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o. ZERO
PROLOGUE
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MELORA LESTRANGE HAD NOTHING AGAINST HER FAMILY WHATSOEVER. And she'd always been like that, even though her parents were quite possibly the most heartless and cruel people the wizarding world had ever come across (aside from Lord Voldemort, of course). But as a nine-year-old girl, all that she knew was that her parents were locked away in a prison cell, and that she was never going to get a clearer image of them than the one that rested on the family tapestry.
But despite the lack of parents in her early childhood, she was quick to find replacements. Whilst she seemed to loathe her uncle far more as time went on, he was the closest to a father figure that she would ever receive. And for that, she was grateful, because she knew she would need one.
She imagined that being raised by the Malfoy family wasn't too dissimilar to what her actual parents had planned for her. Both families had come to adore the true value of blood purity, and anyone besides the title of 'pure-blood' was considered irrelevant.
Melora knew that. It was probably the first full sentence that she had been taught to say. And due to the views of those who influenced her most, she believed it more than anything else. She cherished the fact that the blood that ran through her veins was thick with pure magic, and no one could change it.
She was a Lestrange — a pure-blood witch — and that was final.
Sometimes, there came days in which Melora wondered what would have happened to her, had the Malfoy family not taken her in after her parents had been arrested. She knew that there was other existing family members, but they weren't pure like the Malfoys were. And her father's family were either all dead or had joined him within the prison.
Even if Lucius Malfoy was not wasting away in a cell, he was eligible to be. He supported Lord Voldemort as though there would be no life without him, and his malicious manners seemed to be a toned down version of her mother. Melora couldn't comprehend why her parents had been taken away, yet her uncle had been released, completely free of charge.
And Melora made sure that everyone else in the house was also aware of her concern for the unjust conclusions that had been made by the Ministry. She didn't believe that her uncle had been cursed to do it, not when she knew what he was truly like, when he was concealed behind the walls of his home.
"My father is not lying!" her younger cousin, Draco, had protested when she'd told him precisely how she felt one day. "He should be here at home, with me, with Mother... with you!"
