It's been weeks since it started. About four to be exact. Throughout those four weeks someone has been with me at all times. I feel completely and utterly trapped. It seems as if I'm a prisoner in my own home. Sure I get to leave, but someone must be with me of course. I can't even sleep in my own room. I must sleep in the main room with all of my protectors. I tell my parents that this is barbaric and rubbish. But they don't listen. They just keep telling me that this is for the best. I don't see how it matters so much. There are at least 10 protective charms on this household. That should keep the Carrows out. But it's just in case. No one understands that I can fight myself. They treat me as if I'm 5 years old. I'm 18 for Merlin's sake.

My protectors have there own little schedule of who's turn it is to protect me. Or who protects me when I go somewhere in the house. Daphne has the job of standing out the door when I go to the bathroom, and take a shower. Milicent has the job of standing out the door when I change. Pansy has to watch me when I'm eating. Tracy watches me when I hang in my room. Theo watches me when I sit outside. Blaise watches me when I go to my family's library. And Draco has to go with me when I leave the house to go somewhere else. That gets a bit uncomfortable because when some of my friends see me, they think we're dating. It's disgusting. Though, Draco thinks it's funny when I get embarrassed, so he just stands there smiling. And I have half a mind to hex him for that. We had to make sure that no one would get suspicious. There mission to protect me was a secret and so was the whole new Dark Lord problem. No one, not even the Ministry, could find out what we were doing.

There are some good parts to it. I've gotten to know some of them and enjoy there company. Everyone but Draco have become my friend. But still having them watch me all over the place has become irritating. No one knows how long it will last because they have to protect me until the bracelet is found and we have to get it before Amycus and Alecto Carrow do. That won't happen for a while. The bracelet is lost somewhere and no one knows a bit of where it is. People have been searching for the past four weeks and no one has come up with any idea of where it might be. I'm pretty much trapped for a very long time.

Today was no different. I was followed by someone everywhere. The bad part about today was that I had to go do errands. So Draco has to come with me. I just hope not one of my friends sees me this time.

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I was sitting in the dining room with everyone else waiting for Malfoy to get ready. Everyone else was talking about how no one has seen the bracelet. But someone did find a clue.

Daphne spoke, "I heard that Ramiel lost it when she was in the battle that killed her. The battle was near Hogwarts. The bracelet has got to be around there."

"Then why don't they check there?" Blaise asked.

"That's their main search place now. They've been there ever since they got the clue. But no one has found anything still."

Pansy asked, "Can't they narrow it down to at least one spot?"

"No. The battle was somewhere near a lake, but the lake is too big to narrow it down. Plus there's more then one lake.

I was just sitting there listening to what they were saying. I wanted to try and go out to find it, but no one would let me try. I had a feeling that maybe I could find it. My parents tell me to stay out of it. But how can I when it's mostly about me. To them I was worthless. The only thing they wanted me to do was stay hidden and protected. What a waste.

Finally, Malfoy came down the stairs ready. I had to get going now or else I won't have time to figure things out. No matter what I was helping. I'm going to find the bracelet.

"Took you long enough." I said.

"Sorry." He scoffed.

"Whatever. Can we just get going?"

"Fine by me. I don't enjoy watching you. I want this to be over as quick as possible. Just like the other times."

We headed for the door. Everyone called out bye and told me to be safe. I just rolled my eyes. As if I didn't hear that before.

We had done all that we needed in a matter of an hour. It still felt like forever though. People stared as I walked beside Malfoy. It was very annoying as girls that I didn't even know giggled as we walked by. The last thing we had to do was go to a book store and look if there was any book on Ramiel Reiann. We entered the store and searched every shelf there was and nothing came up. Nothing at all. It was disappointing. I wanted to know more about her. I read the book in our family's library in a matter or two days. It was interesting but it didn't say anything about the bracelet. Daphne read it as well. She thought it was confusing. I guess that was the only book of her out there.

We left the book store and headed onto the street where there were a lot of people. Some of the people expresses changed as Malfoy and I passed. I just thought it was because I was walking with him. I got more and more irritated because it was bad enough walking with him, but to have everyone stare just made me pissed off.

Just as I thought that this couldn't get worse, someone I didn't want to see was behind me.

"Astoria?" I turned around only to be stunned of who was there.

"Cameron? Cameron Bleevy?"

"The one and only."

"Give me a second ok?"

"Sure."

I turned back to Malfoy and said, "I'll be right back alright."

"I'm not supposed to let you out of my sight, remember?"

"Yes, I remember that but, it'll only be a minute or so. The Carrows won't get me

in that time limit."

"They could if they tried." He paused for a second to think it over. "Okay. You got about five minutes."

"Thanks. Just wait here." I turned back to Cameron, grabbed his arm and pulled him a couple of feet away.

Before I could say something he asked, "Was that Draco Malfoy?"

"Yes."

"Are you dating him?"

"No. No way. I would never."

"Sure you wouldn't"

"What did you want Cameron?" I growled.

"Well I just wanted to ask if you were okay."

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

"It's all over the Daily Prophet that you're being watched by the Carrows."

"It's says it where?!" I asked in a high pitched voice. I was nervous. Me being

watched by the Carrows was supposed to be a secret. How did it get into the public?

He reached into his coat pocket and took out what seemed to be the Daily Prophet. He gave it to me and I read it. My eyes widening at how detailed it was. It seemed impossible that it would get out, but it did.

"Cameron, do you mind if I take this along with me?"

"No, not at all. I can get another one."

"Thanks. It was nice to see you again, but I must get back home."

"Sure, no problem. It was nice to talk to you too. Be safe alright. The Carrows are very dangerous. Good-bye." He walked away. I was pretty frozen at my place, rereading the paper again. Me being watched was on the front page. Finally I spun around fast and ran toward Malfoy.

"What's that?" He asked.

"I'll tell you later. We have to get back to the Estate, now."

I ran as fast as I could into an empty alley so we could Apparate back.

As soon as Malfoy caught up with me he asked, "What's going on? What's the rush?"

"I told you, I'll tell you when we get back to the Estate."

He grabbed my arm and there was a loud pop as we Apparated.

When we Apparated back to the Estate everyone was sitting in the living room, still talking about the bracelet. When they saw my worried expression they silenced immediately.

"What's wrong?" Daphne asked in a very worried voice.

"This is what's wrong." I said as I laid the Prophet down on the coffee table. They all bent over to read it and there expression went from worried to complete and utter shock.

"How did this happen?" Millicent asked. "No one was supposed to find out. Not even the Ministry."

Draco went over and sat next to Pansy and looked at the paper. And his expression too went into shock.

"So this is why you ran away from that Cameron fellow."

"I didn't run away from him." I explained. Then I changed the subject back to the real problem. "I don't know how this happened. Someone must have let it slip that this was happening."

"Well it certainly wasn't us."

"I never said it was. It's all starting to make sense now."

"What does?" Draco asked.

"When we walked out of the bookstore and everyone was looking at us differently than the first time we walked past them, it wasn't because I was walking with you. It was because they all read the Prophet and they saw that it was me. They looked at me that way because I held the key to the next Dark Lord. And they didn't know if I was going to purposely get the answer and join the bad side, or if I wasn't going to do anything at all. They were confused."

Pansy asked, "So what are you going to do?"

"I have no idea."

After a couple of minutes, all the parents came home just as confused as we were. We all just looked at each other wondering who would speak first. My father was the one to break the silence.

"Did you all read the Daily Prophet?"

"Yes." We all said in unison.

"Father," I started, "How could this have happened? We were all careful that no one said anything about it to the public. I mean it was so top secret."

"I'm not sure how it happened. Our best guess is that someone must have spied on us."

"How could they spy on us if we have charms on our Estate?"

"Well, sometimes we speak about it in the office, while no one else is around. Maybe someone hid when we didn't notice and listened in."

"That makes sense. So what do we do now?"

"What's best. You cannot leave this household Astoria. Not until we find the bracelet and you can retrieve it, if it's safe enough."

"But that's not fair. I can't just sit around here for days, maybe weeks. I need to get out sometimes. I still need to work at the stores for a couple of days. I need to figure out what I job I want. I'll need some air. I can't just sit outside in our backyard. You can't keep me locked up."

"I'm sorry, but that's what we're going to do."

"Look. It's bad enough that I have to be followed all over the house, but you cannot keep me in the house. No matter how safe you think it is. I'm going to leave sometimes, when I want to or I have to."

"No. You are going to stay in this house with everybody else. That's final."

"It is not final! I'm not five. I'm 18. I'm old enough to make my own decisions now. Why don't you ever listen to me? I'm old enough to protect myself when it's in the property of our own home. There are around 10 protective charms on this household. That's enough for me to be by myself. I can understand if I need someone to be with someone outside of this house. But it's unnecessary to have someone watch me in the house, every room I go in to. And now I can't even go to a store at all, but I still need to be watched! What are you trying to do to me?"

"Astoria. Enough of this nonsense. You know it is just to keep you safe. So listen to me." My father hissed that last sentence out.

"No father. You listen to me. I am done." I stormed out of the room as fast as I could. Fast enough to that no one could follow me to watch me. I wasn't far enough to hear the last thing he said.

"What is that supposed to mean?" He yelled. But I didn't reply.

I enter my room and slammed the door. I couldn't stop the tears from falling down my cheeks. I didn't know exactly why I was crying, but I was anyway.

I lied on my bed for what seemed days but it was only a mere couple of hours. Since my fight with my father I had been thinking about what I should do. I rolled over onto my side to check the time. It was the middle of the night. Everyone should be asleep by now, but I on the other hand was not tired. I closed my eyes for a second and then it came to me. I sat up and smiled. I went to grab my suitcase and opened it. I started to pack. I knew exactly what I was going to do now. To prove I was able to protect myself, I was going to run away to Hogwarts and search for the bracelet. I thought that maybe I would be able to find it. I'd have to be careful. They were still searching there so they could see me if I messed up. But wait, I'd need a reason to be there. I stopped putting things into my suitcase. What would be a good excuse? I wondered. Then that came to me. Since I have been working some jobs, I can say I was working for the Ministry for a bit. I could say that I was evaluating the teachers and students for them. That was what I was going to use for my excuse. It's brilliant. And then I started to pack again.

When I was all done, I wrote a note to everyone and left it on my bed. Then I took out my wand out. I pointed it to my suitcase. Levicorpus I whispered. It rose into the air. I opened my door and started to walk out. I proceeded down the stairs and through the main room where everyone was sleeping. I made sure that I was completely quiet. Then I made it through the front door without a problem. I Apparated onto the grounds of Hogwarts. They don't use the protective charms anymore since Voldemort was gone. And I entered my old school once again.