There's a bit of a time skip thing happening in the middle of this chapter because I have poor planning skills but I think it still works! Let me know if something reads weird, I did some re-writes on this since I haven't touched this series in a WHILE.

Warnings: Swearing, angst

Ever since he'd given you the old leather-bound book, Draco had started avoiding you more avidly. No longer did you find him staring at you in Transfiguration or throwing snide comments at you across the dinner table. It was like you simply ceased to exist. Now you were the one staring, weighing the options that hung heavily in the air.

You started to notice how tired he looked. Bags under his grey eyes, hair more disheveled than you were used to. You knew he often got letters from his parents and they seemed to cause him to retreat into himself even farther. He was pale and looked ready to crumble if you so much as looked at him. Of course, this wasn't the case, he still snapped at Gryffindors and kept up his grades to an incredible standard, but something was off. Even you could see that.

You were starting to get worried when he disappeared from the common room for hours at a time, even missing classes at certain points. Pansy and Blaise admitted that they hadn't spoken to him in weeks. It was almost as if Draco Malfoy was becoming one of the Hogwarts ghosts.

"I have bigger fish to fry" rung through your ears. Right, because he was now considered an important member of pureblood society. Swearing allegiance to the Dark Lord. You didn't understand why anyone would throw away their life like that, especially a minor. He was up to something, you could feel it in your bones.

You shook your head. It wasn't your problem and he wasn't your responsibility.
Months. That's how long you'd been searching for a solution. Nothing, except that damn book Draco had found. Trouble was stirring, you could feel it in the air.

Potter and his friends seemed to be plotting among themselves. Pureblood families started forming two different groups; those with Death Eater parents and those disgusted by their former friends. You heard the teachers whispering wherever you went and there was an eerie hush through the castle whenever the daily profit reported another death.

You wanted to run away, hide, scream and never see any of your peers again. Unfortunately, until you broke that contract, you'd have nowhere to run without basically having a glowing sign over your head everywhere you went.

You spent the next week trying to corner Draco. Every time you got close enough to talk to him, Crabbe or Goyle would get in your way or he would just disappear into the crowd. It was incredibly frustrating, like trying to catch smoke with your hands.

You finally managed to catch him by staying up in the common room, watching students trickle out to their dorms. You stayed awake to the best of your ability, spite motivating your eyes to stay open. Finally twenty minutes after the last straggler had shipped off to bed, the soft click of a dorm room opened and a blond head of hair snuck past your spot by the dwindling fire quietly.

"Malfoy." You stood up as he froze in his tracks. "Look at me."

"What." He spun on his heels to finally look you in the eyes. His stare was deadly and you could see his jaw clench.

"I want out. I want out of this fucking contract and this is all I have." You held up the leather bound book you'd been carrying around for weeks.

"I don't have time for this Y/L/N," he grumbled, "there's more important things than your stupid vendetta against me."

"This isn't about you, you selfish prick," you snapped, "I need out." You ground out.

"You have your whole life to figure shit out, I don't." He muttered.

"What does that mean?" You looked at him questioningly.

"Nothing, never mind." He refused to meet your eyes, "stop bothering me." He growled and stalked away and out of the common room before you could respond.

"Fine, I'll have to do it myself then." You spoke aloud as you watched him walk away from you.

You did stop bothering him. All the way through the Easter Holidays you stayed in your family library. Picking through different potion books and ignoring your parents calls for you to attend events with them. You snuck around your own home as if it was a graveyard and you were afraid of waking the dead. Even your mother couldn't manage to get you out of your room. You were focussed and nothing could draw your attention from your goal. An obsession in your mind.

Back at Hogwarts you coasted through your days. Attending classes and eating dinner before choosing to lock yourself in an abandoned classroom every evening. You stole ingredients from the potion's cupboard, hoping Slughorn wouldn't catch you.

You managed to completely burn through two cauldrons with your first batches of Draught of Living death which did nothing to help your nerves. The calming draught was luckily much easier to come by. A little trip to the hospital with a strong case of nerves and Madamme Pomfrey was all too happy to give a hysterical teenage girl something to calm her down.

Finally you had your opportunity. Gryffindor was playing Ravenclaw for the final Quidditch game of the year. The whole school would be attending and you could hide in your classroom and perform the ritual yourself. You crossed your fingers and hoped everything in your draught of living death and after checking the recipe one more time you bottled it. Clearing all of your potion supplies you placed the contract on the desk in front of you, the two draughts sitting next to it threateningly.

You bit the inside of your cheek and read the worth page one more time. You'd take the calming draught first, then the draught of living death, quickly slice the palm of your hand and simply let the blood drip onto the contract. What worried you was someone finding you passed out over a contract full of blood. What worried you more was never waking up again and no one finding you at all.

"Okay, ya know what, either this works or I don't have to live with the consequences, right?" You spoke out loud to yourself.

Unstoppering the two vials you quickly shot down the calming one as the door to the classroom slammed open. You dropped the half empty vial and cursed under your breath.

"Are you insane?" The voice cut through you like ice.

"Get out of here Malfoy, this is none of your business."

"Unfortunately, it is my business." He stalked over to you, stopping a foot away from you as you gripped the vial of death in your hand behind your back.

"Have I ever been unkind to you? Have I mistreated you in any way?" His tone was cold, questions falling from his lips as if they'd been there all along. "Am I honestly so repulsive to you that this is a better option than just marrying me?" His hand shot out to reach behind your back and tried to pry the vial from your grasp.

"Don't touch me with that vile thing," you spat and shoved Draco away from you, you knew the mark that rested underneath his sleeve and it terrified you more than you could say.

He looked taken aback and almost ashamed. Before he could react you turned away from him and downed the potion in your hand. Snatching your wand off of the table you pointed it at your hand and slashed the soft skin.

"This is pointless Y/N," Draco grabbed your bleeding hand and held it away from the parchment in front of you. "It's a copy, it's not going to fix anything. I'm taking you to the hospital wing before you pass out."

"I'm not stupid Malfoy," you spat and pulled your hand from his grip with quite a bit of effort, "I swapped the contracts over easter. This is the original." The blood pooling in your hand was starting to run over the edge of your hand and you held it over the parchment, spilling your blood over the page.

"Not stupid my ass." You heard him growl as your vision started to blur and your head felt full of fog.

"I…." You took a big breath and tried to steady yourself, before you lost control of your body and collapsing.

Dundunduuuun, I doubt this surprised anyone but don't you worry there will be plenty more drama where that came from hahaha
xx J