AN: Ok that chapter was done. I hope it was good. Moving on.

Previously:

The small boy slowly floated to the ground and ran into Hermione's arms looking at Draco with hurt eyes.

"Why didn't you help me? Why didn't you save me?" he cried and Draco felt a pain in his chest.

Chapter 12

Harry cried in Hermione's skirt and Draco's worried frown marred his face.

"Potter……Harry I never came in here. I've been in the library all this………"

"Save it Malfoy!" snapped Ron comforting Harry as well, brown eyes flashing with anger.

"That was a nasty trick you played on Harry."

"I didn't do shit!" Draco said becoming defensive and he marched over to his desk.

"Oh yeah?" he heard Ron say. "If you didn't do it, how did you know how to take the curse off and Hermione didn't."

Draco ignored him and opened a pretty cherry wood chest that held a few pieces of jewelry and items like important letters and such. He dug through it and he paled.

"It's gone." He said. "Damn it it's gone." He saw something in place of what was missing. It was a note on beige colored paper Draco knew wasn't there before. He read it and with anger and knocked the chest off the desk. It crashed against the wall and necklaces, a few rings and letters fell out scattering onto the floor.

Draco read the note again.

Be there Draco. We'll know if you go on the train or not. Think about what you will lose. We're closer than you think.

Draco put the note in his pocket.

"What's gone Malfoy?" Hermione asked. She was startled by his outburst. Draco sighed and turned back to them.

"My Malfoy ring." He said. "Someone's stolen it as a warning of what will happen if I don't receive the Mark. I won't be a Malfoy anymore."

No one spoke and Draco plopped into his black leather chair and buried his face in his hands. The worst had come. He had to go.

"What do you mean you won't be a Malfoy anymore? And you still haven't told us how you knew how to get Harry down."

"That's because it was a dark floating spell. When know of Mud……Granger's counter curses worked, I realized it could only be the Muttiero levitation charm. It's considered a dark spell because not many know the counter curse and if the person is under it long enough, they physically begin to dissolve into the air."

Hermione checked Harry over and saw all his body parts were intact.

"As for me if I don't receive that mark my father will remove me as his heir and I will no longer be entitled to the Malfoy fortune. I'll be as poor as a Weasley and no place to live."

Ron glared at Draco for his last remark but he saw that what Malfoy was sincere. Ron saw a side of Malfoy he had not seen before but that still didn't mean he trusted him.

"Are you sure it was Draco you saw?" Hermione asked Harry who sniffled.

He nodded. "Yes. Same silver eyes, same height, same hair, same diamond eawing……"

"Earring? I don't have an earring Potty." Draco drawled and harry looked up.

"Huh?" Draco tugged his ears.

Oh yeah!" he said and smiled drying his tears. He ran to Draco and hugged his leg. "I knew deep down it wasn't you Draco. I knew it!"

Draco rolled his eyes. Sure, of course he thought he didn't do it. The pain that he felt when Harry accused him disappeared. He never wanted Harry to think he would hurt him. His thought went back to his problems. 'I'll have to go.' He thought.

"I'm going to Snape's. Take Harry to dinner, I think he needs to spend some time with you Gryffindorks for awhile. Just bring him back after dinner." The platinum haired boy said and he shooed them out before leaving himself to go to the Potions classroom.

When he opened the door, Snape was grading first year papers muttering, "Incompetent," and "Have no idea what they're doing…" and all sorts of things like that. He didn't look up as Draco peered over his shoulder and he saw Snape reluctantly put an O on a first year's paper and Draco raised an eyebrow.

"Another Granger perhaps?" he asked and Snape grumbled.

"What do you want Draco?" Sev asked and set his qill in the ink jar and sat back in his desk chair.

Draco sat down on the edge of the desk and fiddled with a vial. He finally handed the note to Snape who read it quickly, black beetle eyes widening then narrowing.

"He took my Malfoy ring." Draco explained the incident of what happened with Harry in his room. "Severus, I'm going to have to go. There's an early train tomorrow. I'll take that."

"No." Severus said and he set the note on fire. "You can't go. Draco you are a headstrong person. It's in your blood. It's not my intention to make this sound insulting, but you're so full of yourself you're actually worse than your father. Do you really want to bow down to a scaly beast like I do. Do you want to have this horrible mark on your arm. It'll burn when he calls you but it'll also burn if the Dark Lord is frustrated or angry and every time a crucio is cast, even if it's not on you, you'll feel it."

Snape showed his godson the mark. It was charred black the symbol of a scull with a snake slithering through its mouth and eye socket. Draco tried to repulse a shiver.

"Every time he calls, I feel the Mark just etches deeper on my arm. I don't want that for you Draco, I really don't."

"But I'm a Malfoy!" Draco protested. "I'll be nothing without my name." Draco said. "My father……What if I become a………"

Snape stood up and silenced him. "No. My job is very dangerous. I can get caught by Aurors and be titled a traitor, or I can get caught by followers and still be titled as a traitor. My hands are in both cookie jars and that's not a good thing."

After his long speech Snape sighed and paced the room. "I was missing a bottle of Polyjuice from my lab today. Every night I run a magical check on my provsions and noticed that a bottle was missing from the shelves."

Draco frowned. "Someone impersonated me. Harry said they had a diamond earring in their ear. I know no man with a diamond earring in his ear and I doubt it was a girl."

He jumped when there was a loud rap on the Potions door. "Come in." snapped Snape, irritated that their conversation was interrupted. In stepped Professor Miggorian. She was no longer jittery and nervous like she had been before, instead she seemed oddly cold and aloof.

"Snape. Dumbledore sent me to retrieve you. It's urgent." With that she whisked off. Draco bit his lip. Something wasn't right with that professor. She seemed like two people at once.

"I'd better go Sev." Draco said and he heard Sev call after him.

"You'd better not be on that train."

Draco practically ran to his room. It was of course empty and he sat on his bed feeling horribly alone.

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"I want anoda piece of pie." Harry said and held up his plate. Hermione gave him another slice, though it was smaller than the first one. She glanced over at the Slytherin table. Mafloy was nowhere to seen. He had seemed extremely upset of what had happened in his room. She looked over at the front table. Dumbledore and Snape were both gone. Something was amiss, she knew it. She saw Professor Miggorian drink out of a silver goblet, a chattering Flitwick talking to her. When Flitwick slapped her on her back in a chummy way and a little of her drink spurted out of her mouth. A red droplet ran down her chin and she quickly wiped it off and it left a red streak which she dabbed off with her napkin.

Hermione frowed. Wine didn't leave a stain on skin like that. Her eyes widened and she jumped up and ran to the library.

"Hermione where are you going?" Ron called after her but she was gone. He shrugged and when he turned his head to talk to Seamus, Harry, sitting on the other side of him grabbed another piece of pie cackling evilly.

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Draco looked at the clock. It read eleven fifty six. Harry was sleeping contently in his own bed and Draco silently packed clothes into his suitcase. He knew he was going against Snape in going but he had to. He would leave now to sneak on the train and spend the rest of the night there to avoid Severus and Dumbledore. They would just think he was locked up into his room until it was too late.

"Shit why does it have to be like this?" he whispered and threw in some trousers. And then zipped up the bottomless suitcase. He blew out the candle that had provided him light and went to creep out of the door when he heard Harry's no longer squeaky voice. He looked at his charmed clock. Midnight. Harry had changed back.

"Draco are you fucking crazy? You're not really going to go are you?" Harry snarled. The sheets covered him and his green eyes were glaring at Malfoy who sighed dumping his suitcase and walking back to Harry's bed and sat on the edge of it.

"Look Potter this is non of your concern." Draco snapped and Harry shook his head.

"Draco don't revert back to your old self. Though I've been a kid I know you now. I know how you feel. You don't want to go."

Draco looked down at his hands. "No I don't but I don't really have a choice now do I?" he spat bitterly. His chest was feeling tight. Harry tried to put a comforting hand on Draco's shoulder but Draco shrugged it off.

"You don't understand Harry. The truth is I'm nothing. The only few friends I have only like me because of my money and my irresistible hot bod. Mudblood beats me at classes, you're a much better seeker than I am and even the Weasel even though I hate him has family. He has brothers, parents who care for him. He could never be lonely. All I have is Malfoy. That's it."

Draco clenched his face and gave a cry when Harry slapped him. He held his cheek. He dared to slap him?

"Are you worried more worried about your financial welfare or your life which you are going to ruin if you go back? Draco, when my godfather died, I inherited the Black fortune as long with the Potter fortune. Hell if you're worried about money you can take half of it and it wouldn't even affect me, because it's so much. Draco, with my connection with Voldemort I saw almost every student in this school receive their marks. I've seen them ruin their lives, torture muggles to prove themselves and undergo torture themselves. I've seen the coronation or Crabbe, Goyle, Zambini, Parkinson, Fletchely in Hufflepuff, and even a few Ravenclaws and even some Gryfindors who I see every day take that Mark."

Draco blinked. He was surprised. Harry continued.

"They don't take the Mark because they see Voldemort's ultimate plan. They join because they're afraid. They're afraid that Voldemort will win, and that he will kill them all if they oppose him so they join him. They abolish their pride, their lives for fear. That's what you're doing Draco. You're going in fear. So you'll be disowned who gives a fuck. From what I've heard, you don't have much of parents anyway and you aren't nothing Draco. You are something. Something to me."

A tear traveled down Harry's cheek. "Don't go Draco." He leaned forward and pressed his lips softly against Draco's. The kiss was gentle but electricity flew through the both of them. Harry pulled away.

"I can take care of you." Harry said and Draco broke down and cried in Harry's warm embrace.