A day of classes came and went but the only thing on the mind of the sixth and seventh year students was the house unity ball that was to take place that evening. After their potions class last lesson, Pansy, Hermione, Luna and Ginny changed into their regular clothing and went off into Diagon Alley to look for new clothes.

'Let's start with Seren's Shoes at the end of the alley.' Pansy said, 'I want to get some nice heels to go with the dress I got from my aunt last year.'

The two Gryffindors and Luna nodded their heads in agreement. The four girls entered the store, greeting the old woman behind the counter and started to browse the shelves. Picking a few of their favourites, the sat down to try them on.

'So, Hermione, what about you and Ron? After your fight, are you going to the ball together?' Pansy asked, tilting her head and looking at the current shoe she had on.

'Yeah, has my arsehole brother actually plucked up the courage to ask you?' Ginny asked, holding up a pair of heels.

Hermione sighed, 'I've no clue. He hasn't spoken to me all day, let alone ask me to the ball. I tried to approach him in Herbology and he completely avoided eye contact with me.' She shrugged, not really sure what to do.

'Shit. I'm sorry Hermione. This is why I can not keep a boyfriend down!' The Slytherin laughed, 'They are way too much work. I'm only going with Theo because he's one of my best friends.

Ginny laughed with her, 'It's easier to keep men at arms length.'

'Says you! You and Potter are practically joined at the lips!' Pansy said, smiling at the younger girl.

The three girls laughed with each other as they grabbed another pair of shoes to try on.

'I'm going with Blaise.' Luna piped up as silence fell immediately after.

Hermione and Pansy had stopped what they were doing and slowly turned their heads, staring straight at the blonde.

'YOU'RE BLAISE'S MYSTERY WOMAN? Why the fuck didn't he just tell us?!' Pansy's eyes almost popped out of her head as she yelled in surprise.

Luna's cheeks turned a light shade of crimson, 'He just asked me yesterday and I said yes. It's not that big of a deal.' She rose from her seat and wandered over to a nearby shelf stacked with shoes.

'Do you like him?' Hermione asked, smiling at her.

Luna shrugged, "I always thought someone my age would ask me.'

'Oh that's right!' Hermione answered, 'I always forget you were in the year below us.'

Pansy frowned, 'Hang on, if Luna was in the year below us, how come you're not living with us?' She said, turning to the red head.

'Oh, she made head girl this year.' Hermione said, half proud but half jealous.

'I'm staying in the head's dorm with William Applebaum who made head boy, who's also a seventh year.' Ginny beamed, not taking her eyes off the shelves.

Hermione nodded, 'Remember, we're returning students, they're actually in year seven, we're just repeating.'

'Oh yeah, I bet Potter's pleased about you staying in a room with another man.' The only Slytherin winked.

Ginny laughed, 'It means he comes round a lot more.'

'I heard they're looking for deputies in a few weeks.' Pansy trailed off, paying more attention to the new shoes she was trying on.

Luna turned back to the two girls and held up a pair of blue pumps.

Hermione and Ginny shook their heads, 'Clashes with your dress.' Ginny said as the Ravenclaw held up another, a deep red this time.

'I like them!' Hermione announced.

'Yeah, so will Blaise.' Pansy laughed, sending the Gryffindors into a fit of giggles. Luna rolled her eyes but couldn't help laughing along with them.

The girls bought their new shoes, for Pansy - a diamond encrusted silver pair, for Luna - a pair of velvet red chunky heel, for Hermione - a light cyan scrappy sandal heel, and for Ginny, a simple pair of black pumps. Arm in arm, they left the store and went to the nearest dress store, hoping to find new dresses for Hermione, Luna and Ginny.

Meanwhile, Draco, Theo and Blaise were in Harold Deacon's Haberdashery all getting fitted for new suits. The store had popped up in Knockturn Alley shortly after Voldemort had started to rise to power, meaning mainly death eaters had known about it at first. Slowly, as more people started to venture into this alley to even out the segregation the Dark Lord had started, it became a popular place to buy clothes and material. The three boys had been before when it was a small business, but continue to shop there as they were close to the owner and his wife, bringing them flowers and sweet treats whenever they visited.

Today that had brought Mrs. Deacon a bouquet of posies and a slice of pumpkin pie each that they had bought from Horsebuck's Bakery just before. Harold Deacon had measured each man before sketching out a few suits for each of them, helping them to pick the colours of the material.

'What about a dark grey for Mr. Malfoy?' Harold said, sliding a sketch in front of Draco and to the Slytherin's delight, the old man waved his wand and charmed his current clothes to temporarily look like his drawing. Draco strode over to the full length mirror and dusted his shoulder off. He smiled as he realised that the suit really made his grey eyes stand out.

'I'll take it.' He said, 'How much and when will it be ready?' His smile dropping as the charm faded away and he was returned to normal clothing.

'I can get it done within the hour as long as you're fine with a magic stitch instead of hand sewn. Normally, I would charge 150 galleons but for you fine, young men, 100.' Harold jotted down a few notes onto some parchment.

'Done deal! Thank you Mr. Deacon!' Draco smiled and shook his hand eagerly. He pulled a small sack out of his back pocket and counted out the money, handing them to Mrs. Deacon behind the counter.

Theo and Blaise followed soon after, with Theo getting a navy suit with a waistcoat and Blaise getting a dark red suit with a longer blazer. After paying for their suits, they wondered over to the tie section, browsing the number of material strips hanging up.

'So did you find anyone to go with in the end, Draco?' Theo asked, looking through the light blue ties.

Draco shook his head, 'It's weird, none of the women seem too interesting to me. They're all like airheads, or something? It's really unsettling.'

Blaise nodded, 'I hear you, that's why I asked Luna. She seems much better than any of the girls her age.'

'I'm sorry you what now?' Theo said, his and Draco's head snapping to Blaise's direction.

'Oh come off it Zabini, a Ravenclaw? I get they're supposed to be intelligent but a Ravenclaw?' Draco shook his head and laughed, 'You never fail to surprise me.'

"What! She's pretty!' Blaise said in defence, looking between his two friends.

'You're just saying that so you can do her behind the broom sheds!' Theo roared with laughter, grasping at his stomach trying to catch his breath.

'What you going to do, Blaise? Imperio her into jumping into bed with you because that's the only chance you'll get!' Draco joined in the laughter, him and Theo miming putting the Imperio curse onto each other and batting their eyelashes in an attempt to mimic Luna.

'I'll have you know she said yes!' Blaise spat, his cheeks growing hot in anger.

Theo and Draco immediately stopped laughing.

'What's wrong with her?'

'Has she got brain damage?'

'Do we need to take her to St. Mungo's?

'She was born without half her brain, wasn't she?'

'Why can't you guys accept that she's going with me!' Blaise complained, whining in the process.

'Because, my friend.' Draco said, swinging an arm round his fellow Slytherin, 'You have no game. I will bet you the price of your suit, that you when you asked her, it all came out as one singular word.' He smirked as Blaise looked to the floor which made Theo laugh all over again.

'…yes, it did.' Blaise whispered as Draco squeezed his shoulders.

'It's alright my dear Zabini, we're going to make you look so good, she won't have a choice but to fall head over heels!' The blonde smiled. 'But remember the plan. We gotta do a lot of running tonight, so don't get too deep. If you know what I mean.'

Blaise pushed him away as Draco wiggled his eyebrows, 'Get off me!' He laughed. 'Can we just pick out our ties so we can get back to our dorm and plan.'

Draco and Theo laughed and nodded. They turned to pick out their ties when Mr. Deacon announced their suits had been made quicker than he expected. Picking up their suit bag, they left the store and thanking the old couple, they returned back to Hogwarts.

The dorm-mates got back to Hogwarts at around the same time, hiding their outfits from one another until the ball. Draco, Blaise, Theo and Pansy all agreed to meet as the ball started to go over their plan, so everyone else from the dorm would already be at the great hall. As she left her dress and shoes in her bedroom, Hermione bumped into Ron, Harry and Neville who had similarly been out suit shopping.

'Hi Harry! Hi Neville! … Ron.' The bushy haired girl glared at her boyfriend who still hadn't asked her to the ball.

'Hermione, come off it, please. I'm going insane being in this fight with you. I even asked Ginny what colour dress you bought so my tie would match.' Ron complained, holding up his bag to show her.

Hermione made a mental note to throttle Ginny in the girls bathroom later on, 'If you had actually bothered to ask me to the ball, maybe you wouldn't have had to ask your sister about MY dress.'

Ron stood speechless as he watched her stomp away. He felt a warm hand on his shoulder.

'Yeah, you really fucked that one up.' Harry stifled a laugh and shook his head.

'Maybe you should man up and just apologise?' Neville asked as the three of them started to walk back towards their dormitory.

'Sorry, do you even know Ronald Weasley?' Harry finally let himself laugh and Neville joined in. Whereas Ron could only grumble and mutter profanities to himself.

Hermione stomped off to the only place she knew would calm her down; the library. She was already heading there when her bonehead of a boyfriend decided he would ruin her day. Thinking back to the books in her dorm, she wanted to get to the bottom of who had taken them out and she had her suspicions, she just wanted to confirm them.

Walking up the front desk, Madam Pince greeted her with a smile.

'Ms Granger, lovely to see you back so soon! What can I do for you this time?'

Hermione smiled back, 'I was previously looking for the book Wizards and Time by Jakob Trickhurst but I couldn't seem to find it? Do I need to go into the public library or has a student already taken it out?' She knew it had been taken out, but she wanted to see what the librarian had to say.

Madam Pince pondered for a second before opening her mouth, 'Off the top of my head I have to say that I haven't got the foggiest. But..' She turned around to pick up a large, thick, dusty book. 'I did make a note of it, as I do for every book that leaves the library!' She blew the top of the book to reveal the golden writing on the cover that said it belonged to Hogwarts.

Opening up the book to the newest page, she scanned the writing, looking for the book Hermione wanted, 'Trickhurst, Trickhurst… Ah! Here we go! Wizards and Time by Jakob Trickhurst, taken out the first day of school.' She smiled.

Hermione peeked over the desk, 'Sorry Madam Pince, does it say who took it out?' She noticed the librarian looking over her glasses at her. 'Please? It's just so I can ask the person to borrow it for a couple of hours?'

Madam Pince's face softened and she shook her head, 'Always the impatient one, Ms Granger. Let's see, it says here that it was taken out by Mr. Draco Malfoy, seventh year.'

Hermione's stomach jumped as her suspicions were confirmed. She gulped and put on a quick smile for the librarian, 'Thank you for your help, Madam Pince. I'll go ask him now.'

The older witch shut the book with a thump and nodded, 'No worries, Ms Granger, anytime.' She waved off the Gryffindor as she took her leave.

Hermione was shaking as she walked back to her dorm. Malfoy had said that he was gathering evidence to give to Harry, he was on their side, right? So why was he researching into time travel? Was he actually trying to bring Voldemort back? She shook her head as she made her way to the entrance painting. She needed to focus on tonight, she had made a plan in her head to investigate into the four Slytherins while the ball was going on. She was making everyone go 10 minutes early with Ginny, who needed to seeing as she was head girl, so she could make her way back to the dorm to look through their stuff. She knew it was an invasion of privacy but this was important. The Gryffindor sighed as she whispered the password to the little blue boy and entered her dorm to see clothes, shoes and ties thrown everywhere whilst shouts and music were coming from what seemed like every room.

'What the hell happened here!?' She shouted over the noise, stepping over the mess towards her bedroom. Pansy rushed out and stood in the doorway in her underwear and tights.

'Where have you been? The boys have gone crazy worrying if they look good or not. Me and Luna were hiding out in here until they'd quietened down.' Pansy linked arms with Hermione and took her into the bedroom to meet Luna who was pinning her hair up with grips.

'I didn't even know boys could be this self conscious?' Hermione picked up a hairbrush and tried her best to tame her curls.

'You didn't grow up with Draco 'is my hair okay' Malfoy.' Pansy rolled her eyes and laughed, slipping into some spanx.

As if Pansy had summoned him by the mention of his name, Draco ran out of his room and into the girls' whilst shouting obscenities at Ron.

'Come on, Malfoy! I nearly touched it, I didn't actually put my hands on your hair.' Ron sped walked after him, slightly giggling to himself.

Harry entered the room after Ron, laughing and clutching his stomach, 'Ron, just leave him. It's clearly very important to him.'

Draco turned a bright red and whipped his head round to look at Pansy and Hermione, smoke almost coming out of his ears.

'Pansy will you please tell them to fuck off!' Draco whined, stomping his foot like a toddler.

Pansy and Hermione looked at each other and burst out laughing, thinking about what they had talked about earlier. Draco cocked his head and looked at the girls in confusion, lingering slightly on the Gryffindor. He shook his head back to reality and his face slipped into a sneer.

'You both are absolutely no fucking help!' He shouted and stomped out the room, glaring at Ron and Harry as he left.

As the two Gryffindor men calmed down from laughing so hard, they turned to Hermione.

'So are you ready to go? We're leaving in a few.' Harry smiled.

Hermione looked confused, 'Who's we?'

'You, me and Ron?'

'I don't remember you guys ever asking me.'

Ron rolled his eyes, 'I told you she wouldn't be on board with it.'

Hermione picked up a pillow off Pansy's bed and chucked it at the ginger, 'Get out.'

'Hermione-' Harry said as Ron turned to leave.

'You too.' Pansy said, narrowing her eyes at the chosen one.

'Alright! Am I eleven again? It's like being back at the Dursley's!' Harry scoffed, following his best mate out of the room.

Hermione stood up, picked Pansy's pillow off the floor and closed the door behind her friends. She leaned her back against the door and breathed out heavily.

'You seem to be doing that a lot.' Luna piped up finally.

Hermione's eyes flickered to the blonde, 'What? Sighing?' She laughed.

'No,' Luna shook her head, 'Arguing with Ron.' She continued to brush her hair.

Hermione blinked and looked at her Ravenclaw friend for a second before sighing again, 'You're right. I'm really conflicted about it all.'

Before Hermione could carry on, a knock sounded at their bedroom door. Pansy gave the Gryffindor a sympathetic look and got up to answer. As she opened the door, she was met with the deep brown eyes of Theo Nott.

'Hey are you ready?' Theo asked before looking down at Pansy's underwear.

The girl laughed, 'Theo, give me a second.' She held up a finger as she rushed over to her bed to pick up her dress. Motioning for Hermione to zip her up, she did up the buckles on her shoes and grabbed her bag.

'Okay, ready!' She smiled.

Theo blinked a few times, taking in the grey-silver dress and how well she pulled it off.

Luna and Hermione giggled to themselves as Pansy led the Slytherin man out. She turned back as she got to the doorway to look at the girls.

'Me and the rest of the Slytherins have this weird ritual before we do any big things together, take a few pictures, shit like that. I know you're all going early for Ginny so I'll see you there?' She flashed a smile as her two roommates nodded and waved her off.

Pansy and Theo exited the bedroom and into the living room, looking around to see if Draco and Blaise had left yet. The woman peeked through into the boys room to see Blaise straightening the blonde's tie and she giggled.

'Am I interrupting anything?' She looked at her nails and then back to her friends, leaning against the door frame.

Draco rolled his eyes and tucked in his shirt, 'Oh shut up, let's go before someone asks where we're going.'

'Don't worry, I said we have a ritual before we do anything big. I think they bought it.' The Slytherin woman whispered as they left the dormitory.

Blaise laughed, 'You make it sound like we're sacrificing a fucking boar!'

The four of them laughed together as they made their way around the corner to wait for their dorm mates to leave. Clutching Theo's arm, Pansy noticed that Draco was breathless, nervous about the long night they were about to go through. Footsteps and voices suddenly echoed through the hallway as Harry, Ron, Neville, Luna and Hermione met with Ginny and then headed off to the great hall together. Theo looked at Blaise.

'What did you tell the blonde to get out of going with her early?' He whispered.

Blaise frowned, 'Her name i and I told her pretty much the same as Pans, not that I wanted her to go without me though.'

Watching their dorm mates wander off down the hallway together, the four Slytherins crept back towards the entrance portrait. Whispering the password, they slipped back into the common room. Draco breathed out, not realising he had held it for so long. He slipped his arm out of his jacket and chucked it onto the sofa nonchalantly, rubbing his cheeks in nervousness. Blaise rubbed the blonde's shoulder to calm him slightly, but Draco could still feel his heartbeat in his throat.

Pansy clapped her hands together, 'Okay let's go over this one more time. Wands please, boys.' She held out her purse and opened it up.

Theo scoffed, 'How can any of our wands fit into that tiny thing?'

The woman rolled her eyes and stuck her hand in it, pulling it all the way up to her shoulder. The boys stood there with their mouths open and Pansy held out her bag again. They all took their wands out of their suit pockets and dropped them in, one after the other.

'When you're roommates with the greatest witch of our time, you pick up on a few things.' Pansy chuckled.

'Okay so,' Draco started. 'I tell the trio that Hagrid wanted to speak to them in the woods. If that fails for some reason, I will tell them that I am going in there. No surprise that the Weasel probably already suspects I'm up to something so no doubt, they'll fall for it. Then you guys use the invisibility charms to follow us there, and when the death eaters turn up you'll reveal yourselves and Pansy, will chuck us our wands.'

The three of his friends nodded their heads, following along.

'I'm sure the trio have left their wands.' Theo said, wandering into their rooms and coming back with a handful of wands, throwing them into Pansy's bag too. 'So when we get there, the trio will also want to fight and we give them their wands too.'

'Yes.' Draco nodded at him. 'Boom bam, we win. Job done! Harry kills the remaining death eaters and I get to live my life without everyone thinking I still worship Baldemort.' He smiled.

The four Slytherins smiled and high fived each other as their dorm entrance portrait swung open and Hermione ran in. All four eyes snapped to look at her as they watched her stop and catch her breath. She looked at them.

'I want to help.'

They all stood there for a moment, silent. All they could hear was the deep breaths that were coming from the Gryffindor. Breaking the silence, Draco started to giggle.

'Excuse me, what the fuck?' The blonde asked.

'You heard me, I want to help.' Hermione stood her ground.

'You have no idea what we're doing, what do you think you want to help with?'

'Draco,' Hermione sighed and she swore the Slytherin's eyes glistened for a moment from the mention of his name. 'I know what you're doing. I overheard the other day. I know you're not involved with Voldemort OR the death eaters, but I know you're trying to stop whatever plan they have. You're a good guy Draco, you've just made some shitty decisions in the past.'

The Slytherins were still silent. They blinked at her a few times before Hermione rolled her eyes.

'I can tell Harry and Ron to meet me in the forbidden forest. They're more likely to listen to me anyway.' She put her hand on her hip.

Blaise suddenly let out a massive laugh, 'Okay, I guess the Gryffindors in.'

Draco looked at his friend bewildered, 'W-What? Shouldn't we do a vote or something?' He looked at Pansy and Theo who had already held up their hands. The blonde gave up and blew a hair out of his eyes.

'Fine. But if you die, it's not on me.' Draco huffed.

Hermione smiled widely, 'Okay, here's what I'll do. I will tell Ron and Harry that I saw you entering the forest. You guys, apart from Draco follow us with this…' She entered her bedroom and came out with a cloak.

'An ugly cloak?' Pansy looked skeptical.

'It's an invisibility cloak you absolute buffoon.' Draco sneered. 'So that's how Potter got away with all that shit!'

Hermione nodded and passed the cloak to Blaise, 'You guys follow us with that and the rest of your plan sounds great.'

'So we're all in an understanding, right?' Draco asked the room as the four others nodded. 'Good. We will wait a few minutes until Hermione can lead the rest of the trio away and then we'll head to the forest. Good luck out there, guys.'

'God I can't wait for this bald prick to be out of our lives.' Theo sighed.

Hermione laughed as she walked towards the exit, 'Tell me about it.' Opening the portrait, she slipped back to the great hall where the ball had started and her friends were waiting for her. Harry was dancing with Ginny and Ron, Neville and Luna were sat at a table talking. They smiled as Hermione strolled towards them.

'Where have you been? You're missing all the fun!' Neville said cheerily.

'Oh I just had to pop to the toilet! Sorry guys, could I borrow Ron for a second?' Hermione smiled.

The ginger's eyes lit up as he rose from the table and guided his girlfriend to the dance floor. Hermione held his hand as the started to sway back and forward together.

'So what did you want to talk about?' Ron smiled.

Hermione kept a poker face, 'I am still extremely mad at you Ronald, this isn't me trying to sort us out. I wanted to let you know that I saw Malfoy running into the forbidden forest and we need to follow him. This was the only way to get you away from Neville and Luna.'

Ron dropped her hands and took a step back from her, 'We need to tell Harry. Now.'

The two Gryffindors hurried over to Harry and told him what Hermione had told Ron. The chosen one froze and then snapped into action.

'Okay let's go, I'll bring Ginny, you guys get Neville and Luna.' He demanded.

A breath caught in Hermione's throat, 'But, it might be dangerous.' was all she could say.

'It doesn't matter, they know how to fight. There's no time for wands, let's just stop Malfoy before anything big happens.' They all nodded as Ron leapt over to Neville and Luna to tell them what was happening. Before Hermione knew it, all six of them were rushing over to the forbidden forest.

'There he is!' Ron whispered, pointing to the blonde man who was making his way through the forest.

Hermione bit her lip. She was nervous now and hiding things from her friends was really not helping. She followed Harry in closely with Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna following behind. After running through the forest for what seemed like forever, the suddenly emerged into a clearing to find Draco stood there, smiling.

'I'm glad you made it, Potter.' The Slytherin said, gripping his wand tightly. He had to play as if he was the one leading him there yet Hermione still seemed a little scared of him.

'Malfoy! I knew you were up to something.' Harry sneered, walking slowly towards him. 'Give it up, there's no one here to fight for you. Just put your wand down before someone get's seriously hurt.'

Draco laughed, 'Potter, I'm the one who has a wand and you don't. If anyone's going to get hurt it's you.' He held his wand up and pointed it at Harry.

Silence fell around the forest as if they were all waiting for something to happen. Draco's eyes widened as he looked around. They weren't coming when they said they would. He checked his watch and looked back up to meet Hermione's eyes.

'What's happening?' She mouthed at him, which Draco answered in a shrug.

'So what happens now, Malfoy? What are you going to do?' Neville shouted, pulling his wand out of his pocket. Hermione had forgot that since it wasn't planned that they were coming, Neville and Luna hadn't left their wands in the dorm like they had, which meant Ginny hadn't either.

'Okay Longbottom, I think it's time to calm down.' Draco said slowly, putting his wand down.

'Calm down? CALM DOWN? How can I calm down when you're trying to kill us!' Neville said, pointing his wand towards the Slytherin who took a step back. 'EXPELLI -'

'STOP!' Hermione found herself yelling and throwing herself in front of Draco.

Her friends stood there for a second, statues of terror, confusion and betrayal.

'Hermione?' Ron said angrily. 'Get out of the way! Why are you protecting this death eater?'

'He's not a death eater! He's trying to help you!' She screamed, still standing in front of the Slytherin.

Her friends still look taken aback. Harry was the next to speak, 'Hermione what do you mean? You're the one who told us to follow him.'

'Are you working together?' Her boyfriend narrowed his eyes.

'It's not like that. Draco and his friends hatched this plan to wipe the death eaters out for good. They wanted him to lure us here to kill us but he wanted freedom from it all. Him and the rest of the Slytherins in our dorm. He did this for all of us to just get on with the lives we deserve. Guys, just come out please.' Hermione said to the empty forest as one by one, the other Slytherin's took off their charms; Pansy first followed by Theo and Blaise removing the invisibility cloak.

'You gave them the cloak?' Harry looked hurt.

'I absolutely can not believe you're working with this- this scum. They're clearly lying to you Hermione and I can not believe the brightest witch of our age is dumb enough to not see that. they. are. death. eaters. They're better off dead if they think we'd ever forgive them, let alone work with them. Come away from them Hermione, they're filthy and disgusting.' Ron shouted at her, turning bright red with rage.

Anger swelled in the pit of Hermione's stomach, 'That is IT, Ronald! I can not stand your judgement for one more second. You say that these people are evil because of their class system and how they judge people for who their parents are, but you're just like them! Always ready to think the worst of them because of what their parents made them do. They're victims just like us! I don't want to hear another word from you, ever. We're through.' She whispered the last two words as if they weren't meant to come out.

Ron's eyes widened, 'I'm sorry but you're picking the fucking guy who tried to kill Dumbledore over me?!'

Hermione sighed in frustration, 'I'm not picking anyone over anyone, Ron. It's always a competition with you, we're all still hurting from what happened - from what Voldemort did!'

As if his name had a taboo on it, 15 death eaters apparated in front of the group, Rockwood leading them and cackling with deep laughter. The students who had been previously arguing, were now huddled together.

'Well done, Draco my boy. You have successfully lead the beloved golden trio right into our hands. We thought you'd betray us but this? This is something else my dear boy. What is this I hear about helping?' The death eater had said this word like it was some disgusting thing at the bottom of his shoe.

Draco stood forward hesitantly, 'I am sick of fighting. I am done, YOU HEAR ME. Before you try and kill Harry Potter, you'll have to go through me.' He held out his hand as Pansy took out her purse and handed him his wand. She quickly pulled the rest out and handed them to their respective owners.

Rockwood just laughed at this sudden bravery, 'Oh we plan to.'

He signalled the death eaters who yelled a few curses and suddenly the Hogwarts students were wrapped in vines, Draco by himself but the rest of them in a group together. The twisting vines made their way round the group, pulling them into contortionist positions and knocking their wands out of their hands. Yelps of pain and fury could be heard, but were soon muffled. 'This plan of ours wasn't just for our golden trio here. It was for you too.'

Draco's eyes widened as he tried to free himself. He looked at the rest of the group who were trying to shout through the vines twisted around their mouths, 'What do you mean?'

'You were the owner of the Elder Wand after our dear old headmaster was killed.' Rockwood continued, pacing round the mass of limbs and vines that were interwoven. 'The ritual we have to bring back our Dark Lord asks for the blood of a pureblood Elder Wand owner.' His eyes gleamed at the mention of Voldemort.

'Blood?' Draco swallowed, 'How much?' He didn't think he really wanted to know the answer.

A female voice piped up from behind Rockwood, 'All of it.'

'Mother?' Draco called, as Narcissa stepped in front of him, 'You knew?'

'I'm sorry but this is for your own good, Draco.'