Hello! I know the past few chapters have been a bit boring but I promise it will be better very soon. This is a big chapter you guys. Anyway thank you to chocolateKATE, Beauty422, and Eruthiawen Vanyalanthiriel for reviewing! P.S. I'm trying to go for longer chapters.

Thursday, July 15th, 1999

Walking back from assessing the barrier, yetagain, Draco began to feel anxiousness rising in his stomach. How on earth would they be able to get through and defeat all of the possible death eaters inside it alone? There just was no way. They didn't even have a way to know how many of them there would be in there.

"Phil, how do you assume we get through that thing?" Draco asked referring to the barrier as he pushed aside a rouge branch from a pine tree.

"Well it's no question that we will need more help, perhaps another ten to fifteen Aurors, if we can get that many. I can only expect that it's not just them in there, in order for them to get power it they couldn't be alone. They will have followers. When we get back to the cabin I'll send an owl over to the Ministry request assistance." Phil explained thoughtfully.

"How long do you think it will take for the Ministry to get them here?" Draco asked.

"It might take a day or so to get the letter back into the ministry and another few days to round up some off duty Aurors. So five days, maybe more, it's hard to tell. It really depends on how high of a priority it is to the Ministry. Death Eaters are their main target now." Phil responded while doing the math in his head.

"What do we do until then?" Draco asked trying to see what they would possibly do for up to five days.

"I think we're going to need to brush up on our dueling skills, we don't know what kind of dark magic they and their followers know. This isn't going to be a clean match. Some of their followers may flee immediately but Greyback and Dolohov will not go down without a fight." Phil said assuredly.

"So when we do get in are we going in to capture or… kill?" Draco asked apprehensively. In all his life, he had never killed a human soul.

"Preferably capture, we can't get much information out of them if they're dead. But, if a situation arises where we have no other choice, then we would have to kill." He said, "It's rare that we kill a death eater on site, they're much more useful in questioning if they're alive."

Approaching the desolate cabin Draco tried to take in the information Phil had just stated. Even though they were death eaters, since he hadn't killed anyone before he didn't know if he could. He had never practiced the killing curse either.

He knew exactly why he couldn't kill Dumbledore, it wasn't because he had never used the killing curse before or even that he felt like he had to, he didn't want to. Draco didn't want to kill one of the only people who could defeat Voldemort.

But death eaters were a completely different breed of human. Greyback wasn't even that. Nervous as he was, he knew he would do whatever it took to eliminate the rise of death eaters.

Entering the small cabin, Draco waited as Phil scribbled down a letter on a spare piece of stationery to the Ministry calling for more Aurors to help in their mission. He hoped that they would heed their letter seriously enough to send help out quickly.

"Hopefully they will see this as a high priority, I don't really doubt that they won't. The Auror department has had it out for Greyback for years now, even before the war. I'm sure they will jump at the chance to get him into Azkaban." Phil said assuredly.

"Yes, he's killed many innocent people, including tens of muggles. He's turned many people into the awful life of being a werewolf. Do you think some of their followers will be werewolves?" Draco asked as the though dawned on him.

"Most definitely, probably the majority of them will be, which is why we need to practice dueling specifically for werewolves. They have more physical power than we do; they're stronger and much faster. It's starting to get dark now; we'll begin in the morning."

"Alright, goodnight." Draco succinctly said.

"Night." Phil said as he went into the bedroom next to Draco's.

Draco ran his fingers through his light blonde hair as he walked into his bedroom. In the dark room he could see the full moon outside his window and he smirked at the irony. But werewolves were no joke, they were one of the most dangerous magical creatures. He had never been up against one before, so he was glad he would soon learn how to defend himself against them.

After fumbling around for his pajamas he put them on and lay down on the small bed the cabin provided. There was a soft crinkling sound as he lay down, in a moment he realized that he had not even looked to see if his owl had returned.

"Lumos," he said as he pulled his wand out to look for the letter beneath him.

He finally located the thin letter on the bed and held up the light pink envelope. He noticed that Aurora had gotten new stationery since the old letters were always white. He opened the letter and held his wand close to it so he could read it.

Draco,

I have very exciting news, at George's party this evening George and Angelina announced their engagement! I don't think anyone there was expecting it, I sure wasn't. I truly do hope that your mission is nearing an end. It seems like forever since I've seen you. I miss you. Stay safe.

Aurora

Draco smiled at how obviously excited she was about the engagement between George and Angelina. He hardly knew the couple but he was happy for them. He was glad to see there was some normalcy going on elsewhere.

Clearly, he wanted the mission to be over soon also so he could return home and see Aurora again, but he knew that in order for it to be over they would have to face serious danger and he'd be lucky to scrape by unscathed. He was nervous that they would fail, that they wouldn't catch either Greyback or Dolohov.

Draco knew that the minute they attack the group of death eaters, his life would be in jeopardy. He also knew that once they left the cabin to go after the death eaters they wouldn't come back to it. For safety measures, different Aurors would retrieve their things after the mission.

They had no way of knowing when the other Aurors would be arriving so Draco recognized that it was safer to not send back to Aurora in case by the time it got back they wouldn't be there. Reminding himself of this fact he looked over to the drawer at his bedside table where he kept all of the letters from Aurora, he knew that if they fell into the wrong hands Aurora could be in serious danger.

Draco opened the little drawer and gently took out the letters. Looking at them longingly for the last time he hesitantly set them on the tabletop.

"Incendio," he whispered. Immediately, the letters went up in flames and in moments they were just ashes.

"Evanesco," he whispered again. With the second spell the ashes disappeared. He felt dreadful that he had to dispose of something he had held dear the past few weeks. But he knew it had to be done to ensure Aurora's safety.

. . .

Click clack, click clack. The sound of the old fashioned cash register reverberated over and over in Aurora's mind as she rung up yet another customers purchase. The past couple days she had been on the dreadful task of register duty. It was boring and monotonous, but she was glad that on this day she switched to stock room duty after lunch.

After her lunch break Aurora headed to the stock room in the back to clean up and take account of all of the products. The stockroom itself was decently sized, with the recent growth of the business it had become stuffed with products. Aurora knew that George was thinking of expanding the business to Hogsmeade. There was no doubt that it would get many customers there.

A while later Aurora heard the sound of the stock room door open and close. She looked over to see Angelina walking towards her with the other stock room clipboard.

"Good afternoon." Aurora greeted her.

"Hey," Angelina replied while smiling as she looked down the list on her clipboard.

"How are you today?" Aurora asked, making small talk.

"I'm great, how are you?" She responded. Angelina looked to have a happy glow around her all that day, Aurora could tell that her friend was brimming with cheerfulness.

"Pretty good. Thanks for inviting me last night, it was really a fun time." Aurora said while organizing the newest product, Chameleon Concoctions, at WWW.

"No problem, I'm glad you had fun." Angelina said.

"Have you told your parents yet about the engagement?" Aurora asked, moving on to the next item on the list.

"Yeah, we wanted to tell them before we told our friends, just in case. George's mum was very excited to say the least, she's already started planning." Angelina said, not seeming to mind.

"You've already set a date?" Aurora questioned, surprised.

"Well we haven't officially set it, but we're thinking about New Year's Eve." Angelina said and smiled.

"That would be fun, a new year's wedding. Is thinking it will be at the Burrow?" Aurora asked referring to Angelina's future mother in law, "Like George's brother Bill's wedding?"

"Yes, but I actually like the idea and so does George, neither of us care too much about the location. That's really all the planning we've done so far, but I know I'll have to start soon. Weddings are a big thing to plan." Angelina said excitedly.

"Yes, they are. Well at least you have the location down; I'm assuming that's one of the most challenging things to lock down."

"That is a huge relief too. But, I'm excited to pick out flowers, get a dress, bridesmaids dresses, the bachelorette party." Angelina said as she daydreamed.

"It'll all be a lot of fun." Aurora said imagining all of the antics that would no doubt ensue at the bachelorette party.

"Yeah, I honestly can't wait to start planning. The absolute first thing that I want to do is find a dress." Angelina confessed getting even more enthused over the details.

"Who will you take with when you go to buy a dress?" Aurora inquired.

"Well probably my mum, , and my bridesmaids." Angelina said thoughtfully.

"I'm sure would be thrilled to go, since she still has quite a time to wait until Hermione and Ron actually get married." Aurora said referring to how Ron and Hermione had decided to wait in their engagement.

"That's what I thought too. I don't really know why they're engaged already even though they don't plan to get married until a couple years." Angelina confessed, "But I guess it really doesn't matter."

"Who knows? Well I'm all done; I'll talk to you later." Aurora said as she checked off the last item on her list.

"Alright, see ya." Angelina said.

As Aurora left the stock room to stock the shelves of the items she just checked, she thought of her own future wedding. It was something she had thought about since she was a little girl. Like any normal girl, she had imagined herself walking down the aisle in a beautiful gown beside her father. But, she knew that one aspect of her perfect fantasy could never happen, her father was gone. She would walk alone.

As a child, she had always envisioned the man at the end of the aisle to be some sort of a prince charming. She never anticipated what he may have looked like, just what he would be like. Obviously he wouldn't be perfect but if she was willing to marry him, she would think him to be close to it.

. . .

Tuesday, July 20th 1999

"Ron, stop being so bitter, you're bringing us all down." Ginny scolded her brother as the three of them sat eating lunch in the break room.

"I'm not being bitter!" Ron argued as he took another large bite of his sandwich.

"Oh come on, you had to know George wouldn't pick you. Lee's been his best friend since his first year. You two hardly spend any time with each other anyway." Ginny tried to explain to him.

"Yes, but I'm his brother!" Ron debated back.

"What does that have anything to do with it? I don't know why you care so much; you know you'll be Harry's best man." Ginny tried to reason with him.

"Harry? Harry isn't getting married." Ron rebutted.

Ginny rolled her eyes, "Well when we do you know he'll pick you."

"How do you know you two will get married then?" Ron questioned.

"Oh come on Ron, don't be ridiculous. When are you just going to accept that me and Harry are together, for good." Ginny stated.

"I know you are, but you're not engaged, that's all." Ron said admitting defeat.

Aurora laughed quietly to herself as the two siblings bickered. They were of course conversing George's decision to make Lee Jordan his best man over the weekend. She wasn't really surprised; she had already assumed that was who he was going to choose considering how good of friends they were. She honestly didn't know why Ron was so offended. She honestly didn't think that it was that big of a deal. It wasn't like he was left out of being in the wedding entirely. He was still a groomsman.

"It's not that big of a deal anyway, you would actually have to help plan stuff if you were the best man." Ginny added.

"That's true, I suppose. It's no doubt that Lee will throw one hell of a bachelor party, probably a better one then I could set up." Ron chuckled to himself.

"Has Angelina said anything about her maid of honor?" Ginny asked Aurora, curious of the decision.

"No, not really. I don't think she has decided yet, either that or she hasn't told anyone who it is yet." Aurora said.

"Oh ok. Well she'll probably say something about it soon considering they've decided to have the wedding in five months." Ginny concluded.

"It is an awful short engagement isn't it?" Ron enquired passively.

"Maybe not, if they're ready to get married and are willing to do the planning in a short amount of time, then why not?" Ginny asked.

"That's what I thought too, I'm not really one to judge. They seem ready, they already live together." Aurora added.

"That's true; it definitely takes patience when living together." Ginny said, speaking from experience since her and Harry had been living together for months.

"That's for sure." Ron agreed, then a few seconds later added, "Don't tell Hermione I said that."

"I won't." Ginny replied succinctly. "Anyway, are you all ready to leave for your first mission on Thursday?"

"As ready as I'll ever be. I'm not really nervous or anything. Aurora, do you know anything about what's going on with Malfoy's mission?" Ron asked, obviously not comfortable with calling him his first name because of previous grudges.

"Unfortunately no, he's not exactly allowed to say anything in case the letters get interjected and gets into the wrong hands. I just know that he said it's nearing its end." Aurora said.

"That's what I thought you would say, but what I was getting at is that the Ministry was actually sending out backup Aurors to Phil Montgomery's mission. That's his partner right?"

"From what I've gathered, yes. What does it mean when they send in backup?"

"It means that they've most likely found who or what they've been looking for." Ron explained.

"So it does mean it'll be over soon?" Aurora asked hopefully.

"If everything goes as planned, yes." Ron said.

. . .

"The magical obstruction is about two miles northeast. It seems pretty solid from my observations. They will know the second it is broken. We'll have the element of surprise on our side but only for a moment, we'll have to act fast." Phil said explaining the situation to another Auror.

The Aurors Phil had sent for days before had finally arrived. There were twelve of them; they were all obviously quite a bit older and more experienced than Draco. Draco didn't recognize or know any of them except for Peter Jefferson, the man Draco had dueled against in his Auror training exams. The fact that they sent out one of the most skilled Aurors said a lot about the dangers and the priority of the impending battle.

"Any idea how many of them are in there?" Peter asked referring to the death eaters.

"No, we could never be sure." Phil said sighing as he rested his hands on the table.

"Well either way we need to focus on getting Greyback, Dolohov is of big importance too but we've had too many innocent and muggle deaths at the hands of Greyback to let him slip away again. He most likely will not run from us, he put up one hell of a fight." Peter told the group.

"The majority of his followers might flee. We won't worry about them too much, but if we already have Dolohov and Greyback we might as well catch them too." Phil mentioned. "Be aware that some of them could be werewolves, don't let them get close enough to you to figure it out."

"Are we all ready to head out?" Peter asked looking for approval in the men's faces.

Draco's heart beat fast in his chest, this would be the first time that he was in any real danger while dueling someone. He could get seriously injured, or even killed. But, he knew that he had to prove himself. This was his chance to be redeemed.

"We've already set up a portkey to get there so we don't waste any time walking or making separate apparating trips." Phil said pointing to an old ratty wizarding robe as they all exited the small and cramped cabin.

Phil had found the old robes in his room at the cabin and figured it would be suitable. They had tested it out a couple times to make sure it would do the job. Hesitantly, Draco walked over to the portkey with the rest of the Aurors.

"Brace yourselves." One of the Aurors warned.

All at once they grabbed the robes and suddenly Draco felt himself quickly rising from the ground and a rough pull in his stomach. Moments later, he hit the ground with a loud thump, he still hadn't mastered the landing quite yet.

Getting up, he looked around to see the rest of the Aurors landing back on the ground, some brushing themselves off, and waiting for orders. They were about twenty yards away from the edge of the imperceptible barrier.

Peter, who had already arrived, calmly spoke to the Aurors, "In a moment, I will open this wall and when I do, do not hesitate. Find Greyback and Dolohov, do not go after their minor followers unless they pose a threat to you."

As he walked up to the barrier, the other Aurors followed, wands drawn. Peter raised his wand and muttered a spell of immense power, as the ground shook and he spoke it. Instantly, there was a pop noise and the barrier disappeared.

In that split second the Aurors around Draco sprang into action, he quickly caught on and followed them. As they sprinted into the barrier, Draco observed the area around him; there were several tents set up and little fires lit outside of them. All around there were death eaters awaking and without hesitation, shouting spells and curses at the Aurors.

The Aurors split off in different directions looking for Greyback and Dolohov. Some blew the tents from the ground to reveal whoever was inside it. Draco opted to keep going forward. Left and right there were Aurors dueling with the followers, there were so many of them they seemed to be coming out of the forest floor.

Drawing his wand, Draco stupefied one of the death eaters quickly approaching from his left. Suddenly a spell hit him from the right and he flew backward hitting the side of one of the many empty tents lining the camp. Draco hastily gathered his bearings and got back up to see the death eater who had jinxed him.

"Expelliarmus!" Draco said pointing his wand at the approaching wizard. The wand flew out of its owners hand into Draco's. He snapped the wand in two and threw it to the ground, rendering the death eater helpless and defenseless.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Draco cursed. The death eater's body froze on the spot and fell over with a thump.

Moving on, Draco could see the various Aurors fighting off the remaining followers of Greyback and Dolohov. Hearing a deep guttural growl Draco swung around to see Peter and a few other Aurors fighting the notorious Fenrir Greyback. There were curses flying at the creature and they seemed to have almost overpowered him when Draco saw in the distance a figure in his peripheral vision rapidly disappearing from the scene.

Upon fixing his eyes on the figure he noticed that it was a man and he had dark hair and a burly figure. Draco recognized him as none other than Antonin Dolohov. Immediately after identifying the man, Draco took off as fast as he could after him.

"Stupify!" Draco shouted pointing his wand at the quickly disappearing Dolohov. The spell hit him and he coasted in the air and hit the ground with a hard smack. This gave Draco a minimal amount of time to catch up with him as Dolohov got the wind back into him.

Now ten yards or so away from the Death Eater, Draco stopped and raised his wand. Dolohov had gotten up and was also staring him down.

"Ah, what a surprise, Lucius's boy. Draco is it?" Dolohov taunted as he walked closer to Draco, whose wand was still raised.

Draco thought it best not to reply to the man.

"Traitor, your father was, if you ask me. He told the ministry anything they asked, I heard. But still he ended up in Azkaban? Pity. But you, mommy's little angel, escaped scot free." Dolohov teased at him. The man had stayed at their manor which had been converted into a sort of headquarters for them during the final months of the war and soon caught on to the doting nature of Draco's relationship with his mother.

"And even now you don't have the guts to curse me, do you?" He continued.

Not wanting to hear any more of his pathetic taunting, Draco took action and cursed the death eater, "Expelliarmus!"

Dolohov's wand flew out of his hand into the depths of the forest. Shocked at the sudden spell, a dumb look spread across his face.

"Not so easy to taunt when you don't have any way to defeat me, Antonin." Draco said.

And yet again, Dolohov ran, as if it would help him escape his fate. Draco ran after him shouting curses, only for Dolohov to dodge the most of them.

"Incarcerous!" Draco shouted, out of breath. To his surprise, the curse hit Dolohov and immediately coiled him up in ropes. Exhausted from the chase, Draco walked over to the fallen Death Eater. Dolohov was struggling in the ropes to no avail.

"Immobulus." Draco said pointing his wand at the man. Immediately, his struggles stopped as he was rendered paralyzed in the ropes.

Suddenly, Draco became aware of the faint sound of footsteps on the dead pine needles creeping up behind him. Just as he turned around to see who was there he heard a familiar voice and word before he saw a bright light and then, nothing.

. . .

Wednesday, July 21st, 1999

Near the end of the work day Angelina and Ron were chatting near the back of the store while fixing up the shelves and demonstrating toys to the young customers when Angelina noticed an older man she vaguely recognized enter the store with a grave look on his face.

"Ron, who's that?" Angelina asked, poking him in the shoulder.

"Huh, odd, that's Phil Montgomery. The head of Auror training, wonder why he's here." Ron pondered.

Momentarily, Phil spotted them and made his way over to them.

"Phil, what's going on?" Ron asked him, knowing that he wasn't the kind of man to show up in a joke shop.

"I'm uh, looking for Ms. Aurora Adams, is she here?" Phil asked awkwardly, he always hated to be the one that had to bring bad news.

Catching on to what was happening, Angelina gasped, "Oh my god, is he… dead?" She asked trying to keep her voice down while referring to Draco.

Phil looked down and sighed, "Not quite."

"I think it'd be best if you get her," Ron said, "I think she's in the back room."

A moment later, Angelina hesitantly left to retrieve Aurora.

"What happened?" Ron asked.

"We don't really know, he was alone. Managed to take down Dolohov on his own so that we have him in custody, but someone else cursed him and Dolohov won't tell us a thing." Phil explained.

"How do you know it wasn't Dolohov?" Ron questioned.

"Because Dolohov was bound and unconscious." Phil told him as they saw Angelina returning with a confused and worried Aurora.

"I better go." Ron said and went away.

"Aurora Adams?" Phil asked her identity.

"Yes, that's me." Aurora said nervously wringing her hands.

"I'm sorry I have some unfortunate news, Mr. Malfoy was severely injured in combat, he is currently being treated at St. Mungo's on the fourth floor if you would like to see him. The healers are already informed of who you are so there will be no trouble getting in to see him." Phil explained carefully.

Shocked and scared for Draco's condition she knew there was no way she would not go to St. Mungo's. "How did you know to contact me?" She asked quietly.

"You were the first on his list of emergency contacts if something were to ever happen to him. I could take you to St. Mungo's now if you'd like." Phil offered.

"Yes, that would be nice." Aurora said, as she had never been to St. Mungo's before.

After saying a quick goodbye to Angelina, Phil took Aurora's arm and apparated her to the lobby of the fourth floor of St. Mungo's.

The hospital was mostly white and in the lobby there was a large desk and a friendly looking woman standing behind it writing with a fancy peacock feathered quill. Aurora could see numerous rooms down a hall that curved around a corner.

"He's in room 412, it's just around the corner there. He wasn't awake a little while ago, but I don't know if he is now." Phil told her.

"Thank you." She said shyly as the man disappeared before her eyes.

Nervously, Aurora walked down the quiet hallways looking at the room numbers as she went along. After turning the bend her heart raced as she counted up the room numbers, 408, 409, 410, 411, and finally, 412.

Before opening the door, Aurora took a deep breath. When she did open the door she saw a healer replacing a bloody bandage on Draco's shoulder and whispering a spell.

"Oh, Hello. You must be Ms. Adams." The young woman said.

"Yes, I am." She said quietly. "Could you tell me what's going on?"

"Well, sort of. We don't know what curse he was hit with, so we're not sure how to treat him. There isn't a known curse that does this sort of damage. We're not quite sure when he will wake up, could be today, could be next week."

"Oh, ok." Aurora said, not sure of how to take in the information.

"I'll just leave you two alone now." The healer said noticing Aurora's anxiousness.

After the woman left, Aurora took a good look at Draco for the first time since she had arrived. He had bandages all over his body. Since they didn't know the curse, they must not have known how to heal it properly. His face had a slight cut on his cheek, but other than that it was the same as always.

Aurora sat down on the strategically placed chair next to the bed he was on and sighed. She had no idea what to do, how to feel, or what to say to him, if anything.

From the looks of him, Draco seemed to have been hurt very badly. Almost his entire torso was covered with gauze and bandages. He would most likely be in a lot of pain when he awoke.

For a long while Aurora sat and watched his chest go up and down as he breathed. What if he didn't make it? What if the spell had done something inside of him that they were unaware of?

Carefully, Aurora placed her small hand on his. Before she even knew it, the touch had brought a tear in her eye. This was really happening; Draco could possibly die if they didn't figure out what happened to him.

Throughout the night, Aurora watched and waited for any response from Draco. She had even tried talking to him at certain points, but to no avail.