The welcome feast was a stressed affair this year. All of the Professors looked worried, and Dumbledore's opening speech had been curt and short. The reason was very obvious to Draco, who had found out earlier in the day that Voldemort had had his father torture and kill Dumbledore's spy, Severus Snape, after the meeting last night. Now there was an empty chair at the staff table, and no potions teacher.

Draco wasn't sure how to take in the betrayal of his favorite teacher. Snape had always been kind in his own way towards Draco, and it was obvious to anyone that he hated Gryffindors and Potter in particular. Why had Snape turned traitor to Dumbledore if he clearly hated everything Dumbledore was working towards?

Draco's father had walked into Draco's room that morning with a tired but satisfied smirk on his face. He had stayed up all night working for Voldemort and had returned just in time to take Draco to the train station.

"Draco, the fools' spy has been killed. The heir told the Dark Lord not only who the spy was, but information that Snape had leaked to Dumbledore. During my interrogation last night Snape told me everything." Lucius had gone on explaining about the various curses that he had used during the torture session. The car ride to the train station had been a long one with Lucius continuing to talk about his torture methods and Draco planning his ideas to take power in Voldemort's regime. Then, before Draco had gotten onto the train, his had father hissed, "Find out who that heir is boy, or else, and don't trust anyone, even in your own house.' His father had disapparated and Draco had gotten onto the train.

Draco looked along the Slytherin table, searching faces while he thought. The only people who Dumbledore would completely trust would be Gryffindors, but the only people who would give themselves so completely to Voldemort were Slytherins. Lets see, Draco thought as he looked towards the Gryffindor table; there are a few people that are obvious Order members. Potter, Granger, and Weasley were sitting together as usual with their heads together. Weasley's younger sister was sitting next to Harry ignoring the trio in favor of sitting in silence.

"Well that's four members", Draco muttered to himself. The two Creevy brothers, picture boy and the midget leaned over the Weasley girl to say something to the trio. "Two more," he continued murmuring to himself. Then what he saw next surprised him. The girl pushed the Creevy's away with what looked like a "get out of my face" forming on her lips. He would have to ask his father about that girl.

Someone slid into the seat next to him and tore his concentration away from the Gryffindor table by nibbling on his ear. Draco growled in frustration. There was only one person who would be foolish enough to come near him.

"Parkinson," he hissed. She ignored the obvious threat in his voice and placed a hand on his knee.

"Draco," she simpered, "are you the heir?"

'Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. Either way it isn't any of your concern." He hissed again and again she ignored the warning.

"But Drakie! I thought you loved me!" She fluttered her eyelashes.

"Get it through your thick skull Parkinson. I used you for a one-night stand after the Yule Ball. I never liked you." With that, Draco stood up and walked out of the great hall.

Draco walked into his prefect room in the dungeons five minutes later. He looked around at the black and green furniture with a sigh. The house elves had unpacked everything for him, but he didn't know where they had put his belongings.

Draco searched through his desk looking for a piece of parchment and a quill. When he had found both he started a list of possible suspects.

Potter- no

Granger- no

Weasley (boy)- no

Weasley (girl)-?

Creevy's-?

Draco wrote a little note next to each name. For the trio he wrote no because it was impossible for the heir to be them. There was absolutely no way any of them would desert their friends and Dumbledore. Next to the rest of the names he wrote a question mark because he didn't know anything about them. Even the Weasley girl was an enigma.

"Who else could it be?" Draco murmured. Suddenly he had an idea. "Dumbledore's Army!" Pansy had found a sheet of paper with the names of the DA in the Room of Requirement when they had been working for Umbridge. She had showed it to him, and knowing that the information on it could come in handy; he had made a copy for himself before handing the list over to Umbridge. Draco walked over to his trunk and lifted out the false bottom. Inside were all of his dark magic items. In a folder tucked between two books of dark spells he had hidden all of his important papers. Draco rifled through the folder until he found the Dumbledores Army list and added all of the DA members' names onto his suspect list.

Neville Longbottom-?

Dean Tomas-?

Lavender Brown-?

Parvati Patil-?

Padma Patil-?

Cho Chang- no

Luna Lovegood-?

Katie Bell- no

Alicia Spinnet-no

Angelina Johnson- no

Ernie Macmillian-?

Justin Finch-Fletchley-?

Hannah Abbott-?

Anthony Goldstein-?

Michael Corner-?

Terry Boot-?

Fred/ George Weasley- no

Lee Jordan- no

Zacharias Smith-?

Susan Bones-?

Marietta Edgecombe- no

This time Draco put a no next to the names of the students who had graduated from Hogwarts already or, as in Marietta's case, had proven themselves untrustworthy. Draco smiled in satisfaction as he made a separate list of the names with questions marks next to them to send to his father. His father would look up information about them and send it back to Draco. Draco sent the letter with his large black eagle, before falling into bed satisfied with the work he had accomplished before school had even started.

-

A small girl was sitting next to a cold fireplace in a dark room. Behind her was a large throne-like chair with a man sitting in it.

"Master, I grow bored with the contest. May I give them a clue?" The girl asked.

"Girl," the high cold voice snarled back, "you grow bored easily."

"Forgive me master," the girl bowed. "Shall we give them another week before giving them a clue?"

"Possibly. I shall decide whether we need to give the rabble a clue."

"Could the clue be the fact that I am a girl?"

"Later!" He hissed. "I wish to plan my next attack! Leave me!" The small girl hurriedly bowed before walking out of the room to go back to Hogwarts.

Draco snarled in impatience. He had to wait for those Mudblood loving Weasley's to move out of his way. He had been on his way to the library to finish his homework, when a large circle of students stopped him.

Draco growled and pushed his way up to the front of the onlookers to get a better view. The littlest Weasley girl was sprawled on the floor and Potter was standing next to her looking sheepish. He had a small red handprint on his face and was trying to explain to Granger and older Weasley what had just happened.

"I was walking down the hall with Ginny, keeping a watch on her, like you said." Harry said earnestly. Ron was getting red in the face.

"That doesn't explain why my little sister is on the floor, upset. I wanted you to watch her so she wouldn't get hurt, Harry! I didn't want you to hurt her!" Ron screamed.

"No! You have to listen to me! She was leaning on my shoulder, and I thought she liked me. I guess I thought that giving her a little kiss-"

"Little Kiss!" A loud voice came from the now standing Ginny. "He tried to mouth rape me!" Hermione looked shocked at Ginny's choice of language, and tutted about it. Then she looked up and saw the large crowd that had gathered and blushed. "Why don't we continue this in the common room?" She muttered. The two boys nodded and started to follow her.

"Coming Ginny?" Ron asked.

"No. I am going to go into the library and finish my homework like I wanted to before. But trust me on this Ronald. I will take a piece out of your hide when I get back. Setting someone to watch over me, honestly." Ginny swept into the library. The crowd dispersed leaving a very shocked Draco behind them.

"I never knew she had it in her." He whispered before following the little vixen into the library. He was going to keep a close eye on that one.

"Harry how could you? Ostracizing her like that! You know the plans Dumbledore has for her. It's something that only she can do. Don't make her upset. She might refuse to cooperate." Hermione hissed angrily.

"She kissed me first! I don't understand why you wont believe me. She was leaning into me and she kissed me. I was just kissing her back when she slapped me and started screaming about me trying to hurt her! She stumbled back into the hallway and fell. That's when you came. You have to believe me!" Harry moaned.

"You are telling a completely different story from my sister Harry. I don't know who to believe." Ron stood up and walked to the portrait hole. "I'm going to walk around and think. I'll be back later."

Draco had followed Ginny into the dark recesses of the library. She had sat down at a table as far away from the entrance as she could and had pulled out a large tomb on the history of dark magic. Draco sauntered up to her with a smirk already plastered on his face.

"A book on dark magic, read by a Weasley? What is this world coming to?" He laughed.

"For your information Malfoy, I am interested in the dark arts and I have a major project due in Defense Against the Dark Arts tomorrow." She sniffed back at him with a toss of her head. "Take a seat so I don't have to crane my head to look at you." She added. Draco sat in the chair across from her. "You are fluent in the dark arts, aren't you? You could teach me."

"I can't teach you anything without permission," Draco answered tactfully.

"You may yet receive such permission," Ginny answered regally. She dismissed him with a wave of her hand and proceeded to ignore him by burying her head back into the book. Draco sighed and stood up. He needed to go check if his father had sent him the information that he needed.

"Master, it is done." The little girl bowed from her place in front of Voldemort. "The separation of Potter and his friends has started. A doubt has been placed inside of Weasley and Granger's minds about Potter. They are beginning to distrust him."

"Very good my heir. Now tell me child. What do you know about the wonders of dark magic?"

"I must admit ignorance, my lord. I only know the spells you have shown me." She answered.

"Very well then. The first job for your co-heir shall be to teach you the intricacies of Dark Magic. Now," he started thoughtfully, "I believe that a clue about you is now in order. I will tell your clue to my Death Eaters tonight when I call them to me." He hissed.

"Thank you my lord. I wish for my name to be announced to the Death Eaters as that of your heir, but will be unable to until my co-heir is named. I grow weary of waiting. Oh and master, I believe the Malfoy boy begins to suspect who I am." She bowed to her master and walked out of the room.

As soon as the girl left Voldemort hissed to his snake, Nagini.

"I need you to keep a close watch on that girl when she is not in my presence and not on Hogwarts grounds." Nagini hissed her assent and slithered off.

Voldemort may be evil in its purest form, but he could see and understand lust when he saw it. The girl seemed to like Draco Malfoy, and he was positive that the girl was giving him more clues than the rest of his death eaters. The boy wasn't a bad choice. He was power hungry, and had a thirst for knowledge that rivaled Voldemort's own. Another plus was that the boy had brains. Most of his newer Death Eaters were only able to follow orders, which was nice, but they couldn't think for themselves. Draco Malfoy was very intelligent. In fact, Voldemort mused absent mindedly, the boy would make a good heir.

Draco had the ability to love, something that his heir had been adamant about. Voldemort knew of his lacking such ability, and knew that if anything defeated his it would be Potters love for everything and anything. It was rather revolting. His heir and heir presumptive both had the ability to love, but it didn't control their lives so completely as Potters. They would be the perfect choice to rule in his place.

Voldemort snarled in hatred. Thinking of such things as love had given him a headache. He needed to relieve it.

"Wormtail!" He snarled. A short, squat, balding man rushed into the room and bowed at his master's feet. "Crucio!" Voldemort hissed, before he started laughing at the screams the weakling was making.