I awoke and groaned when I felt my hands shackled to a hard stone wall. Not again. The previous night's events slowly returned and I couldn't help but remember an angel in the dark, one who kept the darkness at bay. Warm comforting arms, sweet voice, soft words, it was all tangled in a web of memories in the Chamber and every other horrible moment in these rooms.

"It seems our friend woke up." Crabbe laughed stupidly and Goyle joined in. "Play time."

"Knock it off Crabbe. The Carrows said to wait for them. They'll chain you to the wall if you start early. Wouldn't want to see the tables turn, eh, friend?" The third person in the room as I blearily opened my eyes shocked me, Malfoy never showed up for Hogwarts's new "detentions". He tended to stay away. His voice stirred something in me though. The person last night? No… it couldn't be. Malfoy was one of them.

"You're Dad doesn't have much influence Malfoy, so shut it. You have to back up your own words this time. You think you can take both of us?"

Malfoy rolled his eyes. "Of course I could." He whipped out his wand and before stupid and stupider could do a thing, had their wands. He then knocked them both out. "Well, they certainly showed me to watch what I say." He rolled his eyes and sunk into a chair. "Weasley."

I looked at him curiously. "What do you want Malfoy?"

"Thank you for keeping me under the Dark Lords radar, at least for a little while."

"Piss off. Or, better yet, go jump off a cliff. Only Death Eaters call that Snake-Faced Bastard the Dark Lord. Go do us all a favor asshole." I gave him a death glare.

Surprisingly, he chuckled, not a condescending one, a real, true laugh. Like he enjoyed himself. "Quite feisty for being chained to a wall awaiting torture. Or are you into that sort of thing?"

Despite my heavy glares his comment sounded less like a baiting insult and more like a joke between friends. Was this some new psychological thing? Pretend to be nice then rip them down? "Piss off."

"No thank you."

Stupid fake polite Death Eater. "Then make yourself useful and let me go." It wouldn't work, but hey, worth a try.

"I can't. Only the Carrows and Snape can unlock those." Useful information. "I can do this though." He waved his wand at me and suddenly the lingering pain and the bite of the too tight shackles was gone. "It'll help. My mother would use it on me when my father and his friends got drunk and tortured me in our dungeons. It protects the mind from consciously feeling pain. Your body will react just as it normally would, and you'll know you're in pain, but you won't feel it. It's hard to explain. When they let you go I'll be down the hall to the right. I'll get you to a place where you and your friends can go."

"Why are you helping me?" That little detail bugged me.

"Because. It helps me. The Dark Lord winning this war will do nothing to make my life any easier. If I help you in secret, then you have a fighting chance. I'm better off if Potter ends this." He shrugged. "It's more so me wanting myself and my mother safe when this all ends. I don't give a rats ass about my father. He can rot in Azkaban for all I care." His mercury eyes hardened. "The Carrows are coming. Don't say a word, please." For half a second I saw a flash of terror. He'd just gone out a limb to help me in any way possible, and I could turn him in and get out of here, and he'd be dead. His entire future rested in my hands.

"I won't. And thank you, you didn't have to try and help."

He gave me a wistful look. "I'm not evil, I don't want to be the bad guy. I don't want to be the monster."

_-_-_-_

I limped out of the "Detention" Room and almost went to the left, towards Gryffindor, but something that Malfoy had said tugged at me. I looked once towards the left, then towards the right. I had only a hunch to go off of as to why I should trust Malfoy, and every reason to go back to the Common Room. I shook my head and headed off down the halls.

"I didn't think you'd come. I had a hunch though." Malfoy was sitting on the stairs that lead up in the general direction of the Charms Room. "Here. It's a nerve regen potion. It helps with the shaking." I looked at the offered bottle. So far he hadn't done anything to give me any reason to doubt him. Of course, I had no reason for even being here. Going again on my hunch I accepted and quickly drank the silvery potion. Oddly, it tasted okay. For a potion. "Follow me. I know a place where you and your friends can hide out from the Carrows. It's getting really dangerous for you all."

I limped down the halls after him. The stairs were impossible. If I still wasn't feeling the effects of his spell I would've passed out from the way my muscles were protesting. He turned around. "They did a number on you. Here." He grabbed my right arm and crouched so I was leaning against him. He was all but dragging me down the halls. He hauled me down several corridors until I was standing outside the entrance of the Room of Requirement.

"This is what I've come to call the Room of Hidden Things. I pace three times, and it appears." He did so and a door appeared in the wall. He helped me in. "It gave me chairs and other things when I needed them."

"Harry knew about it, he always called it the Room of Requirement. It does a lot of things."

He looked a bit shocked. "Here I thought I knew a big secret."

"Not many know how to get in. Only you and me. Harry, Ron and Hermione know but they aren't exactly telling everybody."

"So, you seem to know. How's it work?"

"You think of what you need. To change the room drastically you gotta leave. It only exists if someone is there."

"So, if I say I needed a place for the night?"

"It'll give you a comfy room with a bed I guess." I wasn't an expert really.

He led me out and conjured the room again. Walking in there was a warm fire blazing in the fireplace and a huge bed big enough for five people. "Nice. This is so much more useful then what I was doing. Your entire House might be able to stay here."

"Maybe." He nodded in agreement and had me sit on the couch.

"So. I was thinking. You need a way to win the war and I'm not big on the Dark Side or whatever you call them winning. You can fight. I get killed for thinking bad thoughts."

I wasn't following. "Where do I come in?"

"You are a connection to Potter, and people are looking to Longbottom as well. If I help you two train, then you teach the other Seventh and Sixth years to fight, I mean really fight, when the Dark Lord tries to take the castle, eradicate the last "Light" stronghold, you all can mount a defense and keep them at bay long enough for others to show up and clean up the remaining Death Eaters. I can give warning to you all because I'm the go between for the Carrows and the Death Eaters here. They all think I'm the Dark Lord's next right hand man."

"So you are a Death Eater?" It didn't come as a huge shock to me.

"Yes, I am." He actually looked ashamed, it was odd to see him as… well, human. "I was under the Imperious Curse. Severus see's me as the one person he can save from Azkaban. I'm not quite sure it's possible. He puts me under the Imperious Curse at all the meetings I have to go to."

One thing about his little monologue struck me as odd. "Why doesn't he just save himself? The Imperious Curse, no matter how noble his supposed intentions might be is illegal. He'll get life in maximum security."

Malfoy let out a humorless laugh. "No, he won't. Once this all ends, if your side wins he'll be kissed. He knows this. Dumbledore may have planned for his death but Severus still did it. The whole world knows this. After everything ends his name will be the symbol for the light once again and people will love him again and Severus will be a pariah. What he does now holds no sway."

I nodded, still wondering if I believed his story. "How do I know I can trust you?"

"You don't. I guess it'll be a leap of faith on your part."

At least he's honest. "I guess so."

He looked down at his watch. "The Carrows will already be patrolling the halls. Ten minutes until curfew, I'd stay the night here if I were you. No need to suffer too much. If Longbottom asks just tell him that once the Carrows let you go it was too late to head to the Common Room and spent the night here." He grabbed his cloak and tossed me a vial. "After that curse you tend to have a lot of nightmares. Brings back the bad memories. That should help."

I looked at the vial and recognized it as the Dreamless Sleep. "Thank you."

"No problem. I tend to keep a stockpile." He waved goodbye and slipped out the door. I slowly went over the events of the night, my brain couldn't associate the man I'd spent the last couple of minutes talking to with the petty idiot boy who I'd traded insults with. It didn't make sense that a person who could actually be nice if he wanted to could be such a jerk on other days. My mind wasn't capable of putting two and two together and getting ten.

It went against every single rational idea that I had to trust him, but something about him made me trust the things he said. Was it the somber and quiet voice, one that sounded apologetic? Was it the ashamed and hurt look in his eyes? Was it the way that he looked at me, the sincere and honest look?

I can't say why I want to trust him. Why do I want to think he's a good person? Was he really that good of an actor? Or, did he change over the years, but was too afraid to admit it? How was it that twenty minutes with him had changed my entire view of him?

I'm not sure I could ever explain my thoughts, even if I had an entire year to say them. Maybe it's because I don't really understand them myself. I'll just sum up my ideas of him in the fact that I'm following my completely illogical gut feeling that somewhere deep down, Draco Malfoy is keeping a good person locked away. Maybe he's afraid that letting that out will make it go away.

But, what do I know? I don't even know what I'm thinking or feeling. Either way, I wouldn't want to be a good person right now. Not when everything's gone wrong. I'm afraid that all the good is leaving the world right now. It's kind of hard to thing good thoughts and to try and be good when everywhere you look you see evil.

More than that, I find it hard to believe that this is the way things will be. Somewhere, the world went wrong. Very, horribly, deeply wrong.

That's probably why I trust him, I'm looking for good in a bad place. That's probably it.

_-_-_-_

Wow, this is unusually deep and introspective for me. Considering my big story, I use the term lightly, is a total screw around light hearted comedy, this is really weird for me. I feel odd writing it, like I'm onto something big. I think I'm just depressed because I live in California and my mom works for a bank and my dad works for the state. Can you find a worse combination of jobs? In case you are unaware, California is completely broke as a state and may or may not have enough money to pay its employees. Talk about fun.

Anyway, complaining about lack of money aside… review. I'm a bit sad that a story I'm proud of has no reviews. First person to review gets to be my favorite person in the whole wide world until my mom buys me concert tickets!