Disclaimer: Do Not own or profit from this. Characters belong to JK Rowling (except for Emma and other OC's who belong to me). Plot is mine! This was written a year before Deathly Hollows was released.

Chapter 21: Dean's Story

Seamus walked down the steps and headed into the forbidden forest. He had never been there except for classes with Hagrid, and he hoped he wouldn't have to head too far before Emma found him.

He heard something, but didn't see anything. He turned around and practically ran into Emma. "Gees, you're going to give me a heart attack," he chided.

"Sorry," she grinned. "How was the week?"

"Long," he said. There was a pause as Emma waited until Seamus was ready to talk. "It's been a long, lonely week. First no Dean, and the meetings aren't the same without you," he said. "If it wasn't for Ginny and Sinead I don't know what I'd do with myself." Emma nodded. "You're not going to get in trouble for being here, are you?" Emma shook her head.

"Why Dean? It just seems unfair," Seamus finally asked.

"War is unfair," Emma said.

"I just don't know what to do," Seamus said. "I feel like everyone here has abandoned me."

"Seamus," Emma said cupping his face. "I would never abandon you. If we knew this would have happened we all would have done things differently."

"It's just . . .what should I do now?"

"Remember him," Emma said. "It's like when Cedric died. The important thing is to remember them, and all the good times. Dean was your friend and you shouldn't just go and forget him."

"I took his stuff down," Seamus said. Emma nodded.

"When you feel more comfortable put it back up. I'm sure he would want you to keep his Manchester United poster," Emma said with a small smile. Seamus laughed.

"Still haven't found a charm to make them move," He said. There was another pause as he thought some more. "I feel useless here now, Emma," he admitted.

"Never feel that way!" Emma said. "You have so much to do here."

"What can I do?"

"You can fight!" Emma said. "Dean did. He was outnumbered and he had no way of winning. Instead of apparating out he stood up to them, trying to defend his family and even the rest of his muggle neighborhood. That is all we are all trying to do, stand up to them. Here you can help others to fight."

"The defense lessons," he muttered.

Emma nodded. "They can give everyone the chance to defend themselves."

Seamus nodded. "If you have any more suggestions on what to do for the seventh year lessons tell me."

Emma didn't want to point out the list she gave them would already take up the entire year. "I know why, at least the most probable reason why Dean was attacked," she said knowing Seamus wanted some reason for this atrocious act. Seamus gasped when he heard her say that. "You know how Dean never knew his father, right?" Seamus nodded. "His father was a wizard. He left during the first war because he knew he would make Dean and his mother a target. The Death Eaters caught up with him, though, and when he refused to join they killed him. I think that they went to Dean knowing who his father was…that, and because he was friends with Harry."

"Dean didn't know this," Seamus said. "It still doesn't seem fair that we have to keep up and pay for what the generation before us did."

Emma nodded seeing more truth to what Seamus said than he realized. "How did Sinead's first meeting go?"

Seamus grinned for the first time. "Wonderfully, as I told her. Everyone is still shocked you are gone, and she said she would gladly give it back to you if you came back."

"Nah, I'm doing my part fighting. I miss it," Emma admitted, "but, well, there are other things to be done."

Seamus nodded. Emma smiled. "Too bad Hogsmeade weekends were cancelled, huh?" she teased, elbowing him in the side making Seamus grin.

"Yeah, but don't worry, I think I have some ideas," he said with a smile. "If Dean were here I'd run it by him."

"Don't worry about it. Sinead already likes you," Emma said. Seamus grinned.

"Call me whenever you need to talk, Seamus," Emma said and hugged him. Seamus hugged her back and nodded.

"Be careful," he said. "I don't want anything to happen to you. Cedric would probably come back and haunt me if anything happened to you."

Emma laughed. "Be strong." Emma kissed his cheek. "Oíche mhaith." (A/N: Irish for Goodbye).

"Slán agus beannacht leat," Seamus said. (A/N: Irish for 'goodbye and blessings on you).

Emma walked back through the forest to the village of Hogsmeade. From there she apparated back to the Riddle House.

"Weeks of searching and we aren't any closer than we were before," Ron muttered. Hermione was leaning against him reading a book.

"So many enchantments, it's a wonder we haven't killed ourselves yet," Hermione muttered.

"Optimistic bunch," Draco drawled.

"Well, the two of you have cleared out three of the bedrooms, we have gotten the front and back parlors and the kitchen, and the living room and dinning room," Harry said ticking them of his fingers. "That leaves two bedrooms, and three rooms downstairs."

"We're not checking the bathrooms? Remember Slytherin built his lair in a girl's lav," Ron said.

"Fine, we'll check them too," Harry said.

"What if he has a secret room concealed somewhere?" Neville said.

"Maybe we should alert the order at the rate we're going," Ron said. "More people to look."

"Your family is half the order," Draco joked. Ron glared at him.

"Boys!" Hermione said. She put her book down. "I'm going to keep looking just so I don't have to hear this." She went and joined Emma in one of the upstairs rooms. The boys got up and went to one of the rooms downstairs.

"Have you decided what to do for Draco's birthday?" Hermione asked as they searched.

Emma nodded. "I have his gifts and I am going to bake him some special treats," Emma said with a loving smile.

"A party!" Hermione said excitedly. "I think we need some excitement around here."

"I wouldn't call it a party, per se. I mean, look who is here. Arch enemies. Not exactly a celebrating atmosphere."

"Pssh, we'll make them have fun if we have to hex them. It's important to you, so we'll do it," Hermione said with a smile. Emma laughed. They planned the party details as they searched the room.

The end of January came and Draco's Birthday. "Are you sure he doesn't know?" Harry asked Emma the day before.

"Trust me."

"But he can read your thoughts," Harry pointed out.

Emma rolled her eyes. "I know. But we don't go prying through each other's thoughts, and he knows I want to keep something from him temporarily. He doesn't know."

Harry nodded. "Have you talked to Seamus lately?"

Emma nodded. She had talked to him every day that first week after seeing him, and since then at least twice a week. "He's doing better," Emma said. "Now he is talking about the Defense lessons with the seventh years. Pansy and the seventh year Ravenclaw guy became Head boy and Girl," Emma added.

The next evening everyone surprised Draco with a huge feast. Emma and Hermione worked on it during the afternoon (under the pretense of searching) and Emma made a cake that would make Dudley drool. Plus his favorite cookies.

To Draco's amazement, everyone got him gifts. Decent gifts at that too. 'I never would have guessed in a million years to have a decent birthday with this bunch,' Draco said in awe.

Emma laughed. 'It does seem ironic or something.'

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A few days later Emma walked into the closet where the death eaters were unconscious. 'Something about this room always gave me the creeps,' Emma said.

'Could it have anything to do with the fact there are 11 death eaters in there?' Draco joked.

Emma rolled her eyes. 'Never mind then,' she said.

'No, I trust your hunches,' Draco said. He walked down the stairs into the room too. "What feels odd about it? I just get a creepy feeling."

"I don't know. It just seems . . .odd. Different somehow," Emma said. Draco called for the others and they were all standing outside the closet. After Draco explained about Emma's weird feeling they moved the death eaters into one of the other cloak closets.

"Well, I trust your hunches too, Emma, plus we've checked practically everywhere else," Harry said.

"Hey!" Neville said. "Look at this." On the way in the back corner, behind the coats, was a snake imprint faintly etched into the wall. Emma and Harry looked at it.

"I don't think it's like the cave, I don't think we have to give a blood offering," Emma said touching it. "Maybe parsletongue?"

Harry leaned close to it and hissed something. Next thing anyone heard was Hermione screaming as she fell through the floor. Draco and Ron quickly reached out and caught her flailing arms. Ron pulled her into a tight embrace once they got her on solid ground again.

"First the old secret-lair-in-the-pipes bit, now the secret- lair-in-the-closet?" Draco said shaking his head.

Harry leant over and shot a ball of light down into the tunnel. "It looks like it goes down and then turns."

"Well, I'll go first," Draco said. Before anyone could say anything he jumped in. "Not as nasty as the Chamber," he hollered up. Emma and Neville hopped in next.

They had their wands lit and were heading down the tunnel when the other three joined them. "Please not another basilisk," Harry joked.

They reached a brick wall. "Did we take a wrong turn?" Neville asked.

"No, this was the only way," Harry said. Emma and Hermione walked up to the brick wall and taped it with their wands.

"Well, it's enchanted, but how to get passed it?" Hermione said. She tried a few charms off the top of her head.

"Wait," Emma said. She could see a flash of Voldemort retreating from the wall. "He hasn't been down here for a little while," Emma said. "Since around a year ago. What happened a year ago that he would make him have to return to his old lair?"

"What do you see?" Harry asked.

"Him leaving," Emma said. She frowned. She walked back to the entrance to see if anything else became visible.

"I don't ever see him coming in that way," Emma said. She retraced her steps back to the beginning of the tunnel and started searching the walls again. "Wait, I think I found something," she hollered.

They rejoined her back under the entrance way and they could see the closet above them. She pointed at the wall of the tunnel. "But why did he come out the other way?" Neville asked.

"That was the last time he came here. Maybe it was when he left the horcruxe, or it was some sort of trap," Emma said with shrug.

"How to get in, though," Ron said. "It is still a wall."

"Brilliant!" Hermione said. She and Emma were both standing closest to the wall. "No one would think to go out of the tunnel, they would follow it to see where it went."

"Harry, I think you should touch your wand to this snake there," Emma said pointing. Harry did as he was told, and the wall fizzled away revealing a new corridor.

"How?" Neville asked.

"My wand is the brother to Voldemort's," Harry explained. "If it was his wand we needed to open it, mine would also do, right?" he asked and Hermione nodded.

They followed the tunnel which led to what Draco thought looked an awful lot like the Slytherin common room. "He liked school a bit too much," Draco commented.

"Now, where would you hide a horcruxe in a secret chamber that mirrors your old house?" Ron asked.

"Well, the dorm, but it looks like he only duplicated the common room," Hermione said. "Are there any secret hiding places in the Slytherin common room?"

"If I told you it wouldn't be a secret, would it?" Draco joked. "They would hex me if I told a Gryffindor."

Emma rolled her eyes. "Ron and Harry have already been in your common room second year remember? Besides, I know what you know."

"Wait, he knows about the Polyjuice potion?" Ron asked surprised. Emma nodded as she started searching the shelves for hiding places.

It took five hours before Draco found something. "Here is another concealed place, but all the normal charms aren't working," he said.

"Why can't you see anything inside here?" Harry asked Emma.

"Too many enchantments here to hold memories. He didn't want anything preserved, I guess," Emma said.

Harry tried touching his wand again but it didn't work. Hermione tried a few different charms but nothing happened.

"Maybe it needs a blood offering," Harry suggested. Neville offered and cut across his palm. Hermione healed it for him.

The wall seemed to glow for a moment. "Alright, now what?" Ron asked. Hermione tried a few more spells and the seventh one made the stones in the wall start to move like the wall entrance to Diagon Alley. "Cool," Ron muttered.

A walkway large enough for a single person to enter opened up. They walked in one by one to find a cauldron sitting atop a fireplace. As soon as the door opened a fire lit beneath it.

"Okay . . ." Ron muttered. They all jumped as the door slammed shut and sealed them in. "Great."

They walked up to the cauldron and Emma felt like her blood was boiling but a chill shot straight to her heart. 'What's this?' She asked.

'I don't know, but I feel as if the walls are enclosing in,' Draco said panicking.

'You're not claustrophobic,' Emma pointed out.

'I wasn't before the walls started to move . . . I feel like they are moving but I can see they aren't. What's going on?' he asked.

Emma shook her head. "It's an illusion," Emma said out loud the same time Neville started running around hysterically. Hermione had one hand in midair and the other covering her eyes as she screamed.

"What is going on?" Draco asked as he watched Harry eyeing all around as he slowly turned in a circle and Ron who was making his scared face (think from the movie where they go into the forbidden forest and meet aragog).

"Delusions! They are all having delusions!" Emma said desperately. Half of her wanted to laugh over what they were seeing, but she decided to reflect on the situation after everyone was back to normal. "It's just delusions," Emma said rushing up to Harry first. How would it look if the chosen one died because he thought he was being attacked by rabid Hippogriffs? Holding back a snicker she eased into his head to throw the enchantment off.

"What was that?" Harry muttered. Emma heard Draco talking to Hermione helping her to throw off the delusion.

"How can you be that high up, Hermione. Think logically," Draco said. "Besides, if you really were that high up, I would have to be yelling for you to hear me wouldn't I?"

"Maybe . . . I can't even see you," Hermione said panicking.

"Well, move the hand away from your eyes for starters," Draco drawled. He smirked when Hermione did. "Any closer now?"

"I . . .I think so," she mumbled. "What if you're lying to me because you're a Slytherin and I fall though?"

Draco's response was completely void of emotion and Emma knew he was hiding the hurt. "Hermione, you aren't going to fall, and if you did I am not so rotten I'd let you fall to your death," he said.

Emma chased after Neville. "Neville! Wait! There isn't anything behind you," Emma said.

"Can't you see the death eater about to behead me?" Neville hollered. "He's running with a nice, polished ax!"

Emma sighed and eased into Neville's mind. She saw him pause mid-stride as the image of the mad-ax man vanished and practically trip over his own feet. "What . . ."

Emma went up to Ron where Harry was trying to tell him it was just an illusion. "No mate, these spiders are very real. They look like Aragog's children," he whispered.

"You've faced spiders before, you know," Draco pointed out.

"He knows about that too?" Ron asked. He was shooting off spells at the imaginary spiders causing them to jump out of the way a few times. Emma quickly went into his mind and threw the spell off so he wouldn't harm anyone.

"Anything else!" Ron challenged. Hermione, Emma, and Draco glared at him.

'With our luck, we are going to get into plenty of scrapes. He doesn't need to challenge fate and bring any more on!' Draco said. Emma nodded.

They all walked up to the cauldron. "Is that the horcruxe?" Ron asked.

"No," Harry said. "It seems too easy."

"Easy?" everyone asked.

"Why would he set a fire underneath it if part of his soul was in it?"

"Good point," Neville said. "So, now what?"

"There has to be something here otherwise he wouldn't have set up that enchantment," Harry said.

"Could it be in the cauldron?" Hermione asked peering over.

"What is in the potion anyways? Wouldn't it destroy the horcruxe?" Ron asked.

"It smells like Fletwud leaves," Neville said. "They give off that odor when they are heated and cooked."

"What do Fletwud leaves do?" Ron asked.

"They have restorative properties," Neville said. "The bark is most potent but it is said that when mixed with certain ingredients it can destroy certain metals."

"Like the cauldron," Hermione said.

"Alright, a restorative potion, but what is he restoring?" Ron asked. They began looking through the shelves but the room was relatively bare. "Not much for knickknacks, huh," Ron joked.

Harry went back to the potion. "Well, it has to be used for something. Maybe whatever the Ravenclaw horcruxe is needs to be patched up."

Emma sat down on the floor and leant against the wall. 'I can feel something,' she told Draco. 'I just don't know where.'

'I know. I have that same tingling feeling. It's like a prickling feeling but I don't know what the source is.'

Hermione went up to the cauldron and put the fire out. She waved her wand over the potion and it immediately cooled. She reached in. "It has to be here," she said. "Where else could it be?"

"But 'mione, what would fit in there . . ."

"Ah-ha!" Hermione said happily as she pulled a wand out.

"Wait a minute!" Emma said rushing up. "I recognize that wand!"

"Me too," Harry said. "It was the window display in Ollivander's wand shop. Is it Ravenclaws?"

Hermione handed the wand to Emma. "Yes," Emma said sadly. With each Horcruxe she could see a glimpse of the murder Voldemort committed to make it. Images that would haunt her memory.

"Maybe that's what Voldemort needed Ollivander for. Remember how he disappeared and his shop was boarded up? If Voldemort saw it– and let's face it, he'd have to be blind not to see it in the front window display– he would immediately recognize his horcruxe," Ron said.

"Then move it to a safer spot, right?" Neville said.

"It makes sense," Emma said. "And the potion would have to have something to do with it."

"Well, I think the potion was to make it more difficult to destroy," Hermione said. "Besides, we can't destroy her wand! Imagine what spells she created with it."

"'Mione, forget it's historical importance for a moment," Ron said. "Lets just destroy the Voldemort part of it first."

Hermione and Emma pulled out more of the potion they made and used the cauldron (after cleaning it). "I hope it doesn't destroy the wand," Hermione said sadly. She closed her eyes and dropped the wand in the potion.

After it finished sizzling, Harry took it out of the potion. To Hermione's happiness the wand was intact, it just looked filthy.

"Well, what's left?" Neville asked.

"If Dumbledore was right, then Nagini and Voldemort," Harry said.

"Great, the evil dark lord and his pet snake," Ron said. "What should we do with the death eaters?"

"Well, if we let them go with some memory modifications then it will confuse Voldemort," Draco suggested.

"Can we modify their memories enough that Voldemort won't know it was us?" Neville asked.

Harry laughed. "I think we'll leave that up to Emma." Emma frowned. "Come on Em. If ever there was a time to use your abilities now would qualify."

They all headed back through a door that opened to the right of where the cauldron was hanging. 'Good thing it's completely dark otherwise Weasley would be freaking out right about now. I think another spider just landed on my head.' Draco said. Emma shivered as she felt the creep crawly feeling. They followed another corridor until the walked through the brick wall they saw earlier. "Ah, the back door," Ron said.

They reached the opening to the closet and Draco and Harry hoisted themselves up first followed by Ron and Neville. Draco and Harry reached down the help pull Emma up and then Hermione. Harry went to put the wand in his trunk upstairs (they had long since left the hotel) while the others went to get their stuff together.

Emma, knowing Draco would grab her stuff, headed to the closet of death eaters. She could feel Draco's presence as he returned. She was alright with him being there but she preferred the others weren't with her. One by one she lifted the sleeping spell long enough to modify their memories and then knocked them unconscious long enough for them to leave.

She got to Bella last. As she went through the memories of Bella's last conscious day (when she fought them) Emma was startled by the information she saw.

'What!?' Draco hollered.

'Draco, it's okay,' she said.

Emma watched as Bella's unconscious form slumped against the wall again. Draco stormed out the door startling the others who were curiously waiting to see what she was doing. "What's wrong?" Hermione said.

"Nothing a Gryffindor needs to bother herself over. I'm just a Slytherin, remember?" Draco sneered.

"Draco," Emma said softly. Draco just gave her a scared look and went upstairs. Emma sighed and went after him.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked. Emma just mumbled she'd tell him later.

"Draco?" she asked.

"Em, I have to tell mum and Snape," He said. "They have to know. What if my father comes looking for them? How on earth did he get out? Why didn't Voldemort kill the S.O.B?"

"Who understands Voldemort?" Emma said. "As for your mum and Snape, they are being careful. You know this. If your mum knew, do you honestly think she would try to find him?"

Draco shook his head. "I know she wouldn't. As much as she still loves him, she made her choice. She chose my life over everything my father stood for. That is something he won't forgive. She knows that."

"Your mother chose you over him," Emma said. "If you think they should know, then go."

"I'm coming back, Em," Draco said reassuringly. He pulled her close. "Not even Potter could keep me away. I just have to warn them both."

I know. Draco apparated out of the house and Emma headed back downstairs. "Where's Draco?" Hermione asked. Emma could tell she remembered her comment when he was trying to help her and she knew Hermione felt guilty over it.

"He went to warn Narcissa and Snape about . . . his father has broken out of prison," Emma said. "And, somehow, he has rejoined Voldemort."

"What?" They all said in disbelief. "Why didn't Voldemort kill him when he had the chance?"

Emma shrugged. "I don't know. Rather, Bellatrix doesn't know. She is how I learned all of this," Emma said. They all nodded and headed to the car. Emma drove off a few minutes before the death eaters started waking up. They had moved them all in different positions in the house so they wouldn't be confused as to why they were locked in a cupboard.

"What are they going to think?" Neville asked.

"That they didn't find anything and they'll apparate back to Voldemort thinking they've only been gone a few hours. When they find out it's been a few weeks, they'll think they were placed under one of his security enchantments."

"And he won't know it's fake? That you modified with their memories?" Ron asked.

"Well, he might think something happened to them, but he won't know it was us," Emma reassured him.

Harry caught a saucy grin. "What did you do?"

Emma laughed. "Lets just say that when he goes to check on the house himself, he has a few suprises there."

"Emma!" Hermione chided, but laughed. "What did you do?"

"When he goes into the delusional room, he'll be plagued by an army of Harrys," Emma said laughing with everyone else.

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Author's Notes: a longer chapter to make up for the last two being so short. I did change when Draco's birthday was. I know he's born in June, but I see him more as a Winter baby and I want his birthday to be before Emma's. And the bit about Dean's dad was something I found from JK's site from an interview she gave awhile ago (it was about stuff she wanted to incorporate but didn't have the time/space to do so. She concentrated more on Neville's background knowing he would be a big character later on and scraped Dean's backstory-- So I put it in for everyone : ) And as a side note/explanation, somehow Lucius took a different turn in my story than in JK's. I have no idea why, I love Lucius, but he became Draco's antagonist in this story so we shall see how that plays out :)

And a HUGE thank you to all of the reviewers last chapter! I'm posting this while reading a 500 page book for tomorrow, so I don't have time to individually say thank you, but I loved each and every review!