Sarah followed Draco mechanically to the Slytherin common room, but wouldn't enter when he opened the wall.

"He was in this house, wasn't he? Wasn't he?" she said. Draco shot her an annoyed look.

"You know he was as well as I do," he said. "Now come on, you need to sleep...you'll get yourself sick..."

He reached for her arm and tried to pull her into the common room, but she stepped away from him.

"I'll not," she said. "I'm not sleeping in there. Even if you pick me up and throw me in I won't sleep. I'll never be able to sleep again, least of all in there. Take me somewhere else...Nevermind, I'll go find a place myself..."

Draco scowled as she began to walk away, and he seized her about the waist, picked her up and carried her into the common room.

"Draco! Draco, stop, get off me, I don't want to go in there, Draco!" she shrieked. "Draco, he'll find me, he'll find me, don't let him find me, you're helping him! Stop, Draco, stop!"

And he did. The moment she had said you're helping him Draco had dropped her. For some reason, those words had sent a chill through him. He drew a rattling breath.

"Fine. Keep pretending," he said. "Come on, I'll take you to the hospital wing...we'll wake Madam Pomfrey and tell her you've gotten yourself a headache...she'll let you spend the night there," he said robotically, pulling her to her feet and pushing her back out into the hall. She turned and looked at him, confused.

"Draco?" she said. "What's the matter?"

Draco shook himself and pushed her forward.

"Nothing," he said.

Harry took his time walking back to the common room so he could think about things. He'd known that Sarah was Voldemort's daughter...but hearing Dumbledore say it and seeing her reaction had made it much more real. Now he understood the gravity of the situation.

Sarah had immediately sided with Harry, not Malfoy, whom she had grown up with and, prior to this night, had trusted completely. Harry had seen the hurt in her face when she realized what Malfoy had been keeping from her, and he knew Malfoy had received a pang of realization himself when Sarah chose Harry.

He found himself nearing the common room but was now extremely restless, so he detoured, finding himself on the staircase in the entry hall. He was just about to sit down for a bit when he spotted Malfoy and Sarah coming up the stairs from the dungeons.

"All right there?" he called. "Didn't you two go back to your common room?"

Malfoy stopped, surprised to see Harry, but Sarah smiled, ran to him and embraced him. Harry hugged her in return with one arm but continued to watch Malfoy, who had regained himself.

"Sarah didn't want to sleep in the Slytherin dormitories," he said with an edge to his voice, however, it was contained due to Sarah's presence. "I was taking her to the hospital wing so she could sleep there."

"Oh, alright then," Harry said. He looked at Sarah. "I suppose you'll be wanting to run along then. You must be tired."

"Not really," Sarah said. "Guess what, Harry. I've decided that I want to move to Gryffindor house. Then, we'll be in all the same classes, and the same house as well. Won't that be wonderful? We'll see each other all the time."

"Yes, it'll be grand," Harry said, grinning as he spotted Malfoy's expression. He looked positively indignant, not to mention furious, something Sarah either didn't notice or chose to overlook as she turned to him.

"Are you going to take me up the rest of the way?" she asked. Malfoy looked at her, then at Harry, then back at Sarah.

"You know where it is, don't you?" he said. She nodded. "Then why don't you go up yourself? I'll see you tomorrow in Potions, alright?"

Sarah nodded again. She turned to go upstairs, paused as if having an idea, and turned around and kissed Harry on the cheek before jogging off up the stairs. Harry stared after her, more than a bit surprised and, truth be told, confused. Malfoy was watching her disappear as well, but with a very different expression.

"I want you to stay away from her, Potter," he hissed. Harry turned to him, his gaze hard.

"Why? She's already chosen me," he said. He thought about his words and quickly corrected himself. "My side, I mean. She's chosen my side. There's not really much I can do to make her stay away."

"She hasn't," Malfoy said, his voice shaking. "She's only looking for something different. She didn't choose me because I represent her old life, not because I represent the Dark Lord." He laughed. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but she hasn't really chosen her side yet. Trust me, Potter. I know her better than you."

"People change," Harry said, though unnerved by Malfoy's words. What if he was right? "She could really want good to win." He was appalled at himself...his argument was getting weaker. Why could Malfoy always beat him?

Malfoy laughed.

"No one's interested in good or evil winning the war right now," he said. "Ask Dumbledore if you like, everyone's only interested in winning Sarah, and, as I'm sure you know, the Dark Lord is very good at persuasion. She'll come to us in the end."

"She'll not," Harry said vehemently, though he knew it was quite possible. Still, Sarah was probably ticked at Malfoy right now...that may keep her away from the Dark side, simply because she'd been lied to...Harry could only hope.

"Well, that'll be for her to decide, won't it?" Malfoy said bitterly, and he turned to go-

"Malfoy! Potter! What're you doing out here? It's past curfew for students...rotten little troublemakers, I wouldn't be surprised if you was out 'ere dueling...nasty bloated maggots. Detention for both of you, come with me, I've got to write it up."

Harry and Malfoy groaned as they followed Filch to his office, throwing each other glares the whole way.

"Detention!"

It was breakfast the next morning, and Hermione was scolding Harry over her Advanced Arithmancy book, which was propped up against a large tub of porridge.

"Honestly, I believe that McGonagall woke you up after hours...but you should have come strait back to the common room...thinking, you say...you could've done your thinking in your bed...you just had to get detention, didn't you? We have Potions today, you and I, and you're falling behind...you know Snape gives an essay for homework every class...how're you going to do that and all your other homework with detention?"

"Oh, come off it, Hermione," Ron said. "If you ask me, Harry shouldn't be worried about anything except how he's going to get through detention with Malfoy without killing him."

"Well, we didn't ask you, did we?" Hermione said furiously.

Harry propped his elbow on the table and laid his cheek in his hand, absentmindedly stirring his porridge. He had one reason not to kill Malfoy- Sarah. She might've been mad at him at the moment, but she'd lived her entire life with him and Harry was sure she cared about him in some way...he would find it hard to believe if she didn't. Harry didn't want to hurt her...it was enough just being Voldemort's daughter, that couldn't be fun...

"Harry? Harry! HARRY!"

Harry snapped out of his thoughts with a jerk and his spoon flew out of his hand, spraying porridge everywhere and hitting Neville square in the forehead.

"Oops...sorry, Neville," he said. He looked at Ron and Hermione. "What do you want?"

"Look, mate," Ron said. "Sarah's coming over here...wearing Gryffindor robes."

"I know. Dumbledore said he'd move her last night," Harry said.

"McGonagall brought her in this morning," Hermione said. "Told us there'd been complaints of cramping in the Slytherin girls' dormitories...nonsense, if you ask me. Codswallop. It's because Dumbledore doesn't want her around the sons and daughters of Death Eaters."

Harry had told them about Sarah choosing Harry's side, but he hadn't told them about what Malfoy said to him about how she was only looking for something different. He was worried that they would take convincing her too far and scare her away.

"Hello," Sarah said tiredly, sitting down next to Harry. She wasn't her usual bouncy self at all. She looked drawn and exhausted, like she hadn't slept in weeks.

"Why, Sarah, didn't you sleep last night?" Hermione asked. "Harry told us you went to the hospital wing- didn't Madam Pomfrey give you a sleeping potion?"

"She did," Sarah said, yawning. "But it didn't work too well. It was supposed to give me dreamless sleep, but he found me anyway, so I woke up and wouldn't sleep for the rest of the n-n-night," she finished with another yawn.

"He?" Ron said. "You mean- You-Know-Who?"

"V-V-Voldemort?" Sarah said, a yawn mangling her words. Ron flinched and Hermione shot a scathing look at him.

"Some people call him You-Know-Who because they're afraid to say his name, because of the bad things he's done," she explained to Sarah, who nodded.

"Yes, him, then," she said.

"What did you see in the dream?" Harry asked.

"Well, he was there, and he had a basket, like the snake charmers in India. And he started playing a snake charmer flute-thing, and out of the basket rose this massive snake. It was at least as big around as I am, and it must've been three times as long. But anyway, it came out of the basket and was dancing and such, and it made eye contact with me and my head started to hurt really, really bad...and I woke up and Madam Pomfrey said I was screaming, and I told her about the dream and she was really confused, cause I wasn't s'posed to be dreaming, I guess," Sarah said. "What's the matter, Harry?"

For Harry had a grim expression on his face. The dream Sarah had described was very like some of his own, and his dreams had led to Occulmency lessons last year, which had failed grandly, but he highly doubted that Occulmency would work for Sarah if her father had gotten to her in a dreamless sleep. Hermione was looking very thoughtful...no doubt she was pondering how Voldemort had gotten through. Harry could have told her that. As father and daughter Voldemort and Sarah had a connection that was much stronger than Harry's to him, and thus he had a more open way of messing with her mind.

"Well, come on," Hermione said suddenly. "We've got Potions first thing."

Ron laughed. He had dropped Potions without a second thought last year. Harry would have as well, but as he wanted to be an Auror he had to have a Potions N.E.W.T., and Hermione of course thought it best to have one in every subject.

They left the Great Hall and said good-bye to Ron, who for dropping certain classes had a free hour and a half. Upon entering the classroom to the usual scene of a small class dominated by Slytherins and Ravenclaws, Sarah, Harry and Hermione sat at a table with Ernie Macmillian, the only other person not in one of the said dominating houses.

"Settle down," Snape said as a greeting, coming out of his office. He paused to see Sarah sitting before him in Gryffindor robes but instead of letting it phase him he continued glaring at the class. Harry glanced at Malfoy and was pleased to see that he was noticeable subdued.

"Today we will be making a salve for irritated skin, whether naturally or magically caused. The main ingredient is goldenseal, and I must warn you to be very careful when mixing it in. The alkaloids in the roots are poisonous in large doses, and we wouldn't want your finished salve to be deadly, would we?" he said silkily. "Instructions and ingredients on the board. When you have finished, fill one of the glass jars at your table and bring it to my desk. Begin."

Harry read the directions carefully...like Hermione had said, he was falling behind and he couldn't afford to fail this class, not if he wanted to be an Auror. And it wasn't just about him anymore...he didn't want to let McGonagall down.

It was near the end of class, and he'd heated it and strained it and added the tea tree oil and everything else. He had gotten to the last ingredient when he became confused. It said "add six to eight drops of an essential oil for fragrance- optional." Harry didn't care much for fragrance, and he didn't know what he'd use anyway, so he decided to finish up, but before he could Sarah put a bottle and dropper in his hand.

"I'd use lavender," she said. "It's soothing, and it helps with insomnia and jitters. You've been jumping all over the place the whole period- you looked like a grasshopper."

Surprised, Harry accepted it and added it to his salve. He quickly filled his jar and took it to Snape, who glared at him and put it in a dark corner of his room with everyone else's.

"That was fun," Sarah said after the bell rang.

"It was actually interesting," Hermione said as they left the room. "I hope we get them back, they could come in handy in case anyone gets a rash."

"Rashes aren't exactly common, Hermione," Harry said.

"Yes, they are," Hermione said. "And it never hurts to be prepared."

"That's right," Sarah said. "Draco gets rashes every summer like clockwork. You'd never know it, though...Mrs. Narcissa always made me make that goldenseal salve for him. Did you see him have trouble with it? He never paid attention when I tried to teach him."

Harry laughed...he couldn't wait to tell Ron. He'd get a kick out of that.