CHAPTER 1

3:23. Molly Weasley was sitting in the dining room of the Burrow, staring at the clock. She turned around and glanced at another clock behind her. That one did not give the time but did indicate that three members of the family were late. Very late. She heard light footsteps coming down the stairs. The Burrow had been rebuilt after it was destroyed with fire by the Death Eaters a few years ago so the floor did not crack after every step like it used to.

"Still no news?". Hermione appeared in the door frame. She looked very tired, her hair tied in a high bun, but her too couldn't sleep. Ron usually made sure she knew if he was going to be late or taking the night shift. Harry too, specially knowing his best friend's mother would be sick worried waiting for them to come back home.

"No, sweetheart, nothing. I called Arthur's office and the Auror Office: nobody knows where they are. "

"Or nobody wants us to know…", Hermione said while pouring coffee in two mugs. She looked at outside through the kitchen window: the night was particularly dark, the moon being covered by thick clouds. There was a little bit of fog hovering over the fields surrounding the house. She scanned the sky, looking for them, but only saw a couple of owls hunting for their next feast.

"You shouldn't drink coffee at this time of the night sweetheart, you won't be able to sleep." Molly said with the usual maternal tone in her voice. Hermione just smiled at her. They already had been awake all night and in less then an hour they would start to see the first rays of sun peeking above the horizon.

"Is Ginny sleeping?"

"Yes, she just fell asleep a few minutes ago. But she's not really worried about them, she was just awake to keep me company."

"After all what happened to Harry in his life, she really thinks he's invincible" Molly said nodding her head.

The two women had stopped talking and for a few minutes silence had invaded the room. They were just staring at the dark liquid in their cup. Hermione turned around as she started to hear drops of rain crashing against the windows.

"Oh Merlin, I am so distracted I almost forgot that I take my coffee with milk!", Molly laughed as she got her wand and pointed at the refrigerator. Suddenly, as a carton of milk was floating across the room, the back door bursted open. Molly's husband was the first to come inside the house, followed by Harry and Ron. But the boys were carrying another person on their shoulders. Molly forgot about the carton in mid-air and dropped the milk all over the floor.

"Arthur! What is going on?! What happened?!"

Hermione jumped off her seat and rapidly cleared the dining table, seeing the gravity of the situation. She immediately recognized who they were caring inside their home and saw he was seriously hurt. Draco Malfoy was almost completely covered in blood.

"We don't know. I was about to leave when I received an anonymous message saying Malfoy Mansion was burning. Almost everybody had left the Ministry already except for the boys so they came with me but it was too late: when we got there, there was nothing we could of done to stop the fire but we found him unconscious outside."

"He's not only unconscious but terribly wounded!" Molly screamed, incapable of holding back her tears. Seeing the boy's clothes entirely soaked in blood…It was more than what she could handle. Her Ron was also covered in blood but she knew he was alright.

"That's why we brought him here instead of St. Mungo's, Honey. Look at the wounds, specially on his forearm, I don't think they can do anything for it over there."

Molly and Hermione covered their mouth in horror when they saw the gruesome wound. "You're right, Arthur. Hermione, go wake up Esme! She'll know what to do."

...

Draco was awake: he could hear voices whispering around him but was incapable of opening his eyes. He must have been laying in bed for a very long time, his body was sore, tired of laying down on a mattress he knew wasn't his. He felt a lot of pressure on his left forearm, almost like an anvil had been dropped on it. He was starting to feel the pain, a burning sensation mixed with a thousand pinches. He tried to move his arm but realized it had been immobilized.

"Don't move. I'm almost done."

It was the husky voice of a girl, probably not older than him. He opened his eyes with difficulty but was only able to see curly blond hair masking the face of the girl leaning on his arm. He felt immediately asleep, incapable of fighting off the fatigue.

….

They had laid the man on the dining table. Esmeralda entered the room and was first shocked to see all the blood on the floor. Molly was sitting in the kitchen and was immediately joined by Hermione. They both burst into tears and hugged each other. Ron was pale and looked exhausted. Harry had his hands pressed on the man's arm, wrapped with linen and with Arthur's tie serving as a garrotte above the wound.

"What is going on?", she asked. "Don't omit any details". She said this looking straight at Arthur. She knew exactly what was going on but she also knew he was going to hide information from her. This was not just an ordinary incident.

"We found him like this. On the ground, outside his house."

She had gotten closer to the boy. She recognized him: she had seen him on the newspapers. He was a Malfoy. And barely alive. She ripped off his shirt with her two hands, making the buttons fly across the room. It was even worse than what it looked like. She touched with the tip of her fingers the lacerations he had on his torso. They were superficial and not life-threading. Then, she ripped the sleeve as well to free the injured arm. It looked like somebody had tried to carve a hole in it. She noticed right away the tattoo, or at least what was left of it. "The dark mark. Did he tried to get rid of it?" she thought to herself. "No, I don't think he would of been able to inflict such injury to himself".

"He has been attacked. With dark magic.", she said without raising her eyes from him.

All their faces turned white. It was the last thing they wanted to hear. Yes, Draco Malfoy had been a death eater and had done terrible things to them for years but still they could not bare to see him in this state. He had switched sides since the war and had redeemed himself by informing the Ministry and Auror office of the whereabouts of those whose loyalty still remained with Voldemort. Also, and most importantly for them, Draco had paid for the reconstruction of the Burrow. But, independently of your past and present actions, nobody deserved a treatment like this. Esmeralda saw their despair.

"Don't worry, you know there's nothing that I can't do'', she said while taking Harry's place next to Draco. She smiled at them while pressing her hands on her arm. Almost instantly the wound stopped bleeding but the smile she had on her face ten seconds ago disappeared as well. "I am not going to lie but don't know if I'll have to amputate his arm. There's important nerve and deep tissue damage. There's even some signs of gangrene and necrosis. I'm afraid the damages are irreversible." He was breathing heavily and she knew his lungs were filling up with blood.

"Bring him to my room. We cannot leave him here."

Arthur nodded with his head and levitated Draco's body to a room on the second floor. Esmeralda could not take care of him in there: it reminded her of when they had brought Fred back home a few months ago. She tried for hours to bring him back to life but it was already too late. She was certain this was the reason why Molly could not bare to be in the dining room with Draco on the table: it was almost like reliving that terrible night over again.

Esmeralda ran to the linen closet and grabbed a couple of clean towels. On her way up, she found Hermione, Harry and Ron waiting for her at the entrance of her room.

"Guys, go back to sleep. I will need your help tomorrow. You too, Molly, don't worry, I will take care of him."

...

The door of Esmeralda's bedroom remained closed the whole morning. Even though she appreciated the gesture when people wanted to offer their help, she preferred to work alone. She had gotten out of the room only once to quickly run to the garden and bring back some herbs to apply as a plaster on his arm. The whole household was still in their rooms and would probably remain in until later that day.

Draco's breathing had gone back to normal but she was still concerned about his arm. It would take still a few hours before knowing if the treatment was working. At this point, she just wanted to sit down on the armchair next to the bed and close her eyes for a few minutes but he was still all dirty with his own blood. She approached a small bucket with warm water close to the bed and got the last clean hand towel she had there in the room.

She had never undressed a man in her life. In fact, she had never been left alone in a room with one, specially with the door closed. If her father and brother would hear about this, they would be furious. And with a Malfoy on top of that! Arthur and Molly will probably omit these details from them.

She took him out of what was left of his shirt. She hadn't noticed before but he had many little scars all over his torso. They were very small, not longer than a centimetre, but whatever did them must have penetrated very deep inside his skin.

"Dark magic…again…"

She cleaned his face and the rest of his upper body and finally sat in her armchair. "He's going to be okay…" she said one last time to herself before falling asleep.


Hello to all!

I am happy my sucky summary did not keep you from reading the first chapter of my story! Comments, suggestions and constructive criticism are welcome and are always a great source of encouragement for the author so don't be shy ;) In the next chapter you will learn more details about Esmeralda and I want to apologize for something right away: this original character has a specific cultural background that is going to be reveal later on. I am not an expect about that culture/race/nation but I will use information that I have acquired from the worst school ever: internet and tv shows (I will try to stay away from reality shows...you will know what I meant by that later...). I am sorry in advance if something I wrote is not correct or offensive (omg I hope it doesn't get to that extreme!). Also, forgive my grammar errors, mistakes and vocabulary: english is not my maternal language but this should not be an excuse since I speak it everyday, almost all the time.

I do not own the Harry Potter story and characters nor the image used as a cover for this story.

Ok, that's it for now. I will try to post new chapters at least every week.

Bye!