10

Sarah POV

The next morning, Hermione informed me that I had been really restless during the night- more so then I'd been at the Burrow. She was nervous for me, of course, but I assured her that I hadn't been dreaming of anything specific and that I was, as always, fine. At breakfast, I carefully observed Malfoy again. Usually you could hear him and his crones guffawing and being stupid from across the room. But now, even though he had more crones and 'friends' then ever, he was very quiet, distracted, and snippy. I hadn't given much thought as to how I was going to convince him to abandon Voldemort, but as I watched him, I realized it was going to be near impossible. I couldn't speak to him about what I knew, I couldn't plainly say, "I know you're a Death Eater.", or, "I know your plan to assassinate Dumbledore,". None of those were options- so how would I convince him without being able to utter a word? Throughout the day I kept one eye on him, even in my most challenging classes, Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts. In Potions, I could tell his mark burning around me threw him off, as it did me. In DADA, the combined effect of him and Snape made it hell. I was always the last in and the first to leave.

At lunch, I made up an excuse to my friends, something about getting something from Gryffindor Tower, and slipped out of the Hall. I had seen Malfoy leave just seconds earlier. I had made up my mind in a split second. My first attempt with him was going to be simple. I would threaten him with the fact that I knew- that was all. It was all I could manage before I knew more about his plan. Following him silently, I noticed that he had a very straight, almost rigid posture, and moved like a ghost- he obviously didn't want to be seen. Up ahead, I could see a tapestry that had a secret passage behind it, and I figured that it'd be best to do this in private. I quickened my pace, drawing my wand. Seconds before he realized he was being followed, I Disarmed him from behind, right in front of the tapestry. He whirled, a snarl on his face as I snatched his wand from the air, raising mine. Bracing myself for the pain, I stepped closer, and both of our jaws clenched at almost the exact same time as our marks burned. "Get in," I ordered, moving him at wandpoint backwards until we were in the secret tunnel. "Lumos," I said through gritted teeth as the tapestry closed behind me, leaving us in almost total darkness.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Mudblood?" Draco spat, fists clenched. In such close proximity, he towered over me, even though I was five foot three.

"Shut up and listen," I spat right back. "I know," I said after a deep breath, moving my left hand, and his wand, behind my back to lessen the pain.

"What the hell are you blathering-" He started acidly, but I cut him off.

"Shut it," I snarled, not in the mood. The feather around my neck wasn't doing much good, and my left wrist was aching. "I know what you've become. I know your left arm is burning right now. I know what your plot is, what you're trying to do this year. I know that you're an-" I cut myself off just in time before I tried to utter 'assassin'. I would have gotten the overwhelming pain in my wrist again. "I know what you are." I forced out, feeling my face paling faster and faster. Malfoy had been sneering, but now he stood frozen, his face halfway between a sneer and a scowl, his eyes watching me without contempt, only shock. "Watch yourself." I said as dangerously as possible, throwing his wand at him and stepping back into the corridor, walking briskly back to lunch. Now that I was away from him, my skin was slowly starting to warm again, even though I knew my face would probably stay pale for awhile.

"Did you get what you needed?" Hermione asked, her nose stuck in a book as I sat back down next to her. Then her head shot up as she felt the cold air around me. "Merlin, Sarah, are you alright?" She said, cuing Ron and Harry to cut off their conversation and lean around her.

"She just got a little angry is all. It happens more then you'd think." I reassured them, even though I suddenly realized that this wasn't the first lie I'd have to tell them this year, and certainly not the biggest.

Draco POV

My hand had shot out to catch my wand, but now that I had it I stood perfectly still again, trying to stop my frantically beating heart. Snape had been right in telling me to avoid her- she knew. Somehow the filthy little Mudblood had figured out that I was a Death Eater- and she knew my mission this year. At first, I thought she'd been only bluffing, but when she moved her left wrist farther away from me, almost unconsciously, the pain lessened. Baffled, I stumbled deeper into the secret tunnel she'd unknowingly showed me, trying to force myself to think. How was that possible? The Dark Mark had never burned that strongly, not even when it was first marked on my skin. The only time it had gotten even close to that feeling was when I was around the Dark Lord. That didn't make any sense. Wimkil was the meekest, quietest, nerdiest Mudblood in the school. There was no way that she was connected to the Death Eaters.

I would have gone to Professor Snape, but he'd only told me to avoid her at all costs; he wouldn't speak of it anymore no matter how hard I pressed him. He was the only other person at Hogwarts I'd be able to talk to about the Dark Mark burning around her. Scowling, I set off down the tunnel, not because I was curious to see where it went, but because I couldn't return to the Great Hall now. I had too much to think about. If I really thought about it, pictured her from last year to this year, there was a drastic difference. She had lost a lot of weight, she was pale most of the time, and at the beginning of the year she had looked like she'd received the Dementors Kiss for Merlin's sake. Something had definitely happened to her, but how and why it had happened to her I intended to find out. It had something to do with her left arm…

Sarah POV

The rest of my day was surprisingly nice. Despite how shaken I was after the Malfoy confrontation, Hogwarts was still keeping my spirits up. Even though I could still feel where Snape and Malfoy were in the castle at all times, I still felt safe- and happy, especially when we were far apart. During History of Magic, Hermione fell asleep, bless her, and it gave me time to think hard about what my next move with Draco was going to be. I completely ignored Professor Binns's lecture- he was reviewing the Goblin Wars anyway. I had bluffed with Malfoy a little- I had told him I knew his plan- something I didn't actually know. Voldemort might have trusted Malfoy to kill Dumbledore, but I knew (unfortunately) that Voldemort would want to kill Harry himself. Therefore, Malfoy would either have to kidnap Harry out of Hogwarts, which was pretty much impossible, or bring someone here to do it for him. The only group with enough power who wanted Harry dead was the rest of the Death Eaters. But since Hogwarts was pretty much impenetrable this year, how would he get them in? It's not like they could Apparate to Hogsmade and skip over to the castle. He couldn't Floo them in, and would have a hell of a time breaking the enchantments around the castle. How would he get them in? I couldn't think of anyway for him to do it that was practical and at all realistic. The bell rang and both Hermione and I jerked, for completely different reasons. "How could you let me fall asleep?" She wailed quietly, nearly dragging me out of the classroom. "We were reviewing the Goblin Wars, those are fascinating!"

"Hermione," I said seriously, planting my feet to make her stop. "Think about what you just said, and then you'll figure out why I let you sleep."

"Oh, shut up," Hermione muttered, flushing but grinning at the same time. For awhile, we walked towards Gryffindor Tower in silence. "I hate to break your good mood, but you do remember that you have Occlumency tonight, right?" She reminded me gently, and I groaned, smacking my forehead. I accidentally did it with my left hand and gave myself an instant headache. Lovely.

"I did forget," I admitted, once again cursing her and Snape vigorously in my head. "Looks like no homework for me tonight," I tried to say it cheerfully, but considering I was grimacing it was no surprise that Hermione didn't believe me.

"Are they really that bad? I thought Harry was just being Harry, you know, a bit sensitive around Snape." Hermione said anxiously, and I laughed, but it was hollow.

"Harry probably had it worse, he hates Snape more than I do, and he has worse memories than me. When you make a mistake Snape sees memories in your head, a lot of them private. He doesn't do it on purpose," I said hastily, seeing Hermione's eyes flash, "but it's hard to continue when he sees things that make you…emotional." I summarized, feeling the dread start up again. When I was working that hard and when I was that stressed the feather never worked. I certainly had an unpleasant evening in store…

OoOoOoO

"Enter," Snape's curt voice snapped when I knocked on the door to his office. I stepped in and closed the door, my posture stiffening as I walked over to his desk. Instantly I could tell that he wasn't in the best of moods. But before I could move to sit down, he Vanished the chair and stood, drawing his wand. "Perhaps tonight you can remember to block." He said irritably, as if it was my fault it was only my second lesson. "You'll need your wand," He sneered, and I shot him a dark glare before drawing it. I didn't know what his problem was tonight, but this was hard enough on me already. His attitude wasn't going to make it any easier. "Focus. Legilimens!" He almost snarled. This time, my eyes snapped shut, and I put a black empty void in front of my head, blocking where the invasive spell was coming from with all my might. I barely heard him scoff and it made me angry. Out of the empty wall I outstretched talons towards his spell, a warning to back off. It faltered for a moment, then pushed mercilessly stronger. Block! I thought wildly behind my defenses, and my wand hand twitched, as if I was going to raise it. But thinking about defending myself was too much to balance with the wall, and it broke.

It was my first year at Hogwarts. Danielle was standing over me and I had just noticed her; I had been too absorbed in my book to see her before hand. "Hey, wanna be friends?" She asked, almost a demanding tone.

"Why?" The younger me asked in surprise. She snorted.

"It's not like you've got a whole lot of other options, dweeb. Besides, you can help my other friend Luke out- he's pretty much brainless."

I inhaled sharply, raising my wand halfway and managing to force the memory away from him at the same time, but his spell latched onto another one-

"I'm not a douchebag, so yes, I do." I said defiantly, eyes flashing with anger, glaring at Luke. His eyes darkened fast, and something hard, his knuckles, suddenly slapped across my face. The blow nearly knocked off my glasses and made my cheekbone throb-

My wand was fully raised now, but my hand was trembling, I suddenly couldn't remember the spell-

Laughing, carefree, I pumped harder with my legs. I was at Gramercy Park with my Mother- my favorite place. The swingsets were always super fun. I pumped until I was the highest I'd ever gotten. Then with a shriek of laughter, I slid off the seat, flying through the air. Soaring through the space I felt free. It was the best feeling in the world. Slowly, I got closer to the ground until I rolled a few more feet to a stop. Grinning, I bolted to my feet and checked the distance. I had made it almost all the way to the merry-go-round, almost twenty feet! "Sarah!" Mother shouted, running over from her spot on a park bench, dropping the magazine she'd been reading. Instantly my face burned with shame. She had told me to stop it- but the swingset was my favorite! Mother was kneeling in front of me then, her face angry. "We told you to stop it, Sarah!" She yelled, taking be my the shoulders and giving me a hard shake. "You do not jump off the swingset like that, not now, not ever! Do you understand me?" She gave me another shake.

"But, Mother, it's my favorite!" I heard myself say quietly, desperately. How could I make her understand that I couldn't help it?

"I don't care," Mother barked, getting up, taking my wrist and jerking me away. "If you can't follow the rules and be normal then you can't come back. We're leaving."

"PROTEGO!" I shouted with all of my might, and there was a bang. When my vision cleared, Snape was pressed against the back wall of his office, scowling from behind a very large shield charm. Seconds later I felt my chest heaving as if I'd run a mile, and my eyes were wet. My skin was ice cold and my face was most likely pale. I quickly lowered my wand and swiped the tears away before they could fall.

"Well, it was better. This isn't about endurance, not about how long you can hold it, Wimkil. This is about stopping it before that happens." Snape mocked.

"With all due respect, Professor, this is only my second lesson." I said through gritted teeth, looking away. Snape snorted, sitting at his desk.

"Come back every Wednesday night." He said peevishly, signaling that our conversation was over. His words were still in the air as I gratefully slipped out, walking briskly until I was far enough away to feel better. My head felt like it was spinning it hurt so bad- but I felt more like myself compared to last time. With a shaky sigh, I started for Gryffindor Tower.