through it. It's disgusting. These men are disgusting. I want to run away, but I can't move.

He grasps my wrist, and I scream. I try to struggle against him, but I'm only a young girl, and he's an adult man. I see the other men gathering around us, laughing, when he starts to pull me nearer...

And I scream.

~*~

"Olivia!" I hear someone saying. "Olivia, wake up! Olivia!"

When I hear the voice, I stop screaming, although I still can't stop myself from crying and sobbing. I'm totally horrified. I don't exactly know why so, but the nightmare almost scared me to death. It was -- it was simply terrifying.

"Calm down, Olivia," the voice continues to soothe me down. "Nothing or nobody is going to hurt you. Everything is all right. Calm down now."

I open my eyes to see the speaker. No one has ever talked to me like that before. Well, maybe my mother, when I was just a kid, but that's a long time ago. At least it feels like a long time. Probably forever, if you ask me.

I see a man about my father's age sitting on the edge of my bed. He has chin-length, shiny hair. I can't tell what colour it is -- in the light of the moon and candles it looks half white, half golden. His eyes are nice -- he looks like he's worried about me. I try to figure who he is, and what he's doing here.

I blink. What am I actually doing here myself? This isn't my room, not the one at home or the one they gave me in the orphanage. It looks like I've come to the Heaven -- there is so much space, and everything is so luxurious. Or maybe I'm still asleep, and having a pleasant dream instead of a nightmare?

That can't be possible. I've only had nightmares forever now.

Then I remember everything. The man in front of me is Remus, and this is my room. My new room. In the Malfoy Manor. And Remus is my new father, well, one of them. He actually does care about me -- or at least that's what he's been telling me.

"Re-Remus," I sob. "I -- I had a nightmare." I know this sounds stupid. It has to sound stupid. For most of my life I've been told that nightmares don't matter at all. Or that's what I've figured out -- no one has ever cared if I've had a nightmare. So they can't be that important, then.

"What kind of nightmare?" he asks, softly. "Do you want to talk about it?" He places a hand on the cover of my bed, leaning towards me. He looks like he really cares. I'm confused. No one ever cares about me. Not even the nurses in the orphanage, they had enough work with the little children. No one has ever had time for me.

"There -- there were some men," I explain, trying to not sound childish or stupid. I don't want Remus to think that I'm stupid. For some odd reason, I want him to like me -- no matter how improbable that is, looking at the people in my past. "One of them -- grasped my wrist -- and it was scary. I don't know why. It just -- it just was."

He merely nods. "Don't think about it anymore," he advises kindly. "Forget about it." He stands up and looks down at me. "Fancy some hot chocolate?" he asks, smiling a bit.

"What? Oh, yeah -- I'd love it." I'm very surprised. I've never been allowed to eat or drink anything in the middle of night. I've done it sometimes, of course, when I've been awake very late, but I've never been allowed to do it. Leave alone that someone would actually suggest it to me, least of all an adult.

I get up from the bed. I'm only wearing a thin nightshirt, and the stone floor is very cold under my feet. Fortunately, I found green, flurry slippers next to my bed and put my feet into them. They are very warm, and I feel a little bit better.

"Take this, too." Remus reaches out a morning gown for me. It's green as well, made of soft velvet that feels lovely against the skin of my hands. The sleeves are long, but it isn't too large for me; that's the way they're meant to be. Or at least I figure so, because the morning gown seems to otherwise fit me very well. The belt is silver, and all the edges are lined with the same colour.

He looks at me when I tie the belt on a loose knot. "Follow me," he says then. "This way."

I walk after him. We go through a long corridor that seems to continue forever. Fortunately, it doesn't. At last we turn to left and come to another corridor. It isn't long, and in the end of it we find a small wooden door. Remus opens it, and we step into the kitchen.

Compared to the dining room I saw earlier today it isn't very large. Compared to any other kitchen I've ever seen it's huge. It looks more like a smaller dining room, especially because there isn't an oven or anything there. All the cooking stuff is seemingly in the room next to this one -- at least that's where all the house-elves are, looking through the open door at us.

There's already a man in the kitchen. I startle and take a step backwards before I realize it's Lucius. Lucius. Another one of my fathers. No reason to be scared.

He looks at us and smiles. He gestures to the chairs opposite to him. "Good morning," he says as we sit down around the huge table. "Or maybe good night would be a better choice?" Then he notices the worried look on Remus's face and becomes serious. "What's wrong, Remy?" he asks gently, then turns towards me. "Did you have a nightmare?"

I merely nod. "There... there were men in the dream," I explain then. "They looked evil... And one of them... he had some kind of a tattoo in his forearm. A skull and a snake, I think. They were very scary, and they came nearer..." My voice fades off. I don't want to think about it.

He nods and looks very thoughtful. Then he asks, "What did the tattoo look like?" I open my mouth to answer, but he interrupts by raising his hand and continuing, "Was it like this?" Then he rolls up the left sleeve of his black robe.

I gasp and am near to fainting. In the forearm of my new father is a tattoo, exactly similar to the one in my dream. It looks even more threatening now, when it's real, and so near to me. "But... how..." I manage.

"It's the Dark Mark, Olivia," he says, letting the sleeve fall down again. "Every Death Eater has one of these. Death Eaters are Dark wizards, and they're always trying to hurt people." His expression darkens for a moment. Then he continues, "I'm not one anymore. But I used to be. I'm not proud of it; I regret every single moment I've ever spent being a Death Eater. Even when I was spying for the Light Side, I felt sick every time in our -- their -- meetings. But unlike other former Death Eaters, I don't try to hide my Mark."

"Don't criticize", Remus snaps. "Severus doesn't hide it anymore. And even when he did, he had a good reason -- how could a teacher of Hogwarts walk around with a Dark Mark when no one knew that he was a spy like you?"

"True," Lucius says, a little dry smile on his lips. "And I don't say that I'd been running around yelling, 'I have a Dark Mark! I have a Dark Mark!' or something equally stupid. But Severus is still a bit cautious about it, you have to admit that." Then his smile becomes softer, and he glances kindly at me. "But this is not the right time nor place for a conversation like this. Let's get some hot chocolate and forget it all for a while, shall we?"

I nod. "Exactly," I reply. "Let's forget it."

Just forget...