Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

• Alice is fourteen years old the first time she sets foot in Malfoy Manor. She’s terrified and doesn’t know what to expect. Not only from the imposing house and her new life, but from her father and brother as well.
• Lucius of course, she knows of from school, but it’s not as if they have many friends in common or reasons to interact.
• She is self conscious of everything at that first meeting from what she’s wearing to how she talks and the way she fidgets and of course, her table manners.
• Abraxas is surprising. He’s kind and soft in a way she never expected and she instantly feels what can only be described as warmth toward him. Lucius is different here than at school. He seems more open, his face shines like the sun when he smiles and Alice never had a sibling before but she feels an immediate kinship with him that only cements itself over that summer as they spend time together and get to know one another, creating memories and inside jokes.
• Her parents are supportive and understanding, after all they always told her she was adopted and loved and wanted. They always gave her all the love she could ever want and more. Finding her birth family can only be seen as a blessing for Alice in their eyes.
• They tell her this is a good thing. She’s not losing them but gaining the Malfoy’s.
• She will always be their daughter but she should build her relationship with the Malfoys as well.
• It is perfectly fine that she calls Abraxas Papa and she spends most of the summer at the Manor and that she’s excited for balls and fancy dresses and new friends and all the other things her new life affords her.
• They tell her they love her, they tell her she deserves this, they tell her they tell her all this and more.
• It gets easier to fit into her new role as a member of Society.
• She makes friends with Narcissa Black, and Emma Vanity and they make it easier to adjust, filling her in on all the necessary gossip and the ins and outs of etiquette and decorum and what is now expected of her as Abraxas Malfoy’s daughter.
• The first time Alice and Rodolphus actually speak is at the Malfoy Yule Ball that year. They both play quidditch at Hogwarts so it’s not like they don’t know who the other is, but at school they never had much to talk about other than the normal rival quidditch insults thrown around half heartedly.
• She’s never had a crush before but Alice is fairly certain that the way her chest seems to tighten when he laughs and the way her stomach flips when he asks her for a single dance is pretty close to that.
• He’s a perfect gentleman of course, all these Pureblood society types are, and why wouldn’t they be? They were born into this, the unspoken rules have been drilled into them since birth and even though Alice is doing her best she can’t help but notice the glances thrown her way every so often, the whispers followed by condescending smirks and not very kind giggles.
• Rodolphus tells her to ignore them. Your father has claimed you as his legitimate child he says. That is all that matters he says. You are one of us he says.
• Coming from him it’s slightly different than when her father and brother and new friends said it. Coming from him it feels safe, and warm and welcoming and like the truth.
• That night or early the next morning as she’s laying in bed, giggling with Emma and Narcissa, she goes quiet as she remembers Rodolphus is betrothed already.
• That he was probably just being polite when he asked her to dance, that he was just being a gentleman, and a good friend of the family and that she’ll never actually have a chance at anything with him.
• But when school starts back up after the holidays he smiles when he passes her in the corridors. He makes polite conversation when she comes to visit Lucius in the Slytherin common room which may or may not happen a lot more than before and may or may not be completely unnecessary in nature.
• Her days fall into an easy rhythm of balance between her two worlds. She goes to classes, has quidditch practices, still hangs out with all her friends and goes to the same clubs she did before, but now she makes time for Lucius and though he won’t admit it, he definitely likes having his sister around.
• That school year ends much like the ones before it, but this time as Alice steps off the Hogwarts express she’s glowing with a newfound happiness.
• She hugs three parents that day instead of two. She makes plans to visit Amos Diggory, because he’s been her best friend since first year, and all her other friends as she normally does; but this time there are plans that include Narcissa and Emma, and Abraxas taking Alice for a holiday to Paris and the family vacation Estate in Spain, and Alice never thought there had been anything missing in her life before, but now she knows there’s no way she would ever give this life up for anything.
• Shortly after she graduates it will become clear just how very wrong she was.