The Next Day

Closing the front door of his home shut behind him, Draco stepped out onto the street and took a quick look around. Deciding that no muggles were watching him, he apparated just outside of the Leaky Caldron.

He had decided to take a little detour on his way to training that morning. As he walked down the cobblestoned streets he observed merchants opening up their carts and store owners unlocking their doors for another day's business.

Draco continued along the road for a bit until he came upon Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. He secretly hoped that as he passed by that he would see the mysterious woman he saw the day before. Holding his breath, he slowly walked past the window and looked in.

There she was, behind the counter helping a school-aged girl. She looked just as gorgeous as she had the day before. Thinking he didn't want to get caught looking at her again like a creep, he quickly moved on his way.

As he entered the Ministry of Magic he looked around at the marble walls and flooring. After the war the Ministry had been restored to its original glory. Gone was the disturbing statue that was placed during the war.

Draco made his way through the other witches and wizards milling around to the elevator. He squeezed inside the quickly closing doors and pressed the button for the second to the bottom level. The level where the Aurors were trained, it was a rather large floor, but you wouldn't guess it from its location.

Waiting his turn to get off he observed the others in the elevator. There was a short man with a goatee wearing a long trench coat; there was also a rather tall woman with bright red hair wearing a tight skirt and a very revealing blouse.

Normally any man would be checking her out, she was good looking by societies standards. But, Draco wasn't like that. In fact she wasn't really his type; he had never really been attracted to thin girls. Or women who were taller than him for that matter.

Finally, the elevator door opened on his floor. He stepped off the elevator and proceeded to the dueling room. The large room had a dome ceiling bewitched to look like a starless night, there were no windows and all the walls and floors were padded. The first time he had seen it he thought it looked oddly familiar to the psychiatric ward at St. Mungo's. He still found it a little creepy.

Every day the trainees had a different partner to spar with, the pairings were posted daily on the bulletin board outside the room. Only a few people had arrived at the time so he walked up to the board and searched for his name.

Draco Malfoy – Ronald Weasley

He sighed loudly at his unfortunate luck. Even though Draco had nothing against the Weasley, he knew that Ron had hated him since first year. But, he knew he had been a bit of a prat in school. Well this will be interesting, he thought.

Taking his place on the left side of the room, Harry and Ron walked in the room together. They still seemed to be almost attached at the hip. He waited as they both looked at the list. After a moment Ron let out a huge sigh of resentment and turned and glared at Draco.

Harry, having forgiven Draco after the trial, shrugged it off and wiped his face with his hand and went to his designated area of the arena.

Ron went to the opposite side of Draco and continued glaring at him. Draco smirked to himself at Ron's obvious discomfort.

The head of the Auror Training Department, Phil Montgomery, came into the room.

Everyone turned to him for the signal to begin.

"Today I will put two minutes on the clock and in those two minutes you will duel your partner, there will be no winner. This particular exercise is to teach you how to swiftly defeat your opponent." Phil announced to the trainees. "Also I do not want any permanently damaging spells flying around the room. Begin!"

With that the room was lit up with curses and spells. Draco turned his attention to the red haired man across from him trying to think of clever spells to send his way.

"Flipendo!" Draco said as he aimed his wand at his opponent. As the spell hit Ron, he fell backwards onto the cushioned floor as his face turned bright red with anger.

He quickly got back onto his feet and yelled, "Stupefy!"

Draco flew back and hit the wall behind him, as he fell he broke the fall with his hands before he fell face first. He scrambled to his feet and said, "Expelliarmus!"

Ron's wand flew out of his hand and gave him a dumb look, "Really?"

Annoyed, Draco replied. "Fine, not good enough for you? Incarcerous!"

In an instant Ron was tangled in ropes, he squirmed trying to access his wand but failed. Draco snickered as he watched him trying to untangle himself.

The bell signaling the end of the duel rang and all of the curses were lifted. The ropes entangling Ron disappeared as he grunted and got onto his feet.

For the rest of the training day they practiced dueling and quickly disabling an opponent. Draco was about ready for this whole training thing to be over, he had only a month left until graduation.

Then he would be able to go out on assignments, and perhaps catch a few of his father's old friends. The same men who tried to turn him into one of them, an evil man with a tainted soul. Draco thought of the person he had almost become every day. The look on their faces would be priceless when they would be caught by the son of a Death Eater.

Finally, the day was over and got back into the dreaded elevator. Unlike in the morning the elevator was filled will all of the future Aurors. He was squished between Harry and some other man he had never met. Draco certainly did not like to be in such close proximity to another man.

The elevator made a dinging sound as he doors opened onto the main floor. He made his way toward the main entrance and exit. Maneuvering his way around the other wizards and witches he got in one of the red telephone booths and closed the door.

A woman's voice sounded from the speaker in front of him. "Name and occupation please?"

"Draco Malfoy, Auror in training." He spoke clearly.

"Destination?" The voice asked him.

He thought for a moment. London which would take him straight home, or Diagon Alley, which would give him another chance to see the woman at the Weasley's store. He didn't have to think about it long before he knew which he would choose.

"Diagon Alley." He said, very sure of himself.

"Thank you for visiting the Ministry of Magic and have a wonderful day." The woman's voice spoke.

The booth shook slightly before lowering itself into the ground. How curious, Draco thought. He had never taken this way out of the ministry. There was many different and odd entrances. The booth moved right then left then down. After about ten minutes in the dark, it finally went up again.

Draco could see light when he looked up. Soon he could see all of Diagon Alley as the booth door opened. Walking out onto the streets his legs were a bit wobbly from the odd contraption. He quickly made his way to the end of the street where Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes towered over all of the stores.

He continued casually walking until he came upon the window; he looked in silently hoping she would be there. Nothing. The space behind the counter was empty.

Disappointed, he quickly apparated to his bedroom. He sighed as he sat down on his springy bed. Why are you being such a twit? Nothing is going to happen if you just stalk her work every day! He silently made a pact to himself that the next time he saw her he would go in and say hello.

Confident in himself he got up and went downstairs to the kitchen. He had bought the home from muggles, so of course there were many muggle appliances throughout the home. It had taken him a few weeks to figure out how it all worked, but he decided that he rather liked what they called a 'refrigerator'.

It also took him a while to learn how to incorporate the muggle appliances with magic. He had learned to make a few simple meals with the combination, but he still had quite a bit to learn about cooking.

He had a few things he still had to learn about living on his own, Draco had had everything handed to him growing up and hadn't learned how to support himself. His mother even had to help him purchase the house. But once he started making a living on being an Auror he didn't want any more financial help.

. . .

Aurora woke up with a start. Breathing heavily she touched the side of her face and ran her hand through her long hair. She had had another nightmare, she'd been having them more and more often now.

A few weeks before the war at Hogwarts she had still been at Beauxbatons. The day had gone normally until they came. Death Eaters. She was in her Herbology class when it happened.

They had been learning about healing flowers, the Animore to be exact. It had the ability to cure headaches and minor migraines.

At first she thought it was just a potions explosion, but then she realized the sound was coming from outside the school. All of the other students in her class also took notice and stopped what they were doing to look around for the source of the noise.

But then, large pieces of brick and stone from the school came falling down onto the greenhouse roof. That's when she knew something was definitely wrong. Other students began to scream and panic, she couldn't remember exactly how she reacted because of what happened next.

Just when a huge boulder landed mere feet from her, two Death Eaters entered the greenhouse. They were masked and were both wearing black robes. In that moment her Professor, Professor Morris, stunned the one on the right. Moments after the other started throwing around curses.

All of the students ran out of the building, pushing each other to get out, Aurora also began to run until she noticed her best friend since first year, Georgina, was still standing in shock watching the whole scene.

"Georgina come on!" She yelled.

Georgina turned and ran toward her, but the fallen Death Eater had realized that all of the students were getting away. It all happened so quick…

"Avada Kadavra!" The first Death Eater yelled and the curse hit Georgina in the back.

Georgina fell limp in Aurora's arms as both of the Death Eaters ran from the greenhouse.

"No! No, Georgina, wake up!" She touched her friends face, it was cold as ice. Aurora knew she was gone, but she just didn't want to believe it. Feeling her eyes moisten she held Georgina close to her and began to cry.

After that she had to recognition of what had happened. She woke up in the hospital ward two days later. In the days following the attack she found out that Georgina was not the only casualty. Two other students and one teacher had also been killed in the attack. Along with them, many students were injured.

The Death Eaters had been killed by several of her Professors and fellow students. She was at least glad to know that her friend was avenged.

Tearing herself away from the terrible memory, she looked at her clock. Five a.m. She had to be at work by nine. I suppose it couldn't hurt to come in early she thought.

Getting up off her bed she straightened her clothes and walked into the bathroom. She turned on the light and looked in the mirror. Deciding that her hair was a complete mess and yesterday's makeup was smeared across her face, she turned on her shower to clean herself up.

She stripped off her clothes she hopped in the shower and felt the warm water rush over her body. After shampooing and conditioning her hair she turned off the water and grabbed a towel sitting on the toilet.

Wrapping it around herself she stepped out dried herself off. In her towel, she went back to her room to take out her clothes for work. There was never a set uniform or dress code, which Aurora always thought was odd but she went along with it. Putting on her clothes, she put her damp towel in her hair.

Walking back to the bathroom she looked back at the clock, 5:38 am. Yeah, she had a lot of time until work. Taking her time she put on her mascara and eyeliner, and that brown eye shadow she found that was very becoming to her complexion.

Deciding that she was presentable she left the bathroom and grabbed her bag. Since she had extra time she would pick up breakfast at her favorite muggle café. She walked out of her apartment and locked the door.

To make sure she would not be seen by muggles, she apparated in an alley way behind the coffee shop. Walking around to the front she noticed that the sun was just coming up over the horizon, it was a beautiful sight.

She walked in to the nearly empty shop. The woman behind the counter greeted her as she walked up. She ordered a coffee and a muffin.

Aurora stood and looked around the cute little café. It had pink walls with black polka dots and the tables were black and the chairs were a baby blue. She looked at the pictures on the wall of the old couple who owned the coffee shop.

She had heard recently that the old man had passed away, she felt sorry for his wife who must now own the shop on her own.

"Miss? Your coffee is ready." The barista called to her.

She stood up and retrieved her breakfast. Finding a table she sat down and took a sip of her hot drink.

After finishing her muffin, she got up and made her way to work, coffee in hand.

When she arrived at the hidden doors that lead to the Leaky Caldron, she looked around to make sure no muggles were looking and went in.

There was only a few wizards in the bar so early, many of them just passing through like she was. Diagon Alley this early in the morning was quiet, it was an odd sight really. She looked at her watch seven a.m. on the dot. She assumed that George would already be awake.

As she approached the store she could see that his office light was on, so she used her employee key and went in.

"George! It's just me!" She yelled up to him.

"Alright! Chip chop! Off to work with you then open up early!" George yelled back down.

With that she turned on all of the lights in the store and used her wand to turn on the open sign.