Hermione couldn't help but cry as Draco shared with her what he had experienced over the summer holidays, the boy before her was shaking his complexion ashen as he described the acts he had been forced to witness, the lives he had seen taken.

"I should have tried to help them, but I was too scared, I watched children die Granger, small innocent children and I did nothing," he told her his eyes glassy and full of anguish.

"There is nothing you could do Draco, if you had tried to help them, you'd have been hurt or killed too," she tried to comfort him.

"You'd have helped them, wouldn't you," he asked her quietly.

"I don't know, I'd like to think that I would, but I don't know how I would react in that situation, if my family were in danger," she replied honestly.

"You're a Gryffindor you'd have jumped in and saved them or else died trying, that's what your house does, my house is full of bigoted cowards," he laughed humourlessly.

"Our houses don't define us and there are always exceptions to the norm, Peter Pettigrew was in Gryffindor, yet he was a coward who betrayed his friends, meanwhile your own aunt Andromeda Black bravely followed her heart and married a Muggleborn," she told him.

"I suppose I'm Pettigrew in that analogy," he asked her.

"It depends, I think you might be more like Andromeda, I don't think you are evil Draco, you have a choice to do what is right, betraying Voldemort doesn't make you a coward, it makes you a hero. You can do what is right and help people," she told him firmly.

"I don't want to be a martyr like Potter, I'm not a hero," he whispered.

"I'm not asking you to be, I'm asking you to help us, give us the information you have, and we will protect you. Professor Dumbledore will help you; I know he will, and he will be able to help your mother too," she told him quietly.

"Fine but he gets my mother out of the manor first, I need to know that she is safe before I deflect," he told her seriously.

"Of course, I'm sure that will be fine," she agreed.

"Good," he nodded and took a heaving breath to calm himself.

"Everything will be okay," she tried to reassure him.

"Granger I don't think anything will be okay again," he told her, his eyes full of pain and horror. Unsure what to say to him Hermione shuffled nervously, her eyes scanning the room uneasily.

"We should go and see Professor Dumbledore now before everyone is heading off to breakfast," she told him, Draco nodded in agreement and so the Gryffindor Princess and the Slytherin Prince exited the Room of Requirement and walk through the darkened halls towards the Gargoyle that guarded the Headmasters office.

To Hermione's surprise the Gargoyle was already opened when they arrived and candlelight illuminated the spiral staircase, stepping onto it the staircase began to move like a muggle escalator.

"I'm not sure if this is a good idea, what if they send me to Azkaban," the boy at her side asked worriedly.

"I promise you they won't she told him with a reassuring smile as she raised her had to knock on the wooden door at the top of the stairs.

"Enter," the calming deep voice of the Headmaster called, with a final smile at the boy beside her she pushed open the door and stepped into the room, her eyes taking in every detail from Fawkes who sat on his golden perch to all the magical revolving gizmo's. Finally, her eyes settled on the Headmaster who sat behind his desk in periwinkle robes, his blue eyes sparkling knowingly behind his halfmoon spectacles.

"Sir we need your help," she informed him siting in one of the squishy armchairs he gestured to.

"Would this be regarding Mr Malfoy's task to kill me and the mark he wears on his left forearm," he asked her to use his wand to pour three cups of tea.

"You know," Draco asked accusingly.

"You'll find Mr Malfoy that nothing happens in this school without me knowing," the headmaster spoke calmly as he stirred two lumps of sugar into one of the teacups.

"Sir Draco doesn't want to be a Death Eater," she told him accepting a cup the headmaster passed to her surprised that he knew her preference, one sugar and a slice of lemon.

"Of course, he doesn't, he's been given an impossible task as punishment for his fathers mistakes. It is such a shame how often a parent's sins endanger their children," the headmaster mussed as he passed a cup of tea with far too much sugar to Draco, the boy taking it in shaking hands.

"I'll tell you everything but first I need assurance that my Mother is out of the manor and is safe," Draco's voice shook as much as his hands as he stared at the man at the other side of the desk with determined eyes.

"I will send someone to get her immediately," he agreed writing a note on a small piece of parchment that he passed to Fawkes who held it between his beak, the Phoenix disappearing in a ball of fire.

"I'm sure they will have your mother here within the hour," he told the boy, raising his own cup of tea to his lips, Draco visibly relaxing as he too took a sip of his own drink.