Sarah woke up on the sofa in the common room. She had barely raised her head, when an oh-so-familiar voice from behind her drawled: 'Thought you'd never wake, Costa. Here, this came with the owl post this morning. Hell, you could do with some sun, dear, you look bloody pale!' He handed her the letter.
'Said The-Boy-Who-Can't-Be-Seen-In-Snow!' she replied opening the roll of parchment. 'Malfoy, this is addressed to you!' He sighed.
'And? I told you to read it so just get on with it!'

'Alright, alright…' she mumbled being too tired to argue. 'Oh my God! It says that you…'

'Hell! I know what it says, it's mine! Yeah, so, will you come?'

'Do I have a choice?' She sighed.

'No!' he said firmly.

'Alright. Would you…erm…walk me to my room?' Suddenly a loud noise came directly from her stomach.

'Oh, I forgot! I brought you some breakfast,' he said grinning.

'Erm…thank you…I guess…' she stuttered. His dirty smirk returned to his face.

'Am I making you nervous or anything?'

'Not at all, I'm just….hungry.' This was not entirely true. He was, indeed, making her nervous, because of his suddenly friendly behaviour towards her.

'Pity!' He looked so smug! Damn bloody Malfoy and his good…erm…quite nice looks.

They talked a lot about school while Sarah ate her breakfast.

'Friends?' she asked nervously after she had finished.

'I guess…' he replied rather bored. 'And my first advice as a friend: You don't look all that good, y'know? Just try to…keep your head down a bit!' That hit her.

'I don't think there is another boy in this entire world who thinks the same way,' she replied coldly…no frostily.

'You're right. Haven't seen anyone 'cept me who's not been staring after you when you wore that miniskirt of yours last week, that was.'

She stuck out her tongue.

'You're rather childish, you know that?'

'Honestly,' she said. 'Do you have to insult everyone?' He smirked.

'What would life be like without insults? But well, there's always the mudbloods to insult.'

'Don't you DARE call the muggleborns like that again!' Her eyes had filled with tears when she had said that.

'Are you mad? You're a pureblood why do you care?'

'Muggleborns have among the same fate as squibs!' Several tears ran down her cheek.

'What the…? Sarah look, you're a pureblood witch. No squib – no mud…muggleborn. No reason to float the common room.' She stopped crying and suddenly went ice cold.

'They killed her! She couldn't even protest! She was so small! But they paid the price, oh yes, they did!' She burst into tears again.

'Okay, Sarah, this is getting quite uncomfortable. Will you just…oh fuck it!' He took her into his arms. 'No sobbing on my robe, is that clear to you?' She nodded slightly and leaned against his chest, carefully, to not wet his shirt. 'I… look…erm…whatever it is…everything will be just fine, understand?' She remained quiet for a while and then looked up directly into his eyes.

'Fuck, I must look really horrible!' she said whipping away all the tears.

'You've got a point, you know?' She laughed.

'Yes, I do.'

'What?'

'Know that I've got a point, what else?'

'A lot of things, I guess, you're rather good at school.'

They both laughed.

'You just love to play, don't you, Draco?' she asked smirking.

'Depends on the game!'

'Pervy!'

'Hey, it was you to first think of that, not me!'

She giggled. He raised one eyebrow.

'You…giggle? I mean, you actually giggle! Like…Pansy…or Millicent. Yuck! If I'd known before!' He pulled a face.

'And you pull faces, not childish at all, are you?' They both grinned.

'We're idiots, aren't we?' Sarah asked after a while.

'No, Costa, you are an idiot, not me,' he replied. 'But ignoring that fact: Would you want to… got to Hogsmeade with me, the weekend before Christmas?' he added.

'Yes, I'd love to! Need to do some Christmas shopping anyway. How about next Wednesday? Will you come with me?' she asked carefully. 'Not that I was scared!' she added quickly.

'Nooo, you wouldn't be scared to even meet the Dark Lord himself.' She shuddered at the very thought.

'Well, I…okay, got me… you will, won't you?' she asked hopefully.

'Of course. I expect a reward for my services to the Dark Lord!' he said thoughtfully.

'Oh, I for one would be content if he spared my life in deepest gratitude for my donation.' Draco laughed.

'Draco this is not a laughing matter. I am dead serious!'

'Stressing on dead or serious?' He smirked.

'Prat!' She rolled her eyes.

'I told you before, that…'

'I know, they might fall out,'

'Yes, that, too, but I meant the bit where I said that you were an idiot, not me!' She sighed.

'Yes, Great Master Draco, you're right.'

'Hey, not so cheeky young miss! Come on, we'll go to class, we've already missed Herbology, though Snape's given me permission to stay with you. He knows about… the state of things. He's a Death Eater, too. I trust him. I can't wait to get my mark!' he said standing up.

The following week had gone by without any more conversation. The met up in front of the forest on Wednesday evening.

'Hey…' Sarah said even less cheerfully than ever.

'Hey…scared?' Yes.

'No, you?' Yes.

'Not at all.' Sarah gulped.

'Kay, let's go!' They both headed silently into the woods. As they head reached the place where they had met Bellatrix last week, they sat down on a small rock.

'Not very punctual, those Death Eaters, are they?' Malfoy asked after 10 minutes of silence. Sarah nodded. She couldn't bring herself to speak. She was far too nervous. Suddenly a boy appeared out of the dark.

'Ah, I see, Lucius' son, aren't you? And you must be… Miss Costa?' The both nodded.

'And who are you, if I may ask?'

'Shut it, Draco, I know who he is,' Sarah said suddenly. 'So it worked. Well, I never had any doubts, of course,' she muttered.

'You're just as clever as beautiful,' said the boy walking towards her.

'Thank you…and from what I have heard one could say the same thing about you…' Was it just Draco or was Sarah really flirting with that guy?

'You will both receive great rewards for your services. Young Malfoy, you can join my followers in 2 months. Everything will be prepared for the ceremony. Miss Costa, what was your first name again?'

'S…Sarah,' she stuttered, afraid he would kill her because she was no longer of use for him.

'Oh, yes, Sarah…. I was wondering whether you would like to keep me company during the Christmas holidays. I shall have some letters written to your headmaster. I'm sure your uncle Nott will do it. You will spend the whole holidays in my…shall we say castle…Nott will pick you up at the train station. Goodbye till then!' Sarah bowed and Voldemort headed back to where he had come from.

For a moment they both were absolutely stunned. What was this all about.

'So you're not going to Hogsmeade with me then, are you?' Draco then asked sounding a bit disappointed.

'Oh Draco, I'm sorry… you can imagine that I'd rather stay here,' she replied.

'Didn't seem so, though!' he mumbled.

'Sorry? What do you mean by that?'

'"Oh one could say the same thing about you!"' He sneered.

'Hey, he is quite attractive, right? But don't forget that he's the most evil wizard in the world. Should I have gotten myself killed?'

'No, you'll have plenty of time to do so on Christmas!' he said angrily.

'Let's just go, okay, Malfoy?'

'Oh back to surname base, are we, Costa?' And before Sarah could protest he had begun to storm off. She ran to catch up with him and as they walked side by side (Draco had now slowed down a bit) she mumbled: 'I'm sorry, Draco, I have really been looking forward to this Hogsmeade trip. Can't we go after the holidays? There'll be plenty of weekends and you're prefect, you could even go down there with me, pretending to be on school business…I really want to go with you!' He smiled weakly.

'Okay, we'll go the first weekend after the holidays. How about we'll have a nice cup of tea later and you tell me about your mud…muggleborns and squibs thing?'

'Cuppa tea, yeah – talkin' 'bout tha': No!'

'Okay, just some small talk, then,' he drawled.