1 01. ONCE I WAS 8 YEARS OLD

"Good morning."

"Oh, good morning Ms. Black." The librarian greeted the 8 year old who just walked in. The little girl looked up and flicked her sleek, black hair behind her back swiftly.

"Did you find the book on my family's history?" She asked, her grey eyes wide and eager. The librarian smiled at her and pulled a thick book from behind the counter and handed it to her.

"It's all yours, love."

"Thank you."

The little girl walked back to the orphanage and locked herself in her room, engrossed in the book. She'd asked for this book a while back from the librarian, wanting to know more about her family, other than her father. She asked about it every time she went to the library.

Elara flicked through the book and traced the lines from the family tree. She spotted her father and saw it linked him to a family called the Malfoys. His cousin Narcissa had married into that family and had a kid named Draco.

Intrigued by this, she wrote a letter and addressed it to the Malfoys. And handed it to her raven. He always visited her and delivered books to and from the library for her, so she trusted him to deliver this as well.

AT MALFOY MANOR

A raven swooped through the open window and landed in front a young boy with platinum hair. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion and he unraveled the letter from its leg and checked to see who it was addressed to.

The Malfoys.

This meant he could open it. He ran to his room and slit the envelope open, unfolding the letter within and reading it. He was quite young, but his parents had hired the best private tutors to teach him how to read and write and learn some basic magic, considering he didn't even have his wand yet.

Dear Lucius, Narcissa and Draco Malfoy,

My name is Elara, and my father is Sirius Black. I recently acquired a copy of our family tree and discovered that Narcissa Malfoy is my father's cousin. It has delighted me to find out that I have more family and I would love to meet you all. Especially you Draco. You are, after all, only a few years younger than me. It would be wonderful if we could keep in touch, I would love to know more about my father.

Regards,

Elara Luna Black

Draco immediately knew that he couldn't let his father see this, and if she showed his mother, she would tell his father. They weren't very fond of Sirius, and if they knew he had a daughter, they would go out of their way to influence her with their pureblood beliefs. He himself wasn't old enough to understand much about blood supremacy, but he heard things they said, and his tutor told him other things that contradicted what his parents had said. He had to try and keep Elara safe and a secret from his parents.

He picked up a quill and dipped it in some ink.

THE NEXT DAY

Elara sat in her room, eyes never straying far from the window as she waited on a return letter. And she got it.

Minutes later a large eagle-like owl soared through the open window and landed on her desk. There was a letter bound to its ankle. Elara untied it and stroked it a bit before she sent it on its way.

Opening the letter, she was in was written in a child's hand, one not unlike hers.

Dear Elara,

I'm Draco. It's a pleasure to meet you, but I cannot let my parents find out about you, or they will affect how you think about things and they will try to influence you to believe in their pureblood fanatic ways. They believe that muggles are inferior to us and that Muggleborns don't deserve magic. I don't want them to force their beliefs upon you.

I was wondering if you still wanted to send letters to me? And we can meet when I go to Hogwarts! It doesn't matter that you're older. You do have magic, right? Because if you do, we can spend the majority of the school year together. Hoping to see your reply soon.

Regards,

Draco Lucius Malfoy.

P.S. I love your name. If we do meet one day, I would love it if you told me what it meant.

Elara smiled at the kind boy. And that was how their friendship began. Through letters, never ever having seen each other's faces other than the descriptions they got from each other.

TIME SKIP

Months passed and Elara had managed to convince the librarian, Mrs. Flamel to take her to Diagon Alley so she could get some things.

So, Elara was delivered there and told how to find her way back. The first thing the young Black did, was head to Gringotts to get a key to her account.

She walked past the large doors and into the main hall, approaching a goblin who was carefully examining a diamond.

"Excuse me?" She called, causing him to look down at her.

"Yes?"

"Uhm, I don't have my key, but I was wondering if you could do an inheritance test to get me one?" She asked, making sure to keep her tone respectful and polite.

"Follow me." He hopped off his stool and lead her through a door and into a large room with books stacked on shelves and a wooden table in the middle.

The goblin walked to the table and pulled something silver out from a drawer. He held it towards Elara and she saw that it was a dagger.

"Cut your finger slightly and let it drip onto this." He placed a paper onto the table and pushed it towards her.

Elara pushed her hair from her eyes and took the dagger. She pushed slightly on the tip of her index finger, just enough for blood to draw, then she placed the dagger down and let the blood drip onto the paper. Once it was done, she wrapped the bottom of her shirt around her finger and pressed to stop the little bleeding that was there.

It slowly sank into it and writing appeared on the paper.

Elara Luna Black

(i) Parents

- Mother: Eve Finnigan

- Father: Sirius Orion Black III

(ii) Inheritance

- Black vault: 10M galleons, 100,000 sickles, 10,000 knuts

- Sirius Black separate vault: 10,000 galleons, 10,000 sickles, 5,000 knuts

- Finnigan vault: 50,000 galleons, 10,000 sickles, 50,000 knuts

"Ah. You're a Black. I was told to give any Black who came in here for their inheritance something. Here," The goblin pulled out a large thick book and handed it to her along with 3 keys.

One was inscribed with the Black Family motto; Toujours Pur. The other was a plain key and the last one merely had an 'F' on it. Elara wanted nothing to do with the Finnigan vault, but she kept the key with her just in case. From what she remembered of her childhood, there was no mother figure present.

"I will have someone bring you a quantity of money from the Black vault. Please stay here." He left Elara in the room with the large book.

She looked at it and ran the pad of her thumb over the embossed title. When she flicked to the first page, she gasped. In it was a picture. 4 teenagers. This book must have been with her father before he got sent to that hellhole.

One with a rat-like face, whom she glared at. Peter Pettigrew. The 8 year old knew her father was innocent. She had heard the stories and knew how loyal her father was from her earlier memories of her life with him and the Potters. She refused to believe that he would ever betray his friends. He would rather die than do so.

The next boy was tall. He had light hair and some scars on his face. Elara recognised the man as her Uncle Moony. She knew he was a wonderful man and she remembered spending a lot of her childhood in his presence. She knew of his 'furry little problem' as her father called it. She did miss the man; he was one of the prominent figures of her childhood.

Elara choked up at the sight of the two other men. The ones in the middle. Her own godfather. She recognised his messy hair and glasses. She remembered his hazel eyes and the soft hair that she would always play around with. James Potter. He was one of the funniest people she knew, and she remembered riding on him when he transformed into a stag for her. Now dead. All because of that pathetic rat.

A small tear slid down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away before looking at the last person. His dark hair fell to his shoulders and his soft grey eyes penetrated through the picture and looked into her own eyes. Her father. A smile appeared on her face as she ran her fingers over the picture. The one person that she still really had in this world.

And her father was now in Azkaban all because of Peter and Dumbledore. Yes, Elara blamed Dumbledore for her father's imprisonment as well. He didn't receive a fair trial, and she knew that some people were furious about that. Dumbledore who was known for his second chances, let her father be sent to that place without so much of a second glance. She hated the old man, and she would continue to do so until given a valid reason not to.

Elara tucked the photo into her pocket and shut the book. Her eyes wandered to her hands and she flicked her index finger, causing a pen on a desk to hover. Elara had this power. Telekinesis. She wasn't very good at the control part yet but she would be. And from the few pages she flicked through in the book, she guessed it was meant to help her with controlling it.

The goblin came back and handed a bulging bag to her. "This should last you a few years, until you turn eleven and come back for your books."

"Thank you." Elara nodded her head respectfully and promptly left, heading straight for Ollivander's for her wand. She wanted to get some practice in before school started in a few years.

"A Black! Haven't seen one of you in a long time!" A voice said, causing her to jump. An old man with white hair came forward and frowned. "You look a tad young for Hogwarts."

"I'm not going to Hogwarts just yet. I just wanted to try some spells beforehand." She said, running a hand through her sleek hair. Ollivander had a memory of someone doing the same thing many years ago and arguing with his mother. Her father, Sirius.

"Well, I'm glad to see another Black. Let's see..." He plucked the measuring tape from around his neck and measured her in some places, including her wand hand, which was her left hand. She had learned that Draco was her opposite, a right handed person. She was like her father in that sense.

Ollivander finished measuring her and headed to the ladder with a determined look on his face. He gathered several boxes in his arms and slid down the ladder, setting them all on the table in front of Elara.

And one by one he opened each box and handed the wand inside to Elara. None of them suited her, so he grabbed another armful- this time from the back of the shop.

The first box he opened held a dark brown wand with a carefully carved grasp of little vines. Elara's pale hand stretched out and removed the wand from the crushed, red velvet cushion it sat on.

As soon as it was in her grasp, a gust of wind surrounded hair and her black hair blew around her head.

"Dogwood. 12 and a 1/2 inches. Unicorn hair core. Perfect for Transfiguration." The old man recited. He smiled. "Very nice. Dogwood wands tend to go to those that are more mischievous and trouble prone."

"That's me." She smiles.

"Just like your father." Ollivander says, a faraway look on his face, as though remembering something. Elara places the wand back in the box. "11 galleons."

After she paid, she headed back towards the Orphanage after picking up a few books on spells. She had heard that as soon as she started at Hogwarts, all magic outside it would be prohibited until she turned of age.