Thank you to everyone that has read this story of mine, and to aliceroseee and latefebruary for your reviews it was much appreciated!

I hope you enjoy the next chapter!

Chapter Three: Tower

There are three things in life that we can never be prepared for: Love, death, and betrayal. You can not prepare your heart for the fullness that it will feel when you find someone who loves you as deeply as you love them. The things that the person you are in love with will make you feel will continue to shock you, even years from now. It does not matter how much time death give you, or the number of warnings that he gave, death will always come as a dreadful surprise. And betrayal is something that no one ever sees coming, because it can only come to you from the hand of a friend.

As he walks the stairs of the Astronomy Tower, Draco thinks of many things. Like his first day at Hogwarts, and how he was mesmerized by all of the paintings and the staircases just like everyone else. He thinks about the first time he played on the Quidditch team and felt like he was doing something for himself for the first time. He remembers all of his classes and his now, none of the past six years seems to matter anymore. If he is successful in his task, no one will remember him as the child that he was. They will only be able to see him as a murderer and a coward. It is all of these thoughts that almost cause him to turn around, but then he remembers his family, and he knows what he must do to keep them safe.

When he arrives at the top of the tower, the old wizard is alone. "Good evening, Draco. What brings you here on this fine spring evening?"

"Who else is here? I heard you talking."

"I often talk aloud to myself, I find it extraordinarily useful. Have you been whispering to yourself Draco?" Dumbledore took in the stature of the young man who stood before him with his wand pointing at the old wizard's chest. "Draco, you are no assassin."

"How do you know what I am? I've done things that would shock you!"

"Like cursing Katie Bell and hoping that in return she would bear a cursed necklace to me? Like replacing a bottle of mead with one laced with poison? Forgive me, Draco. I cannot help feel that these actions are so weak that your heart can't really have been in them."

"Trust me. I was chosen!" He pulls his sleeve to his elbow to show his headmaster. His father always said that it was a great honour to bare the mark of the Dark Lord. As Draco looked down at his now, it makes his stomach turn.

The old wizard spreads his arms, as though he was ready to meet his fate. "I shall make it easy for you."

Draco knows better than to trust any wizard of Dumbledore's level of mastery and casts the headmaster's wand out of his hand. He has a clean shot now. Nothing to interfere with his task, nothing to stop him. He arm begins to shake and waiver as we see's what he has become. He thinks about lowering his wand, about walking away. Then he hears them.

"Draco… You're not alone? There are others. How?"

"The vanishing cabinet in the room of requirement. I've been mending it."

"Let me guess, it has a sister. A twin."

"At Borgan and Burkes. They form a passage."

"Ingenious! Draco… Years ago, I knew a boy, who made all the wrong choices… please, let me help you…"

Draco wants to tell him that he is not like that boy his headmaster is talking about. He wants to tell him that he never had a choice in this. His life was chosen long before this, long before a meeting on a tower, or a repair of a cabinet, or a ride on a train. Draco wants to tell Dumbledore that he thinks that it is too late for him to be saved.

"I don't want your help! Don't you understand? I have to do this. I have to kill you… Or he's going to kill me…"

In the end, it is Snape who kills him. There is no hesitation in his potion teacher's movements. The words are out quickly and without stutter. His arm does not shake and his aim is not off. Draco sees just how close he came to becoming a murderer. Everything is suddenly so real. The sounds are louder and the lights are brighter, as though everything has come into sharp focus and detail. He's being pushed to hurry down the stairs of the tower when his legs refuse to work. His body and his mind are numb, like when you are awaken from a dream and you aren't quite sure what is real and what isn't.

Snape stops him while Bellatrix and the other Death Eater's move further into the castle. "Draco, leave the castle. Get off of the grounds so that you can apparate to the manor. Speak to no one. Tell no one of what has happened. The Dark Lord will not be pleased with either of us. Wait until I arrive. Now Go. Go!"

And Draco does go, but he doesn't leave the castle. He simply runs.

The thing about people is that they are not made out of stone. They move and grow and change. They are not cemented into the ground, forever a constant in the world. Those that are, have not yet realized the potential that they have. They have not been shown that the world is at their fingertips, and that the direction that they go does not have to be the one where their compass is pointing. Draco throws himself into a corner against a wall. He's gasping, pulling at his hair and slamming his head into the brick behind him when she appears.

"Malfoy?"

He doesn't bother to raise his head from its place where his hands are holding it above his folded knees. He know's exactly who that grating voice belongs to. "Get out of here, Granger!"

"I'll do no such thing!" She never could stand being told what to do by someone else other than an authority figure.

"I mean it, Granger! Get the fuck out of here. If you don't they will kill you!"

"We can figure something out. Just tell me –"

"Tell you what? That I'm exactly the person that everyone thinks I am?!" He stands for face her and rips the sleeve of his shirt to his elbow, revealing what she had feared was true all this time. Draco Malfoy was a Death Eater. "I'm one of them now! Can't you see that? Dumbledore's dead because of me. I had to do it. He was going to kill me and my family if I didn't. I didn't have a choice. But I couldn't… I couldn't kill Dumbledore. But what does it matter? I'm as good as dead now anyways…"

A scared boy. That is what Hermione sees when she looks at him. Scared of the person that he had become, and scared that it is too late for him to change. The funny thing about mistakes is that you don't know that you're making a mistake until it's already done. Our hindsight is only 20/20, and even if it wasn't we would probably do the same thing anyways.

"No you're not." Hermione is rushing towards him and pulling off Harry's cloak before she can change her mind. "Put on this cloak. No one will be able to see you or find you while you're wearing it. Go to the Gryffindor common room on the fourth floor. It's behind the portrait of the fat lady. You'll have to wait for someone to come along and say the password so that you don't draw attention to yourself. When you get in wait for me by the fire place. Stay close to the walls and don't bump into anyone. I will find you and we will figure something out."

By now Draco is nothing but a floating head. He knows that he should thank her but he can't quite get his tongue to form the words. Before him stands a girl that he has known and despised for over six years. As he looks at her now, he tries to see what it is that he has hated so much for so long, but all he finds is bushy hair, courage, naivety, and too much knowledge for her own good. They both knew that he could take this cloak and disappear. Or that he could give this cloak over to the Voldemort as another weapon to use against them. Yet still, she trusted him. How many times did someone have to offer to save him before he let them?

"Go." She tells him. And when he doesn't move she says it again and pushes him into moving. He raises the hood of the cloak and vanishes from sight with no indication of what direction he went.

Sometimes you will be given a second chance. A chance to do the right thing. A chance to tell the truth. A chance to say you're sorry. Sometimes you get a second chance because you have earned it, and sometimes you get it because someone wants to let you try things one more time. But a second chance does not mean that you forget all that things that you did with the first one. No, not at all, remembering everything that you have done is very important if you don't want to make the same mistake again.

If you have come this far, thank you very much for reading! Please take a moment to send me a review with your thoughts. I welcome constructive criticism :)

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