I do not own Harry Potter or the Characters/Places in it. I do own Amalthea Vitani and her family

Chapter 24

Dare You to Move

Amalthea was horribly, disgustingly, miserable. It had been two weeks since the incident with Draco and she had been avoiding all the places she might run into him, but she couldn't make herself stop thinking about him. She hadn't gone by the book shop to catch up on the expenses, in fact she didn't go through Hogsmeade at all for fear she would run into him and his new girl toy she had seen with him on the cover of Witch Weekly. Even going so far as canceling that appointment with Kingsley and she had been putting it off since then, claiming she was too busy at work and moving into her new flat. In all honesty, she really was extremely busy, but she could have found the time for the meeting if she allowed herself to make some.

She had found a small flat a few days ago, on the outskirts of Hogsmeade, which was a 20 minute walk to work if she went around Hogsmeade and 10 minutes if she went through it. The flat was in the middle of a series of 7 flats that were joined together. The road contained 12 similar buildings. She had looked at a couple of them; each one was set up slightly different from the one before. She had settled on a spacious two bedroom.

The layout was very open and flowed smoothly, creating a very peaceful Zen aura. With all the buildings being brand new, each tenant was allowed creative rights to their space. She chose a crème with red theme; it was very sophisticated and sharp, adding a flare of flavor to the small space.

When you came through the bright red door, there was a crème painted hallway that lead to the living room. The walls were the same color as the hallway, and the first thing you saw upon entering the living room was the floor to ceiling dark chocolate fire place. The mantle above the actual fire pit area sunk in and had a statue of Isis on the left and Anubis on the right. In the middle of the sunken rectangle was a large crystal ball and had a small hole on the bottom where you put incense so the smoke swirled into the ball itself; tall white bright red never ending candles were mounted on either side of the fortune telling sphere. Modern Muggle art hung tastefully on the walls, a plush crème couch sat in the middle with a dark wood coffee table. The coffee table had a small bowl in the middle that had floating red candles in the shape of maple leaves placed precisely in the middle.

There was a bar area, that lead to the open kitchen, so she could see into the living room while she cooked. The gold marble counter tops were accented with light tan cabinets, a crème brick oven, and stainless steel Muggle appliances including a 4 gas burner stove. There were two hall ways on either side of the kitchen that lead to the two bedrooms. Both rooms were adjoined with an enormous en suite bathroom that had a Jacuzzi tub, glass stand up rain shower lined with gray stone, his and her sinks. It was small but it had just what she and Jovi needed and nothing more. It was perfect.

Rubbing her temples in hard circles, she couldn't help but sigh. She had thought about Draco every second of every day, that had passed by. It felt like eternity had passed by which made it more concrete that it wasn't just some crush she was going to get over. This whole situation made her think that her Veela did have a destined mate because the ache she felt in her chest was not normal for two people who barely know each other. It felt as if she was dying, like this hole in her chest was going to consume her. She had barely eaten anything, except the food Jovi would force her to eat the few times she even made it home from work. The only thing keeping her going was the pepper up potions she brewed and put in her coffee. Sleep evaded her, so she used the time to gain more patients, which was probably unhealthy in itself. The body could only go in and out of someone's mind so many times before being drained of its energy, combined with her lack of sleep, Jovi was sure that Amalthea was going to put herself into a coma. Even Amalthea's co-workers had been hounding her all week, they could see through the glamour charms hiding the black circles under her eyes, but she just shooed them all back to work saying that nothing happened and she was fine.

Jovi was scared for her though, and in all honesty, so was she. Veela magic could only sustain her for so long before her whole body shut off period. With her denying the mate she had chosen, she could feel herself dying and seeing him with someone else, speed up the process. Amalthea was in deep trouble, and it was getting harder and harder to lift herself up off the floor.

Draco was a fucking wreck. He hadn't slept, he had barely eaten, and he was surviving off of pepper ups and hangover cures. The first night he had gotten completely smashed at Blaise's house and had ended up pouring his heart out to Hermione Granger, of all people; Blaise had gone to bed saying that Draco was an idiot and that was it. His best friend, his best mate since he was born, just went to bed when he was clearly in distress. Hermione had actually been nice to him, though, and for the first time since he had known her, her eyes filled with sympathy instead of hate. He fell asleep, crying and going on and on about Amalthea. Ever since that night, he had gotten pissed at the bar or in his office; he refused to go home unless he needed to because it felt just as empty as his heart. She belonged there with him damnit and he wouldn't sleep in that bed until she was in it with him.

He worked, trained his ass off, and drank then repeated the next day. Despite what Witch Weekly wrote, he wasn't on a date with that woman. She was a client that was helping with the case, and of course, as they were leaving the restaurant, Rita Skeeter just happened to walk by. He had made sure to steer clear of any and all women, but of course it didn't work with his luck.

He did want to find her! He wanted to go to her work, pull her to him by her arms, call her an idiot for leaving him, and then never let her go, but he was following Kingsley's advice and giving her space. Letting her work out her feelings for him, she obviously has some trust issues she needs to work out since she wouldn't stay and listen to him, but then again…he would have done the same thing, after punching the man in the face. However, his heart couldn't take this much longer. It felt like a permanent hole that was consuming him, and he knew she was the girl for him. Ever since she ran into him at the Ministry, she had captured his heart, entwined her magic with his and he wouldn't feel whole with anyone else. He was going to marry her, see her swollen with his children, and he was going to die holding her to his chest. This bump in the road just helped make it concrete in his mind, that she was the one he was going to spend the rest of his life with.

In the two weeks she had been absent, they hadn't gotten too far on the case. They knew that there was a new Head of the Clans, and he had four new people working with him. Apparently, he had gone in and cleaned house because some refused to work with him after working with a prodigy like Amon. Amon may have been crazy, but he was clever. He had known how to go about getting his prizes without getting caught, he had known who to have in his pockets and when, and most importantly he didn't parade his prizes, he knew to keep a low profile; the only reason he was caught was because his own daughter gave the Ministry his journals giving them all the evidence they needed.

They received that information from some of the former clan members who wanted the new head to be kissed as well. Apparently, this new head wasn't like very much. However, the clan members had met the same fate as Cornelius because the curses that were put on them killed them after taking Veritasum potions. However, that was about it. Unfortunately, there weren't enough angry people out there to step up and talk; they were too scared.

Theodore had gotten more and more smug as the days past. Theodore had told the whole team that Amalthea left him for another man. They had gotten in a brawl out fight in the break room two days ago.

"You knew you couldn't keep a woman of that caliber for long" Theodore sneered.

"Oh, and you would know how to keep a woman at all. First of all, I don't see you with women like her at all, let alone women period. Second, as I recall, three years ago your girlfriend came to ME because you weren't fucking her right."

Draco still wore his black eye proudly because it was the only hit Theodore had gotten in before Draco kicked his ass and put him in St. Mungos, sending him a bouquet of pansies the next day.

They had never gotten along though. Growing up, Theodore's parents always shined a light on him and Blaise, asking Theodore why he couldn't be as smart or as good as them. During school, Theodore poured his heart into his work, turning his back on creating any form of a social life so he could get the best grades he could, however Draco had bested him in every subject without even trying. Then Draco had converted to the light side and worked as a spy during his 7th year. Theodore had been the one to rat him out to Voldemort after he had pretended to become a spy as well. Theodore was the one that had been feeding Voldemort information and after the war, everyone who had witnessed it was dead so they couldn't testify against him. They only had Draco's word, but that wasn't enough to convict him. He had been put on watch for 2 years and during that time he had confessed to his crimes. But he had gotten off the list with good behavior, seemingly repentant for what he did. Draco thought it was absolute bullshit. The man was a slimy snake but Kingsley seemed to trust him, or maybe he was just here so Kingsley could keep an eye on him. Whatever it was, Draco wanted him gone.

He stood up and threw everything off of his desk, running to the training room, shutting and magically locking the door. He was throwing curse after curse after curse at anything and everything in the room. Releasing his pent up anger, hurt, confusion, and most of all pain; it was 50 minutes before Draco fell to the floor completely exhausted, covered in sweat.

He wasn't sure he had the strength to lift himself up off the floor this time; he just wished these past days had never happened but nothing he was doing was making it go away. He knew what he had to do…He needed her and he was going to get her…Screw Kingsley.