HERE BE DRAGONS, cedric diggory

prologue

THE HOUSE WAS COLD. 

Antheia Rosier's feet stung on the freezing marble floors as she sat on the ground. Her blanket was wrapped around her small shoulders as she waited. What she waited for, exactly, she didn't know. However, it was a step forward from laying in her bed all day. A soft knock sounded on the other side of the wooden black door. Theia watched as the serpent handle turned and Narcissa Malfoy entered. 

"It's time for breakfast," Mrs. Malfoy said gently. Theia rose unsteadily to her feet and carefully folded her blanket before putting it on her bed. She'd learned the repercussions of being untidy quickly while living at Malfoy Manor. She slipped her tiny hand into Mrs. Malfoys and was led down the spiraling staircases and through seemingly endless marble halls. Theia shivered, ducking her head to avoid making eye contact with the eerie paintings. She entered the dining room, where Mrs. Malfoy promptly let go of her hand. 

Mr. Malfoy sat at the head of the table, reading the Daily Prophet. And little Draco Malfoy sat in his high chair, messing about with the food his mother placed in front of him. Theia slid into a chair and with a pop! a plate of sausage and eggs appeared in front of the five-year-old. Of all the things Theia hated about Malfoy Manor, Dobby the house-elf was not one of them. He prepared all their foods and would even go so far as to keep Theia company when he wasn't needed. On some level, the two could relate: they were both tolerated by the Malfoys but not wanted. 

Nobody at the table paid Theia any attention as she quietly ate her breakfast. Even at her age, Theia knew why she'd been staying with the Malfoys for three years. And that was because both her parents were dead. When she grew older, she learned that her father was killed by an Auror and her mother later died giving birth to her would have been her younger brother. And so Theia was shipped off to the only family they trusted. 

Theia was grateful, of course, for the Malfoys. She grew up with somewhat of a family, and they clothed and fed her. However, she was different than them, something they all knew. The first sign when she saved a small family of bowtruckles from a tree that was going to be cut down in the woods beyond the manor. The second sign was when Theia tried freeing Dobby by presenting him with one of her jumpers. It didn't work because she was not part of the family, and therefore not his master. The next morning she woke up with tearstains on her cheeks and a fresh bruise on her jaw. 

Theia was constantly punished and ostracized for her kindness. Nothing she did would be perceived as right by the Malfoys. After a point, she didn't care anymore. She was tired of trying to earn their approval. The only time they ever seemed proud of her was when she was sorted into Slytherin. After that, Theia Rosier stopped thinking of them as a family. 

Little did she know, she would put together her own family, piece by piece.