PRAISE THE LORD, THE INTERNET IS BACK!

Chapter Twenty Six

Draco glared at the incompetent fools before him and heaved a sigh. They were the best he had at his service. "You know the drill." He passed three times before a space of wall thinking of the room he needed.

He passed into the room with another sigh. He didn't want to be doing what he was set to do. He was making pitiful attempts on purpose, to delay his "task" as long as possible, to spread it out through as much of the school year as possible. Slowly, he made his way toward the large cabinet, the Vanishing Cabinet, and pulled out his wand.

He stared at the piece of furniture for a long moment, not doing anything, his wand hanging limply at his side, just stalling. Finally, he plucked up enough energy and courage to reach out to grasp the door and pulled it open.

"You're not really going to do that, are you, Draco?" Came a voice from behind him. It was a voice, one he recognized with ease, but also one he thought he wouldn't be hearing for a long time, if ever again.

Draco turned so suddenly, shocked at the voice he was hearing. "Cecilia." He whispered in disbelief. "That…that can't be you…can it?" Draco stuttered, not believing his own eyes. "You're supposed to be in some top secret hiding place!"

She was sitting on the edge of a table, her legs swinging back and forth like a child's would when they cannot reach the ground. She was leaning forward, resting her hands on the table on each side of her. "Well, Draco, for your safety and my own, I am. And if this doesn't go according to plan, I better stay that way." She glared warningly before her face turned more serious. "But that's not why I'm here." She paused, letting the news sink into Draco's shocked face.

His face turned from shock to anger. "HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME?" He fumed, his face turning slightly red from his anger. "HOW COULD YOU JUST UP AND LEAVE?"

"DRACO XAVIER MALFOY!" Cici shouted to stop him in the middle of his tirade. She waited a moment for him to cool down a bit. "I had no choice."

"You always have choices, Cici. Always."

"I had to do what was best for not only me, but also the majority of the world, I couldn't just think about myself or you. It's bigger than that now. I had to think about everyone else." Cecilia said; her green eyes looking at the floor as she slid off the table.

"The weight of the world shouldn't be on your shoulders." He stated sadly, his eyes downcast, looking at her feet. When he raised his head next, it had morphed into a perfect Malfoy mask, cold and emotionless. "Why are you here, Cici?" Draco asked.

"What you're doing, Draco, I can't let you go through with it." She said simply, twisting a strand of her fiery red hair around one finger sub-consciously.

His steel gray eyes narrowed into slits suspiciously. "How do you know what I'm doing; what The Dark Lord is planning?"

"I…" She paused for a moment, tapping her chin. "I have my ways. And since when is he 'The Dark Lord' to you?"

"Since…" He trailed off and shook his head. "You wouldn't understand…"

"How do you know?" She shook her head slowly and flexed her left hand unconsciously. "I understand more than you think, Draco, but this? You can't do it. Please, I can't let you turn into one of them."

Draco walked a few feet away and turned his back on her when he spoke again. "I don't have a choice, Cecilia." He said harshly over his shoulder.

"Please, Draco. Don't do this; don't shut me out. I want to help you. I can't lose you too; I've already lost so many."

He turned sharply, his right hand ripping up the left sleeve of his white button-up shirt, the buttons popping off and clattering to the floor. He had revealed the daunting black tattoo of the Dark Lord. "YOU SEE!" He yelled harshly, his gray eyes cold. "I DON'T HAVE A CHOICE!"

She looked at him for a split second before she took a step closer and tugged up the left sleeve of her black jacket revealing her own Dark Mark. "There's always another choice, Draco. Always." She whispered, throwing his own words back at him.

His eyes started blazing as he grabbed her arm in a bruising grip. "When?" It took all his self-control to not blow up in anger. The only person he ever had sworn to protect was deeply injured beyond repair. Once marked with the Dark Mark, it can never be removed until the Dark Lord ceased to live.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me." He challenged.

"Well," She paused, deciding if she should tell him the truth or have the strength to lie. "You see, Draco, I'm not really from this timeline. Harry and I, we were…killed during the last war with Voldemort and we were sent back in time two years. We ended up back in the Department of Mysteries four months ago." As she spoke, his grip on her wrist tightened.

"You're right; I don't believe you," He said simply, his eyes untrusting as he finally released his arm.

"Use Occulmency on me. Look into my memories."

"I…I can't, Cici, not on you."

"If it's the only way I can prove it to you, then I have no choice. You have no choice. I need you to believe me. I need you to listen." Cecilia spoke softly, she emerald eyes pleading she said as she took a step forward and placed her hands on his shoulders. "You're my best friend, Draco" she began again, her voice getting softer with each word she spoke, "I can't stand the thought of losing you too."

Draco gazed deeply into her eyes for a few minutes. He could see the truth, the hurt behind her eyes. He knew she wasn't lying. He reached up and took her hands in his own. "I believe you." He saw her breathe a sigh of relief. He also sighed as he released her hands and lowered his own to his sides. "I still don't see why you're here though."

Cecilia smiled and was back to her bubbly self again. "To take you away, of course!" He stared blankly for a moment. Cici sigh in frustration. "You don't want to do this job Voldemort set you out to do, but Voldemort will kill you if you don't do it. So we leave, go into hiding." She said as she lifted herself back to her seat on the table again, scooting to make room for Draco to join her.

Draco jumped up next to her and spoke. "But if he finds out I'm gone, he'll use my mum to get to me. My mum wants nothing to do with this Death Eater business my father has forced upon us; I can't leave her to that fate."

"Already one step ahead of you. While I snuck into the castle, Harry set out to get your mum."

Draco perked up a bit at that. "Well, in that case, I have no problem leaving this school. So, what's the plan now?"

"We wait until dinner has begun," Cici started, "then you send off Crabbe and Goyle to the meal without you, and once everyone is down at dinner, I'll lead you to my favourite passage and Apparate us to the safe house."

"Well, that seems simple enough…"

"That's the idea. Harry says the simpler the plan, the harder they are to mess up. And I have knack for messing things up." Draco raised his eyebrows at her inquiringly. She smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "It's a talent."

For the next hour, Draco and Cecilia chatted amicably until it was rounding on the time for dinner. Draco stood and cracked his back and the two nodded at each other as Draco moved to the door. Cecilia stayed back so she wasn't in view of the two standing guard.

"Guys, dinner is in a few minutes, I just need to finish up one more thing here and I'll be down. Go on ahead without me." Cici heard Draco say to his two goons.

"But, Draco, what if someone is walking by when you leave—" The high pitched voice of a little girl drifted back to Cici before Draco cut her off.

"Just do what I say. I will be fine. Now leave." His voice and tone had lowered considerably. Cici heard the scuffing of shoes on in the hall and smiled. Part one of "The Escape Plan" achieved.

Draco slid back inside and smiled at his friend. Cici grinned right back as she brought from inside her jacket pocket a flowing, water-like cloak and dangled it in front of his face.

"Is that…" He paused for a moment. "Is that an invisibility cloak?" He asked as he reached out to touch it and let it flow through his fingers.

"Why yes, yes it is."

"Where did you get it?" He was still running it through his fingers.

"It's been passed down through the Potter family for generations."

She grabbed the cloak from Draco's hands and tossed it over herself and Draco. "Let's go." She pulled out the Marauders' Map and glanced over the seventh floor area to find most students have gone to dinner. They stepped out of the room and Cecilia directed him to the secret passage that led to Hogsmead.

Cecilia jumped into the passage first, soon followed by Draco and her put the cloak back away. "Now we just need to get past Hogwarts' anti-apparition wards and I can get us out of here."

Draco only nodded as the climbed downhill in silence. Eventually, Cecilia shot out her hand to stop Draco. "We just passed the wards. It's safe to Apparate." She grabbed his hand and twisted on the spot without warning.

With a loud crack, the two landed in a small garden along a pathway leading to a quaint little home. At that same time, another crack was heard and two more figures landed a foot in front of Cici and Draco.

"Sorry about that, Mrs. Malfoy." It was the voice from the smaller of the two figures.

Cecilia smiled when she recognized her brother and her best friend's mother. Cecilia was in the middle of helping Draco to his feet; he had fallen after the abrupt travelling.

Harry happened to glance their way also and gave a laugh. "You missed the sidewalk again, Cici?" She huffed at his laughing after Draco was on his feet again.

"Draco, dear, are you okay?" Mrs. Malfoy asked as she started brushing invisible dirt from her son.

He pushed her worried hands away. "I'm fine, Mother."

"Can't you allow me to worry?" She huffed at her son.

Harry shushed them both and gestured to the small, comfortable home they were in front of. "Welcome to our safe house or, as Cici and I call it, the Cave." He opened the door and led them into their new temporary home.

A/N: Hello! As you can see, I got my Internet back. It actually got fixed on Wednesday, but I wasn't able to get on then, and Thursday I got up and 5 am and didn't stop until 9:30 that night. So I finished this today and made it EXTRA long since I've been away for so long. The good news is the weather has calmed (sorta, now it's ridiculously hot for May.) Lots of things going on, end of the year things. Spring concert, graduation, last essays of the year, exams. You know… the usual. I only have ten days left and then 4 days of exams! YES! And then that means there will only be a month until marching starts up again for parade week! Ah, sorry, I just realized this was a long ramble. Bu-bye!

~WD

5/14/11