Please please please read the footnote at the bottom of the chapter. I regretfully see a wall in front of me. Not a writer's block, but a wall in time. Below will give you all the information.

Hopefully you will enjoy this chapter. It is a bit shorter than I expected it to be, but due to my lack of time (see below as requested above) I wasn't able to get Narcissa's arrival in or the spells Hermione had found for Sirius's rescue. I promise that the next chapter will be longer and the actual plot is started!

Questions to Ask Thyself

"Harry!"

"Harry!"

"Ron, go get the map!"

A pause… "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good… Hermione, it says he's right in front of us… but I saw his cloak while I was up there so this thing must be malfunctioning!"

They continued arguing for awhile, but he couldn't be bothered with it now. It all sounded as if coming from a far distance away anyways. He'll deal with it later.

Thankfully the sun was on the other side of the tower or else he would be forced to leave the semi comfortable place he had made of the stone windowsill using his robe and sweatshirt. Even little rocks which bugged him in the course of the night were transfigured into soft pillows. It wasn't exactly a sanctuary for only himself, but for now, it was a place of refuge against the expectations the world placed on him. What type of world did that?

A desperate one… one which had suffered greatly and just pray for some sort of hope to guide them into peace. Conflicting views battled it out in his head. Peace is something everyone should experience, and he had the power to create it for thousands of people. But why exactly did it have to be him? Did he have to suffer in the place of everyone else? He should have something, or someone, to turn to in his own need. He should have the hope to go on in the dark world surrounding him. Was that too much to ask?

Draco had fallen asleep pretty quickly after his reassurances that everything would be alright. The kid was really distressed about going back to his father. Hopefully everything would turn out as he planned or else he feared for Draco's sanity. What would happen if he was forced into slavery to the bastard lord? Would he take on the role as spy as he had done those many years ago, or would he become another mindless drone as his father wanted? But even worst would be if he couldn't see away out and try to end the suffering? To take the easy way out.

It was a sad fact that he, himself, had tried to take that road out of his problems, but he was stopped before anything really could happen. It was of his stupidity anyway… He had planned with Lily to meet up in an abandoned potion's room to work on their project, whatever meaningless assignment they had to do a presentation on. He tried to end his life in that classroom at that specific time. She walks in, freaking out once she understood the implications, and ended up magically binding him to a chair as she couldn't trust him in doing anything else. It was actually the time he told her about his dealings with the Death Eaters. She didn't know everything about it but enough that she created half the lies to give Voldemort. Her teachings in basic muggle contraptions proved to be helpful, surprisingly

Though Voldemort had been raised as a muggle - keeping that quiet - he didn't know the new advances that came in the 1950s. The muggle home had changed so much so when they had raids, it wouldn't be rare to come out of the house with an injury involving a hair iron or stove. Hopeless really. It was quite amusing to watch as Edmund Stringer babble on his incompetence during one raid because he heard the phrase "Abra Kadabra" from the living room. Apparently the family he was to kidnap was watching a muggle magic show on their strange television.

A part of him was wondering how in the world he got to that topic… Lately his mind was shot. Something about Draco's condition crossed his mind which just made him wonder how he had gotten to the Death Eater's experience with the muggle tellie. Maybe he should just take something to go to sleep…

Hermione and Ron were becoming frantic with grief when they couldn't find Harry. Ron was convinced the git, namely Severus Snape, had kidnapped their poor defenseless friend and taken him to the dreaded you-Know-Who. Problem being that Harry was neither poor, in any definition of the word, nor defenseless, proven many times, never crossed his mind. However, the issue of the map did throw Hermione through a loop. They knew from third year that the map never lies, meaning Harry Potter was right in front of them, as the dot indicated. True Peter Pettigrew had been there as an animagus, but he still showed up. And even then, Harry's panther form would undoubtedly be big enough to see.

Looking closer, Hermione noticed the dot to be right up against the line indicating a wall, or more importantly an indent in the line indicating a wall. A secret alcove perhaps as the wall in front of her was flat. But there were other secret, enclosed alcoves on the map but there were always Latin words explaining such.

Agger luminare… if only her Latin was up to par…

When she had gotten her acceptance letter and found out Latin was the main language they used for spells, she jumped into a Latin class at the local community center. She was far behind everyone else given her Muggle background, it was the least she could do. First year was much easier to her than anyone else because of the background knowledge in Latin. But sadly, her lessons had ended, swiftly dried, in the lessons in spells. Now she makes it a habit to get as many How to Learn Latin books each summer, but agger luminare kept slipping her mind.

"Harry?" she called into the wall, hoping that if he was on the other side, he would be able to hear her. It was slightly discouraging to be talking to a wall.

It was awhile since he had talked with the Malfoy matron and it was a pity that he couldn't continue that record. But it was a task he had to accomplish - the fate of his young charge was in the balance.

He had grown up with the devious siren. Lucius Malfoy was his ally during school though he was two years ahead of him. He man wasn't exactly head-over-heals over the girl, but the arrangement between his parents and the Blacks weren't to be disrupted. So they married as the contract decreed. However, that didn't stop the gypsy from rooming the lands behind her husband's back looking for a lover, prey in every sense of the word. She had produced an heir. That was all they needed.

Today he would see if her disloyalty to her husband ran true when having to choose between his command and the will of her son. Hopefully she would see reasoning behind Severus Snape's request to keep Draco at Hogwarts instead of sending him off to Voldemort.

He could not fail.

Right now is a really big test time... for those who are taking AP tests, you should understand. For those who either do not have any, or are from another country so they do not know what they are let me explain. All Advanced Placed classes have a national test to see if you learned anything from your AP classes. You do not necessarily have to take the test, but if you pass, some colleges don't require you to take the class in college.

I am taking the Physics B portion of the test on the ninth unfortunately. However, my community college class (Calculus II) has a test on the ninth as well so I'll have to study for both at the same time. AND the regular homework leading up to it. Just to make things fun my crazy English teacher is having a "Catcher in the Rye" test on Friday and I still have to read the stupid book! So pretty much, my schedule is very constricting.

I have it planned out that I can be on the internet for exactly one half hour before I spend two hours on math homework and two hours on the English book. My mom won't allow me to be working or online at eight… On Thursday, I will take only an hour for math, and spend three hours on the English book because of the test the next day. And then Friday, Physics rules my life. Saturday and Sunday is filled with Physics, friend's birthday party (if I miss, she'll be so bitchy at me I doubt that she's reading this…), and job training.

So, if you would like to complain about my apparent lack of life or just want to make me really really happy under these hard circumstances, could you please review? I could try to read them on my half hour of internet… Please?