"Yes, now Tim and Erin, come in and meet the rest of my family," Draco heard his father say as he showed the guests in. They walked in and Draco saw a weary man, and a girl, whom Draco guessed must be his daughter. *************************************************************
The pair of them couldn�t be more different. Tim was short, brown hair, green eyes, wrinkly, and just looked like he was too worn out. Erin, on the other hand was tall, almost as tall as Draco. She had long, flowing brown hair with golden highlights that shone as the sunlight hit them. She had sparkling brown eyes that showed if not everything in the world, experience. She seemed like someone Draco could relate to. Her face was illuminated with the sunlight and the beauty she held gave off so much energy that she was like the sun walking sun on earth. She was wearing emerald robes with silver lining. This set off her face and eyes wonderfully; it almost hurt to look at her too long *************************************************************
"This is my wife, Narcissa; Narcissa meet Tim and Erin Quinn," Lucius Malfoy said confidently.
"Hello, Tim, Erin, how do you do?" Narcissa greeted them.
"Very well, Mrs. Malfoy, and you?" Erin answered politely. Mr. Quinn said nodded.
"And this is our son, Draco," Lucius said again in an over confident voice.
Erin turned to Draco and smiled. Draco tried to say something, anything, but he couldn�t. His mouth went dry, his tongued was tied up and he couldn�t think straight.
"Hello, Draco," she said in a kind of peaceful way that made Draco calm and relaxed.
"Hello, Erin," he managed to say quickly. *************************************************************
Lucius motioned for Draco to follow him into the kitchen. Draco dreading what might be happening, reluctantly followed.
"Get in here, Draco," his father demanded as he pushed him violently into the kitchen.
"Yes, sir," Draco said glaring. *************************************************************
"Well, as you may have guessed, Erin will be staying with us, and if you ever listen to a word I say, listen to this. I highly advise you not to get to close to her. As the prophecy goes, �a woman will be a man�s downfall.� You remember that," Lucius explained and left for the foyer.
"Shit, more prophecies, my favorite," Draco thought to himself.
Draco was reminded of the poem again. His father was leaving a big part of this whole thing out of what he was actually telling Draco. *************************************************************
Draco walked back into the foyer cursing his father under his breath. He sat back down, this time closer to Erin.
"Draco why don�t you show Erin her room and give her a tour," Mr. Malfoy suggested. Draco didn�t like his tone.
"I need to talk with Mr. Quinn," he explained.
"Alright," Draco agreed still glaring, "Erin, follow me." Erin got up and walked over to Draco.
"Ok, after you," she replied. He walked up the steps quickly and Erin kept up with ease. She admired the ceiling and portraits on the walls. After a while, the silence was tormenting Draco. He was turning himself inside out trying to find something to say, something to talk about. *************************************************************
"So, why are you staying with us?" he asked trying to start simple conversation.
"My father is going on a business trip to� Albania� think," Erin answered inattentively.
"Do you have a mom?" Draco requested trying to keep the conversation going. As soon as he finished asking it, he wished he hadn�t. Draco had hit a big nerve. Erin�s eyes narrowed so dangerously that they turned from a sparkling brown to a burning red. Draco could see anger, hatred, and aging; he really didn�t like it.
"Oh yeah� have mom," Erin said hotly, "If you can call her that. Letting me starve half to death while she was out doing whatever she pleased."
"So I guess that rules out staying with her, huh?" Draco asked trying to hide his surprise that someone has a worse life than him.
"Yeah, I guess," Erin answered. *************************************************************
They finished walking in silence even though it was perturbing both of them. When they finally reached Erin�s room, Draco showed her inside and watched her things appear at her side. He couldn�t leave, not yet anyway.
"Hey, you look like you could use a good talk," Draco suggested, "You want to go for a walk out back?" He was hoping desperately that she�d say yes.
"Yeah, sure, I�d like that," Erin said starting smile and walk out of her room.
The walk downstairs was considerably shorter than the tense, silent walk upstairs. Everything was going great until they started to near the kitchen. *************************************************************
"But why did you leave her?" They heard Mr. Malfoy asked angrily.
"How was I supposed she would be needed?" Mr. Quinn asked defending himself, "She wasn�t needed�until�"
"But you knew she has�" Mr. Malfoy stopped as Draco and Erin walked through the kitchen. Now his eyes narrowed dangerously and Draco was extremely grateful that Erin was here. If she wasn�t, he would have been in for the trashing of his life.
"What�are�you�two�up�to?" Lucius asked trying to control his anger.
"Just going for a walk," Draco said with his evil smirk he had inherited from his father. That was one of the very few things he was grateful of his father for. Erin caught Draco�s eye and smiled.
"Alright," Lucius panted, "We�ll wait for you to get back."
"That�s quite alright, Lucius," Mr. Quinn assured. *************************************************************
Erin�s eyes narrowed again, and Draco was exceedingly thankful that Erin was not staring at him like that. Along with hatred, anger, and aging, there was a longing beyond forgiving burning in her eyes, which Draco didn�t understand. And then, all of a sudden, she turned to Draco.
"Shall we go?" Erin said emotionlessly.
"Yeah�Right out here," Draco replied somewhat confused. He showed her out the door and into the backyard.
"If you don�t mind me saying� You don�t seem to like your father very much," Draco said.
"Neither do you," Erin answered. *************************************************************
"Yeah, I would guess you would hate a person who beats you everyday," Draco started.
"And who doesn�t care about what you�re going through as long as the family honor stays in place," Erin finished for him.
"How�d you know?" Draco asked surprised that words had just been taken from his own mouth.
"Lucky guess," Erin said trying to hold back tears. They were silent for a moment while they climbed onto a huge rock and sat down. *************************************************************
"I never really had a mother," Erin explained, "My mom was never there for me. She went out partying every night, came home drunk, and didn�t even know who I was. I used to live here, just down the street, but then something happened and my mom and I had to flee to America. I never even knew I was a witch. My perfect mother forgot to mention that little detail. I was even accepted to Hogwarts, but my mother hid my letter. I never knew my father, never, until about three years ago. I had to live as a muggle for thirteen years!" Tears were leaking uncontrollably down her angelic face.
"How�d you end up here?" Draco asked curiously.
"I�m not sure," Erin started through her sobs, "I woke up in the middle of the night one night. I found my mother in her room dead. She was lying on her bed, just dead. There was blood spilling from her mouth. I turned to go call the police and I was knocked out. Before I was though, I could�ve sworn I saw the weirdest symbol in the sky�made of smoke. When I woke up, I was at my father�s house." *************************************************************
"So what�s going to happen now?" Draco asked her, fascinated by her story.
Erin smiled the biggest smile Draco had ever seen, "I�m going to go to Hogwarts!"
"How?" Draco was utterly bewildered.
"I�ve been studying and doing the same work you did at Hogwarts at home, only I had two years less than you, so I�ve been doing work none stop for three years," Erin responded.
"Which house will you be in?" Draco asked.
"Whichever house the sorting house will put me in. Your father is going to set up an appointment for me to meet the headmaster and get sorted," Erin said happily, while wiping the tears from her eyes.
"Which house do you want to be in?"
"The same house every single member of my family, except my mother, was in; Slytherin." Erin replied, "Which house are you in?"
"Slytherin," Draco answered confidently with his evil smirk obviously thinking this would impress her.
"Oh, he�s so cute," Erin thought to herself.
"Well, now I really hope I�m in Slytherin," She stated still grinning, "And I guess we have a lot in common."
They got up off the rock and started walking again. For once in both their lives, each of them was happy. *************************************************************
"Well, I must be on my way," Mr. Quinn said in a worried sort of voice.
"You want to leave without even saying goodbye to your daughter, whom you won�t see for a long while, I�m presuming?" Lucius asked curiously.
"Most of the time, I don�t even think Erin considers herself my daughter," Tim responded.
"I don�t blame her," Mr. Malfoy said coldly, "But don�t worry; I�ll be a better father to her than you were."
"Yes, ok, well, um� I really must be going," Mr. Quinn stammered. With that he Disapparated and was gone. *************************************************************
"Damn him," Lucius said as he walked over to the window were his wife was sitting.
"Look, they�re getting along great," Mrs. Malfoy pointed out.
"I know that�s the problem. I told him not to get too close to her. She will be his downfall. It�s in the prophecy!" Lucius barked so loudly that the whole manor started to shake.
"You forgot the other part of the prophecy," Narcissa stated, "That they are the perfect match for each other."
"That�s beside the point!" Mr. Malfoy thundered, "She has a job to do, not that she knows it yet, and love just gets in the way of things."
"Oh really?" Narcissa asked.
"She mustn�t refuse and if she does; you know the price. We will just have to convince her that out way of life is the only way. She will hand it over! And anyway, I don�t want a Romeo-boy for a son. It says disgrace in every language!" Mr. Malfoy explained. *************************************************************
They both fell silent as they watched Erin and Draco walk through the backyard, talking and laughing, hand-in-hand�
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