To SB- Potterhead Budgie Lover: I actually haven't decided yet :) Basically just got bored in class and started writing and will see, where it takes me.

Chapter 2: Proving Loyalties

The principal of the thing was simple. If two people both have something to hold over the other, then neither can go spilling secrets. It will come back to harm them. Of course first you need something for both parties to hold over the other. Which basically led to Draco Malfoy and Tracey Davis out after curfew doing something very Gryffindorish for very Slytherin reasons.

Tracey bit her lip and glanced around the wall at the corridor. It was empty save for a few paintings. Thankfully though most of the paintings now stayed silent even when they saw students out of bed. Drawing the attention of the Carrows just seemed too much of a punishment for simply breaking curfew.

"When I said I was all ears, I wasn't really expecting this."

Malfoy glared at her. "I said I had to be able to trust you in order to do this, Davis. And this way I can trust you. Unless of course you'd rather go back to the Slytherin common room and forget our little conversation?"

Tracey sent him a poisonous look. "Shut up already. I'm doing it, aren't I?" She inhaled sharply and looked down at the small pile of supplies in her lap. "Right." She began moving forward, towards the doors of the great hall. She stopped quietly and took a deep breath. "Will you at least keep watch for me?" Malfoy sent her another glare but then moved a little so he'd have a better view of stairs and all the corridors.

Tracey turned to the doors and got to work. Slowly and carefully. She'd chosen to do it without magic so it took a little longer. But according to perfects' patrolling schedule she'd managed to copy, they had about fifteen minutes until the next patrol would come along. Fifteen minutes had to be enough.

She worked as quickly as she could before finally taking a step back to examine her work. It looked good. Well, it looked bad. Many detentions worth of bad. She also felt a twinge of guilt as she thought of the headmaster. Snape might have been a git but at least he was no Umbridge. This was clear by the fact that the headmaster's office had not sealed itself from him like it had done with that rabid bitch. Of course one hardly had to do a lot to be better than Umbridge. But still, he didn't need anymore stuff on his plate...

Malfoy's urgent whisper pierced the silence. "Davis, done? We have to go!"

She snapped herself out of it and nodded, flicking her wand and vanishing the supplies, then ran to Malfoy and under his invisibility cloak they headed back towards the dugeons. On her way down she did her best to not think about the Carrows discovering the deed. Instead she focused on the vanishing spell, wondering, what actually happened to stuff that it was used one. Professor McGonagall had said that it causes objects to go into non-being...but Tracey was uncertain how one would actually confirm that. And whether in fact there wasn't simply a separate dimension filled with all the vanished stuff floating around in the void.

"Davis? DAVIS?" Tracey blinked as Malfoy pulled her into the common room and the door closed behind them. She shook away the miscellaneous sci-fi theories and turned to the boy.

"So now what? You are convinced that I can be trusted? After all, if anything happens, you can just tell your godfather that it was all my doing."

Draco walked over to the fireplace and chose an armchair. "Sure, Davis."

Tracey huffed and sat down too, on the arm of the couch, balanced on her left leg. "Right."

After a moment she did nod. Draco had been given something and his own complicity was her insurance. It was time to move on. "So now that we trust each other, you can call me Tracey."

Draco nodded. "As we are properly connected to each other...what exactly is your plan?"

Tracey made herself comfortable and cast a quick spell to keep their conversation between themselves. "Just one more question. You can occlude, right? My father taught me last summer." He'd almost forbidden her from going back before she did. Taught her a few good spells too. And threatened that if he heard anyone had laid so much as a hand on her, they'd have to answer to him.

Draco gazed at the fire. "Yes, yes I can. My aunt taught me."

"Good." She hesitated for a moment, wanting to ask about Voldemort, but it was probably going too far. He was already taking a risk. "My plan is mostly to keep hope alive and try and weaken them as much as I can. So that Potter's job could be a bit easier." With that she went into the finer details.

By morning Tracey had almost forgotten what she had done the night before. Almost. If she had not been rather rudely awakened at five and nearly dragged out of bed. The girls in the dorm were all freaked out about something and as she tried to tame her messy morning hair she managed to drag a few words out of an equally sleepy Millicent. Apparently headmaster Snape had ordered an 6 o'clock meeting before even breakfast began. The way that Millicent spoke about it, Alecto Carrow had shown up a few minutes before, screeching not unlike a banshee. Or perhaps Pansy. It must have been something bad if even the Slytherins were getting that kind of a treatment.

And curiously Tracey had completely forgotten about what she had done the night before. In fact, she did not recall it even as she and the rest of the Slytherin house was ushered by the perfects out of the dungeons and up the stairs Even as they met the sleepy Gryffindors and Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, everyone with their ties on crooked or robes thrown on in a hasty manner and still wearing bed hair. In fact it was not until they all came to a halt in front of the doors to the great hall and Tracey laid eyes on her handy work and Draco leaned over to whisper in her ear:"Now, Trace, I can truly trust you." So Tracey looked at her own creation and shuddered at the thought of anyone ever learning she was the one who did it. Now in the completely lit up hallway no one could have mistaken what they were seeing for something even remotely innocent:

Rest in peace, Dumbledore. And death to Voldemort's whore.