***Quick Note*** So things are playing out a little bit differently then I had planned in this chapter. I hope that you like it! please Review Review Review! I am not sure if you guys like the story or not without them!
Chapter 20:
"How have your studies gone Miss. Nethers?" Dumbledore asks me after the holidays. My parents had requested that I stay at the school. Why I was not sure. The letter said everything was okay but it was best that I stayed here. They did not go into detail. I had also received a letter from Tina and Henry both of whom wanted to spend Christmas with me. I sadly had to decline.
"Things are going good. I have been studying hard." I say.
"And are your living arrangements okay? Young Mr. Malfoy has not been rude to you?" he asks.
"No sir he has not." I say.
"You and he are friends are you not?" He asks. I stiffen. How would Dumbledore know of mine and Draco's friendship.
"Professor I think..."
"It would not be wise to lie Reyneen. I did not place you and Mr. Malfoy next to each other by accident." He says.
"You knew he and I were friends?" I ask. He nods his head once.
"There is very little that goes on in this school that I do not know of." He says.
"Why did you place me next to him?" I ask.
"Because Reyneen, Even when all hope seems lost, a true friend can help you see the light." He says. This made no sense what so ever. "I know you have been doing Mr. Malfoy's homework for him as well. As a educator I do not approve of it. But your intentions are to help. I will not mention this to any of your professors. But please be very cautions." He says.
"Professor how much do you know about Draco and I?" I ask.
"I know that you are friends, the extent of yours and his feelings I do not." He says. "But emotions, can have a tendency to cloud our judgment. I feel that you must be weary of your feelings and your actions towards him. Do not let them control who you are. Some day soon I will be gone, and though you do not realize it now Tom Riddle will become more feared by you then he is of me."
"He will fear me the most? Why?" I ask.
"Because you will become the most powerful witch alive." he says. "your gift entitles you with the ability to use and control magic in a way that no one alive but you understands. For a while I thought that Tom's greatest fear was death, but I was wrong. He's greatest fear is the unknown."
"I don't understands." I say not following him at all. He really thought I would be able to be the most powerful witch of my time. That was impossible I was not really that great with the spell casting. Sure I got great grades but that was paper work, actually performing the spells were difficult.
"You told me that when you were a child your grandmother visited you and you could see her." he said. I nod my head. "I believe that she did visit you, but without your power she would not have been visible to you." He says.
"Are you saying I only seen her because I wanted to see her?" I ask.
"Yes. When did you start seeing her?" He asks.
"I think I was maybe four or five sir." I answer him.
"But do you remember her before that?" He asks. I think hard. It's hard to remember being so young.
"I remember her visiting but I didn't see her. I mean I may have but I couldn't. It doesn't really make sense." I say.
"But doesn't it?" He asks me. I look at him confused. "When you are very young the people that are around you are very real, so are the undead that are around you. As you grow you begin to understand the differences and the undead become more unclear. I believe that as you grew older you had unintentionally created a image of your grandma that only you could see. You used your magic as a source of life to the undead. It doesn't bring them back, but it makes it look like they are, if just for a moment." He says. This was a lot to absorb.
"Can others do that?" I ask fearing I already knew the answer.
"No." He says. "This is why I believe you to be even more powerful then I am. Even if you haven't come to your full potential yet."
"What if I don't want this?" I ask him. I did not want to be known as the most powerful witch of my time. I did not want to be able to project the dead, I did not want any of it. I wanted to be normal.
"You have a choice Reyneen. You are the only person in the world who has a choice at this moment. You can either use your powers for good or evil, or you cannot. You do not have to show all of your power to anyone. That will be entirely up to you." Dumbledore says. "Now I have kept you from your slumbers far to long, off to bed." He says. I nod and bid him good night.
"What did the old fool want to talk to you about now? Asking you to join his cause?" Draco sneers when I enter my room. He was in the bathroom finishing brushing his teeth. I knew he wasn't mad at me he just didn't like anyone who opposed his fathers views which seemed like Draco's views as of late.
"He did not actually." I say and walk over to my bed and sit. Draco comes and leans on the door frame of the bathroom.
"Then what did he want?" He asks.
"He knew about us being friends Draco. He put us next to each other on purpose." I admit to him.
"Why?" He asks in a rather rude but questioning way.
"I am not sure to be honest. He said I could help you. But I don't even know what he meant by that. I could have did your homework without you knowing even if I didn't have access to your books." I say. Draco comes and sits on the bed next to me.
"Well I may despise him, but I am glad he did put us next to each other." Draco says I smile and lean my head on his shoulder. We stayed like that and talked for what seemed like hours. Eventually we had both laid back with our feet hanging off the bed and Draco let me lay my head on his arm. This felt right. Just laying there and talking with one another. Eventually the talking stopped and we just laid like that in a comfortable silence.
"Rey..." Draco says quietly after some time.
"Hm?" I reply and he sighs.
"I want to tell you something. But you have to promise on your life you will not tell." He says. I lean up on my elbow and look back at him. He looks at me and there was the most amount of fear I had ever seen in my life.
"I promise. No matter what it is I will not tell." I say. He sits up and I sit up with him.
"It's bad Rey. You may not ever want to talk to me again." He says.
"Draco you should know me by know I wouldn't leave you." I say.
"Yes Rey I do know you. You are the kindest, smartest, most annoying, stubborn, and level-headed person I know. But I am not sure if you can live with yourself knowing this." He says.
"Lucky for you I take being annoying as a compliment" I say with a smile and he gives me a small smile as well. We fall into silence again and he looks conflicted. "Draco please. Just tell me." I finally say. He looks me in the eyes for a few moments and then sighs.
"I am not a Death Eater, But I was given a task by the Dark Lord." He says, My heart stops in a very bad way. "I have to come up with a way to get his followers into Hogwarts before the end of this year." He says looking away from me."I also..." He says but he stops it was something else. Something worse. I take his hand in mine hoping it was showing me supporting him though this.
"It's okay Draco please tell me." I ask.
"I also have to kill Dumbledore." He says. I feel my face drain of any color and my stomach do a disgusted flip.
"Draco... please tell me... your not really..." He looks at me. There were actual tears in his eyes.
"I have to Rey. If I don't then Both my mother and myself will die." He says. My heart breaks. He really didn't want to do this. His life was on the line. "He said if I succeed in both tasks he has given me then I will becomes one of his followers."
"You don't want that do you?" I ask him.
"Of course I don't." He says a bit angry. "But I have no choice." Everything in regards to Draco made sense now and I felt worried and sad for him at the same time.
"Draco we can find a way out of this. We can go to Dumbledore, we can go to the Order and save your mother. We can get you guys out of here and away from danger. At least until Voldemort is dead."
"No you can not!" He says angrily. "He has followers from around the world, they will track us down. You don't think I haven't already thought of that?" Draco asks. He had lost hope. I did the only thing I could do to try and comfort him. I hugged him tightly. Draco didn't respond right away. But when he did he hugged me. And for the first time I really say and felt Draco cry. I let him cry on my shoulder until it was all out.
"The necklace that Katie Bell had, that was to try and kills Dumbledore wasn't it?" I ask. He nods his head. "What else?"
"I had sold a poison bottle of mead to Slughorn and suggested giving it as a give to Dumbledore. Not sure what has happened to it." He says.
"Did Professor Slughorn know it was you?" I asks. He shakes his head no. I sit there with my head down and think. It was hard to take in that Draco was given such a task. I absentmindedly drawing lines on Draco's palms while I try to absorb the information.
"Rey, please don't tell anyone." He pleads. I look up at him.
"I promised I wouldn't." I say.
"You still wont?" He asks me.
"No I wont. But Draco I am not happy with the decision that you have made."
"I didn't make it I was forced." He says.
"No one is forced to. You just have to figure out what you believe in. Then you fight for it. At the end of the day it doesn't matter if your side wins or loses or if your even still alive. As long as you did what you felt is right that is all that matters." I say carefully. It was hard giving advice to someone who supported Voldemort. I had to keep it as unbiased as possible. Even if I wanted to say that my way was the right way. Draco may view things differently. To him Voldemort's way may be the right way. Even if it wasn't to me. Draco looks at me for a very long time it was a hard thoughtful stair and after a little while it became uncomfortable. "What?" I ask.
"You are absolutely amazing did you know that?" He asks. I wasn't expecting that and I felt my face grow hot.
"Oh, well I wouldn't say that... I am just normal." I say.
"No you really are amazing Rey. I wasn't suppose to tell anyone. The Dark Lord did not want it to get to Dumbledore. And I tell one of his biggest supporters and you will stay quiet for me. Why?" He asks. I love you. That's why. But I could not say it out loud. Dumbledore said he knew almost everything that went on in this castle. I would suspect he already knew what Draco was up to anyways.
"You are more important to me then some war." I decide to say. I didn't want for Draco to look into it any further so I leaned in and kissed him on the cheek just touching the corner of his mouth with my lips. How I wished he would have turned just slightly to make it a kiss. "Good night Draco." I say. I get up and go to my dresser to get my pajamas. He sits there for a moment before getting up and heading to his room closing his side of the bathroom door.
"So Ron's a free agent again." I say wiggling my eyebrows at Hermione. She glares at me.
"Yes I know I was there. Ron however does not seem to remember any of it." Hermione says a bit annoyed.
"It sucks that you wont be able to do your apparition classes until the fall Rey." Daphne says changing subjects. I shrug. Everyone, well except a hand full of us, in our sixth year was taking the Apparition class. It was for anyone whose birthdays fell from March first to August Thirty first who would be turning seventeen in that time. I had to wait for the next class which wouldn't be conducted until September. They had to do the class for eleven weeks and then the twelfth week they would be tested and if they passed would be licensed to do so, if not they would have to take the class again in the fall. They were already in their tenth week of the class.
When they were away at class I was studying in my Dorm. I wasn't to upset that I wouldn't be taking the class until fall. I really didn't know if I would be good enough to get my license. It was a nice Spring day out so I decided that when I got back to my room I would open up my balcony door.
"So how are things between you and him?" Daphne asks after eating a little of her lunch not mentioning names.
"We are friends." I say. Nothing between me and Draco had changed much. Except we seemed to touch more. We would lay in each others arms while we talked sometimes. Other times we would sit very close to each other and hold hands, we hugged a lot more, and I seemed to kiss him on the cheek more often then I probably should. He didn't seem to mind though. He seemed to start eating more again and looked a little less stressed. He was still very stressed and looked worn out but he wasn't as bad as before.
"Did you hear Katie was back?" Hermione asks me sensing I did not want to talk about Draco. I look around the great hall. Sure enough she was with her group of friends. She had a small smile on her face but she seemed very reserved. I watched as Harry walked up to her and they talked. She looked past Harry and her lips stopped moving. Harry turned to look and I follow where they were looking. They were looking at Draco. Draco's face was pale and he turned and abruptly left the great hall quickly. Harry went after Draco. Something in the pit of my stomach told me to follow them.
"Rey don't" Hermione says. I get up anyways and leave. I had no clue where to find them at so I hurried along the first floor corridor looking for them. I heard or seen nothing. I tired the second floor next. I herd some murmuring, almost like chanting coming from the boys lavatory. The door was partly open I looked in to see Professor Snape over Draco's very pale and motionless body. and I felt the world stop. I rush into the bathroom. Not caring if it was improper or not and race to the opposite side of Draco. He seemed to be unconscious but still breathing very slowly.
"I need you to heal him Reyneen." Professor Snape says. "I can get his blood back into his body but I can not heal him." He says. Tears were running down my face and I was shaking uncontrollably. The bathroom started to shake. "I need you to pull yourself together girl. If you don't he could die." Snape says in a harsh voice. I take a couple of deep breaths to clam myself and start to heal Draco. He had so many gashes and they were so deep. Healing was already not an easy task. It took a great deal of energy. I had used every ounce of energy I could muster before passing out. The last thought I remember before passing out was I hoped I had saved him.