Disclaimer: People flip out if you don't say that. J.K Rowling. Believe me, if it was mine, I wouldn't have killed off Fred or Snape. I would have given Teddy at least one parent. Sirius wouldn't have died. Voldy would have gotten beat up with fist muggle style.

Chapter 16

(Month Later, Jan.1999)

A whole month had gone by with no sight of the Death Eaters. It had Harry and the rest on edge.

That should've been enough for me to stress over, but that was not to be since I had something else on my mind. Something that I'd never seen coming.

Things with Draco and Theo had been moving slowly. Draco was different from what I had thought he'd be. He was moody on some days and would lash out without meaning to. Due to that, he began to distance himself from others when he couldn't handle his emotions.

He would stay in his room for long periods. He only came out to eat or make tea. Occasionally he would receive work from his estate and whatnot.

Theo had asked me to call him by his first name the first time we were alone, which had been one of those days when Draco wanted to be alone.

Theo was slowly starting to express himself in more ways than before. Now, he would take the time to spend time with me. Or as if Draco was around.

Theo- I was coming to find; A sly person with a core of mischief that usually wasn't funny to others. He would make snide remarks that were carefully crafted to seem casual but were barbs of sharp words. He could do all of this with a stone-like expression that was unmoving like a mountain.

But he was also the same as Draco when dealing with his emotions. He shut himself away. Just not physically. He withdrew emotionally without anybody noticing a thing.

I was coming to learn how to deal with both unique men. My feelings were slowly but surely unravelling as time went by. Spending time with them, without having Ron or Harry breathing down my neck, helped.

At times I would play bait with Draco, Theo, and Snape. I remember telling Harry about it and having him glare menacingly at me. He hadn't liked it, but after a week, he had brought it up again.

Draco, who'd always felt competitive with Harry, would let his temper slip, and it would turn into chaos when Harry won.

Theo would simply say no as if he wasn't going to argue with me and his words were law.

It was the one thing that brought all the men in the house together.

Otherwise, they would ignore each other. Which was a bit better than them shouting at each other? But the tension of going days without speaking was dangerous with so many powerful wizards in one house.

Setting up a place and time to play nice with each other was one way to relieve some tension.

I glanced at Draco, who was casually looking around Diagon Alley as we headed towards Leaky Cauldron with Snape and Theo behind us. I had done a bit of browsing in Flourish and Blotts with the men.

Snape had done his fair share of shopping, but none of the others had bought anything.

I had made them stay behind with Snape while I'd gone deeper into the shop.

But when we left the shop, we were followed by very cleverly hidden pursuers.

I hadn't told the men, but knowing Snape, he probably had noticed too. Being a spy for more than twenty years would make anybody an expert in spying. We were now walking down the cobblestone street and trying to act like we were not hunting for the Death Eaters. We were supposed to be tempting them out in the open.

The last part was already in motion if those that followed us were Death Eaters.

As we walked, people stared. Foreign wizards, local wizards, muggleborn parents, everybody that knew who were was staring.

The stares varied in flavour. Some were very obviously starstruck, running into things or just slackjawed, hands dropping whatever they held. Some were happy to see us. They waved and would have come closer if it weren't for Draco and Nott, two very obvious Ex-Death Eaters.

Others were not so pleased with what they saw. But those weren't the only kind of stares we received.

A few males and females stared with a glint in their eyes that spoke of something boarding ardour.

Three males, two were known for their sketchy past, one known as a spy turned good guy, was enough to draw that kind of attention.

But the stares of the men and a few females ruffled Draco's feathers and had Nott's face going blank as a white canvas. That was usually not a good sign for either man.

I paid them no mind, but Draco's jaw ticked in further irritation.

I sighed and tucked my hand into his elbow. He startled slightly, glancing down, forgetting the stares directed at us. "Granger, I don't think you should be doing that."

I scowled but peeked back at the people staring at us, "I don't care about what they are saying. You're my boyfriend, as well as Theo. It bothers me that their staring is making you mad."

More like I didn't want to deal with whatever happened if either man decided to act on their displeasure. It would only inflame the situation.

Plus, I wasn't sure if I would even stop them.

Draco's face flickered between emotions as he glanced back at Nott, "Being a war hero will not save you from this. Talking to us is fine. Touching me is scandalous in their eyes." he said as he turned his gaze forward again. His jaw wasn't ticking anymore, but he did place his hand over mine.

It gave me a slight fuzzy feeling in my stomach. I wanted to bite him. Gently.

I looked back at Nott, who was ignoring everybody and was staring at my backside.

It was snowing, but I hadn't wanted to wear a large cloak since it would get in the way if I decided to go after somebody. I wore skin-tight jeans and a dragon hide jacket gifted to me by Viktor. I knew what my arse looked like in these jeans.

He raised his eyes and shot me a lazy smirk. I sometimes forgot that even if he acted like a grown man, he was still a teenager. He was prone to stare at me if I did something or dressed a certain way.

Draco was different in that way. I had heard stories of him and other girls. Stories that were so ridiculous that they could only be false. Draco hadn't done any of that stuff.

He didn't do ANYTHING of that sort.

Nothing.

One month was early for some other people to begin messing around. But I had expected something from Draco. Nott wasn't a pervert by any means, yet he made sure to let me know with a few words that he found me attractive.

Draco kept his hands and eyes away from me.

I wasn't shy about touching either of them. Like right now, I had my hand on Draco's arm. I pulled myself closer to him as we arrived at our destination.

We went through the Leaky Cauldron and out into the muggle world.

Muggles passed by us with no care in the world.

Nobody stared at us as they had before. We were regular people minding our own business.

We headed towards an alley we could use to apparate back to Grimland place. We had been bait, so now we only had to wait for the Death Eaters to bite.

Snape apparated to the Ministry instead to speak with Kingsley leaving me and the others alone.

I stared up at them, "Head back. I have to go somewhere else right now." They both gave me grim looks. They weren't happy about the change of plans.

Even though they weren't jumping for joy at the change of plans, they knew I could take care of myself.

Theo leaned down towards me and whispered, "Don't get into trouble. Or else." His gruff voice sent slight shivers down my back, and he gave me a light kiss on my forehead and apparated with a loud crack.

The relationship between us was slightly different from what I had with Draco. Theo did as he wanted and didn't shy away from anything. Draco had yet to take such liberties with me.

A large part of me wanted their full attention. Wanted to be touched and taken-

I turned towards Malfoy, who was leaning against the wall and had his gaze firmly on me. Unlike Nott, who naturally closed off his emotions, Draco used Occlumency to shield his thoughts.

When his face was blank, it wasn't like a blank canvas. It was more like a storm painting that somebody covered in white paint.

Whoever looked at his face would know that he was using Occlumency, hiding his emotions.

I saunter his way, studying his eyes. They were carefully blank but what gave him away was his scent.

I only stopped when my chest was a few inches from his.

He stared past my head, "Where. Are. You. Going."

The flat tone and dead eyes made me want to pick and prick him until he showed me his true feelings.

No matter how good he thought he was at Occlumency, he was no match against my will. I wouldn't let that be a THING between us.

I crossed my arms, touching his chest with my forearms and arched an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Sometimes, like right now, he would let his temper escape through the cracks in his shield and Occlumency made it worst.

It had only been a month of 'dating' him that I had figured out what pushed his buttons. Like right now, I had changed my tone, and he backed off. He knew when he'd bitten off more than he could chew.

I wasn't exactly mad, but I didn't want him to think it was okay to demand things from me when he gave me the bare minimum.

"I'm not some common fluzzy you can command. I won't obey you like those other girls." I glowered at him. He froze.

I had knocked the fight out of him. But I wasn't done.

The urge I'd been holding back came back full force when he got demanding. Whenever he got like this, I was filled with the desire to put him in his place.

We hadn't kissed yet. A light peck on the forehead or the cheek was about as far as we had gone. It was frustrating, to say the least. We had yet to tell anybody about us, but we knew they suspected.

Especially both mothers.

Lately, I have been experiencing flashes of heat. I hadn't told anybody about them. Although, I had noticed how Remus and Bill stayed clear of me.

I had read several books on werewolves, but they only said that fully-turned female werewolves went into heat twice a year. It didn't say anything else since no actual female had ever come forth to verify such claims.

The books I'd read had been written by men who didn't have firsthand knowledge of wolves.

I had wanted to ask Lavender, but she had left for France with her family. She couldn't function with so many people judging her.

The other children who'd been bitten hadn't said anything about hot flashes, so they must not be mature enough.

Werewolves aged a tad slower than Wizards, so the maturity age hit somewhere from the late teens to their early twenties. I had already turned twenty when Greyback bit me. But I hadn't thought that the heat would apply to me.

But I had strong doubts now.

Draco was still staring down at me, but his eyes didn't seem so blank anymore. I leaned closer to him and watched his mouth part silently. I stopped as soon as my nose touched his. His eyes widened at my approach.

I felt his breath on my lips.

I wanted to moan at that feeling alone.

His eyes glistened with answering ardour as he eyed my lips. His hot breath made small puffs in the cold air.

I licked my lower lip and watched his eyes follow the movement. I was about to lean forward to meet his lips when a loud shout rang out from the entrance to the alley. "What a slag. Getting frisky in the alleyway. Who does that?"

I stiffened and turned towards the voice of the woman. She reminded me of Harry's dead aunt. Prim and proper with a stick up her arse.

I shrugged off the comment, knowing how prudish some people were. It was no different in the wizardly world, except for Hogwarts. Kids there would make out anywhere they could.

I'd bumped into plenty in the common room.

He turned slightly towards me, "Don't be late."

He apparated away with a flash, leaving me alone in the alley. I was so frustrated I almost kicked the large trash can against the wall. I closed my eyes and apparated away.

Landing on soft snow near a small pond with a small boat in the centre of it, I looked around and saw a large three-story house. I had only been here two other times. It was the manor of Nina Duncan. It had been the very place where her parents, were murdered.

Her mother had been a pureblood, and her father a half-blood. She had been an only child since her mother stopped trying for more children after many failures. Nina was late in life type of baby.

I walked to the door and felt a slight tug as I passed through her wards. I knocked once, and Nina opened the door in seconds. She was wearing all black, still in mourning over her parents even after all these months.

She smiled and nodded me forward, "I already told you to come in whenever you get here." I couldn't help but smile gently at her as we headed towards the kitchen.

"I know, believe me, next time I'll just barge right in."

She grabbed several pieces of parchment, "This came in this morning. They have tried going back to the black market, but even the people there want nothing to do with them. They had taken unicorn blood to a buyer but were recognized and fled, leaving behind the unicorn blood." I went over the names of the people on the list.

Goyle's Gringotts account had been closed, and the gold now belonged to the 'orphans of the war. He had to be desperate for money. We had been keeping track of the other pureblood families, but none have come forward about being contacted.

They wouldn't, not unless somebody did so first. They were waiting for somebody to step forward first and risk their necks.

"Iskra said the same thing. She should be here any moment."

As soon as I said that, the door banged open. Iskra struck a pose, showing off her curves as she did so.

She gave me a cocky smirk, "I ran into Severus at the Ministry. Agh, that man's voice makes me melt! Even when he's telling me to leave him alone."

I sighed, "One day, he's going to take you on, and you will run for the hills." She chuckled as she tugged one of my curls when she walked passed me.

"I wish he would. I want to get hot and heavy with that man. I have always wanted an older man to play with."

Nina snorted as she passed us soda drinks. I grimaced. Soda was not something I liked to drink as much as these two females did. They openly showed amusement before Nina handed me a cold tea glass.

Iskra sat on the table as she looked over the papers I had sat down.

She frowned, "This one wasn't on the list. It's a small market in the middle of a muggle market. It's almost too easy to be spotted. The market is too small not to be noticed. It's mostly beast trade and smaller transactions that can't be done with owls."

Iskra passed me the paper and pointed at it. "Kappel Market is its official name of it. Not many people go to it. It's dangerous to have a market in the middle of a muggle one. It's supposed to shut down sometime in the next year."

I frowned. That didn't make sense.

I grabbed the other papers and slid them into an envelope. I wrote Harry's name on the front and used Nina's owl to send it to Harry. He should be home right now, so he should get it in twenty minutes. He was probably still dressed in his work clothes. Iskra was already putting her long straight black hair into a high ponytail while Nina was getting us cloaks.

Nina might own the baby store, but only because she didn't want to leave it to somebody else. It was her only connection to her deceased family. Seeing her out of the bright apron and into black clothes was a bit different.

I hadn't known she worked with the whores in Knockturn Alley. She gave them stuff for their kids, like the food the Ministry was still handing out to orphans and no-income families.

There were a lot of orphans. Muggleborn and half-bloods alike.

I had seen her walk into Knockturn Alley months ago and hadn't said anything. I just gave her extra money every week to help them. Most of those kids ended up in an orphanage, so she headed there some days.

I slid the cloak on and adjusted the wand holster on my wrist. I had slipped a knife Mother had given me into my boots earlier, so if I lost my wand I could still defend myself. That's what I told her I'd do if I couldn't use my wand.

She didn't know that the wand was just for show. Only Harry and Ron knew. Snape and the others might know for sure now, but during the war, having hidden tricks saved our lives.

Now, it was a given that I could do wandless magic.

Iskra grabbed both of us and apparated us near a tall muggle building. It looked abandoned and run-down. We could hear a distant chatter and loud laughing coming from the right. Iskra pulled her hood up, and we followed her example.

It was snowing a bit harder now, and the night was creeping up on us. We could see lanterns in the distance. Nina got behind me while Iskra led the way into the small market. There weren't many people, but most were near a large fire in the middle of all the stalls and small buildings. We could faintly hear dogs and other animals in the market.

Iskra led us to the far back of one stall with an old lady sitting against a wooden wall. She was petting a chicken which looked dead. She didn't glance at us and instead turned away from us as she curled her brittle body around the chicken. Iskra pulled out her wand and made a circle on the wooden wall near hip level. It slowly turned into a doorknob, and the wood cracked into the size of a door. She pushed it open and walked through. I followed closely with Nina in tow.

It looked almost the same except for the large tent that should have had fabric to create the tent but instead, it was steel.

The market was small. A lot smaller than I expected it to be. There were barely any stalls—just three lines of stalls—but the majority of them weren't occupied. Several steel tents were in between the stalls.

We also detected faint beast sounds and the odour of unwashed animals. I had a feeling that the beasts were kept inside the steel tents.

None of the wizards was paying attention to us, so we cautiously moved forward. As we made our way towards the small crowd in the centre of the market, we felt something pass through our bodies and all of a sudden, all the people disappeared, and only six figures stood in front of us.

Nina gasped and grabbed my arm, "That girl was the one that gave me the list of places. I'm sorry. I didn't know she was working with them."

I shrugged as I drew away from her touch without meaning to, "Nobody would have known, Nina. I never even gave it a thought."

But I should have.

Iskra laughed as she flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. "I wanted to fight somebody today, Merlin answered me." The smile faded from her gaze as she pushed her hood back. Her eyes had taken on a crazy glint, "I have far more practice than Nina and you, Hemi."

I gave a loud snort and pushed my hood back as well.

"I learned a thing or two, Iskra. I have quite a bit of tension to burn off right now."

A specific type of tension that a bit of fighting would take the edge off.

Nina pushed her hood back and glared at her informant, "I want to hurt her."

That was a bit out of character for her, but I understood that sometimes, we didn't always show ourselves to others without cause.

I watched as the figures moved towards us. "Well, we better get to it since Harry will be any minute."

We spread out and waited until the Death Eaters stopped a couple of feet away. Dolohov had his wand out and was waving it around as he leered at us.

His gaze stopped on me, "Hello, pretty little mudblood."

I've added 700 words to this chapter alone. I should only be editing it but here we are. Nov23,2022.

Vanee