First Night

Draco was studying the woman before him as discreetly as he could manage. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying and her lips were a light shade of blue like she had been outside for hours. He frowned slightly as he wondered where she had really been this last day as it wasn't really that cold outside just yet. What made him even more curious was why his godfather's death had been kept a secret from the woman for so long.

The blond looked over at the house elves who were working non-stop on the preparations for tomorrow's breakfast. Some of them were singing happily, and others were stealing curious looks at the two humans invading their space. These days Draco found it peaceful to be in here as the elves never minded that he was there, some even talked to him and asked him questions about what was going on upstairs. Curious bunch, these elves. He looked at the female Auror as she got up from her chair smiling tiredly at him.

"Well, Mr Malfoy it's getting late. I should follow you back to the Slytherin dorm then find my colleagues." Draco could tell the woman was about to collapse in front of him.

"It's alright Auror Blackmoore, you seem tired. I can go back on my own." He stood up from his own chair and jumped a little at the strict look the woman was giving him.

"Sorry, Mr Malfoy but I am here to protect you after all so come on. Follow me please." He watched the brunette walk with a straight back towards the kitchen exit only to be stopped halfway by Mips.

"Misses! You will return right?" Auror Blackmoore got down on her knees and patted the elf's head reassuringly.

"Yes, Mips. I'll be here for as long as Mr Malfoy needs me. After that, I am taking you with me to London. Alright?" The tiny body of the elf could almost not contain her happiness as she started to dance around the Auror. Suddenly the creature turned and pointed a finger at Draco.

"Missters! You better thank Misses properly for her help!" The blonde blinked dumbly at the elf for a second before he nodded seriously. The elf seemed happy about his answer as she danced back to her station in the kitchen. He looked up at Auror Blackmoore confused.

"I have never met an elf that is so bossy before. She acts like a strict mother." The Auror started to laugh quietly.

"There is a story behind why that is. But not something worth telling tonight. Come now." They left the kitchen in silence and started the journey down to the dungeons.

Now that Draco was close enough he looked at her uniform more closely. From what he could remember she was a Senior Auror and her uniform should be a deep scarlet, not the deep green that it was. Now that he thought about it all of the Aurors who had been introduced today wore the same coloured uniforms as she did. His curiosity got the better of him in the end.

"Aren't you a Senior Auror? Why isn't your uniform scarlet?" She answered after a short while without looking at him.

"I hate that colour." Somehow she had put so much malice in that one sentence that Draco did not dare ask any more about it. As Draco was taking a left to go down the stairs towards the dungeons the Auror continued straight ahead. Puzzled he called out to her.

"Auror Blackmoore! The stairs down to the dungeons are over here." She turned around with a mischievous smirk.

"Yes, but the shortcut is over here." She pointed to a statue of a knight a little way down the hall. The Auror stood in front of the knight and said with a clear voice.

"Stand easy." Draco watched as the knight seemed to relax and move slightly out of the way uncovering a little hallway that the blond had never seen before. He quickly followed the woman inside and soon found out that there was a hidden staircase behind the knight going straight down. Lit torches were hanging on the walls evenly spread out to not make it too dark. When they reached the bottom a narrow corridor continued to the left. Auror Blackmoore walked confidently the entire time, it seemed like she knew this secret passage very well. Suddenly she came to a stop at what seemed like a dead end.

"Tap this stone with your wand four times would you?" Draco looked at the woman a little saddened.

"I'm sorry Auror Blackmoore but I don't have a wand on me. I am not allowed to have one outside of class." She looked at him with annoyance.

"Ah right, I'll see if I can do something about that. Well then." She tapped the stone she had pointed at earlier with her index finger four times and the stones immediately started to fold themselves into the wall, not unlike the entrance to Diagon Alley did. Draco's jaw dropped when he saw where they had ended up. They were standing inside the Slytherin common room. It being just past one o'clock in the morning meant that no students were lingering in the common room. The blond turned to look to where the exit was and turns out that it was right next to their fireplace.

"I never thought there would be a secret entrance to the common room." He said in awe while looking at the Auror. She grinned mischievously at him again.

"There is one into all of the four Houses. Only to be used in emergencies of course but these days most of the staff probably don't know about them anymore. Or the castle has moved the entrances to them around so they can't find them. This one still seemed to be in the right place though." She mumbled something he didn't hear as she stepped out into the room.

"Aah, how nostalgic. It looks just the same as it did back when I went to school here." Draco looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"You were a Slytherin?" The woman let out a harsh laugh.

"Oh no. I was a Gryffindor. Sadly. Well, where is your room hm?" Draco studied her openly now. It was the most respected house these days and usually brought you success, why anyone would be sad to be one was beyond him. He shook his head and pointed up the stairs towards the boys' bedrooms.

"I have the last room in the boys' hallway. The 'eight' years got our own rooms since there weren't many of us returning. That goes for the other houses too." She nodded at him while smiling.

"Well then, goodnight Mr Malfoy. I'll see you in the morning." Before Draco got to say anything else she went back into the small corridor they had just come out of and watched fascinated as the stones melted together again. It seemed like there was no door there at all now, no wonder he had never noticed it before. He was tempted to sit down on the sofa next to the fireplace but decided against it. It was probably better for him to try and get some sleep.

Draco stepped into his room and relaxed when it looked the same as it had been that morning. It looked just like the usual boys' living quarters except there was only one bed and a desk to the side. There had been a few incidents with people coming in and trashing his room in hopes of finding some dark artefact or some other nonsense. He had asked Blaise if he could put up some wards for him since he didn't have his own wand. Thankfully it seemed that it had worked.

While he stepped into the bathroom to brush his teeth he was reminded that this was probably something Auror Blackmoore would want to know. She could probably put up some heavy wards that could keep people out and maybe notify her if someone other than him was in there. He had to ask her about that in the morning. He felt his pride sting when he thought about asking for help on such a small matter but not having a wand made things difficult. These days he had to sit inside the Headmistress's office just to do his Transfiguration homework all while being watched by the woman like he was going to run away any second. He hated it. No matter what he did these days people were watching him, expecting him to mess up and end up in Azkaban.

Surprisingly Potter had gotten fairly polite with him over the past weeks and they could now even hold a somewhat civil conversation with each other. Thanks to Potter's nice way of treating him the rest of the Gryffindors had started to do the same. Weasley and he had even played a few rounds of chess in the Great Hall after dinner and Granger weren't so bad either. Of course, he had to apologise to all of them first, but that was a small price to pay for something that might be a token of friendship. Draco did have Blaise and Pansy here as well, but having someone outside of the Slytherin house being nice to him was a good thing.

He drank a few glasses of water before washing his face and changing into his pyjamas. He looked at himself in the mirror and was not surprised to see the dark circles under his eyes. His skin seemed transparent in the eerie light from the bathroom ceiling. Draco grunted in disgust at himself as he went over to the bed and laid down. He studied the roof of his bed in the dark and wondered if Auror Blackmoore had found her way to her new office. Then again the woman knew about the secret entrance to the Slytherin common room, so he didn't see a reason for her not to find it. He vaguely remembers the Headmistress saying that the Aurors would replace the Prefects in doing nightly rounds already starting tonight. So she might have met one of her colleagues in the hallways. Draco yawned suddenly and drew the blankets over him. Hopefully, it would be a peaceful sleep.

~ཐིཋྀ~

Artemis was walking towards the worried signal Orion was sending out through the bond. She had opened it again after she had left the Slytherin common room and regretted it almost immediately. The worried and sad emotions that came over her almost made her throw up. She leaned heavily against the wall for a second to regain her breath. She had not made up her mind yet on how to confront her friends on the matter that had happened earlier today. Anger and sorrow were still flowing through her veins like a tsunami but seeing Draco had somewhat calmed her enough to get her back to her senses. The boy was clearly not sleeping much if the dark circles under his eyes were anything to go by. The mission she had in front of her seemed clearer now, protect the boy and find a way to give him access to his wand outside of the classroom.

Suddenly she heard a familiar song coming from down the hallway and sure enough, Peeves came flying around the corner. The ghost stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her. After a little while, he carefully approached her.

"Little Demon? Is that really you?" She huffed at him.

"When will you stop calling me little? You are shorter than me you know. Stupid ghost." Peeve's face split into a huge grin and he started to laugh loudly and spin around in the air.

"Little Demon! It is you! My fellow mischief-maker is back, oh how I've missed you! The students these last few years have been such a bore! None interesting whatsoever. Well, Potter has done some fun things from time to time but not as much as we did back in the day!" Artemis started to tune out the ghost's babbling, she should have seen this coming. Of course, the ghost would be happy to see her seeing she had started talking to him without fear when she went to school. Mostly because of the fact that she was much scarier than him, and he knew it. Which gave her an idea.

"Peeves!" The ghost stopped talking mid-sentence.

"Yes, Little Demon?" Artemis looked at him with a grin.

"I have a job for you." The ghost looked at her in interest.

"What do you say to spy on a student for me?" The ghost grinned even wider if that was even possible.

"Oooooooh, and who might the unlucky one be?" Artemis smirked at him, of course, he took the bait.

"Draco Malfoy." Peeves floated quietly in the air for a second before bursting out in a mad laugh.

"That snivelling blonde whelp?! But of course, Peeves will do this for the Little Demon! With pleasure!" He hung upside down as he continued.

"But why?" Artemis rolled her eyes at the ghost and crossed her arms.

"Now now Peeves. That is something you don't have to know. You only need to report to me if something happens to the boy. Mostly at night, of course, I will be following him during the day." Peeves eyed her suspiciously but didn't question anymore. He bowed deeply at her and grinned again.

"As you wish my Little Demon." Artemis rolled her eyes again. She waved at him as she continued to go towards the direction the bond was taking her.

~𓅃~

Orion was pacing back and forth inside their office on the third floor. It was ironically hidden behind one of the paintings of the founders of Hogwarts, Salazar Slytherin. It had been made to look like the one they had in the Ministry. Except all of their offices had merged together so all five of them were now sharing. His own desk was placed in the middle of the room with his familiar potion shelves behind him. On his left were Artemis and Cyril's desks, both having shelves of books and other stuff behind them. On his right were Septimus and Zacharias' desks. Behind Septimus' desk were heaps of papers stacked in neat piles that was how he kept track of everything. Behind Zacharias' desk, there were a few training dummies to shoot some test hexes at and a big chest that was meant to practise curse-breaking on. One placed a curse on it and someone else had to figure out what it was.

The office had a fireplace included which as promised had a direct line to the Ministry, Cyril had tested this immediately when entering the room earlier that day. In between Artemis and Cyril's bookcases, there was a door that led into their shared living space. It looked much like how their old dorms looked with one bed for each of them, but two bathrooms instead of one. Probably so that Artemis could get her own bathroom. Orion had wondered why the woman hadn't gotten a bedroom of her own but the beds all had curtains that could be closed so he supposed it wasn't the biggest problem. Besides the castle worked in mysterious ways and it probably knew that the female would accept this.

Zacharias threw a ball of paper at him. "Can you stop pacing mate?! It's driving me mad! You heard her Patronus, she is fine!"

Septimus placed his feet on his desk.

"Zacharias is right King, she sent that Patronus to us a mere forty-five minutes ago, knowing her she is attempting to calm herself as much as possible before joining us, I suggest you do the same, she did make an attempt at your life earlier, remember?" Orion looked at Septimus and nodded.

After leaving Artemis to the Forest he made his way up to the castle and told them all quickly what had happened before they entered the Great Hall to be introduced to the students. McGonagall had looked at them in polite annoyance when Orion had whispered to her that Artemis was running late. After breakfast, they had all been shown into the said office and left to get their belongings sorted for the rest of the day.

After dinner was done and Artemis still hadn't shown up Orion was about to set out into the Forbidden Forest to find her but had been stopped by his friends. They all argued that she could have wandered too deep for him to safely reach and that the creatures in the Forest would probably swallow him whole if he tried to approach them. In the end, he had stayed put in the castle, but seeing his connection with her was closed he had no idea about what she was doing or what state she was in. But a nagging feeling that would not let go of him made him use something he would never forgive himself for using. He had awoken the brand mark on her chest. Orion knew that it would hurt her greatly, but if this meant that he got her back again he had to take the chance. He had been at it for hours when the familiar butterfly Patronus had flown through the wall and given them the message in her voice.

 "Orion, I am fine. So stop, please. I'll be back soon."

He had never felt so much relief from hearing her voice and had stopped the brand from burning immediately. He started pacing again as it had now been almost an hour since the message arrived. The clock was closing in on two in the morning and all the men were feeling sleep slowly catching up to them. Suddenly the portrait opened up and in walked Artemis. She scanned the office casually before looking at Orion. He swallowed thickly as he looked back at her. Anger was easily seen on the surface of her eyes. Zacharias jumped out from his chair and walked up to the woman.

"Artemis! Thank Salazar you're alright. Where did you go?" She ignored his question and kept a hold of Orion's eyes and simply asked.

"How long did you all know?" Orion could feel the chill running down his spine and bet that the other men in the room felt the same. Septimus was the first to find his voice.

"I was the first to learn of his death. However, Orion was alone in your office that day, when I went to inform you Orion told me about the Professor's last request and made me swear not to divulge said request. I sent a letter to Cyril, and Zacharias, and told them about the situation. But believe me, Artemis, when I say that we did not want to honour his wishes of keeping it a secret from you."

He looked down at his desk when he was finished. The man looked like he wanted to disappear in shame under all the papers that were thrown all over his desk. Zacharias patted her on the back softly.

"We wanted King to tell you sooner, but it was never the right time to. I am sorry too." Cyril had also stood up from where he had been sitting on his desk and walked over to her. He positioned himself between Orion and Artemis, blocking her from looking at the blond man. She looked up at him with a blank stare.

"We are all deeply sorry Prince. Whatever we can do to make it up to you we will do." Orion felt a wave of sorrow pass over him as he watched Cyril grab Artemis into a hug. He could hear her sobbing from where he stood but he could not make his feet move. The pair in front of him slowly sank to the floor as she could not keep herself on her feet anymore. Zacharias started to stroke her back soothingly while mumbling calming words to her. Septimus came over to him and stood next to him.

"It would seem that you are the losing party in this battle, King. It would be wise to leave her alone for some time. Do not worry, she will surely come around." The shorter man patted him on the shoulder and all he could do was hope that he was right.

~ཐིཋྀ~

Artemis woke up with a shock and looked straight into the dead eyes of Peeves. Had the man not already been dead she probably would have killed him. The ghost was making her blanket thrash about her body in weird ways making that the reason for her rude awakening.

"Peeves! What is the meaning of this." Peeves put his finger in front of his lips quieting her down and stopping the blankets at the same time. She frowned and did a quick Tempus. 04:05 am. Great. She had only gotten a couple of hours of sleep and sighed. After she had calmed down from crying earlier Cyril was the one that put her to bed. Orion had kept a close eye on them the entire time and she had stubbornly ignored him while the feeling of jealousy and worry waved over her. Cyril had been unusually attentive to her for some reason. If she were to guess the man had probably been the most against not telling her their secret from the start and was feeling guilty. Suddenly she realised that reason Peeves must have rudely awoken her.

"Malfoy?" The ghost nodded and whispered, which she didn't even know the ghost could do with his usually loud demeanour.

"He seems sick, Little Demon. Been throwing up for a while now." Artemis muttered a curse and quickly got out of bed. She stood silently listening for any signs of any of the other men being awake. Septimus was the first to take the night shift so he was out of bed as planned. Zacharias was snoring loudly from behind his curtains forgetting to Silencio them. Her partner was a quiet sleeper most of the time but thanks to the bond she could tell that he was asleep. Cyril's curtains were slightly open and she could see that he was faced away from her, but he had not stirred from Peeves showing up.

When she was convinced they all were sleeping she grabbed her uniform cloak that was thrown at the top of her trunk and quietly sneaked into the office. Hurriedly she went over to Orion's potion shelf and picked out a few potions she thought would come in handy. Ignoring Peeves as he floated around the room looking and poking at different things she Apparated straight into Draco's room. It took a second for her to get used to the dark and get a feeling for the room. His bed was a mess and both the pillow and blanket were on the floor like it had been pulled off in a hurry. From what she could tell there was no sign of anyone else in the room but her. Then she heard it, a clear retching sound coming from what had to be the bathroom. She walked quickly towards the door and muttered a Lumos.

The sight that met her shouldn't have surprised her, but it still did. It was not the first time she had seen it, the war victims reacted in different ways. A nightmare probably followed by nausea if she had to guess in this case. The boy was sitting on his knees hugging the toilet bowl tightly and looked incredibly tired like he had been at it for hours already. Good thing she had made the deal with Peeves she thought.

She carefully made her way over to him.

"Mr Malfoy? It's Auror Blackmoore." The boy did not react at all and continued to retch into the toilet in front of him. If the smell was anything to go by his stomach was empty at this point and it was mostly bile left. She touched his back softly and that seemed to snap him out of it. He quickly backed away from her, looking like a scared animal. Fear was clear in his eyes as he looked at her and started to hyperventilate. She put her hands up quickly.

"Draco! It's me. Artemis Blackmoore. I'm here to help you." She kept her hands up as she lowered herself on the floor all the while keeping eye contact with the blond. Slowly he started to breathe normally and his eyes showed that he recognised her. She smiled at him and took one of the potions out of her pocket.

"This is an anti-nausea potion, it'll make you feel better. It's made by Auror Silver, he is a Potion Master." She took off the cork of the bottle and held it up in front of his face. He looked at the bottle with scepticism, which she understood but she did not waver and kept her arm outstretched. After a few minutes, he took the bottle and downed the contents. The boy closed his eyes as the potion took its effect and some colour returned to his cheeks again. Artemis let out a sigh of relief.

"Alright Draco, I'm going to help you up, alright?" The boy nodded slowly and Artemis reached for his hand. When the male took it she pulled him up to a standing position. He swayed dangerously and she took a hold of his waist to keep him steady. His nightshirt was sticky with sweat and from the smell, he had probably gotten sick on himself before making it to the bathroom.

"Okay, over to the bed, we go." She managed to guide him carefully over to the edge of the bed. He looked up at her with tired eyes.

"Auror Blackmoore, how did you get in here?" His voice was scratchy and raw, evidence of all the abuse his throat had gotten by the throwing up he had done. She only smiled at him.

"Magic, of course." He frowned at her.

"Never mind that where are your spare clothes? You need to get out of those dirty ones." The blond had no energy to argue as he pointed to his trunk stowed next to his desk. Artemis walked over to it and pulled it open, rummaging around for a little while before she found another pair of pyjamas. She turned around and went back to the blond on the bed. He was watching her intently. Artemis stopped in front of the boy.

"Time to get those clothes off, hm?" Before he said anything she reached for the top button on his shirt but was surprised by his hand slapping hers away. Draco backed away from her like he had been burned.

"Who… who gave you the right to touch me like that!?" Artemis raised her eyebrow at him and crossed her arms.

"Very well. You take it off yourself then." She studied him as his shaking hands tried to undo the buttons on his shirt. Eventually, he gave up and looked at her in defeat. Suddenly she remembered something she had read in his file before she had been given the job to take care of him before his trial.

"You're afraid I'll see your Sectumsempra scar right?" The blond's eyes widened comically.

"Sorry to tell you but I already know all that. It was done by Potter in your sixth year. He used it without knowing what it did. Snape saved you just after it had happened." Draco just kept staring at her with wide eyes as she sighed.

"So can I help you now?" He nodded slowly and moved himself to the edge of the bed again. With swift fingers she unbuttoned his shirt, the boy had indeed been lucky as the scar was only a thin line stretching over his torso. Snape being able to heal him so fast made it close up neatly. She could still remember the first time Snape had healed her and how ugly she thought the scars looked. Now she knew better.

"I've never experienced so much pain before. I thought I was going to die." She hummed at him as she removed the shirt from his shoulders and threw it on the floor. The woman pointed at his pants and while blushing slightly he got them over his hips and down to his ankles. She did the same procedure and threw them over by the dirty shirt.

"Sit still." The boy froze like a statue as she pointed her finger at him, with a slight flick of her wrist a cleaning charm washed over him. Draco looked at her in wonder, then a glint passed over his eyes.

"Don't tell anyone about that either?" She smiled at him while she nodded. Artemis handed him his clean clothes and watched him dress, again helping with the buttons on his shirt.

"Mips!" The house-elf immediately showed up, like she had been waiting the entire time for her name to be called.

"Misses called?" Artemis smiled at the elf.

"Yes, could you take Mr Malfoy's clothes and bedsheets and wash them, please? A quick scrub of the bathroom too please." The elf nodded enthusiastically and did as she was told. For a few minutes, the elf darted from place to place inside the room, only stopping when Artemis helped Draco up from the bed long enough for her to change the bedsheets. When she was finished she did a deep bow to both of them.

"Mips will wash the clothes by tomorrow night Missters!" Draco looked at the elf with a thankful expression.

"Thank you, Mips." Mips looked between them both and gave them both a proud smile and disappeared with a pop. Artemis sighed heavily and looked at Draco.

"You seem back to yourself again. How are you feeling?"

"Much better thanks to you Auror Blackmoore." Artemis looked at him annoyed.

"Artemis, you can call me Artemis when it's just the two of us." The blond blushed slightly but nodded. Then he looked at her curiously.

"Pardon me for asking, but you never said anything to me pointing out the pain from the curse. Most people can't imagine how it is and start questioning me about it. Have you experienced it?" She poked him in his chest, and seeing he was not prepared for it he fell backwards on the bed in surprise.

"Aren't you a rude one? Get into bed already." He stared at her for a second before doing as told. Once settled he opened his mouth again, but before he could say anything Artemis cut in.

"Yes. Yes, I have experienced it first-hand. Count yourself lucky that it was only once." For a minute the Auror thought the boy's eyes were going to pop out of their sockets as he stared at her in shock. She got out another potion she had taken with her and handed it to him.

"A dreamless sleep." He took it without protest, still in shock from what he had been told.

"B… but you have no scars" He stared at her again and she remembered that she was just wearing a simple nightgown herself. She was so used to putting glamours on to hide the scars that she had done it without thinking when she got up. She looked at him while thinking hard. Was it wise to show him? Then again she knew everything about the boy. She had just seen him at his most vulnerable, so maybe this was a way to build more trust with him for the future. In the end, she sighed.

"Don't believe everything you see, Draco." She snapped her fingers and let the glamour drop.

"It might not be the truth."