Chapter Two: Burnt to the Ashes

A/N: many thanks to my beta; Brittany, dkg and crazyfriendsfan (for reviewing).

Hermione was busy at the library, investigating the death of the students, whilst Ron was accompanying Ginny and Dean to Hogsmeade. Harry had just finished his prefect duties and he was lying alone on his bed, doing nothing but staring at the ceiling. He sighed softly, a wave of sadness swept into him as he felt the weight of the world resting heavily on his shoulders. Everything is my fault...If only I had defeated Voldemort sooner; none of this would have happened. Cedric would still be alive; Morag would still be my friend... He was still wallowing when he felt a tiny tug at his hair. Harry, who was startled, looked up and saw a tiny owl yanking his hair playfully. The owl looked down at Harry and held out its leg. Tied to it was a white parchment with his name in front. Harry's left hand petted the owl distractedly while his right hand was busy straightening the parchment to read it.

Potter,

I need to talk to you.

Alone. Urgent. About Malfoy.

Please meet me at the Astronomy Tower at 5 this evening.

Blaise.

He was shocked at first, but his trusting and rather naïve Gryffindor mind immediately pushed the nagging doubts away. Zabini and Malfoy could be in trouble and I could help them. Maybe this time I could make things right, for once. He wrote a quick note to Ron and left it on his bed.

He looked at his watch as he summoned his Firebolt from under his bed. He was five minutes late. Never mind. Zabini would wait, he thought as he stepped outside his window and flew down towards the ground.

***

The day before,

She was choking. He was choking her to death. She saw his long, pale fingers tightening on her neck.

"Now that's a good boy, Draco, choke her harder. That's it. Harder."

Susan Bones nearly swallowed her tongue. Her eyes bulged as she saw the girl took out her wand and pointing it at her. Tears were running down Susan's face. She was really regretting her agreement to meet Terry Boot at the Astronomy Tower despite the obvious dangers that were happening in the past few days.

"Thought of having fun with Terry Boot weren't you?" She laughed maniacally. "I was the one who had sent that letter, not Terry. He was never interested in you. Don't you know? He was actually dating your best friend!"

***

It was a huge chore to drag Susan Bones's body from the edge into the deep of the Forbidden Forest. She had flown from the Astronomy Tower downwards towards the Forest on her Nimbus broom, all the while concealing the body and herself using a dark art spell that she had just discovered with Draco. She was a fantastic flier; her years spent on the Quidditch field did have its benefits. She saw Draco walking calmly towards her, his aristocratic face painted with a smirk.

Forty-five minutes later…

She had just buried Susan's body deep into the soils of the forest. She was just enjoying the warm embrace of her dark prince when she heard a noisy cry up above her. Startled, she looked up and saw a great, white hawk leaning on the branch of a tree above her. Her eyes met its eyes, made luminous by the soft moonlight of the moon. The bird seemed to be glaring at her.

" Draco," she said loudly, "did you see that stupid bird up there? Should I kill it?" She was already pulling out her wand when she said this.

She saw Draco eyeing the bird with great interest. He looked transfixed, like it was the greatest thing that he had seen.

"No, don't kill it. Yet," He murmured. "There's something about this bird, I can't seem to tear my eyes away from it."

"Draco, I love you." She snuggled closer to him whilst maintaining her eye contact with the bird.

"You know who our next victim should be? Harry Potter. I have been waiting for a long time to kill that bastard. He was the source of everything that went wrong in my life, and yours too. He is your archenemy, isn't he Draco? We should kill him slow and hard, so he could feel the pain that is dwelling inside of us." She tore her sight away from the bird and gazed at her lover. Draco was still looking at the animal, hypnotized by it.

Draco murmured something unintelligible.

Rage was building slowly up her body. Stop staring at that animal you stupid git! She wanted to scream. You are mine! All mine and not that stupid bird's! She heard the hawk gave a loud squawk and glanced up to see it flying away.

"Bugger off!" She screamed. "Don't ever come back again."

***

Harry flew down to the entrance of the Astronomy Tower and walked slowly up the stairs, up to the top floor of the building. He opened the door of the room and stepped in.

"Zabini? You here yet?" Harry queried inside the room.

The place was rather dark and he reached inside his side pockets for his wand. Before he could pull it out from his shirt, he blacked out for his head was knocked brutally by something hard.

***

Harry woke up, his vision blurry and his head aching from the hard knock to his head. He noticed that the room was considerably brighter and he saw a dark figure of a person sitting on top of an abandoned table, staring fixedly at him. He blinked twice to clear his vision and determine the identity of the mysterious individual. Harry could see that it could not be Zabini as that person had long hair. He reached for his dropped glasses and put it on. He got the shock of his life after that.

"Cho?"

Harry shook his head.

"Cho, what are you doing here?"

Cho Chang giggled loudly at Harry's expression.

Weird, he thought. The Cho that he had known before had never giggled. Not even once.

"Well, well. If it isn't the great Harry Potter, all awake now? How does it feel, having that knock onto your swollen head?" She stood up and walked right over to Harry. She reached out and put her hands on Harry's head. Then she slammed hard making Harry to scream in pain.

"Cho, what is going on here?"

Harry gasped; he could hardly breathe, the pain was too unbearable, it was choking him.

"Fuck you Harry Potter. Your stupid heroism brought death to my Cedric. You killed him and now you deserve to die."

"But I didn't kill him, it was Voldemort. I am sorry, I tried to save him but… OUCH!"

Cho slapped Harry hard on the face. She spit on him and the saliva was mixed with the blood that was trailing down Harry's mouth.

"How dare you speak of the Dark Lord like that? You are such a pretentious fool; you could never save anyone's lives. You never saved Cedric, you could not save my family, you would even fail to save your own. You are a failure. A complete failure."

Cho's eyes were blazing, both with fury and madness. Her long hair was tangled and messy, her mouth was tightened into a straight, thin line and she looked almost scary. Her beauty faded as it was ambushed by the insanity that dominated inside her.

"Nobody could hear you scream now, Harry. There's only Draco and I here. Nobody will help you as we pursue our greatest dream, that is to kill you."

Harry blinked. He swallowed the pain that was threatening to take over his body.

"Draco? What do you mean, you and Draco? Where is he?"

Cho stared at him with an incredulous look on her face.

"Not only are you stupid but you are blind too, aren't you Harry? Can't you see him here, standing beside me?" She beamed proudly.

Harry saw her arms reaching out to the empty space beside her and saw her leaning up to kiss the air above. Bloody hell. What does she think she is doing? Or is Malfoy wearing an invisibility cloak?

"Draco love, what do you think should we do to Harry here?"

"You know what we should do? We should make him eat his glasses and then kill him."

"No, that would be too nice. I think he would enjoy eating those glasses. Maybe we should rip his scar out, make him eat it and then kill him?"

The scene in front of him mesmerized Harry. Cho was actually having a conversation with herself! She's gone completely potty, that poor girl.

Cho was still plotting ways to kill Harry with "Draco" when a great, white hawk flew in from the window. The hawk landed down beside Harry and transfigured itself into none other than the famous Draco Malfoy himself.

"Potter, Potter are you alright?"

Harry stared at him, his mouth formed into a big "O". He was confused.

"What in hell's name is going on here?" He asked with a dazed look in his eyes. Everything was going on at the same time. First, he discovered that Cho Chang was plotting ways to kill him, then he saw her behaving rather umm…abnormal with herself, and the biggest surprise of all was seeing a great, big bird transfiguring itself into Malfoy. Draco was situating himself beside Harry, trying very hard to drag him up and make him stand.

"Stand Potter, try to stand. I've got to get you away from here."

Cho Chang just stood in front of the boys and gaped. Her head kept going left and right over and over again, looking at the Draco that was helping Harry up and the imaginary Draco that existed in her mind.

"Draco? Why are you helping him? Don't you want to kill him?" She asked confused.

Draco swirled toward the spot where Cho was standing. He frowned deeply, making him look colder than he usually did.

"I am not crazy enough to desire killing Potter, you lunatic. I saw you burying Susan Bones' body yesterday. Plus," He shivered, "I saw you talking with yourself, saying my name over and over again. That was enough to make me repulse you."

Cho screamed loudly. She rushed towards Draco and butted him hard with her head. Draco was hit and was lying on the floor at the corner of the room. Cho stood beside Harry and she took out her wand.

"NOW IT'S YOUR TURN TO DIE, YOU DESTRUCTIVE BASTARD!"

"Avada Ke-" Before she get to finish chanting the curse, Harry heard Malfoy shouting the Petrificus Totalus spell which hit Cho and had her lying motionless the floor.

Draco stood behind her and tied her up with a binding spell. It was a few seconds later that Hermione and Ron burst in, followed by Professors Dumbledore, McGonagal and Snape.

"Harry, Harry I found out who the killer is! It's Ch-" Hermione stopped mid sentence when she saw the culprit on the floor bind and frozen beside Draco Malfoy.

To be continued...

A/N: Umm..it did turn out to be rather weird/amusing in the end, didn't it? This is not the last chapter though, I still have the epilogue to finish and I'll post it whenever it's done. It won't be too late though, I promise! Oh and please, please review! Tell me anything, criticize it, praise it, whatever! (I sound pathetic didn't I?*grins*)