Chapter 1: Leaves

Crunch crunch crunch. Her boots crinkled the leaves on the ground as she walked. Crunch crunch crunch. She inhaled deeply and tried to empty her mind. She fingered a portion of her sweater and studied the crunching leaves beneath her boots.

A sharp gust of air spun leaves of brown, red, and gold in front of her. The path was small, if it could even be called a path at all. She had found it on another hike in the summer. She took one look at the small path and decided it had to be done in the fall and only in the fall. A small smile overtook her face as another breeze rustled some more leaves in her path. It was worth the wait.

She trudged on for hours, feet growing stiff with overuse. A tinkle of a small stream beckoned her and she followed its call to a small bank where an Idyllic little stream ran through a glade. A big stump was in a perfect position to overlook the stream and dangle her feet in the water if she wished.

She threw off her pack and perched on top of the stump. A quick wrist movement drew a notebook out of her pack. She flipped to a new page and started to draw the scene in front of her. She chastised herself for not remembering to bring pastels.

The colors of the season called to her.

She sighed and told herself she would come again. The notebook lay forgotten and the stump vacated as she laid in a patch of leaves and grass by the stream. Clouds passed easily over her head, birds sang sweetly, and the world was quiet.

This was why she hiked.

Every weekend it was another hike. A lot of the times it was local, but other times she took a portkey to somewhere else. Last weekend she hiked a place in South Korea. The mountains in Sokcho were beautiful In the fall not to mention there were beaches to walk when she was tired of the mountains. Her mouth watered at the memory of the dishes she has eaten. Kimchi was becoming a daily feature of her meals ever since.

Port keys to Asia were few and far between so she knew she needed to take advantage. Yet, local hikes were some of her favorites.

They were home.

She didn't know any other witch or wizard that hiked so she was never bothered. The boys had tried to hike with her once, but an experience with some bugs had left them scarcely able to sit outside let alone walk as far as she did. She was glad, though. She was alone in her thoughts the whole way. No one is complaining or nagging.

Just peace.

She laid by the stream listening to its gurgle. The sun warmed her body making her lazy. Her eyes drooped and she fell into a relaxed sleep. She dreamt of clouds and trees swirling around each other.

A small twig cracked and she jerked awake. Her body moved to face the sound. A pair of gray eyes stared into hers and she stared back for a moment before letting out a shriek.

She flipped onto the balls of her feet and got up clumsily. She scrambled over to her pack and grabbed out her wand. She turned sharply and feverishly looked for the person attached to the eyes. She locked eyes with the gray eyes again.

This time they were peering out from behind a tree. The eyes looked nervously to and fro. She noticed the hands gripped around the tree trunk were dirty and raw. She lowered her wand a few inches and took a few steps towards the clump of trees.

"Hello," she spoke in a low voice.

"Are you okay? Are you lost?"

The eyes darted back and forth. She tucked the wand into her waistband and took a few slow steps towards the tree.

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. You just scared me."

She put her hands in front of her and crept slowly towards the person. As she got closer, she noticed the hands were bleeding more than she had originally thought.

"It's okay. I won't hurt you. I can see your hurt. Can I help you?"

The eyes stopped their frantic circling and stared at her. She continued her slow walk to the tree until she was close enough to get a good look at the person who stood behind it. The person was a male, dirty, torn clothes, lots of bruises and wounds, and terribly thin. The hair was caked in mud and the skin red with sunburn.

She reached out a hand and offered it to the man. He looked at it and instead of taking it focused on the wand in her waistband. She saw him looking at the wand and saw a spark of something in his eyes. She pulled the wand out and held it in her hands.

"Do you know what this is?"

The eyes looked at her and the head gave a small nod.

"What's your name?" The head gave a small shake of confusion.

"Oh dear that's no good. Can I look at your wounds?"

The head gave a jerky nod. She looked him over and let out a sigh. It seemed like he had been out here for a while. She saw a red patch on his shirt that looked concerning. She slowly reached her hand towards his dirty shirt and when he did not resist she peeled back the shirt. The blood had been from a cut that didn't seem too bad. She peeled back a bit more of the shirt and had to bite back a gasp.

A latticework of scars marred his chest.

Yet those were not what had elicited the response, oh no. It was the familiarity of their pattern.

She had seen them before. She had been by his bedside as he was being healed.

Her best friend had been the one to utter the curse. She looked up into the eyes of the man and spoke a single low word.

"Draco?"

A/N: Welcome to my new fic! Please leave a review!- DCP