CHAPTER EIGHT.
OLD TIMES
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The anxious looks her aunt and uncle sent her were causing the young girl to become confused. She was too confused to truly understand the situation. All she knew was that her parents were asleep and they apparently weren't going to wake up. She had spent the last few weeks at their house, rooming with her cousin in his big room having a slumber party.
At times, she would see her aunt and uncle whispering to each other in dark corners, only to snap when their house elf, Dobby, tried to offer them help. She knew it had to be about her, everything was about her or her parents recently. Though, Amandla, being as young as she was, couldn't understand what was possibly going on.
It had been three weeks before they took her out again. She had been trapped in the house with Draco, wondering the corridors they had memorized together years ago, sneaking into the kitchen every night and receiving chocolate from Dobby, who had been terribly kind to them even though his true masters had been incredibly rude as of late.
Her Aunt Narcissa held a firm grip on Amandla's small hand. She looked around, afraid anyone would see them as they walked down the dark streets. It was night, the stars dimly shining above them as they moved. Amandla sent a look at Draco, as if pleading for him to explain, but he, being as young as her, didn't understand either. He wanted to ask his father what was going on, but he knew better, so he kept quiet.
Lucius knocked on the door of the shop three times. Moments later, the same door opened to reveal an older man with a grim face. He ushered them inside, he had been expecting the Malfoys to show up, being 'friends' of them for a long time.
"You can help us, right, Novak?" Lucius asked him, trying not to let his fear be shown on his face.
"Yes," the man, Novak, nodded, "Your situation is quite unusual. I can't help but he surprised that dear Amandla is still alive. The papers say she's dead."
Amandla, confused by the topic, looked around the shop. She saw strange gadgets around, all different things that had many different names and prices, many different descriptions and she felt her mind swirl at the amount of words.
"Yes, it isn't hard to fool the press or pay them to write something," Lucius rambled, "Have you gotten what I needed?"
"A family to take her in?" Novak broke into a laugh, "I don't see why you can't release a statement saying she's alive and keep her with you."
Narcissa shook her head, "No, that won't work. She needs a good family who can keep her safe – safer than we ever could."
Novak eyed her skeptically, "He's gone. He's been gone for years, if that's what you're afraid of."
"We still have enemies," Lucius growled, "People still want us dead – they wanted the Ftizgeralds dead and now they are. What will the people who took my cousin away from me think when Amandla's still alive? They'll come back for her to finish the job – we can't have that."
Novak caved, looking at the young girl. He had known the King family for years. Seen them pass through the shop many times throughout the year, sometimes with their two children; Gwendolyn and Aiden. She looked so much like Gwendolyn. The curly hair, the gentle features, that little spark of innocence in her eyes. He remembered the times when Gwen's eyes held that too – but that was years ago, when she was only a child.
Now, the Fitzgeralds Novak didn't know. They stayed away from his shop the best they could, not needing dark items to commit dark deeds. Only a wand was needed for them.
He sighed, "The Statures."
"What?" Lucius questioned. He expected more information, not just a name. He needed to make sure they would thoroughly take care of his precious Amandla – the daughter of his favorite cousin.
"The Statures. A single mother, Anastasia, raising twins. She was a Ravenclaw, pureblood, works a muggle job as a lawyer – very good job for their kind. She's kind, helps out with summer camps for children. She'll take care of Amandla."
"Thank you," Lucius was so sincere in that moment. He looked at Amandla, who was innocently staring at all of the strange objects on display, and he suddenly began to grow sad. He wouldn't be as relevant in her life anymore. No one could know of their connection to each other, and that meant he would have to let her go a little – more than he could ever want.
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With parted lips, Amandla stared at the different objects on display in the Room of Requirement. It reminded her of her childhood, one moment that seemed so confusing at the time, but so clear at that moment. This time, though, there was no one part of the Malfoy family there, it was her classmates from different houses ready to learn from the great Harry Potter himself.
The strange objects, this time, she knew their names. She knew what they were, she wasn't confused. No, she was mostly sad that she had been drawn back into that horrible memory that wasn't even too bad. No, it was that feeling of confusion of where her parents were, what was happening, and where she would go next.
"Glad to see all you of could find this place all right," Harry announced, looking at them.
"Hey, Harry, what is all of this stuff?" Neville asked on behalf of most everyone in the room.
"Loads of Defense Against the Dark Arts equipment. Hopefully we'll be able to get to all of it before the end of the term," Harry said, and Amandla frowned.
She knew the last part of that. Even if he hadn't meant it, there was that nagging feeling of if they finished this term. No, that was for the majority of people there. For her, it was before she was turned into the one of the people they were fighting.
"You need to understand something before we start, though. Defending yourself from the Dark Arts had less to do with magical ability and more to do with thinking fast and a lot of luck," Harry paused, "We'll be doing Expelliarmus tonight, though hopefully we can move on to other things if we have time."
"Oh please," some rolled their eyes. Zacharias, Amandla mentally scoffed. "Professor Lockhart taught us that in second year."
"Lockhart didn't teach as much as prune himself," Ron defended his friend, and Amandla couldn't help but agree. He did spend a lot of time talking more than doing anything, acting as if he could do so much but never actually doing any of it.
"Besides, it works," Harry grew uncomfortable as he added the next part, "I used it against You-Know-Who last June. It saved my life." That, of course, everyone to grew silent. "Right. Well, let's split into pairs and give it a go."
Amandla, of course, teamed up with Cevira. Corey pleaded with them, hoping to get one of them before Luna went to her brother with an innocent look on her face as she dragged him away. He sent them pleading looks, silently asking for them to save him as they giggled and waved goodbye.
The Fitzgerald girl tried her best, but she couldn't find herself beating Cevira. The other girl, of course, was much better at spell casting than anyone Amandla had ever met. Cevira was quick, confident in her spells, and never wanted to be defeated in a duel. Amandla knew this from experience in their second year when Lockhart and Snape tried to have a dueling club. Let's just say that Amandla had made many trips to the hospital wing for hexes during that time, only to return at night to Cevira apologizing profusely before gloating the next day.
Now, saying this, Amandla wasn't terrible at casting spells, or learning them. She was absolutely talented in picking up the spells her mother made when she was alive. But others she learned from textbooks and classes just didn't work out as well. Maybe it was because she had more of connection to the spells her mother created, like she was channeling her mother or making her proud by using them, but her spells were always better.
Harry soon came over to observe them, only to see Cevira constantly win and Amandla always losing. He stopped them, turning the darker girl. "Amandla, you've got a lot of potential, but something's holding you back – don't let it."
Holding her back. She didn't know of anything holding her back, she was perfectly free now of everything that chained her. Maybe she just didn't want to hurt her friend, she tried to convince herself, but she knew that it was something deeper. Something inside her telling her that one day she would use these spells against her family, and she couldn't do that. Even if she wasn't on speaking terms with Draco, she could never harm him. They were family, after all.
Amandla didn't verbally respond to Harry, only nodding before getting back to practicing the spell with Cevira. They continued with this for what felt like hours before Harry got their attention again.
"Okay, everyone. We've done a lot today, and I've seen some great improvement. That's it for now. We'll meet back here, same time next week!"
Amandla sighed them, partially glad that it was over. She didn't like continuously being defeated by her best friend. She dropped down her arm, smiling at Cevira as they walked out together, waiting at the entrance for Corey to catch up with them.
"You should've seen it, Copernicus, I was destroying Amandla!" Cevira gloated.
"One, don't call me that. Two, great job," he sarcastically added the last part, "Luna's pretty good. I won a little, lost a little. I think it was great, but she kept trying to talk about Nargles in between rounds."
"That's great," Amandla nodded, "She's trying to inform you about something. Maybe you should listen."
"About Nargles?" Corey rolled his eyes, "They don't even exist! But dad and Luna are convinced they do. I swear, sometimes I think they need to be sent to the looney bin."
"She just wants to talk to you," she defended the younger Lovegood, "You never talk to her, not really. All you do is tear her beliefs down. Maybe if you don't want to talk about that, talk about something else that interests you. She just wants to share a part of her life with you, Cor."
Corey sighed, "I know, alright? I know. I just – I hear enough about it during summer and I don't want to deal with it at school too. But what would I talk to her about?"
"Movies, comic books, anything," Cevira shrugged. "I would kill to have a conversation with Caesar that didn't end up turning back to the fact that I'm this huge disappointment," she sighed, "Like when we were kids and all we talked about was Scooby Doo."
"Ah, those were simpler times," Corey agreed, "It was easier when mum was around. She was enough like them, but more logical like me. We used to catch butterflies together, study them for a while before setting them free again. She was the only one that tried to understand me back them. Luna just called me weird."
Amandla felt herself becoming uncomfortable again with the topic. She couldn't really tell them anything about her childhood. She couldn't tell them about her adventures with Draco, or the fact that she never really went anywhere with her parents because they were too afraid of being seen out at the park with their daughter. Amandla had continuously asked, loving her time having picnics with Draco and them, but her mother always told her no, that it was too dangerous. Back then, she couldn't understand why. Now, she did.
It turned silent them, them approaching the hallway the girls turned down for Hufflepuff. Amandla sent a smile to Corey before turning the corner, and the conversation didn't pick up again. She didn't feel like talking, she felt like sleeping. They walked to their dorm once inside the Hufflepuff common room, getting ready for bed as Amandla stared at the moon once more before closing her eyes, silencing her eyes, and welcoming sleep, only to be met with another memory that she hated.
Her doe brown eyes stared with confusion into the ones of her aunts. All she knew was that it was raining, her aunt was crying, and she didn't know where she was. She was told they were getting ice cream. Draco had complained when told he couldn't come along, and Lucius made sure to shut him up quickly.
They walked down the unknown streets before Narcissa stopped her, unable to stop the tears. She gulped, pulling Amandla into a hug, hating that she had to say goodbye.
"Aunt Narcissa," Amandla pulled away, "I don't know what's happening. Why are you crying?"
"Because...you're – you're going to a nice family with a great mother. She's going to take care of you and you're going to be just wonderful. Okay?" Narcissa cried.
She hated it. She really did, saying goodbye to Amandla. Just recently, she had said her final goodbyes to her friends who were greeted by death. Just recently, she had held Amandla's hand as the young girl looked at the tombstone that held her parents' names. Rest in peace, it said, yet Amandla still couldn't understand what was happening.
No, a part of her did, but she wanted to deny it. She wanted to go home and see her parents waiting for her with a smile, saying they were alright and they would take her to the park later – like she always wanted. She didn't want them to be dead, she didn't want them to six feet underground like they were, so she denied it. Maybe that would work, maybe that would bring them back.
"I – I don't understand," Amandla stuttered, she searched for an answer in her aunt's eyes, but none was found.
"Her name is Anastasia," Narcissa continued to cry, "She's wonderful – a lawyer, love, she's a lawyer. She has two children – a boy and girl – they'll be just like siblings to you. She's going to take care of you, you'll be fine."
"I don't understand!"
"A-And she's going to buy you your first wand, fit you for your first uniform, and she's going to help you with your homework, okay? She's going to tell you about Hogwarts and her experience, and she's going to help you pick out an animal – if you want one – and encourage you with your studies."
"Please! I don't understand!"
"She's going to help you with your first job, help you decide whether or not you'll get one in the wizarding world or if you'll be a lawyer just like her."
"Aunt Narcissa!"
"And her children – Cevira and Caesar – you'll play tag with them. You'll catch butterflies with them, like you do with Draco. You'll steal cookies with them and grow up with them. They'll be your best friends, be there to share all your experiences with you."
"Please!"
"And, don't forget, no matter what house you're sorted in, we'll love you all the same. I don't think you'll be a Slytherin, you're too kind. Maybe Hufflepuff. That'll suit you well. Yes, be proud of that. Always be proud of who you are and where you came from. Okay?"
"I don't understand!"
"It'll be hard, you know. I struggled with it too. But you're an amazing girl with so much potential. You can be whatever you want when you're older. We'll support you no matter what. No matter what your parents were like before you were born – or any of your family – you can be different. You can be better, Amandla. Promise me you'll be better."
"I don't understand!"
"Promise me!" Narcissa cried, "Promise me you'll be better – that you'll be good. Please."
"I promise!" Amandla screeched, "Just, please, tell me what's happening."
Narcissa took a large breath, "You'll be staying with the Stature family now. They'll be your family now."
"But – But you're my family," Amandla shook her head, "I don't want a new family."
She sighed, "I know, but they'll protect you more than we ever could. You'll understand when you're older."
"I don't want to leave you," Amandla disagreed.
"I don't want you to leave either," Narcissa admitted, "But it's for the best. You'll have a brother and a sister, a mother who loves you. They'll help you with everything."
"What about you? I don't want you to leave," Amandla now cried, she didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay with her aunt forever.
"We'll see you during summer sometimes," Narcissa nodded, "We can have secret holidays with each other. How does that sound? You can come over and we'll tell them your visiting your sick grandmother in the hospital. How does that sound? And Draco – you'll see Draco during the year all the time when you're older, okay?"
"Don't make me leave," Narcissa briefly smiled at that. It was sad, saying goodbye, but it had to be done. For the good of everyone, it had to be done.
Narcissa opened her purse, taking out a letter than explained everything along with some money for Anastasia taking in Amandla. "I want you to take this and hand it to the woman who answers the door, alright? And when she lets you inside, don't look back. I'll see you soon."
Amandla nodded and Narcissa stood up, pointing at a house across the street. "Go, right to that house and knock on the door. I'll watch you leave."
The young girl went the door, knocked on it and waited. She threw a glance back at Narcissa, who smiled at her and nodded. It was for the best, she reminded herself. The door opened, revealing a middle aged Asian woman, who stared down at Amandla before taking the letter she offered the woman. It seemed like an eternity later, though it was only a minute, before she ushered Amandla inside.
When the door shut, Narcissa let out a breath she didn't even know she had been holding. Wiping her tears, she Apparated back to her house, where her husband and confused son were waiting.