Chapter 1

Scotland, the Highlands Ten Years later

The Dragon of Hogsmeade prowled through his crumbling lair in the darkness. Stalking the paraphets, He fought the urge to throw back his head and roar savagely. He had been a prisoner of the daylight for too long. Only when the shadows of darkness cloaked the castles ruins did he shake off his chains and roam his domain. The darkness was his dominion now, the only kingdom left to him.

As he gazed at the sea the chill bite of the wind stung his eyes but failed to penetrate the armor of his skin. Since coming to this place he had grown numb to all but the harshest of provocations. A whispered endearment, the soft caress of a woman's touch, had all become a distant and cooling memory to him.

A storm was brewing over the horizon. The blustering wind whipped his cloak around his body, as it sent the waves crashing into the cliffs below with brutal might. The lightning slung a web from cloud to cloud before leaving the sky in inky darkness once more.

The approaching storm reflected his wildness back to him like the shards of a broken mirror; He bared his teeth in an expression few would call a smile as he envisioned them cowering in their beds. He imagined how they trembled when they envisioned his wrath. They believed him to be a monster, without conscience or mercy. He has made it clear his demand were law, his will unshakable. The cowardly ease of their surrender should have brought him some satisfaction, but in the end it only made him more furious.

They were supposed to be cursed. But he was the one feeling the fires of damnation licking at his soul. He was the one doomed to roam the shattered ruin of his dreams, without even a mate to ease his loneliness. He might never be able to quench his insatiable appetites but on this night he would no longer deny himself some small measure of comfort to take the edge off his longing. On this night he would seek to satisfy the primal need that lurked in every beast-even man.

Tonight, the dragon would hunt!

Ginny Weasley did not believe in dragons.

So when a desperate pounding sounded on the door of the Burrow, Followed by a frantic shout of "The Dragons on a rampage, He will murder us all in our beds!" She simply rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. She would almost rather be murdered in her bed than snatched from her dreams by the ravings of a blithering idiot. She plugged her fingers in her ears but could still hear the sound of Nana stomping across the hall below, muttering a litany of curses invoking various parts of Gods anatomy, some less holy than others.

The pounding came again and Nana wrenched the door open. There stood Percy Weasley, drenched to the bone and panting as if he had run from the devil himself and just barely got away.

"What is the meaning of this you fool? To come beating on the doors of good Christian people at this hour! Has you been in the pub again Percival?" Although visibly shaken by the sight of an angry Nana with her hair wrapped in rags, Percy stood his ground. "I apologize for coming at this hour Nana but we need Ginny immediately! The Dragon has left a new message!"

Ginny rolled her eyes. She never thought she would come to rue her love for reading and learning new dialects. She threw back her covers with a sigh, scattering books in every direction. Grabbing a shawl to cover her nightdress she walks out onto the landing and leans against the railing of what was once a minstrel's gallery in the Burrows finer days. She might have ignored Percy and returned to her bed if her father hadn't chosen that moment to awaken. He floated out of his room below like a ghost of the vibrant man she remembered from her childhood. Ginny started down the stairs her heart clenching in her chest. She wasn't sure which was more painful- his helplessness or her own.

"Ginny?" he called plaintively

"I'm right here Papa" she assured him as she took his arm to steady him.

"I heard such a terrible commotion," Her father said, his hand clenching her arm in fright. "Is it the English? Has Voldemort returned?"

"No Papa," Ginny replied, smoothing his faded hair from his brow. Arthur Weasley sometimes forgot his own name, but he had never forgotten the ruthless English Lord who had stolen his sanity nearly Ten years ago.

"Voldemort is not coming back. Tonight or any night" Ginny promised him. "You needn't worry about Voldemort or his cronies. It's just that silly Dragon making mischief again at our expense."

Her father looked her in the eye and with a moment of clarity said "You must tell them to do whatever he says or it will be the ruin of us all"

Percy spoke up and said "Papa, I need to take Ginny with me to read his note. It was addressed to her again"

"Go with him luv, you're our only hope."

"I'll go as soon as you're back in your bed, nice and warm." she tells him as she leads him back to his room. As he settles beneath his covers he pats her hand and says," My sweet girl, you are too good to is nothing you won't do for me."

"Yes Papa, Even slay a dragon" she kisses him on his head.

Back in the hall Nana hands her a sweater and gives her a quick hug for support as she follows Percy into the night. The walk to the village is quick as Percy is in a hurry and Ginny has to almost run to keep up with his long strides. Arriving in the village center she is unsurprised to see the crowd waiting by the entrance to the pub

Of course all her brothers were present each with some girl hanging off their arms. All five of them appeared to be drunk, especially Ron who was demanding they form a hunting party. "I say we storm the castle and burn it to the ground. Maybe then he will go back to hell and leave us alone!" Ron bellowed. "Do any of you have the Bollocks to come with me?"

His challenge met with nothing but awkward silence and averted eyes. Most stood shamefaced, some defiant but none moved towards the castle on the hill. Just as they had not moved towards it that horrible night ten years ago when their Lord needed them...

Although there were those who had always whispered the castle was haunted, there had been no sign of any spirits there up until almost three months prior. That's when the gossip of people seeing lights in the tower rooms started. Next came the hearing of music playing. Finally one brave child on a dare from his friends approached the castle gate and when it opened was met with the roar of a wild animal. The terrified child ran all the way home screaming that a Dragon was after him.

That very night the first note appeared on the tree. It was addressed to Ginevra so her brothers dragged her to town to read it. After listening to the towns folks go on about the danger of the Dragon Ginny spoke up. "I think this 'Dragon' is nothing more than a cruel hoax. It is someone willing to prey upon your willingness to punish yourselves for a wrong that can't be undone."

Old Abe replied "Begging' your pardon Miss, But we called you here to read, Not think."

Ginny snapped her mouth shut and opened the creamy vellum and read. "Well it appears your Dragon is hungry. If it wouldn't be too much bother, He would like a haunch of fresh venison, a jug of well- aged whiskey…" Several men nodded their heads in approval. However devilish the Dragons threats may be, they couldn't fault his taste in fine liquor "And," Ginevra faltered, her icy voice melting to a whisper."…One thousand pounds in gold."

The gasps of horror were all around her. It had been whispered for years that one thousand pounds was the price paid to someone in the village to betray Lord Potter to the English. "And if we don't deliver the gold?" Abe asked

Ginny lowered her eyes to the missive. Briefly she considered lying but knew it would do no good "He says it will spell the doom for Hogsmeade."

That was three months ago. Every week had been the same, more notes, more demands, and more threats. Tonight will be no different Ginny is sure.

She is wrong.

Old Abe stepped into their midst holding a sheet of vellum. It would have been found in the same place as the others, pinned with a flaming arrow to the trunk of the old oak tree that stands sentinel over the village. Abe hands the note to Ginny without saying a word.

She opens the missive and begins to read. As always she is astounded at the fact that the letter is addressed to her and like every time before it is written in Latin. She wonders briefly again how he knew she could read Latin. Snapping her attention back to the note she begins to read.

Miss. Ginevra,

I come to you again a hungry beast. I require the usual staples, meats, bread, and drink. You know what I prefer so I will not take your time to list them in detail again.

But in addition to my normal needs I am in need this cold, wet evening of something special and unique. I want a woman to warm my bed. Not just any woman will do. She must be intelligent with generous curves to warm this cold dragon. She must be brave and strong. She must have fiery red hair. She must be innocent. To put it bluntly and forgive me for being indelicate, I want a virgin. In short Miss Ginevra she must be YOU! Deliver my goods to the normal place tonight by midnight.

The Dragon.

She crumpled the Dragons vellum in her fist. How dare he! Wishing she had never been fool enough to leave her cozy bed. Even her father's fitful sanity was preferable to this madness.

A peculiar silence fell over the gathering. Even the wind seemed to be holding its breath. Ginny turned back to find herself facing a gauntlet of assessing eyes. Faces she had known since childhood had closed into the forbidding masks of strangers. "Oh no," Ginny said taking an involuntary step backwards. "Surely you don't think that I am going along with this any further?

Ron looked her up and down, assessing the generous curves "The Dragon could live on that a while, couldn't he?"

"He wouldn't trouble us for a long time if he could make a meal outta her" someone else muttered

"She might even eat him if she got hungry enough" Ron said with a smirk.

She despised that smirk even more now than when they were children. Ginny began backing up. The villagers kept advancing toward her, looking more like a mob every second. "I won't do it. I am not going anywhere near that dragon". She began taking two steps for their one. She frantically looked to her other brothers for help, but they were laughing and nuzzling their women, too drunk to even realize what was happening.

'I'll have to run for it 'she thought, if she could make it to the Burrow, Nana would deal with them. How she would love to take a rolling pin to Ron's hide. She turned to run and had barely made it three steps when she ran straight into Glynnis, Nyssa and their mother. Looking into that woman's maternal smile she realized. It wasn't the men of Hogsmeade she had to fear, but the women.