Unanswered Questions.

Harry really should know by now that Karissa Malfoy is full of surprises. Most of them aren't particularly good, just annoying. Not that Karissa in general was annoying, it's just that a lot of the things she does don't make a lot of sense while she's doing them. It was just Karissa's way, he supposed, but still, having a regular conversation with her would be nice. He didn't think the enchanted parchment counted, since they were hundreds of miles apart and couldn't even see the other's face. Harry really was worried when she didn't write back for so long. He still didn't know why she didn't, but she was okay. She, Draco, and Angelique were rarely seen separated so far, only breaking away to use the bathroom and probably to sleep. They seemed closer than ever. Harry could say he was glad they still had some family they could count on. After their father's incarceration, having someone they could trust must be nice. Draco wasn't very happy with him about Lucius' imprisonment, he had made that very clear on the train. Harry rubbed at his nose, flinching at the memory. He needed some anger management. Of course, Harry could understand why he was upset, and come on, it's Draco Malfoy. He's always hated Harry, and that wasn't going to change.

Angelique, on the other hand, had left him alone. It was a bit surprising, actually, because Angelique had always been the one who usually started the fights, well, along with Draco, but he had already gotten his revenge. Angelique hadn't even bothered to look at him. Harry felt like she was a snake, lurking, waiting for the right moment to catch it's prey. It made him a bit on edge, tensing when he was about to turn corners in case a bunch of Slytherins jumped out and attacked him. But it never happened. Soon, things returned back to the normal Hogwarts routine, the only difference was that the Malfoys were acting strange and Harry wasn't failing potions. It was all because of that book he'd found with all of the cheats for potions. Harry couldn't begin to describe how easy it made the class for him. Hermione keeps telling him to turn it in, that it might be dangerous, but Harry couldn't see how it could hurt anyone. It was just a potions textbook, after all.

Charms was the same as all the other years, except the more advanced material. History of Magic was just a boring as ever until Harry was forced to sit next to Angelique Malfoy. He made sure to scoot as far away from her as he could. She either didn't notice or didn't care, and Harry guessed it was the latter because there wasn't much that Angelique missed. When Harry got bored, his ticks came out. Not the small bugs that like to make their homes on dogs, but little habits that could annoy the crap out of someone who was unlucky enough to be close enough to notice them. In this case, Angelique was that unlucky person.

It started with Harry lightly tapping his fingers against the top of the desk. It got progressively louder until Angelique's head shot up from her notes and she said as kindly and as calmly as she could,

"Would you be so kind as to stop tapping your fingers? Thanks." It still came out a little sarcastically, but hey, it was Angelique. At least she tried. And then came the shaking of his foot. He had never noticed until Hermione pointed it out one day when she had forced him to study in the library. He would absentmindedly tap his foot on the ground. He didn't even know he was doing it until,

"Potter, stop tapping your foot. It's annoying." Harry forced his foot to stop moving. The final straw came when he started wiggling his quill back and forth between his thumb and index finger, the feather tapping on the table while he was moving it. Angelique sent him a look that he missed completely, focused on the lesson. The feather kept moving until Angelique dropped her own quill and snatched Harry's out of his hand, then placed it rather harshly down on the table next to him. She rolled her eyes at his questioning glance and went back to her notes. Harry picked his quill back up, careful to keep it still while he wasn't writing. When class was over, Harry met up with Ron and Hermione, Ron looking slightly amused.

"Malfoy looks pissed." He said, smiling humorously.

"More like irritated." Hermione spoke up. "Ticks?" She asked Harry, and he nodded with a sheepish smile.

"I should work on that." Harry said. They exited the classroom and walked to their next class. That night at dinner, Harry could feel Ginny giving him looks. He loved Ginny, he really did, just not it that way. She was like a sister to him. It was a bit awkward, and for some reason, Harry felt like he was leading her on. He was just trying to be nice and not hurt her feelings. But maybe it would be best if he just told her he didn't feel like that. There was only one person who he felt that for, and she was off limits.

"You alright, mate?" Ron asked him through a mouthful of food. Harry's eyes shot up to him from his plate.

"Fine." He answered cheerfully. Ron shrugged and went back to his meal. Harry looked over to the Slytherin table, searching for a familiar head of blonde hair. Now hat he'd thought about her, he wanted to see Karissa, talk to her and make sure she was okay. He hadn't talked to her yet since they got back to school. Maybe then he'd ask her about why she'd suddenly stopped responding to the enchanted parchment. And then maybe they could figure out where they stood. On the enchanted parchment, they'd talked like they were friends, like they'd done it every day before that. They'd had lighthearted conversations (most of the time) and then Karissa had suddenly stopped responding. Harry had thought he'd said something wrong, but then he realized that, no, he didn't remember saying something that would have made her upset.

"Harry, are you sure you're alright?" Hermione brought him out of his thoughts and back to the table.

"Yeah, I'm just a bit tired." He said and stood from the table. "I'd better head up to the dorms and do my homework." Ron groaned.

"How do they expect us to finish all of the work they assigned us? Do they think we're bloody geniuses? Not all of us are like Hermione." Hermione gave him a pointed look. "That is, super smart and clever." He said, clearing his throat. Harry smiled and bid them goodnight. As he was walking out of the hall, he cast one last look at the Slytherin table and saw that Karissa was no longer sitting there and that Draco and Angelique were sitting in their regular spots, talking quietly to each other, leaning over the table so they couldn't be heard by the people around them. Harry's suspicion grew. They had been acting weirdly lately. Karissa was a different story, however. She seemed to come back to Hogwarts with a different mindset each year and Harry had learned not to question it. But he did wonder why she did. Was something going on at home? Well, something was obviously going on now, but what about all the years before, when Voldemort was still dead(ish)? He had never wondered about that before. His life was always so hectic that all he thought about outside of schoolwork and drama with the other kids was how to make it through the year without dying.

Out off all of these changing attitudes, Karissa had still kept one thing.

Her spirit.

She'd never once given up. Even in fourth year, when she'd been so... cold and withdrawn. She'd gotten past that. Maybe it was her spirit that Harry was so attracted to. Maybe it was because he knew that something was happening in her life just by the way she acted sometimes and how she was still so Karissa that made him fall in love with her. He did know that much, after all. He didn't feel like he did with Karissa with anyone else. That's how he knew he didn't love Ginny in that way, not in the way he loved Karissa. With Karissa, it was such a warmer feeling. He felt so much more... alive with her, like if he lost her, he'd lose himself. Karissa had become such a big part of his life in the past six years, and he felt a shot of sadness travel from his chest down to his stomach when he thought of her having to live with Lucius Malfoy all of this time. At least now he was in jail. He didn't know much, but he thought that her father had something to do with her alternating personas. The way that she looked whenever she talked about him... she looked disgusted and pained. He was obviously a part of her grief. Plus, he was just a generally bad guy.

But Harry could be wrong. Lucius Malfoy could be a wonderful father who loves his kids and cares dearly for them (though Harry was sure that the man wasn't capable of love if a small factor of greed or money was involved). What scared Harry the most was that he knew that Malfoy senior was a Death Eater, and, well, like father, like child.

Harry was almost sure that Karissa wasn't a Death Eater. Surely she wouldn't do that. And she'd been there last year when they'd broken into the ministry and Sirius had... Karissa had risked her own life to save Harry, and he didn't think that a Death Eater would do that. Or at least a willing Death Eater.

Maybe that was it. Maybe Karissa was being forced to become a Death Eater against her will. Harry was positive that, if she even was a Death Eater, it would be for that reason. Karissa wasn't the sort of person who took joy from killing others.

She would never be like that, Harry was without a doubt.

Harry exited the Great Hall and began walking toward Gryffindor tower. His mind had wandered to thoughts about how he'd get that two foot long essay done in time for advanced potions by the next day (though surely Slughorn would give the class an extension just so Harry wouldn't fail the assignment) when he heard footsteps coming toward him. He glanced up at the person, expecting to see a wandering Gryffindor or perhaps a Ravenclaw, and instead seeing someone else. His eyes snapped back up and locked with her stormy gray. He hadn't seen them turn silver yet. Harry didn't say anything. He didn't have the courage to say anything to her. They simply help eye contact, all the while they were walking closer to each other. When they were about to pass, she broke the eye contact and hurried past him.

Harry sighed when her footsteps faded. He didn't think either one of them would find enough courage to confront the other.

But he and Karissa definitely had a lot to talk about, and when the time came, he'd start by demanding the truth.

"Lumos." Harry whispered and his wand lit up. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." The map revealed itself, ink spreading across the yellow parchment. Harry shifted his position so that he was sitting with his legs crossed on his bed, the ends of his pajama pants sliding up to a few inches above his ankles. He needed to get some new ones. Maybe the next time he went to Hogsmead. Harry searched around the map until he located the dot he was looking for. Angelique Malfoy made her way through the halls of the school, slowly traveling up from the dungeons and to the seventh floor. She stopped in front of a blank wall, and then her dot disappeared. The room of requirement. It didn't appear on the map. Harry sighed and began to close the map, but then his eyes skimmed over a familiar name and then his attention was drawn to the astronomy tower. Every night since he'd started looking at the map, he'd seen Karissa Malfoy's name sitting on the tall tower, just sitting there, not pacing or moving around. She was obviously not plotting to have the whole thing collapse the next time a class went up there. Harry wondered what she was doing up there. Maybe she was just thinking. If so, what was she thinking about? Harry stared at the dot longingly and yawned at his sudden fatigue. He couldn't keep his eyes open. "Mischief managed." He said tiredly and watched as Karissa's dot faded.

The next day was not a good day for Harry. He was tired and everything that everyone did annoyed him to no end. By the time dinner rolled around, Harry was done with school for the day. And now he had even more homework to complete with not enough time to put it off for long. Quidditch try-outs were coming up and he was captain this year, so he would have to stop procrastinating with his schoolwork. All he had left of the day was dinner, and even then he wasn't having a lot of fun. He left early again, Ron and Hermione not trying to stop him because they knew he'd had a bad day (Harry didn't know what he'd do without them), and exited the Great Hall. He knew the way like the back of his hand and didn't have to think about where he was going while he was walking. Harry heard a quiet voice a few seconds before he turned a corner. It was too late to turn back, so he kept walking and hoped he wasn't intruding on a private moment. He saw out of the corner of his eye (because he definitely wasn't staring) that there were two people standing off the the side, a tall and dark-haired boy standing by the wall with someone pressed up against the wall. Harry made to hurry past them, hoping they wouldn't notice him or, if they did, that they'd leave him alone. Harry was about to walk past the two students when the tall boy shifted his position and noticed Harry. He pushed somewhat off the other person and Harry saw that it was a girl with white-blonde hair that look strangely familiar-

Karissa.

Harry caught her eye and saw that her gray eyes were the color of a cloud right before a rain-storm, and she looked angry and disgusted. The boy, he realized, was a seventh year Slytherin, judging by his size and green and silver crest on his robes. Upon closer inspection, Harry saw that the boy had Karissa's hands pinned to the wall with his own and that her wand was on the floor a few feet away from the two. Harry stopped walking.

"Move along, Potter." The boy spat distastefully at Harry. Harry looked back at Karissa and saw that her eyes had darkened, and she glared at the back of the boy's head, as he was still turned away from her. While the male Slytherin's attention was somewhere else, she gave a great jerk of her hands and managed to slip out of his grasp. In a flash, the boy's hands shot out and clamped onto Karissa's arms, squeezing them hard enough to leave bruises. She struggled in his grasp and he turned fully back to face her and whispered something to her that made her squirm even more. She and Harry made eye contact again and Harry saw something in her eyes that made him angry. How dare that slimy Slytherin treat Karissa like that? Harry walked forward and pulled the boy away from Karissa, who stayed pressed against the wall, seeming frozen to the spot as she watched the scene unfold.

"Leave her alone." He said. The boy was about three inches taller than Harry and a lot stronger looking, but Harry refused to back down. Damn him and his stupid pride. The boy glared at Harry and took a warning step toward him.

"What are you going to do about it, Potter?" He spat Harry's name like it was acid on his tongue. "Run and tell mummy and daddy? They can't do much now, can they?" Harry clenched his teeth and forced himself to stay calm. Looking back, maybe getting angry would have been a good thing, because then he'd have a bit of a chance of getting this guy to leave Karissa alone.

"Leave Karissa alone." Harry growled. The boy raised an eyebrow, though he didn't make it look as good as Karissa did, and smirked, looking amused.

"What, is she your girlfriend?"

"No. Just leave her alone."

"Make me." The boy challenged, probably thinking that Harry wouldn't do anything. The Slytherin shoved Harry roughly and he stumbled back a few steps. The boy had his wand out in a flash and it was suddenly pointed at Harry. "Fuck off, Potter." He said. "If you know what's good for you." Harry wasn't going to back down now.

"You know, I've never really known what's good for me." Harry said and pulled out his wand. "Expelliarmus!" The boy didn't have time to cast a shield charm before he didn't have a wand to do so. Instead of backing down, the boy charged at Harry, using his hands to disarm Harry. By the time Karissa finally blasted the two boys apart with her wand, they both had a few nasty bruises.

"Get out of here, Jackson." Karissa demanded.

"Maybe Potter should keep a closer eye on his girlfriend." Jackson growled, wiping his mouth clear of the blood that had started to drip from a cut lip. Karissa glared at Jackson.

"He's not my boyfriend, and neither are you. Leave me alone, Jackson. It'll never happen." She said with a cold stare that could freeze a volcano. Jackson glared at Karissa, then at Harry.

"You won't be saying that for much longer." Jackson said with frown and then turned back toward the Great Hall and stalked off. Harry turned back to Karissa. She was standing with her arms crossed and her face scrunched up.

"Merlin, he's annoying." She said, shaking her head. She looked at Harry and immediately, her face softened. "I had it handled."

"'Oh, thank you, Harry.'" Harry pitched his voice a bit higher. "You're very welcome, Karissa." He said in his regular voice. Karissa glared at him and huffed.

"I don't need your sass." She said and began walking toward the steps that she would descend to get to the dungeons.

"Wait," he called after her, running up to her side, "how are you?" He asked, then mentally cringed at the question. Karissa stopped walking and they stood facing each other.

"I'm alright." Karissa answered casually.

"That's good."

"Yes, it is." There was an awkward silence. Two first years ran past them down the corridor, yelling and laughing. Harry's attention was drawn to them for a moment, and then he looked back to Karissa.

"What was all of that back there?"

"Oh, you mean Jackson?" Karissa rolled her eyes and sighed. "He's been pinning after me ever since I stepped onto the train. He's really annoying."

"Oh?" Harry said, smiling softly. He could tell she wasn't interested in Jackson. Karissa shook her head and let out a small chuckle.

"He tried to give me daises." She said. "I'm allergic to them."

"Really?" Karissa nodded and smiled.

"He just laughed it off." Harry laughed, finding the action easy for the first time in a while. All of his smiles lately have been forced. They lapsed back into the awkward silence again, Harry looking everywhere but at Karissa and the Slytherin doing the same. After a moment, Karissa gave a soft sigh and dug something out of her bag.

"Come here." She said, holding a white handkerchief. She stepped up to him and reached up a hand to wipe the blood off his face. Harry flinched as the cloth brushed over the cut where the blood was trickling from and Karissa gave him an apologetic look. One hand was gripping his chin while the other was working on his face. Harry was tempted to reach out and wrap his arms around her waist, to pull her close, but he knew that wouldn't end well, so he held himself back. She soon drew back and Harry felt disappointed at the loss of warmth that she had been providing him. Karissa made a disgusted face at the crimson spot on the white handkerchief and she quickly handed it to Harry so he could take it. Harry took it and, not knowing what else to do with it, he stuffed it in his bag and prayed that none of the blood would stain his stuff. Karissa cleared her throat and said quietly, "I'm sorry about the enchanted parchment." She looked at the ground, refusing to meet his eyes. "I just stopped responding."

"Why?" Harry questioned.

"I... it's hard to explain. It got too risky." She shook her head. Harry could tell she didn't want to talk about it. "Sorry."

"I would say it's okay, but you know it's not." Harry said, running a hand through his messy black hair. "Have you looked at it lately?" She bit her lip and nodded. Harry didn't say anything, only wondered what had happened that made Karissa think it was too risky to stop writing to him. Before Karissa could speak again, the two of them heard footsteps and voices coming down the hall. "We'd better go." Harry said, stepping away from Karissa. He was about to turn to the stairs when she spoke from behind him.

"January the fourteenth." Harry stopped and looked back at her. "My birthday." She explained. Harry let a small smile grace his lips, then ascended the steps.

Harry realized the next day, on his own accord, that he never really talked to a lot of people. Sure, he spoke to Ron and Hermione and a lot of the other Gryffindors in his year, but he never really talked to kids from other houses. He guessed it was because, well, they were in other houses. Hermione talked to Ravenclaws occasionally and Ron had met a seventh year Hufflepuff that was really in to Quidditch, so they had plenty to talk about. They'd see each other in the hallways and exchange a few words, but other than that, Ron and Hermione conversed with Gryffindors. Harry supposed that talking to people from other houses could be of some use to him, if he ever found an excuse to talk to one. He just wasn't a very good conversation starter. Maybe that had something to do with being locked in a cupboard for eleven years. It doesn't do much for your people skills. Harry could say that once he got a conversation going, it was pretty easy to carry on. It all depended on the person. For example, his first conversation with a Ravenclaw (not counting Luna or Cho Chang, because those were different stories) had been about the weather. It was usually a topic that Harry tried to avoid as much as he could, but at the moment, he didn't have a choice. Harry had been walking along the corridors between classes when a loud shake of thunder had erupted and almost shook the walls. A seventh year Ravenclaw boy, the only person in the hall at the time, since classes had been about to resume, had stopped in his tracks to look out the window.

"I don't think it's ever going to stop." The boy had said to no one in particular.

"Sky's gotta run out of water sometime." Harry has replied with a shrug. The boy had returned the gesture and ran off, probably in a hurry to get to his next class. The concludes Harry's conversation with a Ravenclaw other than Cho and Luna. Harry had his next conversation with a Hufflepuff, and it was about an entirely different topic. He was walking back up to Gryffindor tower after dinner that evening with Ron and Hermione by his side. They turned a corner and say a short boy, maybe a second year, standing in the middle of the corridor, staring at the wall. As the trio neared the boy, he jumped and looked at the Gryffindors fearfully.

"It wasn't me, I swear!" He yelped backing away from the wall. They finally reached the boy and looked at the wall.

The Dark Lord has risen once again.

It was printed on the wall. It seemed that the person who had written it had used their wand to burn the marks into the stone. No simple cleaning charm would remove the words.

"Who did this?" Hermione asked the boy. "Did you see?" The boy shook his head.

"I found it like this." He said, voice small and quiet.

"Go get Professor Dumbledore." Harry said and the boy shot off down the hall. Hermione walked up to it to get a closer look.

"Don't touch it, Hermione." Ron spoke up.

"Who would do this?" Hermione asked, looking over her shoulder at the two boys. Ron shrugged while Harry looked thoughtful.

"I'll give you a hint. They have blonde hair and are complete gits." Hermione scowled.

"Harry..." She said, sounding wary. "Don't start this. They're sixteen. They aren't Death Eaters."

"How do you know?" Harry demanded, taking a step forward. "Do you suddenly know everything about them? You've met Malfoy Senior, you saw them in Diagon Ally."

"We can't know for sure."

"What else is there to know?" Harry said, unable to stop the words coming out of his mouth. "They're Death Eaters. We have to tell Dumbledore."

"Harry, no." Hermione said sternly, a bit of anger in her voice. "They are not Death Eaters."

"Hermione's right, mate." Ron said, looking at Harry apologetically. "We haven't seen them doing anything wrong. Don't go jumping to conclusions, okay?" Harry sighed, defeated.

"Alright." By the time Dumbledore had arrived and they'd gotten everything sorted out, it was late at night and Harry wanted to go to sleep. Before settling down for the night, Harry opened the Marauders map and scanned it for the three names he had become quite familiar with. Draco's and Angelique's dots were both in the Slytherin common room, but Karissa's was nowhere to be found. He looked at the astronomy tower, but it wasn't there, either. Harry assumed that she was somewhere else inside the castle, and he was much too tired to seek it out at the moment. He went to bed without another thought about it.

AN: There, it didn't take me as long as last time.

Where did all the reviews go? I like reviews, people! Please review! To the three that did review,

Vi38: Thank you.

StarXia: Here's another update! As I'm sure you now know, it was Harry and Karissa who were writing on the enchanted parchment. I do realize now that it is a little confusing. Oops. And thanks for understanding about school :) It's gotten a bit better, so hopefully I'll be updating soon.

Amyroxx123: Sorry, it wasn't Hermione. It was Harry. Some Hermione stuff will come up in maybe the next chapter, but it might not be what you want to hear... But no worries! Things will get better, I promise. Oh, and there will be a certain someone for Draco *wink wonk* So stay updated.

Thanks guys! I'll post ASAP. Please review and tell me what you think!

Nature is there so you can connect with it,

When-Words-Fail.