Just a quick thanks to Katherine who left me an awesome review! I'm so glad you've been enjoying the story (especially my portrayl of Draco). Hopefully everyone else is happy with him and the story as well!

Chapter Twenty Nine

When Danielle gets back to the Ravenclaw common room, she finds Tracy looking extremely anxious. She was up off the couch and pacing around the room.

"Are you ok?" Danielle asks feeling concerned.

"Yeah," Tracy waves her friend off before wringing her hands together. "Just Harry has something with Dumbledore." Danielle couldn't imagine what Harry could be doing in his lesson with Dumbledore that had Tracy this upset. She didn't ask any questions though. She knew it was probably a secret. "I thought you were with Malfoy today."

"I was," Danielle confirms. "We're done." Tracy widens her eyes in surprise.

"Done for the night or done for good?"

"A little bit of both," Danielle shrugs. "I need to meet him one more time tomorrow. Then I'm going to go to Dumbledore for a debriefing of sorts. I need to figure out what happens next. I want to make sure everything is going to work out the way it's supposed to."

"Well, congratulations" Tracy smiles at her friend and pats her on the shoulder. Danielle smiles back.

"Thanks," She says appreciatively. Danielle felt good to have accomplished such a grueling task. She'd never had to do something so difficult or important in her entire life.

"Maybe you can finally beat Pokémon heart-gold now," Tracy raises her eyebrows at her friend who laughs.

"Yeah, I'm going to be so glad once I finally destroy that stupid Lapras" Danielle agrees with a laugh. "Then I can finally catch Raquaza!"

"I don't know why you're having such a hard time," Tracy shakes her head. "Your whole team is up to level 75 right?"

"I can't even remember right now," Danielle admits. "It's been so long since I've played. I think you're right though." The two's conversation was cut off then by a commotion outside of their common room. There was a bunch of noise coming from out in the halls. Tracy looked to Danielle, her anxiety over Harry resurfacing.

"What's going on out there?" She asks, "It's too late for people to be out right now. It's almost curfew. Everyone should be in their common rooms." Danielle feels a rock form in her stomach from nerves too. She had a very bad feeling. She suddenly wondered if she should go check on the vanishing cabinet. A few moments later the noise got louder and the two girls heard screams. They both jumped off the couch and pulled out their wands. They went out into the hall to find chaos. People were running around everywhere.

"Everyone please remain calm and get back to your common rooms!" They heard one of the school prefects shout over the noise.

"Abby," Danielle suddenly gasps and panic rises in her chest. "We need to find her."

"She'll be with Ron and Hermione," Tracy nods her head, "Let's go." The two girls sneak past the prefect and go up the stairs towards the seventh floor where the Gryffindor common room was located. Danielle knew that the room of requirement was on that floor too and wondered if Draco was still inside.

"Tracy! Danielle! Is that you?" Ron's voice suddenly cuts through the noise. The girls look up and see the boy coming down the stairs toward them with Seamus and Hermione.

"Yes!" Tracy answers, "Do you guys know what's going on?"

"Apparently there are death eaters in the school!" Hermione says seriously.

"What?" Tracy shouts in shock. Danielle feels a chill wash over her and she brings her hands up to her mouth. "How could they possibly have gotten in here?" Tracy asks and Danielle grits her teeth. She knew how they had gotten in. She also knew now what Draco's mission had been; fix the vanishing cabinet and let the death eaters into Hogwarts. Anger at Draco consumed her then. He had told her that they were going to test the cabinet again the next day. He'd betrayed her.

"I know!" Ron shakes his head, "But Dumbledore must have known something like this would happen. All the professors were ready immediately to get all the students back to their common rooms."

"Dumbledore knew?" Tracy asks in shock. Then her eyes widen and she turns to Danielle, "Dumbledore knew!" Danielle was now overcome with guilt. She looked away from her best friend, ashamed. She distracted herself by turning to Hermione.

"Where's my sister?" She asks.

"She's back in the common room," Ron answers. "We told her to stay in there where it was safe."

"Thank you," Danielle says gratefully before letting out a sigh of relief.

"What do we do now?" Tracy asks her friends then.

"We need to help the order fight!" Hermione declares. Danielle felt all the color drain from her face. Fight the death eaters? Danielle didn't know if she could fight a death eater. She didn't know if she could defend herself in a fight. And besides, was she really about to fight the people whom she'd been working so hard to let in? That was just ridiculous.

"What's the order?" Danielle decides to ask.

"They are a secret society formed by Dumbledore to oppose you-know-who and the death eaters," Hermione explains quickly. "If he really knew that this was going to happen, I expect they should be here by now."

"Merlin," Ron suddenly whimpers and points out the nearest window, "look!" They all look out the window and gasp. A huge dark mark was displayed in the sky, bright and green, above the school.

"The death eaters only put up the dark mark when they've successfully killed someone," Seamus croaks out in disgust. Danielle felt a wave of nausea. She covered her mouth again and turned away from her friends. Someone had died. Someone had died and it was her entire fault. Who had died because of her?

"We need to get down to the entrance hall, now!" Hermione states fiercely and clutches her wand tightly in her hands. Everyone nods and starts to follow her quickly down the stairs.

"Go Draco! He'll be here any moment!" Danielle froze in place and whips around to see a crazy looking woman with dark matted hair pushing a terrified looking Draco up a stairwell that led to the astronomy tower.

"Come on Danielle!" Tracy shouts up to her friend but Danielle just waves her off.

"I'll be there in a minute," She says without thinking. "I need to do something." Tracy looked over and notices Draco. She turns back to Danielle looking skeptical. "I'll be right there," Danielle repeats before turning and going up toward the blond haired Slytherin. The crazy woman had gotten sidetracked by another death eater so Danielle took the chance to grab Draco and pull him around a corner.

"LET ME GO!" He shouts and Danielle shushes him. His face fills with Panic when he realizes who had grabbed him. "What are you doing out here Emmings?! Get back to your common room!"

"You let them in with the cabinet!" Danielle accuses with a frown. Draco didn't say anything. He just looked over his shoulder in fear. "Why would you do that?!" Danielle pushes him roughly up against the wall causing him to wince since she'd shoved right on his chest where Harry's curse still caused him pain.

"I'm doing what I was told to do!" He hisses at her angrily. "You told me to go to Dumbledore and I did. He told me to complete my mission and I did!" Danielle faltered then. She didn't know if she trusted him. She honestly felt a little betrayed right now. Only about an hour before Draco had thanked her for helping him. Now he was running around with the death eaters that she had been trying to protect him from.

"Well then, what are you supposed to do now?" Danielle asks irritably, "What did Dumbledore tell you to do after you freaking let death eaters into the school?" Draco narrowed his eyes at Danielle, immediately getting defensive.

"I don't know!" He yells at her, "He didn't tell me anything!"

"What do you mean he didn't say anything, Draco? He said he was going to help you! You were supposed to tell him what you had to do so that he could help you!" Danielle shouts back. "Why did you do this tonight? We could have gone to Dumbledore to ask him what to do next!"

"I have to go," Draco then says as he looks over his shoulder. That crazy woman was calling for him again. "You need to get somewhere safe."

"You're JOINING them?!" Danielle thought she might hex Draco right there, "I… I can't believe it! I did everything I could to help you so that you'd be safe and now you're joining them!" Danielle was starting to feel hysterical with anger and guilt. She punched Draco right in the shoulder then, "How could you? I can't believe this! You let me help you do this terrible thing and now people are dying because of me!" Danielle covered her face and tried to make sense of everything in her head. She felt Draco grip onto her shoulders hard and he gave her a shake. Danielle lowered her hands and found the boy's blue eyes meeting her own confidently now.

"Listen to me," He says in a quiet yet firm voice. "I didn't want this! I don't want to join them! I still might not have to. There was… something else that the dark lord asked me to do. Dumbledore knows about that and maybe he's planned something. I don't know. But Danielle, I really need to go. You do not want to be caught with me right now."

Danielle just started at the boy in shock. First of all, he'd just addressed her by her first name. She wasn't sure what that meant. And also, he had a second job? Why hadn't she heard about this until now? Did Dumbledore really know about it or was Draco lying to her about that for some reason?

"Please don't go with them Draco," Danielle muttered then without even thinking. This whole situation felt surreal. There were death eaters in the school and she had let them in. She had just been doing what Dumbledore told her to do though. He had told her to help Draco, that it was okay. She had felt like it was the right thing to do as well. Did she still feel like that now? Danielle didn't know. She didn't feel anything right now.

"Get back to your common room and stay safe," Draco then commands; pulling Danielle from her thoughts. He looks at her straight on for a moment longer before stepping away from her and disappearing back around the corner where students, teachers and death eaters were still running around. Danielle closes her eyes and takes a few deep breaths. She had to keep a clear head right now. She was in danger; everyone was. Right now, it didn't matter if Draco had purposely let her bring that danger into the school or not. The fact was, the danger was there and she needed to do anything she could to get it back out. She took one more deep breath before launching out into the hectic scene and making her way down to the entrance hall where she knew her friends were waiting for her.

When she made it down to the first floor she couldn't believe her eyes. It was packed with an intense battle. She ran right in without a second thought though. This was her fault. She had to make up for the terrible thing she had done. She lifted her wand at the first death eater she came across but was stopped by someone tackling her.

"Danielle! No!" It was Hermione, "The death eaters will know that you're engaged to Malfoy! You can't attack them! You're supposed to be on their side!"

"I'm not! Hermione! I'm not on their side!" Danielle defends her self urgently.

"I know!" Hermione tells her quickly, "But you still have the ring on! If they see you fighting it could be really bad! They might take you back with them or torture you or something!"

"Well what am I supposed to do then?" Danielle asks irritably but Hermione had spotted a death eater aiming his wand at a second year Hufflepuff girl and ran off to stop him. Danielle had never felt so torn in her whole life. This whole evening had been a nightmare. Should she really stay out of the fight? Would it really be any more dangerous for her than anyone else? This was not fair. She just wanted to help clean up the mess she had created. She wanted to help. Danielle decided that she needed to talk to Dumbledore. He would know the right thing to do. She just had to find him and ask him. She was just about to head back up the stairs when Draco ran past her without a second glance looking more pale and sick than she'd ever seen him. Shockingly, Professor Snape came down right after him looking just as distraught. Before Danielle could make sense of that, Harry came barreling down the stairs looking ready to murder someone.

"COME BACK!" He shouts, running past Danielle and going off after Draco and Snape, "STOP AND FIGHT ME YOU COWARD!"

"It's done! Come on!" Snape suddenly shouts and all the death eaters begin to fall back and run towards the exit. Danielle saw Tracy then, trying to push her way toward the exit to follow the death eaters. Everyone was rushing to get out onto the grounds now. Danielle followed them. Why had the death eaters listened to Snape? What did he mean by 'it's done'? This was all so bizarre. Nothing was making any sense anymore.

When Danielle finally got outside, she noticed everyone congregating around the bottom of the astronomy tower. She quickly located Tracy, Ron, Hermione, and Seamus among the crowd and moved to stand next to them. None of them told her to go away this time, thankfully.

"What is going on?" Danielle asks nervously as she stands up on her tiptoes, "What is that?" She sees a figure crumbled grotesquely on the ground.

"It's Dumbledore!" Someone finally shouts.

"Dumbledore's dead!" The words could be heard coming from all around the group of people now. Danielle once again felt her stomach twist dangerously. Hermione broke down into sobs next to her. Ron and Seamus put their hands on her back and shoulder in comfort as their faces too crumpled in pain.

"Oh no! This can't be!" Tracy gasps as she too begins to tear up. Guilt tore through Danielle and almost knocked her to her knees. She prayed that she was dreaming. There was no way she could live with herself now. She'd just caused the death of the most powerful and brilliant wizard around. The only wizard that you-know-who ever feared was dead. And Danielle felt as if it were all her fault. Harry was running back to the school now and pushed violently through the crowd of people to get to Dumbledore's body. He fell to the ground and began sobbing over the headmaster. Tracy, Harry, and Ron followed him to try and comfort him. Danielle covered her face and felt an overwhelming self hatred. The answer was yes, Danielle now did regret ever coming to Hogwarts.