Chapter Two:
Draco slowly raised his hands and backed away from the girl. She glared at him as she stood and never lowering her wand, she demanded,
"What did you do with my cat?"
"Nothing, it was dead, so I buried it over there," Draco said pointing nervously.
"Of course it was dead, I killed it. Now give me the collar in your hand."
"What collar? Oh you mean this one?" Draco asked innocently, holding up the collar, and dangling it in front of him. He was shocked that she knew it was in his hand, especially because his hand had been in his pocket. "Why do you want it?"
She ignored him, and stalked off towards the edge of the clearing.
"I wouldn't go out there if I were you. Take a look."
She glanced up, and froze. At least a dozen pairs of ruby red glowing eyes were staring at her through the darkness. Without turning around, she slowly backed up toward the center of the clearing. Draco had returned the collar to his pocket and pulled out his wand. He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. She jumped and spun around and points her wand at him.
"I think you should point that somewhere else," he said, as she lowered he wand. Then he added, "There's no way out of here. The magic that protected this clearing is wearing off. We'll most likely be dead by morning," having said his piece he took his hand off her shoulder and backed off.
She eyed him warily before replying, "Not if I can help it."
Draco looked puzzled before she pointed her wand to the sky and yelled, "Accio Starfire!"
He tried to hide his surprise. The Starfire was the latest and best racing broom. They were expensive.
'It would make Potter's broom look like a snail,' he thought gleefully.
They waited another fifteen minutes before he spoke again, "I think you're broom might be a bit far away."
She said nothing, before readjusting her cloak and walking a bit closer to him. She smirked at him and then froze for a second before whipping out her wand and pointing it at him.
"Avada Kedavra."
The scene seemed familiar and as if on instinct, Draco ducked just in time as the green blast flew above him. He stood, ready for a fight.
"What did you try to kill me for! I didn't do anything to you. All I said was that you broom was -"
He fell silent when she raised her other hand. He glared, while he waited for her to speak.
"Before you accuse me of trying to kill you, turn around and you didn't need to duck because that spell would have gone right over your shoulder."
That wasn't what he had expected to hear and was even more surprised when he finally did turn around. One of the red eyed monsters lay in a heap on the ground and was slowly being covered in the lightly falling snow. She had saved him. He brushed some snow from his hair as he turned around. Facing her, an evil grin crossed his face as he raised his wand at her.
"Avada Kedavra."
She stood unflinching as the spell sailed passed her narrowly missing her shoulder.
"You didn't need to aim so close to me to hit it," was all she said as she turned her attention to the whistling sound coming form overhead. Her Starfire landed on the other side of the clearing. Turning to him she said,
"You know how to fly right?"
He didn't have time to answer before she took off at a run for the broom. He was right behind her. She mounted it and simultaneously blasted another monster that was chasing Draco. Draco was nearly there when she pointed her wand over her shoulder and blasted a monster back into the trees. Suddenly they were flying.
She paused near the edge of the forest.
"May I have the charm now?"
Draco, confused, pulled out the collar and examined it. Suddenly it didn't seem like a collar at all, the chain grew in length and thinned considerably until it resembled a simple gold necklace with a charm on it. The charm was what intrigued him the most; it was three interlocking circles with on larger circle around it.
"Why do you want this so badly? What does it do?" he asked quietly, more to himself than her, without really expecting an answer.
"It contains a form of strong magic and among other things, it attracts magical entities and will direct me to the nearest magical area." she replied just as softly.
Draco handed it over and watched her put it around her neck before asking,
'What now?"
"Well, you need your own broom, we can't go nearly as fast as I'd like too on this one if we're both going to ride it. So we can head to that hill over there and I'll duplicate this one."
Draco nodded as they started to fly again. Suddenly, the temperature started to drop.
'That's odd,' he thought, 'it's stopped snowing, but it still feels so cold and we haven't even changed altitude.'
Only when it started getting darker and he could no longer see the moon did he realized what was going on. His dream! He knew what would happen.
"A Dementor!" he heard the girl whisper.
Draco saw it fly at them and he grabbed his wand and focusing on a happy memory, he yelled,
"Expecto Patronum!"
A silvery dragon shot out of his wand and charged at the Dementor. With one slice of its claw the Dementor vanished, leaving the two teens shaking on the broom.
"Let's head for that hill," Draco suggested, alarmed by what had happened.
The dragon soared overhead, the moonlight from the full moon shining off its wings, until they were safely on the hilltop and then it vanished.
"That was close. I shouldn't have frozen up like I did. How did you know what to do?" She asked as she pulled a bar of chocolate out of her cloak and handed him a piece.
"I have no idea. I've never done that before. I -" he hesitated, wondering if he should tell her about the dream he had had, "I had a dream about it last night."
"Dreams can be quite useful sometimes," she turned back to the broom and pulling out her wand began to duplicate it but stopped halfway through the spell when they heard a rustling noise in the bushes about thirty feet away. Both of them turned towards it, wands drawn, as a werewolf emerged, growling and glaring at them. Draco sighed with relief and said wearily,
"Avada K-"
"Draco, don't!" she said jumping in front of him and causing him to nearly drop his wand in surprise. He didn't say anything but merely lowered his wand and raised his eyebrows at her, waiting for an explanation.
"There's a living person trapped in that body. It's not some monster you can kill without repercussions. We should leave it alone."
"It'll attack us," he said, and as if the werewolf understood this, it edged closer and kept growling.
"No, it won't," She responded, "It's injured and it thinks we're a threat. It's trying to intimidate up so we'll leave and it can get down to that lake."
Draco looked closer and saw that it did indeed have a limp. He wondered how she knew so much about werewolves, or the dark arts, for that matter. She didn't seem much older than him and definitely didn't act like a death eater. It dawned on him suddenly that she had used his name. How did she know it? Why hadn't she told him what hers was? Shrugging he glanced nervously at the werewolf and resolved to ask her later. Turning towards her, he saw that she had finished duplicating the broom and was now slowly walking closer to the werewolf.
"What are you doing!" he demanded.
Pausing, she ignored his question and said, "Draco, get on your broom. If I tell you to fly, you need to leave immediately. Understand?"
"What about you?" Draco asked.
Smirking, she walked back to where he stood, next to the brooms. "Why so caring all of a sudden?" she teased.
"I was assigned to patrol the Forbidden Forest and report anything that seemed out of place. You are definitely not supposed to be there."
Seemingly satisfied with his answer she simply said, "Don't worry," she moved in front of his broom, "Just promise me you'll fly and not look back if I tell you to."
A loud growl penetrated the silence as she waited for his answer. She glanced over her shoulder and saw the werewolf growling and pacing. Without a word Draco mounted the broom. As soon as he was on the broom she reached inside her inner cloak pocket and pulled out a small box, she opened it and withdrew something, the placing it back in the pocket she held up a silver chain with a spiral pendant dangling from it. She stepped close to him and placed it around his neck. Draco froze and he caught the scent of jasmine coming from her hair. All too soon, in his opinion, she backed away from him.
"That necklace has one of the strongest protection charms in the world on it. There are very few like it. It'll keep you safe from almost anything," She whispered and then turned to face the werewolf.