The rest of the summer passed in a blur. After my birthday, every day was dedicated to meeting at least five different Pureblood girls that my parents had set up to try to find my Mate in the off chance that they didn't attend Hogwarts. They were all either from Beauxbatons, Durmstrang or just visiting the country and each girl seemed to just get worse and worse. Aside from the fact that each of the girls made me feel even emptier inside because although some were nice - all of them gorgeous - they just weren't the right nice or beautiful I wanted; the girls morals seemed to decrease. At first they were old friends who knew me and liked me for friendship's sake, next they were the daughters of my father's business clients, next they had heard of the Malfoy name and wanted to marry into it for money and power, then last of all were the harlots who just wanted to be with a Veela.

There were some excellent choices though, and I almost thought that they could be my Mate - but alas, it was none of them. There was Isabel, a small blonde, blue-eyed witch; there was Stevie, who was brunette with green eyes; Georgia, who had short black hair and brown eyes; there were even a pair of twins, Stella and Bella (only Merlin knows why their parents made their names rhyme) who were completely identical and feisty if you got their names wrong.

I can't even begin to imagine what kind of beauty has been hiding in Hogwarts for so long that she's escaped my notice and charm.

Soon enough though, Father and Mother had gotten annoyed at their lack of progress and after they had gone through every Pureblood girl they could find, they gave up. Completely and utterly gave up, only praying to Salazar and Merlin that she was at Hogwarts and not half way around the world where I would never find her.

Only days later though, Mother gave up on that too and spent the whole of 3 weeks trying to convince my Father to take me to see a Seer in Diagon Alley. He put up an extremely good fight against her - I wouldn't have lasted so long, one look from her and I would've been running to the fireplace with Floo powder already in my hand - but after so long he caved, promising to take me the next weekend.

This was today.

Not wanting to waste so much 'precious' time that he wanted to do who-knows-what with, we Apparated straight into the alley. Father, being ever so suspicious of someone figuring out the family's secret, looked around to see if anyone recognised us. I highly doubt anyone did, though, as we were covered in black cloaks with the hoods up to hide our faces; after checking, we quickly walked into Knockturn Alley and straight to the top of a seemingly abandoned building. If someone didn't know exactly where they were going they'd just walk straight past the shack, but luckily my Father knew exactly where to go.

The house reminded me of the Shrieking Shack in some ways - it had this eerie feeling about it, the floors creaked, there was dust and cobwebs with hundreds of spiders on them everywhere and it was almost as if the torn, burnt and otherwise destroyed paintings were watching you. Suppressing a shudder and shaking the feeling, I looked up to my father as he nostalgically said:

"My father took me here for clarification to who my Mate was when I told him it was Narcissa. She spoke very cryptically, as all Seers do, but I didn't completely listen to her words, as I just knew it was Narcissa, but you will listen to her and listen exceptionally well. Remember her words and try to work them out, it'll help you immensely."

"And if I don't remember anything once I leave? Let's not make the same mistake with my memory as you did in the past," I said rolling my eyes.

"I have a Quick Quotes Quill - everything will be written down for you to go over later. Maybe you should tell your friend Zabini to see if he can help you," He suggested.

"Fine, but I still think Divination is rubbish."

Walking up the stairs to the very top floor - making sure not to get our feet stuck in any of the existing holes or creating new ones in the rotten wood - our conversation ended with the silence being filled with the squeaks of rats and mice. At the top, where the Seer resided, it seemed no different from the rest of the house, as far as I could tell.

Not needing to push open a door because there was none, we walked into the small room, which was illuminated by several candles and nothing but a table in the middle and a cushion either side of the table, one of which was being occupied by the old woman. She seemed to sense our presence and looked up from her hands that were laid on the table.

"I was wondering when I'd expect the next heir to the Malfoy family to come see me. It's been a long time Lucius..." She said solemnly.

Only the whites of her eyes showed as she gazed intently at us, not because her pupils had rolled back to the back of her head - it was because she didn't have any. She was blind and had hidden away in this room for hundreds of years, I'm told, to pay service to predicting the Malfoy family's Mates and hide away from judgement from the people outside. No one outside the Malfoys knew she was here and no one bothered to find out, assuming the building was just another long rundown shop that used to be open in Knockturn Alley.

"It has been Ms. Vera," My Father bowed slightly. "But I have returned as you noticed with my son, Draco. He has come into heritage but so far has had no reaction with any of the Pureblood girls we've introduced him to; he's going back to Hogwarts and we're hoping for more help in finding out who she is." The older Malfoy explained, guiding me reluctantly forward towards her by my shoulder.

"Come sit, Master Malfoy. I sense that you're different to your ancestors. Come, come, and take a seat on the cushion there. That's it; now give me your hands," She said and watched me as I walked closer to her table and sat on the cushion. Taking my hands and placing them in hers gripping them tightly, she abruptly threw her head back to look at the rotting ceiling and started murmuring things under her breath.

Looking to my Father in an almost silent plea for help or confirmation, he only nodded in a way that said this is what she did during his time here. I simply sat watching her as she did whatever she was doing for a couple of minutes; then, she lifted my hands up higher, my palms now resting on her wrinkly ones that weren't holding mine anymore.

She then looked directly at me with her white eyes and I found that try as I might to tear my eyes away from hers I simply couldn't, as if she had fixed me in place. I couldn't move my eyes and when I tested to confirm my suspicions, I couldn't move any other part of my body either. Just out of the corner of my vision, I could see that my Father had gotten the notepad out along with the Quill and was just checking that it worked before turning his gaze back towards me. For a few seconds her mouth opened and closed without any words coming out but when she shut her mouth firmly and opened it once more, the cryptic phrases that we came to receive spilled out.

"Your differences are few,
Your likeness more common.
Only the bad she'll see through,
The world she's from may seem foreign.
Push her away you might,
And seem to embrace death with open arms.
Deep inside you'll never stop the fight,
To capture her heart with your charms.
She'll change your thoughts,
But her ideals won't be completely seen.
For you have been taught,
Different morals that make you seem mean.
Your Mate will cause two worlds to collide,
Causing your love to be tried.
At first Fate you may detest,
But soon the Prince will be bonded with the Princess."

While she whispered the prediction I tried to take as much of it in as I could, but almost every line was vague and I ended up giving up halfway through deciding that I wasn't going to figure this out myself. I was going to take my Father up on his suggestion of Blaise to help and, hopefully, the both of us would be able to figure it out in just under 300 days time, as my chest would constantly keep reminding me. The numbers made me seem like some sort of ticking time bomb.

Only one of the phrases really stood out for me though and that was the last one. 'But soon the Prince will be bonded with the Princess.' What did that mean? I'd like to think that it was referring to my title, as the 'Slytherin Prince', meaning that my Mate would most likely be in Slytherin too, but that just didn't even feel right. However, maybe still thinking along the lines of my title at Hogwarts, it could mean that my Mate could be anyone and once bonding with the Prince, it'd automatically make them the Princess. Of course, that didn't feel entirely right either, but it did feel more right than thinking she was in Slytherin, which brought me to my next problem. SHE'S NOT IN SLYTHERIN? The Fates must really hate me for something that I must've done in my past life and bestowed this horror of horrors upon me. How could she not be in Slytherin? How am I meant to tell my parents that the one I'm destined to be with is NOT in Slytherin? Following on from that, it means there's an even lesser chance that she's even a Pureblood, and even if she is a Pureblood, the chances are decreased even more that she's not a Blood Traitor. 'Oh how the mighty have fallen...'

Once the prediction was done, Father cleared his throat, signalling for me to thank the Seer. Once I'd done that, we walked towards the doorway and were ready to leave before she called out to me, "Don't let your past get in the way Master Malfoy, you are truly lucky."

Once out of earshot though, I scoffed at her words. There was nothing truly lucky about my situation. Once outside in the alley again, the written prediction was handed to me, which I placed in my pocket and then Apparated back to the Manor. When I arrived, I told my Father that I was going upstairs to work on the prediction while he informed my Mother of the visit. Upon entering my room though, the first thing I did was Floo Blaise telling him to come over immediately.

Five minutes later Blaise arrived in a panicked state, thinking there was some sort of crisis, which there was, but not to the scale that Blaise was thinking of. I quickly sat him down before he passed out from hyperventilating so much and explained the situation to him, to which he handled with much more careful thinking and understanding than he was doing around 5 minutes ago.

"And why can't you just sort out this Veela-Mate-prediction thing out by yourself? It is yours after all," Blaise questioned, smirking. He knew I didn't really like asking for help. It just wasn't my way - subtly hinting, instead of out outright saying it - that was my way.

"Because it's complicated and I don't understand what I need to do so that I have a good understanding as to whom it is before I go back to Hogwarts. It'd be good to have two heads working on it instead of one, Okay? Just help and if you're jealous of this happening to me, let me assure you that it's not as sweet as you make it out to be. Fate really has it out for me."

"Fine, let's take a look at this bloody thing then." He said picking the piece of parchment up from the desk. "So, what do you know so far?"

"She's not in Slytherin," I muttered, annoyed to be confessing this to him, even if I did ask for his help.

"How do you know?" He asked genuinely interested, which was the complete opposite thing I expected him to do. I thought he was going to revel in my pity.

"Gut feeling. Just trust me on this, I just...know."

"Anything else you're sure of?" He asked noting down what I said.

"No."

"Well then let's look through it," he stated, running his finger over the lines. "Ah here, first line; 'Your differences are few, your likeness more common.' Well, that could potentially mean she's not a Blood Traitor considering you have more things in common than differences. That's a good sign, right?"

"I guess." I shrugged. I began to pace along the length of the study, as Blaise sat at the desk.

"OK next, 'The world she's from may seem foreign.' Well that could contradict what I just said. If she was a Pureblood she'd have grown up in the Wizarding World which wouldn't be foreign at all to you, so that means she's either a Half-Blood that was raised in the Muggle world or a Muggle-Born. Which then leads nicely onto 'And seem to embrace death with open arms. 'Because of course, being the fact that she's a Muggle-Born - and don't try to deny it Draco - you'd just give up and welcome your impending death." Something inside of me felt something at the thought of her being a Muggle-Born but I pushed that off. There was no way that I was even considering the probability of her being one just yet.

Blaise continued to rant. "And then going back, she could be a Blood Traitor or a Muggle-Born again seeing as it says 'She'll change your thoughts, but her ideals won't be completely seen. For you have been taught, different morals that make you seem mean. Your Mate will cause two worlds to collide.' Of course, disregarding the last phrase it could also back up your thought that she is not in Slytherin. Which we have decided she's not. It also says 'Causing your love to be tried' which means that she could be a Muggle-Born, Blood Traitor, Half-Blood or which apparently she is, in a house that your parents and friends don't exactly approve of. Same goes for her for eventually being with a Slytherin, giving the fact that she might actually give you a chance. Moreover, you've already said that you hate what Fate's done for you, but the last line throws me a bit. It could mean anything..."

"Well then that was fairly quick, right? Only almost 3 hours spent figuring it out. So, what's the summary then Blaise?" I said grimacing at the only real possible types of people that could be them.

"You're looking for a girl who is not in Slytherin, not a Pureblood such as yourself, if she is though you're most likely ending up with a Blood Traitor like Weaslette." Upon seeing my mouth hanging open horrified at the absurdity of the thought, Blaise quickly continued on, not bothering to try and even sugar-coat it, "There's more of a chance that it'll be a Half and even more of a chance of it being a Muggle-Born. She could be in any year at school as that wasn't specified in the prediction, so you could be destined for a First Year, and if she's in our year she might not even be coming back to continue."

Once he was finished, not knowing whether I was going to be in anger or something and start attacking him to relieve myself of my anger for Fate, he quickly Disapparated back to Zabini Manor, leaving the parchment behind with all our notes and summary written on it. Taking out some red ink from the desk, I frowned as I re-read it with the added notes and reaching the very last phrase that had puzzled both him and me; I dipped my quill in the ink and circled it.

'But soon the Prince will be bonded with the Princess.'

A/N-A kind of filler chapter? Not very good I'm sorry, I just wanted them to go see a Seer and get a prediction before he went back to Hogwarts. Thanks to my friends ParabataiNerds to going through this after me. If there are any more mistakes that we've missed, could you please say?