Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to Ms Rowling. Sorry for unoriginality, I typed a whole chunk and it disappeared!

A/N: This current chapter is a bit of a filler, but helps to take stock of what has been going on so far! I promise things will unravel in time to come, so just sit tight and enjoy the ride!


"Pansy?"

She was one of the last people Draco had expected to see in that room.

Much less with the glittering diadem hanging on the last few fingers of her right hand, as she held it out to him.

An indulgent smile appeared on her face as she swung the diadem back and forth. "Looking for this?"

"What the hellare you doing here?" Draco couldn't believe his eyes, and he couldn't believe the answer that was going to come out from her.

"Need you ask?" She withdrew her hand, and looked at him with a bored expression. "I thought you were smarter than that, Draco."

"Is Blaise in this too?" Draco narrowed his eyes at her.

"We're together," said Pansy, matter-of-factly. "Who'd you think he'd support?"

Draco could feel the bile rise up to his throat in his fury. Even his supposed best friends in Slytherin were betraying him. To think that he had suspected that doll of a Millicent Bulstrode when the perpetrators were right next to him! He cringed as the Dark Mark seemed to burn once again.

"Does it hurt?" She cocked her head to the side. "Maybe it's really sensing how much of a traitor you are."

"How long have you been with them?" He seethed with anger.

"That's not of your concern," and Pansy found one of the dusty old armchairs to sit in. It didn't envelop her as what he had imagined the armchairs might do, even though he was secretly hoping they would swallow her in. Pansy had been crafty and sly, but sinister was another thing altogether, and that was exactly what was etched onto her face right now. "Your concern is that you are going to die any moment."

Draco shot her a look of pure loathing. "What are you going to do? Kill me?"

"Not my honour." She shook her head, the smile still at the edge of her lips. "But we have guests, arriving at any moment."

Draco stared at her in horror. "How did you..."

Pansy swung back and gestured towards the cupboard that Draco had placed the Hufflepuff cup in. Suddenly, she whispered "Engorgio!", and the cupboard began to grow in size. Draco was completely shocked when it eventually transformed into a large cabinet, large enough to fit humans.

"This..."

"A Vanishing Cabinet," Pansy replied, proudly. "It's a pair – the other's in Borgin and Burkes at Knockturn Alley." Her eyes glinted.

Draco looked away and cursed under his breath. The cup had gone straight into the hands of the Death Eaters! All Dumbledore's bloody good idea of coming here!But he knew he had to come here somehow, to retrieve the diadem. He had just never expected that...

"I'll just have to hand this over." Pansy twirled the diadem around her fingers. She made to drop it to the ground, such that Draco immediately leaned forward. Instead, she caught it with her other hand, and Draco gave her the most venomous look he could possibly have.

"You aren't buying time for nothing." Draco realised suddenly. "What is it that you want?"

"Oh, so we're getting to the point," said Pansy, chuckling, and she stopped twirling the diadem. "Maybe we could start with you telling us what exactly happened on your little trip to Dumbledore's office? Was it really an interview?"

"You need some corroboration with the Headmaster?" Draco's eyes flashed.

"Don't be silly, Draco, we know that was complete rubbish." Pansy laughed, and uneasiness swept through Draco's body. "You know a couple of secrets of the Dark Lord, don't you? You went on a mission for old Dumblydore?"

"Watch who you're talking to," hissed Draco. "How dare you!"

Pansy stood up so suddenly that Draco had to take a step back. Her black hair seemed to crackle with electricity as she looked at him with a gaze so dangerous it seemed to see right through him. "Who are you now, Draco, that you can speak to me like that? Everybody was hoping that you could succeed your imbecile of a father..."

"YOU - !" but Pansy had whipped out her wand to counter Draco's, her face twitching.

"But you just wouldn't listen. I told you your anger didn't work on me, because I know you Draco. This kind of thing won't make you crumble so easily. But then right from the start you chose to disobey the Dark Lord. That's why your life was so miserable. And still is."

It was true. If he had decided to embark on the role of being a Death Eater wholeheartedly, he wouldn't be facing all these struggles and pain that he had been going through since his father's death. But this was not the time to evaluate his decision. Pansy's words just seemed to rile him up further, and he knew all the more that he had made the right choice.

"You see, Draco, the Dark Lord knows everything." A horrific chill spread through Draco's entire nervous system as Pansy laughed once again. "You don't have any choice now. You know the rest of the Dark Lord's secrets. You must die..."

"A condition," spat Draco. "You have a condition!"

"He wants to know what other secrets you know..." Pansy curled her lip. "It's that simple."

Draco stared at her, bewildered. "What?"

But before Pansy could reply, he realised that he had been on the wrong track of mind. He realised who must have put her up to this. There were only possibly two other people other than Hermione and him, and of course the Dark Lord himself, who knew the importance of the diadem. One was the secret-keeper of the Horcrux, if there was any assigned to this Horcrux, and he heavily doubted there was anybody, given the strong magical protections of Hogwarts.

The other was Augustus Rookwood.

He didn't know whether to be relieved knowing that it wasn't the Dark Lord, or the fact that it was the insane Rookwood.

"You want to know the other secrets." Draco raised his eyebrows. "Oh, Pansy, you don't really know a thing, do you? Rookwood wouldn't have told you anything."

Pansy's eyes did not betray anything. "Oh, you've guessed. Of course I know everything." She held up the diadem. "This is what the Dark Lord treasures, and you were about to destroy it!"

"Oh, but do you know why he treasures it? Because it's so important that if you so much as scratch it, Pansy Parkinson, you will die!"

This time, Pansy did flinch. There was a flicker of uncertainty in her eyes.

"And you will die here, in a room of forgotten things," finished Draco, smirking.

"And so will you!" Pansy shot back coldly. "Have you forgotten your mother? What will she think if her only son abandoned her? She was hysterical when you were gone, she even barged into my fireplace!" Draco blanched, and made a mental note to talk to his mother about looking to Pansy. "I'm a girl, it doesn't matter as much as the heir of the Malfoys." She grew confident with her words. "You want to take a bet?" She prepared to raise the diadem above the floor.

Draco knew fully well that too much movement might release the soul of Tom Riddle, and he was far from willing to allow that to happen. "No."

"Good, then tell me the location of the other secrets."

"If I say I don't know?"

"Don't play games with me, Draco Malfoy!" snarled Pansy, raising the diadem once again.

"You know nothing, Pansy! NOTHING!" exploded Draco, his wand emitting sparks as he yelled. "You're just a puppet of an insane Death Eater who wants to usurp the Dark Lord! Call yourself a servant of the Dark Lord!"

"Did I say I served him?" Pansy suddenly melted into a soft voice, almost quiet, but yet equally deadly. She rolled up her robe sleeve, and Draco gasped when he saw – nothing.

"You tricked me!" He was getting more confused and shocked.

"Does it matter now?"

"What did Rookwood tell you to make you work for him?"

He was watching the diadem in her fingers; one of his hands was closing in onto his robes to pull out the weapon to destroy the Horcrux before his eyes. He only had to distract Pansy...

"I said it doesn't matter!" Pansy glared at him. "Fine, if you don't want to tell me, I'll bring you straight to him!"

She wielded her wand faster than he had expected, and he found himself immobilised – but only from neck down.

"You can do a Partial Immobilisationcharm?" Draco asked incredulously; furiously as well, from being thwarted from executing his plan.

"Just so that if you decide to change your mind to tell me something important, I won't miss it," replied Pansy, coolly.

Draco growled in utter frustration as she pocketed his wand with a smirk. Then she pulled him by the robe collar – out of the Room of Requirement.

"The Cabinet!" he hissed.

"We shall just leave it alone," Pansy whispered into his ear, as she silently pulled him along. "Let them come."

Light dawned upon Draco. "They're not coming!" He hissed furiously. "You vile liar!" Augustus Rookwood could not possibly want to alert any other Death Eater that he wanted to destroy the Horcrux himself. What pair of cupboards! A whole load of rubbish!He mentally cursed himself for not realising earlier – he had fallen to a useless threat!

Damn, she tried to confuse me till I can't think clearly!

Pansy smirked. A few more seconds, and they would be around the bend...

"Hell, you won't be able to get anything out of me! It's no use!" Draco seethed through his teeth, but Pansy merely laughed; a tinkling, unpleasant laugh. There were light footsteps, and immediately she spun round the bend, jerking him along, her wand poking at his throat. Then he realised that they were walking down to the Slytherin dungeons.

Hermione Granger, where are you?

He silently cursed that the charmed coin Granger had given him – was in his pocket. He had requested it after remembering how she had given it to that (ruddy) Weasley and the rest of the (bloody) gang when she was spying on him. It hurt him to think of that. But now that he did, it was stupid that he had forgotten all about it in the heat of anger, and now he had absolutely no chance to retrieve it and warn her.

Where are you?

-.-.-.-.-.-

Hermione sat in the furthest end of the library, the same place where Draco and her used to meet before their little adventure at the caves. She couldn't bear to sit in his chair; instead, she could imagine the lazy way he reclined in it, and the way his features were illuminated by the moonlight that was pouring in through the windows. It was not yet that dark however; instead of moonlight, there were the glowing rays of the evening sun being filtered through. Somehow the image of a luminant Draco faded, and more pertinent things came back to her mind.

She had been thinking about the Horcruxes for the last half an hour. One of the things they had never really delved into, was that there were other Secret-Keepers apart from Maldash Wentervale, Lucius Malfoy, and Augustus Rookwood. And there was one thing that was puzzling her now – something that they should have thought about earlier. In the confusion and terror, they had completely neglected it.

Wentervale had said that one Death Eater had been chasing him time and again towards the chasm, and that this same person had been entrusted the secret of the locket horcrux after Wentervale had failed Voldemort. But why then, did the person not show up when Dumbledore and Harry attempted to retrieve it, and then destroy it? The locket was real; there was no doubt about it. The way that it was destroyed clearly showed that it was a Horcrux. So how could the person have survived Voldemort's wrath after failing to protect the Horcrux?

Unless it was a strategy, she thought while frowning. One Death Eater could not possibly outlast Lupin, Moody, Tonks, and all the rest of them – even Dumbledore, despite how weakened he had become.

Dumbledore?She sat up straight, horrified.

Was the whole point to satisfy the lot of them by allowing them to secure a victory, but at the same time, weaken Albus Dumbledore? Voldemort would probably be more than willing to sacrifice an eighth of his soul to kill Dumbledore. The Headmaster, despite regaining strength when he had returned, had not looked his usual strong self anymore. He had looked rather pale at the Great Hall during mealtimes, and he had admitted earlier to Hermione in his office that he wasn't feeling wonderful.

Hermione sank back into the seat, groaning inwardly. She would have to talk to the Headmaster again soon.

Apart from that, there were other Secret-Keepers. When Maldash Wentervale and Lucius Malfoy were stripped of their Secret-Keeper roles, there were the original two, and two who replaced them. One of which was the person who was put in charge of Salazar Slytherin's locket. Augustus Rookwood was the one who had replaced Malfoy.

Which could only mean two Secret-Keepers were left, who were in charge of the remaining two Horcruxes – those two that they had no idea what they could possibly be. At least, Hermione felt pretty certain that nobody should have been placed in charge of the Ravenclaw diadem given that it was hidden in the magically-protected walls of Hogwarts. As for the diary... Malfoy senior had to be unaware of the book's hidden meaning, merely sure it was a jinxed book that he dumped onto Ginny, or else he wouldn't have given it away to someone close to Harry Potter so easily.

Hermione cursed Lucius Malfoy under her breath, relatively thankful that his son wasn't in front of her to instill a sense of guilt in her.

The Gaunt ring? She frowned deeper. If Dumbledore could get to it, was there a secret-keeper after all? There had been no mention of anyone being killed.

With all those thoughts in mind, she closed her eyes to sort them out properly. She would really have to talk to Professor Dumbledore soon! But not before... her hand went instinctively to her robe pocket, hoping to feel the vibration that would tell her Draco's message.

Please be okay... please be okay...

It had been a terrible risk to ask him to shoulder, but he was more than willing. He wanted to expose whoever it was in Slytherin house who could possibly have abducted Astoria Greengrass to blackmail him, and to eradicate a possible threat that could bring in Death Eaters into Hogwarts.

She couldn't sit there any longer, being so edgy. Gathering up her books, she headed out of the library and towards the Gryffindor common-room.

Along the way, she saw Blaise Zabini come round the corner. Hermione knew that Zabini was very sharp, and Ginny had told her earlier on that when she and Draco had left Hogwarts, Zabini seemed to have been suspicious that both of them were missing at the same time. She pretended to be engrossed in dusting her books as she walked, although she sneaked one or two peeks towards him as he came along.

To her surprise, she noted that Zabini looked like he was searching for somebody. His head kept turning left and right, front and back, and his pace was quick. He barely even looked at her as he walked past her swiftly.

As she walked on, she felt that he had stopped, and turned to look at him.

He had stopped, and was staringat her.

Hermione was startled; Zabini shook out of his trance, scowled, and then broke into a brisk walk round the other corner, disappearing from sight.

She tried to shake the uneasy feeling out of her as she approached the Gryffindor common-room, but it didn't seem like it was going away.

First of all, she met a group of Ravenclaw second-years who were so engrossed in their conversation that they didn't even look to see who was walking towards them. Just as they passed Hermione on the staircase, she heard them whisper,

"...he's working for them! It HAS to be him! Besides, Greengrass was from Slytherin too..."

"But how can he, I mean Dumbledore and all..."

"Oh, you never know, You-Know-Who has all these ideas..."

Hermione stopped short. Her hand immediately went to her robe pocket despite the lack of vibration. Oh no...Her prediction had come true!

The girls seemed to have noticed her stop, oddly enough despite walking past her completely ignorantly. They turned around to stare at her. Hermione put on her sternest "prefectorial" look, and stalked off, quickening her pace as she did.

Second of all, she saw Corrinne and Neville whispering amongst themselves as they walked towards her – and stopped short to stare at her.

Hermione had enough of people staring at her. "Is there something on my face?" she demanded hotly, already terribly worried at the prospect of Draco's alleged blackmailing of Astoria Greengrass being spread among the student population.

"N-no, Hermione, not at all!" Neville protested hastily. Then he looked at Corrinne uncertainly, and the blond-haired girl gestured to the common-room. Hermione raised her eyebrows, but Corrinne had already said the password, and was already pulling Neville in by the hand. Hermione followed suit, her heart racing. Something is really not right.

The Gryffindor common-room was highly boisterous, a markedly different atmosphere from when Hermione usually entered it. She winced to think that most of the time, it was because she had ended up coming back very late due to her meetings with Malfoy, or the cave adventure. Corrinne's sharp eyes sought out Harry, Ron and Ginny at the corner of the room talking by themselves, and quickly made her way towards them. Neville and Hermione hurried along.

"What is it?" Hermione urged, once they were seated, her fear now evident.

"Is there something wrong?" Harry raised his eyebrows.

"If there's anything wrong, I'll bet it's that ferret!" Ron scowled.

Corrinne made an impatient noise. "Surprisingly, Ron, you're right for once." Before Ron could comment, she looked directly at an edgy Hermione and said,

"I think the next disappearing act is going to be Malfoy."

Hermione could hardly speak; terror was flooding her entire body.

Corrinne cast one last suspicious look at Hermione, then proceeded to relate what she and Neville had heard along the corridor. Hermione felt her heart sink with every word. He was supposed to have informed her if he was facing trouble! Why did he...her hand went to her robe pocket once again and brought out the coin.

Ginny recognised it. "That's something like our DA coin! Hermione, what's..."

"You're communicating with Malfoy through that?" The ever astute Corrinne glared at Hermione angrily.

Hermione stared at the coin miserably. No sign, nothing. Either he was trying to be too smart for his own good, or he was no match for whoever had been in the Room of Requirement. But that person had to be a Hogwarts student, there was no way somebody had infiltrated the grounds of Hogwarts without Professor Dumbledore knowing!

"Aren't you and Malfoy currently on really bad terms?" Ginny frowned. "He thought you were helping him all this while, then we barged in onto his secret, and..."

"I really have no time to explain." She looked at her friends desperately. "But Malfoy and I suspect a Slytherin student's behind Astoria Greengrass's disappearance."

"Have you heard what they have been saying?" Harry asked, frustratedly. "They are saying Malfoy did it!"

"I think this is going too far, Hermione." Ron was losing his temper again. "You keep shielding Malfoy from everything! Why can't you see him as the perpetrator like you used to?"

Hermione really had no energy to argue with Ron. "Look, there's no time. Can you guys please trust me?" She turned to Harry. "You can't not trust me, Harry!"

"You're emotionally blackmailing him!" cried Ron, putting a hand on Harry as if to pull him away from Hermione's pleas.

"You might be right though," said Neville, nervously, and everyone turned to look at him. "Corrinne and I think Malfoy and the other person headed towards the Slytherin common-room. It's most likely a Slytherin student."

"He could be acting!" Ron declared, in a furious whisper, as one or two Gryffindors started to look a bit interested in what they were discussing so heatedly about.

"I might hate that bloody idiot," Corrinne cut in, sharply. "But I don't think he was acting."

There was a brief silence. Corrinne sticking up for Malfoy was definitely unusual, and even Ron couldn't say anything to counter her.

"Is there something about Greengrass that you haven't told us about, Hermione?" asked Ginny, suddenly.

Too many secrets...Hermione remembered the pain in Draco's eyes when she admitted that she had betrayed him.

Before she could respond, Harry's eyes lighted up. "Dumbledore said that you and Malfoy discovered Wentervale's whereabouts through Wentervale's half-sister. He refused to tell us who this half-sister was though, except that she was a relative of one of the students in Hogwarts. Is the student now taking revenge or something by kidnapping Astoria Greengrass..."

"No," said Hermione, quietly. "The student was Astoria Greengrass. Or rather, students. I got the information from Daphne Greengrass actually."

"More secrets!" Ron suddenly deflated. "Hermione, what's wrong with you? You've never kept so many secrets from us before. We're supposed to be..."

"Best friends, I know." Hermione felt terrible. "I'm sorry, Ron, I wished I could. But if I had told you guys, you all would have jumped at the Greengrasses and demanded to know who this relative was."

Ron looked away, and Hermione felt her heart ache again. How many apologies do I have to give out? Is it worth it that I'm doing this?

She knew the answer the moment she asked that question, so she merely hung her head.

"Right now, there are three Horcruxes left to destroy, and then there are all these disappearances to deal with." Corrinne glared at Hermione sharply. "I don't think we have a lot more room for secrets."

Hermione's eyes remained shut. Should I tell them about the diadem? But Draco...

Nobody in Hogwarts would have known about the diadem, hence they had not planned to destroy it as of yet. Astoria Greengrass' and Severus Snape's disappearances were of priority right now, considering that it meant somebody was blackmailing Draco, and that the Death Eaters were getting ready to penetrate the walls of Hogwarts. And they were doing it via somebody within the school, thus this person had to be sought out right now.

Draco's mission had been to lure whoever it was to the Room of Requirement with the premise that he was a traitor and that he was going to retrieve something Voldemort treasured from the room. Hermione had predicted that whoever the other Slytherin Death-Eater was, would be more than eager to find out what Draco was up to. At the same time, he would leave the cup of Helga Hufflepuff there. Then he was supposed to have slipped out of the room using his Disillusionment Charm, in order to catch the spy red-handed. Whether or not he decided to pursue the person, he was supposed to have informed Hermione through the coin.

But he had not. And he had been taken hostage instead. How could that have happened?

She realised another problem with a dread: apart from this new Death Eater amongst the Slytherins, it would not be long before Augustus Rookwood found some way into Hogwarts in order to get the diadem.

"There's only one way to work this out now," muttered Harry, and Hermione quickly looked up again, her eyes filled with worry, pain and anxiety.

"What?" asked Ginny.

"Get to Daphne Greengrass."


A/N: The Partial Immobilisation charm is a figment of my imagination, not in canon.