Harry and I pushed through the flying rubble and debris towards the hallway that led to the great hall and beyond, that being the most direct access to the castle from the courtyard. A large troll inadvertently provided immediate refuge as we passed below the archway by smashing down onto the entrance trying to hit us, causing a domino effect of collapsing bricks. We were both covered in bloody cuts from shards of flying stone as the initial entry into the castle filled in behind us.

For only a split second we looked at each other, gasping painfully, forcing our ribs to breathe. "You-you said Malfoy would help us," he choked out. Both panes of his glasses were shattered and I mildly wondered how on earth he could even see.

I bent over, my hands covered my face as I tried to register the fact that Draco had just made his best effort to murder us both, and had succeeded in doing so to my beloved father. "I don' know what 'appened to 'im 'arry, something is very wrong," I cried.

"Come on, we don't have time to waste getting the horcrux," he yanked at my arm harshly and I spun to run with him, tears seeping from the corners of my eyes. We ran for minutes deep into the castle, farther and farther from the blasting echoes and sharp cries of war. I let him lead us, having no idea where to find this Rowena Ravenclaw ghost or even what a horcrux was.

We'd rounded a corner when my neck scalded suggestively followed by the thunderous crack of a Death Eater's apparition rocketing down the hallway we were in. Thick furls of black smoke ebbed away from his form in large swirls and dark snapping sparks.

Draco approached with his mask on and his long robes billowing in his stride, whipping his wand down to the floor sharply. His hood hung large over his head, covering much of it save for his blistering silver eyes. "Found you," he growled menacingly.

He waved his hand over his face and the mask floated away like mist, revealing his familiar features. He was scowling deeply with hatred, his nose now characterized by dozens of wrinkled lines like an angry lion. His piercing blue eyes could have shot us dead on their own.

I realized he would just continue to follow us because of the mark on my neck. It would be useless for me to follow Harry; he had to go ahead on his own. I reached an arm backwards across Harry and whispered hoarsely, "Run. I'll distract 'im."

"No!" Harry yelled, refusing to drop his wand that was pointed at Draco, who held his straight back.

I shut my eyes brutally and saw sparks swimming in front of my vision, knowing I would likely not survive a fight against Malfoy, "'arry, get out of 'ere! Dis is my fight! Go!"

He hesitated for only a moment and then was gone, finally comprehending the severity of the situation. Within a split second Malfoy shot a killing curse at me which I hardly dodged.

I stood up and screamed at the top of my voice, channeling my rage. Scalding black flames licked viciously up the arched ceiling and dropped down between us, forming a thick wall of black flames. I could see his darkened gaze on the other side taunting me. He paced for a few moments before it, twisting his wand in rage. He looked unrecognizably barbarous.

He shot several powerful spells at the wall and I felt my defenses weakening, crumbling to my knees with my hands still outstretched and crying out from the painful exertion it was costing. I'd basically used up my energy reducing the castle wards and now Malfoy was deleting what was left of my reserves.

I pushed back up onto wobbly knees to back away, still holding the flames as he shot wickedly at the wall before him, "You can't hold it forever, can you?" He snarled the words and his pretty face contorted as he pummeled my magic with his.

I was nearly at the corner of the adjacent hallway, "Don' you remember me?" I shouted.

He ignored me, and I let the flames drop. He stepped through the charred ring of bricks before him and ran to follow me as I turned and jogged at full force down the hallway I'd just backed into.

The sound of stone exploding into oblivion around me confirmed that he was casting mercilessly at me as I frantically zig zagged, turned corners, slipping and tripping on rubble that lay haphazardly. You can't outrun me he'd once told me. It was true, in so many ways. I swiftly shot a few stunning spells backwards where I could only see a blur of his black robes in the chaos.

"Run all you want, you know you can't hide," he ridiculed me, closing the space between us and smoothly ducking to the side around my pathetic attempts to stun him.

I was at a massive disadvantage. For one I didn't know the layout of the castle and he did. Secondarily, I had a bequeathment mark across the back of my neck that would only give away my location. I could hide in a broom closet but he'd said once that the accuracy was no more than a one hundred meter diameter which was not much. Even if I did try to hide I would be found fairly quickly and ripped to shreds.

In that moment I realized I still had the invisibility cloak in my small satchel. I rounded another hallway corner, this hallway was filled with rows of smashed in windows and my shoes clattered on slippery glass as I dug with one hand into the bag, never taking my eyes off of my direction.

I heard him slide on the glass in his rapid pace, cursing and shooting at me as I made it all the way across the hallway. In the next hallway I ripped the cloak over my head and ran into an adjacent classroom filled with animals squawking and screeching loudly from the terror of the battle outside. I pressed myself flat against the wall immediately next to the door and fought to slow my breathing to a more silent hush. My heart fluttered dangerously in my chest with the repression.

His footsteps slowed outside of the classroom and the mark on my neck scalded. I pressed my hand into my mouth to prevent myself from screaming in agony.

"I know you're around here," he growled, "I don't know why, but I can sense you. The longer you make me chase you, the worse I will make your death." I blinked away tears at the awful words coming out of his mouth. Was he under the imperious curse? It couldn't be someone using a polyjuice potion to look like him if he could sense the marriage bond between us.

The sound of his shoes approached and the brightness of his wand tip appeared in the doorway. His clothing was covered in dust from the battle, his white hair was messy. Blood ran down the side of his face as his incredibly bright blue eyes scanned the room and the dozens of clattering, hysterical animals. I was suddenly grateful for the amount of distracting movement and sounds in the room.

He closed his eyes and the burning on my neck seared so wretchedly that I bit my hand to remain quiet. He was only meters away from me. When he reopened his eyes he swore again angrily, and I watched in horror as he shot the killing curse at every single animal in the room. It was eerily silent then, as he checked underneath all of the desks and behind all of the cages.

He spun in the center of the isle with his wand out and then the light at the tip went out, and the blackness of the room became overwhelming. I could no longer see him where he was deeper in the classroom, and there was only a pale light from the hallway illuminating a few feet beyond the doorframe.

He waited, and I waited. It was hair raising to say in the least. I felt chills of fear drilling down my spine at the way he was hunting me like an apex predator, never quite having realized how violent and dangerous he was when in Death Eater mode. I had been his prize as Pansy had said, putting me in an exceptional position. He'd pined after me, loved me even, but when he'd left the Manor had this been the other side of him? The side that Harry saw? The side of him that had built the graveyard in the basement?

It was possible - when he was the most obliviated I was reminded of this type of demeanor. When he was the least obliviated, as he was in France, there was no way he would act this horrid.

"Madeleine," he said in a sickly sweet tone. "We both know you have to move eventually. I can wait here all night," he threatened from the darkness. I can wait here all night too I thought - at least he was being distracted long enough to allow Harry to roam freely in the castle.

I raised my wand in my right hand, considering disapparating. I would have to accept the fact that he would catch onto the magic and follow me instantaneously. Perhaps I could apparate right into the middle of the battlefield in the courtyard and hope that there would be enough distraction, but it was sufficiently risky. The chance that he would murder me within seconds was incredibly high, if I wasn't hit by some other stray casting.

He began moving around the room, his shoes echoing and I heard a sliding noise I couldn't quite place immediately. Then my heart wrenched with dread as I realized he was scanning the walls. He'd made it to the third wall, almost at mine when I stepped forward on one toe, daringly slowly so that I could make distance between myself and the wall. I took another step forward, only needing to make it one more to clear his thin frame to slide by.

On the third step he was at the corner and he froze, the tip of his wand light reappeared and my lip trembled in horror as his eyes burnt straight into mine. I had to keep reminding myself that I had on an invisibility cloak. The pounding of my heart was torrential in my ears.

He smirked and took two massive strides forward and ripped the cloak from me right as I spun on my heel and took off again. Bricks blasted out of their mortar on the walls near me as he cast repetitively towards my retreating form back in the hallway.

We'd only made it a few seconds before he shot some kind of meteoric spell that conveniently caused the ceiling to partially cave in behind me as I passed below it. Both of our lives were suddenly threatened by the onslaught of architectural materials. He'd only been maybe twenty feet behind me at that point. A large beam fell in front of me and I threw myself underneath it where it caught on the wall at an angle.

Silence. Dust.

I knew I had cracks in my bones from the agony of trying to get up, where a handful of bricks had come down onto me. I coughed as my trembling fingers worked to shove them off of my legs and blood splattered onto the floor in front of me.

I twisted onto my side to notice that my dress had been caught under a secondary pillar at my feet. The dust was so thick I couldn't see more than three feet in any direction.

My ears were wringing and I wondered if there were sounds I was missing out on around me as I tore the fabric to free myself.

Just as I'd managed to make it to my feet leaning on the pillar, I saw him climbing over the debris, shaking his dirty hair out of his eyes. He was heaving in deeply and I knew he couldn't see me as he gasped and held his hand against his chest in obvious pain.

My lip trembled and my nose burned with the salty reality of oncoming tears. I wanted to hold him, to make sure he was alright.

A brick slid sideways under my shoe and his face darted up to me, holding his wand out once more. I held mine back at him as he tripped towards me, blood running from his nose. We pointed our wands at each other as distant stormy sounds gutturally vibrated throughout the bones of the castle. His wand prodded under my chin and mine at his forehead.

"Why? Why are you doing dis Draco?" I cried, not able to control the tears now sliding hotly down my cheeks. I knew I didn't have the strength to kill him, but that he evidently had what it took to take my life. This would be my ending, just as the prophecy had suggested.

"Don't act like you know me," he glowered, shoving his wand unbelievably far into my neck. I choked on the pressure of it digging into my skin. "You betrayed the dark lord. I was chosen to take you down, and I will. But you put up a good fight. Any last words?" Why he thought he had the upper hand was beyond me, as my wand was also squarely between his eyes.

He must've simply sensed my weakness. My hand abandoned me and my wand shakily lowered from where it was directed. He watched the bizarre show of defeat, his eyes trailing momentarily after the wood as I let it clatter at his feet.

I sobbed, "How old are you?" I had to know, I had to know if they'd taken him away for good.

He pushed his eyebrows together in amused confusion, "Peculiar choice of words for a dying girl."

"Tell me, then you can kill me," I leaned my head back on the pillar behind me, knowing that if he'd been completely obliviated than I wouldn't want to go on anyways. The torture of losing him would destroy me.

"Seventeen," he curtly replied.

"No, no, they didn't..." I wept, shutting my eyes with harrowing cries. He was gone. Lucius had finally done it.

"Why the fuck do you care?" he quipped in frustration, but he was obviously taken aback by the oddity of the question. He was still lingering with his wand at my jugular, wanting to know more.

I blinked my eyes to clear the tears that had built up there, and stared down at him from the angle my head was resting at on the pillar, "You're not seventeen Draco. You're twenty. Do you even remember coming 'ere today? Dey took three years of your life so you would fight me in de end. Dey knew, all along dey knew our plan." I reached out my bloody fingers for his face but he inched away from me in a heartbeat.

He breathed rapidly, flaring his nose. His sleeve came up to smear as much of the blood away from his nosebleed as possible with the expensive fabric. I could see the gears turning in his mind, the uncertainty. He must've realized he didn't remember coming there, because he allowed himself to question back, "Who would do that? What plan?"

Dust floated down between our faces as something massive hit the castle above. We were still in a pile of collapsed debris, forgotten about.

I coughed on more blood, realizing I'd refractured previously compromised ribs. It was possible I had minor internal bleeding. "Death Eaters. Dey must 'ave knew we were going to try and 'elp 'arry defeat Voldemort. You were on our side."

Draco looked past me at the ornamentation on the ruined pillar, thinking hard. Likely trying to hopelessly regain any memories he might've lost. I feared his mind would be a mess for an eternity after the war; the constant obliviation paralleled by the short-term rebuilding of memories, it was unheard of.

He lowered his wand to my shock and then bent to grab mine, stepping away from me with his still angled upwards at me. "Then how do I know you," he questioned darkly. There was now a foot of space between us.

I looked down at the wreckage around the ripped hem of my dress and tears fell one by one into little circles onto the dusty rock. My long white hair fell over my face pathetically, "I-I'm your wife. I love you."

He huffed loudly, "That's impossible. I'm...Astoria-"

I cut him off, "You never liked her. She made your childhood insufferable as you said. De first day you were sworn to each other she chased you up to your room, she threw your car blueprints everywhere, she tried to kiss you against your will. Den you ran and cried in de stair case."

He stepped back again, his eyes widening and narrowing in disbelief. A new trail of blood had made it's way from his nose, "Impossible. No one could know I went there to cry-"

I raised my tearful eyes to him, "But you, and me. I was obliviated once, and you brought me back. You brought me to Armand Malfoy's grave. Where you kept all of your memories, all of our memories."

His mouth was completely open in shock. The fingers that held out his sleek wand were shaking violently. "Impossible," he whispered.

I heaved in harsh breaths as reality solidified with the conversation, my lungs wheezing in a way that suggested damage had occurred. I was crying profusely, trying uselessly to wipe my dirty, bloody, teary face with my sleeve, "Lucius has already destroyed all of de vials. Whatever you know now, will be what you know for de rest of time." There was no way he would know the complex, unbreakable password to the watch anymore. The vials were all obliterated. And what was left of my Draco Malfoy had simply ceased to exist, save for the ticking military contraption still strapped to his wrist without a scratch.

He finally lowered his wand looking horrifically lost. He stumbled backwards against one of the other pillars, eyeing the wedding ring on his finger in shock, twisting his extremely shaky left hand around as though it were a mirage. His eyes trailed after the matching, gleaming white metal on both of our fingers and he shook his head in disbelief. I fell to my knees in the sharp rubble, weeping behind my hair at the losses I had just experienced. Lucas...my father...now Draco. He watched me crying desperately before him like the stranger he now was.

"They said if I didn't kill you then they'd kill my family," he whispered.

A deep rumble in the castle finally reminded me that we were in the middle of a war zone. If he wasn't going to kill me then I had to keep moving and mourn the loss later. I looked up at him with begging eyes, "Please, give me my wand back. I need to 'elp 'arry before et es too late to win dis. Your family does not 'ave to die."

I held out a shaky, bloody hand and he surprised me by taking two steps and placing my wand across my palm, pausing to look into my eyes as though there was some hope of finding his lost self there. His bright blue eyes flickered back and forth between mine hopelessly, causing my heart to wrench with painful fire, "But you-you're my family too, right?"

I nodded, and pulled him into a hug even though I knew he wouldn't want it, crying into his neck where I'd wrapped my arms around him. He stood there like a plank of wood. I pulled back and kissed him, my hands on his jaw, and ignored the taste of iron between our lips. I wanted one last kiss. It was long and stiff; he let me kiss him as though he were obligated to out of pity.

Then I forced myself to turn and run, my heart shattering into a thousand pieces with every step away from him.