by Katie Davidson (Virtue)
It was almost ten in the morning when Elora was stopped by her mom before she reached the door to Harry's room, "Elora, let him sleep." Mrs. Danen softly said, not to wake Harry who still lay fast asleep in his room.
"But mom, we were supposed to go visit Luno and her mother before noon." Elora whined.
Mrs. Danen walked up the stairs, her voice echoing softly down the hall; "You can go yourself. When Harry wakes up I'll tell him where you are, I'm sure he'll be up any minute."
"All right," Elora said, "I have to go pick some vegetables any way."
"That's a good girl." Mrs. Danen said, letting Elora pass her to get downstairs. Mrs. Danen watched her exit the house with a basket in her hand, and sighed softly. "Any news from the council, Dennis?" Mrs. Danen whispered to her husband, who sat on a chair in the dining room, reading a parchment.
Mr. Danen groaned, "The Council wants to be sure they can keep a close eye on Harry and Elora. They don't seem to trust us, Sherri. Why the heck don't they trust us?"
"Dennis," Mrs. Danen said in a calming voice, "We're Rouge Wizards, remember? We shut ourselves out from the Wizarding world, and now that our daughter is a part of it, we have to abide by their rules now, for Elora and Harry's sake."
"What are you saying, Sherri?" Mr. Danen growled, "That we should take down the enchantment. God, No Sherri! We can't! What about the Unicorns? If any one or any thing finds its way into the valley, then they're done for!"
Mrs. Danen thought for a moment, "What about we put up a security enchantment? Dennis, when Elora and Harry go back to Hogwarts, then we'll put the other one up. The security enchantment will tell us if an intruder enters the valley. It'll be all right."
"Sherri, I don't get it. You were so worked up about the enchantment before. Why the change of heart?"
"I don't know. I guess I just looked at how happy Elora's been since she came back from Hogwarts. Not only because she has a boyfriend, Harry, but also because she gets to be a part of a different world. I just don't want to take that away from her."
Mr. Danen sighed, nodding his head, and said, "For Elora's sake, Sherri. I'll write to the council and tell them we'll take down the enchantment... for now."
A yawning sound was heard as Harry walked down the steps, fully dressed, saying, "Morning every one."
"Harry!" Mrs. Danen said, smiling, "Would you like some breakfast?"
"Uhm..." Harry said, looking around, "Where's Elora?"
Mr. Danen, over the scratching of pen to parchment, said, "She went outside to pick some vegetables for the Unicorns."
"Oh," Harry responded, wondering what Mr. Danen was writing, "I'll skip breakfast. I'll go join Elora."
Harry headed towards the door, and almost reached it when Mrs. Danen stopped him, "You need to eat something, Harry."
Harry smiled at her saying, "I'll eat some veggies, Sherri, thank you though," then he left.
Before the door closed Elora's owl 'Angel', a black owl with a white stripe down its back, flew out the door with a folded parchment in its beak. Mr. Danen walked up behind his wife saying, "Well, before we drop the enchantment, I think we should tell them."
"Soon, dear," Mrs. Danen said, "Soon."
Elora walked through the carrot patch of her father's garden, filling the basket she held with wonderful vegetables for the Unicorns. "They'll love these," Elora said, while placing the last carrot into the basket. She stepped out of the patch when Harry, who seemed to have suddenly appeared in front of her, startled her. "Harry!" she shouted and gave him a big hug.
Harry wrapped his arms around Elora; "Good morning. I see you got a lot of veggies for Luno and her mother."
"Yep!" Elora responded, "Come on, let's go. I bet Luno's waiting already." They walked off to together to the forest behind Elora's house, holding hands, while Harry munched on a carrot. Elora laughed at Harry.
"What?" Harry said, with carrot in his mouth.
Elora giggled saying, "You're so cute! You look like a jet-black haired bunny. What's up 'doc?"
"Oh, ha ha..." Harry sarcastically exclaimed, "And you look like a-" he paused, "darn!"
"What?" Elora said, "Can't come up with a come-back?" Harry jokingly growled, then joined in as Elora laughed just as they reached the forest.
The trees were starting to bud and the darkness that once over took the forest was gone. Luno came running out of the trees and to Elora's side. Elora knelt down and stroked Luno, gently saying, "Good morning Luno. I brought something for you-" but before she could finish, Luno had already been munching on the veggies in Elora's basket. Elora laughed. Luno's mother walked gently out of the forest, barely making a sound, as she seemed to float.
Elora stood up and bowed her head to the great mare saying, "Good morning. We haven't given you a name, have we?" The Unicorn neighed softly in response. Elora thought for a moment, trying to choose a name for her.
"I got one!" Harry said, "Cool-mo-dee!" (This is a joke my brother always likes! lol)
"No Harry!" Elora shouted to him, Harry laughed, then Elora turned to the Unicorn mother again. "What about, uhm, Virtue?"
"Virtue?" Harry pondered, "Who is 'Virtue'?"
"Not 'who', Harry, but 'what'. Let me tell you a rhyme about a certain virtue I heard from school." Elora said, then cleared her throat, "Patience is a virtue, which you can always depend. Always found in women, and never found in men!" She giggled afterwards.
Harry groaned, "Ha ha... Well, does she like it?"
Elora smiled and said, "Patience, Harry," then turned to the mother. The Unicorn bowed her head to Elora - she liked it! "All right, Virtue it is." Elora said, giving Virtue a carrot from her basket and stroking her mane gently.
Mr. and Mrs. Danen walked up the path to the forest. "Good morning all."
"Mom, I named the mother. Her name is Virtue." Elora said.
"What a nice name. Good choice, Elora." Mrs. Danen said, trying to smile as the thought of what they had to say was bothering her.
"Elora, Harry. We have to talk to you two about something." Mr. Danen said.
"Yes dad, what is it?" Elora looked at him.
"Your mother and I were contacted by the council yesterday. They requested that we take down the enchantment around the Valley so that they could monitor both you and Harry." Mr. Danen explained.
"And you said no," Elora replied, "Right?"
"Actually, no, Elora," Mrs. Danen answered, "They said if they couldn't monitor you and Harry, then you wouldn't be able to go back to Hogwarts."
A soft "Oh" came from Elora's mouth. "Then I guess you said you would, eh?" Mr. and Mrs. Danen both nodded. "All right," Elora said, "Then do it. I'm sure the valley will be fine without it. You're going to put up some security, right?"
"We just wanted to talk it over with you and Harry, so you both know. You have to be careful once we put it down." Mr. Danen said.
"Father," Elora laughed, "We'll be fine."
Mrs. Danen sighed, "I'm sure we will. All right, Dennis, let's go." She took her husbands hand and pulled him to the north edge of the valley where the enchantment's main source was stored.
"Elora," Harry said, "Tell me what the enchantment does. I know your parents put it up to protect you from Voldemort and the Wizarding community, but what else does it do?"
"It protects the valley, Harry." Elora replied with a soft sigh, "This valley has been in my family for many generations. No one has ever stepped into the enchantment's boundaries, because they cannot see the valley. Nothing can get in, and nothing can get out, except for natural occurrences like sunlight and rain of course."
"So if your parents bring down the enchantment," Harry said.
Elora continued, "Then any thing can get into the valley. That's why the security enchantment is needed, it'll place a low-powered barrier around the valley and act like a Muggle Bugler alarm. Where if anything unknown tries to get it, my parents will know, and depending on what it is, take action upon it." She sighed again, giving Virtue the last celery stick. Luno ran around her mother and Elora, but with a soft neigh from Virtue, Luno stopped.
"Will Luno and Virtue be okay?" Harry asked as Elora knelt down to stroke Lunos mane gently.
"Oh yeah," Elora smiled, "They'll be fine. Virtue knows how to handle visitors. Unicorns have a special ability where if they want to be seen they can, and if not then they won't. So they'll be just fine." Luno brushed her face against Elora's leg, a thank you for the veggies and the visit, then she returned to her mother. Elora stood up as Virtue and Luno trotted back into the forest.
Harry came up behind Elora and wrapped his arms around her waist; "There's so much about Unicorn's I don't know. How do you know so much?"
"Books, Harry." Elora said, a smile on her face as the Unicorns disappeared into the forest, "I've loved Unicorns since I was born practically. The books I've read, well, some have true facts and some are false, but I've learned to strain out the truthful from the faulty."
"Elora!" a scream echoed towards Harry and Elora's position. Mrs. Danen came running down the path from the North, with Mr. Danen a ways behind her. "Elora! Something large is in the valley, we just put up the security barrier, how did whatever it is, know so quick?" Mrs. Danen said, catching her breath.
"Damnit." Mr. Danen exclaimed looking around at the sky, "Where the heck is it?"
"Dad," Elora said in a worried tone, "Why are you looking up at the sky?"
Mr. Danen looked to Elora, "Because Elora, it FLEW in."
"It's probably a bird." Harry said.
Mr. Danen shook his head saying, "If it is Harry, then it's a very large bird. The barrier calculated it to the size of a commercial airplane; it's alive, and nothing more. It's usually very specific, but it seemed to have moved too fast."
A loud, long and deep roar echoed through the valley. A massive shadow flew slowly over their position. They all looked up. Mrs. Danen gasped, "It's a Dragon!" She was right. The thing was a large, size of a commercial plane, black dragon. Their wingspan was two times its body size. The black dragon flew in circles over their position.
"What is it doing here?" Harry asked, "I've never heard of wild Dragons, except in London."
"They only way a Dragon could just be here, Harry," Mr. Danen sneered, "Is if it belonged to someone, and was sent here for a purpose." The Dragon gave another long, loud roar. "Every one!" Mr. Danen shouted, "Into the house!"
They started to run off to the back door of the large white house. Mr. Danen led his wife in front while Harry and Elora ran behind them. The dragon started to fly towards them, nearing closer and closer to Elora's position. It drew its breath and blew fire just over Elora's head and in front of her, cutting her off from Harry and trapping her in a circle of flames.
"Harry!" Elora screamed as the Dragon, with its giant claws, picked her up off the ground.
Harry stopped and turned around, he ran after the Dragon as it flew off with Elora. "Let her go!" he shouted to the Dragon. But it kept flying beyond the hills of the valley and disappeared.
Mr. Danen walked up behind Harry saying, "Harry. Don't worry about Elora. For whatever reason that Dragon took her, I bet whoever it belongs to won't hurt her."
Harry turned around growling, "You can't be too sure about that."
The large black Dragon flew over miles of grassland and prairie before it landed in a fortress - a castle surrounded by high stone wall and towers on each corner of the grand wall. Elora fell to her knees when the Dragon let her go... she hated heights.
Elora shivered both from the cold - since she only wore a thin white cloak with thin pants and a T-shirt under it - and the experience of the flight. Someone walked up beside her and swung a blanket around her shoulders. She jerked up to her feet and looked up, staring into the eyes of a tall, medium-built, short blonde haired, pale faced man wearing a gray cloak. The man gave Elora a short grin; "My name is Ahren. Welcome to Castle Gray, Elora."