Chapter Eight: Plotting

"What?"

"He's been in a coma for the past seven years," Malfoy repeated. "Don't worry, I have the best doctors and nurses money can buy looking after him."

"Where is he? I want to see him!"

"You will. We'll have to come up with an excuse, though. He is out of the country."

"Where?"

"The less you know right now the better, just in case someone probes your mind." He paused. "You do know occlumency, don't you?"

I hesitated. "Yes, and no. I taught myself some in the years leading up to the battle, but never really had any practice."

"Then you'll have to start practicing." He stood. "The Emperor might be coming to the engagement party tomorrow night, and if he does you have to be prepared to at least hide your true identity from him."

"And everything else? Harry still being alive, this secret room—"

"Let him find out about the room. In fact, you can report it to Lord Greengrass. They won't find anything in here to implicate me, but you reporting it will make them trust you more, and possible get us more information. I'm sure that together we can make another safe-haven."

"I'll spend some time in the library when I get a chance and look into it."

He smirked. "Why do I get the feeling you say that often?"

I hid a smile from him. "After the engagement party, we can say we're taking a trip together to celebrate. That'll be our excuse to get away and see him. I'll send reports to Lord Greengrass while we're away telling him we're somewhere else, throwing him off our trail."

"Good idea." His smile widened. "You know, I wasn't sure if you could pull this off."

I sent him a sideways look before opening up the picnic basket. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"That Astoria's personality is pretty much the opposite of yours, and I wasn't sure you could handle being thrown into the middle of the Emperor's politics."

"I can handle anything if it means saving Harry and beating Vol—the Dark Lord once and for all." I paused. "The diary is helping. I'm getting a better sense of who she was."

Malfoy joined me on the ground and pulled out a sandwich. "You can say his name in here, you know. Just now out there."

"Last time one of us said his name we were captured by snatchers and brought to your dungeon."

He suppressed a laugh. "That was a long time ago."

"An eternity," I mumbled.

We fell into silence. After a few minutes, Malfoy swallowed a bite of his sandwich and cleared his throat.

"Azkaban—being alone, always wondering what happened to everyone else—that must have been awful."

I glanced at him before looking back at my food. "It was," I said softly.

"Did you ever think about—I don't know—ending it all? Just starving yourself, or smashing your head against the wall, or something?"

"Honestly, the thought of suicide didn't really cross my mind. There were many times I wished I would die, but taking my own life—it just never occurred to me. Maybe if I'd been in there a couple more years I would have gotten to that point."

I stopped eating and looked at him with furrowed eyebrows. "Why do you ask?"

He sighed. "When I visited my mother, I could tell she'd stopped eating. I don't know if she'll stick to it or give in the next time she's brought food, but she hasn't even been in there that long so—I was just wondering if you'd ever thought about it."

He stared at his sandwich. I frowned, a little surprised that I was actually feeling sorry for him. I scooted a little closer to him and put my hand on his knee.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"What kept you going?"

I shrugged. "I guess, even at my lowest, I always held on to a tiny spark of hope. That's why I carved those words into my wall. The hope and the faith that all the sacrifice, all the death, wasn't pointless. That somehow, someday, the world will be a better place because of what we did, or tried to do."

He eyed me with an expression I couldn't quite place. Feeling uncomfortable, I took my hand off his knee and picked up my sandwich again.

We ate the rest of our meal in silence. When we were both finished, Malfoy stood as I packed things up.

"Guess we should say goodbye to this place," he said wryly. "We won't be able to come back here again after you talk to Lord Greengrass."

"If you don't come back, it'll look suspicious," I said as I stood. "Don't do anything to incriminate yourself, but don't make them think you know they know about this room either."

He smirked again. "I see why Potter kept you around."

Again, I hid a smile.

Malfoy took my hand as we stepped outside. As we headed back to the manor, we discussed a wedding date. Naturally, we set it as far in the future as we could without being conspicuous. Malfoy decided he'd announce the date at the engagement party the next evening.

The idea of attending that event sent my stomach into knots. Yes, I'd told him I could handle it, but that didn't mean it wasn't going to be extremely difficult. I had to get through the diary, learn as much as I could about who Astoria was, who her friends were, how she'd act.

When we walked through the front door of the manor, Lord Greengrass was descending the main staircase. He forced a smile when he saw us.

"I see the happy couple has returned from their long lunch," he said. "Anything interesting happen?"

"We finally decided on a wedding date," I said, leaning in to Malfoy and putting on my best smile. "We plan on announcing it at the party tomorrow, but if you'd like to know—"

"I can wait until then. You go ahead and keep it a surprise." His smile seemed even more strained. "Darling, I wonder if I might have a moment of your time."

"Of course, Father."

I handed Malfoy the basket and stood on my tiptoes to kiss him. He raised his eyebrows slightly, seemingly surprised that I was suddenly playing along. I sent him a small smirk before turning away and following Lord Greengrass into the study.

In truth, I wasn't entirely sure why I was more willing to go along with his plan now than a couple hours ago. All I knew was I was determined to do anything to bring Harry back and defeat Voldemort. And if that meant pretending to be in love with Draco Malfoy, so be it.

When we reached the study, Lord Greengrass closed the door. "Please tell me you have something worth mentioning."

I put on a mischievous grin. "As a matter of fact, I did find something interesting. It's in the gardens."


A/N: Please review! I would ever so appreciate it :)