Disclaimer: JK Rowling and her publishing companies own everything Harry Potter Associated.

A/N: Sorry I took long to update. I decided to post a short chapter instead, so there wouldn't be a longer waiting period. Again, sorry for taking long.

Chapter 13: Betrayal

June 1996

A young woman with red hair ran down the street. She could see some of her classmates whispering as she past them pointing at her, but she didn't care. They were always talking about her. Suddenly she tripped and fell. She sat up and more tears fell down her face as she cradled her arm, which sported a new scrape.

"Katie, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to leave my bike there I swear."

Katie felt relief wash over her as she took in the accent of the person speaking.

She looked up at the face of her boyfriend's cousin.

Dudley's eyes widened. "My gosh, Katie!" He wasn't sure what to do. He's never seen a girl who's been beaten. The left side of her face was red and he could have sworn that he could see a hand print. Parts of her blouse were ripped and he could see the beginning of bruises on her arms.

She grabbed onto his pant leg. "Please help me," she begged.

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Draco paced in front of Katie who was sitting in the kitchen. Harry was kneeling in front of her, tending to her wounds.

Draco ran his hand through his hair. "Please Katie, you have to report this. If you're not going to do it for yourself, do it for me. I mean how much proof do you need?"

Katie wince as Harry touched the cut on her face.

Draco glared at Harry when he heard Katie's gasp. "Potter! Don't make things worse. You're hurting her!" No matter where they were, Draco couldn't stop himself from addressing Harry by his last name whenever he was angry. All their classmates thought that Potter was Harry's nickname and some of their friends even call Harry that name.

"No, it's okay Lukas. I'll be fine. Hale is just trying to help."

Draco's anger flared as Harry gave him a triumphant look, as if challenging him to say something to Katie. His girlfriend was beaten and she didn't want to do anything about it. He also noticed the glances Harry and Katie were sending each other. He also thought that Harry's hands lingered longer than was needed to tend to wounds.

Draco's face softened as he looked back to Katie. "Please, it'll make me feel safer, knowing that he can't harm you again."

"You don't understand. He-he's been supporting my mom and me. You know that we don't have anybody else to turn to."

"That doesn't mean he can abuse you!"

Harry wasn't sure if he should leave Katie with Draco. He wanted to be alone with her so they could talk in private, but that would never happen with Draco around. He was angry at Dudley for bringing Katie to Draco before telling him, but then again nobody but Jimmy knew that he and Katie have been seeing each other. He rubbed his thumb on her hand to get her attention. "There, all finished, but you'll be sore because of the bruises. He-he wasn't successful right, I mean at- you know, violating you."

Katie shook her head. "I think I hurt him. I hit him with the lamp."

Draco scowled. "You sound as if you're concerned for that bloo..." Draco didn't continue when he caught the look she gave him. She didn't like him to curse.

Draco noticed that Harry was holding Katie's hand and that their fingers were intertwined. Jealousy surged through him. He should be the one holding onto Katie and comforting her. He was her boyfriend, not Harry "Scar-face" Potter.

Katie could sense the tension in the room between Harry and Draco. She knew about their rivalry and Draco could get jealous easily when it involved Harry. She stood up and let go of Harry's hands to walk to Draco. She cupped his cheek with her hand and looked up at his eyes trying to show him that she cared about him.

Draco put a hand over hers on his cheek. "I swear to you, if I'll ever see that pig I'll kill him."

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December 1997

Draco waited by the window for Dumbledore's response to his letter. He didn't feel comfortable staying with Juliet. He wasn't sure if she was going to report him to Voldemort and he didn't want to take chances. He was hoping that Dumbledore would send him a portkey back to Hogwarts. Leaving the manor would label him as a traitor to Voldemort's cause and blow his cover, but he knew that was going to happen sooner or later. Besides, there are other spies.

Draco turned towards the bed to look at his cousin. She has been moving around in the bed and it caught his attention. Apparently, she was having a nightmare. He honestly didn't care about her at the moment. How dare she walk back into his life and criticize him? She came out of the bathroom complaining about his choice of clothes, and started talking badly about Katie; giving her nicknames that even Draco found revolting.

He was too shocked to say anything. He couldn't believe his muggle-loving cousin, who could rival Arthur Weasley's interest in muggle electronics, could change so much. Her father was the head of the Protection of Muggles Department in the French Ministry. During the summers she visited, they always ended up arguing. Usually they wouldn't even remember what their disagreements were about. Draco even enjoyed their verbal spars. He considered it practice for when he faced Harry, and Juliet never seemed bothered by their arguments. Heck, he loved to talk and Juliet was the only person his age that his father would allow to visit the manor.

"No, please no," Juliet muttered.

Draco saw Juliet twisting and turning. He could see beads of sweat gathering on her forehead. Juliet kept muttering 'no' in her sleep and Draco was starting to get annoyed. He wondered what could be troubling her so much. He walked to the makeshift bed on the floor, kneeled down and reached under his pillow to get his wand. He stood up and looked at her. She really was a Black woman. She grew in height and let her dark hair grow to her waist, and just like almost every person in the Black family she supported the idea of blood purity.

When they were younger, they spent most of the time without adult supervision. They were free to do whatever they wanted, and in Juliet's case, she played practical jokes on Draco. As he thought back to the things she did to him, he wanted to laugh. Though at the time, his father was instilling into him the hatred for muggles and for Harry Potter. He was also being lectured of the importance of proving pureblood superiority and was scolded constantly for being beaten by mudblood Granger. He never found Juliet's jokes amusing. Her jokes just added to his foul moods. Every time she played a joke on him, his feelings of hatred increased, and when she lectured him on muggles he became disgusted. The only kind thing she has ever done for his was save him from drowning, and even after he thanked her, she teased him about not knowing how to swim.

Without any feelings of remorse he pointed his wand at her. "Silencio," Draco whispered.

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"You should do something about your hair," Juliet told Draco the next morning. She sat in front of a vanity table that came with her clothes. She was applying make-up on her face while a house elf brushed her hair.

Draco chose to ignore her. He hasn't slept yet and he was tired. He stayed up all night waiting for Dumbledore's response, which he never received. He wondered if his letter even reached the headmaster.

Juliet turned after she realized that Draco wasn't going to respond. The house elf scurried around her to continue with the brushing.

"Harriet, that's enough. Help prepare the breakfast," Juliet ordered the elf.

Harriet nodded and disappeared after saying, "Yes, yes young mistress. Harriet goes help the kitchen."

Juliet walked to Draco and tried smooth out the non-existing wrinkles on his shirt. "Harriet is weird name for a house elf."

"She was my birthday present. Harry-it, don't you just like that name? Didn't you have a crush on old scar face? Savior of all wizard kind, and all he did was take a killing curse from he-who-must-not-be-named."

"Speaking of Potter, how he is? I've heard he's alive and well. Master will be delighted to know that he will have another chance to kill the boy." Juliet patted his cheek as his eyes darkened. "Don't look at me like that. I will see you in the dinning room."

He grabbed her hand before she could walk away. "Are you threatening me?" he hissed.

Juliet sighed. "What about that annoying Gryffindor made you turn your back on your father? Do you really think he can defeat the Dark Lord?" Draco didn't answer and she continued, "To answer your question, he already knows that Potter is alive. You should pick your confidants more carefully cousin."

Draco clenched his jaw and growled out Goyle.

"No, but you were close. It was Crabbe. You should have left yesterday when you had the chance." Draco felt the tip of her wand on his stomach, and before he could react he heard her yell out stupefy. He was thrown across the room and everything turned black.

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"Harry! I see her!" Ron yelled as he tackled his sister to the ground, tickling her mercilessly. What started out as a competition to build snow wizards, turned into a full blown snow fight between the boys and girls of the Gryffindor house.

Ginny couldn't stop the laughs that came to her. "Ron, stop please!" Ginny managed to say.

"Do you surrender?"

Ginny took a handful of snow and threw it at her brother's face. She giggled and ran away from him.

Looking behind her, Ginny saw Ron sputtering out the snow in his mouth. "I'll get you for that!" Ron yelled as he ran after her.

"Hermione! Help!" Ginny ducked as snow shot past her and hit Ron on the face again.

"Reinforcement is here!" Lavendar said as she threw a snow ball at her boyfriend who just joined the fight.

Dudley wiped the water off his face. He smiled at her and waved. Lavender cocked her head to the side, wondering what he was doing. Suddenly, she felt snow hit the back of her head.

She turned around. "Hale!" she shrieked as she ran after the boy who hit her.

"Ginny watch out!"

Ginny turned around and saw something shooting towards her, and it definitely wasn't snow. She moved aside and a bundle of feathers fell in front of her. She bent down to examine it and found that it was an owl with a letter. Suddenly, everybody who were involved in the snowball fight surrounded her and the owl.

Dudley kneeled down and poked the owl. "What is it?"

Gently, Ginny picked up the owl and cradled it. "It's Errol," Ginny answered.

"Wow, I can't believe he's still alive," Harry said. Hermione smacked him on the arm and Harry gave her a questioning look.

"Come on Ginny, read the letter. You know mum only uses him for emergencies," Ron told his sister.

Ginny gently took the letter from the exhausted bird. Dudley took Errol from her and hurried to Hagrid's hut with Lavender next to him. Ginny took the letter out of the envelope and read its contents. She dropped the letter and tears began falling from her eyes.

Hermione asked, "Ginny what is it?"

Ron bent down to pick up the letter. He glanced at his sister and proceeded to reading it.

Ron looked at Hermione. "Fred. Fred."

"Fred what? Ron you're scaring me."

Ron's breathing started getting erratic. Hermione realized that Ron was in shock and grabbed the letter from his hand to figure out what was wrong. After reading the letter she gasped and covered her mouth with a hand.

Harry was getting worried with everyone's reaction, and nobody was speaking. "What's wrong?"

Hermione gave him the letter and answered as he started reading, "There was an attack on the ministry. Fred is dead and George is missing."

Harry looked at Ron. "Ron, I'm..."

Before Harry could finish Ron ran to the castle leaving the group.

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Draco woke up with a horrible headache and he moaned from the pain. He tried to reach his head, but found that his hands were chained to the wall. He opened his eyes and waited a while to get adjusted to the dark. He found that he was in a dungeon, probably in the basement if he was still in the Manor.

Another man was chained across from him and decided to announce his presence. "Hello, you finally woke up. I was beginning to worry. You've been out for a day."

Draco squinted to try to figure out who the person was.

"I'm George Weasley by the way. I guess were roommates now," he said abnormally cheerful at the situation.

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Tears were running down Ron's face. He couldn't believe what was happening, Fred was dead. He would never see him again, or talk to him. The idea tore him to pieces. He was closest to the twins and Ginny than his other siblings. The four of them grew up together and shared everything. The twins were the ones who always came to his and Ginny's aid. Now Fred was gone.

Ron flew around the Quidditch field as fast as he could. He was hoping that he would crash into a wall. He wanted the pain to go away, but whenever we was close to crashing fear made him turn around and try again. Suddenly something hit his stomach, hard. He lost his grip and fell to the ground. He clutched his stomach and moved to a fetal position on the ground. He looked up, his eyes were blurry because of the tears but he was sure that it was Pansy Parkinson standing in front of him holding a beater club.

"Weasley, get out of the field. Slytherin has it today for practice."

Ron closed his eyes hoping that she was just a dream and would disappear. He didn't want the Slytherins to see him crying. No doubt they would tease him about it.

Pansy nudged him not too gently with her foot. "Weasley, are you deaf? I said leave!"

Ron took in a few breathes to try to compose himself and stood up. Pansy had a hand on her hip and was tapping her foot waiting for him to leave. When she saw his face she was surprised.

"Weasley are you crying? I can't believe it. Can you guys?" Pansy asked the Slytherin Quidditch team. They shook their heads and started teasing Ron.

Ron's ears turned red as he caught what some of the boys were saying. He walked to where his broom was lying and picked it up.

"Why are you crying Weasel? Did you and your mudblood get into another fight?"

Ron's grip on his broom tightened. "Don't call Hermione that."

Pansy ignored his comment. "No, that not it. Mudblood could never make you cry. Maybe girl Weasel finally got knocked up by that boyfriend of hers. I would cry too if someone from my family had the audacity to associate with a mudblood in that way."

Ron's knuckles were turning white from his grip. "Shut up you pug-faced slut," Ron growled. "My sister has morals unlike you, you filthy whore."

The Slytherin boys were about to attack Ron but Pansy yelled at them to wait.

If looks could kill Ron would be dead. "Oh now I know. One of those overgrown apes you call brother finally died. It's about time. I'm sure the Dark Lor..."

Ron's broom broke in half. Pansy was unable to finish her sentence as Ron lunged at her. He had his hand on her neck and the only thing on his mind was snapping it like it was the broom.

Parkinson on her part was struggling to try to get him off her, clawing at his face and kicking him. "Help!" she shrieked.

The Slytherin boys finally got over their shock of Ron's attack and quickly pulled him off Pansy. They started kicking and punching him. Ron was able to get a few punches at some of the Slytherins, but he was seriously out numbered.

Millicent Bulstrode had a hand on Pansy's shoulder. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Pansy was still trying to catch her breath. "Does it look like I'm okay?" She snapped.

Pansy waited until Ron was lying on the ground receiving the full blows of the Slytherins, before she ordered them to stop. They immediately complied.

Ron was barely conscious when he saw Pansy standing in front on him.

Pansy spit on Ron's face. "This is not over." She kicked him one last time and walked away from the pitch. The rest of the team trailed behind her, glaring at him.

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Draco didn't know what to reply when George asked him who he was. What was the point in hiding his identity when all the Death Eater probably knew who he was? There was also the fact that George didn't know that Harry was alive and would probably hate Draco if he didn't already.

Draco made his decision. "Draco Malfoy at your service," he responded.

A/N: That's it. It's seems that I lost my beta, anyone willing to offer their services? Thanks to everyone that reviewed. Again, sorry for taking so much time.