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Harlow Avery didn't know her blood status, or her parents for that matter. Which, to anyone else, didn't seem like too much of a problem. But for Harlow, it definetely seemed to be a prominent one within her life.
She had grown up in an orphanage in Devon. Her childhood was a happy place, until things started to go wrong. With no parents, she couldn't grieve over them - she didn't even remember either of them, and essentially had no one to grieve over. So she didn't. Instead, she just dealt with the fact she had no parents, and hoped that one day someone could adopt her, which was where everything began to go downhill.
Because it seemed that nobody wanted to adopt older children. The younger children, from babies to around five would practically fly out of the orphanage, but for Harlow, she ended up being the ones who nobody wanted.
And so she grew older, and her chances of adoption in that area went down and down. Harlow supposed that it was because weird things happened to her. If she was reaching for something, it would somehow fall into her hands - if she mentioned how she had lost something it would turn up almost instantly, or if some kids at school were making fun of her, they would somehow get hurt without her even moving.
And because of this, Harlow turned eleven with no friends or family. She was alone in the world, kept in a house filled with people who didn't like her and staff who sent curious, pitying gazes her way.
On her 11th birthday, the 1st of May, something seemed to look up for Harlow. Her birthday was nothing special, birthdays never were - the orphanage couldn't afford gifts, she had no friends and if she was lucky she might get one of those iced buns from the bakery down the roads after dinner that night.
At least it was a Friday, and although she had to go to school, at least she could daydream about the book she would start that night. She stopped to pet a cat on the way, and began her usually lonely day.
Nothing exciting happened at school, other than a teacher or so wishing her a happy birthday. But upon returning to the orphanage that night, she was informed that there was a visitor in her room.
Confused - she never ever had visitors - Harlow headed up to her room, quite shocked to find nothing other than the cat from before sat on her bed. As soon as she closed the door, a noise thaat resembled wind could be heard, and the girl whirled around, only to see a woman sat on the place of the bed where the cat was.
This woman called herself Minerva McGonagall, and she was a teacher at a boarding school. She then explained to a rather shocked Harlow that she was witch - both of them were.
Their meeting ended with Harlow being given a letter, and told that the woman would return on the first day of the summer holidays, to take her to London and get her supplies, and at the ended of the summer - September 1st, she needed to be at King's Cross to get the train to school.
The owner and staff of the orphanage had been convinced by certain means that Harlow would just be going to an ordinary boarding school, but in reality, it was a school for people who were magical.
The rest of her days at the orphanage and primary school seemed to pass in a blur, and soon enough, Professor McGonagall was back and prepared to take her to Diagon Alley. She was taken to London, and had her first taste of the wizarding world in the magical place where she wwas to get her school supplies.
McGonagall quickly got all her books together, and any equipment like quills, potion ingredients and cauldrons. Next was her uniform, and Harlow had a rather friendly conversation with a girl named Hannah as she was fitted by Madame Malkins.
After that, Professor McGonagall informed her it would be time for her to get her wand. She waited outside of Ollivanders, and Harlow met the wizard inside, a rather old man who held mysteries of many years behind his eyes.
She got her wand - but not before breaking a few glasses, the chandelier almost falling on her head and her flooding the bottom floor of the shop (luckily there wasn't any water damage). Ollivander informed her that it had a core of dragon heartstring, was 12¾" long, springy and flexible and made out of pear wood, a a single rose, thorns and all, engraved at the bottom.
McGonagall returned her to the orphanage, and the summer passed slowly, Harlow mostly spending her days in her room or under the rather large sycamore tree in the back garden, reading her school books from cover to cover, taking in every detail.
Soon enough, September 1st came along, and Harlow was sent down to London and left at King's Cross with a bit of muggle money, and a bit of the money that McGonagall had taken out of some bank there.
She had no idea how to get to Platform 9¾ - seeing as it didn't exist. It would take her following a boy with shockingly blonde hair to find the platform, and when it came to boarding the train, she found herself sat in the same compartment as him, alongside another girl and a few boys.
She was silent for a while, but listened to everything that they had to say, and was roped into a few conversations. They seemed to forget she was there for a while, as they began to talk about blood purity and wanting to be in Slytherin.
And then one of them turned around and asked about her blood status. And of course, Harlow told them what they wanted to hear. She was a pureblood - obviously.
It wasn't too hard of a lie to keep up for the first few months, she was sorted into Slytherin which just seemed to confirm what she had told them. But as she became closer with quite a few people, Draco Malfoy, Balise Zabini, Pansy Parkinson, Theodore Nott and a couple of others, more personal questions were asked.
And by the end of her fourth year, Harlow had amassed quite the life story. Her parents were pureblood supremacists just like her, but had attended Durmstrang and Beauxbatons - so that none of her friends parents would know anything about them.
They were just as tough as the other Slytherin parents, and lived in a manor in Cornwall. They had the usual flurry of house elf staff, and Harlow was a spoilt brat just like the rest of them. She had new robes every year, and when she made the Quidditch team in her second yeaer, she got one of the Nimbus 2001's that Lucius Malfoy donated - and if that broke she could easily buy a Firebolt.
And whilst to someone creating such a lie, money would be hard to fake. Except somehow, Harlow had quite the inheritance sitting in her vault in Gringotts. But with no idea of her parents, she didn't know who to thank for this - because Merlin it got her through the lying quite easily.
She didn't even know if her blood status was on record somewhere - but it didn't matter. If she was muggleborn, half-blood or pureblood, she had this new life now. And it didn't matter whether or not she truly stood behind the beliefs of her friends, Harlow had made powerful friends within her first year.
And so, it was up to her to continue this lie. To continue as she had been doing. And if anyone questioned this lie, then she had practically pureblood royalty to help her.
Which would become more and more valuable as she went into her fifth year, when it became more and more obvious just how awful the world she lived in was becoming.
