Danny followed Malfoy into the library as he spent the next hour or so writing an essay with a few books open on his desk. Danny sighed softly in boredom. It was December and the last couple of days had been extremely dull. Danny considered Malfoy. The teen looked sick. He was pale, losing weight and even his usual slick blonde hair had lost its sheen. Danny knew why. Malfoy was scared that he hadn't managed to kill Dumbledore yet. Danny had found that the teen had an uncanny ability to give him the slip. Usually around the sixth floor too. It was infuriating. Danny would lose him for a couple of hours at a time before finding the teen looking panicked and concerned returning to the common room.

Danny was torn. He wanted to help Malfoy because it was clear the kid needed a helping hand or support. But what Malfoy wanted to do was a deal breaker. The task was obviously tearing the boy apart with stress, fear and despair. Snape, as Danny, had stepped up their attempts to get close to the teen. Katie Bell was still in St. Mungo's. Snape gave Malfoy easy grades in his class, acted friendly towards him and even offered help to the teen, with often muttered assurances that the help didn't have to be just school orientated.

Danny blinked out of his bored stupor when he heard voices whispering nearby that he recognised. It was Harry and Hermione. Danny had seen that there were issues with the trio. He'd also seen that Ron had gained a girlfriend. Danny was willing to bet that Lavender Brown was the driving force of the issues. But Harry had clearly gotten caught in the middle between an argument with Ron and Hermione.

"He's at perfect liberty to kiss whomever he likes. I really couldn't care less," Hermione hissed with clear anger. Danny sighed quietly and returned to his vigil. Malfoy scowled in annoyance and gathered his things, clearly deciding his homework could wait. Danny watched Malfoy as he eavesdropped on Harry. Honestly hearing about how lovesick girls were planning to slip love potion to Harry was more interesting than watching Malfoy scribble an essay for an hour in almost complete silence. Danny blinked though when Hermione made a good point that Filch wasn't the brightest person when it came to identifying dangerous items. Malfoy slowed down his packing and seemed to start eavesdropping too.

"The point is, Filch is being fooled, isn't he? These girls are getting stuff into the school disguised as something else! So why couldn't Malfoy have brought the necklace into school-?" Harry argued softly. Danny's eyes widened in surprise. Harry suspected Malfoy! While it was good that Harry was observant enough to spot it and look out for it. It was extremely bad as Malfoy wasn't really the bad guy. The blonde teen was trapped in an impossible situation. A situation Dumbledore was counting on to further his plans, plans Danny preferred not to think of but couldn't ignore. He'd have to let Dumbledore and Snape know this.

"Oh, Harry… not that again…" Hermione sighed exasperatedly. Malfoy wasn't even hiding that he was listening attentively anymore. He was rigid and had gone even paler.

"Come on, why not?" Harry demanded.

"Look, secrecy sensors detect jinxes, curses and concealment charms, don't they? They're used to find dark magic and dark objects. They'd have picked up a powerful curse, like the one on that necklace, within seconds. But something that's just been put in the wrong bottle wouldn't register-and anyway, love potions aren't dark or dangerous-" Hermione retorted knowingly. Malfoy got out of his seat and crept closer with his books. Harry and Hermione were oblivious to their two eavesdroppers. Danny almost wanted to throw a book at them both for being so inattentive. He thought they learned their lesson about important conversations in quiet places last year after Umbridge found out about the DA. Harry muttered something neither eavesdropper heard, causing both to drift closer still.

"-so it would be down to Filch to realise it wasn't cough potion, and he's not a very good wizard. I doubt he could tell one potion from-" Hermione resumed but stopped the second Malfoy accidently shuffled closer and knocked a book.

Malfoy held his breath but gave a quiet sigh of relief when Madam Pince started to reprimand Harry for a defiled book he had. Taking his chance, Malfoy quickly but quietly left the library and allowed himself a small smirk.

"Stupid mudblood. But that's an interesting point," he whispered to himself. Danny bit his lip. How could he sabotage this murder attempt? Would he have to taste every bottle in the school for poison? Malfoy returned to the Slytherin common room and took out a coin. Danny raised an eyebrow. Malfoy tapped it with his wand, muttering under his breath before putting away and resuming his homework. An hour later, Malfoy went to bed, looking a little less stressed and worried for the first time in weeks.

Danny left the common room and went straight to Snape's office. More often than not, Dumbledore was away these days. And it was much easier to catch the wizard in the mornings rather than the evenings too. Danny knocked on the door and waited for Snape to call his permission.

"Evening Severus. I've got a few concerns about Draco. I'd go to Dumbledore, but you know," Danny explained. Their dislike of each other had lessened greatly over the past few weeks. They still muttered unkind comments and had disagreements but they were much less after Katie Bell got hurt. Guilt and determination had overridden their previous unresolved arguments.

"What did you find out?" Snape inquired.

"First, Harry suspects Draco. And he's determined to get his friends to believe him. We might need to head that off. I don't know about Ron, but Hermione doesn't believe him just yet. And unfortunately, Hermione accidently gave Draco an idea. She mentioned that Argus Filch mightn't be able to tell one potion from another as some girls have gotten love potion into the school. I fear that Draco might try poisoning next. What do you want us to do?" Danny reported carefully. Most of their arguments revolved around Harry so bringing up the student tended to lead to an argument. Snape frowned in thought, setting down his quill as he had been correcting some homework.

"There isn't much we can do. We'll warn Dumbledore not to drink anything without checking it and I'll convince Horace to teach the students about antidotes. His Christmas party is coming up. It'll be the perfect opportunity to convince him," Snape replied. Danny nodded.

"And Harry? He did ask me a little while go if I thought Draco was a Death Eater. I laughed and told him he was wrong. But he hasn't been deterred," Danny prompted. Snape sighed.

"Potter has an uncanny ability to find trouble Phantom. I don't think we can do anything to stop Potter. But perhaps you could warn or watch over Draco for us. Protect him from Potter if necessary," Snape suggested. Danny sighed.

"I was afraid you'd say that. Thanks for the advice. I'll try and get a hold of Dumbledore tomorrow morning," Danny decided.

It wasn't long before Slughorn hosted his party. Danny dutifully followed Malfoy to the common room where he scowled at the invited Slytherins as they left for the party. Danny could see that the young wizard was jealous. Once the party goers had gone, Malfoy got to his feet and left. Danny, intrigued, followed. The blonde teen crept through the dark corridors to the seventh floor. Danny gasped as Malfoy disappeared through the doors to the Room of Requirement. Like the previous year, Danny was unable to gain access to the magical room and resorted to waiting outside. Less than two hours later, Malfoy left and wiping fearful, panicked tears from his cheeks, made his way back towards the dungeons. Danny frowned in concern. Malfoy was clearly having problems. And the root of those problems and possibly Malfoy's on-going plan to murder Dumbledore was in that room. The one room Danny had never been in!

Danny watched as Malfoy paused in the corridor and gave a loud sigh as he tried to stop the tears and regain control over his emotions. It was the worst Danny had ever seen Malfoy. He just wanted to help the teen. Maybe not with his task, but with his emotions. But… Phantom had become a recognised order member now and Fenton couldn't just turn up for no reason. Danny was so caught up in his pitying musings that he didn't spot Filch until it was too late. The caretaker shouted to Malfoy that he was up past curfew and what he was doing on the sixth floor. Malfoy, thinking quickly, blurted out that he was invited to Slughorn's party and had gotten turned around trying to find the office. Filch, not believing a word, grabbed a hold of Malfoy and marched him off to the party. Danny helplessly floated along invisibly behind them.

Filch pulled the teen through the crowds straight over to Slughorn, who was in the middle of talking with Harry, Luna and Snape.

"Professor Slughorn. I discovered this boy lurking in an upstairs corridor. He claims to have been invited to your party and to have been delayed in setting out. Did you issue him an invitation?" Filch inquired. Malfoy, seeing that he'd been caught out, wriggled free of Filch's grip and angrily turned to the adults, ignoring Harry to the best of his ability.

"Alright, I wasn't invited! I was trying to gatecrash, happy?" Malfoy lied. Before Filch could get too angry, Slughorn interjected and attempted to defuse the situation and avoid making any more of a scene, offering Malfoy the opportunity to stay if he wished.

Malfoy quickly started a conversation with Slughorn, sucking up to the teacher to prevent any difficult questions. Danny gave the smallest sigh of relief before he noticed Harry watching Malfoy closely. Danny discretely tapped Snape's shoulder on Harry's side. The teacher turned to see Harry watching the blonde teen closely. It was essential that both order members keep Harry and Malfoy as far apart as possible.

"I'd like a word with you Draco," Snape interjected quickly and with a stern comment to Slughorn, guided Malfoy out of the party and into an empty classroom.

Danny, knowing that eavesdropping had only led to arguments in the past, waiting invisibly outside. However Danny didn't need to try very hard to overhear what was being said. Snape attempted to get Malfoy to own up to the necklace but Malfoy refused to let Snape help. Danny sighed softly. Malfoy had been doing that. Snape had been trying to get the teen alone to talk for weeks, ever since Katie Bell got cursed, but the teen refused. Danny tried to not eavesdrop, Snape would pass on any important information. Without warning, Malfoy stormed out of the classroom, Danny blinked in alarm as he saw which way Malfoy was going. He didn't return to Slughorn's party. He was heading back to the seventh floor. Danny rushed to follow Malfoy, not seeing Harry under his invisibility cloak in the corridor beside the classroom door.

Just showing how helpless Danny and Snape are concerning Malfoy. Also Malfoy seems to be very capable of hiding from Danny. Remember Voldemort knows what Danny's capable of and he knows that Phantom is in the order.

Anyway, let me know what you think.

Until the next chapter.