Chapter One: Worrisome

This is the 5th night in a row I've spent wandering through the castle. I can't tell Ron and Hermione what I'm doing, they already think that I spend way too much of my time following Draco. But they don't understand. I need to figure out what he's up to. What him and his cronies are doing and why they keep disappearing from the map. It shouldn't be possible. I don't know how he's doing it. I just know that he can't possibly be up to anything good. I know that he's a death eater now. Even if Ron and Hermione don't believe it, I know it's true. His whole family is, it only makes sense…

But I'm worried about him. His features have always been sharp… but never this sharp. The bags under his usually bright eyes are bigger than ever, and even his hair seems to be losing it's luster. He even seems to have forgotten about antagonizing me, which I never thought would happen. I just need to know what he's up to… skipping meals by the looks of it… but for what?

Filch comes out from around the corner and I startle, forgetting that I'm invisible. I back into the wall slowly to let him pass. This is the third time tonight that I've almost been caught. I should probably get back to the dormitory, I'm pushing my luck to the point of breaking and the last thing I need right now is to get expelled before I can even find out what he's up to.

The walk back to the common room is uneventful, even the pictures are sleeping and I have no intention of waking them up. These late night walks have definitely made me able to stay quiet. When I get back to the fat lady, she's sleeping as well. I clear my throat. Nothing. I say the password quietly. Nothing. I turn my whisper into a quiet yell and she finally wakes up, enraged at what appears to be thin air for waking her up from her "beauty sleep" (fat lot of help it's been giving her though). I climb up through the portrait hole and then up to the 6th year dormitory. I fold up my invisibility cloak at last, and leave the map and my glasses on the bedside table, then fall asleep to Neville's snores.

At breakfast the next morning I can tell that Hermione is suspicious of me. Ron doesn't notice of course, he can never look past his food while he's eating. The bags under my eyes must be growing. After so many nights with such little amount of sleep, I'm surprised she hasn't asked me about it before, but I'm prepared for her question when she does ask.

"Harry are you alright? You look exhausted"

"Yeah I'm fine, just a bit stressed about the whole Slughorn thing I guess."

"Well you just need to keep trying. Dumbledore's counting on you, so this must be important, but you do need to get some sleep too. You won't be much help to Dumbledore if you're half sleeping every time you're near Slughorn."

Ron butts in.

"Oh Hermione, stop nagging him. Harry's trying. He probably just needs more sausages."

Hermione casts Ron a sinister look, but I laugh and follow his advice, piling more meat onto my plate.

At lunch, Hermione says she's going to head to the library and Ron asks me to go out and practice Quidditch with him, but I refuse, blaming it on my tiredness and tell them both I'm going to head back up to the common room for a quick nap before Potions.

Hermione says that's a good idea. I'll be more energized for Slughorn and might have more luck with the memory, but Ron seems bummed out. I feel awful lying to them like this, but they just don't understand. I hurry back up to the Common Room, like i told them, but instead of grabbing a nap, i grab my cloak and the map. Before leaving, I look all over the map for Malfoy, and finally spot him. I watch him walking down a corridor, but then he vanishes. I throw on the cloak and hurry to the spot where he disappeared. I look all down the hallway, but the only person in sight is a first year girl, who looks startled just at the sight of me. Probably the 6th year thing.

What a waste of time. I would have been better off if I actually did take the nap. Too late now though I suppose. I head back up to the common room to stow away my cloak and grab my books. I take the map with me though. I'd like to keep a better eye on Malfoy from now on. He shouldn't just be able to disappear from the map like that. It shouldn't be possible…. but like Lupin said, the map doesn't lie…

When I make it down to potions, Malfoy's already there, but lacking his usual smugness. I don't know what to make of this… why isn't he his usual arrogant self? What's he up to? Why isn't what he's trying to do working?

Potions is a waste of time, it seems to play out the same way every lesson. Malfoy completes his potion with grace and ease, always irritatingly perfect whilst mine is always a jumbled mess of crudely chopped ingredients that Hermione has to fix for me before Snape sees and puts me into actual remedial potions. This year's different of course. Thanks to the Prince's book I can complete my potions with just as much ease (probably not grace though) as Malfoy can, and it wipes the smirk right off of his pretty boy face. Not to mention Slughorn loves me for it. And Malfoy has to go from top of the class with his favourite teacher to out of the running with Slughorn.

His failures make me so happy. Yet he seems to be experiencing more failures right now than usual and it's definitely showing in his features. Seeing him like this makes me a lot less happy about his failures. He's usually just so.. well.. perfect. It seems strange and abnormal to see him doing anything less than emanating more self confidence than a single person should be able to muster. I mean it's not like I care about him or anything.. I'm just a little bit worried is all. That's normal, right? People should be worried about their nemesis?