Author's note/ still Grace's POV. This chapters song is Olivia Rodrigo's Traitor. Warning this chapter includes blood, and is emotionally draining to read. I have made some changes to the storyline here as it was necessary.

Grace POV

Chapter.6 The Poison


"Sir, could i ask you a question about the Amortenula?" I've just handed Professor Slughorn the bucket containing the last ingredient needed for the potion. The Amortentia will ferment over night, and tomorrow we'll be brewing the Amortenula. It only requires a few hours fermentation to be turned.

"Of course my dear, ask away." He tells me distracted by undoing the lid, he plops the contents out onto a tray. He pulls out some kitchen shears, and my stomach is queasy as he cuts the placenta into strips. He's not even wearing gloves. Ew. "Each one of these," he holds out a bloody piece "is worth at least 20 galleons, you know." That thrills him for some reason.

"That's very nice sir but I was curious though about the differences between Amortentia, and Amortenula. I was reading in the library recently, and I found a bit on Amortentia related material but hardly anything on Amortenula."

He regards me with amusement a knowing look in his eye, "Grace, you won't have found any information on Amortenula in the library. As i recall it was all moved to the restricted section years ago."

"Oh i um-" i stutter being angry at the rather careless way i had given myself away.

"That's allright dear. Us Slytherins like to have our fun." He winks, and starts babbling on. "It must have been hard not to be curious, after performing the Tenula charm with Mr. Malfoy. I'm not entirely sure Professor Hagrid took the time to educate himself on the charm before asking you to perform it. Ordinarily i would have advised him against it, but Professor Snape and i thought there was little to no chance of the spell even working. We only joked to Hagrid that we wanted the placenta, we never expected that it would work. Then i found that it did, and i convinced Professor Snape to allow me to have it. I couldn't resist this kind of opportunity you see? In my lifetime i've only ever come across 1 other successful Tenula charm. I was not lucky enough to harvest that one, but this is rare indeed. The chance of a lifetime." I think he's forgotten i'm even here until he stops his cutting to look at me. "In the readings you found, you know that the charm is unique? It takes 2 extraordinary wizards to perform it correctly." He's hinting to a deeper meaning, to what i had tried to explain to Draco.

"I know what having completed it successfully means, yes." How embarrassing.

"I would not have expected you and Mr. Malfoy, but i suppose i've seen stranger matches in my time. You remember Professor Lupin? The werewolf? I've heard as of late he spends his time in the company of an Metamorphmagus."

"Sir, i think we've gotten off topic." I just need to know one thing. Focus Slughorn. "I know that for Amortentia to work, one only need smell it or drink it, is that the same for Amortenula? It just needs to be consumed to work?"

"The essay i set only covers Amortentia, you won't need to report on Amortenula." He says.

"I'm not asking for the essay sir." I can't meet his stare. "If someone intended to give the potion to someone else, would the instructions be the same as if it were Amortentia?"

A long awkward pause comes as we stare at one another.

"If someone did intend to use the potion, in a recreational fashion, i would extend to them a word of caution." His shears lie forgotten. "Amortentia can be waited out, an hour or so and the effects are gone. Amortenula has no such limit. Once ingested it's desires must be fulfilled or they will go on forever. It would be impossible to resist for long."

"The dosage?"

"A vial full, it's easiest for it to be consumed but it can be breathed in or taken in by the skin." He seems hesitant to finish my answer at last. My humiliation concluded.

"Thank you Professor." As i step out of Slughorn's office i throw on Harry's cloak, and pull out the map. Time to find Draco.

I find Draco with Crabbe and Goyle sitting leaned up against the castle steps. Draco clutches his bag close to his chest, he seems to barely be contributing to the conversation. It might have only been 30 minutes since he had stormed off from Hagrid's. Whatever had transpired between he and Harry was still bothering him. He won't have planned to meet with them, Crabbe and Goyle must have happened across him. Sitting as close to them as possible, i listen to them invisible to them all, under the cloak. Had it not been for this cloak Draco will have seen me from miles away, his eyesight was pure magic. Crabbe and Goyle are bored. They tell Draco so. They ask if he'd like to play a game of exploding snap. He declines. Quidditch? He declines. He seems lost in his own head.

I'm relieved. I had been wrong, i had worried for nothing. Draco had a flair for dramatics. He had overreacted to whatever had transpired, but clearly it hadn't been a big deal. He hadn't done anything stupid. His own best friends were sitting there next to him, not one whisper of anything nefarious. No death eater talk. If Draco was involved in any of that surely Crabbe and Goyle would be, it'd be the only thing the 2 of them would ever talk about.

Across the way Neville Longbottom ambles closer and closer unknowingly walking into the den of vipers just itching for something to do. Someone to torment. Sure enough Crabbe, and Goyle are delighted to have Longbottom come along. They shove him back and fourth between them. I want to stop them, but i can't give myself away. Neville will have to take these licks. They turn out his pockets, and take a liking to one item in particular.

"Give it back." Neville says trying to say with authority. He's ignored. "My mum gave that to me."

It's not until they threaten to smash it that Draco gets up still holding the bag to his chest. He takes the object from Goyle without a word and tosses it back to Neville. That's it Draco. Maybe it's been a slow process, but i knew i was making a difference. A tiny change in him, but there is good in him, i know it.

Crabbe and Goyle's fun is ruined, and as Neville scampers away they turn on Draco.

"What's wrong with you? You're no fun anymore Malfoy. All you do is sulk around!" Goyle says to him.

"Has it ever crossed your dim mind that perhaps i've got more on my mind than just having fun?" Draco says eyes narrowed, and an air of superiority about him.

It's not at all like Draco to talk like that to Goyle. Even when he's been a prat.

Goyle scowls at Draco and starts to leave then barks "Crabbe!" Crabbe looks on confused at the area between his 2 friends, unsure of who to follow. He finally decides on Goyle. It's not clear if this bothers Draco. His face is stone.

After they've gone Draco leans on the stairs again, head in hands. His shoulders begin to shake. Is he crying? I want to hold him. I'm about to leave, and head back to my room, feeling very ashamed for having followed him but then he stands. His cheeks are red, his knuckles white having been clutching the bag tight for far to long.

Where is he going? I wonder as i haunt his steps.

The owlery. That's curious. Having scanned the room, and finding himself alone he takes his bag and opens it. He pulls out a crumpled paper with the words "Until May- BL". Bellatrix Lestrange? His aunt. He flips it over, and scrawls on the back of it. "Ready." He sends the owl on it's way.

No! No. No. This isn't real. I knew his family worked for the dark lord. I accepted that. But that had nothing to do with him. But How could Draco be working with them? Corresponding with them. They were plotting something. Had Harry been right about all of it? I really thought i'd been helping him. I thought it was starting to make a difference. I thought i could save him. Had i been naive to believe that? My vision's tunneling out, and i have to lean against the wall for balance.

I'm still struggling to process everything when Professor Snape enters the owlery. "Draco." He greets.

Draco nods not wanting to look at him. Snape can see the red splotches still yet to go away.

"Draco is everything, are you okay?" He extends his hand to place it on Draco's shoulder, a fatherly way about it.

"I'm fine." He says pulling away.

"Your not. Draco please let me-"Snape says.

"A Unicorn Ate My Homework." Draco laughs sounding mad, and moves passed Snape shoulder checking him harder than needed. Snape us to shocked to say or do anything he just watches as Draco recedes from his line of sight.

When i get back to my dorm late. I don't cry. I just lay on my bed. Terrified to confront the truth. Now i can no longer deny it. Draco has become a death eater. He cannot be trusted. The protean charmed coin in my pocket begins to warm. I ignore it. It gets warmer, and warmer until it feels like i'm being scorched. I lurch from my bed. Rip off the unicorn hair coat he gave me, and pull the coin out and hurl it. I hear the clink of it against glass. It's put a small crack in the mirror on my wall. I stare at myself in the mirror. Draco's green scarf suddenly feels suffocating, and not cozy. It feels like hands are wrapping around my throat, strangling me until i can't breathe. I disentangle it from my neck until it fall at my feet, in a pile with the coat. My head band comes off next, but i pull to hard at it, and it snaps in half. I drop it to the floor. It's trash now. There in my icy blonde curls, is the butterfly clip, another token from Draco. My fingers go to remove it, but i find they can't. I can't bring myself to take it off. What a coward i am, no wonder the hat hadn't fought harder to make me a Gryffindor. Dammit! The shattering of glass alarms me. Then the sting in my hand forces me to look away from myself, i look down. Tiny fragments of the mirror are imbedded in my fist, blood drips down onto the coat. It's ruined to. Everything is ruined. I want to scream. I want to cry. And a little part of me envies my sister for never having to walk the halls of Hogwarts.

I liked the way it felt wearing something of Draco's, or something he'd given me. I thought it meant something. I cry myself to sleep that night, for what i fear won't be the last time.

The next morning i'm the first to get to Slughorn's classroom. My hand is freshly bandaged and I've glamoured it so no one will ask me about it. I help Slughorn set up and thankfully he does not bring up our conversation from yesterday. Which i'm glad for, it gives me time to think as the other students start to trickle in.

I think about Draco and although i am mad at him. I can't bring myself to hate him. To hate him would mean i was done with him, and i'm not. I'm not ready to throw in the towel completely. I just don't know what else i can do.. well actually i have one plan but it's mad. Had the Tenula charm been wrong? Somehow made a mistake?

I have not yet shared with Harry my discovery about Draco, and i'm afraid of what he might do.

I think Draco might be planning to leave Hogwarts. It's been right there this whole year. Subtle things he does or says. Like he's taking it all in for the very last time. Then there was the pumpkin patch, he's never kissed me like that before. Like a drowning man desperate to quench his thirst. I thought maybe finally there would be more, he would want more from me. But before it could go farther he sent me away. Rejected again.

I wanted to bring the subject up with him. Hell i would like to discuss numerous topics with him. Ginny Weasley's boyfriend's can't keep their hands off her. Always snogging a different boy every term. What's wrong with me? What's so undesirable that Draco can't bear to touch me. Is it my family again? He assures me that Polly being a squib doesn't bother him. But i wonder. Could that be what detests him so?

Until May" the note from his aunt said. Is he even planning to tell me before he leaves? Will i just wake up one day and be unable to find him.

"Sorry Draco." Someone says after they've knocked into him coming through the door. He's picking up papers that have fallen from the table, and i bend down to help him myself.

Our fingers touch when i hand them to him, and it's warm and so inviting, but i'm mad at him so i refuse to look at him. I know what i'll see. A raised brow. "Where were you last night?" It will say.

Draco takes his seat next to Harry, and i with Ron. We're working with our partners again today. I wonder how that's been the 2 of them working together. I've done the majority of our work, Ron has his skills but potions is not one of them. My hand is throbbing and i set to work as Slughorn advises us to get started.

"Malfoy, looks like hell. Must not have slept last night." Ron says next to me. Then after looking at me, "you look about the same. Late night with the ferret?"

"No."

The Amortentia smells even better than it had yesterday. Apples, crushed roses, and old paper. I make quick work of grinding the bits of placenta, and adding them to the cauldron. Then it's an ounce of Veela blood. I hope that it was obtained with consent. It's finished, and i advise Ron to take extreme care as he pours it into the vial. I don't want any wasted on Ron.

I've decided to enact my plan. The Tenula charm hadn't been wrong. There was still hope for Draco. He needs me, and i cannot abandon him.

I was about to head to Slughorn's desk, and switch our vial with a fake. Before i can Slughorn sees that we've finished. He's been keeping a close eye on me today. He inspects our vial, and happily announces to the class he would like to reward us with a little something for a job well done. He pockets our vial. You dirty old- i have plans for that. Everyone else continues their work as Ron and, i stand around watching Slughorn take inventory of the items on his desk deciding which of them he will give us. He decides on a bottle with a red bow on it. I tell Ron he should have it.

We are dismissed but i intend to dawdle. Ron goes to sit in the hall, to wait for Harry but pours me a cup of our prize. I don't drink it, i just nurse it in my hand. I intend to leave with a vial of Amortenula. Feigning writing notes at my seat, i wait for someone to finish their potion. It's Hannah Abbott and Neville. They slide their vial into the tray, and Slughorn is distracted with another pair struggling to contain the sludge coming out of their cauldron. I ghost my way to the front, and successfully pilfer the vial for later.

I decide to wait outside to, but i don't see Ron. He was just here. I sit near another classroom door that's closed. After awhile Draco, and Harry exit both looking equally glad to be rid of one another. Harry rounds the corner. Draco sits near me, leaving plenty of space to make it obvious he's not next to me. He's going to want an explanation for last night, and i don't have one.

"Hey." He says in that way that i find sexy and cool. I take a swig from my cup, it burns but not in a nice way.

Before i reply a shout draws both of our attention from the way Harry had gone. "Help! Someone!" His voice is distressed. I drop my cup.

I jump out of my seat with Draco following close behind.

Harry is cradling Ron's pale face. He seems to be asleep. The bottle Slughorn had just given us lays discarded away, the seal is broken Ron must have taken a drink.

Draco ignores Harry as he assesses the scene in front of us. He throws his arm in front of me to stop me from going any closer. He looks at Harry suddenly horrified "Potter where did that come from?" He screams pointing at the bottle. "Did you drink any of it?"

"No, i came this way and i found him like this. He won't wake up. Ron! Wake up. Wake up Ron." Harry is hysterical. "What is it Malfoy? You know what it is! What did you do?" Harry accuses him of what i'm not sure.

If he were not holding his best friend, i think Harry might have. Go at Draco. I move to stand between them but i sway, and feel suddenly more tired than I remember. Draco catches my hand, and i wince at the pain it's caused the cuts on my palm.

"Grace, did you drink it? Did you drink what was in that bottle?" He's shaking my shoulders, but i can't focus let alone answer him. Somethings not right i realize. What- the drink. It had to be the drink. Was it poisoned? Were Ron and i poisoned?

Harry looks franticly back and forth between Ron and i. "What's wrong with them Malfoy?" He asks.

Draco doesn't answer. He's got his arms around my shoulders and he's pushing me forward down the hall. Taking me where i don't know. I stumble, and nearly fall, but Draco's hands catch me.

It's nice being this close to him, comforting when he's pulling me close. Not pushing me away.

"Malfoy!" Harry screams "Malfoy get back here! bring her back here! What have you done! Someone Help!"

I hear the commotion starting in the hall. Harry's screams have drawn out students. Professor Slughorn is shouting out instructions. "Sit him up." And "someone fetch Professor Snape."

Harry is still screaming about Draco. I start to feel very faint like i'm slipping under something. "Draco, i don't think i can walk anymore." He scoops me into his arms, and starts to run. It makes me feel sicker when the wind goes passed my cheek so i tuck my face into Draco's chest. I can't hear anything anymore except Draco.

"Stay awake, please. Stay awake." He chants in my ear. I don't know where we are, and it's hard to keep my eyes open. If i could just go to sleep for a moment i think it would be allright. Draco's screaming, but i can't make out the words. I feel lightheaded and i imagine this is what being high feels like. I see a flash of bright light, and i let sleep take me.