Harry Potter

The first snowfall came in the middle of the night just before the students that were heading home for the winter break left. The chill in the air seeped pleasantly into Harry's body as he gave Hermione a hug. Ron and Tanya had elected to not see their friend off, but Harry wanted Hermione to know how much he valued her friendship. With so few people he could honestly call a friend, each one of them was special to him.

"Thank you Harry," Hermione said, returning the hug. "It is so nice of you to see me off."

"Of course. Have a good trip." The two broke their hug before going their separate ways, Hermione getting into a carriage being pulled by nothing and Harry turning back to the castle.

"Potter," Malfoy called from nearby, Crabbe and Goyle waiting near a separate carriage. "No Degurechaff with you?"

"No, she said her farewells in the warmth of the Great Hall this morning," Harry said, staring down Malfoy. Malfoy looked down.

"Tell her I'm sorry. And I'm sorry to you as well. I shouldn't have said what I did about your parents."

Harry was silent for a moment. He didn't know what to say. Dudley never apologized for anything he did. Bullies did not apologize, they just kept being bullied and would only be sneakier about it if they got in trouble.

"Well?" Malfoy asked, whipping his face up, contorted in anger.

"Tell her yourself," Harry answered. Malfoy scoffed and turned away. "Thank you." Malfoy paused for a moment before continuing to his carriage.

—-

Albus Dumbledore

With the arrival of the winter break, Albus's schedule was freed up enough to pay a visit to the orphanage Tanya was from, Wings of Love Orphan Home. It was a small, well cared for facility from what Dumbledore could see from the outside, though he knew very well that secrets could hide behind such a pleasant facade. With a sigh, Dumbledore began to walk towards the building when the pop of apparition surprised the time with wizard.

"Lucius?" Dumbledore cried it in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask the same of you," Lucius Malfoy coolly replied.

"I have come to check on the home situation of one of my students. What business do you have here?"

"A Ms. Degurechaff I presume. My son has told me some interesting tales about her and I have come to look into her past myself."

The two men stared each other down. Thick tension in the air as the men calculated what to do about the situation.

"I suppose we should go together then," Dumbledore said, turning and resuming his trek to the orphanage.

"Indeed." Lucius began following, his gaze cutting across the street, his disdain evident as he watched the muggle children play in the snow.

With a firm knock on the door, the two men waited a moment for the door to be answered.

"Yes? How may I help you?" A nun asked answering the door and looking at the gentlemen with a raised eyebrow.

"We were hoping to speak the head of this orphanage," Dumbledore said, putting a polite foot forwards. "Tanya Degurechaff is a student at the school I am the headmaster at and we had a few questions about her."

The nun sighed and Dumbledore could feel the sense of resignation coming off of the nun's mind.

"Of course you want to ask about her. And is this gentleman with you a teacher?"

"I am the Chairman of the Board of Governors for the school," Lucius said, putting on his most aristocratic airs.

The nun raised an eyebrow at Lucius before letting the men in. "Follow me. Abbess Jane should be in her office right now."

The men followed the nun as she entered a hallway under the staircase in the foyer of the orphanage. The carpet was worn, there were scratches on the banisters, but the orphanage looked clean with no dust or cobwebs visible to Dumbledore's keen eyes. In the Head Matriarch's office the furniture was well worn, but appeared to be in good, sturdy condition and the bookshelves filled with files clearly labeled and organized.

"These gentlemen are here to talk with you about Tanya."

The Head Matriarch sighed and motioned for the two men to sit. "Thank you Sister Kate. That will be all. I take it you two are from that heathen school of sorceries?"

Dumbledore could tell that the abbess's words struck a cord with Lucius. Despite the harshness of the words, Abbess Jane's thoughts felt more resigned than upset.

"Yes. I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, and the man with me is Lucius Malfoy, the Chairman of the Board of Governors."

"So, what did Tanya do?"

"Do?" Dumbledore feigned confusion about what the Abbess was asking about to gauge her reaction.

"We've known since she first arrived here that she was no ordinary child," the Abbess explained. "So what did she do? Did she grow fangs? Did her ears become pointed? Is she green now?"

"No. Not at all. Why would you think she would gain inhuman characteristics?" To have her accuse Ms. Degurechaff of gaining beastly traits was interesting. Dumbledore was concerned about her behavior prior to arriving at Hogwarts, but to have accusations unrelated to actions was most unusual.

"Well, she's not human is she?" The Abbess fully believed Ms. Degurechaff was not human. There was no deception, no deflection, just honest belief that a child that had been in her care for years was not a human child.

"What makes you so sure of that?" Lucius asked, saving Dumbledore the effort.

The Abbess stood up and began looking through her files. "She arrived in a rather unusual manner." The Abbess pulled down a folder with Tanya's name on it. Her full name by the looks of it. "She was left in a basket in the foyer with a note on her. A foyer we lock at night and was still locked in the morning when we found her. Ah, here it is. This note."

The Abbess handed over an old yellowing piece of paper with a single line of text written on it.

'Her name is Tanya Natasha Tenya Ginsei Romanoff Degurechaff.'

Even Albus had to admit to himself that was a very full name and perhaps a bit excessive.

"I have helped raise a great many children, many from infancy, in this building. None have been like Tanya. She learned to speak at an early age, and I do not mean one or two words. No, by the time she was two, she was using full sentences. And it was the strangest thing, she sounded like one of those actresses from the American movies. But as she got older, her accent changed. Or rather, she began hiding it under a different accent."

The Abbess took a seat and stared at the two men.

"I do not know what sorts of sorceries you are teaching those children, but the existence of magic is enough proof for me that those Irish folk tales of the fair folk and changelings are true. Tanya is not human, of that I am sure."

Albus leaned back in the seat and stroked his beard as he thought on this information. There were some creatures that could appear to be human, but there was always a tell. Web toes, forked tongue, something that marked them as different.

"What other proof do you have that she is not human?" Lucius asked with a snarl, likely disbelieving the tale as the ramblings of some superstitious muggle.

The Abbess shook her head. "Nothing concrete, just the way she talks and acts is not the same as a child her age should. Even as a mere babe, she would speak and move about as if she was merely a very small adult. The way she plays with the other children looked more like an adult indulging a child to me rather than two children engaged in a game."

"Interesting. Perhaps we should speak to some of the children," Dumbledore suggested. "Children often have a different perspective on things than adults."

Abbess Jane narrowed her eyes at Dumbledore before staring down Lucius. "You will not be filling the children's heads with stories of your heathen magic."

"We would not think it," Dumbledore promised with a kind smile.

"Before we do, though," Lucius added, a scowl still on his face. "If you believe us heathens, why allow Ms. Degurechaff to attend Hogwarts?"

The Abbess sighed and grasped her rosary. "Even if she is not human, it would be unchristianly of myself and this orphanage to keep her away from her people. I have concerns for her soul, but the good book tells us to be good people to each other, even if they are heathens that will burn in hell, for it is not our place to judge the sins of others."

Albus stayed close to Lucius as they talked to the children to get a fuller picture of Ms. Degurechaff. And the more they learned, the stranger the picture became. The best Albus could describe the impression even the older children had of Tanya was of an aloof older sibling. Distant as far as emotions were concerned, but constantly stepping in to prevent fights or end them, helping others with school work, and advising against certain actions, advise that when ignored always seemed to result in injury.

As they were about to part ways, Lucius stopped Albus.

"My son told me that there is a rumor that Ms. Degurechaff fought a troll that managed to get into the school. How accurate is this rumor?"

"Accurate save for one detail," Albus admitted, looking at Lucius. "The term butcher would be a more apt term for what Ms. Degurechaff did to that troll who had the misfortune to cross her path."

The slow widening of eyes along with the slow realization crossing Lucius's mind was a rather sweet joy that would comfort Albus as what was to be done with Ms. Degurechaff was determined.

Returning to his office, Albus pulled an old book off the shelf. For once the habit of people to purchase books as gifts for Albus was proving useful as only his old friend Newt would have gotten him an antique book on fairies with a detailed explanation of the varieties and peculiarities of the different types. While the superstitions of muggles were often wrong, there was often a basis in truth to the superstitions.

Getting to the section on Changelings, known by many names all across the continent, Albus saw a list of methods to identify one and the ways in which a changeling came to be. In most cases, changelings were fairies swapped with a human child to be raised by a human family. In a few cases, the swap was an elderly fae looking to live out the rest of their life being cared for by humans. Changelings were often sickly looking and the preferred targets were attractive people, particularly those of fair hair and blue eyes.

Albus bit his thumb as he thought and began pacing as he read on. Ms. Degurechaff was unusually pale of skin and her hair was a striking golden hue that made spotting her in a crowd easy. Combined with her bright blue eyes, she bore a striking appearance to Gellert.

Albus paused as the thought crossed his mind. He placed the book on his desk and pulled out a parchment to begin making notes. Degurechaff was a family name that sounded to be from Central Europe among the Germanic nations. On a quick whim, Albus checked the Arithmancy and was pleased to see the calculations did not line up, but Degurechaff translates into character of 3, heart of 5, and social of 7. Three prime numbers.

That was too significant to write off as a coincident. With the eyes and hair that match Gellert so well, Albus would need to compare facial structure. To see if there was a relation between the two.

Taking a calming breath, Albus went to his pensive and grabbed a bottled memory of his and poured it into the basin. He then placed his wand to his temple and extracted a memory of Ms. Degurechaff's face. With a wave of his wand over the pensive, two silver faces came out of the basin. A smiling, youthful Gellert laughing at something Albus had said and the relaxed, detached expression of Ms. Degurechaff. Albus looked past the expression to the nose and chin shapes and the structure of the cheeks.

Gellert's nose was crooked from an earlier confrontation that had not fully healed, but the thin profile and smooth curve was similar to Ms. Degurechaff, as was the high cheek bones both had.

Returning to the book, Albus furiously read. One of the identifiers for Changelings was a ravenous appetite in addition to wisdom and knowledge far beyond their years. Albus would need to watch the young Ms. Degurechaff the next time they ate to see how much she ate.

And have a large amount of eggshells brought to his office for the next time they had tea together. That was likely to raise questions from the faculty, but a bit of eccentricity to uncover a changeling would be worth it. Having the eggshells near a fireplace appeared to be enough to out a changeling, but the reason for how that worked was missing.

Albus sighed before pulling out his schedule and wincing. A trip to Austria would have to wait till the summer. Ms. Degurechaff had to date not shown herself a danger to the students at Hogwarts outside of her capacity to do harm, meaning that Albus could not justify rescheduling a week's worth of meetings on short notice and he needed to remain at the castle as much as possible until the summer to help protect the stone.

Sitting down, Albus began to organize his thoughts onto paper so he would know what he needed to confront Gellert about when they met again.

—-

Lucius Malfoy

Lucius dismissed the idea of a changeling child out of hand. The note and basket being left inside the orphanage with locked doors was clearly something any half decent wizard could manage with little issue. With a full name at his disposal and his son to confirm family resemblances, Lucius would be able to find out the blood status of this Tanya Degurechaff.

His first stop was to the Ministry of Magic to look through the records to see if one of the lesser wizarding families had a connection to a Degurechaff line. Appariting to the main foyer, Malfoy confidently strolled his way to the security checkpoint where Malfoy presented his wand and stated his business was to check the public records. After his wand was weighed, Malfoy took the elevators down to the records floor and began with a look through the marriage and birth records for any Degurechaffs that might exist within Wizarding Britain. The name had a certain Central European feel to it, so there was a fair chance Lucius would have to contact his old comrade Karkaroff about any Degurechaffs that may exist near him.

After hours of scanning records and finding nothing within the last one hundred years about any Degurechaffs existing in Britain, Lucius left the Ministry disappointed, but not defeated. A child able to butcher a troll at the age of eleven was sure to have come from a powerful, pure blooded family. Just not a family that Lucius was familiar with.

Returning to the Wiltshire Manor, Lucius sent for his son to meet him in the library where Lucius sat down at a writing desk to pen the letter to Karkaroff.

"You called for me, father?" Draco asked when he arrived.

"Yes. This Tanya Degurechaff you mentioned hanging around the Potter boy, tell me about her," Lucius said, looking up at his son with his face carefully kept blank.

"Why do you want to know? She's just some orphan."

Lucius sighed, displaying his disappointment in his son. "Draco, my son, surely you must know that many old families died off during the last few wars, leaving many children without parents. Some of these families could have found a way to leave their last heir at an orphanage so their lineage does not die out." Lucius leaned back in his seat as Draco fidgeted under the gaze. "This Degurechaff has garnered the attention of Dumbledore. He is investigating who she is and where she is from as well as I. While our hope that Potter was to be the next Dark Lord is seemingly lost, there might still be something there if he is connecting himself to a more powerful Dark Lady. We need to find out who Degurechaff is and where she is from. So, tell me, what do you know about her?"

Draco's eyes grew wide as he heard his father speak and nodded his head before becoming thoughtful. "There are rumors floating around the school, like that she fought a troll."

"Confirmed by Dumbledore that the incident was more akin to a butchering, but go on," Lucius interrupted.

Draco swallowed hard before nodding. "Right, other than that I have not heard much. We only have one class together and I haven't noticed her standing out too much there. The biggest thing is her flying. She is on the Gryffindor quidditch team as a first year and in the first game she kicked a bludger away. Flint spent hours complaining after the game that she cheated, but Dumbledore sided with the Gryffindors by calling it an advanced technique not against the rules."

"An advanced technique? Any specifics on what it is?" Lucius asked.

Draco shook his head. "No. Flint didn't mention what she said and none of us really wanted to hear him complain about the loss."

Lucius stood up and began to pace the room. "We need more information. I have a few leads to follow, but you need to get closer to her and give me anything she lets slip. She is not some normal witch and the Malfoy family needs to know if we need to get rid of her or if we should ally ourselves to her."

Draco looked uncomfortable as his father turned to him. "Yes father, but I may need to apologize to her first."

Lucius took his seat. "Whatever it takes. If you need to borrow some of the family funds, do not hesitate to ask." Lucius pulled out a parchment and began to write, dismissing his son.

—-

Letter

Dear Karkaroff,

I require information on a Degurechaff family. Particularly any that might be connected to a Tanya Natasha Tenya Ginsei Romanoff Degurechaff. The name sounds like it comes from your neck of the woods and she has garnered my attention and her lineage needs to be established.

Lucius Malfoy