Draco skipped the feast that night for two reasons. The first and most important was to keep his schoolmates from doing anything to his luggage or bed while he was not there. The second was to avoid Professors Dumbledore and Snape. He had forgotten just how piercing Snape's gaze could be and one glance in the man's direction had been enough to remind Draco that the Headmaster was not the only Legilimens in the school. It was not time yet although Snape might already suspect something, gifted as he was at seeing through lies even without Legilimency.

Snape was in fact watching Draco Malfoy very closely. Something was bothering the boy, that much was obvious, and it was not the danger he faced just by coming here. No, there was something beyond that. His mother alone in the Manor perhaps? Yes, Snape decided, that might be it. Draco had always been close to his mother, judging by the packages that arrived virtually every day for the past five years. But why then did Draco refuse to look Snape in the eye for more than a few seconds lately? He was hiding something.

A month passed. Draco was strangely left alone, perhaps because of the silent vigil that all of the teachers seemed to be keeping on him. No one dared interfere with the young Malfoy with McGonagall breathing down their necks. All the same, it was a trying year. There was no welcome from anyone, anywhere. He did not talk to anyone for what seemed like weeks. The other Slytherins conspicuously gave him the cold shoulder; he would find no support there.

"Draco." The call came from between the stacks in the library, soft so as not to attract attention. Draco looked up to find Padma Patil looking at him. "Are you alright?" He shrugged indifferently.

"I'm alive," he replied, "although I think my voice is about to leave me for someone who uses it more often."

Padma's lips twitched. She had formed a tentative alliance and even friendship with Malfoy in the past month. He was a very secretive sort of person; he did not give out details unless absolutely necessary and occasionally cracked jokes. He was still something of an enigma, but he was not the spoilt brat that everyone seemed to think he was either. He had gotten away with that only so long as he ruled his Housemates by virtue of his father's power. He could not afford that now so...

"Got anything planned for today?" she asked.

"No, why?"

"There's a Hogsmeade visit. No point in giving yourself prison pallor is there?" Draco winced slightly; Padma flushed. "Sorry. Poor choice of words there maybe. But anyway, you should get out of here sometimes. You're starting to frown like Snape." Draco rolled his eyes.

"Gods forbid. Alright, just so long as we're back before dinnertime."

Padma smiled and they left the library to join the queue of students waiting to leave the castle.

Lucius was woken that night by the Mark's burning. He started to press a hand against it as usual, whispering an expletive and getting up to wait out the pain. He was startled to feel a thick liquid trickling down his arm. He released the arm and looked at the Mark; it was cracked open and bleeding profusely. There was a foul odor and a greenish black shadow hovered for a moment before dissipating. The Mark slowly began to disintegrate. Lucius could feel the darkness growing at the edges of his vision and the blood flow increase; he realized with a sinking feeling that the Mark had been located right above a vein. His last thought before he passed out from blood loss was a cry to the one person who could hear him. The Dark Lord had found his missing deputy.

***************************************** Ooh, a cliffhanger. Will he live or die? And now is when I need feedback from my readers. Should this be a Draco/Padma fic or shouldn't it? I need some opinions on this one people. So please review and tell me what you think.