Hello again. First of all sorry for the almost cliffhanger I will explain everything in this slightly shorter chapter. Thank you to the Anonymous reader who reviewed! And happy Fourth of July to all my fellow Americans!

Friday, June 24th 1999 (A half an hour earlier)

Carefully placing two plates down on his dining table from the china collection his mother gave to him when he moved into his house, Draco smiled. He had never really been the romantic type so all of this was new to him. He hoped he was doing it right.

After leaving the roses for Aurora, Draco went home to send a letter to his mother to tell her he passed. She replied right away telling him how proud she was of him and that she wanted to see him soon. Draco had yet to tell his mother that he had a girlfriend; he didn't know what she would think. Knowing his mother wasn't like his father, he knew the fact that Aurora was muggle born wouldn't be a problem. Maybe next time he went to visit her he would bring Aurora with.

Making sure his enchantments were still doing their job cooking the spaghetti and meatballs he decided on making for their dinner, Draco turned to look out the window facing the street. Living among muggles was entertaining and fascinating. They did very strange things such as used weird transportation devices called cars. He had seen them before that but wasn't sure what they were used for.

His neighbors were fairly curious of him since he didn't have one of those cars and he had a pet owl that carried letters. They probably thought he was a nutter.

His muggle watching was disrupted by a pop sound coming from the living room. Someone had just apparated into his home. Assuming it was Aurora he smiled and turned around. But he was sorely mistaken. There standing in his living room was the woman he hoped he would never see again. Pansy Parkinson. She was standing there in a very skimpy tight black shirt and skin tight black jeans. She looked the same as he had last seen her.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Draco asked rudely as he walked into the living room.

"I wanted to see you, Draco, I've missed you." She said as she slowly walked toward him.

"Pansy, I don't want anything to do with you. How did you even find me?" He demanded while backing away from her.

"Come on, Draco, you're not that hard to find. I hear you're an Auror now, who are you trying to fool?" She toyed as she kept trying to get closer to him.

"I'm different now Pansy. I don't want anything to do with you or the rest of the remaining death eaters. In fact as an Auror I plan on taking some of them out." He said matter of factly.

"You wouldn't dare betray your own father like that. He would be so… disappointed in you." Pansy said cruelly knowing that as a child all he wanted was to make his father proud of him.

"That doesn't matter now. Now get out." Draco growled, starting to get angry.

"Doesn't matter? That's all that used to matter to you. Your daddy's approval was all you cared about." She reminisced.

"It used to matter to me, I don't need his approval. I'm a better person now anyways." Draco lied, he was a better person but what his father thought of him still weighed on his mind.

"So what? You're a silly little Auror now. Do you know how many have been killed in the past year?" She asked rudely.

"Yes, I do. But do you know that there aren't that many of you left? By this time next year we wager you'll be all wiped out." He said in a snide tone.

"That's funny. Soon there will be none of you left." She said confidently.

"That's not true; now get out of my house." He demanded again.

"Oh come on Draco, don't you think we should pick up where we left off maybe?" Pansy said as she came so close their faces were inches apart.

"No. I don't want you anymore. You're a cruel bitch that tricked me into thinking that you actually cared for me when all you cared about was my family's status with Voldemort." Draco said as he pushed her off him.

"You know that's not true, how could you say that? I love you." Pansy said in her most convincing voice.

"No, you don't. Now leave before I have to force you out." Draco said angrily.

"I do love you! If you refused to believe it I'll just have to show you." She said, and without warning she quickly went up to him and kissed him. Her mouth was soft, but poisonous. For a moment he remembered what it was like back at Hogwarts when they were together. In a moment of memory he kissed her back for only a second but then realized what he was doing and pushed her away.

In that moment he felt a horrible feeling spread through his body as he quickly turned to the direction of his intuition. In that moment his stomach dropped, Aurora was standing on the sidewalk with a shocked look on her face, in the next moment she was gone. She disaparated.

Not even caring of the presence of Pansy he immediately tried to apparate into her apartment, but it failed. She must've enchanted it so no one could apparate inside.

Suddenly furious of what Pansy had just caused, he shouted at her, "GET OUT NOW OR I WON'T HESITATE TO KILL YOU!" The tone in his voice was unfamiliar to him, it was cruel and mean. Apparently terrified of him, Pansy disaparated.

Not sure of what to do next he stopped the spells that were still cooking the romantic dinner that would not happen. He knew that there was no way she would accept any of his explanations. Even though they were true he didn't think she would believe it. Still he thought it would be worth a try, he wasn't about to let her go that easily. He quickly apparated to the hallway above Ollivander's where her apartment was. Not planning out what he was going to say he rapped on her door loudly.

"Who is it?" Her beautiful voice that he would probably never hear again called through what sounded like tears. Just by her voice he could tell she was crying.

He knew that once he told her it was him she wouldn't open the door. He prepared for the last time he would hear her voice, for goodbye.

Sighing he called back to her, "It's me, Draco. I can explain it's not what you think!"

"Go away!" She almost yelled at him.

"As you wish." He said in a normal voice, he wasn't sure if she heard it but it didn't really matter. Aurora would never forgive him, if he were in her position and didn't know what had really happened he wouldn't either.

Feeling hopeless he apparated home to think about how the person that he came to care for the most in such a short time was now gone and he would probably never see her again.

. . .

Saturday, June 25th 1999

Throwing away yet another tissue, Aurora knew that she needed to get to sleep. It was two in the morning and she couldn't bring herself to get up from her couch which she had been in since she got home. She couldn't believe that Draco had cheated on her. She thought that he was such a sweet and nice guy. Obviously it was all a ploy.

When he came to talk to her all she wanted to do was let him in and let him explain but she knew all he would be telling her was lies. Getting up from her plush couch she made her way to her bedroom. Immediately upon entering she saw the roses that he had bought her earlier. Quickly she took them out of the vase and into the trash bin. She put on her pajamas and crawled into bed.

Four short hours later Aurora woke up to the cute little chime on her alarm clock. She was exhausted and heartbroken, knowing she would get an 'I told you so' from George, Aurora dreaded going to work. Knowing she probably looked horrible she quickly took a shower and got ready for work.

Leaving her apartment she hoped that this particular Saturday would be less busy, but she knew it wouldn't. Walking out she noticed that there were only a few people making their way to work or running early morning errands.

Walking into the store she turned on the lights and put her bag in the break room. She didn't think George was even awake yet, the store looked all stocked up and ready for opening time. Since she wasn't sure, Aurora walked up the stairs to George's office to check if he was awake. After knocking twice she waited for a response.

"Come in." She could hear George say in a tired voice. Going in she noticed his office was messier with new products in progress than it usually was.

"I'm surprised to see you awake at this time." Aurora told him as she stood in front of his desk.

"I couldn't sleep." George simply said.

"Why not?" Aurora asked caringly.

"Angelina's still angry with me, we had a row last night we sort of made up but it still doesn't feel right. At least she's still here." George explained trying to stay on the bright side.

"I don't think she would leave, she cares about you very much you know." Aurora said as he looked up at her.

"I know, I don't know why, I'm no good for her." He said sadly.

"Yes you are. To her the fact that you love her is good enough." Aurora said, her voice filled with sentiment for the couple.

"Thanks Aurora, that means a lot. Enough about me, it looks like you either had a really good, or really bad night." He said noticing her tired eyes.

"It wasn't a very good night but I don't know if I want to talk about it with you." She said nervously not knowing how he would react if he knew what happened.

"It's Draco isn't it?" He suggested. "But if you don't want to talk I understand."

"Yes, but I don't want to speak about it." She admitted to him.

"Well if you do want to talk I'll be right here." George sweetly offered.

"Thanks, I should go back downstairs now." Aurora said as she left the room before she started crying because of Draco again.

Aurora had to brave out the next few hours as hundreds of young and adult wizards came through the store buying fun little potions and trinkets. Usually she loved her job but today she couldn't see the joy in it. Every few minutes she would look out the window and remembered the first time she saw Draco. She never knew that one person could make her hurt so badly.

At noon she was relieved that it was her break so she could get away from all the people. As she went in she wasn't surprised to see Angelina there reading a witch magazine, obviously their fight had either blown over or wasn't such a big deal.

"Hey Aurora." Angelina said as she noticed Aurora walking in.

"Hi, how's it going?" She asked sitting next to her on the couch.

Putting down her magazine she said, "Alright, George told me that something happened with Draco, do you want to talk about it?"

Aurora sighed; she figured she would have to tell them what happened sooner or later. "I suppose. Well last night we made plans to meet up at his house because he wanted to celebrate passing his Auror exams, but when I got there I saw him snogging another woman."

"Do you know who the woman was?" Angelina asked, interested in her story.

"No, I've never seen her before. She was kind of short and had black hair." Aurora described as Angelina's eyes widened.

"Do you think you would recognize her if you saw a picture?" She asked.

"Yeah, probably." Aurora said, not really interested in seeing that woman again.

"Hold on." Angelina said as she got up and started rifling through newspapers on the table behind the couch. Finding what she was looking for she came back and sat right next to Aurora.

"Is this her?" Angelina pointed to a picture of a list of names and pictures of death eaters still on the loose that people needed to look out for. Immediately Aurora knew it was her. The name under the picture was one she didn't recognize.

"Yeah, it is." Aurora said. Seeing her just brought back the memory in even more clarity.

"That bitch!" Angelina swore.

"Do you know her?" Aurora asked, suddenly curious about who the woman might be.

"Yes, that's Pansy Parkinson. The little bitch almost turned Harry over to the death eaters before the battle at Hogwarts. She's been loyal to the death eaters her whole life. Draco and Pansy were an item during school for at least a year. I always remember her being rather annoying actually. I can't imagine why she would want anything to do with him knowing he's going to be an Auror." Angelina revealed to her.

"I don't know." Aurora admitted as she sat back in the couch taking in the information that was just thrown at her.

"Does he know that you saw?" Angelina asked putting down the newspaper.

"Yes, but right when he saw me I disaparated." She clarified.

"Did he go after you to try to explain or anything? Angelina questioned .

"He came to my apartment, but I wouldn't let him in. I just thought that he would lie to me about it." Aurora told her as she felt tears welling up in her eyes.

"I think you did the right thing, if you let him in he probably would've been able to convince you of something that wasn't true." Angelina agreed with her decision.

"I suppose. So, are you and George ok? He told me you argued last night." Aurora asked, wanting to change the subject.

"Were alright now. I pretty much told him that I'd had enough of his drinking and that if he didn't stop I would leave him. He was angry at first and told me that if I didn't like it I should leave, then he went down to his office for a while until around two in the morning. He came and woke me up and apologized and all that. Hopefully he will stop." Angelina explained the situation as she folded her arms.

"Do you think you'll really leave him if he doesn't?" She asked.

"I really don't know, I know I should but I don't know if I could."

"I can imagine it would be difficult."

"Yeah, well we should probably get back to work." Angelina suggested.

"Alright." Aurora said as she got up from the couch and back into the store.

Throughout the next few grueling hours of work, all Aurora wanted to do was go home. When the end of the day finally rolled around she shut down the store as quickly as she could. It took a few minutes to get to her apartment since it was the busiest day of the week at Diagon Alley, but when she did get there she immediately put her bag down and went to her bedroom and fell asleep.

. . .

Draco sat restlessly at the Auror department at the ministry. He was attending a meeting for all the Auror trainees that passed. There were only a few that didn't. The graduation ceremony would be in five days. Now he knew that the only person that would be there for him was his mother. He also knew that Aurora would be there, not for him, but for her friends Harry and Ron.

After the meeting they were to discuss when their first mission would be and who they would be going with. It didn't matter to him anymore when he was leaving or for how long, the longer the better he thought. It would give him time to not think about Aurora or what had happened. Not only did he loose Aurora, but Ames too, after she told him what happened.

Draco sighed as the meeting ended and everyone was getting up to be assigned to their missions. They formed a line in front of Phil, he handed them a sheet of paper with all the information concerning when they would be leaving, what they would be doing, the length of the mission, and precisely where they would be.

Last in line Draco was the only trainee left in the room as he approached Phil.

"Ah, Draco, just the person I wanted to speak with." He said as he handed him his assignment. "I hope you don't mind that your mission is the soonest of all of them. You leave the day after graduation."

"That's just fine with me. But, why did you assign me the soonest?" Draco asked curiously.

"Because I knew you could handle it. It's not that far away of a mission, its only in Scotland. But it is very important, you will be tracking down some of Voldemort's closest followers. Finding them and taking them down won't be easy. That is why I will be accompanying you." He revealed to him.

"But, don't you have more trainees to teach?" Draco asked.

"Someone will be taking over my job for a while. I needed a break from teaching so the Auror department placed me on a mission." Phil explained. "The morning after graduation I need you to meet me in my office at precisely ten in the morning. I can't say how long we will be away but its sounds like around a month."

"Alright, sounds good." Draco concluded the conversation.

"See you on Thursday." Phil said as Draco left the room.

Draco could hardly believe that he would be leaving so soon, he knew he would leave soon after training but he thought it would be at least a couple weeks. He was glad that he would have Phil with him to help him on the mission.

Leaving the Ministry, Draco had already made plans to visit his mother that day. She had insistent that he come see her before graduation. Now he didn't have anything else to do.

He apparated from the main floor at the Ministry to the giant looming gate at Malfoy Manor. Opening the gate with the password that had been in effect since before he was born, he walked down the long walkway to the house. It was pretty intimidating for anyone who wasn't used to having such a large and extravagant home.

He rang the doorbell and waited. Moments later his mother opened the door with a smile on her face.

"Draco darling, it's so nice to see you." She said as she pulled him into a hug.

"It's nice to see you too, Mum." Draco said as he walked into the luxurious manor. His mother had obviously been using her time rearranging furniture and redecorating. It hardly looked like he remembered it.

They sat down in the plush living room with a simple black and white theme. Draco got comfortable in the familiar leather couch.

"So how have you been, Draco?" His mother caringly asked.

"I've been pretty good. How have you been?" Draco asked, keeping it simple, he didn't want to let his mother in on what happened with Aurora, he didn't think it was necessary because she would never meet her anyway.

"I've been busy with all of this renovating and redecorating, but I enjoy the new look of this old place." Narcissa said.

"It looks very nice." Draco complimented.

"Thank you. Draco, I am so proud that you completed your Auror training." She said with a smile on her face.

"That means a lot mum, thanks." Draco said, his mother's approval of him was always important to him even though he already knew she would always love him no matter what.

"So when are you leaving for your first assignment?" She asked, obviously nervous for the safety of her son.

"A week from today." He said almost wincing; not knowing how his mother would react.

"A week? Isn't that a bit soon? You will only have just graduated." Narcissa said hysterically.

"I know, I wasn't expecting to leave so soon." Draco calmly explained.

"Well I don't want you to get hurt, please be careful." She said calming down a bit.

"I'll be careful, don't worry mum." He assured her.

"I'll try not to. On another note, I learned that the soonest we can visit your father at Azkaban is August 15th. Do you think you would like to come with me?" She asked, truly not sure whether he would come or not.

"I think so, I'm still surprised they starting letting people visit their family members. It seems quite odd considering the high security of the prison."

"Yes, it is a unique opportunity that we should take advantage of." Narcissa said frankly.

For the next few hours Draco caught up with his mother and they had lunch in the parlor served by her many house elves. He remembered all the good times he had in the manor before his school days had begun. Not having any siblings he didn't really have anyone to play with so he made his own fun. Usually it would be playing pranks on the house elves.

When it was time for him to leave he hugged and kissed his mother on the cheek. After lingering on the porch for a minute he disaparated home for the second lonely night without Aurora.