She froze. There, stretching itself and turning its two sky blue eyes towards her was a dragon, outline barely visible against the night.

"Oh Merlin," she gasped. "Is that a – a –" she stopped herself. Of course it was!

"Yep." said Charlie, "A dragon." he caressed its tiny black head. "Are you prepared to take care of it for me?"

How could she say no?

"Of course! You know me…"

Embarrassing as it was, tears welled up in her eyes. She silently thanked the darkness. The dragon reminded her of seeing Fury for the first time – slightly awkward, but absolutely beautiful.

When she came to, the first thing she felt was confused and her first thought was about where Fury was.

The next thing that happened was that she sat up, felt a throbbing pain in her head almost immediately, and lay back down.

"You're up?" asked an unfamiliar voice. Alexis opened her eyes this time.

"W-where am I?" she asked, upon seeing white walls. White. The white that was the complete opposite of Fury. His image whirled around in her head.

"You're safe, dear. That's what matters."

"Fury? Where's Fury?"

"Fury? What on earth would that be?" Alexis could see the nurse now; she looked no older than twenty, black-haired and pale-skinned.

"Fury." Alexis repeated. "He-he's a winged horse, black, only about a month old."

"I don't know." said the nurse, still looking confused. "One of the Aurors found you knocked out, dear, I don't know anything else."

She was ready to faint. Death Eaters; he had thrown her off because he could hear Death Eaters, she was sure of that.

/i This can't be happening. It just can't. He was all I had left… i

"Are you all right? You're a tad bit pale, dear."

"It's Alexis." she replied. "I-I think I'm alright. May I leave, though? That is…I am in St. Mungo's, right?"

"You can leave after a check-up." the nurse assured her. "And yes, Alexis, you're in St. Mungo."

In another half an hour she was in Diagon Alley. She'd been here before, with Mark…

"Oh, heavens, are you all right?" a kind voice asked at her side.

Alexis spun around, alarmed, but quickly calmed down. Standing in front of her was a short, plump woman with fiery red hair. Behind her were three boys and a little girl.

"Sorry to frighten you, love, but you looked a bit lost."

It suddenly dawned on Alexis that she had no place to live. Of course, she had no wand, but she did have the saddle-bag which Fury had apparently dropped.

But he's lost or most likely dead now…

"I am." she replied quietly. This woman seemed kind enough, and maybe Alexis could get some help from her. "Could you help me? I don't have a home."

The woman looked horrified.

"Of course, of course! We have room at our place; you can come live with us! I'm Molly Weasley, just call me Mrs. Weasley, and this is Fred, George, Ron and Ginny."

With four children already Alexis wondered how big their house must be.

"Thank you Mrs. Weasley. I have money; I can pay for anything."

Her saddle-bag, looking silly in her arms, was dropped to the floor. Alexis searched in it for exactly what she needed; the key to her bank vault at Gringott's.

"Oh, love, you needn't –"

But Alexis wasn't going to let a woman with four children waste any money on her.

"My name's Alexis." she interrupted Mrs. Weasley. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Weasley."

She looked a bit flustered.

"How old are you, Alexis?"

"I turned eleven last month." Alexis told her. "I'm going to Hogwarts this year."

"Oh, well so are Fred, George and Ron here. Do you need books?"

"I do. I just need to go to Gringott's."

"Of course, Alexis dear. We were just heading that way now."

Alexis followed the boy she knew now as Ron. He looked at her and gave her a friendly wave, which she gladly returned. She had a good feeling about this.

When they reached Alexis's room, Charlie dropped the dragon gently onto the floor.

It was black, with two mystifying blue eyes. Alexis could see that it was still quite young, although it was clear that even at adult size, it would never match any of its relatives. Two slender wings were folded neatly onto her back. She had a near perfect build, agile, quick and sleek. Strong hindquarters and forepaws had silver claws protruding from their ends, and looked sharper than a sword.

She drew a breath. Surely this couldn't be happening? But oh, it was.

"What's her name?"

"Catalyst." Charlie replied, keeping an eye fondly on the dragon. "There's no name for this type of dragon, Alexis. At least, not that I know of. I only know a few things about her from her mother. She'll grow to about as large as a hippogriff when she's on all fours, and by adulthood she'll be able to change her colour from black to silver whenever she wants to. She can produce both harmless and harmful flames, depending on what she wants, and also flame that burns and flame that doesn't burn things."

Alexis tickled Catalyst's muzzle; the dragon growled softly.

"Don't worry about her diet," Charlie was saying. "She eats practically anything, even some poisonous stuff, but I wouldn't try to find out if I were you."

"I won't." Alexis smiled, thinking of Fury…why did she have to remember him now, of all times?

"Good. Well, you can go introduce everyone to our newest housemate."

"Hey – wait a minute. Won't your mum freak?"

"No. Fred and George have taken care of that."

As if on cue, the twins poked their heads into the room.

"Oi – oh, you showed her?" asked Fred.

"Yeah." replied Charlie.

"Eh, well, we were listening in. Anyway," he hurried on, avoiding Charlie's glare. "Yeah, Aly, we've got mum covered. We promised we'd be responsible for the little girl; isn't that right?"

George winked at the dragon.

"Responsible?" Alexis couldn't believe her ears. "Right, you two, what have you done with the real Fred and George? 'Responsibility' is not a word in their vocabulary."

"Well," George was looking slightly offended. "We can change, can't we?"

Alexis scoffed with Charlie.

"I highly doubt that, boys."