Ever since the fight in the bathroom, Eleanor had felt miserable. Though miserable in a different way than Draco was. Draco was loudly despairing every moment he got. He was more overbearing and overprotective of her than ever, and was now crazed on finding out exactly what Voldemort wanted with her. Eleanor felt like she was seeping up all of Draco's anxious energy, and felt like she had no room to express her own concerns.

"Where the hell is Potter, anyway. Don't you think he should be here, with us, figuring this out?" Draco growled while pacing the short length of Eleanor's greenhouse office in late May.

"Dumbledore called him to a meeting." Eleanor puffed out. "And besides, we're safe at Hogwarts, do we need to be worrying about this right now?"

"Yes!" Draco nearly shouted, "because a Death Eater is already here, threatening you."

"They want Harry." Eleanor grumbled. She was watching Draco pace from her place on the cot. While Draco had been staying there for weeks, Eleanor had just recently taken up a permanent residence. Only after Draco's consistent begging and pleading, and insistence that it was the only way he could know she was safe. Draco refused to see reason that she would probably be more safe behind the protection of the Fat Lady than she would be in the back corner of the greenhouse, although Eleanor tried to plead her case multiple times.

"Blaise didn't say anything about Harry, he did say an awful lot about you."

"He was trying to get under your skin. You wouldn't have threatened him on behalf of Harry. He was trying to get a rise out of you."

"Why aren't you worried?" Draco shot, losing his patience with her.

"I don't think there is enough worry to go around." Eleanor said softly, crossing her arms and looking away.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Draco mimicked her with his own crossed arms and expectant stare.

"It's a nice evening, we've got all of our homework done, and you're worried about me dying rather than just enjoying our time together. It's a tad irrational, babe, don't you think?" Eleanor reached out to grab his hand and pull him towards the cot, hoping for some sense of normalcy, a sliver of joy.

"I don't think you're taking this seriously." Draco accused, with his tongue in his cheek. "I can't lose you, Ellie, I really can't."

"And you won't," Eleanor grabbed Draco's arm now and pulled him down beside her, "but what's the point of having me around if you aren't even going to enjoy the fact that I'm here?"

Draco stared at her for a long, quiet few moments. "You can't be serious."

"Why wouldn't I be serious?" Eleanor asked, lacing her fingers around his arm and trying to loosen the tension. "If all I'm doing is causing you to pace and be stressed while we have no fun or joy, then what is the point?"

"El, that has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard." Draco let out a breath that sounded dangerously close to a chuckle.

"Which part is stupid?"

"You are joy personified, we don't have to be joyful or be fun for you to make my life better. Without you, everything would be dark. It's always been that way, and it always will be. So forgive me if I'm a little stressed at the thought of having you taken away from me." Eleanor smiled at his words and laid a gentle kiss on his cheek, attempting to elicit more but Draco remained rigid.

"Draco, I need you to get out of your head. We are at Hogwarts, it's the safest place to be, no one is coming for us here."

"We don't know that," Draco fretted. "You didn't hear him, El."

"Can we compromise and just lay here for a bit? We don't have to talk about anything but I need you to stop pacing. You're stressing me out." Draco took a deep breath and put on a smile that was so clearly faked, but the faking appeased Eleanor. He wrapped his arms around her and the pair laid side by side on the small cot.

"We can lay here for awhile, but then I have final exams to worry about." Draco whispered.

"Merlin's Beard, it isn't enough for you to be worried about the fate of the entire Wizarding World, you need to be worried about exams too?" Eleanor exasperated.

"You'd be surprised at the number of things I can worry about at once," Draco said. "You're the one who wanted me to open up more, now you get to know about all those worries."

"I suppose I am the master of my own undoing," Eleanor mused jokingly, reaching her head around to give Draco a gentle kiss. "What do you need to study for?"

"Astronomy, specifically the current trajectory of Mars and what that means for the next century of those with an Aries Rising. Our classes have been getting dangerously into the weird, spiritual side of the stars, it's all a little unrealistic."

"We go to a wizard school, my love." Eleanor responded with a laugh. "I'm unsure if we can be too picky with what is realistic."

"Well I hardly believe the stars have any say in what my future holds." Draco scoffed.

"What if it's good, though?"

As the words left Eleanor's mouth, large explosions began going off outside the greenhouse, and thunder began rolling wildly. Neither of them could move for a few moments, they both went completely rigid. It was almost as if they stopped breathing. Time suspended, neither of them knew what exactly was happening but somehow, they knew that everything was about to change.

"We need to go." Eleanor fretted, grabbing her wand from her back pocket and springing to her feet. Draco held her arm firmly in both hands, he looked at her desperately.

"We need to stay." He implored, his eyes wide with fear.

"We don't know what's happening. What if our friends need us, what if -"

"Eleanor, no." Draco shook his head, fearful and firm. Eleanor set her jaw, not wanting to argue with him but preparing herself in case she had to.

"I won't just sit here," Eleanor yanked her arm out of Draco's hands and turned towards the office door. Draco's long arms and legs had the advantage, he was up and stood in front of the door before Eleanor could properly cross the room.

"I'm asking you to." Draco said. "I won't be able to think with you out there."

"You'd be with me."

"Fighting and not thinking? No. That's not going to end well."

"I've helped in a fight before, I can do it again." Eleanor seethed, attempting to push Draco out of the door frame, but he wouldn't budge.

"You hid and had one lucky shot. I'm not loving our chances."

"You bastard, I saved someone's life." Eleanor growled, anger boiling inside of her, and despair raging at the continued explosions and yells of spells outside the greenhouse.

"You don't know you saved his life, she could have just been trying to stun him." Draco returned, not able to look at Eleanor. Her frustration with him was uncomfortable for now, but he knew it was more tolerable than the pain of losing her forever.

"Why are you acting like this?" Eleanor demanded, taking a break from trying to shove past him and simply attempting on getting him to make eye contact. His towering height over offered a buffer in this way, his eyes grazed over the top of her head with little trouble avoiding her eye-line. "I won't leave people alone out there who need help, I can't do it."

"Eleanor, we don't know what's out there."

"We've got a pretty good idea, and I refuse to hide."

"Can't you let me be selfish?" Draco spat at her. "This whole year I have been struggling and trying to be a man that you're proud of. I've been opening up even when it's uncomfortable, I've sold out my friends to yours, I've abandoned my family for yours, I've given Dumbledore - a man I do not trust - a mountain of information. I've done it all for you. Can you please let me keep you hidden here tonight?" Eleanor was shocked seeing the tears that were beginning to fill Draco's eyes. It was something Eleanor had never seen from him, not even when they were small children. "You once told me that you made a lot of sacrifices to be around me, and I know I have no right to ask for more sacrifices from you, but I need you to make one more."

Eleanor waited a few moments before responding. The sound of crashing windows and crumbling bricks played as a background to her regret of not being more helpful. The sounds mocked her, telling her that if anyone lost their life it would be her fault. She looked back at Draco, ready to tell him exactly what she was thinking, but a single tear fell from over his eyelid and down his cheek. In her heart she knew that that one tear for Draco had been braver than anything she could've done outside her secluded office. Eleanor gave in with a single nod. Draco crushed her into a hug, holding her against his chest tightly and not letting her go.

It felt like they sat in each other's arms in silence for years in that darkened room. The cot had never felt uncomfortable before, but at that moment it felt like they were sitting on a bed of nails. The noise eventually waned, but neither of them could bear to break the silence and check the ruin that Hogwarts was in or the lives that might have been lost.

The sound of the greenhouse door opening was so distinct. The metal frame of the door scraped unpleasantly along the concrete floor and the hinges wailed in agony at the slightest movement. That noise stopped both Eleanor's and Draco's hearts. The only barrier between them and whoever entered the greenhouse was a wooden door that was cracked and warped in many places.

"Eleanor?" A frantic voice called out. "My love, are you in here?"

"Remus," Eleanor recognized immediately, pushing Draco off of her and scrambling towards her father's voice. She threw open the door to the office and saw her father and Sirius standing in the entrance to the greenhouse. Both of their shoulders sagged in relief when they saw her, and they opened their arms in invitation for a hug. "Remus, Sirius." Eleanor shouted, running full force towards them and catapulting herself against them.

"Thank heavens, you're alright." Remus whispered against her hair. Sirius kissed her cheek joyously and swung her in an elated circle with a wide smile on his face.

"When we couldn't find you, we expected the worst." Sirius explained. "Harry said he hadn't seen you in hours. We worried they'd gotten to you."

"Harry's okay?" Eleanor asked. "Hermione, Ron, Ginny? We've been hiding in here since the fighting started."

"I'm glad you did, it seems the Death Eaters were hellbent on finding you both and returning you to Voldemort." Remus held Eleanor's hand tightly. Draco came up and joined them. "Although, I assume the staying put was more of your idea. So I must thank you for that, my boy." Remus smiled gratefully at the young blonde. Draco gave a single nod and began playing with a piece of Eleanor's sweater, just to be able to physically be touching her, knowing she was safe. He had kept her safe.

"Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny are all fine. Bill's been taken to St. Mungo's, so the Weasleys are there now." Sirius provided.

"What's wrong with Bill?"

"Fenrir Greyback made an appearance tonight." Remus answered stiffly. "Bill was on the unfortunate end of an attack from him."

"Is Bill-"

"We aren't quite sure what Bill's fate is yet." Remus grimaced. "Though we are rather assured that he will live to tell the tale."

"What happened?" Draco asked. "Was Voldemort here?"

"No, no we do not believe he ever made an appearance." Remus shook his head. "We're a bit shaky on some of the details but it appears the Death Eaters were able to find their way into the school and they began attacking."

"And they just...left?"

"They caused their havoc, and then departed."

"Attacking the school is a funny way of causing havoc." Eleanor scoffed.

"Well, eventually Snape convinced them all to leave."

"Don't say it like Snivellus deserves to be rewarded for that." Sirius scowled. "He's the one who let them in."

"Professor Snape did?" Draco asked. "I told Dumbledore, I told him he was a Death Eater, and he didn't listen!"

Sirius and Remus fell quiet and looked at the ground uncomfortably. "I believe Professor Dumbledore saw the error of his judgement in the end."

"The end?" Eleanor clarified. When no response came from Remus and Sirius, Eleanor felt tears of realization prick her eyes.

Dumbledore was dead.


I apologize for the delay when it came to posting this. Life and school have been so crazy, and I haven't had time to write and stay ahead of where I've been posting. So for the next few weeks until school settles down, chapters will take a little while longer. Let me know what you think! I love hearing from you!