prologue aleyne house
for orphans
❝the eyes of others
our prisons;
their thoughts our cages❞━━Virginia Woolf
THE STORY WENT A BIT LIKE THIS. In the summer of 1991, an owl dropped Harry Potter's Hogwarts letter on the doorstep of Number Four, Privet Drive.
A few neighbourhoods over, in another world, a more magical yet seemingly just as selfish one, another owl dropped another letter on the doorstep of Aleyne House for Orphans.
Aleyne was a tall and narrow building, hidden from the eyes of passing by muggles. It stood at the end of a deep alley, covered by the absence of light and an ominous cloud. No confunding spells were necessary as the eerie chill one got when one walked too close to the building was enough to keep people away, wizards and muggles alike.
Aleyne housed many children. Ones who lost their parents to the war, ones who were abandoned for having magic and ones who were left for not. It housed children as young as a few hours old but not those older than fifteen. Matron Hallewell had a belief, you see. At fifteen, a child was old enough to go on about on their own, therefore they no longer need to squander off the orphanage's money. More specifically, her money.
Matron Hallewell was a special woman. Not Madam, not Ms, but Matron. She believed it kept a certain distance between her and the children. Matron wasn't ordinary, neither was she strange. She was special and she was strict. She believed in discipline and order and scorned at anyone who stepped out of line. She hated children, both magical and muggle, and would look at them with disdain and disgust.
And that was exactly how she looked at Adhara Black one gloomy morning as the 11-year-old stood in her office. She held both her hands in front of her, dirty and battered from a night at the furnace room, as the kids liked to call it, waiting for Matron to hand her her Hogwarts letter.
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𝗨𝗡𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗘𝗗 ━ Golden Trio Era
FanfictionADHARA, the second brightest star in the Canis Major constellation, right after sirius. It was as if her father had named her after a murderer A few neighbourhoods away from Number 4, Privet Drive, there was a tall...