It was concerned mumbling that woke him from his nap against the wall of the library. He was in the back, it wasn't somewhere that people frequented due to the numerous dry History of Magic books and that was what made him flick his eyes up to the person who had woken him.

She was about a year younger than him, fifteen or so, with short brown hair and dark hazel eyes and was gnawing on her lower lip as she searched for a book. Her tie showed her to be a Slytherin like him but he'd never noticed her before and he sat up straighter. She turned at the sound he made and she blinked at him. Immediately she took in his untidy appearance and walked up to him, placing the books down on the table in front of him and sitting down in a free chair.

"Are you alright?" He raised an eyebrow at her. It wasn't like a Slytherin to be so blunt. Instead of answering her he shrugged. Rather than accept his unwillingness to talk she frowned and leaned in more, "Are you sure? You look a little troubled."

"Look, I'm fine. Why do you care?" In fact, he wasn't fine. His parents were pressuring him into accepting the dark mark this summer and he didn't know what to do. He knew it was a death sentence to accept it but it was the same if he didn't.

She looked a little taken aback by his tone and fiddled with her fingers in her lap, "It's- it's just a habit of mine." She looked up with her innocent brown eyes and he turned away sourly. She sighed, "I see, well I guess I'll see you around." She stood up, picking up her books and he suddenly wanted to know who she was- how had he never seen her before?

"Wait!" She froze, obviously surprised, and turned around. "What's your name?" She smiled at him and the purity of it gave him goosebumps. How did she end up in Slytherin again?

"Marlena, Marlena Rain." She smiled again, "And you're Angelus Tailor; I'll be seeing you." She dipped her head and turned, the books she had gathered pressed into her rather impressive chest.

And though the words had the ring of finality to them, it wasn't the last time he saw her.

0-0

"However nice it is to see you again, I rather doubted it would be here." The light, gentle voice surprised Angelus and he looked away from the faucet with the snake emblem to see Marlena walking up to the sink next to him and washing her hands.

"Nothing to say to that? Pervert." He had been staring at her hands rather than focusing on her question and her teasing words brought a blush to his cheeks.

"I'm not a pervert!" She laughed and shook her hands off and he found himself following her out of the girl's bathroom. He grew silent as a group of Hufflepuffs walked past them and Marlena shot him a look. "It's nothing."

She sighed and entered and unused classroom, opening her bag and searching through it for something, "That's what you said last time, and yet somehow I run into you in the girl's bathroom." He blushed again.

"No, I- no one uses it!"

"Obviously I do." She shot back and pulled out a roll of parchment and a Charms text book. "Now be a good boy and help me with this or go torment some Hufflepuffs, I have homework to do."

And he was struck dumb at her sound dismissal; but that was the last time he met her under such, pleasant circumstances.

0-0

Angelus had searched for her, in his common room, at meals, but he never saw her. It was like she only appeared when he didn't want her there. He had found out a lot about her though though various sources. It seemed that she had an older sister and a younger brother, a Ravenclaw and Gryffindor respectively and she got on well with them- or as well as she could, considering she was a Slytherin.

It was the very week before he was to take the mark and he was pacing in the unused classroom that he'd followed Marlena into cursing under his breath. He kicked a desk furiously.

"I'm not sure what the desk did to you but I'm sure it's sorry." An amused voice said from the doorway and he turned to see Marlena walking in, her book-bag slung over her shoulder and her wand behind her ear.

"It's none of your business!" He snapped. He wasn't angry at her, but her presence alone rubbed him the wrong way for some reason. She stiffened at the tone and pursed her lips, turning to face him.

"It's not my business? How could you say that when you invade my privacy that I have guarded heavily and have the gall to take out your frustration here of all places." She looked furious, her cheeks splotchy and red and he once again asked himself what she was doing in Slytherin with such a Gryffindor temper.

He ignored the fact that his temper was worse than hers at the moment, "It's none of your damn business because it's about me, and my family and that bloody fucking Dark Lord!"

Her cheeks were still flaming and he found he enjoyed the way her eyes lit up when she was arguing with him. "So? You're just going to get on your knees for that bastard then? What the hell happened to your pride?! How could you?"

"You know nothing and none of this concerns you and none of this will- do you want to know why? Because I hate know-it-all busibodies who try to fix everything!" He stormed out of the room, pretending not to see the tears begin to stream down her face. Pretending that he didn't feel the ache of guilt creeping up on him.

And he didn't see her again until long after he'd taken the mark.

0-0

The Death Eaters had infiltrated Hogwarts and everything was a mess. His forearm ached with a searing pain and his wand-arm shook with exertion. He'd never used so many spells at once and it was made all the worse due to the knowledge that he was cutting down people, children he used to go to school with.

A spell narrowly missed his face and he spun, shooting a dark purple spell back at whoever had almost hit him. It shattered the base of a pillar and sent dust into the air, making it hard for him to focus on who he was fighting and it was only when a baby-blue light soared towards him that he knew where his attacker was hiding.

He lunged forwards, shooting off a dark spell that had his opponent gasping out in surprise and he closed in on them, the dust lifting, to see someone that had his eyes widening.

It was Marlena, her hand clenched over her arm where the bone-severing curse had sliced into it. She looked up defiantly at him before blinking, mirroring his wide-eyed look as she took in just who it was. Her eyes slid down to his torn sleeve, where the dark-mark was there for all to see and she closed her eyes.

"I'm sorry." He wasn't sure who said it and obviously she wondered too because her eyes had opened and she was staring back at him. There was silence for a moment and she continued.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. I could have done more." He paled, how was she to blame for this?

"No- I- it was my fault. Your arm…" She shook her head, her eyes once again glued to his arm and a tear streaked down her cheek.

"I'm sorry…" She said again and he swallowed.

"Death Eaters retreat!" The distant call made Angelus twitch and Marlena closed her eyes once again, as though waiting for a blow to fall.

"It's okay, I forgive you."

And he was running, tears falling from his eyes at the simple, innocent, absolution that he knew he didn't deserve; why was she a Slytherin again?

0-0

She had a black eye when he passed her in the halls of Hogwarts again and he wanted to say something to her but when he caught her eye she gave him a small smile and continued walking. He didn't go after her- what was he supposed to say?

Instead he paid a visit to an extremely overworked Madam Pomfery. She eyed the Dark Mark that he was forced to show off as he roamed the halls but set her jaw. "Is there something you would like?"

He hated seeing her act this way but nodded all the same, "Something for cuts and bruises, fresh ones." She didn't ask for a reason and summoned a jar before returning to a small first year Gryffindor girl with a large open gash on her cheek.

He turned away and made his way back to the Slytherin common room. He stopped in the doorway, unsure of what to do as he watched Malfoy and his constant accessory, Parkinson, heckle her. Pansy had just slapped her when he came to his senses and stepped into the room.

"Leave her be." She must have been rubbing off on him; it wasn't like him to be this brash. Malfoy turned with a sneer.

"What are you going to do about it? She's a blood traitor- it baffles how she got into Slytherin in the first place." He just shook his head, noting how she was still sitting at the table, a stoic mask that would have made Salazar himself proud on her face.

"Just leave her be, she's getting smacked around in class already." Malfoy just snorted and dragged Parkinson off so they could heckle someone else. Once they were gone she started packing her bag hastily. "Wait."

She hesitated but continued packing, "What?"

"Please, listen." She kept her face down-turned but didn't move and he did something very Gryffindor. He took her chin in his hand and lifted her face. There was a red mark from where Pansy had smacked her and her bruised eye. She tried to jerk her face away but he would have none of it and pulled out the jar of poultice. "Stay sill Rain, I'm trying to help." She stopped struggling and let him apply the ointment to her eye.

A soft laugh escaped her, "I thought I was the know-it-all busybody who wanted to help everyone."

He smiled and handed her the ointment, "The difference here is that I only want to help you." She blushed, a dark purple under her bruises and nodded, getting up and retreating to the girls dormitory.

He sighed and made his way up to his own dormitory and sat on his bed. It was only a few minutes later when he heard a tentative knocking on his door. He opened it to see Marlena looking anywhere but at him. "What is it?"

She blushed again, "I- I can't get my back. W-will you help me?" Her back? His eyes widened as he realized that she must have gotten punished with more than just a black eye and he opened his door.

That was how he'd gotten into this position, a shirtless girl facing away from him on his bed while he did his best to gently smooth the poultice over her long whip marks. She made no sound.

And with his fingers on her back he realized, however suddenly, that he was in love with her.

0-0

"Give me harry Potter," said Voldemort's voice, "and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded. You have until midnight" (1)

The students were all in the Great Hall and as one the student body seemed to realize that Harry was there and Angelus heard Parkinson shout to grab him and something happened that made his eyes widen. The entirety of the school, sans his own house, was suddenly pointing their wands at them.

"Thank you Miss Parkinson." Professor McGonagall said in a clipped voice. "You will leave the Hall first with Mr. Filch. If the rest of your House could follow."(1) And Angelus watched the rest of his house get up and leave and his eyes sought out Marlena who was standing firmly by the table, and somehow he couldn't get his feet to take another step.

He would not- could not- fight on the opposing side of her again. He still got cold-flashes thinking of what might have happened if his spell had hit half a foot to the left. There was silence as the student body took in the two Slytherins who remained, many noting his Dark Mark.

"You were instructed to leave the hall miss Rain, mr Tailor." She narrowed her eyes at the teacher.

"Voldemort has taken over this school and in the process killed my elder sister and harmed my younger brother. I will not leave this fight to someone else." And Angelus moved next to her, drawing eyes to him.

"I cannot fight against her again."

And the widening of her eyes was worth all the incredulous looks he was receiving.

0-0

Everything was colorful, lights flashing and people shouting and screaming. It was all he could do to keep an eye on his opponent, let alone the girl he had sworn to himself to protect. From the glimpses he was getting though, she really didn't need his protection. Maybe it was that her sister had been killed, maybe it was that her brother was fighting there somewhere. Maybe it was just that she was that good.

He could see fallen pieces of Hogwarts everywhere, as well as bodies and blood and he swallowed and focused in his fight against a Death Eater.

"Traitor!" They hissed when they caught sight of his arm and he sneered back.

"No, I just got my priorities straight- Avada Kedavra!" He paused as he watched the man fall. Well… at least that meant he could do it, but he'd rather not have found out right then. He turned away from the body, looking frantically for Marlena.

She was battling Pansy Parkinson, obviously the girl had snuck back into Hogwarts, but to fight on the other side. He rushed over, just in time to see Parkinson shoot off a cutting curse that made Marlena double over.

"Marlena!" He shot an Avada at Parkinson, who collapsed like a marionette, but he wasn't looking. He kneeled down next to Marlena and lifted her up slightly. She was holding her stomach tightly. "How bad is it?" He asked, stroking her hair frantically.

She gave a small chuckle, wincing at the feeling, "I'm still alive for now."

"No, you'll- you'll be fine. Let me just get you to the Hospital Wing." She shook her head.

"Parkinson got me good."

"No- no, you can't. You can't. I won't let you leave, not yet." She raised a hand to his cheek and touched it softly. He could feel the tears coming then, "No, please, you fixed me."

She smiled, her eyes dimming, "It's just a habit of mine."

"I love you." She smiled wider and turned her head against his arm.

"I love you… too."

And he pressed a kiss to her bloody lips for the first and last time.

0-0

When the victors of Hogwarts laid out all of the bodies they were struck with the sight of a blood-stained Angelus kneeling over another body.

It was Luna who approached him, kneeling down and looking at the brave Slytherin. "She would be proud of you." He looked up at her, his brown eyes bleary with tears.

"She's gone, what does it matter if she would be proud?" Luna wrapped him in an unreciprocated hug.

"She loves you, even now. Just remember, she fixed you." She touched his chest, "In here."

A small smile curled at his lips, "I know." He leaned over and kissed the cold lips before standing.

"And maybe someday I'll understand why."

(1): HP Book 7

R&R!