AN: a long awaited next chapter. sorry for the wait, i'm just trying to figure out how to end it.


"You know what, Draco. Let's just get out of here."

"What-" Draco started, but Harry quieted him with a finger put to his lips.

"No. At the moment I don't care that I haven't gotten everything I came for. I just want to leave. I want to see Tom and Blaise and I'm tired of this act," Harry mumbled tiredly into Draco's chest as they lay in their bed, Draco's arm was limply wrapped around his waist. "I even miss Severus. We'll tell Ethan he can drop the act, then leave."

"Would Dumbledore let you leave, just like that?" Draco asked, watching the fire. He felt it too; everything about this place was... repressive. /I don't know how Harry has put up with it, even when Granger was around./ His teeth gnashed at the thought of the other girl. /But them again, she might not have been Granger for all we know... We need more from Patil./

Harry shook his head. "I doubt it. But, I don't care. I don't care about him knowing that I'm a deatheater; it's not as if it isn't common knowledge, these days. What's he going to do, ruin my 'good' name?" Harry scoffed slightly. "I don't care what he does. We'll find a way to bring him down later. I have promised Tom I would clear him of all I could, and I will. We already have several allies here in the school. Besides, we need to get Severus his cure."

"Harry?" Draco asked after a minute.

"What?"

"Why didn't you tell me you had the cure?"

Harry shrugged, then lifted his head to look Draco in the eye. "I just never got around to it. I wasn't even sure you were you, at first. Then it just never came up."

"Something that important never came up?" Draco raised his voice slightly.

"Shh... I have it; that's what's important. Now we just have to get it to him and save Tom a lot of grief. We aren't doing any good here." Harry's head laid back on his chest.

Silence. "How did you find it?"

"We have friends in low places. Let's leave it at that for now."


"Voldemort. We need to talk." Blaise entered the dark infirmary room, not bothering to knock. He knew that he would find Voldemort there; the man hadn't really left the room since Harry departed. Blaise figured that with Snape out and Harry gone he didn't really have a reason to leave other that to hear from reconnaissance, which he and Draco had been in charge of. Not even Nagini was enough to get him out, but then again Blaise figured that Voldemort wasn't really that close to his daughter. It was sad for a father to not really know his daughter, but maybe that was just the way things had worked out.

On the other hand, it could be the cause of her problems.

"Can it wait?" Voldemort asked. Blaise couldn't quite bring himself to call him the man Tom, even if he was coming to trust him.

"No, it's about your daughter." Blaise waited for a moment to ensure he had Voldemort's attention. She's been up to something. Hermione is missing and Nagini won't release any information."

Voldemort sighed, leaning back in the chair. "Tell, me. Why am I not surprised..." He looked up for a moment before gesturing for Blaise to take chair.

Blaise did, but Severus caught his eye. "Is there any change in him?" Even Blaise could tell that the Dark Lord was actually worried.

"No. I can't think of a way to help him, I cannot make hide nor hair of Severus' journals. His writing is impossible! Therefore, there is no help from that angle. Moreover, I've heard nothing about Lucius. If I could, I would go out there myself and track that bastard down. At least then I wouldn't feel like I was doing nothing!" He threw his fist down on the night table next to him, venting his frustration.

"Well, I still have information for you. It involves Lucius." Voldemort glanced at him in interest. "I think I may have judged Draco wrongly. He told me long ago he suspected that Hermione had been acting strangely. I don't know what happened exactly, but I'm thinking Hermione was taken in between here and Hogwarts. I don't know exactly what's in it for her, but Nagini has been posing as Hermione since she got here. She has been manipulating Draco; she told me she got him into bed to get revenge against Harry."

"So, you are saying that my daughter is a manipulative bitch," A slight sneer graced Voldemort's lips. /Why would she do this! It does not add up./ He had hoped that she would be like her mother, but it seemed that his wish was in vain.

"I don't know what her motives are, she revealed what she had done, but she didn't really seem to feel too guilty. I left her locked in my room."

Voldemort nodded. "Tell a guard to lock Nagini somewhere else, not in her room. I'll talk to her later."

Blaise nodded as well, easing himself out of his seat. He understood Tom's sense of helplessness. He himself felt it at this moment.

Everything they needed felt beyond them. Lucius and Dumbledore were holding all the peices...