DISCLAIMER: All characters, settings, and magical occurrences were all conceived and created in the brilliant mind of J.K. Rowling. Nothing except the glorious plot is property of mine. No profits are being made from my writing.

Chapter 7

When Remus awoke the next morning, as usual his home was empty. Only this morning, there was an uncertainty looming over it. The events of the night before came crashing back rather harshly to him. It managed to give him a headache and the urge to crawl back into bed and not face the day that was before him. That, of course, wasn't an option. He'd have to deal with all of it.

He pulled himself from the armchair. It had proven to be as uncomfortable as it looked. Dressing was done rather quickly. He needed to go see Albus so he knew of the night before. Although, he didn't feel bad about deciding certain things need be left out of the retelling. The only challenge he was faced with was the dreaded certainty that almost everything that occurred in the school was known by the elder man.

So as he did most mornings following Draco's visits, he strolled through the corridors to the Headmaster's Office. Although before, his nerves had never been so on edge. Denial. He'd have to play that card. It would be better for everyone, wouldn't it? He rattled off the password, the gargoyle jumping away to allow him admittance. Dumbledore was already seated at his desk and this morning, he wasn't alone.

"Harry." He shouldn't have been surprised. After a shocking evening like he'd had before, there were bound to be all sorts of questions. No better place to go than to the source.

"Remus, It seems we've let another in on our situation." Dumbledore's voice didn't sound all that surprised, either.

"I know, but I couldn't have turned him away last night…" Remus started to defend himself but Dumbledore raised a hand to stop him.

"This might be a good thing in the end. Some of the information that Draco is uncovering could be useful to Harry. I firmly believe this will be a large help."

"There has to be another way though, Albus. If you could've seen him last night, it was by far the worst meeting yet. Are they only going to get worse, I wonder?"

"Draco made his choice."

"And if I think it's the wrong choice? This could all end up killing him."

"He's made up his mind, Remus. I know that you care about his well being but you know as well as I do that he's not going to give up everything he's done, whether I tell him he should or not." It wasn't good enough. It was tearing him up watching Draco return each night is worse condition than the one before. And as things steadily got worse, he was more worried than ever. Now more than ever with certain feelings that he'd long since locked away surfacing again.

"I know." He was resigned to defeat. Reason eluded the young Death Eater in this case. Draco had gotten himself involved and pulling out now wasn't an option. And the saddest part of all was that the Order sincerely needed his help and information. With Snape close to being discovered, they'd need someone at Hogwarts. But if Snape was nearly exposed, how long would Draco last undercover.

Harry finally decided to speak up. He'd remained silent since his professor and friend had entered. There were things he should probably say as well. "I can understand why he's come to you, Remus. You seem to care which I'm sure isn't something he's used to. Prat." His comment was laced with humor. Things were deep enough in that room. Besides, he'd save all animosity for the conversation he'd have with Malfoy later that day.

"You're doing a very good thing, Remus." He couldn't help but wonder then why did he feel so terrible all of a sudden?

.-.

Harry couldn't help but feel like a stalker. Standing outside the Slytherin Common Room, wrapped in his Cloak of Invisibility, waiting for Draco Malfoy to come out. There were matters to be discussed. If only he'd get off his lazy arse and leave.

It felt like he'd been waiting hours when the door finally opened and he found his prey. He slipped his cloak off which in turn rewarded him with a shocked Malfoy standing in front of him.

"Oh go figure. Of course you'd have something like that." Draco muttered almost enviously. "What is it you want, Potter? Come to pummel me now that I'm all alone?"

"Oh Malfoy, I wouldn't do that in private, I'd want everyone to see as I kicked your arse." Harry gave a sneer that could rival even Draco's.

"Then what do you want? You're wasting my time."

"Meeting to go to?"

"Potter, I'm warning you." Draco countered taking a step closer.

"Alright, calm down. Let's get out of here though. I'm sure you don't want everyone in the school knowing about what you are just yet." Harry nodded his head in the opposite direction Draco had come and reluctantly he followed behind Harry into an abandoned classroom.

"Ok, now make this fast. I've got places to be." He set the bag he'd carried down and leaned against one of the old tables in the room, crossing his arms over his chest.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm standing here waiting for you to tell me why you've decided to harass me."

"No I mean with the Order." Harry wasn't in a joking mood any longer. There were things on his mind that he had to know. Things that couldn't wait any longer. That had been weighing heavy on his mind since the night before.

"I'm spying, Potter. I go to meetings, come back, deliver information. I thought we cleared that up."

"And you're not just using us? Luring us in to turn on us?"

"Are you really that paranoid? Look, I was initiated. If I had declared myself against Voldemort, I'd have been killed. I had no choice, until Remus presented me with one. I in turn took it."

"That's it? There's no ulterior motive in it for you?"

"Oh you mean besides hours of torture and watching people being dismembered at meetings? And I suppose not being able to move in the morning is a plus to, isn't it?" The sarcasm dripped from the comment. Draco was growing impatient. He didn't want to have this conversation with Potter, with anyone for that matter. Having his loyalties questioned wasn't something he needed right then. But was it inevitable.

"I just wanted to know." Harry sounded almost apologetic although he was talking to Malfoy so he really wasn't that sorry. Well that was what he was telling himself.

"Well now you do. I'm leaving." He lifted his bag up from the ground again and pushed past Harry to leave.

.-.

Remus had been so busy marking papers that he hadn't noticed the door to his home open. It wasn't until he felt the couch cushion beside him being occupied that he even noted Draco was there. In fact, he might have been trying a little harder than normal to block his presence out. What would he have to say about the night before? He willed himself not to look up from his papers.

"Since you're in a working mood, you wouldn't want to help me with the essay you assigned would you?" Draco questioned pulling out the text on vampires they'd been reviewing in class just the day before.

"Nice try. I wouldn't assign the work if I was just going to do it myself." Just keep the mood light. That was all he had to do. At least Draco was doing that much. He could do it too. Remus sat forward on the couch, using his quill to write a comment upon one of the first year Hufflepuffs papers. He felt anxious. Nervous. So many things all at once that it was beginning to get hard to decipher.

"Something wrong?" Draco had felt so at ease before now. It was a state of being he was getting very familiar with in present company. Especially now with certain late night events weighing heavily on his mind.

"No, nothing at all." His answer came all too quickly. His damned nerves. And what was worse was that Draco could sense it too.

"I know you well enough to know that isn't true." Draco whipped back at him, shutting the book that had once been opened in his lap. He realized what was wrong. It was obvious that he thought he'd done something wrong. Maybe even something he assumed that Draco didn't want at all. He was of course very wrong but sometimes the mind does play games with your thoughts. They can get so distorted and so outlandish that they become believable. That had to be what was wrong.

"I'm just not quite myself this evening, that's all."

"You shouldn't let things get to you like they do. Sometimes it's just best to let things happen and not ponder what the outcome may be." He hoped his words were at least a little reassuring. For saying he had his hopes up for this visit was probably a bit of an understatement. Remus gave a nod of agreement but said nothing more. Words were few and far between the rest of the evening which seemed to pass painfully slow. It wasn't even that late when Draco stood to leave. He was more confused than ever added to a little bit hurt by the actions of the evening. It was a rather stiff good bye that followed and it seemed things weren't about to get better.

.-.

A/N: Wow, this has taken me forever to get and I feel pretty bad. I basically had things going on in life obviously and it made things hard to get anything done. Hopefully now that I'm back in the swing of things here it'll all work out better! Anywho though, I've worked on updating all the other chapters and fixing the break in the page. I dunno why that didn't work to begin with. But as always leave me a review! I'll love you forever! And to those that did…

empath89: Thanks bunches! I know, I know! But it'll all come into play much later into the story. Right now, he's just going to deny, deny, deny and do what he thinks is right. But come on, I think we all know he's wrong! Things will definitely get better for him, eventually. I mean, I can't have it all just nice and fluffy, as much as I'd like to :-D Thanks again!

betsytheripper: Thank you bunches and bunches! It hadn't even crossed my mind until I was reading this story called Contemplation's of Birth (SS/HG) and it was one of the other pairings. Then, the more I thought about the more I liked it and hence the story we have here. Thanks for the encouragement!

I didn't realize the first review was to Chapter 5. Oh well. You can just have an extra long response. Thanks a whole lot! I'm liking the shorter chapter myself. I accept some challenge. As many twists as possible, or at least I hope. Not this chapter though. This is my 'Remus goes through denial' chapter. More later. Thanks for your review to OLT too. Thanks bunches the second time!

Dei: See, now I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. I've got a non-slasher interested! Thanks you tons and tons. I really hadn't intended for this story to be a big focus of mine, I've been working on another as well, but the more I started writing, the more ideas I had! Thanks bunches!

Kira: As always, THANKS BUNCHES! Harry did act awfully civil but I looked at it this way...it was late, very late in the middle of the night and having a bad dream on his mind, what Draco was up to hadn't exactly clicked. Obviously he's being a bit less than civil with him now. Thanks again!

silversunn101: Thanks bunches and bunches for the review. You brought a big thing to my attention. Like an idiot, I guess I never paid much attention to it before. When I have the story typed out, there are breaks set in between the different sections and I'm sure exactly how, but upon looking over the chapter, they are missing. So I've gone through and fixed it so hopefully it'll all work and the confusion will be cut. Thanks for all the advice and kind words!

Jay Kamiya: Thank you bunches for the review!

lil-punktress664: Thank you a whole bunch! Sorry it took so long as well. If things could get more hectic for me! But thanks anywho!

Trixie: A big thanks! I'm turning into a much bigger fan of the pairing myself. Thanks again!

HPSlashfan4evr: YAY! I took forever to update this time. Things just got out of hand but I'm glad you got a chance to review this chapter. Sigh I have all of this written out, I just gotta do it and I've had zero time to do it. Anywho though... Oh Harry would've been in the hospital wing in a second if he'd have come back again. I might have to look into that... :-D Thanks bunches and bunches as always!