So I know I usually do this every ten chapters, but this is just so amazing that I had to mention it here: we're now at 350 A4 pages of story. I honestly don't realise how much has gone into the story until I open it up and I see the (now heartbreaking) scene of innocent James and Emma pushing their trolleys through Platform 9 3/4.

We're on the final third of the story (I think), as it goes more into the Reg/Emma romance, so thank you for your patience up until this point!

Thank you to everyone who has followed (we're now up to 300 :O ) and favourited, and most especially reviewed!

Thanks to ciccia96, MyNightWish, Blue Luver5000, Nik1804, mavow1, NamesAreImportant, Cae-Leigh Anne, Senyuu, 19irene96, creelluka and lizy2000 for reviewing chapter 57!

Without further ado...

'Shit… shit, shit, shit, shit!' Emma cursed under her breath with increasing frequency, hunting for her clothes under Regulus's enlarged cloak.

She blushed as she accidentally touched his bare chest, but was quickly admonished by the voice in her head, now you've gone and done it.

'Don't remind me,' she groaned, pulling her stockings back on, before slipping her school shoes over her feet.

Of course, the voice in her head didn't listen to her - it never did. Since when did she listen to herself?

With a quickly modified Aguamenti charm, she splashed some water onto her face, freshening herself up a little. Glancing over at the bluebell flames, Emma decided that Regulus might be grateful for their warmth a little while longer. He knew the dispel charm anyway.

Satisfied that she had everything she needed, she ran her fingers through her hair on the way back to the castle – a sad attempt at brushing out the tangled knots. She knew that she looked bedraggled, and bedraggled was not in the dictionary of a seventh-year Slytherin. Poised, cool, collected. That was what they were, and the traits the Dark Lord prized in her.

The sun was peeking its face over the hill, bathing the castle in a misty light. The ground crunched under her feet, and she thanked Merlin the Quidditch pitch floor was impervious to the elements - preventing any fatal injuries upon hitting the ice. It wouldn't be easy to sneak back in, but Emma was an old hat at this kind of thing by now. She just hoped none of her roommates would be awake yet. The odds were with her, on a Sunday morning.

Jogging the rest of the way up the stairs, preparing her alibi just in case she did meet someone, she tried to reduce her embarrassment about the situation. It wouldn't do for her to go bright red at any mention of it - that would give it away. So she had slept with Regulus, so what? It wasn't that bad, was it?

Who are you kidding, the voice asked snidely in the back of her mind. You've messed it up so much, you don't even know how bad it is.

Of course Emma knew that Regulus had slept with other girls. It didn't matter, why would it? They were friends, and she knew that it was a coping mechanism of sorts. She should have known that would be his first instinct last night. After all, they weren't fourteen anymore. She just couldn't believe she'd let him. It would change their relationship, tiptoeing around this as if it had never happened. Because in Emma's mind, that was the only way to deal with this.

Still, even if she did preserve her dignity, she would know that she was another notch in Regulus's belt. She was supposed to be special, something she readily admitted to herself. She had turned her nose up at this kind of thing – she had no time for it, there were better things to be doing with her time. But for her to be doing it with Regulus of all people... This made her no different from the other girls who had fawned over him, even Lucinda. Regulus had never had much respect for the blonde, even if she was his friend.

Merlin, Lucinda, she realised with a jolt. On one hand, she would love to talk to her friend about this, ask her how it was for her and so on and so forth. She could never imagine this conversation with Alecto, especially not now of all times. But how would Lucinda react, when Emma had scoffed at the idea of fancying her best friend? She would think that Emma had driven a wedge between Regulus and Lucinda on purpose all those months ago.

That hardened her resolve. Emma would push past this, the way she had pushed past every other obstacle life had thrown at her. She would use that part of Gryffindor stubbornness she had inherited, and put it to good use.

'Emma!'

This was it, Regulus had cornered her. She had been avoiding him ever since he came up from breakfast late that morning, stifling yawns as she tried to do her Arithmancy homework. Homework. Now that was a laughable activity after the weekend she had had.

But appearances had to be kept up, and Amelia Bones wasn't going to fall for their innocent trick within a couple of months. She had to be irreproachable, an ordinary student, ambitious for the future. It was bad enough that she had abandoned her duties as a Prefect, though most of the others in their seventh year were also groaning under the weight of the pressure.

Lucinda smiled her sympathy. She didn't know about Charles yet, and had readily believed Emma's excuse of having gone down to the pitch for the morning. It helped that Emma had been slacking off recently - also because she was covered in sweat and grime despite her best effort that morning. Regulus must have used the Quidditch showers and pretended he slept in, though how he got that excuse past Rabastan was beyond her.

Speaking of Regulus, he was looking at her intently from the bottom of the staircase, his intentions obvious from the seriousness of his face. He wouldn't approach her, not within hearing distance of Lucinda. Without any of the others in the room, she would dismiss the secretiveness as Death Eater business and be happy that she could have plausible deniability if Bones ever came breathing down her neck.

Sighing, Emma stood and made her way over to him. Best get this over and done with, she thought.

'Look, Emma,' Regulus said, before stopping.

The double use of her name promised an awkward conversation. He looked sheepish, ruffling his hair the way he always did when he was nervous. And were his cheeks reddening?

Emma decided to end his misery for him. After all, looking at it pragmatically, it must have been even worse for him to have his side of the conversation. She could at least offer some compassion…and pretend that it didn't mean anything to her either. Hopefully after a few weeks they would laugh about it. Or forget about it entirely. Truth be told, it happened so fast I'm not even sure I remember everything, she confessed inwardly.

'It's okay, I get it,' she replied, cutting through whatever he was about to say next. 'Don't worry, I know it didn't mean anything. I mean, it didn't mean anything to me either. I was upset, you were upset…these things happen. Neither of us were in our right mind. So let's just…leave it be, and get on as if nothing changed, right?'

She finished the sentence in a rush, her heart rushing to her throat. What had they been thinking last night? She almost couldn't believe herself, but going back to the moment, she had felt so different, so separate from her usual self, that it almost seemed as if it had happened to two different people. She supposed that that was good, in a way. It would make it easier to remind herself of the fact that her relationship with Regulus was one that she really couldn't mess up.

Regulus seemed at a loss for words. He opened his mouth, closed it, and fought hard to conceal the expression that had tried to make its way to his face. Emma closed her eyes for a moment, hoping against hope that he wouldn't give her the cold shoulder, that he wouldn't tell her the same things Lucinda had repeated to her that New Year.

'Okay,' he replied instead with a shrug, and stalked down the stairs to the boy's dormitory.

Well, that went... more smoothly than expected, the voice remarked in her head. Somehow, Regulus's reaction had caught her off-guard. She had been building up the tension in her head and he had brushed it off as though it were an everyday occurrence. "Could you take over patrol for me tonight?" "Okay, Emma!"

Oh stop the dramatics, Emma, what did you think he would do? Slightly ashamed of herself, Emma meekly obeyed the voice.

'What was that all about?' Lucinda asked as Emma returned to the fireplace, making sure to sit close to the fire to explain the blood rushing to her cheeks.

'Oh, just family stuff,' Emma mumbled. 'You know, Sirius and stuff. That's why he went missing yesterday.'

She couldn't have been more vague, but Lucinda was more than used to having less to go on when it came to Regulus and his mysterious ways, so they moved on to Transfiguration. Human Transfiguration was the hardest to master, so it came as no surprise to either of the girls when Lucinda's left arm turned into a table leg, nor when Emma found her lower half transformed into half of a knitted blanket. Fortunately, Professor McGonagall had provided them with several counter-spells in case of partial transfiguration.

Thank Merlin we aren't doing animate objects, Emma thought. If she couldn't even become an Animagus, what chance did she stand to transform Lucinda into a bird? Though supposedly it was easier to transform others into a specific animal...

'Is this seat taken?' an unsure voice asked.

Emma looked up, but upon seeing Alecto her eyes narrowed.

'I guess,' she said, purposefully off-handedly.

Lucinda looked from one to the other, probably wondering what Death Eater drama had happened to make her friends act the way they did. When neither girl deigned to enlighten her, she closed the heavy A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration with a snap.

'Alright, I'm sick of this. What's up?'

Emma looked at the blond girl. Her eyes shone with a steely determination. She wasn't going to let this go. But it was bad enough that Alecto and Regulus had seen the ashes of her family tree. Lucinda wouldn't pity her even more than she already did. Slytherins weren't supposed to feel weak, let alone look it.

'It's because of Halloween,' Emma sighed, letting enough of her doubt creep into her voice in order to seem plausible. 'I know it had to be done, I just can't really wrap my head around it.'

'It'll get easier each time,' Alecto latched onto the excuse. 'I wish I could have swapped with you. We all have our part to play here, and it wasn't fair on you or Rabastan to use you in a field you weren't comfortable with.'

Emma scrutinized Alecto, wondering if there was a hidden meaning behind her words. Does she think I might defect? Does she resent me for sending her to kill an old man in hospital? Maybe she should take her friend at face value, after all there were next to no secrets between them. But some part of her rebelled, checking every word for the shadow of another.

'I wish you had gone too,' she replied, inwardly adding, so that my father could still be alive.

'Oh Emma,' Lucinda sighed, a long, heart-felt sigh that put the other girls' acting to shame. 'This is why I never wanted to be a part of all of this business. Everyone seems to be growing up so fast, when we should be just enjoying our last year at Hogwarts.'

Emma never took her eyes off of the redhead, whose eyes revealed nothing but flatness.

'Maybe you were right to,' she replied, swinging her legs off of the sofa. 'But it's too late now. We've already changed so much. I think the Quidditch practice was a bad idea though, I'm exhausted. I think I'm going to lie down for a bit.'

Alecto caught her arm at the top of the stairs, her nails slightly digging into Emma's bare skin as she handed Emma her book bag back. Her eyes were a little wild, as she tried one last time.

'I don't understand,' she hissed. 'I did this for you, as a friend! It's not like you had to hold the wand.'

'I only wanted you to remove his memories, Alecto!' Emma whispered back, the anger she had been holding in for the past day finally seeping into her tone. 'Not fucking kill him!'

'How was I supposed to know that?' Alecto asked, genuinely hurt. 'You should be thankful I would go to such lengths -'

She looked as though she was about to say more, but a horde of fifth years ran giggling towards the staircase, thundering down to their dorm room. Emma waited for a second on the steps, but Alecto merely flashed her eyes in anger and shook her head, storming out of the common room.

Later, fuming inside her four-poster bed, she wondered if she hadn't just made a huge mistake. After all, it was not wise to create an enemy of someone who knew your every secret. If Alecto so wished, she could sell Emma out to either side with all of the evidence she had. Clasping her locket in her hand, Emma resolved to never give out another shred of information.

Trust no one, the voice whispered a long-forgotten motto, as she drifted off to sleep.

The next day in Charms, Alecto made sure to be partnered with Emma, Levitating Rabastan out of his seat two rows down. The unfortunate boy looked around in bewilderment, but by the time his eyes locked onto the redhead, Flitwick had called for their attention. As a result, Rabastan was praised for promoting inter-house unity, by pairing up with a Hufflepuff.

The scowl on his face was matched only by that of Hestia, the Hufflepuff in question who already had a history with Rabastan. Emma had to stifle a laugh at the memory of the Polyjuice Potion fiasco in their sixth year.

The smile on her face faded quickly as she realised she would be paired with Alecto for the duration of the class. Determined not to make a scene, she concentrated on the subject at hand – putting their frog into a deep sleep. They would be moving onto their partners in a few weeks, but since many of the frogs actually stopped breathing, Flitwick wanted to make sure that every single person got the incantation right.

Ironically, Alecto and Emma were supposed to be practising the non-verbal version, as they had both mastered the charm within the last week. Little did Flitwick know, the Dark Lord encouraged the command of this charm, especially when it came to subterfuge. He had discovered Alecto's special talent with Memory Charms and was putting her to good use – someone needed to clean up Bellatrix's messes, after all.

'Emma,' Alecto tried to get the dark-haired girl's attention.

Emma ignored her, but her incantation went awry, causing one of her frog's eyelids to droop drastically. The frog tried to take advantage of the situation, but miscalculated his leap, jumping straight into her ink bottle. Cursing, she grabbed the frog and sat it back into the middle of her desk.

Alecto cleared up the mess with a wave of her wand. 'You can't just go on ignoring me, you know. It'll look suspicious.'

Realising that she wasn't going to escape the conversation, Emma resignedly cast Petrificus Totalus on her frog in case of another escape attempt. The glum expression frozen onto its face almost matched her own as she sat back petulantly in her seat.

'Listen, I'm sorry I misunderstood your intentions. But really, I did you a favour. The Dark Lord will be pleased when he hears about this, and you'll be trusted with even more missions. No one will ever doubt you again!'

Emma looked at the redhead incredulously, but there was no trace of guilt in her eyes.

'Are you fucking serious?' she asked.

'Language, Miss Potter!' Flitwick cried, surprisingly close to their workspace. 'And charming your frog into a statue first could be considered as cheating in the exam!'

Both girls started in their seats, wondering if he had heard Alecto's words. After a moment, they went back to their conversation, satisfied that no one was listening. Emma un-petrified the frog, letting it recover whilst she replied furiously.

'You just don't get it do you?' she whispered. 'You don't just go murdering people, because they're inconvenient. Unlike you, I'm not a total sociopath!'

Emma could tell that last comment stung by the way Alecto withdrew into herself. Still, she continued doggedly, determined to hammer in her opinion.

'You'll thank me one day. Remember, this is the family you chose, not the one you were born with. You were better off without him anyway, or did you forget that he disinherited you?'

Her words just threw salt on the wound. Emma had certainly not forgotten about that small matter, nor how she would have been homeless and penniless if her mother had not drawn up a separate will just in case.

Venting her rage on the frog, she jabbed the wand into its belly. Somnus, she thought, imagining Alecto falling unconscious on the floor.

'Well done, Miss Potter! Ten points to Slytherin!'