Prologue

Breaking All the Rules

There's a First Time for Everything

The air moved in a light breeze to his liking, as it always did on the days like these that he'd choose. The sun stayed hidden so he could get a clear shot. He had accepted the job with nothing to say; after all he had nothing to lose. It couldn't be any different to any other mark that he'd had. In the end he'd just let the Aurors have the credit, like he always did. It had come to pass that he had had to study the Aurors, especially Harry Potter in order to get the scenarios right and their strategies of completing a 'mission.' That way it would be easier for them to integrate the incident as their own.

It was his job and it was always done perfectly. After all, he was Draco Malfoy and nothing he did was ever done halfway.

He waited patiently on the roof top of a building in muggle London. It had taken him a while to infringe his father's teachings but he had done it eventually when he realised it was an obligation of the job. After all they were money in his pocket and he was not one to turn that down. He owed that philosophy to his father, apparently every person be they muggle or not are not equal. They were not worth the same, oh no, they all their own unique price.

It all depended on the mark, if he had to keep them alive or kill them.

That was what an assassin did after all and he was the best that had emerged out of the war. A group – small – but a group none the less, did not want to take sides. It was tedious and frankly they had better things to do. But that was until one night when he and his best friend Blaise Zabini had returned to their shared home with a few others to find one of their own murdered. A sign that their negligence to choose what others wanted them to be was not going ignored, far from it.

They wanted to stay neutral but it was then that they had snapped. Blaise and Draco sought out the trespassers who had dared to come to their place of solitude, their place of peace to destroy it with one swift move. It had taken time, planning and plenty of patience to learn everything about the clan that had stolen one of their good friends. They infiltrated and sought out the best way to attack them from the inside.

And attack they did, with a swift vengeance that only echoed a tenth of what they really wanted to do to them. After that, both men felt empty. Incomplete as if they wanted more. The metallic taste on their mouths had teased them into a meal only to have it end quicker than it started. It wasn't enough.

Apparently, they were not the only ones who thought so and they were certainly not alone when they had left the clan's lair. Another man dressed elegantly – strange, seeing as they were in the middle of a war between good and evil at the time – had approached them when they were ready to leave. He told them that they had a large amount of potential for certain careers that they could excel in. Both Blaise and Draco looked at each other then back the man and turned him down. That was until he mentioned the sum of money they would get if they carried it out.

And so it had started. One job turned into two, which turned into four. Soon they broke apart to perform separately and bodies were turning up everywhere with no explanation. There was no way to cover it up besides the war. The strange thing about it was that the marks were always high and prosperous leaders, be they on the side of evil or good. Without any proof both sides just blamed each other until the war was over.

It was during that war that Draco Malfoy had his biggest mark. It had taken him a while to get through the process but in the end it was done. It didn't matter if he had to go against everything he was taught.

And so he was here, using both muggle and wizarding weapons to complete his every task. Now he lay patiently on the roof, looking through the eye piece of a gun he had borrowed from Blaise. It was his lucky gun and it had taken quite some time for Draco to get him to part with it, but it was accurate and no matter what it always tended to target the heart. Right now it was aimed at the doors to the Bank of England, as he was sure the mark was to enter it at noon. It was on his schedule for the day and Draco had taken to the pleasure of memorizing it.

Just then a black car pulled up alongside the bank at the edge of the road and a man came out to open the door. Draco looked at the picture he had been given, no, no that wasn't him. The man went to the pavement side of the car and opened the door, but Draco focused on the other side where his mark had just stepped out. He braced himself and gripped the trigger but as fate had it a gust of wind blew and misguided his aim. Quick reflexes let go of the trigger before serious damage was done. Sure it was his job but he didn't kill for any reason, you don't get raises if you kill more than one. He looked through again to get his target and-.

"What the…" He tore his eyes away and looked with the naked eye. He squinted to see if his eyes were playing tricks with him. A woman had just gotten out of the car, her hair tied into a bun and hidden under her wide brimmed hat. It appeared that his mark had a girlfriend – or wife, whichever came first. He caught a glimpse of her as she stepped out of the car and his mark went around it to get to her. They kissed as he went quickly into the bank leaving her outside.

"Shit." He relaxed himself on the roof and lifted the gun away. Now he had to wait for him to come back out. He sat and stared at the doors counting the minutes patiently again. Then his eyes wondered to the girlfriend. "Well," he said under his breath. "It wouldn't do any harm in taking a look." He focused the eye-piece to get a closer look at her. She was talking animatedly to one of the drivers. "Probably screwing him on the side," he said to himself chuckling, as she stroked his arm lightly. He shook his head. "Damn rich fools, choose unfaithful whores when there's a world full of women out there that they need not get committed to, and what do their girlfriends do when they're caught cheating? Blame it on the man, and end up taking half of his estate and all his cars is what they do." Draco laughed. He had seen it too many times. Now he was talking to himself, he had been up there too long.

He saw a strong gale blow past them, the driver held onto her at the waist as her hat blew off. Draco followed it with his gun. "Whoops, there goes the college fund," he mocked as he set it back on her. All of a sudden he dropped the gun and it clattered to the concrete of the roof. Mouth open he stared down onto the pavement of London with his own eyes. The wind that blew off her hat had disarranged her hair sending it flying in all directions. Wild and… red.

"Holy…" It couldn't be. He quickly picked up the gun from the ground ignoring the scratch marks he had made on it and how much quarreling would happen when he gave it back. He looked through the eye-piece once more. This time with a more somber approach. That hair that face – those freckles.

"Shit." He repeated this as he stood there on the roof about a dozen times – maybe even more. He even missed it when his mark came back out of the bank and got into the car. He only snapped out of his trance when the doors closed. Now not only had he learned that she was his 'girlfriend,' but now she had made him miss his mark – twice. He had never done that before.

Damn Weasley.