A/N: Drama :0 This chapter is a bit short but full of answers and drama! Thanks for reading guys, please review! I'm so busy and stressed and it would mean so much!

And I don't mind

If it's me you need to turn to

Katelyn Williams was missing.

Draco had been waiting for her in the Great Hall for breakfast like he did every day for almost thirty minutes and he was beginning to wonder if she had gotten an early start or had slept in. Either way, it was almost time for class so he grabbed his books and began walking to History of Magic.

"Draco!" called a voice. He turned around and there was a small group of Ravenclaws standing behind him. He walked over to them and they visibly tried not to cower in his presence.

"Did you call me?" He questioned. They remained silent for a moment, and then the one who he assumed was the leader spoke.

"You hang out with Katelyn Williams, right? Well, you see, she's just really upset- she's crying and no one knows why. And she's not getting up to go to class- and you know that she goes even when she's really sick. She won't talk to anyone and we were hoping that you would go talk to her." She finished meekly.

"Course." Draco said, and hurried off in the direction of the Ravenclaw common room. He knocked on the eagle knocker, which then gave him a riddle.

Of no use to one ,Yet absolute bliss to two. The small boy gets it for nothing.

The young man has to lie or work for it. The old man has to buy it. The baby's right, The lover's privilege, The hypocrite's mask. To the young girl, faith; To the married woman, hope;

To the old maid, charity. What am I?

"A kiss." Draco replied without thinking. The door swung open and Draco jumped in, surprised. He walked over to the girls' dormitory. The portrait on the door looked at him severely.

"Are your intentions pure?" It asked him, looking him up and down. "Don't lie, I can tell."

"The purest." Draco said, without a hint of sarcasm. The portrait gave a sigh and allowed him to climb the stairs to the dormitory. He wandered around for a bit until he found the 7th year's room. Only one bed was still unmade and still contained it's inhabitant. Draco slowly walked over to the bed. "Katelyn? It's Draco." Katelyn quickly stirred.

"Hey, I'm fine. Really, I'm good- I'm just being stupid and stressed out. You're late to class. You should go." She said, her eyes red and her face wet with tears. She tried to give him a smile but looked absolutely miserable.

"Don't think you're getting rid of me that easily." Draco said, giving her a small smile. He sat down on the bed with her. "Do you want to talk? Or do you just want me to sit here with you for a little bit?"

"Just stay here with me." She said in a voice so small Draco's heart ached. They both laid down on the bed, his arms wrapped around her. They stayed silent for around five minutes.

"Can I see it?" She asked, breaking the silence. She swiveled around so that they were face to face.

"See what?" He asked, brushing her hair out of her face.

"Your arm." She said, without feeling. "I just can't believe that it's true until I see it with my own eyes."

"Do you really want to?" He asked. She nodded stonily, and without protesting he rolled up his sleeve and displayed the horrible black ink that was etched into his arm. She started to cry again and turned away from him. A feeling of dread filled his stomach.

"How can someone like you have something like that? Sometimes I can't figure out why things happen in this screwed up world." She said.

"I know this doesn't mean anything to you, nor should it, but I never wanted it. But that's no excuse. I was an absolute git. I was awful, really, until Potter saved my life during the war. I'll regret it for the rest of my life." Draco said regretfully.

"You know, the war in England was much better than the war in America." Katelyn said in a far away voice. "Here it was much more…manageable. There it was just… insanity. Schools were shut down, and we all just stayed at home and tried to keep the Death Eaters at bay. It started to get a little better, for a while, and one night I was at home with my parents. They're muggles, so someone always stayed with me at nights in case something happened. But that night my friend Devin was late. It was only about seven, so I wasn't worried. And that's when they came. It was three of them. I dueled them for a little while, but they were just so powerful." She said, and her voice caught. She took a momentary break, then continued. Draco was paralyzed with fear.

"So after they had my wand, they locked me in my bedroom. The leader came in and told me that they were going to kill my parents, but first they wanted them to hear the Death Eaters torture me. So they used the Cruciatus curse on me a couple of times, until I couldn't move anymore. Then one of them went into the other room with my parents and the other two of them raped me and yelled horrible things at me until I wished I were dead. And then I listened to them kill both of my parents. They left me there, just assuming I would die. Devin found me and brought me to St. Mungo's. That was a year ago, today. I've never gone back. I thought about it, but I can't. I can't live in that life anymore and remember what used to be there." She said. It was silent. Draco hadn't realized that they were both crying until he tasted the saltiness. He felt sick to his stomach. "You can leave now, if you want." She said, her voice catching on a sob.

"I'm- I'm not leaving you." Draco replied, his voice thick with regret. "This is all my fault, anyway. I'm part of the reason that this happened to you. Why do you even want to talk to me?"

"We're both broken." She said simply.

"I'm so sorry, it's all my fault. I'm so sorry," Draco said as his eyes filled with tears. They both cried in silence, together for a while. "I should go. You shouldn't have to be here with me today. I'll go." He repeated.

"If you think it's your fault that they're gone, stay here with me." She said, tears running down her face. "You're all that I have here. Don't leave me today."

"If you don't want me to go, I'll never leave you." Draco replied, climbing back into bed with her. They curled together under the covers and Katelyn fell into a quiet, exhausted slumber while Draco sat awake, not sure if the guilt eating at his soul was something survivable.

Katelyn woke up to Draco playing with her hair. She tried to remember why her eyes were sore and why Draco was in her bed when it all came back to her. Why had she been so stupid? This was far too overwhelming for him to handle- but he was still here, so that was a good sign. She moved a little bit, and he sat up.

"You're awake." He said seeming a bit embarrassed. She looked at him and felt terrible- he looked so absolutely sad. This was why she didn't tell many people what happened to her.

"Yeah." She said, feeling awkward. It wasn't every day that she bore her soul to someone.

"Do you want me to have someone go get your assignments?" Draco asked.

"Yeah, that would be really nice. I don't want to fall behind." Katelyn said, beginning to worry.

"Please, you're ages ahead of everyone else." Draco said, smiling. "I'll owl Granger and ask her if she can bring our assignments up."

"You missed all of your classes today! You shouldn't have stayed for so long." Katelyn admonished.

"I'll be fine. Besides, I think that you're more important than learning about the History of Magic and Ancient Runes." Draco said. Then he became serious. "Look, I want to talk to you. Being here with you today makes me realize that I…want to be with you like I haven't wanted to be with someone in a while. You walk around every day and you're just so- so nice, and I never thought I wanted someone like that, but I realize now that I do. And I can't believe with all that happened to you that you can even stand to be around me, much less want to talk to me and are nice to me even when no one else even acknowledges my presence." Draco said, ready to continue but Katelyn stopped him.

"Draco, you don't know how unbelievable happy that makes me. But today, just be here for me and not… romantically. We have plenty of time for that later. I just want to get through today."

"Whatever you need." He replied. The sound of footsteps on the stairs filled the room. Katelyn looked at Draco with reluctance. "Pretend you're asleep. I'll get everything." He said.

"Thank you." She whispered. She put her head down on his arms and Draco didn't even mind the feeling of his hand going numb. Granger appeared, carrying a book bag filled with papers.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me! You two skipped class today to do… well, you know, and I ran around getting assignments for both of you because I thought you were ill. Really, Malfoy, I thought even you were above sleeping with a new student that doesn't know what you did." She spat. Draco gulped hard to preserve his face of indifference and tried to remember what he used to sound like.

"Guess I'm not." He drawled, placing his free arm around Katelyn's waist.

"I should report you for this. How on earth did you even get up here? I guess the portrait's malfunctioning." Granger replied.

"I'm a better liar than you thought." He said with a smirk. Granger gave him a death glare.

"Either way, I'm a prefect and I'm not leaving until you do. It's against the rules." She replied.

"Well, we're just about to begin round-" Draco paused, as if to count, "four, so I would suggest that you leave. Unless, that is, you want to watch." He said with an evil smile and a raise of his eyebrows. She turned purple and looked horrified.

"You are vile, Malfoy." She said, before storming out of the dormitory. Once he was sure she was gone he looked down at Katelyn to find her shaking with laughter. He, too, began to laugh with relief both that Katelyn was feeling better and that he was able to laugh after what he had just heard.

"That was some of the greatest acting I have ever heard. Genius." She said, before breaking up into another bout of giggles.

"I would pay money to have a picture of her face. I really would." He replied, smiling and ruffling her hair.

"At least you made yourself sound like the stud- I just sound easy," she complained.

"You should just be lucky that you got to be with someone as utterly exclusive as me." He teased. "I'm just kidding- you're not mad, are you? I could tell her that I was just messing around."

"I'm not mad- I'll get around to telling them eventually. I might be back to square one on friends, though." She said with a smile.

"The Golden Trio is far too noble to judge. You could spin an elaborate story about how I gave you a love potion and coerced you into sleeping with me." He suggested.

"Oh, I think I like that one." Katelyn said, laughing. "Though I'm not sure that I'll entirely be able to pull off the whole "innocent" vibe."

"So, not entirely innocent, are you?" Draco said, his smile widening.

"Well, I wasn't…before." Katelyn said. Draco immediately felt guilty again and his smile dropped off of his face. "I'm sorry- we were having a good time and I had to go and bring it up again."

"No, don't feel bad. It's not your fault, it's mine. I shouldn't have brought it up," Draco apologized. "Look, I would do anything to prevent what happened to you. It infuriates me that I might have met one of them, and that I could have done something to them, to stop it. The whole war turned everything to shit. It really did. And one day soon, you'll be able to be "not innocent" again without thinking about it."

"I hope so." Katelyn said, looking at him sweetly before adding in, "Because you're really hot." She said before breaking out in giggles. He looked at her in surprise before putting his head down on her shoulder and laughing hard.

"Just when I think I've got you figured out," he said, sighing good-naturedly.

"I hope you never do." She said seriously, before snuggling in close to him and putting her head back on his chest. "Now hand me my essay."