Hi hi! Wave wave!

Sorry for the long wait, but on the bright side — here are two chapters for your enjoyment… as it seems the prison breakout is NOT in this chapter (sorry for lying). Anyway, I hope it's great, thanks for reading!

"There's nothing you can do?" Draco asked the following day. We were sitting together on the couch in the library as, lately, it was the only place we could sit in peace due to the constant traffic of people coming and going — other than my room, which Severus had placed as off limits when it came to just being the two of us.

I leaned into his side, soaking up as much of his warmth as I could as his arm that was wrapped around my shoulder pulled me in tighter. I was resisting the urge to let out a frustrated screech.

I knew I couldn't do anything about Marcus. There was nothing to do. Dad wasn't going to back out of that decision whether I denied the choice or not. He wanted three people per each team going in, and that was just what I had to deal with. I only picked two, so he picked the third for me… but it did feel like there was a reason behind his choice.

"Nothing…" I sighed. "We just have to deal with him — well, rather I have to deal with him. Keep him focused on the task at hand, and make sure he doesn't mess anything up so we get our part of the mission done properly."

"You do mean 'we,' Mel," Draco squeezed me lightly as he responded. "We're in it together. Bad enough you'll already be focusing on the aging spell for the three of us, you can't put everything on only your shoulders."

"Of course I have to," I moaned. "I'm the one in charge."

"That's no guarantee that he'll listen to you. Becky and I will be there, too, you know. I'll help, and you know for sure that Becky will take him down a few pegs — even if she doesn't need to."

I snorted, twisting my head to look up at him. "I believe you… but, you're wrong about one thing."

"What's that?"

"You're not going to be any help with Marcus."

He held a hand to his chest in mock dismay, "What are you trying to say?"

I sat up slightly with a playful smirk, poking him in the ribs as I said, "If he doesn't listen to me, then it's not very likely for him to listen to you either."

His eyebrows furrowed slightly, "Well, why not? I could beat him in a duel just as well as you can."

"It's not about beating him in a duel," I replied, pulling away to lean my back against the couch. "It's about respect. Respecting my authority. That's not something he's going to give willingly, especially not after what I did to him last year."

Tying and gagging Marcus up had not been one of my best moments but, to save Barty, I had deemed it a necessary precaution when switching Barty out with his father. Barty took Marcus' place in the exams and, luckily, passed so I wouldn't have to see Marcus another year.

Hey, it was his fault for threatening to fail, I thought. It almost felt like I was defending my actions to myself, sadly enough. That my conscience had to stoop so low for the things I'd done to seem like no big deal.

"I could enforce that respect."

Did… did he just say that? I stared back at Draco in dismay. Out of all the hare-brained responses he could give, I could only wonder what in the world made him think that that was a possibility? "How —"

His finger pressed against my lips to shut me up as he turned to the figure walking briskly towards us. I smacked his hand away from my face so I could do the same, giving him a pointed glare before turning my attention to…

Cassandra.

She gave a small wave as she continued toward us, brushing past without any words and eyeing each of the shelves as she paced down the rows in search of some particular subject. She finally seemed to find what she was looking for when she disappeared down an aisle.

I turned to Draco, who scowled as he stood up.

"Where are you going?" I asked, snagging hold of his hand to keep him from also disappearing. "You disappeared the other day without much warning, too. What's going on?"

He glanced in Cassandra's direction as if that gave me all the answer I needed.

"She doesn't work for dad. We're fine." I whispered reassuringly, attempting to pull him back to the couch. It partly worked, but only because he let me bring him close to the couch. He didn't sit down.

Draco did, however, lean over to whisper in my ear. "We'll talk about it another time." Leaning back slightly, he placed a soft kiss against my lips before pulling away and walking off.

I sighed as I also stood, opting to wander down the rows of bookshelves in search of the aisle Cassandra disappeared in.

When I finally found it, it was the aisle labeled 'Potions.' Peering in, I watched as she rifled through a book with a forest green cover. The black, cursive typing on the spine was worn beyond all recognition — the most I could really make out looked like 'Po n otio s,' but one thing was for sure. She was really focused on her search, flipping through pages with her eyes flitting quickly back and forth on the pages.

"What are you reading?" I asked softly, causing the woman to flinch and snap her face up to mine. I slowly walked closer as I continued, "Or, rather, skimming?"

A short chuckle escaped her, and she actually walked up next to me to show off a chapter with the header: 'Poison Ivy.' The first line describing it said: 'Poison ivy is the common name of Toxicodendron radicans, a poisonous plant known for the production of a fluid that causes skin irritation.'

I shifted slightly away from Cassandra as I asked, "Are you planning on using that in a potion? I thought it only grew in the United States."

"Supposedly yes, but I've heard rumors about it also residing in Dartmoor."

"As in Dartmoor in England?" I asked thoughtfully. "The Quidditch World Cup was held there last year, if I recall correctly. I don't remember seeing any, but then it could've been in the forest nearby."

The way Cassandra's eyes shined excitedly gave me reason to be uneasy but… from what Jessamyn had mentioned yesterday, it's more likely she'll use it on Ash. It was a curious relationship they had, to be sure. She seemed nice, otherwise.

"There's a potion where poison ivy is an ingredient?" I asked curiously.

"Well, of course!" she replied jubilantly. "There are a great many poisonous potions that include poison ivy! Of course, they're not going to teach them in school — there would be far too many students either sick in the hospital wing or dead. I take it Professor Snape has probably already taught you all how to brew antidotes?"

"Yeah," I replied with a small chuckle. "I already know how to brew one, but I missed the class he held last year where he poisoned everyone to see how their antidotes held up."

"Ooh," Cassandra bit her lip. "I wish I could've seen that."

I smiled. Severus must've loved having her as a student. "Sometimes I wish I had, too…. erm, I must admit that I'm very curious about something. Have you ever poisoned anyone besides Ash, or do you only do it to him?"

Cassandra shook her head profusely, "I may do it to him a lot more, but I'll poison just about anyone." She laughed as I took a distant step back, "Don't worry about it. You work closely with the Mistress, I won't do it to you. Poison has always been such a fascinating subject for me."

I shrugged, "Better to be safe than sorry."

She smiled with a shrug of her own as she returned her attention to the book in hand, "That's fair. However, as glad as I am that I found this, I was hoping it would be a sentient plant — or at least semi-sentient. Can you imagine how amazing that'd be? It'd be something like Devil's Snare, only it would reach over to poison whoever I put it close to."

"That would be something," I replied absent-mindedly, the word 'sentient' running back and forth through my mind. Why does that word have a certain… ring to it? I thought curiously. "What does 'sentient' mean again? I swear I know it, but I seem to be drawing a blank right now."

"Hmm..?" Cassandra removed her attention from the book to stare into space for a few moments in thought. "It's any living thing that has the capability of feeling or sensing. A sense of consciousness, if you will."

Sentient. Being able to feel. To have a form of awareness of yourself and others around you. Mixed into my ability to feel what others feel, and hear peoples' thoughts. I can't believe it never crossed my mind before… Matter of fact, I can't believe it took me this long to realize what I would like to be called, especially when it works so perfectly… Dark Sentient.

"Are you okay?" Cassandra asked, still holding the book tightly with one hand while waving her free hand in front of my face. "Don't space out on me."

I chuckled lightly as she dropped her hand to her side, "It's not like that.. actually, you just gave me a brilliant idea."

She tilted her head in surprise, "I did?"

"Yeah, you did… in return for that kindness, I know where you can get some basilisk venom."

In one swift motion, the book in her hand was slammed shut and placed back on the shelf. Whether that was where it was originally taken from or not, I couldn't be too sure. "Basilisks are very rare creatures," Cassandra said seriously. "It's to such a degree that breeding them is completely illegal. How have you come across one?"

"The one I met was Salazar Slytherin's personal pet," I replied, grinning at the fact that even though she wasn't sure she could believe me.. the mention did make her giddy. "It had been in hibernation under the school for all that time at least until three years ago. It's dead because of Harry Potter, but I'm pretty sure its venom is still lethal."

If eyes could turn into stars, Cassandra's would have formed into them. "How —"

"Melony!"

We both paused. Was that Ash calling for a Melony?

"Melony!"

It was definitely Ash's voice, yelling it through the hallways.

"Does someone named Melony also work for Seraphina?" I asked in astonishment. It was so close to my own name, it was almost amazing she hadn't mentioned such a similarity to me already.

Cassandra's lips thinned into a tight line, "No. He's an idiot."

"Melony!… Melony!… Melony?… You hear me calling you right?… Melony!"

Is he calling me, then? What in the hell? I thought furiously, glaring at the door in wait for his entrance. When he finally walked in, it took him a moment to scan the room before he spotted me in the aisle and came marching over.

"Didn't you hear me calling you?" he asked once he made it halfway through the room.

"Calling who?" I asked back.

"Calling you," he said, pausing at the entrance to the aisle. He eyed Cassandra warily, taking a step back to lengthen his distance from her. He flinched when she made a mock jump at him, only to return to her search through the bookshelves with a chuckle.

"You haven't been calling my name," I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

"What do you mean?"

"As far as I can tell, you've been calling someone named Melony."

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "Isn't that your name?"

"My name is Melody."

"I said that — Melony."

"Melody," I reiterated.

"Melony."

"… Melo."

"Are you really trying that?" he asked with a sigh. "I'm not a kid. I'm saying your name just fine."

I glared irritably at him, "Just repeat after me. Melo."

Ash rolled his eyes, "Melo."

"Dee."

"Dee."

"Melody."

"Melony."

I dropped my face into my hand, "Oh, dear lord."

"That's why I'm here!" he burst with a haphazard wave of his arms. "The Dark Lord just got back! He and the Mistress sent me to come get you!"

I lifted my head up, "He did?"

"Yes! So, come on!"

Cassandra slammed another book shut, causing both Ash and myself to jump and look at her. She glared sharp daggers at him as she said, "This is a library. Shut your loud mouth, bean head."

Ash barely held back a smirk as he gently took hold of my shoulder and pulled me next to him to start walking. "See you never, bugger face!"

If I didn't know the angry screech came from Cassandra, I would've assumed a cat had done it. Ash's pace picked up so we were soon out of the library, speeding through the hallways.

"You're that scared of Cassandra?" I joked, ducking when he attempted to whack my head with the hand that had been resting on my shoulder.

"Shut up. You're lucky the Mistress likes you, otherwise I'd have actually hit you."

"You only say that because you missed."

By that point, we reached the ballroom, so I pushed the doors open quickly to see dad and Seraphina already deep in discussion with each other. Dad's back was facing me, but Seraphina saw me over his shoulder and she quickly walked over to me with a smile on her face. He turned curiously, his thin lips turning up in a small smile… strangely nervous?

"Good morning, darling! Isn't it wonderful that Voldy's back in time?" she linked her arm through mine with a graceful grin on her face, and walked me over to him. "With only a few days left, we can finally have some official meetings between the three of us on properly executing the breakout. Of course, not right now as I have somewhere to be, but you two have some time to talk."

"Wait, what?" I paused in surprise as she unhooked her arm from mine, waving as she walked away. "If we're not starting discussions now, then when?"

"Just later, darling! Maybe tomorrow! Have fun!"

And she was gone. Just like that. With a few yelps from Ash outside as she snapped about how he did something wrong somewhere, until their voices eventually evaporated into nothing.

I snorted, turning to dad with a grin. "Anyway.. glad you're back. How was your trip?"

"Very…" he said slowly, looking up as though in thought about what would be the right word to describe it until he finally ended with "… illuminating."

I smiled, "Is that so?"

"Yes… and.. I have a surprise for you," he replied, reaching into his robe pockets.

I'm not sure what I was expecting out of his trip — be it a story or even a 'none of your business' perhaps — but a surprise, let alone any thought of a present, was not it. The Lord Voldemort with a surprise for his daughter? After everything? All I could do was widen my eyes in response.

Once he seemed to have found it, he glanced at me, "Close your eyes."

Crap, what is this going to be? I thought nervously, closing my eyes. It can't be anything too bad, right? He would've just killed me rather than done a whole spiel about a surprise, plus telling me to close my eyes. This must be something good… hopefully….

It was hard not to flinch as both his cool hands touched mine, gentle and almost reverent as he pulled them away from my sides. Guiding them to face palms up in front of me, he placed something wide and rough in texture into them. "Now open."

Sounds real classy to say 'open' in Parseltongue, I thought sarcastically. But when I opened my eyes, my doubt turned into awe. The gift was absolutely entrancing: a cobra mask, with fangs bared and forked tongue hanging out. With amazingly realistic, sandy brown scales at that! The details were astoundingly similar to my own form.

"It's.." I replied dumbfounded, holding it gently. "It's.. it's amazing… Dad…." I tore my gaze from it to look at him, tears threatening to escape my eyes. "Thank you —" I jumped and wrapped my arms around his neck in a tight hug, burying my face into his shoulder.

Dad's reaction was hesitant, but it was incredible to sense his inner barriers drop ever so slightly just enough to cause him to bring his arms up to wrap around me. It didn't even matter how awkward his hand placement on my back felt, for it was exhilarating just to realize that he dropped his foremost barriers just to allow me the sensation of a well-earned hug. That he thought about me enough while he was gone to get me a gift he hoped I would appreciate.

The fact that the mask wasn't even the best part of my present made it all the more stupefying when I voiced my present to him.

"I'm ready to introduce myself to the wizarding world as Lord Voldemort's ally, the Dark Sentient."

I walked to the kitchen some time later hearing a woman's jubilant laughter. The sight that met me when I looked in was an interesting surprise — Jessamyn ruffling up Draco's hair, beaming at him from the seat next to him. He kept pushing her hands away, shouting at her to bog off.

I laughed from the doorway, causing both of them to stop in surprise and stare at me. It didn't help that Draco's hair was literally standing on end, frizzy and completely disorderly.

"Melody!" Jessamyn said with a large grin, leaning across the table to pat the corner, indicating the chair right across from her. "Sit down. I didn't realize the Draco Malfoy was your boyfriend — I would've had a great story to tell you without him knowing."

Draco's eyes narrowed at her as he attempted to straighten his hair out, "You wouldn't."

With a half-hearted wink in my direction, she leaned back in the chair, whistling an upbeat tune as I sat down with a smirk.

"A funny story, huh?" I asked, wiggling my eyebrows suggestively. "Do continue."

Snapping his head back and forth between us, eyes panicked, he said, "— No — don't —"

"Well," she started smugly, blatantly ignoring Draco's retorts. "When I met him, his father asked me and my frie — well, now she's my friend, back then that was an iffy — he asked us to babysit him. Only six, and already a pompous brat."

"Shut up!" Draco yelled, cheeks reddening profusely.

"I don't even need to imagine," I giggled, leaning forward on the table on my elbows. "Then what?"

"Oh my God, Mel," he rested his face in his hands in exhausted surrender.

Jessamyn laughed, "They fought like five year olds… and that's not even the best part. I had to keep leaving them alone because, when they returned, I was trying to solve what happened to his father's wand — it had disappeared. Lo and behold, guess who had it!"

I felt my grin widen at the realization, "Draco took it, then — did he get in trouble?"

"Oh no," Jessamyn shook her head, ruffling her fingers through Draco's hair again. "I kept this boy's dirty little secret. To this day, Lucius has no idea that Draco was the one who took it. Tried to blame it on Dobby, the poor house elf — oh, speaking of —" she turned seriously to Draco, "— how is Dobby?"

"Gone," he muttered, turning away in embarrassment as he fixed his hair once again.

Jessamyn frowned, "What d'you mean 'gone'?"

"It's not bad," I quickly interjected with a small laugh, glancing carefully at the doorway before explaining it to her. "Thanks to a certain Boy Who Lived, Mr. Malfoy accidentally set Dobby free."

Her eyes widened significantly, "Really? That's some incredible news to hear, if you don't mind me saying so."

"I mind," Draco mumbled.

Rolling my eyes, I still reached a hand across the table to gently pat his forearm, "It's not that bad, Draco, don't be so overdramatic. You might as well be happy for him, because your father made Dobby miserable."

"I know," he said, standing up. "Which is why I'd better get going —"

"— that's the third time you've done that," I said, exasperated.

"Done what?"

"Just suddenly deciding you've got to leave without much explanation — and you just did it the second time earlier today. I thought you'd left."

"I got caught," he shrugged, gesturing at Jessamyn.

I turned to the woman, glancing at Draco every so often as I said, "You must be something important. Anyone else, and he wouldn't have given them the time of day."

She sat up straighter, pride emanating off of her as she replied, "Well, he did tell me how much he wanted to be just like me… of course, I doubt that actually turned out to be the case. I wasn't nearly as stuck up as he still is."

"How funny," he sneered, walking around the table to bend down and kiss my forehead.

I attempted to keep him from leaving,"Draco —", but he turned to Jessamyn with a curt nod.

"It was nice to see you again, Jessamyn. Maybe we can continue it some other time."

She gave him a small smile, "I would like that very much, Draco."

I watched as he nodded again and briskly disappeared out the door. It felt strange not to know for sure what he was thinking and feeling… whether or not it was a bad thing I needed to intervene on.

"You really like him…"

I snapped my attention to Jessamyn, the woman grinning at me from ear to ear. "I — er — well, I mean I —"

"Don't worry about it, Seraphina explained your whole charade to what's his face so your secret's safe with me… I might as well admit that it's just nice to see that his daughter can live a normal teenager's life."

I snorted, "Please, just barely. Having the feelings doesn't make much of a difference when I'm taking care of things like the breakout coming up."

"Sure it does," she replied, the grin never faltering. "Just remember that everything is best handled with friends — or, in his case, boyfriends."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "What are you trying to say?"

Jessamyn sighed loosely, "Just that if there's something you feel needs to be talked about, then you should tell him what's bothering you and involve him in decisions. You're going to need to have each other's back at every moment. If there's no communication, it will cause problems."

After a moment, I nodded in slight understanding. Talk to him. Right. Easy… right?