The two boys raced down the hall. Harry kept throwing wondering looks at Draco, which bothered the blond boy greatly.
"What?" he finally asked.
"You didn't have to do that," Harry replied.
Draco shrugged. "I didn't want your sister to strangle me because I didn't save her friend."
Harry opened his mouth to say more, but he didn't get the chance. Suddenly, he tripped over. "What was that for?" he demanded of Draco angrily.
"Don't blame me for your clumsiness," Draco grunted.
"We'll walk so you fall no further," he said half-jokingly, half serious. He didn't need both Hermione and Harry terribly injured on this task, no matter how much Draco would have rather worked alone. However, Draco somewhat liked it. For once he was among those he admired.
Harry grumbled, but said no more. Suddenly, his glasses flew from his face and onto the floor. "So now you think it's funny to curse my glasses?" Harry seethed, picking up his spectacles.
"I did no such thing! I wasn't even anywhere near your stupid face!" Draco shot back icily. The two walked on in silence when Draco fell flat on his face. His shoelaces had been tied together. "I already told you, I didn't trip you or curse your glasses!"
Harry, however, was busy. He was trying to ward off a rather large rock that repeatedly hit him in the head. "What, are you trying to take me out so you can save my sister on your own? Maybe quickly get back into her graces?" Harry accused.
"Shut up, ORPHAN!" the other retorted.
"Why should I, Death Eater?"
"That was uncalled for, son of a Mudblood!"
"That's it!" Suddenly Harry was jabbing wildly at Draco's face. Draco defended himself, and then threw Harry down. He looked like he was about to head-butt Harry, but missed.
"I missed purposely," Draco hissed in Harry's ear. "When I call you a smelly hamster, hit me with some sort of spell that will freeze me."
"Why"-
"Just do it!" Draco hissed angrily, pushing himself up.
"Famous Harry Potter always needs the spotlight! Maybe I want some of the glory this time! So back off, you big smelly hamster!" Draco cried out.
That was the cue. Harry pulled out his wand and pointed it at the other boy and cried out, "STUPEFY!" Fast as lightning, Draco went into a backbend. The curse hit something behind him.
"For once in my life, I'm glad you listened to me, Potter," Draco sighed with relief.
Harry looked to the strange thing he hit. "How did you know that there was a hinky punk?"
"After your glasses fell to the floor, I saw the hinky punk's lantern," Draco answered.
"Don't they only lead wanderers in the wrong direction?" inquired Harry.
"I suppose they can give you wrong ideas as well as wrong directions," the other replied. "Two challenges down, only one more to go. Hurry, your sister may have already been taken."
The two raced quickly down the hall once more. Harry felt slightly guilty about what he had said to Draco. Sure they never really got along, but for just this once, shouldn't he have trusted the boy?
"Malfoy," he began, "I'm sorry about what I said with the hinky punk…"
Draco froze to the spot. He turned to Harry and looked him straight in the eye. "Your sister said something very wise to me once, Potter. She told me that you shouldn't apologize until you mean it. You most certainly don't mean it," he told Harry straight. With that he turned around and began walking some more.
Harry looked to the ground, slightly embarrassed. He had only apologized to get it off his conscience. After all was said and done and they got Amy safely back, everything between the two boys would be just the same. He began lagging behind Draco when his knees suddenly collapsed under him.
Draco turned to see Harry leaning slightly against the wall. "What's wrong?"
"It just got really cold in here," Harry whispered, slightly trembling, clinging harder to the wall of stone.
Draco quickly walked over to help Harry when he felt a brush of cold air sweep past his face too. He shivered as he inquired, "Is that Amy?"
Harry shook his head. He said one simple word. "Dementor." Sure enough, creeping through the hall toward them was a dark Dementor, sucking all the emotion from the room. Harry lifted his wand to try and cast it away, but he could already hear his mother's screams.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Draco shouted, throwing his wand hand toward the Dementor. The silver object that shot out of his wand resembled a small boy with a sword. It charged right through Dementor without phasing it.
"Wait a moment," Harry thought. He raised his wand once more and cried, "RIDDIKULUS!" The "Dementor" tripped over his cloak and it fell away to reveal a monkey. The boggart then vanished.
Draco brought Harry to his feet. "Care to share what exactly was your Patronous?" Harry ventured to ask.
"Not really, but I will. Me at age nine with a foil," Draco replied.
"That's awfully vague," Harry said.
"It is the memory of the first time my father complimented me. I was about 9 when we were fencing. I had somehow won our match when I adverted a head-on attack by falling into a backbend. While his foil was still above me I took the chance to hit him. He almost smiled and called me agile," Draco explained.
"That explains your interesting tactic against the hinky punk," Harry smiled in admiration.
Draco smirked slightly. "We've met all three challenges. We should be nearing the final room soon," he muttered. As they walked, they passed a small dungeon cell. Inside was a young girl.
"Hey, you!" Harry screeched. He tried to shake the bars, but as soon as he laid one finger down, a red-hot searing pain shot up his arm.
"It's not worth it Potter, look," Draco told him. He then pointed to a small silver puddle trickling next to the girl. "We have to hurry before that happens to Amethyst." They hurriedly rushed through the hall until they heard some sort of suppressed scream. Before them was a man clad in a dark robe, leaning over someone else, most likely Amy, silver dripping from his mouth.
"Amy!" Harry cried.
The man swiftly turned around; silver blood dripping from his mouth. "Potter," he hissed.
"Voldemort?" Harry gasped. "I should have known you were behind this! The unicorn's blood should have tipped me off!"
"Yes…" Voldemort chuckled. "The Hall of Essence has served me well. I will be back to full power in no time."
"Let my sister go!" Harry demanded.
"Your sister?" Voldemort repeated. "She is a spunky lass. If her blood weren't so precious to me, I would've turned her into a Death Eater. And so today I will finish off the rest of the Potter line!"
"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Draco cried. "PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" he screeched at Voldemort. The spell half worked. The evil wizard's arms and legs were bound, but the rest of his body was still functioning correctly.
"When I get out of this I will destroy both of you!" he cried angrily.
"Watch him," Draco said to Harry. "If this is really Voldemort, it won't last for more than five minutes." He ran to Amy. Silver blood trickled from four spots.
"Amethyst, get up!" he shouted.
"Let my master finish his task," Amy said lifelessly.
Draco looked into her vacant stare. "Imperious curse!" he realized. "Amethyst, snap out of it, you stupid prat! Looks like you're going soft, I don't think you ever let people curse you before!"
Inside Amethyst's head the word "love" still reverberated. It was growing louder and louder now that Draco was there. Suddenly the curse seemed to crack and disappear. "Draco?" she asked, blinking to get sense of everything again.
"Draco! Hurry up! He can move his finger!" Harry cried.
Draco nodded. He began tugging at the bondages, but they would not budge. Suddenly, he took a very good look at them. The ropes were green and scaly. In fact, they weren't even ropes. They were snakes!
"Harry, say something in Parselmouth!" Draco ordered.
"Like what???" Harry squeaked as Voldemort began moving three fingers on each hand.
"ANYTHING!!! Say 'let go!' for all I care!" Draco bellowed. Harry hissed something and soon the snakes retreated back into the basins. Draco then tried to help Amy up, but she desisted.
"Wait, wait, wait!" she shrieked.
"Right," Draco remembered. He pulled the gloves from his pockets and then carefully touched her arm. Nothing happened. Quickly, he sat her at the edge of the bed. "We need to get rid of these basins so neither Voldemort nor anyone else can use them again." Draco began pushing over one of the basins when Voldemort cried out.
"Don't do it!" he bellowed, freeing one arm.
"Give me one good reason not too!" Draco shot back.
"She will die if you do!" Voldemort said, his lip curling into a malevolent smile.
"She's bleeding, of course she's going to die," Harry muttered.
"That's where you are wrong, boy," laughed Voldemort. "If the basins are still in existence, her blood will remain that way and she can live unless someone allows the rest of those Unicorn Blood wells to bleed freely. However, if you destroy the basins, her blood will revert and she will bleed to death. Your choice," Voldemort laughed evilly.
Both Harry and Draco exchanged glances. If they destroyed the basins now, Amy might not make it back to the surface. If they left the basins alone, she would at least make it back to school and maybe they could do something there, but they ran the risk of Voldemort taking more victims.
It was Amy herself who answered. "I would rather bleed neon purple than know that I was helping you," she seethed, kicking over the basin closest to her. Instantly, the silver became slightly darker and trickled out faster.
Draco was worried, but Amethyst was right. They could not be responsible for the deaths of others. He tried to push over another basin, but it would not budge. "Looks like unicorn's blood makes you physically stronger as well," he mused. He pulled out a wand and muttered, "Wingardium Leviosa!" The basin rose high up into the air. He then released and the basin came down with a crash. Both he and Harry repeated the charm with the next two basins.
Suddenly, Voldemort broke free of the body-lock. He snatched Harry's wand and shoved the boy into a wall. "I'll deal with you in a minute, but let me practice on your friend first!" he growled. He then turned the wand on Draco and cried "CRUCIO!" Draco was on the floor, writhing in pain. "Son of Lucius Malfoy, aren't you?" Voldemort realized. "You could have been immortal and drunk the blood of unicorns with me!" he cried, advancing on Draco. "You chose the wrong side to be on today, and death is the high price you pay for love. AVADA KED"-
"NO!!!" Amy shrieked. With the last bit of strength from the tiny bit of unicorn blood still coursing through her veins, she picked up the last basin and brought it crashing down on Voldemort's head.
"My sister is suddenly Wonder Woman," Harry said jokingly.
Amy rolled her eyes. "Temporary. It's now gone, like the last basin," she said. She knelt by Draco and tried to help him up without touching his skin. "Are you ok?"
"Should I be the one to ask?" Draco questioned, looked at the rivers of blood.
"I'll be fine," she smiled.
Draco took off his robes. "Wear this, we can't have you dying of hypothermia, and it may help to stop the bleeding."
"We'd best get out of here before he wakes up," Harry said, pointing to the unconscious Voldemort.
"That's not all we're going to have to worry about," Amy said. Snakes appeared from the broken basins. At first, the three thought that the snakes would attack them, but instead the reptiles buried themselves into the stone. Suddenly, the hall began shaking violently. The hall was destroying itself!
"Hurry, we have to get out!" Draco cried. The three began sprinting in the opposite direction.
"Harry, Malfoy? What's taking you so long?" Hermione whispered to herself. Suddenly she felt the strange quakes as rocks began falling from the ceiling and the walls. She shrieked as one fell right above her, but the barrier made sure it bounced harmlessly to the side.
Harry, Amy, and Draco dashed down the hall, avoiding the debris falling all around them. Amy, unfortunately, was beginning to slow down.
"It hurts too much to go on," she panted. Sure enough, the set of robes was soaking in blood along her neck and shoulder line. "You're going to have to leave me."
Without hesitation, Harry picked her up and started carrying her the rest of the way. "Forget, I'm not leaving you anywhere. Besides, you are light as a feather."
Amy smiled, but her vision was going slightly blurry and she was loosing some sensation in her left arm. Draco threw off one of his gloves and quickly poked her. A little shock went through her body, jolting her awake. "C'mon, don't go unconscious on us," he told her.
Hermione soon spotted Harry coming along. She threw off the Invisibility Cloak. She then took a look at Amy and gasped, "What happened?"
"We'll tell you later," Harry replied. "Right now we'd best leave."
"Finite Incantum," Draco muttered. The barrier around Hermione disappeared.
Harry suddenly realized that Hermione wasn't going to be able to run. He looked to Draco, who began to bend down. Hermione looked very uncomfortable with the idea, but decided not to complain.
"Um… maybe you should hold Amy," Harry suggested. Draco pulled the glove back on and gladly accepted. Harry then picked up Hermione as they ran up the stairs.
Amy was beginning to lose the ability to recognize light. If she did this, it would have to be now, for she might not get a chance later. "Draco," she whispered. Draco did not answer, but he nodded to let her know he was listening. "The only reason the basins are allowed to have an affect on a person is if they've been affected by love." Draco gulped, seeing where this was going. "Do you love me, Draco Malfoy?" she asked.
"Now may not be the best time to talk about this," Draco muttered, narrowly missing a giant falling rock.
"Tell me or I'll jump out of your arms and bury myself in the falling stones," Amy demanded.
Draco was certain she was serious. He looked down at her and answered. "Amethyst, you are the only person I have ever loved and may it remain that way until I depart from this world."
Amy nodded. "Then I die happy, because I am in your arms," she whispered. Her head slowly fell back as her eyes shut.
"Amethyst?" Draco asked. "Amethyst! Harry! She's not breathing!" Draco shouted at Harry. "Amethyst, please don't leave me…"
***
A small gravestone lay on a hill covered in a thin blanket of snow. Draco Malfoy silently walked up to it and placed a white rose in front of it. He then stood up looking up towards the sky as small flakes of snow gently fell to the earth.
In the distance a young girl watched him. Amy looked to him place the rose down and smile. She turned away to keep from crying. Suddenly two people appeared in front of her, a woman and a man. The man looked exceedingly like Harry while the woman had beautiful green eyes.
"Mom? Dad?" Amy asked.
They nodded. "Amethyst, dear, it's not your time to join us," Lily smiled.
***
"Ah!" Amy suddenly gasped, jerking awake. Her shoulder hurt like mad, but at least she could still feel it. She looked and saw that it had been stitched shut. "Where am I?" she asked groggily.
"Home," a voice answered. A woman sat by her side, gently stroking her hand.
"Mom?" Amy asked, waiting for her blurry vision to clear. Christine Labadie sat in a chair by her daughter's bed.
"How are you doing, kiddo?" her father asked.
Amy suddenly sat straight up in bed. "Where's Harry? And Hermione? And"- she was about to say Draco, but bit her lip when she realized her parents had not been informed of him yet.
"Harry and Hermione are at Hogwarts, most likely in the Hospital Wing. I think Draco might be as well," her mom replied with a small grin.
Amy gulped. "You know about Draco?" she asked.
Her parents nodded. "We know the WHOLE story," they replied.
"Am I in trouble?" she ventured further.
"Well… we would prefer it if you were never found in bed with a boy again until you are married, but Headmaster Dumbledore told us that nothing happened," her father answered.
"And Vo... You-Know-Who, what happened to him and the Hall?" Amy questioned.
"The Hall of Essence collapsed thanks to you and your friends. You-Know-Who, however, has not been found."
Amy settled back, feeling as though a great burden had been lifted from her chest. Her parents got up. "Well, we'll leave you alone for now to get comfortable. Take it easy, you have all Christmas vacation to recuperate, and a little after that, too."
"A little after that? Don't I have to leave early so I can get back to London in time?" Amethyst asked. Both her parents froze and made a face like they had let something slip. "What…" she asked.
"Honey, you won't be going back to Hogwarts this year…" her mother said gently.
"What? No!" Amy began to protest. "I know I made a really big screw up, but has nothing to do with the school and"-
"Calm down. We weren't the ones that made the decision. Headmaster Dumbledore felt that it would be best if you didn't go back until everything was sorted out. He felt very responsible for what had happened," Mr. Labadie explained. "After vacation you'll be going back to your normal school for the rest of the term."
"So… I won't see anyone from Hogwarts ever again…" Amy pieced together.
"Well, Harry is coming to visit for the summer, and you can always write to your friends, but other than that… probably not," Mrs. Labadie answered. She looked to her husband. "We'll leave you alone for now."
After her parents left, Amy finished the rest of her thought. "So… I won't see Draco ever again…"
***
Draco sat outside in the field, allowing his owl to stretch her wings. Only a week or two ago he had been out her, showing Amethyst how to transform. He sighed and fell back into the snow.
"Making snow angels?" asked a voice.
Draco sat up and looked to his left. Harry walked slowly towards him. "What do you want, Potter," he asked with a bored voice.
"Back in the hall, the boggart took form of a Dementor. It was closer to you, though, so why did it take the form of my fear?" Harry asked.
"Because what I fear most is too complicated for a boggart to mock," Draco answered.
"What do you fear, Malfoy," Harry queried in a fragile voice.
Draco watched his breath turn smoky white as he let out a long sigh. "Loneliness," he whispered. "Having no one to turn to when you have a problem or something to brag or someone to admire or even to share a bit of gossip with. I fear the end of my days as an old man with not the slightest bit of emotion in his old brittle bones."
"Then why didn't the boggart just turn into an old and grumpy version of you?" Harry inquired, partially joking.
Draco snorted. "Some old fart isn't going to scare me. Besides, while your sister was still in existence, that fear evaporated. At that point the only thing I feared was arriving too late."
Harry knelt before Draco and searched his face for the slightest bit of a lie. When he didn't find it he muttered two words. "Kiss me."
"What?" Draco could only say.
"Amy is my sister. She is my twin. We look exactly alike," said Harry. "Well... ok, she's more feminine, but you get the picture."
"Potter, I have no clue where you are going with this," Draco said flatly.
"It might remotely feel like you are kissing Amy," Harry explained.
"Potter, you are more shallow than I thought if you think I would kiss you just because you look like Amethyst. I almost DIDN'T kiss her because she looks like you," Draco informed Harry. "I love her for a lot more than that. Now if you excuse me, I have to finish packing."
Draco got up and left. "I love her for a lot more than that," he whispered.
***
A few days later, Amy finished dinner and walked back to her room. Wraith was waiting by the windowsill. She quickly opened the window and let her in. In Wraith's beak was a lumpy note. It did not say whom from, so Amy was slightly hesitant to open it. When she did she nearly cried. It was from Draco.
Dear Amethyst,
I am glad that you are fine. When you passed out I almost screamed in pain. I suppose you'd like to know what happened after that. We made it back into Hogsmeade just before the Hall completely collapsed. I laid you down in the street and threw off my gloves and tried to shock you, but it didn't work. Someone ran to the castle to get help. A vampire tried to come near you, but Hermione started cursing him. Dumbledore got there as fast as he could. He said some kind of spell that apparently kept you from bleeding more. Half the students were at the entrance to the castle when we got there. Neville fainted from seeing the blood. You and Hermione were taken to the Hospital Wing, but Hermione came out 15 minutes later. She luckily only slightly fractured her leg. You, on the other hand, were in there for an hour.
Dumbledore later gave us both the antidote for the Electric Elixir. Apparently you were a good influence on me and such influences should be allowed to continue, in Dumbledore's words. I however, have not been such a good influence on you. This is all my doing. Your life never would have been at stake if I had never cursed you with a beard. We are worlds apart, and though it pains me to say so, it must stay this way.
The brooch I have given you is a symbol of us. (Amy looked into the envelope and found a small amulet.) The violet stones are amethyst, as you probably well should know. The red rubies stand for love and hate. But the center describes everything best: A white rose, God's most ironic creation, like our love for each other. For white stands for serenity while the rose is a symbol of lovers, and love being the most complicated thing of all time. Do what you will with it. You may keep it as a small memory, or forsake it and with it forsake what happened between us. But remember this, whatever you may choose I will never forget you.
Draco Malfoy
The words repeated themselves one more time in Amy's head, "I won't see Draco ever again. I will never forget you." Somehow, with great ease, she had lost the first and only person she had ever loved.
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