A/N : Hello all!

Hope you are all OK. I am . . . tired. But its half term, so I can sleep a lot!

Did you people see the BAFTAs? He presented an award. I screamed. A lot.

There may be another update later this week cause it is half term and I can get some more writing done. But I have mucho coursework [FOUR PIECES I TELL YOU! SHOCKING!] so it may not happen. I don't know yet. Depends on reviews. So please do review.

I believe you should all go read Arduriel Celebel Arangua's story Abandoned. Its great and she wants some 'proper' reviewers – i.e. people that she doesn't know! So please do go R&R hers!

I own nothing except just about everyone in this chapter. Draco – no. Aurora/Rora, Olivia/Liv/Livi, Amy, Lucy, Addie, Mara, Ben, Serena and any other names you don't recognise from HP – yes! MINE ALL MINE!

This chapter is dedicated especially to Arwen-Georgie-Skye. But also to all of the rest of you out there.

Enjoy!

*

So are we lost or do we know which direction we should go?

Sit around and wait for someone to take our hands and lead the way . . .

*

Are you ready?

Yes.

It was a week later, and eleven o'clock [pm], and Aurora was getting ready for her tri-monthly council meeting. The Elders and Amy had asked Draco to attend, and Aurora did not know why, as the relationship between sorcerers and wizards was always tense.

Meet you in the Common room then. Aurora thought to him as she walked down the stairs, quickly checking that no one was around.

"Don't you think someone will see us?" asked Draco. "I've already had detentions for being out of bed after hours."

"Not scared are you?" Aurora grinned, grasping his hand and pulling him towards the doors.

"Well . . . "

"This isn't like you."

"Why do they want me to come?"

"How many times must I tell you, I really don't know!"

"How are we going to get there?" asked Draco. "Wherever there is," he added.

"Its in London."

"And how are we meant to get there?"

"Well . . . I'm going to fly."

"You can fly?"

"I'm going to fly as a snowy owl."

"And me?"

"You're going to have to be a mouse or something to carry in my claws."

"A-a-a mouse?!" Draco looked shocked, scared and horrified all at once.

"Look, you'll survive!"

"Yeah right! What if you drop me?"

"I won't!"

"B-b-but . . . "

Aurora looked up at the sky, and Draco's eyes followed hers. Overhead flew about thirty birds of different shapes and sizes, including hawks, sparrows and owls. One of them gave a shriek and flew down to settle next to Aurora. It gave a few squawks, and Aurora nodded and it flew back up to the rest of the flock, who hovered overhead.

"What's happening?"

"Time to go."

"B-b-b . . ."

"Just stand still and relax."

Aurora focused hard, outstretched her hands and shut her eyes, as she had been taught. A small black rat sat in front of her.

"I didn't tell you something Draco. I've never turned anyone else before, only myself," she whispered. She closed her eyes again and shimmered into an owl, picked Draco up in her claws and flew up to meet the rest of the birds, who were still hovering overhead.

*

Lucy watched the flock of birds fly down to near where she and Amy were standing.

Catch! she heard a voice say in her head. A small black rat fell out of the sky and into her arms. A snowy owl settled down in front of them. The air shimmered and Aurora stood there.

"Is this yours?" smiled Lucy, holding out the rat in her hands.

Aurora smiled back and took the rat from Lucy's hands and placing it on the ground. The air shimmered again and a very dishevelled Draco sat there, looking dazed.

"Give him a moment to come around," said Lucy.

Aurora gave her friend a hug, and then turned to Amy. "Thank you for the letters. Is everyone coming?"

"A few absences, but no one major, unlike last time."

"You and I both know that that was not my fault."

Amy changed the subject. "I see you brought Draco then."

"Yes."

"I don't know how welcome he will be."

"They made me pretty welcome."

"That is on the surface. Underneath the prejudices are still there. The thing with your father and Voldemort didn't help."

"I've removed a few prejudices from people." [Note : Lucius earlier.]

"We know. Now!" Amy turned to the crowd who had gathered behind her. "Suilaid ilya! Shall we go inside?" she asked. [A/N : Greetings all!]

Aurora held out her hand to Draco and pulled him up from the floor. "How was that?" she asked with a smile on her face.

"Never again!" he replied.

"We have to get back somehow!"

"Can't we . . . translocate or whatever you call it?"

"Suppose. Easier to fly though."

Draco stared up at the large run down mansion-like house in front of them. "Where exactly are we?" he asked.

"On the outskirts of London. We meet in different places every time for fear that they will find us. We then translocate to a cave somewhere under the ground."

"Right . . ."

"You'll be fine." She took Draco's hand and led him inside to the large main hallway. The only people left were Lucy and Amy, who had apparently been waiting for them.

Amy strode forward. "Introduce us then Rora."

"Erm . . . Draco, this is Amy, head of Morion, and a good friend of mine, and Lucy, deputy to Amy and my best friend for over ten years."

Draco shook each of their hands. "Draco Malfoy . . ." he said.

"We know who you are," said Amy.

Amy, Draco observed, was the smallest member of the group. She had long copper red ringlets, with some streaks of premature grey, and bright green eyes. She looked about thirty five years old.

Lucy was the middle one in height. She had shoulder length straight blonde hair and blue eyes that sparkled like the sea. She was about the same age as Aurora, about seventeen.

All three of them wore long black skirts and black long sleeved tops with a small pattern stitched in red on the left hand sleeve. Each of them wore a different coloured piece of ribbon tied around their hips, Amy's purple, Lucy's purple and red and Aurora's gold and purple.

What exactly is with the ribbon? Draco thought to Aurora.

"They symbolize our level of power," answered Amy.

"How . . ."

"Never think anything you don't want to be heard around here. Most of us have pretty good psychic skills. Rora, we really must go. They are expecting us."

Amy took hold of Lucy's hand; Lucy took Aurora's and Aurora Draco's. Draco took Amy's.

Draco felt a surge of power and heard a rushing sound in his ears. He felt his feet lifted off of the ground, then a few seconds later he felt them touch back down again. He opened his eyes cautiously.

The small group were standing at the back of a large crowd of mixed men and women, who were all milling around talking in small groups. The cave was large and had stalagmites and stalactites protruding from the ceiling and floor. There was a large deep blue pool behind them, and a small stream ran to the front of the cave, where there was a large curved platform with a stone table and chairs on it.

Sixteen chairs? Draco thought to Aurora.

Twelve Elders, one head of Morion, one deputy, one Chosen One, one Spirit of the Dark. But she almost never comes.

Addie?

Yes. Come on!

Where am I going to sit?

There is a seat for you at the front.

Why exactly am I here?

Well . . .

Hm?

There is something about you in my speech. But I wrote that before Amy asked me to bring you.

Speech?

I have to speak. Now we really must go. She tugged at his hand.

They walked around the crowd and Draco could see that in from of the crowd there were about two hundred stone chairs, presumably for the crowd to sit on.

When they got to the front, Aurora said, "You can sit here," then turned to go.

"Where are you going?"

"To get ready."

"So . . ."

"I'll be back in about five minutes. But I sit up there," she pointed to a seat on the raised platform. "Don't worry, you'll be fine. If anyone talks to you, talk back. Some of this lot," she indicated the crowd, "hold grudges against wizards because of the way you have tried to gain our knowledge, power and wipe us out in the past, but they know you're with me, so no great harm will come to you. Sticks and stones, Draco, sticks and stones."

*

Aurora left Draco standing alone with about two hundred sorcerers, and he was slightly scared. A lady approached him, and smile on her vaguely familiar face.

"Hello," she said in a cheerful voice.

"Erm . . . hi," replied Draco, remembering what Aurora had said to him about talking to anyone who came up to him.

"I'm Olivia."

"Do I know you?" he asked.

"No, but you probably know my daughter."

Something clicked in Draco's mind. The eyes, the shape of the face. "You're Mara's mother aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Aurora told me about you."

"Nothing bad I hope."

"Well, she told me you used to be a member of Rana."

Olivia pulled up her sleeve to show her 'good' mark, which had been roughly crossed out. "Yes I did, until the pull of power from Morion became too strong."

"Mara blames Aurora for it doesn't she?"

"Mara blames Aurora for virtually anything that goes wrong with her life. But not for me turning. For that she blames Aurora's father."

"Her father?"

"She hasn't told you much about her father has she?" said Olivia, giving a gentle probe into Draco's mind.

"Stop it!"

"You can feel me doing that?"

"Yes. You and about a hundred other people in this room."

"She's taught you well."

"Back to the subject please?"

"Ah yes. Ben. He turned nearly twenty years ago now. His new wife at the time, Aurora's mother, was meant to be the best Child of Light they ever had. But even she did not know what he was doing in secret behind her back. He spied for Morion and Voldemort for nearly five years. After Aurora was born, he told Serena and Rana all about it. As you can imagine, they were not pleased."

"And you?"

"Just after they found Ben out, the Ranas had a major crackdown on all security. They found me out then. Ben had been plaguing me for years, but I gave in after I had Mara. She's lived with her Ada all of these years, but now she lives with him and his new wife, Lana."

A bell sounded once. "I've got to go," said Olivia. As she walked away, it sounded again, and the people around him started to take their seats.

Twelve people were now sat at the table on the platform, six man and six women. One of them, Draco could see, was Olivia, now with some sort of circlet around her head. The bell rang a third and final time and the cave went deathly silent except for the sound of running water from the stream.

Three figures approached the platform from the back. In the middle was Amy, with Lucy to her left and Aurora to her right. They each wore basically the same, dresses with long skirts and long sleeves slashed from the elbow down.

Amy wore deep forest green with an emerald set in her gold circlet. Lucy wore scarlet red with a ruby set in her silver circlet. Aurora, as usual, wore midnight blue with a sapphire and diamonds in her platinum circlet. She had a necklace around her neck, which, like her white streak in her hair usually did, glowed a faint blue. Draco looked up to her face and saw that the streak too glowed iridescent blue.

Lucy and Aurora sat down in their places, but Amy stayed standing. "Mae tellin ilya!" Her voice rang clear through the cave. "I sincerely hope you are all well. We have some reports tonight and some news, nothing unusual. First a report from Aurora." [A/N : Welcome all!]

Aurora stood up. Unaware of himself, Draco held his breath.

"As most of you know," she began, "I was not present at our last meeting, for reasons beyond my own control. The main reason, as some of you know, was that I was thrown out of 'home' by my mother and Lana." Draco heard a few mutters around the room at the mention of these two people.

"Since then, as you may or may not know, I have started to attend the Wizarding School of Hogwarts to . . . now how did Lana put it? Ah, yes. To 'further my education'."

"We could teach you all you need to know without having to go there!" shouted a voice from the crowd.

"I have no doubt you could Tara. And it is true, I already know most of the knowledge that they teach there, but education is not the main reason I finally agreed to go there." Her eyes flicked to Draco momentarily, and she could see the astonishment on his face, yet somehow his eyes told her he had known all along. "I went there to spy.

"For a few years now, we have started to realise something. But not just us, the Ranas, Estels and Herenyas too." There were a few boos and hisses around the room. "This isn't pantomime you know!" Everyone laughed. "We have started to realise that they are catching up with us." Draco heard a few people hold their breath.

"Now Voldemort has come back into power, he is gathering his supporters and passing on his knowledge, so that they in turn may pass it on to whoever they choose." Her eyes flicked down to Draco once again. "The Death Eaters are multiplying, and they between them are gaining enough power to overthrow us if they wished too." There were more mutters around the room, even more than before.

"There is no point trying to suppress them, as they will only rise up, more angry and violent than before. Plus now the Ministry knows that Voldemort has indeed come back into power, as they tried to deny last year. I am saying we should try to join forces again."

"But you of all people know what happened last time!" The same person as before, Tara, shouted.

"I know what happened last time. Last time we lost the best Dark sorcerer we ever had, amongst others, when his forces turned on us. But this time . . . it will be different!"

"And how do you propose we talk to Voldemort?" Draco flinched even more every time the Dark Lord's name was spoken. "Do you think he has an office in their stupid Ministry of Magic?"

"I have built up close relations with a boy I believe can help me to get to talk him." At the 'close relations' bit, Draco saw Aurora's best friend Lucy fighting hard to keep her face straight and stifle a giggle.

"And just who is that?"

"Draco Malfoy," said Aurora simply.

"A MALFOY?!" shouted Tara, standing up now. "Of all the people to have 'close relations' with, and we all know what that really means," she added, "it had to be a Malfoy. I'd have thought you would have had more sense than that Aurora Polgana!"

Aurora looked slightly shocked, then outraged, but regained her composure quickly. She muttered under her breath a few words in an unfamiliar language, and then continued in English.

"I believe it is up to me who I have 'close relations' with Tara, not you." She turned back to face the rest of the crowd.

"The other side have been taking on unusually large numbers recently. The Ranas' numbers in particular seem to have almost doubled. We have always been a relatively small force, but I think we need to act to increase and strengthen our numbers.

"As well as me going to Hogwarts, Lana had recently sent Mara there. It seems Mara, though still behind me in her studies, is gaining on me rapidly with her understanding and knowledge of the Craft. Her psychic mind is still dormant, but all barriers foolishly put there by Lana have been broken.

There was not really a lot to learn from her, as it seems she rarely attends Council meetings, and my mother and Lana keep her in the dark about most things. She does not know that the Spirit of Light lies within her, or does she know she is Chosen. I do not believe they will tell her yet, as they still believe she is too young."

"And yet you know, therefore you are still ahead of her." Amy spoke this time from Aurora's left. "It took you four, perhaps six months to adjust to having the Spirit of the Dark."

"I feel that Mara will have more help than I did." Amy looked slightly angry at this comment. "I know you could not help me a lot whilst I still lived with them, Amy. I think that my Amme and Lana will give Mara all of the help they can. She could be trained in two weeks if they load things straight into her memory rather than teaching it to her."

"Two weeks?" came murmurs from the crowd.

"Two weeks. It is possible. Highly possible and highly probable. I think that just about concludes my report."

*

A/N :

This was a pretty long chapter for me, almost 3000 words. I hope you liked it!

Hey to all these people!

Katie Bloom : Dudette! Yes, Kat may well kill you if you say you like the French. Though we are starting to bring her round to thinking they aren't so bad!

Rje : Hi Rachel! So glad you read this! I know I said it was gonna be up on Saturday, but I just didn't get round to it.

Arwen-Georgie-Skye : I can't believe you reviewed every chapter! I tried to review 10 of Falling, but it won't let me. Again. It's a great chapter, so I'll try again soon!

DLSnapeKurama18 : Old Tongue is great isn't it? Not really a lot in this chapter though!

Lupu : Gnarly! Do YOU have any idea when Blink's new single is out? I asked Addie and she didn't know, but I thought you might. I LOVE THAT SONG!

Catherine : I still hide, ashamed, in my corner.

Hannah : Magical, indeedy.

Meeny : You have an account now right? What is it? I think you should write!

Glitzydancingshoes : Does sort of sound like Morons doesn't it? Ah, well. Never mind! Still boogling? I am!