Alright, I know it's been awhile and I just wanted to thank those of you still reading this fic for hanging on. I'm already halfway through the next chapter so it should be out soon. Please let me know what you think. Cheers!

Draco Malfoy groaned gently as he eased into a chair across from Harry and Jessica in the Three broomsticks, a pub in Hogsmeade. Noticing their concerned looks he managed to give them a wary smile trying to put the Gryffindors at ease.

"How was the meeting last night?" Jessica questioned gently smiling kindly at the waitress that placed their Butterbeers in front of them before scuttling off to another table.

"Painful," Draco admitted wincing gently as he shifted in his seat. "You-know-who is pretty upset. I'm not really sure what's going on but something big is coming up and he's pissed because you haven't been 'taken care of' yet. Not to mention the fact that I haven't been successful in flushing out the Mystic Knight yet. He's been throwing around curses left and right at every meeting."

Harry sighed gently, "Maybe it would be best if we got you out." Over the last few weeks Harry and Jessica had found that Draco was actually a nice person when he was allowed to be himself. They had both found themselves thinking about the Slytherin as their friend and it pained Harry to think about the torture Draco went through every time he was called by Voldemort.

Draco looked at the concerned Gryffindors before shaking his head lightly. After spending the last few weeks meeting with them in Hogsmeade after every meeting he had found that he actually liked them and even had some things in common with the pair. Draco would even go as far as calling them his friends.

"No, I can handle it." Holding up his hand to forestall the interruption he could see was about to come from Harry he continued, "Something big is going on here Pot…er, Harry," he quickly corrected remembering Harry's constant reminders that he was allowed to use his first name. "Something big and most certainly bad. You know as well as I do we need to know what in order to stop what ever is going on." Draco didn't know why, but he knew Harry was pivotal in this war, he also knew the Gryffindor wasn't telling him something. But Draco knew Harry would eventually tell him, so he would wait patiently until the boy deemed in time.

"But to find out what, I need to stick around and prove myself trust worthy. If I leave now we'll never know. I've been going to meetings for weeks with rumors and stories about the Mystic Knight roaming the castle halls, but until I get something concrete, it's likely he'll never tell me anything." Draco finished apologetically.

"I know that but..." Harry began before he was interrupted by Jessica gently touching his arm and nodding her head towards the door, indicating she wanted a word alone with him.

Once the pair had found a quiet spot in a dark alley around the corner from the pub, Harry leaned against the cold wall and raised an eyebrow in question.

"I don't like this anymore then you do, but Draco's right, we can't pull him out. He's the only person we got on the inside, now that Snape's, er…indisposed." She whispered the last part refering to the fact that Snape was currently still comatose in the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry sighed gently. He knew they were right; but Harry didn't like the idea that the Slytherin could be killed.

"So what do we do?" Harry whispered resignedly.

"Unfortunately the only thing we can do is what we are doing. Short of turning ourselves in… I don't think there is much else." Jessica said softly moving to stand in front of Harry gently touching his hand.

Feeling his heart jump into his throat at the simple touch, Harry had to clear it before he was able to say anything.

"Maybe we're trying to get the information from the wrong person. Maybe it would be easier for Draco to get the information from his father." Harry whispered trying desperately to control his disappointment when Jessica nodded and moved away.

"Ya, maybe, we'll ask him. But we should be heading back to school soon; we have to be up early. Tomorrow morning we're coming back to Hogsmeade for the Valentine's Day trip."

Harry nodded and the two headed back into the Three Broomsticks.

"Bloody hell, Harry. Hurry up!" Ron snapped in annoyance watching Harry running around the dorm room as he tried to get dressed.

"Sorry Ron, I guess I over slept." Harry apologized yanking on his jeans and snatching his shoes from under his bed.

"Again," Ron said pointedly, "What were you doing last night? You didn't get to bed till like three this morning."

Pulling on his shoes and socks Harry glanced up briefly making sure they were alone in the room before answering. "Jessica and I went to meet Draco in Hogsmeade. Nothing new to report I'm afraid. Voldemort's upset and taking it out on his followers."

"Is Malfoy ok?" Ron questioned.

"Draco is fine," Harry answered rolling his eyes at Ron's stubbornness. He knew Ron was trying to be civil when it came to the Slytherin but an underlined tone of malice still leaked into the red heads voice when he spoke about him.

"Good," Ron said not really sounding like he cared much, "Now come on, the girls are probably waiting downstairs for us. I want to go to Honeydukes and stock up on candy."

Harry chuckled and quickly followed Ron down the stairs and to the common room.

Hermione, Ginny and Jessica were sitting on a couch next to the fireplace and were chatting amicably about their last Defense against the Dark Arts classes.

"Professor Talon has decided to spend the next few classes dueling against everyone individually. He said anyone who could beat him would earn fifty points for their respective houses." Hermione was telling Ginny.

Ginny's eyes sparkled with mischief, "Has anyone been able to beat him, after all considering what he used to be that seems a little unfair. Only Harry and Jessica stand a chance against him."

"Greg would never use his true powers like that. He'd tone them down to a level the other teachers would have. He would try to make it as fair as possible." Jessica pointed out indignantly.

"I didn't mean to imply that he would," Ginny said trying to placate the other girl, "I was just joking…"

Jessica sighed and waved off the apology, "I know, sorry, I guess I'm just a little tense, you know with everything going on."

Ginny nodded understandingly, "It's alright," she paused briefly before smiling wickedly, "Soooo… has anybody beaten him?"

Harry chuckled from behind the trio and nodded when they turned to face him, "Actually, two or three people have. Cho Chang being one of them, along with Blaise Zabani and I think there was one more person but I can't remember who."

"Wow," Ginny breathed.

"Ya." Harry agreed with a small grin, "Come on, let's go before the others leave for Hogsmeade without us."

"Your son has failed me Lucius," Voldemort hissed glaring at the nervous Death Eater in font of him. "I have not heard anything about the Mystic Knight except rumors and speculation, I need more."

"I know my Lord, but Draco is trying his hardest to please you, if you'd only give him a little more time…" Lucius began before cutting off as he screamed in pain when Voldemort cursed him.

"How dare you question me!" the snake like man roared angrily lifting the curse after a minute.

"I'm sorry my L-lord, I'll talk to him when he goes to Hogsmeade today." Lucius stuttered cowering slightly. The fear vanished from his face to be replaced with confusion and suspicion when Lucius saw his boss calm down and a decidedly evil smile cross his face.

"Hogsmeade?" the man questioned his follower.

"Y-yes Sir, Draco and the third through seventh year children take trips to Hogsmeade every once in a while…"

"But you say they'll be there today." The dark lord whispered turning away from his follower and leaning back in his chair in silent contemplation.

"Um… yes."

Silence reined in the office of the Riddle house for nearly ten minutes. Lucius shifted uncomfortably knowing better then too interrupt his master when he was so deep in thought.

Suddenly Voldemort swung back around to face Lucius and smirked slightly when he noticed Lucius looking more nervous then usual.

"My dear Lucius," he hissed the smirk more prominent on his face, "gather all Death Eaters, and inform them we'll be leaving for Hogsmeade within the hour. I've come to the conclusion that the only way to draw out the Knight is too create a situation he can't possibly ignore."

Lucius nodded catching on to what his master was saying pretty quickly. "I'll get right on that my Lord."

"Good," Voldemort responded, "Oh, and Lucius," he added stopping the man in the doorway, "Do. Not. Fail. Me."

Swallowing deeply the platinum haired man nodded and quickly left the room, praying to anyone listening, that things would go the way he needed. If not, Lucius was sure he wouldn't live to see the next day.

Shifting uncomfortably Harry shot a nervous glance at Jessica as they walked along the main street of Hogsmeade together.

Hermione had dragged Ron off to a bookstore and Ginny had met up with some friend's only moments before leaving the two Mystic Knights to spend the rest of the day together.

It wasn't that Harry didn't like Jessica, quite the contrary actually. Ever since Christmas Harry was forced to admit his true feelings for the girl. He realized that Sirius had been right, he did have a crush on his fellow Mystic Knight. But Harry adamantly believed that Jessica didn't see him like that; and in order to work together he would have to get over his crush fast.

Since admitting it to himself Harry had tried to ignore his feelings and when that didn't work he had tried to spend as little time with the girl as he could. Unfortunately that hadn't worked either. Given the fact they were partners and had to work together Harry just wasn't able to keep away. And if he was to be completely honest with himself; Harry would have realized he didn't really want too. Sighing heavily Harry realized his crush on the girl was not just going to go away.

Jessica sighed gently and shot a discreet look towards her quiet friend. He had been acting strangely for many weeks now and she was beginning to worry about him. She knew her feelings for the blue haired boy went beyond friendship and his odd behavior had really begun to worry her. For weeks Jessica had refrained from asking Harry what was wrong, figuring he would tell her when he was ready. Hearing her friend sigh heavily next to her she decided enough was enough. Grabbing her startled friends arm she dragged him off the street and into a side alley.

"Jess, what are you doing?" Harry asked when she had let go of his arm and just stood there watching him intently. Unable to keep eye contact he wrung his hands in front of him and glanced around the alley nervously.

"Harry, what's going on? You've been acting weird for weeks. At first I was content to leave you alone because I figured you would eventually talk to me…" sighing she ran a hand through her hair, unintentionally messing up her spikes. "You were quiet for a while, and then you just tried to avoid me…" looking at Harry she whispered, "Are you mad at me for something?"

Harry hadn't expected to be called out on his behavior and had no idea what to say when Jessica had continued her little speech but when she had questioned if it had been something she had done Harry's voice was returned and he immediately tried to assure her it wasn't.

"No, Jess, it isn't you I swear. It's just…something's been on my mind lately and I don't know how to deal with it."

Tilting her head in contemplation and hearing the sincerity in his voice she smiled gently and touched his arm, "It might help if you talk about it."

Sighing nervously Harry considered what to do. He could make something up. Or maybe just refuse to say anything telling her it was too personal to talk about. Or he could tell her the truth, get everything out in the open and see what she had to say.

It almost amused Harry that he could face giant Basilisks, Dementors and Voldemort numerous times but when it came to telling a girl he liked her he would rather be fighting all of those things at the same time. Harry had never been a coward but right now the fear of rejection had him wanting to run for the hills.

Steeling himself he decided to tell her the truth.

"All right its like this…"before he could continue however he was interrupted when a high pitched scream ripped through the air startling both the teens, only to be followed seconds later by more screams coming from the direction of the main street.

Shooting Jessica a wide eyed look they quickly ran toward the corner and peered around into the street.

"Oh god," Harry whispered staring in horror at the scene before him. About twenty Death Eaters were strolling casually down the street. Smoke billowed from stores that they had set afire and Hogwarts students were running for their lives. To Harry's despair he already saw several students lying still on the ground. He only hoped they were unconscious not dead.

Feeling the anger begin to boil inside himself he and Jessica shot each other a determined look. Nodding once they powered up into their Mystic Knight Costumes and stepped out to block the Death Eaters advance.

I know how much I like cliffhangers, and now you do too, LOL. Cheers!