"Hey, you macho!" Ash called out to the Gryffindor table as she walked into the Great Hall. One week had passed in what felt like a second and now she had just seen off her best friends as they had got on the train home, leaving her as one of four Slytherins back in Hogwarts.

"Hey Ash," Harry answered her call annoyed. Ever since he ran through the Great Hall, many girls had increased their advances on him and Ash was teasing him none stop about it.

"What's with the long face? You should be proud at the amount of girls falling all over for you. After your little display on Sunday, I understand them though... Nearly fell in love with you myself," she grinned.

"Let me guess... the others left?"

"Yeah, they left me here, broken and alone... with two unknown first year and the horror!"

"The horror?" Ron asked confused.

"Draco," Ash answered rolling her eyes.

"Draco is staying in Hogwarts over the holiday? That's new..." Hermione said slowly, looking over to the Slytherin table where she saw Draco sitting, eating his breakfast alone.

"Yeah he said he wanted quiet time to study for the N.E.W.T.s."

"Where are the Goons?"

"On that train to London."

"Really?"

"Yeah from all Slytherins its just us two and the giggle freaks" Ash said, noticing the other two Slytherins giggle at one end of the table.

"That really is weird," Harry said glancing over his shoulder at Draco, who just finished eating and was walking out of the hall. "Where's he going?" he asked Ash

"Huh? Why do you ask me? We don't really talk any more," she said pouting. "But if you ask me, he's probably going to the Room of Requirements. He does that a lot lately."

"The Room of Requirement? What would he want there?"

"Probably a quiet room to study," Ash shrugged and looked at the door, that Draco just passed through. "Any way, what are you guys planning on doing over the Easter holidays?" she asked with a smile, turning to face the others.

"I don't know yet, probably play a bit of Quidditch and wizard chess, relax and swim," Ron answered, but Hermione shook her head.

"No Ron. We're gonna study," and when Ash snickered, she turned to look at her and added, "all of us." - that made Ron snicker.

"But you can't force us to study every hour of every week!" Harry protested, forgetting whatever ran through his mind when he saw Draco walk away.

"The N.E.W.T.s are the most important thing you'll ever write! If you want to become Auror, you will need to do exceptionally well in all of your courses," Hermione argued, while Ash snickered.

"Why are you laughing?" Hermione and Harry shot in unison.

"Oh I'm just happy that I don't really need the N.E.W.T.s," she grinned "I wanna be a singer, hence no need for me to stress myself through the whole procedure!"

"And what if that wont work? huh? You need a good foundation to make sure!" Hermione told her, with a voice that told Ash that her life was on the line of she rejected that notion.

"Alright, alright..." she said, raising her hands in the air in defence, "but at least let us wait until tomorrow! I'm way to hyper right now!" Ash grinned and got of the bench and jumped around. "Lets go to the lake!"

The sun was burning down from the sky, the lake was glistening in the light, blinding them as they neared it. The shore was plastered with those students that decided to stay in Hogwarts during the holidays.

When Ash and the trio walked up to the lake, they couldn't help but marvel over the landscape before them. It was simply beautiful.

Slowly they came to a stop on a little higher level that was covered by a tree. Getting comfortable they just stayed sitting there and allowed the scenery to relax them.

They sat there for the rest of the day, enjoying the rare rays of sun light that graced them and warming themselves in the comfortable warmth of the day.

Her dorm room was empty, when Ash woke up early the next morning. Sighing, she let her feet slide off the bed and sat up, looking at the cold, made beds and the empty floor that was normally littered with clothes or shoes and such. Next she pushed herself up and walked over to the last remaining trunk, grabbing some clothes, which she quickly put on after taking a shower.

The corridor was empty and silent as she walked down towards the common room. Normally there was always some noise to be heard. No matter if it were the extreme snores from the girl in the 5th door - which Tracy and her always made fun about - or if it were giggles of other students. But today even the portrays seemed to have gone on vacation. Rubbing her arm for warmth, Ash pushed open the first door.

The little room between the corridor and the common room was empty. Both Slytherin portrays vacant.

The common room was empty. Large black couches littered the room, the fireplace was dead and the only movement that could be seen in the entire room was the gentle weaving motion of the seaweed in front of the window. Slowly she walked over to the lake window and sat on the cold marble floor right in front of it. Calmly she let her forehead rest on the cool glass and followed the seaweeds movement back and forth with her eyes.

She stayed sitting like that for what seem to be hours, entranced by the smooth movements, not moving a muscle of her body, until she suddenly heard a door behind her open. Thrown out of her trance like state, her head snapped up and she turned to look at where the noise had come from.

There he was standing frozen in the door frame, doorknob still in his hands.

Not saying a word they just stared at each other. Not moving a muscle they just stared at each other. Never diverting their eyes, they stared at each other.

"Good Morning," she finally choked out, finding her voice again.

"G' morning," he answered quietly.

"Why are you up so early?" she asked

"I could ask you the same question," he avoided her question.

Instead of answering she just smiled at him, got off the floor and walked up to him. Softly taking his face in her hands and letting one of them glide over his soft blond hair. "You look awful," she whispered quietly into his ear as she studied his face. His skin was paler then she ever saw it. It nearly resembled the pale peach marble skin colour that Vampires seemed so proud of. He had dark shadows under his eyes and his normally perfect rose coloured full lips where chapped, pale and broken. Furthermore, she swore that she saw bite marks on them, as if he had bitten on them in frustration. Also his hair didn't resemble it former beauty. His normally silk hair was slowly getting greasy and the ends where splitting - something that he normally never allowed to happen. But worst where his eyes. The eyes that always held so much life, the eyes that normally seemed to glisten and glow with pride, were dull. No more light, no more life, no more pride. Only a haunted look, sprinkled with sorrow, pain and self loathing could be found. "What did they do to you?" the girl asked quietly, stroking his cheek softly.

"Its none of your business," he snapped and tried to pull away from her, but she stopped him by holding his left arm tightly.

"Is this the reason?" she asked quietly eyes wandering to the arm she was holding, stopping him with her words.

"What do you mean?" he asked, voice shaking.

"Oh, come on. I saw it. I know what you are," she said quietly, still holding onto his arm tightly.

"You... remember that?"

Now the girl looked at him confused. "Of course I do. How on earth could I have forgotten about that?"

The boy looked at her in fear before shaking his head furiously. "I have to go," he said and ripped out of her tight grasp and racing out of the common room, leaving her standing alone again.

With a sigh she looked around the empty common room again before swiftly following the boy out of the common room and following his thundering footsteps down the corridor.

Soon she heard him reach his destination. But unlike her expectations, he didn't run to the Great Hall or the Room of Requirements, but to Snapes office. Quickly she leaned down to the keyhole and looked inside.

The blond boy was furiously gesturing at their teacher, seemingly screaming his heart out. Meanwhile the professor just quietly sat there with an bored expression letting the boys rant go on and on and on. Patiently waiting for him to finish talking.

Because she didn't hear a word, Ash quickly searched for a better place to sit, but then remembered her expendable ears. Swiftly she summoned them to her, shrunk one end of the ear to fit into the keyhole and began to listen.

"-thought you were going to make her forget!" Draco screamed. "You told me not to worry, that you would take care of her. That she would never remember anything about the night or about the fact that I'm a Death Eater!"

"Hold on a minute, Mr. Malfoy," Snape finally interrupted, "I never said anything about making her forget that you are a Death Eater. I only shoved the memories of that one night into her subconscious, not the fact that you are what you are. That was way to long ago for me to actually being able to stop her remembering what you are and what you did. It would have caused irregularities in her actions, making sure that she would search for the missing memories and eventually finding them."

"Why didn't you just erase the memories? This all would have never-"

"You can not erase specific memories. Either you erase them all or you don't erase any. The only chance we had to not remember what you did to her was by alternating the memory and pushing the truth far away into her subconscious, where she will hopefully never find it," Snape explained and left Ash confused.

What were they talking about? Whose memory did the alter? Hers? No, that can't be right... can it? Would Snape really do this to her? What happened that they needed to alter her memories? And how did Snape know that Draco was a Death Eater? Was he a Death Eater himself? - Millions of questions shot through Ash's mind as she tried to contemplate what she just heard.

"I swore to protect you Draco. I vowed with an unbreakable vow. Trust me Draco. I did my job correctly. She will not remember anything of that night unless you give her reason to search deep inside of her own mind."

"I already told you, Professor. I don't need your protection! I was chosen to do this. From all the others, he chose me! And I will not disappoint him!" Draco said, voice shivering.

"You're scared Draco. You're trying to hide it, but you're doing a very bad that. Let me help you!"

"Never! I was chosen, this is my time to shine."

She saw Snape tighten his grip on his chair as he shook his head in disappointment. "Alright Draco. Just don't forget. If you need any help come to me. And don't worry about Weasley. She won't remember I made sure of that"

Ash saw Draco give a quick nod and then turn towards the door. "Wait Draco-" Snape started, but Ash didn't stop to listen to the last part. Quickly she retrieved the ear and ran down the corridor, hiding behind one of the statues just before Draco opened the office door and walked out.

Breathing heavily, Ash tried to calm down and make sense of what she had just heard. It seems that something had happened one night, that she was never supposed to remember. Something they made her forget... But what? What did Draco do to her? But was even more important, what exactly was Draco chosen for?

She guessed the 'he' was the Dark Lord. But why would he choose Draco for anything? What could Draco do in Hogwarts that would help Voldemort? And why would Snape make an unbreakable vow to protect Draco?

Confused and unsure of what she should do now, Ash could only think of you person that could help her now. Swiftly she stumbled up to her feet and ran down the corridor.

After a few minutes of running and stumbling and falling down the corridors, a couple of stair and into a few doors, a dishevelled looking Ash reached a Gargoyle statue. Panting she stood in front of it, dumbstruck. She didn't know the password...

"Lemon Soda," a calm voice suddenly appeared from behind her, and she quickly turned to see Dumbledore stand behind her. Just slightly behind him she saw Harry look at her, just as confused she was by his being here, but that was unimportant right now.

"Professor! I need to talk to you," she panted, looking at Dumbledore with big watery eyes.

"Harry, please come back in an hour or so, will you?" Dumbledore asked softly, only turning his head by a small degree, never leaving Ash out off his sight.

"But Pro-" Harry started, looking at her in concern.

"Harry, please," Dumbledore interrupted him, leaving Harry a bit dumb folded.

"Alright," Harry said, giving Ash one last glance of concern and confusion before turning around and walking away.

"Now, Miss. Weasley. If you please?" he said and pointed at the Gargoyle that was slowly spiralling upwards. Quickly Ash followed his lead began ascending the stairs to the Headmasters office. When they reached the top of the stairs, they passed through a small door in front of them and walked into a large tall circular room with many windows and many portraits of -what she assumed too be - old headmasters and headmistresses. The portrait right above the door being the largest and showing a thin man with a shortish white beard and friendly eyes. Under the portrait it said Armando Dippet.

Armando Dippet? she asked herself before she remembered where she had seen his face before. He had a Chocolate Frog card. He had been the former Headmaster of Hogwarts and Rita Skeeter had once written an Biography of him... "Armando Dipper: Master or Moron?" it had been a very amusing read.

While Dumbledore walked up to his desk and sat down, Ash awed at the room a bit more. The office hosted to a number of spindly tables upon which were set delicate looking silver instruments that whirred and emitted small puffs of smoke, as well as an incredible collection of books, which Ash couldn't help but want to read. Also there was a cabinet that was open just a bit and let a Pensieve and a couple of memory jars shine through.

Lastly she turned to look at the headmasters table and jump a bit when she saw a bird burst into flames.

"Don't worry about Fawkes, he's a phoenix."

"Fascinating creatures," Ash said quietly as she went over to the ashes and saw a small newly born bird appear before her.

"Yes are they not?" Dumbledore said with a small smile playing on his lips as he softly stroked the birds head. "Now Miss. Weasley, why are you here?"

Ash stiffened a bit as she remembered why she had come to his office. "I didn't know whom I could turn too," she said honestly. "Normally I would ask Professor Snape for his advice, but I am afraid that he is part of the reason I needed to talk to you."

"I understand," the headmaster said quietly, before gesturing for her to take a seat. "Please, tell me what happened."

A bit uncertain Ash took one last slow look around the office - avoiding looking at Dumbledore. Then, taking a deep breath, Ash said, "I don't know where to begin."

"The start would be helpful," Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling.

"Well I guess you know that me and Draco - Draco Malfoy - had a relationship."

"Yes, I was aware."

"Well, I cut the ties."

"Because he had an affair with Miss. Parkinson," Dumbledore recounted.

"You're well informed," Ash said with a small smile. "Well, but that wasn't the only reason. But you must promise me that you won't tell anyone about it, nor that it will give him any trouble!" Ash said quickly, glancing up at the older man and seeing him nod in agreement before continuing. "He'saDeathEater," she said quickly.

"What did you just say?" Dumbledore said friendly.

"He's a Death Eater," Ash repeated slower this time.

"Alright. Continue."

Confused at his lack of offence Ash frowned but continued anyway, she was used to her headmaster being weird. "Anyhow, I couldn't be together with him any more after I learned that. So yeah we split up and well, lived our lives again... But back why I'm here. This morning I meet Draco in the common room and he looks really bad and behaved weirdly, so I decided to follow him. He went straight to Professor Snapes office and I ... casually listened to the conversation." Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at the description of her eaves-dropping, but he didn't interrupt her. "Well... He said something that concerned me. Something to do with me. He said that I wasn't supposed to remember. That Snape promised him that I would not remember him being a Death Eater and they were always talking about 'that night'... I have no idea what that's supposed to mean..."

"So you want me to check if someone messed with your head?"

Ash stayed quiet, just looking at the headmaster confused. "I ... I don't know... No. No, I don't think I want to know what they made me forget," Ash finally spoke, confused at her own words. "Is that weird?"

"No, not really. You have learned to trust those two over the last year. Now you probably think that they must have a good reason for them to make you forget. Especially because you and I know that Professor Snape would never hurt you- never would do something like this to you if it wasn't for our own well being," he said in his soft voice.

"But.. I mean it must be something important! Maybe I figured out why Draco became a Death Eater or what Voldemort is making him do... What if that information that they hid in my head somewhere is important... What if it can save some ones life or stop Voldemort from regaining power?" Ash asked getting paranoid, eyes wide.

"Do you really think they would do that?"

"They're Death Eaters, aren't they?"

"Severus was a Death Eater once, that is correct. But you know that he's in the Order now."

Ash's eyes snapped up, "you know what they did! You know what memory they manipulated and shoved into my subconscious," she whispered and slowly got off her chair, pushing it between them.

"Miss. Weasley... Ash don't be like that. You know I would never hurt one of my students," he said calmly and motioned her to sit again. "It is true that Severus did come to me a few weeks ago and told me about an incident with two of his students. Although he did not tell me who exactly it was because I told him not too."

"Do you know what happened?"

"Most of it. But trust me, its better off in you subconciousness."

Ash looked at the man before her in shock. Was it really that bad, that even Dumbledore told her not to try to regain it?

"Don't worry Ash, everything will be alright," he comforted her with his soft, warming voice that made her relax into the chair, nodding.

After a few minutes for the silence to settle, Ash broke it again. "Why was Harry here?"

Dumbledore smiled at her and accepted the change of topics. "He and I have a little project we're working on. Which reminds me, Harry and I need to carry on. Is there anything else that you want to talk to me about?"

"No, thank you professor," she said with a small smile and together they walked up to the door.

"No problem, if you ever have any concerns, please feel free to come to me, I will gladly help."

"Alright professor,"

"And Ash, don't be to hard on yourself or Draco for that matter, he's going through some troubling times," he said softly.

Confused Ash frowned at her headmaster and just before the reached the door another question jumped into her mind, making Ash look up at her Professor once again.

But all she received was that twinkling all-knowing smile of his as he opened the door for her and signalled a waiting Harry to enter his office. Just before he closed the door again, he nodded subtly and held up his finger to his mouth.

Once the door closed Ash was still staring, nodding to herself in slow motion.