Chapter 8, here we come!
I hope I'm getting better at this posting schedule. Sorry it's been taking me so long! I think I have it all figured out though.

Anyways, no other news from me.

Read, review, and enjoy!

"So you're relationship with Malfoy is basically a not so fun-filled roller coaster ride?" Seamus asked as he glanced around the empty corridor for a moment before erasing the jet black ink on a new NOTICE parchment with his wand.

Professor Snape and his band of death eaters had taken to posting new rules on the boards around the school at least once a day. We had taken it upon ourselves to change said rules at least once a day, usually on our breaks.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," I replied as I checked our list of new things to edit the notice board with, "Um, write on that one 'I will not swap Draco Malfoy's broom with one out of Filch's broom closet, no matter how funny the result may be.'"

Seamus chuckled for a moment. "I always thought that was you. Everyone in Gryffindor was wondering how a member from another house got close enough to the Slytherin dorms to do that."

I grinned up at him. Seamus and I's relationship had taken a very drastic, but very positive, upward swing ever since the fireworks episode. He had become one of my best friends, one of my confidants. I told him everything that had happened between me and Malfoy. He told me about his cousin Fergus.

I would hate Fergus too if I were him.

This new, positive relationship with Seamus had Draco reeling inside. At first when I told him I was going to spend time with Seamus he snorted and said, "Really? The leprechaun? Why would you want to spend time with him?" But as the days, and eventually weeks, went on with us getting closer, Draco's anger of us spending so much time together became very intense.

"You need to stop hanging out with him now," he said one night after dragging me into his dorm room. "This friendship needs to end."

I had cocked my head to the side and asked if he was jealous. Not smart. He didn't talk to me for three days after that. Seamus fell onto the ground laughing when I told him that, choking out between cackles that he knew all along that Malfoy was a girl.

My newfound friendship with Seamus also took a toll on my relationship with Padma, though this was an upbeat change. As Seamus was very much a troublemaker like me, I no longer had to drag Padma out of her common room at all hours of the night forcing her to do rule-breaking things with me.

We moved down the hall, checking in alcoves and branching corridors for the Carrows or Snape. We weren't too worried about the other teachers finding us, as they started to only major house points for rule breaking. Their only rebellion was that the professors refused to refer any student, no matter the crime, to the Carrows for punishment.

And in this new Hogwarts, no one really cared that much about winning the house cup.

"Here's another one," Seamus snickered as we approached it. "Educational Decree Number 25. Professors Amycus and Alecto Carrow will henceforth have supreme authority over all punishments, sanctions and removal of privileges pertaining to the students of Hogwarts, and the power to alter such punishments, sanctions and removals of privileges as may have been placed by other staff members." He paused for a moment, throwing the large piece of parchment a dirty look. "What is this one going to say?"

I flicked through the list, smirking as I came across one of my favorite ones. "If I spell makes me laugh for more than 15 seconds, I am to assume I am not allowed to use it."

"Nice!" Seamus chuckled as he slid his wand across the parchment, effectively erasing all of the old ink. He scribbled the new message onto the parchment, taking a step back to admire his work. "I think we've gotten to all of them, don't you?"

I nodded my head, rather impressed with our idea for a rebellious act. We had started on the first floor just after curfew began and had worked our way through the halls since then. I checked out the nearest window for the large clock that sat in the middle of the courtyard. It was indiscernible from this angle, so I just hopped up onto the windowsill and took a seat. I swung my legs back and forth, taking a special interest in my worn out sneakers.

"Hey, Natalie?" Seamus asked quietly as he leaned against the wall next to the windowsill. "I have a question. Why do you spend so much time with Malfoy?"

The question didn't necessarily catch me off guard, as I could tell from the tone that he had been waiting to ask since we met on the first floor earlier that night. I shrugged my shoulders, continuing to stare down at my sneakers. "I don't know. We're close. I like him, he likes me. It's just…we just fight a lot, that's all."

Seamus shifted to a more comfortable position. "He isn't very nice to you." His statement did manage to catch me off guard this time. I whipped my head around to look up at him.

"What do you mean? He's nice to me!" There was a large gust of wind outside that rattled the window behind me. Some of the cool breeze snuck in through the cracks in the seal, sending chills up my bare arms.

"Eh, just forget that I asked." He said quietly as he pushed himself off the wall. "We're right down the hall from my common room, so I'm going to head back. See you tomorrow?" He turned quickly to give me a brief, one-armed squeeze. I returned the hug, smiling slightly.

"Yeah, see you at the meeting tomorrow."

I sat on the windowsill, watching him walk down the hallway until he turned the corner and disappeared from view. I glared down at my sneakers, wondering what others were truly seeing in my relationship with Draco that I was not.

The DA meeting was scheduled for early the next day, before breakfast had even began. I stomped out of the common room, half-asleep as I made my way to the seventh floor. The sun's light had just begun to peek out in the valley between the tall mountains. I was glad I had brought a sweatshirt with me, as the cold wind whipped fiercely through the hallways.

"Nice hair," Padma teased me as I met with her just outside the Room of Requirements. I patted it gingerly with my right hand. A large, messy bun was lopsided on the top of my head, sinking downward on the right side. I shrugged casually. I hadn't even bothered changing out of my leggings and tank top that I had worn to bed last night, instead choosing to throw on a large sweatshirt over it.

"Oy! What are you two doing out of bed this early?" the nasty, old man in one of the portraits had started to scream. In our fatigue, we had forgotten to duck underneath his frame. "Professors! PROFESSORS!"

"Obliviate," my best friend shot lazily over to him. The jinx hit him right in the nose, spreading out onto the canvas before sinking beneath the paint. A dazed look cleared over his face as a wide, toothless smile split his lips.

"I think that did the trick," I said. Between staying up late the night before and getting up early this morning, I wasn't really in the mood to exuberate a lot of energy. The wooden door appeared before us and Padma seized the large, black handle. She tugged forcefully and the door flew open, causing her to stumble back a few steps.

I watched her trip over her own feet, my mind not keeping up with what was happening around me. A few hands shot out of the room, grabbing onto our shirts and pulling us into the room. The wooden door snapped shut behind us.

"Now that the last two are here," Neville started loudly, effectively quieting down the entire crowd before him. His hair was neatly placed. He was already dressed for the day. I was sickened by his morning chirpiness. "I've been give some information by a very trusted source. We have a source on the inside."

Sharp whispers emitted from around the room. Students hissed to each other, wondering exactly what that meant and if people were about to get caught. Neville held up his hands, ceasing the talking once more.

"Natalie, come to the front."

I glared at Seamus, who shuffled his feet guiltily. I knew what this was about immediately and why Seamus had questioned me so much the night before. He was wondering how much I knew about the death eater activity, specifically Malfoy's death eater activity.

"Natalie, we're all wondering if you want to be our spy. You're the only Slytherin, you talk to Draco Malfoy. Do you think you could find out information for us?"

I shrugged my shoulders and tilted my head in a neutral response. I was too tired to even think about what that all entailed. Everyone must have taken it as a positive sign, though because they cheered and whooped as if I had just won the quidditch cup.

"Wonderful, Natalie. I knew you would come through for us!" Neville beamed just before the bell signifying the start of breakfast resonated through the room. "Don't forget!" he called after everyone who was rushing to leave the room. "Meeting next week, different time so check your coins!"

I wobbled over to Padma, who looked less than thrilled at the prospect of getting up so early for such a short meeting. "I thought we were going to actually do something," she muttered in an annoyed tone. "Couldn't he at least have asked you in private instead of dragging us out of our beds at Merlin knows what time in the morning?"

She was even less of a morning person than I these days. I just shrugged my shoulders again, not having enough energy to respond verbally.

"Wait," I said as we headed toward Defense Against the Dark Arts later that morning. The sun was peeking out over the mountaintops now and it had even begun to snow. Padma hurried over to the window, ignoring me, as she peered out onto the grounds like an excited child on Christmas Day. I hurried over to her, tripping over the stone floor that always seemed to get me early in the morning. "Did I really agree to what I think I agreed on?"

"If you think you agreed on spying on Malfoy and trying to extract knowledge from him than yes, you agreed to what you think you agreed on." She stuck her hand through a small hole in the stone, grabbing some of the piling snow off the windowsill on the outside. "Mmm…I love winter!"

"Ick," I murmured under my breath as she pulled her hand out of the hole and smiled over to me. "I hate winter." We hitched our bags higher onto our shoulders and hurried off to the classroom, as the warning bell had begun to ring.

The corridor outside the classroom was filled with seventh years. As usual, Crabbe, Goyle, and Padma were standing at the front nearest the door whereas members of the DA were stationed toward the rear. Everyone else was clumped in the middle. I waved at Seamus, who grinned widely at me from across the corridor. He motioned over to the notice board stuck on the wall, where it read "If a classmate falls asleep, I will not take advantage and draw a dark mark on their arm."

I tucked my head, trying hard to hide the smirk that wanted to creep onto my face. Instead, I glanced over to Malfoy who had just snapped his eyes away from me in a very noticeable manner. Evidently he had been watching the exchange between Seamus and me. I rolled my eyes as the classroom door snapped open.

Amycus was blocking the way, but not enough to keep us from being able to see the small pairs of feet that littered the room behind him. "When you enter," he started to say as he began to step aside. "Pick a partner from this here crowd." He gestured behind him. "Then settle in and start to work on your Cruciatus curses."

We stared at him in disbelief for a moment, except the three at the front who were bouncing eagerly on their feet.

"Come on, then! Move it!" he yelled, causing us to jump into action and push past him into the classroom. What we saw wasn't ideal.

A group of about twenty first years were standing nervously at the front of the classroom, shuffling their feet anxiously as we filed in. Pansy picked off a small girl with black ponytails that jutted from the top of her head. She was shaking from head to toe as Pansy pulled her off into a corner of the classroom.

Crabbe and Goyle followed suit, picking two small boys (one with blonde, mousy hair and the other with shaggy, brown hair) before taking another corner of the room opposite Pansy. They stood in place with their arms crossed over their chests, as if they were guarding the two first years from the rest of the room.

"This is wrong!" Neville said passionately as he pushed his way into the room. "I'm not doing this. Cursing first years? This is completely mental!"

A few DA members were nodding their heads with determined looks on their faces.

"Yeah! We aren't doing this!"

"I can't believe you would make us curse first years!"

"Pick on someone your own size, Carrow!"

Amycus shoved through the crowd. Ernie Macmillian fell to the floor, cracking his knee loudly against the stone. The sound was painful even to me. I rushed over to him, making sure to check that his kneecap wasn't broken. Draco looked down at me with a disgusted look on his face. I decidedly ignored him.

"SILENCE!" Alecto screamed. The first years that were still positioned at the front of the room cowered in their tight group at the noise. "If you don't pick one, I'll pick one for you."

He shot out his arm, grabbing a hold of the nearest first year and flung her in Neville's direction. Neville caught the small girl before she fell to the floor. "No!" Neville said again as he kept a hand on her shoulder to make sure she had her balance. "I'm not going to curse her. She's a first year!"

"Please," the girl whimpered quietly. Tears of fear were streaming down her small cheeks. Pieces of hair were sticking out from her messy bun. "Please just do it. He said he would hurt my family if I didn't come. Please, just curse me."

Neville appeared painfully torn as he flicked his gaze back up to Amycus, who was gleeful at the girl's terror. I stood up from my squat next to Ernie and moved over to stand next to Neville.

"No, I won't hurt them either. It's cruel."

Slowly, but surely, more and more seventh years joined our sides, vowing not to hurt any of the younger students. Amycus's face grew uglier and darker as time wore on.

"Fine," Amycus said with a dangerously quiet whisper, "don't practice on the brats." He raised his wand toward the small group. "You caused this." Without another word and without even looking away from us, he shot a curse over to the first years, making sure to hit every single one of them. They flew backward, cracking heads and limbs against desks, the wall, and the stone floor. One remained unmoving as the bookcase toppled on top of him. We gasped in disbelief at the scene before us.

I rushed over to the small boy, pushing the bookcase off him. He groaned, clutching his head, which had begun to bleed heavily from just under his hairline. He opened his eyes, squinting at the light that shone behind me for a moment. "Why didn't you just curse me?" he asked quietly before passing out. "Why didn't you just listen to him?"

I froze in my kneeled position over the boy, wondering how bad his classes usually go for him to be begging that he get cursed. "I need help over here! He needs to be taken to the hospital wing!"

"Nobody move," Amycus ordered and the class stopped in their tracks. No one wanted the first years to get cursed again. Many of them were groaning on the floor, rubbing sore limbs and bruises that had started to appear. "Not yet."

Neville, who had a bad habit of rule breaking, pushed through the crowd and kneeled down next to me anyways. "Do you think he's going to be okay?" he whispered as he lifted the small boy off the ground. "Should he go see Madam Pomfrey?"

I nodded my head. "I think he'll be fine. He should go see Madam Pomfrey though, just in case." I could only imagine her reaction to seeing the boy. She spent much of her time these days grumbling about looking after cursed students. I looked up at Amycus, only to see him glaring at me in return.

"You're an awful human being," I shot over to him as the students cleared a path for Neville and the limp boy in his arms. "How could you do that to children? How could you-?"

I was cut off by a hand slapping over my mouth. Another hand clasped onto my arm and dragged me from the front of the classroom. The students once again parted to let us through. Padma had an expression of concern plastered on her face.

I struggled against the hand as the classroom door slammed shut behind us. "Get off me!" I licked the hand over my mouth and the owner let out a yell of protest.

"Merline, Garcia! What the hell was that for?"

I spun around and looked up to see Malfoy glaring down at me, his arms crossed over his chest. "Why do I always have to get you out of these situations?" he sighed as he pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes.

"I was doing just fine in there," I said stubbornly after a moment of silence. "I was just giving my opinion-"

"Natalie, don't you get it?" Draco yelled at me, finally uncovering his eyes. "This isn't a game anymore! This isn't just detentions you're gambling with. I can't keep following you around to make sure you don't get yourself killed!"

"I never asked you to!" I huffed. "I never asked you to follow me around."

"You're being incredibly selfish, Natalie Garcia. Can't even comply with a simple order to stay put and, surprise, look what you did! A kid got sent to the hospital wing because of you. Don't you get it? Don't you see it? You're causing all of this!"

I felt a barb of pain stick me right in the heart. I hadn't even thought of it in that sense. I wasn't the one causing all the curses and jinxes, was I? It was still his fault, wasn't it? Despite the fact he had been throwing himself out there to save me multiple times, wasn't it him trying to make up for everything he had done in the past?

He shook his head as he looked down on me. I felt small at this point, smaller than those first years that were still trapped in that classroom. "For someone that makes herself out to be so smart, you can be incredibly naïve."

He turned away from me and headed back into the classroom. More than likely, he was going to try and fix the mess I had created. Once again.