A/N: Hey everybody! This is the next chapter. It's a short one and it's taken me ages to get it up because I've spent the last 48 hours wrestling with my plot. Regardless, I hope you enjoy it. I own nothing.

Malfoy Manor, June 13th

Narcissa watched as Lucius disappeared into the floo, green flames fading behind him. Once he was gone, she let out a deep sigh, and turned around, exiting the room.

"Draco!" She called, raising her voice only slightly.

After only a minute, Draco entered the room, looking up at her curiously. "Yes mother?"

"We're going on a trip today, but you need to promise me not to tell your father, at least not for awhile. Ok?" Narcissa said, bending down slightly to look her son directly in the eyes.

She received just a nod in reply (this wasn't the first time this had happened) and stood up, a small smile on her face. "Good. Go put on some nice robes Draco, we're leaving in 10 minutes."

She watched her son run off to put on some of the robes he liked to wear in public. As soon as he got out of her sight, she called out for her personal house elf. "Mopsy!"

With a pop, the bug eyed elf popped into existence next to her. "Yes Mistress? How may Mopsy be of service?"

"We're going out today Mopsy, and if Lucius floos in to check on us you are to lie to him about where we are. Do you understand?" Narcissa ordered, her face slightly grim.

"Yes Mistress!" Replied the House Elf, nodding profusely before popping away.

That matter settled, Narcissa simply stood there and waited for her son to return.

Southern Wales, May 8th 1437

Through a swamp a woman trudged, up to her knees in liquid. She was middle aged, though her weary face may have made her seem older, and she had knotted blonde hair reaching halfway down her back. She wore robes made of an odd fabric which was scaley in texture, and seemed to shimmer slightly in the dim lighting. Suddenly she stopped, silver eyes glowing slightly as they locked onto something, though what they were locked onto was impossible to discern. As a sudden whooshing sound was heard she jumped to the side; just in time as a large winged figure swooped through the area where she had been standing before coming to a hover above the swamp. Whipping around to face the figure, her eyes took in its form. It was a male, quite a bit larger than her, each of his wings almost the size of her body. His form was basically humanoid, but aside from the wings there were several factors that showed he was clearly not a human. From his head rose two massive horns, each several feet in length. Vicious claws several inches long sprouted from each of his finger and he grinned predatorily, showing a mouth full of pointed teeth. His eyes were pitch black, the same color as the long hair one his head. Pointed ears poked through his hair, and his entire body was lean and predatory. He was dressed in simple clothes of an unknown fabric, which was worn and frayed around the edges.

"Hello Cinnidh!" He rasped, his voice the mocking tone of a predator toying with his prey. "Whatever could I have done to warrant your attention?"

He received only a glare from the women, apparently named Cinnidh, in response to his words.

Letting out a laugh, the inhuman man continued in his raspy tone. "This couldn't possibly be about the castle could it? The centaurs fixed it eventually!"

Deigning to answer now, Cinnidh opened her mouth, an in a grim tone responded. "You've done much more than that Sìthiche. Corrupting the irish dryads was going to far. You've forced my hand, and now I must remove you from our world."

Clicking his tongue, the creature's (Sìthiche's?) grin got wider. "Well now that's rather rude Cinnidh, don't you think?" Here he dove once more towards the blonde woman, stopped when the water of the swamp reached quickly up and grabbed his legs, pulling him down and forcing him to rip upwards instead of finishing his attack. "Coming here to kill me and refusing to use my proper name?"

The woman's silver eyes hardened into a glare as she looked at the flying creature. "If I knew your name I wouldn't be here." She spat out, reaching into her robes to pull out two daggers, each slightly over a foot in length, beautiful and deadly, made of what appeared to be some sort of bone.

Crouching quickly, she sprung up towards the hovering figure above her, daggers stabbing towards him. Snarling, the creature dodged slightly to the side, reaching out his clawed hands to grab the women's arm, yanking her around and throwing her towards the ground. Spinning around in the air, Cinnidh landed upright on the swamp ground, immediately jumping once more, this time backwards, landing in the branches of a tree that leaned forwards to catch her. Releasing her daggers she held her palms out flat and they came to hover above them.

"Kill." She whispered, and the daggers immediately shot through the air towards her adversary.

Not waiting to see if they hit their target, the women began drawing sigils and runes in the air with her hands, leaving glowing lines wherever her fingers passed. As she drew runes, the creature was confronted with the knives, and having no immediate way to stop them opted to flee, weaving in and out of the swamp trees, slowly working his way around in a circle. As he flew he began to sing, his voice melodic and sweet, nothing like the raspy tones full of venom he'd been using earlier. The words were nonsensical but the tune was heart wrenching. After several minutes, he tore back into the clearing, where Cinnidh stood waiting for him, simply watching his flying form. Pulling up slightly, the daggers turned to follow him, only to stop as two figure darted out of the trees, throwing themselves in front of the bone weapons. Ceasing to sing, the creature returned to be closer to the ground, not even sparing a glance at the two humans who had impaled themselves on the daggers. Reaching into the shadows at the base of a dying tree, he pulled out a large two handed sword formed of shadow and simply hovered there, waiting for the woman to make a move. As he waited, he examined the tunic tattoos that now adorned her body. His eyes widened as his gaze landed upon a pair adorning her right forearm, and his eyes snapped up, finding a shark like grin on her face. The tattoos in question glowed a deep red, and the winged figure snarled before dissolving into shadow.

A sudden wailing sounded through the clearing and two forms of glowing silver rose from the corpses in the ground, vaguely shaped like the bodies beneath them. Bending down in unison, they both plucked the bone knives from the bodies and stood upright, before floating to stand behind the blonde woman. Suddenly, the shadows around the clearing surged inwards, sharp edges reaching out, only to be met with blades of bone. The shadows encroached entirely onto the clearing, the silver forms the only light. Suddenly, the movement of the shadows stopped, black tendrils impaling the silver figures, who froze, dissolving as their weapons fell to the ground. The shadows withdrew quickly back towards the edges, but as they did the winged creature lept out of them, his blade of darkness slashing down towards Cinnidh's back. Whipping around almost too fast to see, the blonde woman simply caught the blade in her hands, tattoos up the length of both arms glowing silver, the same color as her eyes.

"How many people died for that shield?" The creature's voice rasped, mocking tone complimenting the sneer on his face.

"Only three. It's all about efficiency." The woman responded, her voice nonchalant, as if this was a perfectly normal conversation.

She started slowly moving her hands, bending the shadow blade as she did so. Suddenly, two more forms lunged out of the shadows behind her, identical to the creature standing in front of her, their blades outstretched towards her. Their blades were caught as well however, by two pair of spectral limbs, suddenly materializing behind Cinnidh.

"Is that all you had?" She asked, her voice now having an odd quality, becoming triplicate, as if three voices were speaking at once.

"Cheat!" The man snarled, his eyes widening in panic as her tried to pull away.

Letting go of his sword, he took off, wings flapping as he turned to flee. He was stopped by chains of silver light, shooting from the ground to wrap around his limbs, pulling him down and binding him to the earth.

Closing her eyes, Cinnidh reopened them, and when she did her eyes glowed, silver light shining brightly as she walked forwards towards the bound figure. When she opened her mouth to speak, the triplicate was extremely noticeable, three separate voices speaking in unison from one mouth. "This is the end Sìthiche, you will not leave this swamp." As she spoke she thrust her hands out to the side, and the bone daggers flew to her grasp.

Eyes wide and desperate, the bound creature spoke, panic breaking through his raspy voice. "If you kill me you seal the future! You don't want to do this! We'll come back!"

"You won't." Realizing there was no escape from the situation, he simply flared at the women standing above him, holding the knives that would seal his fate. "Your life once began, and now it shall end. Your time is over, your thread is cut." With those final words, Cinnidh drove the bone daggers into the creatures chest, and watched the life drain out of his eyes. After a minute, she simply sat down on the swampy ground. She didn't move for three years.