Chapter 12:

"Hey, 'Mione, are you alright?" Ron asked as they were making their way to Potions.

"What?" She shook her head to rid the thoughts, "yeah, I'm alright, sorry I'm just stuck in my head." She'd been thinking about her recent visit to Voldemort, it wasn't really what she'd been expecting and that caused fear to rise up in her throat.

"You sure? You know you can talk to me, I won't tell Harry or anyone if you don't want me to."

"Thanks, Ron, but I really just don't feel like talking about anything right now." She passed him by quickly, rushing into the class room and sitting in her seat in such an abrupt manner that it startled Harry who sat in the seat next to her.

-flashback-

"Cayslie, dear, how nice it is to see you. I trust you and Severus are doing well?" He motioned for her to sit down.

"Yes, my Lord, we're doing just fine." She smiled, being sure to show no falter in her face.

"Good, good. Do you have any news for me?"

"None that's very prominent to our cause. I've asked Severus to make life even more difficult for Harry, and to ease up on Ron so that I could get a chance to swoop in and gather information from Ron. Though, there's not been much luck on that front."

"Ah, well it has only been a week, I suppose…" He paused, pouring a glass of what seemed to be fire whiskey. "Do either of them seem to suspect anything?"

"No, they're both as ignorant as they've always been."

"And how, may I ask, is it that you know Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley?" Hermione hadn't been prepared for that question, she'd forgotten that she wasn't Hermione and that she was Cayslie. She began to panic for a moment before managing to form a sentence.

"I've seen them around school, of course, I manage to get a few words with Ron whenever that little mudblood isn't around." She did her best to hide the cringe that the word mudblood caused in her.

"I see, have you managed to talk to that Granger girl by any chance?"

"I never seem to get the chance, she's always in the library or in her room. Her nose is practically stuck to those books she reads."

"Well, I'd like you to try to gain intel on that girl. Something about her is a bit strange from what I've heard." He offered her a glass of fire whiskey that she politely refused. "Well, Miss Wentrix, I hope to see you soon." He took her hand and placed a small kiss upon it before leaving.

Hermione had no idea what she was going to do, she felt like she was suffocating. She hadn't even told Severus what kind of hole she'd dug herself into. There was no way that she could pull off being two different people. Draco was going to suspect something, he was bound to notice her at Death Eater meetings and realize that there was no Cayslie that attended Hogwarts. There were only two things that could be done, and neither of them were going to be easy to manage.

The Potions lesson seemed to drag on forever, she really needed to talk to Severus about her options and she didn't want to wait until tonight to do so. She didn't really have much of a choice in that matter though, and that drove her absolutely bonkers.

A/N: So, I'm in desperate need of feed back and ideas. I'm going to start working on the next chapter as soon as I post this. So I beg of you to review, it's really the only thing that keeps me going. I've got terribly writer's block, but I'm trying to push through. If you don't want your feedback to be seen by others then simply PM me. Please?