Rodrick had originally planned to spend the summer on his own. His friends had all offered him a place to stay for the summer; Daphne was the most vocal. However, he'd refused them all, politely. He had wanted to look for and buy his own place to live in.
He had thought through many different scenarios in trying to get the orphanage to agree to let him go off on his own before he settled on a simple solution, use magic to get them to sign the contract. The orphanage after all counted as his legal guardian and so he would have to consult them about buying anything, thanks to his mother's contract they weren't allowed to use the vault themselves, assuming they even knew about it.
Surprisingly enough, standing where he was right now, he found out he didn't need to do that anymore.
It took a day after the holidays started before things spiraled out of control.
The orphanage was gone.
Rodrick stared ahead, his eyes wide, face surprised. He had almost lost control of his Transfiguration when he'd seen the empty space of where his orphanage used to be in. He walked through a dark path where the front gates once stood looking for any clues, or anything for that matter. He didn't know what this meant for him, was he guardianless? Would the ministry take control of his status? Did the ministry even know about his existence?
A voice calling out his name quickly stopped Rodrick in his tracks, he turned around and met a familiar but surprising figure. She was the last person he expected to see; it took a couple of seconds to link the face to a memory, the blonde hair made it quite easy, however.
"Hello, Rodrick. Why don't you follow me?" she turned around and waited for Rodrick to catch up.
Rodrick shrugged before following her, 'Why not?' Thought the bemused boy.
"Let's find some more" she paused slightly, trying to find the right words; she took a look around the road. Black buildings lined up the street. "Colourful surroundings," finished the blonde witch.
"Sure but I have a curfew just so you know," deadpanned Rodrick.
The blonde chuckled at his words before leading the way.
...
Albus Dumbledore was currently pacing through his office, worried. It had been a couple of weeks since the students had left Hogwarts for the summer. He had planned to visit the talented orphan so as to get a view of his surroundings, what he was growing up in and more importantly how similar things were to another orphan the headmaster had the delight of dealing with in the past.
Naturally, as soon as the headmaster was genuinely worried about something, it became much harder to control the situation. When he'd traveled to the orphanage earlier today, he was quite surprised to find the building missing. He had, of course, asked around the area for information. Apparently, it was construction works going on; the orphanage had disbanded months ago. The children were all given homes, and the shelter went out of need. All of it happened in the span of 8 months, coincidently tying itself to Rodrick's school year. If it weren't for the fact that half of those so called adopted orphans were found on the street 3 months after the orphanages closing, he might've believed the story. All those children had of course been sent off elsewhere.
All except one, one orphan whose records had all disappeared and pretty much didn't exist according to the muggle world, potentially even the wizarding one. The same orphan Dumbledore was wracking his brain trying to find. He frowned, there were a number of suspects about this, but none of them made any sense, what possible interest could this boy create, except the Greengrass family perhaps. The boy had possibly saved their daughter from a troll, 'had he complained to them about his living standards?' Even then it wasn't like their family to go this far; they could've merely adopted him. The others included the rest of his three friends, but again none of them had enough reason to go so far.
Dumbledore's mind clicked at that moment. He was an orphan, but he might not be nameless. The boys family name before they died. That's the only reason he could think of, other than the fact he was already capable of casting unforgivable's. 'Yes, that was it!' Thought the old wizard. It would explain Lucius Malfoys interest in the boy, or perhaps the ministry. 'Was he perhaps a death eaters son?' Mused the headmaster or worse... That path was not pleasant to think about, no definitely not. He needed to get to the bottom of this, and quickly. The Greengrass family would be the first he would visit, the Malfoys last. An owl would take too long, not to mention the messages returned would be unreliable.
...
Rodrick was led through a familiar building, one with a special fireplace. He knew this one led elsewhere the moment he stepped in. The wall had a huge and distinct snake made of gold. He entered the fireplace first and uttered the magic words.
He walked out on the other side of the country, he presumed, he never actually looked for London on a map, for all he knew it might've been the next town. He turned around and noticed the empty room, he heard a crack and turned back to the fireplace and saw his companion walk out.
"How do you like it?" the blonde questioned.
Rodrick raised an eyebrow, a small smile tugging at his lips.
"I have been here before you know, at the party."
The woman huffed before putting pouting exaggerated, "You should learn to entertain a witch young man, it will make life much easier," Narcissa remarked back.
"My husband will be here soon, with Draco."
Rodrick nodded on before he followed the Malfoy matriarch into the living room, he found two large leather armchairs by the fireplace waiting for them. "Make yourself comfortable," She left after that.
Rodrick took a seat on the chair furthest from the fireplace. To his surprise, two dogs walked into the room before setting themselves near the fireplace, one set itself near Rodrick's feet. They were both covered in gray fur with lighter hair going down their belly and around their face. Both were very well groomed. He lowered his hand onto the one near his chair and scratched it behind its ear; he was always more of a dog person, maybe that was why he had trouble getting along with his Transfiguration teacher. His birthdays might've had something to do with it.
Before long. Narcissa Malfoy returned to the room covered in new silks of fabric.
She raised an eyebrow at him petting one of the dogs, he quickly took his hand away and felt slightly flustered.
The emotion was gone as quickly as it showed.
Narcissa chuckled at the boy; he clearly had trouble acting like a pureblood although he certainly tried. She called the house elf to serve them some drinks.
...
The foolish elf gave an underage wizard fire whiskey.
The foolish elf made a mockery of the house with it's self-harm, in front of a guest.
The foolish elf almost made the guest drop the fire whiskey on himself with it's antics.
The foolish elf made Narcissa Malfoy murderous.
A distant crack was heard, the house elf's noise overtook it.
...
Noticing the look on Narcissa Malfoy, Rodrick felt compelled to intervene, The elf, however, made that very hard for him to help him. He took out his wand and cast a Confundus on the house elf to daze him; he quickly ordered it to leave. He waved his wand over around the room and set the mess back in order, he took his drink and gulped it down before regretting the decision immediately.
Narcissa stared at the boy, surprised, very surprised. The anger long forgotten. He had managed to use a confusion charm on a house elf and convinced it he was a form of authority on its mind, that was no easy feat. House elves were loyal to a fault, to manage that... Her husband was definitely right.
The nonverbal cleaning charm he used on the carpet was impressive as well, she added as an afterthought. Panic suddenly shot through her as she realized he had just used underage magic in her home.
"You really shouldn't do that, you aren't old enough," she reminded the boy, he quickly swept his head up at that. His yellow eyes caught her off guard. There was a certain dread hidden behind them...
"It should be quite fine," a firm voice spoke. Both Narcissa and Rodrick turned to the sound and found Lucius Malfoy standing, Draco a step behind him. Narcissa moved over quickly and greeted her husband and child, Rodrick followed slowly after.
Draco looked happy, happy in an 'I just completed a scheme,' sort of way. Rodrick didn't like it, but it made him bearable. The look of surprise on his face helped as well; he must've seen that little performance. Something in his head told him he no longer needed to buy a broom for Tracey, 'huh funny that,' thought Rodrick.
Lucius Malfoy had a professional look on his face, there was a definite twinkle in his eyes though, as if he'd just found a treasure. Rodrick slightly shuddered at that. The man gave Rodrick an approving nod when he swept over his robes. Two more leather chairs appeared, and the four of them took their seats.