"Go to Severus," her father's voice echoed, growing louder with every syllable. Sharlen peeked her eyes open drowsily, feeling weak, weeks' worth of coughing bubbling up in her throat. She let them out, dark fluid being released from her lungs, and then she was sputtering as if floodgates had opened inside of her. What was once so calm became chaotic and pressing. Gravity itself felt like it was bearing her heavily into the floor.

"What are you…" she choked out, sinking into a coughing fit again.

Voldemort brought her to her feet with a wave of his wand. "You've been in stasis," he said calmly, his voice made of ice. "Go to Severus, at Hogwarts. You'll need more of your potion."

"Stasis?" she asked, finding her footing. "What do you mean?"

"Preserved. Frozen," he told her, watching carefully. "For three months. Now, if you feel I can trust you with this simple excursion," he added, full of mirth, "you are to go to Severus and get the potion he has waiting for you."

"Three… Thr…" More coughing overcame her and her teeth chattered nonstop. She met her father's eyes and tried to get a grip before him. "Th-thank you for releasing me, father."

"Do I ask too much of you, Sharlen?" he asked quietly, tilting his head at her, watching her convulse. She shook her head rapidly.

"I will do as you ask," she told him with increasing difficultly, her jaw practically jumping. She had plenty of potion from her maker in Knockturn Alley, but he couldn't know that.

Voldemort grinned at her, pleased, and turned to leave. Sharlen glanced around her, realizing she was in her room in Malfoy Manor. "Go to Severus at Hogwarts. He is expecting you," he reiterated as he swept from the room. "I will be back in a few nights to check on your adjustment. And if you do not return," he added over his shoulder, "I shall know."

As he closed the door behind him, Sharlen fell to her knees, bent over the floor with her face in her hands as she wailed loudly. He had to be lying, she couldn't have disappeared for three entire months… What had she missed seeing? How many visions went by without any cognizance? She was supposed to have helped rescue Luna and the others with Lupin, she should have been able to find another Horcrux by now… and where was Harry?

Sharlen launched herself from the floor and across the made bed, clawing for the little black book she'd had hidden, but her heart dropped out from her body to find her hiding place empty. Gagging, she groped along her body to find the black bag she'd been wearing when she went to find the trio. Shuddering even more violently with relief, it came back to her—she'd had no time to hide anything when she returned before her father captured her. Froze her?

She could still smell Harry on her clothes. Her fingers were thick and clumsy as she struggled to take the book out, as if all her nerves had been asleep. Her entire body was beginning to tingle maddeningly the more she reanimated.

With a groan of frustration and effort, Sharlen navigated turning the pages to see what she'd missed. Her mouth fell open in dismay to see the months of notes from Harry that she'd missed, each more pleading and worried than the last. "I wish you could have stayed with us. I can still feel you here." "I miss you. Let me know you're safe." "Sharlen, where are you? Please let me know you're okay." "Ron and Hermione are all that's keeping me from using a Locator Spell to find you." "Respond with anything. Anything. I need to know you're alive." "I shouldn't have made you stay. It's my fault if you're dead. Please don't be dead. Don't leave me." "Sharlen please don't disappear again." "Come back."

Sobbing openly, Sharlen held the book close to her chest. He thought she was dead. She had to go to him and apologize, to explain…

With a deep breath, Sharlen steadied herself to sniffling. She felt lightheaded and tired, and needed her potion. She couldn't go see Harry with her father insisting she go to Hogwarts, with Snape expecting her… Not unless she was ready to abandon her espionage entirely.

Her trembling fingers found a quill on the blackwood desk, nearly knocking over the bottle of ink, and she wrote, "I am alive. He held me captive. I cannot tell you how sorry I am.

I will come see you as soon as I possibly can. He is sending me to Hogwarts and I must go immediately. I will continue the search."

Sharlen stood and went to her store of potion, taking a long draught and testing her reflexes. The tingling in her extremities had reached her core and she could hardly bear it. She didn't want to waste time before going to Hogwarts, especially with the rescue mission hanging over her—she'd promised Luna and the others that she would get them help three months ago. She had to see Snape and get back as soon as possible. Feeling helpless to the point of tears, Sharlen tested the Lumos spell and clumsily shot the small ball of light to the ground once she finally got it to appear.

Worried she would Splinch herself if she tried to Apparate, Sharlen gathered her cloak with both hands, unable to form a steady fist yet, and left her room to find Draco. At the base of the stairs she passed Bellatrix, who gaped, but didn't try to speak to her. Glancing around, Sharlen spotted his white-blond hair beyond the grand patio doors. With some difficulty, she coaxed the handle up and out.

Draco started at the sound and stood, wide-eyed, to greet her. Sharlen still felt weepy, despite herself, and Piotr and Draco raced each other to meet her where she stood. He wrapped his arms around her tightly and she couldn't help but relax into him, completely exhausted already. "I fucking missed you," he moaned against her temple, hands strong and sure against her back.

Sharlen cursed how fragile she felt, how frail, how much that sentiment echoed within her. Swallowing hard several times, she craned her neck back to meet his eyes. He looked pained and pitying. "Draco, I'll need you to tell me everything I've missed," she told him quietly, while Piotr danced around them. "But right now my father wants me to go see Snape, at Hogwarts. I don't feel I'm strong enough to Apparate yet… Would you take me there?"

"Go… Go to Hogwarts with you?" he asked, lighting up a little. Slowly, Sharlen squinted to see his aura as it began to build, as if Merope's powers, too, were slow to stir after their stasis.

"Bring me, not stay," she told him softly. She felt him deflate with disappointment. "I'm sorry, but you know it's too dangerous there. I'm sure your parents wouldn't even want you to take me at all, let alone stick around."

"But how will you return?" he asked, still holding her. As if he was afraid she wouldn't.

Sharlen tried a weak smile. "I'll have my strength back soon, I hope. I won't be long, I'm just getting my potion."

"Sharlen," Draco said quietly, eyes searching her face, "That night. Where were you?"

Tears filled her eyes and she felt a small gasp she couldn't control take in her next breath. She'd been so selfish. "I… I can't tell you."

Draco nodded and took a half step back, taking her hand. With her free one, Sharlen reached up to clumsily stroke Piotr, who finally landed on her shoulder. He nuzzled her affectionately, fiercely, and she whispered apologies to him. "Thank you for keeping him company," she told Draco, who nodded a few times, deep in thought. The red in his aura betrayed his scheming how to stay away from the manor as long as possible, burning with this small prospect of freedom.

Sharlen shrugged Piotr off and the two Apparated from the patio.

Unsteady upon landing, Sharlen held fast to Draco and squeezed her eyes shut, still feeling the sickening spinning sensation. Draco kept a hand on her shoulder as she stumbled past him and vomited at the main gates, the cold of the nearby Dementors creeping in. She moaned at the idea of summoning a Patronus, feeling nothing but cold, damp dread within her at how much time she'd missed. Not knowing who was dead or alive.

"I'll have to transform to get past the Dementors right now," she told Draco thickly, glancing up to see his brows pinched with worry. "You should go back before they start affecting you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, before your father gets angry," she muttered, standing up on her own. "I promise I won't be long. Just a quick errand, and I'll be home."

The word stuck in her throat as though trying to choke her, and the two stared at each other for several long seconds as the cold caught in their bones and kept spreading. Draco's aura pulsed, pleased she had called his home her own; Sharlen fought losing the will to live at the very concept.

"Please," she whispered. "Leave me. I won't have you getting hurt over me." Draco looked away, heavily burdened with her, and Apparated from sight. With a deep breath and a small moan of effort, Sharlen transformed into an owl and, with weak wingbeats, flew over the gate and across the grounds, ignoring the Dementors at their stations.

Strained with each second, Sharlen succumbed to exasperation at the magnitude of this simple flight, wing joints shaking by the time she landed in front of the main entrance. She didn't feel physically able to fly to Snape's office, and opted to transform back into her body and enter on foot.

Assuming it must be around midday, Sharlen warily avoided the eyes of the students in the entryway and going in and out of the Great Hall. Wasting no time, she ascended the stairs, focusing on the trick steps and the movement of the staircases ahead of her.

None other than Peeves, the poltergeist, met her on her journey to the headmaster's office. He floated alongside her as she forced her heavy limbs onward, sparing only a glance at him. "Now how is this, the ickle Darkling is back again for more mischief," he teased, bouncing along in the air beside her.

"Leave me," she muttered, losing her will more with each step.

"We should have teamed up," he sang, cackling. "Your tricks and mine—"

"Peeves, I'm just here to see Snape," she snapped, reaching the top. He blocked her path.

"She won't she won't!" he sneered, utterly pleased with himself. Past him, Sharlen saw Nearly Headless Nick, the Bloody Baron, and the Fat Friar by the gargoyles guarding the entrance to Snape's office. "She don't belong, she won't belong!"

"Why are you all here?" she asked Nick as she peered around Peeves. The poltergeist danced before her, trying to block her view. Frustrated, she pushed him aside.

"Hello to you too," rasped the Baron.

"We've been positioned here to prevent unnecessary interruption of the headmaster," Nick spat bitterly, clearly resenting this use of his abilities.

"But there's a password, isn't that enough?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"The headmaster has been… a target of many pranks," the Friar offered, folding his arms disapprovingly at Peeves, who was busying himself blowing raspberries in a frenzy above them.

"There would be more of us," Nick said with an air of annoyance, "but the Grey Lady makes herself scarce."

"I see," Sharlen said quietly, growing impatient. She had far too much waiting for her when she returned to be wasting her time with this. "Well, I have an appointment."

"You're neither student, faculty, nor official," Nick argued, still blocking her path. "It escapes me how you're able to continue entering this castle, but I believe it's time you left for good."

"I walk right through the door, every single time," she growled at them. In no mood to act, Sharlen glanced between the ghosts, assessing her audience. "What love do you have for Snape, truly? Is your allegiance misguided? Have you forgotten your place, or mine?"

"Our allegiance is forever with this school and all it holds," Nick insisted, head wobbling in his anger. "It's time you left!"

"I've been sent by The Dark Lord to retrieve something. Is that a good enough reason to see him?" Sharlen narrowed her eyes coldly, daring them to challenge her. The ghosts stayed very still for a few long moments. Without another word amongst them, the Baron floated backward through the locked entrance of the office staircase. A few seconds later, glaring Sharlen into the floor, Nick floated through her and out of sight back the way she came.

Gagging as the cold of him ripped the breath from her lungs, Sharlen found herself alone and supremely uncomfortable with the Friar and Peeves. As Peeves sang, "Oh the ickle Darkling, she is making threats," the Friar shook his head at her sadly. "I hope kindness can someday find your heart," he told her. Inside, Sharlen felt her chest splintering to shards.

A minute of strained silence followed until the Baron returned with Snape. Looking just the same with his aura billowing black, Sharlen fought to stand very still when all she felt compelled to do was fall to her knees and beg him to fix all she'd broken. Confess all her sins. Snape came forward and handed her a large vial of her bright red potion, which she quickly put in her bag. Their eyes not leaving the others', it became apparent neither had words to share. In unison, they turned from each other, Snape retreating to his study and Sharlen fleeing, eager to be rid of this task and leave the castle.

"If you know of or happen upon any objects belonging to the founders," she called over her shoulder to the Baron and the Friar, "give them to Ginny Weasley and tell her to guard them until he comes."

Briefly happy to be away from Peeves and the ghosts, Sharlen stumbled crudely over a trick step she almost sank into. Her arms ached as she clutched the banister to steady herself. She stopped to check her black book for a response from Harry, but found none. She continued on, steeling herself for the flight back to the entrance of the grounds and the Apparition that would follow. On the final staircase, she saw Nearly Headless Nick drifting away from the entrance hall, through a wall in the general direction of the dungeons. Before her stood Ginny.

Sharlen stopped on the third stair, trying to remain still despite her inner deflation. "You again," she said to no one in particular. Why did she feel so guilty to have her last, blissful night with Harry come swimming into mind? For her, it hadn't been three months. It was still as if it had just happened hours before.

"The Dark Lord's errand girl, now, I hear," Ginny said coldly, blocking her path a mere ten feet away.

"Clever little birds you have," Sharlen muttered, descending the last few steps.

"What have I been unclear about?" the fiery girl asked, hate dripping in every syllable. "You're not welcome here."

"No one is welcome here anymore."

"Trying to enter the Room of Requirement again?" she asked coldly, standing her ground.

"Not today."

"I keep asking myself," Ginny said, taking out her wand, "how we keep allowing you to leave when you willingly come to cause more trouble for Harry."

"Allow me," Sharlen parroted under her breath, a small laugh of disbelief in her voice. "What's your goal here, Ginny? In confronting me? If you believe me to be a Death Eater, is it just your Gryffindor bravery that compels you to stand in my way?"

"I'll fight every one of your kind I come up against," she responded firmly, glaring. "Anyone who causes trouble for Harry, who aligns with the Dark Side, I will fight. Especially you."

"I'm leaving. There's no fight here today."

"I'm waiting for the part where you try to convince me you're no enemy of mine," Ginny growled. "Your infamous song and dance."

Sharlen watched the blazing redhead sadly. If she knew how much Harry had missed Sharlen, how tenderly he'd held her their last night, it would destroy her. "On the contrary, I can see only an enemy in you, Ginny."

"I won't let you go out into the world and further harm him. I don't care who you are." Ginny shouted a curse Sharlen barely heard as she focused on summoning a shield to fend it off. A crash as the two spells collided made her knees buckle. Bone-tired, Sharlen found all she wanted to do was forget where she was, what she faced, and fall into sleep.

"I won't fight you," Sharlen said weakly, thinking I can't fight you.

Ginny shot another spell at her ferociously, and Sharlen ducked down from it as Hagrid's voice boomed angrily into the hall from the grounds behind Ginny. "That's enough, Ginny!"

Not turning to see him, Ginny stood and considered Sharlen as she gripped the banister, righting herself halfheartedly. The grip on her wand relaxed, and the fury in her aura released the slightest fraction as confusion seeped in. "What's wrong with you?"

"I'm leaving," Sharlen told her again. Hagrid stood in the doorway watching them, unsure of how to interject.

"You've heard from him, haven't you?" Ginny said suddenly, murderously quiet. Startled, Sharlen didn't respond. Ginny switched her weight to her right hip, considering her. "You've seen him."

"I'm helping them, I—"

"I've told you, all you do is hurt him," she shot back firmly. "All you've ever done is hurt him."

Harry's tormented messages, left unanswered for three long months, echoed inside her. Stable as shattered glass, an audible shake in her exhale, Sharlen shook her head at the ground and let herself cry as she walked past Ginny and out the front doors past Hagrid. Startled by her outright weakness, Ginny watched her go without trying to stop her, mouth slightly open—worried she'd been right.

Sharlen returned from Hogwarts feeling like a failure, Ginny's words still ringing in her ears, but glad at the very least that she hadn't seen any of the teachers on that trip. She convened that after checking on Luna and the others she'd set off again to meet Lupin and plan their escape. Walking heavily up the steps to Malfoy Manor she looked up, feeling immense tension inside its walls, and quickened her pace to cross the threshold and see what was wrong. Inside, she found the Malfoys and Bellatrix looking severely frightened, with Lucius and Fenrir Greyback scattered on the floor, unconscious.

"What's happened?" she asked, brows furrowed as her eyes moved between them. No one seemed content to speak.

"Potter," Bellatrix finally said in a stage whisper.

Sharlen's blood ran cold with dread, and adrenaline surged through her viciously. Her legs felt bolted to the floor and her eyes had widened despite her better intentions. "What do you mean? Where?"

"Here," Narcissa added, still looking stunned.

"Can anyone tell me what the hell is going on with more than one word at a time or do I have to start using Legilimency?" Sharlen shouted, trying to seem intimidating but feeling nothing but freezing fear inside.

Draco stepped forward and retold the events that had happened moments before as Narcissa revived Lucius. Sharlen had apparently walked in just as they'd Apparated from the room. Draco, his mother, and Bellatrix were wandless.

"Where are the prisoners?" Sharlen demanded, feeling returning to her fingertips now that she knew Harry had safely escaped and her father hadn't been notified. This was too good to be true.

"They got all of them," Lucius spat bitterly, coming to his feet, "Ollivander and the goblin, too."

Sharlen feigned her best look of disgust, her eyes moving from the chandelier crashed to the floor to the blood nearby that must have been Hermione's. Her eyes suddenly flew to Draco. "No one recognized Harry Potter?"

"H-he was stung badly…" Draco muttered.

"The Dark Lord will not be pleased that you've been gone so long," Lucius added suddenly, pulling some confidence that still lurked somewhere inside him. "Perhaps if you'd been here, you would have known him straight away."

Outraged that he dare threaten to blackmail her, Sharlen glowered at him and saw his aura jump, though he remained quite still. His smirk stayed in place but the snark died from his eyes as she approached him. "I, unlike you, am not chained to this house," she growled at him darkly. "Where I go, especially at our Lord's request, is no one's concern. You're the one who let Harry Potter slip through your fingers." She turned on her heel and ascended the stairs, calling back, "I'm sure none of you wants to find out what he'd think of that delightful detail, but why don't you just go ahead and try me."

"How are we going to explain that the prisoners are gone?!" Bellatrix raged. Sharlen kept walking, eager to find out where Harry was and leave them to the mess they'd landed in. When she'd closed her door, she quickly flipped through her black book to see if he'd written to her, but there was nothing. She quickly scribbled, Draco just told me what happened. Please let me know you're safe.

She kept checking all night for a response, growing more and more anxious, but none came. Around eleven, Draco knocked on her door and opened it to find her on the floor, arms and head laying on the edge of the bed. As Sharlen lifted her head to greet him and nonchalantly closed the disappointing book, Draco closed her door behind him and went to help her up. Sick with apprehension and crippled from exhaustion, she nodded and he climbed into her bed. She followed him and curled up against his chest, giving into her selfishness again as he held her.

For days she checked the book for a response, and no note appeared.