Rhyann jolted up in the bed, thrashing around with the blankets as if they were attacking her. Her heart hammered in her chest so loudly that she could not hear her own scream. Her dark locks matted to her forehead from the anxious perspiration and she had trouble seeing.
A pair of strong hands grabbed her by the arms, holding her still. "Rhyann, calm down. What's the matter!"
She knew that voice and she melted towards it, clutching at him for protection. She whimpered into his bare chest. His arms wrapped firmly around her and she wished that she could be shielded from the whole world with them.
Draco had never known her to have a nightmare. It was not something a dreamer experienced and thus he knew it was much more sinister than that. "It's okay, love. I'm here. Tell me what happened."
"Dammit, Malfoy! Stop shaggin' your girl an' get some sleep!" One of the other seventh years grouched from somewhere in the dorm, having been woken up from a deep sleep by her shriek that he misinterpreted as one of bliss instead of terror.
"Shut up!" Draco snapped back and focused his attention on his girlfriend. "Come on, Rhyann. You're safe with me. What happened?"
"I shouldn't have done that... I really shouldn't have..." The brunette shook her head against him, wiping at the tears that stung her eyes. Her tiny body still trembled against his.
Gently brushing back her hair from her face, he kissed her forehead. "You shouldn't have done what?"
"He came to me in the dreaming realm. He came and he was very angry with me." Rhyann whispered to him frantically. "He was going to punish me. He was going to take away the gift he had given me before... He threatened to take away my gift. It felt like he was ripping out my very soul! I couldn't let him... I couldn't have him take anything! I stopped him... he became frenzied with anger and... and I kicked him out of the dreaming realm. He's going to kill me now, Draco. I could feel it. He's going to kill me!"
"No one is going to hurt you." The Head Boy stated firmly. "I won't let them. Listen to me, Rhyann. He was just angry with you. He wouldn't kill you. You're too valuable to him. You know that."
Rhyann sniffled, trying not to seem like a weepy and weak little girl. She took in a few deep breaths, calming the trembling in her voice. "I felt it, Draco. There's no mistaking it. He wants to kill me."
"I want to kill a lot of people when I get angry with them, but it doesn't mean I will." Draco tried to assure her. He lay back down on the bed, pulling her with him and resting her head on his chest. "He'll cool off and then... just punish you..." He didn't like saying that either, but he was certain that no one would kill her.
She knew that there was no use arguing with him about it. Draco didn't feel what she had felt when she expelled the Dark Lord from the dreaming realm. She had never felt such a hate and murderous intent before. Rhyann had killed others, but there was nothing like that in her. Voldemort's soul was warped and twisted into something grotesque. Even more hideous than the Dark Mark on her her arm. The unnaturalness she felt when in the presence of his energy was not just from the fact that he had split his soul up to put them into horcruxes. It was because he was without anything good whatsoever.
Rhyann lay against her lover, letting him shush her as he stroked her hair. It was a long time before either of them fell asleep and even then, it was so light for her that she didn't really call it sleeping.
Just after sunrise, there was a loud boom as the door to the dorm flew open. The students all started awake. Rhyann cringed against Draco as the drapes to the canopy bed were thrown apart. Snape stood glaring at them. His eyes full of fury. "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!"
"Sir.." Draco started to speak but he was cut off.
"Don't think you can talk your way out of this one, Malfoy! Having a girl in your bed will get your expelled. Get both of you expelled!" Snape snarled at him and then whipped his head about to look at the other boys who were peeking out of their beds. "GET OUT! ALL OF YOU GET OUT! I will speak to these two alone!"
The seventh year Slytherin boys all scrambled out of their beds, grabbing robes and ran off down the stairs. Snape flicked his wand, slamming shut the door behind them. He then muttered another spell, waving his arm in a large circle indicating the area around him and the stunned couple. Only then did he start growling again. "What did you do, Rookwood! You did not carry out the Dark Lord's orders, I know, but you did something else! What is it!"
Rhyann only then recognized the spell he had done as one that would allow no one else to hear their conversation. She still hung on to Draco, unsure of Snape's sudden fury. "I... I know I shouldn't have done it... But... it was instinct! I couldn't help myself! I expelled him from the dreaming realm. I threw him out. He couldn't fight against my power."
"You did what!" The Deputy Headmaster gasped, angry and horrified. Neither of them had ever seen so much expression on the older wizard's face. "You ruined any chance you had! How could you do something so stupid!"
"I just did it! I didn't even think about it!" Rhyann pleaded her case.
Before she could say any more, Snape darted closer pointing a long pale finger at her. "You would have just been punished. Now I was called before the sun rose to the Dark Lord's and he gave me orders to have you killed!"
Draco placed himself in front of his girlfriend, gripping his wand threatening in one hand. "No one is going to touch Rhyann."
"My orders were to have you kill her." Snape's upper lip twitched as he turned his fiery gaze upon the blond.
His breath caught and his grip tightened so much on his wand that his nails dug into his palm. "I'm not going to kill her. No one is." Draco's icy eyes flashed threateningly.
"If you don't kill her, I am to kill you as well." Snape stated coldly.
Rhyann could not tell from the fearsome look in his eyes if the gaunt man was seriously going to do it or not. She knew that he still had to keep his cover as a loyal Death Eater or it would mean his life as well. If something did not happen, it would be all three of their lives on the line. It would ruin everything only because she could not control herself and ejected the Dark Lord from the dreaming realm. She still held on to Draco's shoulders as she peered around him at the professor. "You're... you're not going to do it, are you, sir?"
Snape narrowed his eyes and flashed a sneer making her cringe as if he had no pity for her. "Of course I'm not going to do it!"
"Why!" Draco snapped, not trusting the other wizard at all. "You'll be killed too if you don't do it. Why should we believe you when you're one of the Dark Lord's most loyal servants? You just want me to let my guard down. I'll have the Killing Curse on you faster.."
"Shut up, Malfoy!" Snape's almost nonexistant lips thinned even more, pointing at him with his own wand. He was coiled but he did not strike. "It is well that you kept some secrets, Miss Rookwood. I suppose we'll have to tell him now."
"Tell me what!" The Head Boy said less fiercely and glanced back over his shoulder at his lover.
"Professor Snape works, or worked, for Dumbledore. He's a double agent. He's been helping Harry and the rest of us all along." Rhyann spoke quietly, knowing that there was a spell about them, but not wanting it to be heard by anyone else nonetheless. She was also worried what Draco's reaction would be that she still kept such a secret from him.
His mouth contorted a dozen different ways until finally the words came out. "How do you know he isn't lying about that! He could have tricked Dumbledore and Potter isn't that hard to fool."
"He isn't lying, Draco. He's kept all my secrets from the Dark Lord. Do you think we'd be alive now if it was known what we were up to?" Rhyann pressed her cheek to his shoulder, not wanting to think what life would be like without him. She gave him a squeeze and then looked to Snape. "Besides, I'm sure if the professor truly wanted us dead, we would not be alive right now."
The Deputy Headmaster dipped his head once in acknowledgement of that truth.
"Then why the bloody hell didn't you tell me!" Draco groaned his frustration. "Why doesn't anyone tell me anything!"
"Because, Mister Malfoy, the Dark Lord can see into your mind easily. I have protective barriers as well does Miss Rookwood. She says that she has put some up in your mind but it isn't the same as constructing your own unique ones. I think it wise that you be taught how to do so." Snape did not add that he did not like nor trust the Malfoys at all. The boy's involvement was Rhyann's doing and she would take full responsibility, any consequences, that might come if he played them false again.
"It was safer for you not to know." Rhyann put in, speaking more softly than the other two. She stayed kneeling on the bed with her head leaning on Draco's shoulder. She heard him sigh with a myriad of emotion and then put an arm around her. "So what are we going to do now?"
"We are going to arrange your death, Miss Rookwood."