52

Emily and Draco were rather quiet as their small group made their way back to the tent with two Hit Wizards trailing just behind them. They could hear the raucous singing and laughter of the spectators as the celebrations filled the woods with their joyous sounds. Leprechauns kept shooting past their heads throwing little balls of exploding lights into the air that looked like mini fireworks and Emily spied a few of the creatures even dancing up in the branches of the surrounding trees, clearly they were pleased with Ireland's win.

As they entered the tent Emily noticed the long table was now gone and was replaced by a smaller round table that had a bottle of wine open and three goblets waiting. The teens moved towards the new table, each taking a seat in one of the fur covered arm chairs. Lucius poured them each a glass of wine before taking the final spot for himself.

"Did you two have a good time today?"

"Other than Cedric showing up it was nice," Emily responded.

"That's because you spent the entire day with your favorite Curse Breaker."

"And you spent it with his dragon taming brother…"

"I'm about to be betrothed, he was just nice to look at."

"Your betrothal didn't seem so important to you earlier."

"Well, I'm pleased you both enjoyed your time," Lucius cleared his throat drawing the pairs attention back to him and ending the back and forth that was starting. "I was however, rather upset to see Fudge extend such generosity towards the Diggorys." Lucius took a sip of wine and thanked the elf as plates were set in front of everyone at the table. The food smelled delicious and Emily happily cut into her sausage as she listened to Lucius. "Do not worry though, the Minister will not be making that mistake again. He has assured me he had no idea of the situation and that he will not be offering similar gestures in the future."

"Good," Draco said looking up from his plate to reach for the saltshaker. "Luckily, Mr. Hufflepuff only approached us once, right before the Veela came onto the field, his feeble mind did the rest. Pity his father stopped him before he jumped from the box."

Emily shook her head at her best friend but could not help the smile that crossed her face. While she did not wish Cedric dead, she had to admit the idea of him jumping from the box amused her.

"I do not know what they thought they would accomplish by being present, but I can assure you that I am not entertaining any talks with them."

"I know you wouldn't," Emily smiled at the older man.

"Perhaps we should entertain talks with a certain Curse Breaker," Draco offered smiling at his best friend.

"Oh, stop it, he is not interested in me!"

"I could approach William if that is your wish," Lucius said taking a sip of his wine. "He would be a decent pairing. Far better than any of the prospects I have sitting on my desk right now."

"Can we not talk betrothals? I highly doubt Bill would want to be tied to someone like me and you said there is nothing we can do until I am fifteen anyway, let's hold off on this discussion for now."

"Someone like you? You are the top of your year and heir to possibly two Ancient and Noble Houses, you are the ideal for many of these families. William should be honored if we were to approach him." Emily gave the man a look that clearly showed she was unamused with the direction this was going. "If you wish to wait to discuss this, we can, but there is only so much time left before you return to Hogwarts and next summer your fifteenth birthday will come quicker than you expect. I know you wish to wait but we are not in a position to know what moves are being made by the Dark Lord. I want you to be protected before we are put in a situation where our hands may be forced into an unsavory option."

"Could that happen?" Emily looked worriedly at the older man.

"I will do everything in my power to ensure it doesn't but there is no telling what our timeline will be. If you already had a contract written there are ways in which we could go about securing it before your fifteenth birthday if we must. It's known that you do not have a magical guardian, or at least we do not have any documentation of one and while most are fearful enough to come to me the Dark Lord will not have that same compulsion. While personally I would rather us wait, your safety is my priority, I would not forgive myself if our hands were forced."

Emily sighed as she took a bite of her mashed potatoes, she hated all this uncertainty but she understood the older man's worry. With Pettigrew getting away at the end of the year it was only a matter of times before the Dark Lord grew stronger. There was also the dream she had the other night, was that merely a dream or was he truly planning something for this coming year. "I promise to think about it more seriously, just don't bring it up to anyone yet, please."

Lucius nodded his head and the three settled into silence as they finished their meals. As Emily set down her fork Edmund Nott entered the tent. "Lucius are you ready?"

"You're leaving?" Draco asked looking between the two men.

Lucius rose and kissed both teens on the head, "Yes, a few of us still have some business to attend to. Promise me you two will stay in the tent and not leave. A Hit Wizard should be stationed just outside if you need something."

The teens agreed and watched as the two Lords exited the tent whispering lowly to each other.

"Well, I say we get comfortable," Draco said standing up and moving towards the hallway off to the left. Emily took one last curious look at the entry to the tent before following her best friend.

0o0oo0oo0o0

Emily sat up quickly as a sharp pain pulsed through her scar. She rubbed her shoulder as she looked around, rubbing her tired eyes with her free hand. The pain vanished as quickly as it had come. Draco merely flipped over and pulled the blanket up higher to cover himself better but didn't fully stir at his companion's sudden movements. The pair had fallen asleep in front of the fireplace in the main space, the teens had made a huge bed out of pillows and fur blankets as they waited for Lucius to return.

A loud explosion shook the tent and Emily's head turned towards the entrance. The main flap to the entrance was down but it seemed as if a light was flickering outside the tent. Listening closely the witch could hear distant shouting but instead of the joyful sounds she heard earlier, these sounded more filled with fear.

"Draco, get up!" Emily shook her best friend. The boy merely swatted at her hands and tried to turn over again. "Draco! Something is wrong, GET UP!"

When he still refused to move she sent a stinging hex at the blonde who immediately sat up with an annoyed look on his face, "What are you playing at?" Emily held a finger up to her lips and pointed towards the entrance and then her ear. The boy took the hint and she watched as realization came over him. "You stay here I'm going to make sure the guard is still out there."

"You're not going alone! I'm coming with you."

"You should go see if Father came back."

Emily studied her best friend's face and could see he was worried and figured fighting about who was going where before they had more information was useless. "Fine, but we come straight back to the table and form a plan."

"The plan is do not leave the tent. It has protections around it and hopefully the Hit Wizard knows what is good for him and is still out there."

"Okay, just go look and I'll check the master."

The teens both stood and Emily reached for her friend's hand, Draco gave it a tight squeeze before letting go and heading towards the entrance. The witch made her way to the hall and found the drape that led to the master section of the tent. Lifting it she looked inside and it was easy to tell Lucius had yet to return, the bed was still made and the small suitcase was closed at its foot. Turning around she made her way quickly back to the small round table. Draco hadn't returned yet and she could feel her anxiety rise. Listening closely she swore the screams seemed to be getting louder. Were they moving towards them?

Emily started to pace and a million ways her friend could have silently been harmed exiting the tent ran through her mind. After what felt like forever but was probably only a minute or two the young witch moved towards the entry, she couldn't wait any longer.

"Where are you going?" Draco suddenly appeared and he did not look pleased.

"I was going to go find you, Luc isn't here."

"Neither is the Hit Wizard. I had to venture a little further towards the main camp. It's not good." The boy looked worriedly towards where he just came from. "There was a group of Death Eaters out there torturing the muggles who run this site."

"You're sure."

"Definitely. I have seen Father's mask before and these were very similar."

"Was he…" the words died in her throat.

"No, at least the ones I saw did not look like his."

Her mind went to the Lord's earlier words 'we are not in a position to know what moves are being made by the Dark Lord'. "You don't think the Dark Lord planned this do you?"

"I don't know, but if he did, I would have expected him to contact Father before making a move like this… Father would have told us if he had been approached, he seemed clueless to the Dark Lord's movements earlier."

Emily nodded, she had to agree, Lucius would never purposefully put them in danger and he would be planning how best for all of them to proceed if the Dark Lord had approached him already. If this was planned by the Dark Lord they had an even larger problem on their hands as he was leaving out his right hand man.

A green light flashed outside the tent and the teens shared a worried look. Slowly they moved forward, their wands raised and pointed at the entrance when Lucius burst through it. Two stunners flew at the man with perfect accuracy and with amazing reflexes that came with his many years of dueling he batted them away. "Hurry you two, follow me."

"Father, what is going on?!"

"I will explain more when we get back to the manor but things have escalated farther than expected."

"You knew they were going to torture those muggles?" Draco looked nervously towards Emily and reached out a hand pulling her closer to him.

"No, I had no idea they would be this stupid. Now you both need to follow me and keep your wands ready, it is chaos out there and we need to get Emily away from this site as quickly as possible."

Draco nodded his head and pushed his friend slightly behind him. Emily placed one hand on his back to let him know she was following. The pair both raised shield charms as they moved forward following the blonde Lord outside. For the first time Emily saw the destruction around them. Bushes were ablaze and people were running further into the woods. Instead of heading towards the area they arrived at the group moved parallel to the main camp, the witch could see the main area looked destroyed. Tents on fire, some already blackened and burned to the ground, very few people remained out there most having clearly run deep into the forest for protection. The small group was coming up on a small clearing when they all froze.

"MORSMORDRE!"

A large green spell shot up into the sky and the three watched as a skull formed, its mouth opening as a snake slithered forth and twisted into a knot. Emily's eyes flashed from the sky to where the faded looking tattoo rested on Lucius' arm and then up to the man's eye and for a split second she saw the fear there before it vanished and a look of anger replaced it. His head nodded in the direction they all knew the words had come from. Red lights suddenly flashed ahead of them and Lucius nodded in approval, "The Hit Wizards must have caught up with them. Keep moving, we have to pass that area to get to the new designated spot for departures."

It wasn't long before they came upon a large group of ministry officials and of course in front of them was Emily's brother Harry and his friends Weasley and Granger. To the side of the trio was a shaking house elf that was being held by Amos Diggory.

"Winky is not knowing hows to sir!" the elf cried. "I is not using it!"

"You were found with a wand next to you!" Amos cried holding the wand up in the air. "This is a clear violation!"

"That's mine!" Harry called moving towards the man. He looked shocked and Emily rolled her eyes at her brother's inability to hold onto his wand.

"Are you admitting you cast it and discarded the evidence next to this elf?!"

"Amos, look who you are talking to!" Arthur Weasley admonished stepping forward. "You are going to accuse Harry Potter of all people?!"

Amos looked sheepishly at the boy, "Right, I apologize Harry, it has been a long night." The older man handed over the wand to the teen. "Though you should be more cautious with this."

"Thank you sir," Harry said accepting his wand and turning it over to inspect it.

"Winky, couldn't have cast it!" Granger declared stepping forward as if she wanted to go comfort the elf, her eyes never broke from the creature. Weasley seemed annoyed by the girl's outburst and was yanking on her arm as he tried to get her to back away. The girl shook the red head off, "It was a male voice! It had to be a wizard."

"The girl is right," Lucius interjected. "Only someone versed in dark magic and familiar with the mark could conjure it. An elf does not have the knowledge or capabilities."

"You would know," Arthur Weasley accused but quickly looked ashamed as many annoyed faces glared at him.

"We all know Lucius's tale Arthur," Fudge said stepping forward. "We would be grateful for any insight you might have and we owe you a great deal of thanks for your help tonight Lucius."

"Emily!" Turning the young witch saw a redhaired man with a fang earring running towards her. Looking back to Draco and seeing her best friend nod she allowed herself to drop her shield and embrace the man as he reached her. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I promise." She let her head rest against the Curse Breaker's chest and allowed herself a moment of comfort.

While many in the group barely noticed the pair, Arthur Weasley looked confused and worriedly between them and Lucius, while Amos seemed angry. A yelp from the elf Mr. Diggory was still grasping caught everyone's attention.

"You're hurting her!" Granger yelled, finally deciding she didn't care about staying put any longer she moved to try and comfort the elf who looked very distressed.

"William, would you mind accompanying Emily and Draco back to the manor while I help sort out this mess. I will follow shortly."

To Emily's surprise the man quickly nodded without even sparing a look towards his shocked father. "Of course Lord Malfoy, I would be happy to."

"If you continue down this path just inside this tree line you will reach the new spot for departures."

Bill nodded and moved to shield Emily as Draco had been doing previously and started to move past the large group. He didn't spare a glance for his family and Emily could feel the eyes of both Arthur Weasley and Amos Diggory upon their group as they left the clearing.

Emily felt Draco put a hand on her back to let her know he was following. They could hear the group start talking again as they approached a familiar face from earlier.

"Hey Oli, I'm taking these two back to Malfoy Manor for Lord Malfoy."

"Sounds good, I'm guessing he will be following later?" The Hit Wizard seemed to be marking something on the parchment in his hand.

"Yes, he is with the minister and several other officials right now."

"Ah, helping with the Dark Mark?" The man looked up into the sky where the mark still seemed to be sparkling. It looked as though thousands of glittering green stars were flashing as the snake continued to move among the dark backdrop. "I have heard they last hours."

"I have heard the same," Bill said looking up towards the sky. Shaking his head he grabbed Emily's hand and nudged his friend. "We really should be leaving, is it alright to apparate from here?"

"We have portkeys logged for those who took them earlier, you are the broken gold watch," the man rummaged through a pile of what looked to be junk next to him. When he found what looked to be a pocket watch he passed it over to the Curse Breaker. "I am sure we can make another for Lord Malfoy. But mate when everything is settled it would be nice to catch up now that you are back."

"I will send an owl soon, I promise."

"Good. The wife will be offended if she does not get the chance to say hello to Wild Bill."

"Wild Bill?" Emily asked.

Bill looked a bit sheepish but Draco gave a short cough of annoyance.

"Right, we need to go, thank you for your help Oli. I'll send the owl in a day or two."

"No worries." The man reached out with his wand and tapped the watch. "On the count of three, one… two… three."

Draco and Emily reached out to take hold of the chain as the group felt the familiar tug as their worlds spun and they vanished from the forest. In mere seconds the group landed in the floo room of the manor with ease.

"You two are quite good at that. I apparated earlier today but I don't think I could have done it with both of you for that long of a distance very well, probably would have ended up in a pile on the floor."

"One of the elves could have gotten you an invigoration draught if that had been the case," Emily said as the group moved into the closest sitting room.

"True." Bill took a seat next to the witch on the loveseat and without thinking wrapped his arm around her as she leaned into him.

Draco for his part grabbed two blankets handing one to the pair on the sofa and using the other for himself as he got comfortable in one of the large wingbacks. "Well even though the game was short, I guess in a way we still got a little excitement tonight."

Emily laughed, "Speak for yourself, all we did was shoot a stupefy at Luc and hold a shield for a bit while we left."

"Not every bit of excitement has to be some sort of duel," Draco challenged as he called for an elf. "I am just glad we got you back here safely, just wait till Mother and Sev hear about this."

As Draco requested some coffee and tea for the group the young witch shook her head, "We will never be allowed out to an event again!"

"You two are at Hogwarts most of the year and from the stories I've heard you get plenty of excitement there."

"It's mostly her," Draco said directing his head towards his best friend as his took the first sip of the tea his elf handed him and sighed in contentment. "She always is getting into trouble."

"It is not me, it's Harry! And last year does not count because I was with Sev, so technically he led me into that one…"

"I'm guessing that story is part of what we were going to talk about once I got here?" Bill asked as he took the offered cup of coffee from the elf.

Emily nodded and she launched into the story of the end of her third year as she accepted her cup of coffee. She told Bill how she and Sev had gone to the shrieking shack and found Harry and his friends with Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. How it turned out Scabbers was really Peter Pettigrew and he was the true trader, having framed Sirius and turned into a rat, his animagus form, to hide. She explained how in the chaos they had forgotten about the Wolfsbane potion and when they made their way back to the castle Remus turned into a werewolf and Pettigrew escaped. Emily couldn't help but smile as she spoke about casting her patronus for the first time and seeing Sirius fly away on Buckbeak.

"So, Sirius Black is innocent?!" Bill was having a hard time comprehending what he had just been told.

"And living in a Black estate in France," Draco added. "Sev is probably ready to kill him by now I bet."

"Cissa and Sev went to help with their potion stores and make sure everything is stocked. They should be home soon."

"Once the sun rises no doubt," Lucius said entering the room and earning the attention of its occupants. "Severus and Sirius will likely be at each other's throats. They have always struggled to get along but hopefully they can move past that. As for our evening, no one was captured other than the elf." The blonde Lord sat in the chair next to the one Draco was curled up in. "The incompetence of those idiots," Lucius sighed. "We gathered to discuss the marks, they have been twinging for lack of a better word and they seem to be darkening, not much mind you and nothing like they once were but it is concerning none the less. Edmund thought it would be a good time to meet, since no one would suspect anything other than old friends gathering to celebrate and talk quidditch. What I gathered was no one has been approached by the Dark Lord yet, but a few of them are feeling emboldened by this slight change and after a few drinks decided to have some fun as they put it."

"Were you the only one who didn't participate?" Draco asked not taking his eyes off the cup in his hands. The reality of the night and what it might mean was setting back in.

"No several others and Edmund as well were quick to help the ministry officials. While I am sure most of them wanted to join, they are smart enough to know that there is no proof of his return and that they need to keep up pretenses until they are shown otherwise. It would have been far more deadly tonight had the ones that held back joined."

The word deadly stuck in Emily's mind, "The muggles didn't survive." It wasn't a question, everyone in the room knew it to be true.

"At least no magical blood was spilled tonight," Lucius offered and the room nodded in agreement. "This is a worrying turn though, if they are feeling this bold without the Dark Lord before them… Emily this makes our conversation earlier all the more important."

"I promised to take it seriously and I will," the young witch replied. She couldn't help adjusting herself as she awkwardly looked up at the man who had no idea what she was referring to. Sure he held her right now but they were friends, how mortified would he be if Lucius asked him to sign a contract for her hand?

"Good, for now I think we should all head to bed. William, I spoke with your brother Charlie and advised him that we would be requiring you to stay with us. I have sent an elf for your things."

"Thank you Lord Malfoy, I am grateful for your kindness as always."

"It's Lucius, though you may want to contact your brother soon because your Father did not seem as pleased with the situation."

"I will, thank you Lucius."

The older wizard merely nodded in acknowledgement. "Also, if you could meet me in the office tomorrow morning, I'm sure these two have filled you in on most things but I would also like us to have a discussion."

"Of course."

Emily moved as the Curse Breaker stood and helped her up. The witch hesitated as she passed her best friend, "Dray are you coming?"

"I'm going to talk to Father for a minute, I'll see you in the morning."

"Okay, night."

"Night."

Emily and Bill headed towards the wing where her and Draco's rooms were. The pair were silent as they approached the witch's door. They stood awkwardly neither moving nor saying a word. "Will you lay with me?" the witch blurted out and she wanted to hit herself, this wasn't Draco and she could see the hesitation on the man's face. "It's just Dray often sleeps with me," she left out the part that they rarely slept together while at the manor, "and I would rather not be alone. You can leave once I fall asleep if you like."

"Yes, of course I can lay with you while you fall asleep." Bill reached for the door and held it for the younger girl. "After you."

Emily smiled and moved into the room. She vanished into her closet as Bill stood awkwardly next to her bed. He had been in this room a few times before but never had he felt so nervous. The Curse Breaker couldn't figure out what was wrong with himself. Emily was his friend, albeit one of his closest friends but she was young, there was nothing to be nervous over. He would just lay with her until she fell asleep and then move into his usual quarters for what little was left of the night.

"You can take off your shoes and get more comfortable." Emily offered emerging from her closet and Bill's breath caught in his throat, the witch was wearing a dark green silk nightie and he quickly turned towards the bed and focused on removing his shoes and vest. He could hear Charlie chuckling in his head, no he was not feeling anything, he was merely slightly embarrassed… or at least he hoped that was what he was feeling, he couldn't be attracted to the young witch. Emily was the same age as his brother Ron for the Goddess' sake! He thought of his unmotivated little brother who had somehow become best friends with Harry Potter… then again was he not sitting in the bed of Emily Potter, the beautiful witch who was climbing into bed next to him.

"Are you okay?" the witch asked examining the older man. "You look worried."

"It's been a long night," he lied, he was not about to admit how very confused he was feeling. Luckily she accepted his answer and Bill made himself more comfortable as Emily tucked herself into his side, her head resting on his chest. She smelled heavenly… shaking his head he gave her a light squeeze and turned his thoughts back to the night and the discussion they just had in the drawing room with Lucius. He understood that the Malfoy Lord was now including him in some of their secrets. Trusting him with more than he could have ever expected when he first came to the manor to work on the wards. He never believed a friendship of sorts would form or that he would be laying in said manor next to one of the Potters. Thinking of Emily his thoughts turned to the odd promise Lucius made her make. "Em?"

"Mmm?" the girl seemed to barely register him talking, she must have been really tired.

"What were you promising Lucius, it seemed serious."

"He thinks we would match well…" the girl buried her head into his chest further.

"What do you mean?"

"Contract things, not safe…"

Bill froze and looked down at the witch, she couldn't mean that Lucius wanted her to consider a contract with him?! No there was no way that she was referring to him, she was clearly asleep, her words broken and he was merely a Curse Breaker with no title… Or maybe they wanted his help with a contract they were trying to set up with someone else. An odd feeling built up in the man at the idea… No, he wasn't going to think about it, she didn't mean him, she couldn't… could she?