Chapter 30: Training Day

"Ok, which one?"

Sirius glanced at Dominique, who held two different pictures of flowers in each of her hands; in her left she held a photo of violets, in her right she had a picture of white jasmines.

"Erm...I like the violets..." Sirius said finally.

Dominique frowned slightly. "Are you sure?" she asked, extending her right arm out to give Sirius a better look at the jasmines.

Sirius rolled his eyes and sighed. "No," he said wearily, "the jasmines look better...let's go with the jasmines..."

Dominique grinned as she put the pictures down and stacked them away on the table. "Excellent...I knew we'd agree on that! Now...onto the cake..."

"chocolate!!"

"You don't serve chocolate cakes at weddings, Sirius!"

"Says who?"

"Says...I don't know! You just don't! There's no elegance in that...and I've never been to a wedding where they've served chocolate cake!" Dominique replied.

"Well, we can be the first!" Sirius said with a grin.

"Or, maybe we can get this French vanilla"—Dominique started, as she pulled out a small booklet from her bag that contained photos of large, many layered cakes.

"Vanilla? Dominique...that's dull"—

"Oh come on, look at this one"—Dominique pointed to a white four layered cake, the top one bearing bride and groom figurines—"isn't it beautiful??"

"Just dandy..." Sirius said dully.

Dominique frowned at him.

"I mean... yes, it's a beauty!" Sirius said with fake enthusiasm. "D...I thought were supposed to be planning this wedding together..."

"We are!"

Sirius raised an eyebrow at her.

Dominique sighed and smiled at him apologetically. "Sorry...we should make decisions together...ok...if you want"—

"Listen, D, if you really don't want me to help just say so...I don't mind, you know..." Sirius interrupted.

Dominique smiled sheepishly. I just do it all by myself? I'll call on you if I need any help..."

"Sure," Sirius said as he got up from the table, "anyway, it's getting late and we should get some sleep if we want to get up early for auror training tomorrow morning..."

"Oh, right..." Dominique said as she tucked away her notebook of wedding plans into her bag and stood up.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay the night? I get awfully lonely here..." Sirius said, trying to pout as best as he could.

It was true; ever since he moved into his own flat this summer, he had never felt so alone in his life, even though his friends and fiancée visited almost daily. Sirius had asked Dominique to move in with him, but she said no, and opted to stay with Kierra's family instead, because she was afraid of Dumbledore's reaction. "Anyway", she had explained weeks ago, "We're getting married soon, so you won't have to live alone for that long!"

Dominique smiled at Sirius. "I'm sorry, Kierra's family is expecting me tonight! I want to say goodbye to her parents before they leave for Bulgaria."

"And then you can start babysitting Kierra?" Sirius joked.

Dominique laughed. "They've got Remus to do that...no, it'll be fun, just Kierra and me, in her house for these next couple of weeks. She promised to help me out with the wedding preparations"—

"Hey, you'll get her help but not mine??" Sirius asked indignantly.

"Sirius, she's a girl! She understands better"—

"yea, yea...I'm just kidding..." Sirius said. "Well if you're sure you can't stay the night..."

"Well, yea, I'm sure I can't stay the night. But," Dominique added as she stepped closer to Sirius, "I think I can spare a few more minutes for you before I go..."

Kierra paced around her bedroom, glancing at the clock every few minutes.

"You know, you might wear a hole in the floor if you do that long enough..." Remus commented, as he sat lazily on Kierra's bed. "You know how Dominique and Sirius are...she's probably just running a little late...don't worry"—

Kierra stopped pacing and stared at Remus. "She was supposed to be back an hour ago! If she was running late she'd tell me"—

"But there are probably about a dozen things they could be up to that takes an hour, that D wouldn't want to tell you about." Remus replied.

Kierra smiled slightly. "True..."

Remus got up from the bed and went to Kierra, putting his arms around her.

"I should get going, it's late"—Remus kissed her on the cheek—"you need your sleep, if you're going to the ministry tomorrow."

Kierra backed away slightly from Remus, her eyes widened slightly.

"Oh you'll be fine, don't worry!" Remus said reassuringly when he saw the look on her face.

"Everyone says that Crouch guy is awful! Brutally strict"—

"Kierra, you're a very intelligent witch, I'm sure you'll do fine!"

"I wish you were going to be there." Kierra said with a frown.

Remus smiled slightly. "I do too. But as it is...I won't...but really, you need to have more confidence...as long as you have that, Crouch can't hurt you."

"What makes you think that?" Kierra people let insults bounce right off of them"—Remus replied, and smiling thoughtfully he added—"I mean, look at some of our friends...won't mention any names..."

Kierra laughed. "I love James..." she said.

Remus grinned as he headed towards the door. "Don't we all..." he said, "alright, I'm going to say goodbye to your parents, and I'm out. Good night, Kierra." He said as he headed out of her room.

Kierra waved goodbye to Remus as he left. As his figure disappeared down the hall, Kierra turned back into her room and glanced at her clock. 12:00. She had to be at the ministry in seven hours for training, which didn't leave her much time for sleep...

Kierra sighed deeply. The whole summer seemed to go by so quickly. It seemed as if only yesterday she was attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, it hadn't seemed too long ago that she was at Petunia Evans's wedding (a/n: sorry, didn't include it here; it's in lll though!), and only a few weeks ago she was at the first ever meeting of the Order of the Phoenix. And now, two of her friends were getting married. However, Kierra had more pressing matters to deal with. Tomorrow, she would be starting her training as an auror for the ministry. An auror...though Kierra was not particularly keen on becoming one, her parents seemed so excited that she qualified, and so she couldn't bring herself to pass up the opportunity.

Just then Kierra's thoughts were interrupted by a cracking noise. Dominique had just apparated into her bedroom.

"Sorry I'm late!" Dominique exclaimed through panting breaths. "Sirius and I...we... erm...the planning..."

Kierra smiled slightly as she put her hands to her hips. "uh huh..."

"Really, I swear!"

"You're blushing like mad!"

"Oh..."

"Let's just get some sleep...we've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow..."

"Oh right..." Dominique said as she tossed her bag on the floor. "Sirius was telling me about Crouch...he sounds like a nutter..."

"He IS a nutter...that's why I'm worried about tomorrow...I have to make a good first impression!" Kierra exclaimed.

"Don't worry, you will!" Dominique said. "I'm sure he isn't that horrible...probably just a tough boss...just be yourself, I'm sure everything will be ok..."

Kierra frowned as she headed to the bathroom to brush her teeth. "I dunno...being myself never seems to leave good impressions...I tried that with Remus's parents, and that didn't go too well, remember?"

Dominique laughed. "How could I forget? Well...at least you leave lasting impressions on everyone you meet..."

"Oh shut it..." Kierra muttered.

"But they like you now!!" Dominique called after Kierra, as she laughed at the mere recollection of the events during their stay at the Lupins' house.

The next morning, Kierra found herself standing in the department of law enforcement in the Ministry of Magic, at 7am, listening to their new boss, Mr. Crouch.

"Alright everyone..." Crouch drawled, "as you know, with this war going on, the ministry is in dire need of aurors to combat you-know-who and his followers...now, we need to recruit two of you immediately to work with our senior aurors, as two of our former colleagues were killed in the line of duty..."

Kierra glanced nervously at James, who was standing next to her. The latter however, didn't notice; he was listening avidly to Mr. Crouch, with a look of both fear and anticipation.

"So, we'll go through a few different aptitude tests with you all today, and I'll pick two of you to join the ranks of our senior aurors. The rest of you will remain as trainees, and work under myself, and Mr. Alastor Moody, our top auror" Crouch said, glancing shortly at Mad Eye Moody, who stood next to Crouch.

"Now, the fact that you've all been accepted as trainees does not necessarily guarantee a spot as an auror in a few years...I reserve the right to expel any of you, at any time, if you don't meet my standards. Is that clear?"

The small assembly of trainees nodded immediately.

"Alright, follow Moody down the hall, you're going to be working on coordination first." Crouch said, "I'll be with you all in a bit."

"Oh ??" Kierra muttered quietly so only James and Frank, who walked on either side of her, could hear her.

"Oh come off it, Kierra, you'll be fine..." James said as they followed Moody down the hall and into another large, very long, empty room. "You're not that clumsy..."

Kierra smiled wryly. "Thanks for the support, Potter..."

"Don't mention it." James replied with a grin.

"Alright everyone," Moody said he closed the door behind them. "What we're going to do is test your coordination. Now, if I could have all your wands"—Moody held out his hand and collected everyone's wands—"Now one of the worst case scenarios when on the job is losing your wand...you might drop it, or you've been disarmed...whatever the case...it happens sometimes, and you need to be able to dodge hexes and curses without magic...so this is where the coordination comes in."

"I'm going to leave you in here one at a time. Your goal is to get from one end of the room to the other, while I have dummy wizards send curses at you from all around the room," he said, as he pointed out several dummy wizards that were propped up all around the large room, "The only warning you'll get is when they're yelling the curses...of course they're not real wizards...they're just fixed to send harmless zaps of light at you, of course if you get hit, it'll leave a mark on you so I'll know how successful you were in dodging them. Any questions?"

No one spoke.

"Alright then," Moody said, we'll go alphabetically by last name...while one person is in here, the rest of you will be taking the rationale and judgment exam....alright...Sirius Black, you're first."

Sirius smiled slightly, glancing cockily at the group before stepping forward.

"Coordination should be a breeze for me," Dominique whispered to Kierra, "all those years of ballet are finally going to pay off..."

Kierra only nodded in return; well, that certainly wasn't encouraging for her. Kierra had taken ballet when she was about five, but quit after two weeks because she kept falling over, even when holding onto the bar.

"Ok, everyone let's wait outside, I'll be watching through the door." Moody said as he nudged the group to leave.

"You can see through the door?" Kierra asked without thinking.

Moody's magical eye swung into focus on Kierra. "Yea. This eye can see through just about anything."

"Anything?" Kierra asked, fingering the edge of her blouse nervously.

"yea..." he replied gruffly, turning his back on her as he headed towards the door.

Kierra made a small face of revulsion as she glanced at Lily, Dominique and Alice, all whom were trying to keep from smiling.

"I also have 360 degree vision, Nakofsky..." Moody said as he opened the door.

"Cool...." James and Frank said at once, looking at Moody in awe, as Kierra gaped at him.

"Alright, line up you lot..." Crouch said curtly at the end of the day. As he walked by the line, he looked each nervous candidate up and down, before continuing on to the next person.

"Pretty good, Fiore...one too many marks on your back though...you need to see your enemies from all sides...good Evans...Longbottom..excellent...not a single mark...and ditto to you, Black...excellent the both of you...Nakofsky...I think you could've been killed a few times out there had those curses been real...you could use a little more work...I want you and Fiore to practice dueling together so you can strengthen each other..." Crouch said as he continued down the line.

"Well," he said as he finished looking over everyone, "not bad, not bad...as far as coordination goes, you all did pretty good...now, I've just looked over the rationale and judgment tests you all took...and as I see rationality and coordination as the most important aspects of being an auror, I've made my decision as to who will be selected as aurors....Alice Green and Frank Longbottom, congratulations."

Alice let out a small squeal as she jumped up and hugged Lily, who was standing next to her. Frank, who was being congratulated by James, quickly joined Alice and hugged her, before they stepped forward towards Crouch, who was looking at them warily.

"Now, now...you didn't win the lottery...while being an auror is quite prestigious and you are held as a member of the elite...you have a heavy set of responsibilities..."

"Right, right...of course...sorry..." Alice said quickly as she straightened up.

"Well, the rest of you will continue as trainees for the next year or so, or until I deem you ready to be able to handle the responsibilities as an auror. Alright, that's it for tonight."

Sirius frowned as he watched Crouch stalk away.

"Coming mate?"

"Er...yea, hold on..." Sirius replied, not bothering to turn around to James. He quickly made his way through the dispersing trainees and ran after Crouch.

"Crouch! Hey MR. CROUCH!" Sirius called after his boss, who stopped shortly and turned around.

"Mr. Black?"

"Er, yea...listen...Barty ol' boy..." Sirius said, smiling nonchalantly as he put an arm around Crouch. "Er"—Crouch stared at Sirius and then down at his shoulder, where Sirius's hand was—"I mean, Mr. Crouch...sir..." he said quickly as he removed his hand and stepped away from him.

"Um...listen...I was just wondering...how did you determine who gets to be aurors?"

"I explained to you all earlier, through the two exams you went through...reasoning and coordination..."

"Right...right...I know, but...why...why your specific choices?"

"You mean Frank and Alice?" Mr. Crouch asked.

"Yes...I mean...don't get me wrong, they're great...very skilled and talented...but I was just wondering why"—

"You didn't get picked?" Crouched finished for him.

Sirius sighed and nodded.

"I know you're used to getting top marks, Black...and being among the best at everything...wouldn't have accepted you otherwise...you did excellent on the coordination exam"—

"Didn't get hit once!" Sirius interjected.
"Right...and that's highly commendable...but as far as the rationale and judgment exam went...I'm afraid I couldn't choose you..."

"What? I did badly on it?" Sirius asked with an air of skepticism.

"As a matter of fact, Sirius, yes, you did. After looking over your answers, I could easily deduce that you are quite a loose canon...and frankly, we can't have those sorts...you need a little more training and wising up before we can set you on your own."

"A loose canon??" Sirius asked indignantly, "How??"

"Well, as you know, all the questions were basically hypothetical situations, and how you would react in all of them...you seemed to make hasty, snappy decisions, without much reasoning behind your actions...without thinking much of the consequences..."

Sirius nodded.

"I'm sorry, Black..." Crouch said curtly, "but you needn't worry...with a little more training, I think you'll be ready in no time..."

And with that, Crouch walked away.

"Dominique, we are not inviting that buffoon to our wedding..." Sirius said a few days later over lunch.

"Oh come on," Dominique protested, "I know he's not the most agreeable fellow...but he's our boss! He already knows we're getting married, he might be offended if we don't invite him!"

"She's right about that..." Lily commented as she flipped through the Daily Prophet.

"I don't care..." Sirius said, frowning like a child.

Dominique rolled her eyes. "Anyway, inviting him might get us on his good side...well, get you on his good side...he doesn't mind me too much..." Dominique replied.

"Yea come on Sirius, you could use a few extra bonus points with the boss man," James said humorously, "and he's only one extra person out of the hundred people who are coming...you probably won't even notice him."

Sirius sighed. "True...well...I suppose we can"—

Just then flames and smoke burst out of the fireplace, and a tall figure was swirling in it.

Mad Eye Moody was standing in Sirius's living room. (a/n: I know it's an apartment, but w/e...they're wizards, alright??)

"Moody!" Sirius said quicky, "What are you"—

"What the"—Moody glanced around, only to see the entire gang staring at him. "Well, this makes my job easier...all you trainees...we need you right now...we've gotten a heads up that there's going to be several attacks today...a couple of muggle families, and four more half bloods...I want you to report to the ministry within five minutes. Five minutes, you understand??"

Kierra's eyes widened slightly. "I thought we weren't supposed to"—

"We're short of aurors...this is a massive attack, so the hell with the trainee thing right now, get a move on, now!!" Moody growled, "and Potter, I hear you've got an invisibility cloak, bring it with you!"

"Yes sir!" James said as he disapparated out of Sirius's flat.

"Alright, I'm gonna go back to Crouch and let him know I told you all...well, that was easy...you guys hang out together way too much..." he said to Dominique as he went back to the fireplace.

"Er...Mr. Moody, sir...do you need our help?" Remus asked, indicating at himself and Peter.

"Well son, as much as I'd like to take up on your offer, that power doesn't lie in my hands...and I could see old Barty having a fit for getting unauthorized help, who haven't been cleared by the ministry."

Remus nodded disappointedly.

"You two will be in the order, right? Crouch has probably informed Dumbledore by now of the circumstances...so he might send something your way...though I think it's unlikely considering how young you two are...anyway, best be on my way..." Moody said, tipping his bowler hat slightly as he flooed out of Sirius's flat.

"Alright, listen up..." Crouch said steely as he paced around his group of trainees. "I've got Alice and Frank gone with Emerson, one of our other aurors...Moody, you take D and the kid..."

The trainees looked around curiously at each other.

"Er...who's the kid?" Kierra asked.

"You, Nakofsky. Now move." Crouch said in his usual curt manner. "Black, Potter, and Evans, you're coming with me...we've got a wider terrain to cover..."

Crouch's voice droned on, but Kierra didn't seem to hear him.

'Kid...' Kierra thought menacingly, 'who do they think they are'—

"Let's go Nakofsky" Moody growled.

Kierra turned around to see Dominique and Moody waiting for her.

"Er, right..." she said as she joined them.

"Got your wand?" Moody asked, glancing briefly at Kierra.

"yea..." she answered listlessly, patting her pocket.

Moody stopped walking immediately. "Take that out of your pocket right now!" he barked. He then turned to Dominique. "Where's your wand?" he asked her.

"Er...here..." Dominique said cautiously, pulling her wand out of her pocket.

Moody sighed loudly. "Elementary wand safety, don't go keeping your wands in your pockets...specially your back pockets! It can ignite, or blow off a buttocks or something!"

Kierra couldn't help but let out a small laugh.

Moody glared at her in return.

"Think it's funny, kid? Well, don't start crying if that happens to you..."

At hearing her new nickname, Kierra stopped laughing. She turned to Moody and looked at him questioningly.

"You gonna ask me something or keep goggling at me?" Moody said, without so much as glancing at Kierra.

That damn eye....

"Er...yea...why am I the kid?" she asked huffily.

Moody continued on his way without looking at Kierra.

"Well, for starters, you look like one..."

"As compared to everyone else?" Kierra asked indignantly. "Half the trainees are the same age as me!"

"Yea but you look like more of a kid than the rest. Geez woman, don't take it as an insult...ten years from now when you're all wrinkly you'll be reminiscing over the days when people called you kid..." Moody replied.

"So just because I look like a kid"—

"And"—Moody cut in—"you're the underdog of the group."

"Sorry?"

"Every time Crouch recruits, he calls the most... naïve-looking, least promising one 'kid'".

"Least promising??" Kierra asked, feeling thoroughly hurt.

"Kierra's promising!" Dominique protested on Kierra's behalf. "She's a damn good witch"—

"I'm not saying she's not", Moody interjected, "Crouch just goes on first impressions....don't worry about it...some of our best aurors were called 'kid' at some point..."

"Really"—

"Listen, we need to get down to business," Moody cut in, "we're going to be staking out these next few hours...there's a house a couple of miles from here that we suspect is going to be attacked. We're going now, because we need to walk there"—

"Walk??" Dominique asked indignantly.

"Yea," Moody replied, "It's safer...this is a muggle area, and we can't risk apparating in front of them"—

"If they saw us we could just alter their memories"—

"Can't do that, there's a special department in the ministry that takes care of that" Moody replied.

"So why don't we call them over if it's necessary?" Dominique asked.

"Because we can't let them know...Dumbledore suspects a few of those blokes to be Voldemort's spies, so we can't really trust them."

"Does Crouch know? Or Mr. Fudge? They could just fire them"—

"No. Dumbledore only suspects them. And Crouch, well...he's a bit eccentric and well...merciless." He added, glancing shortly at Kierra.

"He'd throw them in Azkaban without even checking for evidence. He's that zealous about ridding the world of death eaters. So, naturally Dumbledore wants to be cautious when dealing with the ministry..."

"How many miles did you say this was?" Dominique asked as she turned her ankle for the 3rd time during the walk.

"Only two miles," Moody replied, glancing down at the Dominique's feet. "Why the hell are you wearing those clunkers anyway?" he asked sharply, "they're probably going to hold us back! Not to mention, you'll never be able to run in those if you need to..."

"Well, you only gave us five minutes to get ready!" Dominique protested, as she held onto Kierra for support as she almost tripped over the rocky terrain. "And they're not clunkers, they're called stilettos!"

"Look more like stilts to me...probably where they got the name from..." Moody muttered. "Take them off before you twist something, you're better off walking barefoot than walking in those..."

Dominique grumpily complied and pulled her heels off, muttering something about not appreciating Gucci as she did so.

"Of all the people Crouch could assign me, it just had to be the neurotic fashion critic and the kid..." Moody said wearily.

"So once we get there, what do we do?" Kierra asked testily.

"Like I said before, we're going to watch for any signs of death eaters...but I'm thinking at this rate, we won't have to wait long..." he said, casting a look at Dominique, who was walking daintily across the ground, careful not to step on any rocks.

"We have to make sure we're not seen by anyone; muggles or death eaters...if we see any death eaters, one of us is going to get the muggles out of the house, and into safety. Kierra, that'll be your job. You've got the two parents, an eight year old boy, and a three year old girl to worry about."

"Got it." Kierra said with a nod.

"And Dominique, you and I will distract and fight off the death eaters." Moody added.

"Got it." Dominique replied. "Er, how many of them do you think there will be?"

Moody shrugged. "Probably no more than five or six..."

"Five or six?? How are we supposed to take on all of them??" Dominique asked anxiously.

"Don't worry...if you can take care of at least one or two, that'll be great. And once the kid gets the family to safety, she can help out as well."

"Any idea who the death eaters are?" Kierra asked briskly, her temper being tested again.

"Well, we're pretty sure one of them might be Rudolphus Lestrange...he's supposed to be in the inner circle with Voldemort...and since he's most likely going to be there, there's a good chance his new wife will be there too, Bellatrix...she's supposed to have recently joined their ranks..."

"Bellatrix??" Kierra and Dominique said at once.

"Went to school with her?" Moody asked.

"She was in our year!" Kierra said.

"And she's Sirius's cousin!" Dominique exclaimed.

"I know..." Moody replied.

"I knew she was a bit rotten...but...wow...I didn't know she stooped that low...I mean, she's related to Sirius..." Dominique said.

"Yea, well...Sirius is about the only descent one in his family. Didn't you know what kind of line he came from?" he asked Dominique.

"Well..." she began slowly, "I knew they were all sort of...fanatics about purebloods...but I didn't think they supported Voldemort!"

"Well...some of them do, some don't...all I know is Bellatrix and her sister Narcissa are both as bad as they get...their other sister, Andromeda..well she's one of the few descent Blacks...got disowned for it too...she's dating some muggle named Ted Tonks..." Moody replied. "Nice guy...bit klutzy though..." he added as an afterthought.

"Yea, the whole Black family is a bit weird...all into the dark arts...even Sirius's brother Regalus, there's rumors that he's a death eater too now...but we haven't been able to confirm it yet..."

Dominique opened her mouth to comment, but was stopped by Moody.

"Alright, we're almost there...we need to disillusion ourselves...then you two are going to silently follow me through these woods, where we'll be less likely to be seen...remember, no talking until I've given you the o.k. when it's safe. Got it?"

Kierra and Dominique nodded as they pulled their wands out and disillusioned themselves.

For several minutes, the trio walked in silence. Finally, they came to a small clearing in the woods, where the house was barely visible to them. Two of the rooms on the bottom floor was lighted, while only one window from the upstairs remained lit.

"Ok," whispered Moody, "looks safe right now..."

"Wonder who's upstairs..." Kierra whispered. "Probably one of the kids..."

"Well it can't be the three year old," Dominique commented, "it's too late at night, she'd have to be asleep...so her lights can't be on..."

"Clever..." Moody whispered, patting Dominique on the shoulder approvingly.

Dominique blushed at Moody's idea of praise, but her adulation was short lived, when she felt Kierra grab Dominique's arm.

"Look!" she hissed.

Moody and Dominique glanced towards where Kierra was pointing; on the other side of the house, four heavily cloaked figures were walking towards the house, their identities concealed by black masks.

"Shit..." Moody muttered. "They're going through the bloody front door...there's no way we can get to the family. Alright guys...here's your moment..."

Dominique and Kierra looked at each other anxiously.

"When I say go..." Moody said quietly, "Kierra, you get the guy in the front, D, you get the one after him, and I'll get those other two that are trailing behind. If any of us gets hurt, don't stop...just do what we came here for. Got it?"

The girls nodded.

Kierra gulped and pulled out her wand and held it out. Her hand was shaking like mad. 'Stop it...' she thought anxiously. 'Be calm, be calm...if you're not calm, you'll screw up and get killed, or get someone else killed...'

Kierra nervously glanced over at Dominique, who, though was quite still, looked incredibly pale, even in the dim moonlight.

"Ready..." Moody whispered as he got up and leaned forward. "GO!!!"

Just as the four death eaters turned towards the noise, Moody, Dominique and Kierra dashed out into the open, still disillusioned. All at once, the front lawn became illuminated by jets of colorful lights.

Kierra ducked immediately as the death eater she was dueling hit a jet of green light at her.

"You just can't get enough of me, can you?" the voice behind the mask drawled.

Kierra felt as though she had been punched in the stomach. She knew that voice anywhere.

"Malfoy!!" she spat.

The death eater only chuckled. "And so it is!" he said, repelling a stunning charm Kierra had aimed at him. "And so wonderful to see you again, my dear...only this time, we're so fortunate as to meet outside of Hogwarts...away the bounds of Dumbledore...Aveda Kedavra!"

Kierra ducked again, just in time to miss the curse, and see it hit a nearby tree, sending it into flames.

Suddenly an idea came to Kierra. "You're pathetic Malfoy...absolutely"—Kierra stopped short and gasped, pointing to something beyond Lucius. The latter turned around to see what Kierra was gaping at, only to see nothing. Just as he realized he had been had, Lucius heard Kierra bellow—

"Petrifucus Totalus!!"

Kierra grinned at Malfoy, who was now laying frozen on the ground. "See, I fooled you twice...shame on you!" Kierra said to Lucius's frozen body. As she stepped over Lucius, Kierra couldn't help but grin. Ever since she the first day of school, when Kierra used the curse on Remus and messed it up, she hadn't rested until she mastered the petrifying curse...and now, she was quite the expert.

'that should last an hour or so..' she thought, as she glanced around to see the progress of the others. Just then she remembered her task.

Kierra turned around just in time to see the front door open, and a scandalized looking couple staring at the fiasco on their front lawn.