Disclaimer: I own nothing but a laptop and a lot of candy

Chapter 10:

The Attack

Aurora woke to a small tickle on the back of her neck. Slowly turning around she could see that Draco had fallen asleep with his arms around her and his breath was causing her hair to brush against her neck. Forcing back a chuckle Aurora wormed her way from his arms so not to disturb him and walked to the bathroom to start her shower. She had only just stepped in when a loud crash echoed around the mansion.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!" Marcus screamed as he bolted down the stairs. He had been in the middle of researching a spell when the crash had brought over half the books down from their shelves in his study. Reaching the final landing he saw something he never dreamed he would see.

Standing in the middle of his entry way, hair a mess and torn clothes hanging off her small frame was Narcissa Malfoy, covered from head to toe in dirt and ash.

"We found the ingredients!" she screamed "They were right under our nose all along! Those blasted ministry blokes took the wrong ones! They were fake! The real ones weren't even in the house, they were in the damn garden!" her face erupting in an enormous smirk Narcissa couldn't help but chuckle at her teacher's face.

Staring at the bellowing woman Marcus almost jumped for joy but caught himself as he remembered who he was and that there were far too many people for him to lose his cool. He did however smile broader than he had since Aurora was born. This was it. They knew where the ingredients were; now all they had to do was retrieve them.

"But… how did you discover this, and why the HELL are you covered in dirt?" he exclaimed now realizing the most groomed woman he knew was standing before him in torn robes and caked with dirt.

Looking slightly ashamed Narcissa chose her words carefully so not to anger her teacher with her betrayal. "Well you see Marcus" she glanced up slightly to see the reaction to his name but continued quickly when she realized he was staring hard at her. "The other wives and I had been off on one of our little luncheons talking about the meeting earlier this summer when one of the girls mentioned that she had read somewhere that Ankolis never stored his ingredients in his house, for fear they would gain too much magical power from the potions he created." Pausing slightly she breathed a sigh of relief when it did not seem as thought Marcus had any intention of asking who the woman was and continued on a little more slowly. "We thought that it couldn't be true since most ingredients cannot be kept in ground or they would lose their potency, but we thought we could try a few things to test it. You know, just in case? Well we did it! It is possible to store all ingredients in the ground if they are within a magical boundary!" Finishing her tale Narcissa looked to Marcus to see his reaction.

Marcus looked her over carefully as she tried to dust of the dirt to no avail. Tilting his head slightly he began to smile as a plan formed in his head. "Well then…. first order of business, you need to take a shower. You smell like cow shit." Narcissa looked appalled but quickly nodded as she realized that she did in fact smell as such, seeing as she had accidentally stepped in some on the way from the garden. Marcus grimaced but continued, trying and failing to ignore the smell. "Then, once you are finished we will put together a retrieval team and get those blasted ingredients once and for all!"

The meeting had gone quickly as everyone that was to be involved was already present in the mansion. Draco and Aurora had been told they would both be on the mission but would be in different places. Draco was to go with Marcus and Lucius to retrieve the ingredients seeing as Ankolis' home had a barrier around it allowing only men to cross its borders, whereas Aurora, Narcissa and two of the other wives would be guarding the holding house that they would be staying in while in Ireland. Neither of the two teens were very happy they were going to be separated but accepted the fact when they realized they would still be sharing a room in the holding house. The teams left immediately using portkey to reach their destinations.

Aurora paced silently as she played with the pendant her grandfather had given her. It had been almost three days since they had heard from the men and she was beginning to worry. Even at Hogwarts she and Draco had never gone more than a night without each other. She couldn't sleep, couldn't eat and she refused to release the small pendant until she heard from him.

There had been no sign of anyone near the holding house and Aurora was becoming bored with watch guard duty. Just as she was preparing to change shifts with one of the other woman she caught sight of someone walking in her direction. Slowly backing up she realized the man was walking towards her and seemed to be speeding up his pace. The look in the man's eyes began to scare Aurora. There in the dark abyss that was the man's eyes she could see pure hatred as he began to charge at the scared teen. Shouting for the other women Aurora quickly pulled out her wand and started casting spells, each being blocked just as quickly as she fired them off.

Feeling her throat begin to burn Aurora quickly looked down to see that the small silver pendant around her neck had begun to glow. Quickly bringing her attention back to her attacker Aurora realized he was dangerously close to her now. As his hand grasped her throat she felt a searing pain rush through her body. Soon as it came the pain was gone and Aurora felt herself fall to the ground before she blacked out.

Narcissa watched from the steps as the small girl flailed in the large mans grasp. Suddenly the man was thrown back with a large flash of light and hit the ground hard with a sickening crunch. Looking to the now unconscious teen Narcissa was stunned to see she was unharmed and was starting to recover from the fall.

"Oh my god! Aurora are you alright?" Narcissa screamed as she raced to the shaking girl. Narcissa had never had the best reflexes but Aurora cursed her as she realized the woman had been standing there while the mammoth-like man attacked her.

Looking up slowly, Aurora could only nod at the worried woman. Massaging her throat to try and stop the throbbing where the pendant was Aurora caught sight of the large man lying still on the ground. Carefully crawling over to him she gasped at what she saw. The man was dead, but even worse there was something on him.

Aurora's breath caught in her throat as she realized what it was. There the middle of his hand burnt into the layers of flesh was a dragon, and not just any dragon. In the middle of its back was a small letter A. It was her dragon and it had killed a man! Aurora sat back as her mind reeled. Looking up at the sky she mouthed a single word before she passed out once again.

"Draco….."