Part 3: Vacation Time and Discovery

The first week started out fairly normal for the family. Draco and I were still very hesitant to talk to each other. One morning I awoke very abruptly from a vicious dream about my father's death. There had been a man in it, and I couldn't put a name to the face, but I definitely recognized him. In the dream, he had been following my father around his entire life, and then suddenly when the man was nowhere to be seen, my father was killed. I woke up in a sweat, and ran to my owl. This was one of those times that I was glad to be living so close to a friend. I picked up my quill and began to write a letter to Trev.

Trevvie-

How are you? I'm fine. I had an interesting dream last night, not that you care, but I just needed to get some friendly assurance. It was so realistic! I might fly over later on and we could talk about it.

Friends,

Ammie.

I went on with my day. I got dressed, ate with the family, and went out for a fly. Trev lived in the ghettos of the city, but that didn't make me think any less of him. He was very strong, or had to be, because his mother decided to have 9 children. Unfortunately, her husband died (and this was a different one that Trev's father) and she was left all alone. Being the oldest boy, he was left to fend for the family when he wasn't in school. I flew down to the little neighborhood that he lived in and walked up to his house, which was a little one-story, painted green on one side and purple on the other, with a high peaked roof and missing shingles.

Knock Knock.

"Who's there?" A young woman with a very strong English accent answered.

"I'm here to speak with Trev. My name is Ammie," I replied.

The rotting wooden door slowly creaked open and a short girl, probably Draco's age, answered the door.

"I've heard a ton about you this summer. Would you like to come in?"

I stepped into his home. There were little children all over the floor, some with flaming red hair, others with pale blonde. It was quite a mix. The girl walked into the other room and came back out with Trev following.

"Hey, Amber. How are you?" He asked, trying to speak over the chaos.

"I'm alright, I guess, but can we step out?"

"Sure. I'll get my broom."

We exited his little shotgun house and rose up into the clouds to talk. He told me that he had received my owl and that he had sent a letter back, along with a picture of whom he thought I was talking about.

"How could you possibly know?"

"I had a dream like that a few months ago, before the accident. I didn't want to tell you because you would have gotten upset with me."

"You must be a seer."

"Na, I hope not. Trelawney is quite the fruit, you know. We must have had the same dream, too, so that would make you a seer also."

"Unfortunately, mine came too late."

"Yeah, well anyway."

I continued on with the story about my dream and my suspicions.

"So, with all that said, do you think it was a sign?"

"Wait a minute. You're telling me that you think this man could have killed your father?"

"Yes, and look here, I even found him in "Wizard's Most Worthy".

"Amber, I think you are taking this too far. He couldn't have killed your father."

"Ok, well here's this. I have a week and a half until we have to go back to school. Somehow, I feel threatened by this man, whoever he is. I just want to look him up a little bit and that's that."

"Go with it Amber, and let me see what you come up with. I've got to get home now, but you know, as crazy as this is, I would never stop helping you out, alright?"

I turned to watch him fly through the clouds. I continued on home, right to my balcony, where my owl greeted me. I untied the little message from her foot and read.

Ammie,

I had the same dream, I think, and this was the guy in it. I got this picture from this morning's Daily Prophet. Let me know what you come up with.

Trev

All of this thinking about it only made me want to keep looking into it. Today was the day that I would talk to Draco. Maybe he would take me to the library so we could research this guy. I touched our little yellow pencil, and I found myself in his Room.

"Draco, where are you?" I called.

"Hold on, I'll be right there."

This was the first time that I had actually wanted to talk to him. This was the first time that I had actually been to his room. It was the extreme of any boy's room that I had ever seen. Strewn across the floor were his robes, and covering the walls were posters of his quidditch heroes, clippings from the newspaper, and pictures of girls from "Warlock's World of Women." It was obvious that his parents never came in, because by the looks of some of those pictures, he would have been in great danger.

"Alright Am, what is it?"

"I'm bored."

"And?"

"Where's the library?"

"You think that I actually have time to explain to you how to get to the library? Of all the places to go, a library?!"

"Does it have newspapers in it, like, old ones?"

"Yeah, but they aren't any good for anything."

"Just tell me where the library is."

After fifteen minutes of explaining, he finally gave up and decided to go with me. It really wasn't that confusing, and I didn't even realize that it was the room across the hall from me. If only he had known…

But, if Draco had known, then we wouldn't have gotten into our adventure.

The Malfoy mansion, as people know, is very large and confusing. Because of the size, most of the people that Mr. Malfoy dealt with stayed in the home with us, and did their business right out of the offices on the second story. People were constantly coming and going, and then coming and going again. It was a never-ending cycle. Because of this, I was not too surprised to see that a few men were sitting around a rather large conference table in the library. They had books and sheets strung every which way, pencils taking notes at the speed of light, and there were even a few little sheets flying around. It was chaos, of course, like usual.

"Amber, where did those ones come from?" Draco asked me, gesturing towards the large men seated at the table. One was wearing very long, black robes. He had jet-black hair, like mine, on the top of his head in a bundle of mess. The other man was large, but squirrelly. He wore thick glasses and had a bushy mustache. I remembered seeing them earlier that morning, checking in with Narcissa.

"Those are the men that arrived this morning. Interesting, don't you think?" I replied.

"I've never seen them here before. Usually I know all the guests by name."

"Don't bother with it. Lets get to work." My mind had gone off track.

"I'm sorry, correct me if I am wrong, but, did you neglect to tell me what work we were going to do?"

"Oh yeah, sorry. I kind of forgot about that. Here's what we're doing."

I pulled a piece of paper out of my robes that Trev had given me.

"Do you know this man?"

"Yea. He's one of my father's friends. He's checking in tomorrow, I believe."

I pulled out the book and turned to the page that I had shown Trev.

"Read that."

He skimmed the page quickly and glanced up. "So what?"

"I was just curious about him, that's all."

"What's to him, Amber? Don't you be holding out on me now."

"He used to come to all of my father's games. This was one of my father's books. I saw him in the paper and just wanted to find out more about his history, that's all."

"Odd girl you are. Lets get started then, shall we?"

Draco and I spent our entire afternoon searching through the papers. The library had every copy of the Daily Prophet that had been produced since 46 B.C. There was an entire room devoted just to the newspaper! We hardly found any good information.

"Amber, I don't think we're going to find it in this paper." Draco said, halfway through our search.

"And why not?"

"Because. He's not famous on the light side."

"Oh. Well then. We should be looking in the underground paper, right?"

"Yep. That's in the next room over."

We stood there for a minute, taking a break. All that work, and then, nothing!

"Draco, I cant believe-"

"Shhh."

"What?"

"I said hush!" He was whispering now.

We sat there for a moment in the room. "Do you hear that, Amber?" He asked me, still whispering.

"Hear what?"

"Those men! Don't you hear what they are saying?"

I paused again. Draco was right, and we could hear them talking.

"Do you think the girl knows?" One man asked.

"I doubt it."

"Do you think she's had the dream yet?"

"Yes, and if she's smart, she'll recognize it."

"Her mother was the devil. I hope she isn't the same."

"I wouldn't go as far as to call her the devil."

"I just hope that she'll realize soon what Lucius is doing to her."

The men paused.

"We better get out of here, its not safe anymore. She can hear us."

"Draco…I don't understand…" I said to him, my eyes bulging out of my face. "How did they know we were listening?"

"Amber, I can't go into this with you, alright?"

"So you know what's going on and you didn't tell me?" I was screaming by now.

"Hush, alright? It's a family secret, and it's none of your business."

"None of my business? My business? Family thing? Gee, I sure am sorry, but I didn't realize that I wasn't a part of this family!" I stood up and slammed the door, leaving him in the paper room. It was time to figure things out.

I ran out of the library as fast as I could, trying to catch up with those men. I almost knocked Narcissa down in the hall on my way out.

"Slow down dear!"

"Sorry. Did those new guests just come by here?"

"Oh yes, and they checked out. All of their business was finished, I suppose."

"Thanks!" I said, running to my room, my broom, and my balcony. I took off, trying to catch them before they could apparate away.

"Wait!!!" I yelled to them.

"Shit!" One man yelled. "We've got to hurry and apparate. She's going to remember us!"

"I'm going as fast as I can!"

They were gone.

Almost as soon as they had left, the man from the picture apparated in.

"Good evening, young lady. Amber, correct?"

I stared at him in disbelief. My life, my whole new world was falling apart. This could not be happening, not now anyway. But I was still so ignorant on the situation. This was merely the base of the mountain, and I had quite a way to climb before reaching the peak of my situation. I could only wonder what those men meant.