I slept for the afternoon through a flurry of yet more nightmares and the sounds of spells casting outside, which only threw fuel on the fire. My eyes had remained closed but my mind sat on the surface the entire time, nervous and disturbed. So much so, that when Luna Lovegood gently tapped my shoulder to rouse me I nearly hexed the fairy-like girl in a panic. She simply smiled gently and let me know that dinner was ready.

I dragged myself out of the small bed and walked in with a blanket around myself, slumping at a table with a group of people planning as many details as could possibly be considered for the next day. I knew I was giving off vibes of sickness just from the way I was digging my nose into the blanket which rose right over my head like a hood. I couldn't care less. I had reached a point where I was on the verge of losing my mind and soul altogether, both physically and mentally.

I couldn't stop thinking about what had happened to Lucas and if I could've done anything at all to prevent his death. The guilt was overpowering. He had died trying to find out what had happened to me, even though it had been unnecessary on every front. I could only be thankful for the fact that he had come alone and not brought my brother. My parents would never speak to me again. I had become a monster, branded with the dark mark and participating in the very unforgivable things I had wanted to avoid in order to play my part.

"Chin up, chicken," Fred Weasley said beside me, leaning around the confines of the blanket to shove a spoonful of peas at my face. I couldn't tell if he was mocking me or genuinely trying to be friendly, either way I lifted a blanketed arm and smashed the spoon away, spraying peas everywhere. Seamus stopped to peer with a shriveled nose at a few that landed in his water glass, and Minerva leaned back in her chair with a stern expression of distaste.

A shuffling to my left and Draco appeared. He seemed to have levelled out in the few hours since I had seen him. His face was calm and collected, and he'd obviously come into our barrack room to change into a sharp black suit. He pushed his chair right up against mine and put his arm around my shoulders. My face flooded with heat and shame as several people stared at the atypical show of affection coming from the wicked boy.

Draco pulled me into him so our faces were close and whispered to me, "We are required very soon. You must prepare yourself - you look abhorrent. At least drink some water." He pushed a glass across the table at me and I stared up into his empty cerulean eyes, wondering what had brought on such care. He stared down at me blankly and I breathed in the smell of pine and his warm breath on my face.

I picked up the glass gingerly and leaned further into him with my face in his neck. He sighed in aggravation, obviously not intending for me to completely snuggle him, "Drink it. Tonight is no joke, Madeleine." I sipped at the water while cuddling into him, feeling a dull emptiness in my chest. He let his arm hang loosely off of my shoulder while talking to Blaise on his other side about which wands out of the bucket would be better to try and slip to Harry given his personality traits and casting styles. I came to the obvious conclusion that he had been filled in once again on what he needed to do from within the castle the next day.

Blaise was in the middle of explaining that he had forced Hilda to go home to her parents for the sake of safety when I finished the water and put it on the table, only to be slammed by a familiar rise in my metabolism. I froze, suddenly noticing that the euphoria potion he had just snuck into the water was reacting to my system differently than usual. As my heart picked up speed so did the callous nature of my poisoned magic and I sat straight up, the blanket fell from my shoulders as a hyper and menacing feeling struck me in the chest.

I scowled at Draco in betrayal and he lazily turned his face to meet mine. "Relax, it was necessary. You were about to get on that stage moping like Old Yeller, how do you think that would've played out?" he replied tersely.

It was ideal timing, because within minutes the marks on our arms burned and we both stood with bags under our eyes, feigning having any energy to go at all. He laced his hand into mine and disapparated us quite closely to the table, probably reeking havoc for those still attempting to finish their sad dinners.

We reappeared in a dark hallway that stank of cigarettes. The walls were plastered in a faded maroon wall paper, and hung with racy paintings of show girls from the early 1900's with glittery caps and frivolous, sparkly costumes. He didn't let go of my hand as he guided me through the building under horrid pink lighting.

I squinted around myself in confusion while scratching at the burning mark on my arm. He had obviously been to the scandalous club before based on his confident stride. Through the thin walls I could hear the muffled yelling of men and music. He stopped at a black doorway and boldly ripped it open, leading me into a dimly lit dressing room filled with ridiculous outfits and makeup. He locked the door behind himself and leaned it on it with his arms crossed and lit a cigarette.

My heart was pounding aggressively by that point from the euphoria potion and I turned to him with a straight spine and flushed cheeks, "And what is dis? What would you 'ave me do now?"

He looked up at me with burning, brooding eyes from the angle he was leaning at, blowing smoke rudely into the room. He pointed at a black tutu I hadn't noticed on the counter and I lifted it with a deep grimace. It was scanty and suggestive, with black bird feathers absolutely everywhere - a far cry from anything I would've chosen to ever dance in. "They want you in it, so don't make a fuss," he hissed under his breath.

I gestured to his presence, "Find, get out den. I'll put on your 'oribble dress."

He smirked sideways for a flash of a second, "I'm not going anywhere. You have no idea what type of men are wondering these halls." His eyes dropped down to the dress with a raised eyebrow and a scowl, "This little show is already going to be dangerous enough as it is."

I put my hands on my hips and the dress ruffled angrily in my tight grasp, "I can defend myself. Besides, dere is a lock on de door."

His lip curled up in amusement and his eyes wandered the dark ceiling, "Why so embarrassed Madeleine? Something else change besides just your hair and eyes?" His gaze came back to rest on mine mockingly as he smoked. "I'm not leaving you alone in this building for a second, so get on with it."

I bitterly began unzipping my dress and tugging it off. He stared intensely at me the entire time and I stared right back with narrowed eyes, "It would not be so shocking, you leaving me all alone in a precarious situation."

He paused with the cigarette hung in two fingers before his eyes. "I came back for you," he said through barred teeth as though it was difficult to admit. I dropped my dress and undid my bra and his eyes fell to my breasts, "You left, and shielded your magic for a fucking month. So no, it is not entirely my fault that you're a Death Eater."

I leaned back on the counter on my elbows confidently, and in disbelief that he actually had come back for me while I'd spent an entire month in sufferance. He took the opportunity to size up my naked body like a carnivore. "You came back?" I asked hoarsely. The fact that he had changed everything entirely.

He straightened his spine on the door with hooded eyes, "Yeah. I did. It's probably a good thing Potter ran off with you, because I was going to hurt him. Badly." He extinguished the cigarette on the metal door frame while chewing on his lip, then he turned back to me, "Then you naively went and marked yourself. I explicitly asked you to never do this." He walked towards me and pulled me towards him slowly by my waist, naked in his arms. I wrapped myself around him with relief flooding my body and my heart dancing high and crazy in my chest. We swayed in each other's arms while he pet my hair softly and I closed my eyes, sighing into him. I had missed him so much, I hadn't even realized just how empty I had become in the wake of his absence.

A loud bang berated the door and someone ripped at the handle. A unlocking spell was cast and Draco turned rapidly and wandlessly shut it in the offender's face. "She's coming. Back off," he darkly commanded.

I reluctantly pulled away and began yanking the extremely tight tutu up my thin body. I turned around and pulled my ivory hair aside and he zipped it up for me with his eyebrows pulled tightly together as if to silently protest what was about to happen. I straightened and looked at myself, glowering sourly at how sexualized it was. It brought out my blackened eyes making me appear horribly demonic. My breasts were shoved up high and the corset of the fabric barely cleared my nipples. Below the stiff fan of the tutu my entire backside save for the dark undergarment was visible. Draco looked equally ill as I spun around with my hair lightly beginning to float already. I found two pairs of black ballet slippers and pulled them on, lacing them up.

"I'll be on the side of the stage the whole time," he reassured me as I finalized the bare minimum for a stage show. I didn't put my hair up or any makeup on. He opened the door with his eyes shut and his fingers on my lower back to guide me. He pressed me past several other doors and some highly questionable looking women lingering on the sides of the hallway, some not even wearing tops at all, and then the corner rounded and the space expanded with three short steps to the side leading to a very old, time-worn wooden stage. The loud sound of chaotic chatter could be heard from the expansive theatre beyond.

"Look at this little pretty doll," A haggish voice called out and I turned with dread to see one of the slutty, middle aged show women had sauntered up to us. She played with my long white hair like it was permissible to do so. "First time Burlesque? Don't be frightened baby, they won't bite. Unless of course you perform poorly and upset the big guy." She cackled in my face. "He bites pretty hard. Angelica's head might still be underneath the stage flooring as we speak." Her harassing laugh echoed around the stage back. I knew exactly how hard the "big guy" bit from what I'd seen mere hours ago in the great hall.

Draco slapped her hand away in outrage, "Don't you touch her, you circus freak." When the woman had left he wrapped his arms around me from behind as I buzzed from the euphoria potion mixing with all of my other magics. I stared wide eyed ahead of me at the stage lighting as he whispered along my neck, "Okay, it's time. Just dance until they tell you to stop."

I turned in his embrace and threw my arms around his neck, kissing him passionately. He pressed soft, sweet kisses on my lips in return, then his fingers pushed me away by my waist, "You have to go now."

I stood at the precipice to the stage, hyper and worked up. My hair had started to electrically lift, my eyes darkened, and by the time I ran out to the center and held my first dramatic pose, the black flames had returned in all their glory to sprout magically from my finger tips. They danced along my skin as I danced on the stage. I stared to the floor and to the ceiling, blurring my vision of the lethal crowd of Death Eater's on purpose. I concentrated on the magic pulsing in my veins, and in the natural guidance that my Veela powers provided in my dancing.

The fire seemed to impress them greatly, garnishing a lot of cheering. It was that, and undeniably the whorish style of the dress which I tried to press out of my mind.

They made me ballet dance for far too long, almost an hour, before the dark lord stood and dismissed me. I made it to the side of the stage with runny eyes and collapsed into Draco's arms feeling debilitated and in pain.

He lifted me up and brought me to the side, far into the darkness of the stage back while another girl ran onto the platform to pole dance. He pushed my sweaty hair back as I panted with my eyes blinking. Once I had stopped moving my body began to cave to the damage of performing for far too long. I pawed at his face, "Draco, I don' know ef I can dis-disapparate."

He scanned my body nervously, "Where are you hurt? Or are you just tired?"

I swallowed dryly, "Just... fatigued. My muscles, and my feet, and my magic."

He nodded, "Alright. We'll wait a bit, then I'm taking you back. You're not bleeding so you can make it."

We waited, and I stared up at the gear systems built into the shoddy ceiling of the venue. He sat back and watched me breath heavily while he carefully unbound my bleeding feet. "I want to take 'is body 'ome - Lucas. He can't stay in de dungeons," I suddenly blurted, as my heart started to ache with the loss of the day.

Draco gave me a hesitant look, "I know. But you can't." He finished unwrapping my second foot and I stretched my destroyed toes carefully.

I rolled my head towards him, "Why not?"

He put his head between his raised knees with a hefty groan, "Lucius. In the month that you were gone he was suddenly tasked with moving the carcasses to the dungeons in place of myself. I was to focus solely on preventing Harry from entering the wards. He found the memories and destroyed everything, except the moonstone which he couldn't gain access to. I hardly got it back before he placed signature wards on the dungeons. No one can go down there now, but him." So he had been wearing the moonstone consistently for a while, in order to protect it.

I felt the blood drain from my face. All of the glass vials, years of memories so neatly organized, had been destroyed? He looked up at me with a sideways frown, and his fingers laced into mine where my hand had been resting on my chest, "Don't worry. I still have the watch, and only I know the password. No one will take away our memories." While this was comforting, it meant that there was no longer any back up. If something happened to the watch, then everything between us could so easily be lost. Luckily, the war would end one way or another the next day, and the margin for an accident before it was all over remained incredibly slim.