Draco-

"You must look after yourself this term, Draco," murmured my mother as she watched the House Elf packing my truck place a large Potions book in there.

"Yes, Mother," I replied absentmindedly. I was watching the Elf as well, although not paying much attention. My mind was wandering in all kinds of directions, and I seemed unable to keep it in one place.

"Darling?"

I jumped as my mother placed a hand on my shoulder. I could feel her ice cold skin through my shirt, and shrugged her off without realising.

Tomorrow I was going back to Hogwarts, that pathetic excuse for a school. How I wished Mother had agreed with Father and let me go to Durmstrang. Still, at least we no longer had the Mudblood loving old fool Dumbledore as Headmaster. Hopefully things would be better under Snape's control, although I doubted it.

I'd been told that the Carrows would be taking over Defence Against the Dark Arts and Muggle Studies next year. I suppose it was necessary, what with Snape becoming Headmaster and the old Muggle Studies teacher being eaten by Nagini. I winced slightly at the memory.

"Draco? Darling, are you alright?" Concern vibrated in my mother's voice as she once again took hold of my shoulder in a vice like grip.

"Yes, Mother," I repeated, unable to move from her this time.

"Barley is finished packing Master Draco's things!" piped up the small elf, gazing up at us fearfully with its large, mud coloured eyes.

"Very well. Leave now," commanded Mother, concern no longer ringing in her voice. Instead she had turned cold, uncaring, as she commanded the ugly creature from our presence.

The Elf hastened out of the room, dodging a slap from my mother as it failed to leave quickly enough.

"Get a move on, Elf!" snapped Mother, glaring at it.

As the Elf retreated with shocking speed from my room, Mother turned to face me again, and her eyes were once again clouded with concern for me. I bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself snapping at her for being ridiculous. She placed her hands on my shoulders and looked at me, and I saw her eyes tear up.

"Mother, I shall be fine. I promise I will look after myself and stay out of trouble," I said, trying desperately to keep the annoyance out of my voice for fear of upsetting her further.

"Mind out for the Carrows, darling. I know they're part of your father's group and spend time at the Manor with some of the others, but they are still Death Eaters, and particularly foul ones at that."

Although my mother had to pretend to get along with the Death Eaters and act as normal as possible, I knew she detested this life style, and I knew she wanted to escape from it. No such chance, with both Father and me involved. Instead, Mother spoke in hushed tones when she wished to discuss her discomfort at playing host to the Death Eaters.

"Narcissa," shouted my Father suddenly from downstairs, making her start and turn towards my bedroom door. I knew she was worrying that he had heard her talking about the Carrows, despite the fact that she was upstairs and he downstairs.

"Narcissa, darling, could you come downstairs for a moment? Your- ahem- sister is looking for you. She says she won't wander all over the Manor searching for you like a House Elf-"

"Cissy! Downstairs, if you please! I have no time to listen to the drivel spilling from your husband's mouth! Downstairs!"

Bellatrix's voice cut in, and I saw my mother flinch as though she had been struck across the face.

"Coming, Lucius, Bella," my mother replied, her voice masking the worry that showed on her pale face. "Darling-" she turned now to me- "Darling, I won't be able to see you off on the Express tomorrow. I am afraid I shall be otherwise engaged. Therefore I must bid you goodbye now. Remember our talk- please look after yourself." She hugged me quickly, and I hugged her back, trying not to seem resentful at her over protectiveness.

"I will look after myself, Mother. I promise," I replied through gritted teeth, and I stepped back from her.

She dropped her arms and looked at me with watery eyes, before sweeping gracefully from the room without a backwards glance. I looked after her for a moment, then turned back to my room, now extremely neat, as everything had been packed into the large Hogwarts trunk at the bottom of my bed.

My owl sat perched on top of my wardrobe, fluttering its wings every so often and clicking its beak as though impatient to be off. I understood how it felt- I too longed to be away from the Manor, away from the constant presence of the Dark Lord. Although I dreaded returning back to Hogwarts, where I would be under the control of one of His favourite Death Eaters, I knew it would be better than the constant choking fear I felt here.

As I got changed out of my clothes and made myself ready for bed, I could hear the voices of my mother, father and Bellatrix being carried up to my room from downstairs. It sounded as though they were arguing, although this was not a new concept in this place. Bellatrix frequently got into arguments with my parents, either about their dedication to the Dark Lord, or to how they were raising me.

I lay down, pulling my quilt up under my chin, and turned to my side, keeping my face pointed towards the door so I could watch for anyone entering my room. It was a silly fear, but one I felt was justified in the present circumstances inside the Manor.

As I drifted off to sleep, my only comforting thought was that at least when I was at Hogwarts I could carry out my mission with more ease than I could when I were at the Manor.

Ginny-

If Mum hadn't come barging into my room at some point over the next couple of days leading up to the return to Hogwarts, my trunk would have remained unpacked, and my school supplies thrown absentmindedly around my small room.

As it was, she had appeared regularly in my room every half an hour or so to check that I was doing what I'd been told- at least, that was her excuse. We all knew she was paranoid about another of her children going missing, and was therefore keeping an even closer watch on us than she ever had done before. In fact, she had gone as far as to suggest I be pulled out of Hogwarts and never allowed to return. This suggestion was met by uproar from me, Dad and Charlie, the only brother who had chosen to remain at The Burrow for a while.

She was, however, particularly worried about the twins, who, as she mumbled distractedly to herself under her breath, were "not at all bothered by the whole You-Know-Who business" and were "Far too busy playing with their inventions". Mum felt that if Fred and George didn't close up their joke shop in Diagon Alley and come back to live with her then they would be "murdered in their sleep for their offensive pranks and jokes!"

I, however, was preoccupied with other thoughts, thoughts unconcerned with my twin brothers' wellbeing, as I knew they would be able to look after themselves. No, I was worried about Harry, Ron and Hermione. I knew Mum was as well, but she had stopped talking about them, as every time she did it made her break down into terrified sobs.

The ghoul had moved out of the attic and into Ron's room. He seemed happy enough in there- and I had to admit, the ginger thing covered in pulsating boils did look surprisingly like my dear, interruption prone older brother.

To my knowledge, Dad and the twins had helped Ron to transform the ghoul into its current state, but mum was otherwise unaware of Dad's participation, and I knew he wouldn't tell her- he valued his collections of Muggle plugs and batteries too greatly to anger or displease Mum by allowing her to find out he had helped Ron in his plans to leave The Burrow.

But my point is that I was worried about the Golden Trio. I knew that, wherever they were, whatever they were doing, they were in terrible danger, and whenever my thoughts strayed onto this I found that my hands balled into tight fists in an attempt to stop myself from crying any more than I had already done.

I found myself in this predicament when my mum arrived in my room for what must have been the fifth time in one day to check to see how I was getting on with packing my trunk. Worry crossed her tired looking face as she saw me, perched on the window sill, my hands balled into fists and my eyes brimming with unshed tears. I didn't look up as she crossed the room to my side and put her arm around my shoulders.

"It'll be alright, Gin," she whispered, and I heard her voice wobble as she too tried to hold the tears at bay.

"I know," I replied, and with that I shrugged out of her embrace, wiped my eyes, took a deep breath and smiled a weak smile. "Come on then, are you going to help me pack?"

My sudden change of mood seemed to catch Mum off guard, because she looked at me slightly warily for a moment before allowing the mere echo of a smile to spread across her misery aged face.

"I simply came to see if you were almost done packing. I know we didn't get a chance to go along to Diagon Alley this year, and I wanted to make sure the twins sent everything you needed," she said, moving back across to the door.

"They got me everything, Mum," I replied, rolling my eyes and smiling at her. "You don't have to worry so much."

A dark shadow seemed to pass over her face for a mere second, but I thought I must have imagined it, as it was gone when I blinked and looked again.

"Yes, Ginny, I know. I still feel sending you back to Hogwarts is a bad idea, but-"

"You know the new policy, Mum. Every underage Witch or Wizard in England must attend Hogwarts, it's the law now," I said, trying to keep my calm. We'd had this debate at least three times since she'd first bought it up a couple of days after Harry, Ron and Hermione had disappeared.

"I know, Ginny, I know. But you must understand the position I'm in- one child has disappeared, two are risking their lives just so they can produce pranks and jokes for people, one of those same two had his ear hexed off not two months ago, and my youngest child, my only daughter, has to attend a school run by a Death Eater and take lessons taught by Death Eaters! I am only one woman- this stress is enough to ruin three times as many women as me!"

"I know, Mum! I'm not saying I don't appreciate the position you're in, and I'm not trying to undermine the amount of stress that has been placed on you just recently, but we can't disobey the law, especially not when it's been set forth by bloody You-Know-Who and his little Death Eater chums!" I shouted back, my voice steadier than hers had been during her tirade.

She looked at me for a moment, tears brimming in her eyes, and then she crossed the room again and pulled me into a tight hug.

"I love you, Ginny, my little girl," she mumbled as she held me close. I was slightly stooped, as I was a few inches taller than her, but I hugged her just as tightly back.

"I love you too, Mum. It will be alright, you'll see. Everything always works out in the end."

She pulled away then, and smiled again, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. She didn't say another word as she left my bedroom, closing the door quietly behind her and leaving me on my own again.

I let out a shaky sigh, and sat on the edge of my bed. I knew she didn't believe any more than I did that everything would be ok. I knew she knew more about this than me, and was therefore more inclined to be more terrified, more worried and more high strung than any one of us. I also knew the awful feeling she felt every time she thought about what would happen if she died, and she had never made up with Percy.

We still hadn't heard anything from him. Dad told us he'd seen Percy a couple of times at the Ministry, but Percy never acknowledged Dad, and he told us that Percy was looking pale and drawn.

"He's probably not looking after himself well enough," Mum had fretted when Dad mentioned Percy's seemingly ill appearance. "He's probably too busy running around after those… those... Ministry idiots to take proper care of himself!"

"Now, darling," Dad had tried to comfort her. "He's a grown lad now, he's just turned 22 years old- I'm sure he can manage."

But we didn't know how he was managing. He sent back everything Mum sent him, birthday presents, Christmas presents, Easter eggs- everything. We'd heard nothing from him in ages. Of course, only Mum expected to hear something from him. The rest of us doubted we would ever hear from him again if the war kept up.

But then, Percy always was an arrogant arse.