I'm the one that lost the view
Everybody says we're through
I hope you haven't said it too

Sometimes I feel so cold
Like I'm waiting around all by myself
Loneliness gets so old

Been stuck for way too long
But I hear Your voice
You're who I'm counting on

When I'm starting to drown
You jump in to save me
When my world's upside down
Your hands, they shake me and wake me

So where
Do we go from here
With all this fear in our eyes
And where
Can love take us now
We've been so far down
We can still touch the sky

Oh, tell me You're here
That You will watch over me forever
Oh, take hold of my heart
Show me You'll love me forever

You had me all along

[Crawl by Chris Brown/Forever by Fireflight]

"Come on, don't you have to a little rearrangement?" Draco tugged at her wrists, wrinkling his nose, chin and everything else Brooke changed in his face.

Snapping out of thought, Brooke turned and followed Draco until they stopped at the feet of a tall, black robed, greasy haired man.

"And where do you two think you are going?" said Snape. He tilted his head slightly to look at them. Brooke could feel Draco shaking next to her, gripping her wrist even tighter.

"Profes- Headmaster!" she exclaimed, praying her Transfiguration spell would stay together for just a little longer. "We were just...erm- we just forgot something in the library and thought we could...go and get it real quick."

Snape's eyes bored into theirs and she desperately thought of the library, a certain book in the library, a Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook that they surely had left and needed for class. Anything, anything else just in case Snape had entered their thoughts.

"You can do without it," he said slowly. "I'm sure Professor Amycus and Alecto are expecting you."

Brooke wasn't sure if he was convinced or not, but she followed, dragging along Draco. Snape turned into the second classroom to their left, opened the door and let Brooke and Draco in first. The group of students turned and their eyes fixed on the unfamiliar Hogwarts students supposedly in their class.

She began to panic. Someone in the room would notice they didn't go to school here. Someone would rat them out as soon as they could. They had to make a break for it after the class, or maybe even right now. She could stun Snape and hopefully Alecto and Amycus will be too shocked to do anything. No, that's ridiculous, Brooke cursed in her head.

"I think you could use a couple more students for your demonstration?" said Snape.

"Ahhh," Alecto smiled. "It wouldn't hurt." She and her brother stood at the front of the classroom accompanied by a small Hufflepuff boy, who gratefully ran back to his seat.

The short, stout woman gestured for them to take his place.

With a quick slam of the door, Snape was gone.

"Now then," said Amycus. His eyes flitted at Draco and Brooke.

Amycus and Alecto looked at them with a strange manic look in their eyes. Brooke couldn't describe it to herself clearly.

"This part of class is an introduction to what you may learn in the future or whenever we decide, really," said Amycus. "You all should be familiar- some more than others."

A few students reacted oddly, Brooke noticed in the corner of her eye. Some clutched their abdomen or arm or neck, while others had a disgusted look on their face.

"Today we will be demonstrating the Cruciatus Curse," Alecto grinned. "A staple in the fighting methods- effective, powerful and quite simple."

Brooke's palms began to sweat and she wished she could defend herself before they started.

"But as punishment for being late," Alecto turned to Brooke and Draco, "you both can do the honor of placing it upon the other."

"But doing any Unforgivable Curse is illegal and be traced back to the caster," Brooke exclaimed.

They laughed. "Silly girl! Joke's won't get you out of this."

She looked at Draco. Already, she could feel his gaze saying sorry more than defiance.

"The spell is simple: crucio. With feeling and wanting. You must mean it," Alecto stressed and gestured at Brooke. "Ladies first."

She didn't move.

"Now."

Brooke lifted her wand slowly, trying to buy herself some time. Refusing them would draw attention and definitely give them away. Her wand aligned with Draco's face for a couple seconds, wavering in the air. Then, it fell back at her side.

"I can't," she said.

"Very well," Alecto said.

Suddenly her insides set on fire, writhing and growing inside her. She couldn't distinguish whether knives where slicing her or stabbing her. Whatever it was, her throat was yelling for it to stop. Eventually, it ceased and Brooke opened her eyes to find herself on the floor.

Alecto brandished her wand and bent over her. "Care to change your mind?"

"No," Brooke choked.

It came as quickly as the one before: reopening the fresh wounds that invisibly tortured her every organ.

"What was that?" Alecto shouted over Brooke.

She shook her head.

Then it doubled. Her head felt close to bursting with Amycus's spell adjoining and strengthening his sister's. Although, when she opened her eyes this time, Draco knelt over her, attempting to lift her up.

"Brooke," he panted with one arm holding her up and the other moving her hair from her face. "Brooke, please get up. Just put the curse on me, its okay. They'll stop. Please."

"You shouldn't even bother," said Alecto, gleefully. "She'll just fall again after this one."

And yet again, she had collapsed, but there was no pain. Draco had swung himself between her and the spell. His weight pushed her down with him and his arms were still tightly clasped around her, covering her from any spell.

All of his body was tense and his forehead pressed gently on her own. Brooke could see his face and how it cringed with pain. He seemed to take it easier as his eyes were open, wide and near buldging, but open nonetheless. The transfiguration spell changed most of his features but his eyes remained untouched and it was all Brooke needed to know it was Draco.

Then he relaxed. His eyes closed, then opened, and stared at her again, tired. Warm tears poured sideways from her own as she squeezed his limp hand.

"Now go back to your seats before I decide that your heroic deeds need more conditioning," said Alecto quietly to them.

Brooke clumsily brought herself to her feet as quickly as she could, expecting Draco to be too exhausted to help himself up. Surprisingly, he mustered enough strength to be pulling Brooke away from the sibling Death Eaters faster than she could.

"The Cruciatus Curse seems drastic," said Amycus. "Enough to have been called 'unforgivable' but it is useful. It produces results and fast."

Fortunately, Brooke and Draco were not questioned by any of the students surrounding them. They were left unacknowledged for the rest of the class period. During that time, Brooke finally found the words to the Carrows' stare.

They were calm, yet brutal. As if they were completely unaware the people they were teaching were young students. They were enlightening the next generation and punishing them at the same time. As if they felt justified in every action.

For the rest of the class period, Draco kept Brooke's hand clasped in his own.

After they were released, the two rushed to the nearest empty room, a broom closet. Brooke reinforced her Transfiguration spell and kept note of the time. They decided to skip lunch and stay in the Room of Requirement for the rest of daylight in case any of the students in Defense Against the Dark Arts were determined to find out who they were.

On their way to the Room of Requirement and throughout their changing and getting comfortable, nothing was really said or talked about.

All Brooke could think about, however, was knowing Draco saved her from a fourth Cruciatus Curse. She replayed how it felt when he held her or the amount of restraint he held when he was struck. Her thoughts were filled with opening her tortured eyes to his comfort.

It all seemed so jumbled in her head, the way she wanted him to hold her again, so securely and safely. The way she reasoned, however, was that it must be for some benefit of his. But she couldn't think of any.

They had nothing to do except read the books the room had provided for them.

Brooke looked up from one of the Transfiguration books and saw Draco on his bed, flipping through a Quidditch magazine.

"So, I was wondering," she hesitated, dragging the words out. "Why are you still here?"

Draco didn't answer right away.

"I'm not sure."

"I mean, you have a wand, the Floo networks to sneak into and even Snape- I'm sure he'd get you back home somehow," she said.

"Snape would ask too many questions," he replied.

"You could just make something up. I'd help, even. Like, how we stole you, dumped you here, while looking for something we didn't tell you about and left. It wouldn't be lying," she laughed.

He let out a small polite laugh.

"If you're waiting to get your wand back, there's a good chance you'll be waiting here forever."

"I'm not staying for the wand," he said, turning another page.

"Then, why else? I don't imagine you'd prefer skulking around the castle to your Manor," Brooke closed her book.

"It's just something I have to do."

She eyed him, but he never looked up from his magazine.

"Alright," she said slowly.

Draco was sitting up, his back on the headboard with the magazine resting in his hands. In his loosened white button up with the green and silver Slytherin tie placed on the side table, his Dark Mark was out in the open. The ink was dark, darker than a muggle tattoo and drawn so intricately. It was a permanent reminder of what he became. An epitome of something she loathed etched on someone she'd loved.

Brooke sighed and lied back across her bed.

"Are you okay?" he asked half an hour later.

"Hm?" Brooke said, even though she heard him fine.

"From earlier today?" Draco said. The magazine was absent in his hands.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied. "It fades away pretty quickly."

He nodded. "I stopped really feeling it after last summer. Theirs is nothing compared to You-Know-Who's."

Brooke stood up, walked over to his bed and put her arms around him, embracing him tightly.

He looked at her questioningly.

All she could do was smile oddly, shrug and walk back to her own bed.

"Erm, hungry?" she asked.

"Yeah," he replied, still slightly confused. "Great Hall's probably closed though."

"I'm sure it is," said Brooke, opening the book on her bed. "Come on."

After cross referencing with the book, she went to the front of the entrance door and motioned him to come over.

"This only lasts a couple minutes, so we better hurry," she said, pulling out her wand.

"What? Where are we going?"

"Kitchens. Now, shush," said Brooke.

Once she placed the chameleon charm, they sneaked out of the room and rushed to the stairs. Although they had to cross from the seventh floor to beneath the Great Hall, they got to the painting of the fruit bowl with no trouble and only two charms. Brooke reached up and tickled the pear until it giggled.

"What in the world-"

Brooke pushed Draco in before he could finish his sentence and made sure the painting shut behind them. The room size was identical to the Great Hall with the four tables, except a bunch of house elves gathered instead of students. Out of them, a small elf came bouncing toward them.

"Hello!" she smiled.

"Winky!" Brooke exclaimed. "You look great."

The small house elf looked a million times better than she remembered. Her Hogwarts crested tea towel was clean and her eyes weren't red or teary.

"Thank you! What brings you to the kitchens?"

"We just needed some food since we missed dinner," said Brooke.

"Of course, of course, of course," she said, turning around to see house elves already bringing trays of food.

Draco sighed in relief and grabbed a couple sandwiches and a bowl of steak and kidney pudding.

Brooke took a roast beef sandwich and thanked the house elves for the chairs they conjured.

"We are glad to see you here," smiled Winky, who pulled a nearby stool and set down two bottles of butterbeer for them and opened a pumpkin juice for herself.

"I'd say the same, except Hogwarts doesn't seem like such a wonderful place to be in," Brooke gulped half of her drink.

"No. When we heard about the headmaster..." she said sadly and shook her head. "Dobby was crying and crying when told us."

"Dobby was here?"

Winky nodded. "He said he couldn't stay here, but would come back for us when he found Harry Potter."

Brooke smiled. "He did. I'm sure Dobby's with him right now."

"I hope so," said Winky, suddenly perking up and swinging her legs back and forth. "I do miss him."

"So what exactly happened once Dobby left?" Brooke asked.

"It seemed normal, like anytime a new headmaster is needed," she explained. "We noticed things were different, though. No one really pays much attention to the house elves, so it hardly seemed like a drastic change.

"Misses Pomona and Minerva came here one night early in the year to tell us what was going on: the new headmaster, the expected number of students, the usual. Except they weren't too happy. None of us were happy at the mention of Death Eaters, of course."

Already Draco had finished his food and had house elves offering him dessert trays, which he graciously accepted.

"We get a lot of students coming down here now," continued Winky. "Some of them come all scared and shaken up and they tell us stories."

The house elf's eyes widened in sympathy and began to tear up. A couple house elves brought her a hankercheif. Brooke didn't notice many of them had gathered around them, sitting and listening. They nodded in agreement with Winky, solemn. "Their stories were terrible," she sniffed. "Some of them cry when they talk to us about it. They're too scared to go to the Great Hall or missed the meal because they were being punished or collapsed-"

Winky buried her face in her hankercheif.

Brooke lay a hand on her shoulder.

"No one's gotten in trouble coming here," Winky said. "But you should be careful, Miss. Its so frightening out there."

"Don't worry, we'll be fine."

She and Draco stood up to leave and two house elves came back with a large basket of food and a couple bottles of orange juice, pumpkin juice and butterbeer.

"Thank you so much," Brooke thanked Winky and the other house elves.

Placing the charm on the basket, Draco and herself, they left the kitchens and rushed back to the Room of Requirement.

Once they reached the room, Brooke sat on her bed.

"What's wrong?" asked Draco, putting the basket of food on the table.

"What's wrong?" Brooke looked up. "You didn't hear anything she said?"

"The students being tortured and scared?"

"Yes?"

"There are far worse things happening," he said, sitting down next to her.

Brooke narrowed her eyes at him. "Well, yes, but to them, its everything. They're only kids."

Draco scoffed. "They'll be fine. No one's going to die here or else it'll be a huge blow to the image. And we were that age once, we weren't stupid."

She shook her head and sighed. "You have absolutely no compassion, do you?"

"Not at all," he smiled.

Dealing with him would drive her crazy, so she rolled her eyes and pursed her lips.

"Okay, look," he said, leaning to get her to face him. "Hogwarts isn't a fun place for anyone at the moment, but nothing's going to change if you try to help things here because I know that's what your'e thinking about doing."

"No," she sneered. "That's precisely what's bugging me is that I can't do anything about it. All I can do is check Snape's office and maybe-"

"Why do you need Snape's office?"

"Not telling you, remember?"

"Right. And you don't have to tell me. I'm fine with not knowing what you're up to, but," he paused. "I'm only staying here because Hogwarts is dangerous, especially for you."

"Trying to protect me?" she scathed.

"Yes," he said harsly. "Would it kill you to be a little grateful?"

Brooke threw him a look. "Well, I kind of lost my trus-"

"Yeah, yeah, can't trust me," he said dryly.

No, stop feeling this way, Brooke thought to herself and turned away from him again. "I don't," she started to say, but wanted to swallow her words. "I don't hate you."

"That's lovely to know."

"I," she turned to face him and didn't realize he was still leaning so close, "really don't."

"Don't what?" he said softly. His grey eyes flickered between her own eyes and her lips as his hand reached to graze her cheek.

"I don't," she breathed, not remembering what that phrase led to. She watched the space between shrink and shrink until their lips were barely touching.

Brooke looked down immediately in time for Draco's lips to miss hers completely.

"I'm gonna get ready for bed," she said in a high pitched voice, stood up and closed the bathroom door behind her.

A/N: Aaaagh. I am so sorry for such a long break between chapters :( [Thanks to HogwartsCreations for reminding me to update :P & a special thanks to vampire-angel1996, opticon217, blueberrybird28, singeylove for nearly always reviewing :D & of course everyone of you that has read or reviewed 3] I really hope you like this one :D And I hope you keep reading and reviewing even though I suck for that near hiatus .

Anyway, I also hope you had wonderful holidays :)

I'm on a long winter break, so the chapters will NOT be almost a month apart any longer! Don't forget to reviewww!