Disclaimer: I don't own most of the characters.

A/N: Y'all are supposed to be confused. Tessa will be explained in future chapters. Now we check up on Draco...

Of Missions and Destiny

After I took my shower, I threw on my morning workout uniform and stepped outside.

On my thirteenth birthday, Lucius set up an obstacle course for me to workout in. It was located in Malfoy Manor's garden.' The interesting thing about this obstacle course was that it changed from day to day and as my level of skill and knowledge increased so it was always a challenge and most times a surprise.

In the first few years I had it, I dismissed it as a rather inconvenient gift of Lucius'. As I grew up, however, I realized that I needed to maintain a good physique to have the quick reflexes and thus excel in life. Now, I workout in the course every morning I'm at the Malfoy Manor.

I stepped out of my room and walked down the hallway to the main entrance of the Malfoy Manor.

When I got outside, I walked over to the statue of my great, great uncle Ivan on Lucius' side and pushed my hand against the back of Ivan's left knee. This activated the obstacle course.

I took off my morning robes and put it by the main entrance. After that, I stretched to warm up my muscles. Then I took out my wand for certain parts of the course.

I turned my head to look back at the statue and stared into Uncle Ivan's eyes. A few seconds later, the statue blinked, telling me that the obstacle course had finished setting up.

I walked over to a bed of porcupine flowers and got into a ready position. This was the starting point for the first part of the obstacle course. The goal was to find the shape shifter that was lurking somewhere by the pond.

I waited for a bell to signal me to start. When I heard it, I sprinted to Demon's Pond where I dodged and countered a few spells. I stopped at the edge of the pond and looked around.

Now where is that- I started to mutter before I saw a bush by the pond move a little closer to me. Ah, there he is,' I thought as I turned slightly.

If it isn't my favorite shape shifter, I said to the bush.

The bush rustled and transformed into a short, yellow-skinned boy wearing brown. Then he said, Draco, I was so close to getting you. Mere feet away. I must be getting better.

Yes, you are. I almost didn't see you at all. your movements are much more subtle than they used to be. Congratulations, Seymour.

Thank you for helping me, Draco.

Welcome. Now, I'll see you later. I'll be done with the next part of the course in a while, I said. Seymour nodded and strode away.

And to think that only a few months ago, Seymour had been a small, helpless chap who had been about to be the lunch of one of Lucius' smaller dragons that roamed around the Malfoy property.

It's a good thing I'd found him. He was one of the last known shape shifter in the world. Well, Seymour wasn't known by Voldemort and the rest that it. I've been training him to use his powers to spy. He was getting better everyday as I'd told him. Soon, I'll be able to send him to Dumbledore as a much-needed spy. Seymour was happy to help the good' side with its effort.

I jogged to the starting point of the next part of the course, the Eastward Wall. This section was more physical than the last. It was a magically twisted Muggle army type of obstacle course though Lucius didn't realize it. If he ever finds out, it will be ripped out and replaced. Lucius truly hates Muggles and everything they make.

I put away my wand so I don't break it in the beginning of this next part. I had to get it out again soon though. I heard the bell and began. First, I had to climb the Eastward wall with a rope.

Now, this rope wasn't just a normal Muggle rope. This rope doesn't allow the climber to use his legs to help him climb. The course never allowed me to use my legs for the wall even the first time I tried it. I could only use my arms.

It took me weeks and weeks to train my arms to hold my weight. And then when I got to the top of the wall after all those weeks of training, I almost fell off because a rather strong jinx was shot at me. I had managed to regain my balance luckily. I don't thing I'd have been able to get my wand out and use the levitating spell before hitting the ground.

I climbed the wall and cautiously looked out to the other side. Sometimes hexes and spells were hurled at me like in the first part. This is why I have to always be alert and ready. I will be caught by surprise otherwise. And that is never good.

The coast was clear for the moment so I quickly jumped the wall. I landed on the other side and rolled into the safety of a nearby bush. This is my normal routine for this part of the course. I took out my wand, and I looked up from my hiding place to look out onto the rest of the course.

I still had the Field, the Wormpit, Jacob's Ladder, and the Dirty Name to go. This obstacle course was very long and hard, and I always got filthy afterward. There were no spells flying at me after the Field.

I looked both ways, concentrated my energy, and sprinted through the Field. Again, I blocked and avoided spells that are shot at me from my surroundings. This time, however, two hit me. Both I recognized instantly, the Levitating Spell and the Bounding Spell. I used the counter for the Bounding Spell as quickly as I could before it completely constricted the movement of my hands. I was two feet above the ground before I reversed the Levitating Spell.

I fell to the ground, scrambled to my feet, and once again sprinted toward the end of the Field.

I am about a foot away from the from the end of the clearing when I fear the Field mutter a new curse, a different curse. The Cruciatus Curse... I was in so much shock, I almost didn't dodge the spell.

When I was safely away from the Field, I turn around and stare back in the direction of the Field. An Unforgivable... My eyes widened as I realized what had just happened. In my obstacle course. Alarm bells went off in my head, warning me that my instincts told me something had gone deadly wrong.

I opened my senses to see, hear, know what was going on.

I jerked my head towards where the Wormpit was. Someone was coming. I inhaled their scent. Then I blew out a long breath. It was only Seymour. I focused my eyes and saw a vague image of him in the distance. My sensitive hearing told me that he was running in my direction.

he explained when he was closer.

After changing my senses back to normal, I asked, What is it?

I need to...talk to you! he gasped out.

Catch your breath first. He shook his head and opened his mouth in protest while still trying to intake as much air as possible.

Look, you'll waste more time trying to catch your breath while attempting to talk to me about whatever you think is so important as to race all the way here. Take normal breaths to catch your breath faster. I tried to sound calm but even to my ear my voice sounded impatient. My close encounter with an Unforgivable was leaving me a bit rattled.

Seymour nodded and took his time to breath normal.

Now, what is it? I asked.

Please come with me. I need your help in my home, Seymour whispered. What he said was our code for something regarding my training of him. We didn't want anyone who happened to be in the garden to overhear one of our conversations.

All right.

When we arrived to his home and entered, he rushed into what he wanted to say.

Emrys sent for me today. A quest for Dumbledore, he said. He didn't tell me what it was about so I don't know how long I'll be gone. I need you to tell me what to do now. You've trained me on what I need to do on missions but never what to do when I get one. What do I bring?

Simply report to Emrys or Dumbledore, whichever Emrys said, and he will tell you what you need to have. The smaller person still seemed nervous about the idea.

Then he asked, not a little desperately, What do I do? Remind me please...Please?

Follow your orders, react to the situation, listen to your partners. It's more than likely that you will have some experienced Auror to you since it's your first time. Remember not to let your emotions get to you when you are transformed. That is how you will be able to stay silent. Be cautious, and you'll be fine. Good luck to you. He appeared to be satisified with my answer. He nodded and even tried to give me a half-hearted smile.

All right then, I'll see you later then. He shifted until becoming a feline and ran away.

I returned to the course and finished it up in under an hour. The moment I reentered the manor, one of the elves ran up to me.

Master wants Sir to come into the private Study. Immediately, Master said, the elf said quickly.

Now what would Lucius want?, I thought. I didn't notice that the elf wasn't Lucius' at the time.

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A/N: All right, the end of that chapter. Thanks for everyone who reviewed. The end wasn't really to my liking but I wanted to get this out so I could start to work on the end of the story more. I've decided to take a break after I post this chapter so I can finish the story. Then I'll be able to post more often, and the story will be more organized. I've found that pushing myself to update to not make my reviewers wait too long is slowing my creative process to a chapter a month and making me not like writing. I started writing for fun so I'm going stop putting myself on a schedule and let myself have fun again. Thanks for all who reviewed and sorry for making you all wait.

-Julienne