Draco-

Over the next couple of months leading up to the Christmas holidays, I attempted to reign in my "disturbing behaviour" in our DADA lessons. Apparently I was doing well, as my fellow Slytherins no longer looked at me with the same terrified expressions on their faces, which had suggested only too well that they expected me to Cruciate any one of them for things such as looking in my direction or standing accidentally in my way. Now, they engaged briefly in conversations with me whenever they deemed it appropriate- for example, greeting me in the morning as I descended from my dormitory, or bidding me goodnight when I headed back up there in the evenings.

Oh, they were still afraid of me, as any student in their right mind should have been- I was now, after all, a known Death Eater, and they knew only too well to whom I was reporting. However, they treated me with the respect my high standing in society deserved- admittedly, although Father was no longer as highly in favour with the Dark Lord as Snape now was, we were still a high standing family who demanded a level of respect that was in correspondence with this standing.

Blaise had become more relaxed around me now I had modified my behaviour. He spent longer in my company, as opposed to disappearing as quickly as possible whenever I approached him. We spent many an afternoon in a secluded corner of the library- him so he could work and I so I could work further on my plans for winning Ginny.

I had heard nothing more from the Dark Lord since my return from school, and had only received a handful of owls from my mother, all saying the same thing- "Please look after yourself, Draco," "Be good and don't give anyone any reason to harm you," "Stay out of trouble, please". They were always rounded off with "Your father and I miss you greatly and look forward to your return to the manor this Christmas".

Of course I had to return to the manor at Christmas- no one in their right minds would stay here this year, what with the school now being under Death Eater (and extremely better, in my opinion) control. It was well known that every single student from the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff houses were going home as quickly as possible, no doubt wishing they didn't have to return.

In the last two weeks leading up to the holidays, I made sure to try extra hard in winning some kind of approval from Ginny, as difficult as I knew it would be. I frequently made sure she heard me complaining about the new punishment regime at the school to Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle, all of who had looked completely perplexed when first I'd started complaining, but had soon learned to act along once I'd had a stern word with them. Ginny had not, at first, looked at all convinced, and had been giving me looks of the deepest mistrust and hatred from behind her sweeping red hair. These looks, prior to this year, would have amused me greatly, and I would have tried anything to provoke them, as I knew in doing so she would grow furious, thus giving myself and my fellow Slytherins further reasons to be amused. This year, however, due to my knowledge of how much I needed her approval, I found these looks to hurt me in some way.

Whenever I was alone, I found myself brooding over how I could win her, how I could get her to fall for me. My plans were almost always interrupted by a memory of one of her blazing looks as she glared at me, her brown eyes glinting with malice. To my discomfort, I'd find myself getting hot under the collar of my robes at these thoughts, and my stomach would begin to churn as though I was feeling nervous. This I did not understand, and so attempted to push it to one side as I continued to worry over how little progress I had made with her in the past few months. He would not be pleased with me, this much I knew- but it was very difficult for a follower of You-Know-Who to seduce a girl who was in love with You-Know-Who's mortal enemy- it just wouldn't happen overnight, if it was to happen at all.

Eventually, after another week of getting nowhere, and with the half term fast approaching, I decided my time would be better spent actually attempting to talk to her. I was thinking furiously of how to do this when I passed her in a corridor one day, and heard her mentioning to the strange Ravenclaw girl that she was going up to the Owlery later in the evening to send a letter to her twin brothers, who, from what I could hear, were not staying with the rest of the family, which was where her own owl was currently residing.

Taking my opportunity, I dashed straight up there after dinner, and waited impatiently in the shadows for her to arrive.

The sun was beginning to set, and my feet beginning to ache, by the time I heard light footsteps headed up to the Owlery. My heart began to thump so loudly, I worried she'd be able to hear them before she even entered the large, circular room, but to my relief she entered quietly, a thoughtful and worried look upon her face, which showed she plainly didn't realise that she wasn't alone.

I watched as she selected a large barn owl, which held out its leg in what seemed a bored and haughty manner, and tied with great care the scroll of parchment she had written to her brothers. She then carried the bird over to a large window and watched as it set off, sailing away into the ever darkening sky. Perhaps it was the angle from which I could see only a slither of her face, but she seemed to look mournful, and I caught a glimpse of a single tear gliding noiselessly down her pale cheek.

Taking my chance, I stepped out from the shadows, coughing slightly to alert her to my presence. She jumped violently, wiped her tear quickly from her cheek, and whipped around with her wand out, eyes blazing again.

"Who is it?" she demanded furiously before she saw me standing to one side, watching her with what I hoped was an unconcerned and almost bored expression on my face. "Oh. Malfoy," she spat when she saw me.

If I had expected her to lower her wand upon seeing me, I would have been very mistaken, for she instead tightened her grip on it. Her eyes narrowed as she glared at me.

"What're you doing up here, Malfoy?" she all but snarled at me. I raised one eyebrow.

"I was under the impression we lived in a free world, Weasley," I replied calmly.

She snorted a disbelieving laugh out at this statement, as though she found it amusing.

"You're kidding me, right, Malfoy? A free world? Not since your pal took over," she replied, hatred practically dripping off her every word.

"Yeah, well, times change," I replied, shrugging. This was evidently the wrong thing to say, for she glared at me even harder and was half way through uttering a curse when I realised my mistake and hurried to grab my own wand to block her.

"Stupify-"

"Protego!" I cried hurriedly as I blocked her curse, which rebounded off my shield and hit a wall not too far from Ginny's head, causing it to crack and a reasonable quantity of stone to begin falling from it. Removing my shield, I threw myself across the room and pulled her away from the falling debris, knocking us both to the floor and winding us.

Coughing, she shoved me away from her, glaring at me furiously.

"What did you do that for?" she demanded, struggling to her feet and dusting off her robes.

"In case you didn't notice, Weasley, your rebounded curse hit the wall behind you, you were about to be knocked out by a small avalanche of stone," I replied, getting riled that she hadn't even thought to say thank you.

"What is with you, Malfoy?" she asked angrily, a touch of confusion in her voice.

"What do you mean?" I replied coldly as I got to my feet carefully in case of bruising.

"First you save my life at my brother's wedding, and then you compliment my dress. You've been trying to get my attention ever since we got back to this now awful school, and then you go and save me from what I'm sure would have been an awful headache this evening, should a little stone have hit me on the head!" she snapped.

"Well, if you'd rather I'd have let you get knocked out, then I'm sorry I bloody bothered!" I replied, suddenly just as angry. "You want to know why I'm doing all of this? Because-" I stopped. I could feel myself getting nauseous again. I didn't have any excuse to give her.

"Because what, Malfoy?" she asked, her hand still gripping her wand tightly.

"Because I just did, alright? I saved your life and looked out for you tonight just because I did. I complimented your dress because you looked nice, and I've been trying to get your attention for the past few months because I just have been. I don't need to explain myself to you, Weasley," I said, and, although every fibre of my body was telling me it was a bad idea, I pocketed my wand and turned my back on her before heading out of the Owlery door. I left a stunned silence behind me, and I had a feeling my words had impacted her in some way.

I headed back to my common room feeling disheartened. I'd tried my best- I didn't know how to act with Blood Traitors. It was my natural instinct to either bully and torment them for my own and other's amusement, or otherwise to just avoid them completely. However, it was my duty to make this girl, one of the biggest Blood Traitors I knew, abandon her "hero" boyfriend and fall for me instead.

Maybe, said a small voice in my head as I contemplated this, maybe you're not just doing it because you have to anymore. Perhaps you actually want her to pay attention to you in a good way and like you. Shaking my head viciously, I decided it was best to forget this contaminating idea before my entire head became filled with trivial nonsense about the girl, a side effect that always came from dwelling on one thing for too long.

The common room was still full when I arrived back, and I didn't feel in any mood to endure the company of every single Slytherin student the school had. Ignoring the calls of Blaise as I headed past the fire place, my usual seat occupied instead by Pansy, who called after me as well with a note of disappointment in her voice due to my continued ignorance of her, I went straight up to my dormitory, and set about doing some homework I'd left late again.

This evening had not gone at all to plan. My head was hurting, my shoulder was aching from where I'd landed on it when I'd pulled Ginny out of the way of the rubble, and my eyes refused to remain focused on the page, instead becoming blurry and itchy from sleep deprivation.

My worry at going home soon only intensified when I reflected on how little progress I'd made with Ginny, and how very, very displeased He was going to be when I returned without any satisfying news for Him. I could picture Bellatrix's eager and excited face when He decided, undoubtedly, that my lack of progress must be punished- I shuddered, recalling from the darkest recesses of my mind the pain I had experienced at the end of the previous school year when I had failed my last task, and knew I would have to triple my efforts, try even harder, if I was to avoid the same fate as the Aurors, Longbottom's parents, who had been tortured into insanity by Bellatrix.

I'd rather be dead, I thought to myself as I settled into my bed. Rather dead than trapped in a meaningless existence, without any immediate escape, without any consciousness of what was going on around me… I'd rather be dead.

Ginny:

The day after his suggestion of reforming Dumbledore's Army, Neville entered the common room practically bouncing from excitement. Apparently, he'd spoken to Luna, and she had (obviously) been all for it.

In the weeks that followed, Neville, Luna and I each took turns to sneak out of the common room in the dead of night and put signs up on the walls all over the castle- "Dumbledore's Army, still recruiting". It was beyond risky, but worth it.

Two weeks after we had started doing this, our ranks had swelled from 3 to well over 20 students, all from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. We didn't have meetings to learn defence as much, it was more about disrupting the running of the school and trying to undermine the Carrow's and Snape's authority.

Our riskiest manoeuvre was not the signs we'd been putting it- it was four weeks before the Christmas holiday, and Neville, Luna and I attempted to steal the sword of Gryffindor from its case in the headmasters office- or rather, Snape's office. This did not go well. Snape caught us in the act, and I can honestly say that I have never been more terrified of him.

His pale, sallow face was rigid with fury, his black eyes narrowed as he glared at us in disgust. For some reason which was unbeknownst to us, he merely gave us one detention, which was to go into the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid- if he honestly thought this was a punishment, then he was very wrong.

The Christmas holidays were fast approaching; we were only one week away from them now, and I found myself once again in a mess of confused thoughts and emotions.

The week before, I had unwittingly walked into the Owlery, where I'd been confronted by Malfoy. He'd proceeded to pull me out of the way of the damage my ricocheted Stunning Spell had caused when it had bounced off of his shield charm, and then had snapped that he didn't have to explain himself to me and had stalked off, leaving me feeling very bemused and slightly bruised after my contact with the hard Owlery floor.

I could not understand his sudden want for pleasant interaction with me. Unless this was some sort of trick or trap- which I highly suspected- I had no idea what he was up to. Whenever he had seen me in the corridors after that, instead of complaining falsely to his cronies about the punishment in the castle, he merely nodded at me politely and gave a small smile. This in itself was odd- Malfoy, without his trademark smirk? It had to be some kind of twisted joke on his part.

However, this joke, if that's what it was (and I was almost certain that it was a joke), left me with many restless nights as I attempted to understand his actions. Twice now he had saved me from harm's way- one of which genuinely entailed saving my life- and he had looked concerned when he saw me in the Owlery and I had allowed for a tiny moment my painful emotions to overwhelm me. Of course, he had tried to hide this by hitching a completely unbelievable look of boredom onto his pale face, but I'd seen through that almost instantly.

To top it all off, Mum and Dad still hadn't sent Pig back with a response to my last letter, which I'd sent weeks ago, not even to tell me that they looked forward to seeing me when I returned home for the Christmas holidays.

Fred and George had replied to me, telling me that they were well, that business was still booming, and that they were currently having great difficulty in finding me a perfect Christmas present. Their reply had made me smile briefly for the first time in ages; It had made me, for a fraction of a second, forget that the Wizarding World was in the middle of what seemed a fruitless battle against You-Know-Who, and that Hogwarts was being overrun by Dark Magic.

Aside from Fred and George's reply, the only thing that gave me reason to feel even slightly cheerful was the continued existence of Dumbledore's Army, which was conducted right under the noses of the Carrows and Snape. It gave me little pleasure, but pleasure none the less, to know that I was resisting the new Hogwarts regime in some way.

Neville seemed, on the surface, to be benefitting the least from the DA. He was now having to spend up to days at a time hiding in the Room of Requirement before one of the other members told him that he was free to leave again, and his appearance was a little worse for wear as well- his robes were fraying around the edges from stumbling on them as he ran from the Carrows, and there were two slices across his cheeks from where he'd refused to torture a bunch of first years who'd earned detention and had cheeked one of the Alecto Carrow by asking her how much Muggle blood she and her brother had.

He was spending more time resisting Hogwarts than actually learning lessons- he missed every single one of his Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons, as well as all of his Muggle Studies lessons, only attending those lessons in which the professors where not Death Eaters or supporters in any way of the new running of Hogwarts.

Finally, the day of our departure from Hogwarts arrived, and the people boarding the Hogwarts express all showed signs of relief to be leaving the castle for a while. I gazed around at them all with wonder- who would return in the New Year? Who would go into hiding? There was no knowing.

As I glanced around at the faces of the students, my eyes met with Malfoy's. Malfoy had been staring at me, for how long I didn't know, and even though I had caught him looking he did not turn away or else pretend he had not been looking at me. On the contrary, he fought his way through the billowing crowd of students, many of whom looked at him in terror and backed out of his way quickly, and eventually he reached me.

"Weasley," he said, giving me what I suppose he thought was a charming look, but in reality made me glare at him.

"What, Malfoy?" I demanded, moving with the crowd towards the doors of the Hogwarts Express.

"I just thought I'd come and wish you a Merry Christmas, and hope that you enjoy yourself over the festive period," he said, sounding very much like someone from the 1800s.

"How thoughtful of you," I said coldly, still glaring at him.

Many of the students around where glancing occasionally over their shoulders to look from Malfoy to me, the gaze terrified when they rested on him, but still burning with curiosity.

"Yes, I thought so," he said simply, seeming pleased with himself, although a little indent had appeared between his eyebrows as he spoke.

"I suppose you expect a 'Merry Christmas' in return, do you?" I snapped, when he didn't immediately turn away from me and leave.

"It would be pleasant, yes," he said, smirking and shrugging.

"Well then you're going to find yourself disappointed. I do not wish you to have a merry time this holiday, and I hope you do not enjoy yourself. On the contrary," I said, rounding on him and stopping stock still, so that the crowd had to move around us, "I hope you spend much of your holiday in discomfort. But of course, that will no doubt happen, as there are rumours that your Dark Lord is residing at your manor!"

"You want to watch yourself more carefully, Weasley. I don't appreciate your tone," he said, his pale eyes regarding me coldly.

"I really couldn't care less," I replied, looking him up and down in disgust.

"Ginny, come on, we need to get seats-" cut in the dreamy voice of Luna, who had appeared out of nowhere and was standing beside me, regarding the scene in front of her with a vacant expression.

"I'm coming, Luna," I replied, turning on my heel and making to walk off.

"Wait, Weasley-" Malfoy's voice had a small ring of desperation to it, and as I turned back, the expression on his face shocked me slightly.

He looked anxious, worried, as though he'd done something wrong and he needed to fix it. I raised one eyebrow at him questioningly.

"I really do hope you enjoy yourself this Christmas," he said in a voice that betrayed his confidence as being fake.

"Erm," I replied, stumped- how exactly was I supposed to answer his remark? "Thanks?"

"Sure. See you in the New Year then, Weasley," he said, his haughty manner returning as quickly as it had disappeared. I watched, one eyebrow raised, as he strode off through the now thinning crowd of Hogwarts students boarding the express and returned to his cronies.

"What was that about?" asked Luna, who for once had dropped her dreamy demeanour and was showing a very mild interest in what had just transpired between Malfoy and myself.

"I have no idea. Anyway, come on- didn't Neville say he was going to try and save us our own compartment?" I asked, turning back to the express and beginning to head towards it.

"Yes, he did," said Luna, her voice returning to its usual dreamy state.

"Well then, come on," I said, rolling my eyes and smiling slightly at how quickly Luna's mind seemed to change direction.

Once everyone had boarded the train and the clock struck 10am, the train began to slowly pull out of Hogsmeade station, slowly gathering speed until eventually we were far from Hogwarts and the only thing visible out of the windows was the seemingly never ending fields on either side.

I was contemplating the confusing conversation I'd had with Malfoy on the platform- I still didn't understand his sudden behaviour change towards me. It was while I was thinking about this that Luna piped up from behind The Quibbler.

"Daddy's printed another article about how the Wizarding World should be supporting Harry," she said, her eyes hovering on Neville and I in turn. Neville looked interested, but I didn't turn away from the window, not wanting to hear anything about Harry that would make me worry more.

"Really? Is there anything else in there about the war? Anyone else we know disappeared?" asked Neville nervously.

"Not really, although a wizard family of four on the outskirts of Leicester has been found dead in their home, along with their pet cat," said Luna, her large orb like eyes going misty as she thought about it.

She and Neville were discussing this when the train ground unexpectedly to a stop, causing the lamps to sway precariously and several loud exclamations issued from the compartments along the train- I could hear several of them opening their doors and sticking their heads out to see what was going on, and I vaguely remembered the only other time the Hogwarts express had stopped before it had reached its destination. On that one occasion, Dementors had got on board, and I was in no rush to relive the experience.

This time however, it seemed people had boarded the train, as I could hear footsteps getting closer to our compartment, followed by a silence that seemed ominous. After a couple of minutes, during which all three of us had moved slowly to standing position and had reached for our wands, which were now held in front of us, we heard the footsteps stop outside the compartment next to ours. We heard as the door was flung open with such a force that the glass shattered, and heard the harsh voice of a man.

"Lovegood?" he demanded, and we all froze, staring round at Luna, who was looking somewhat interested, but not scared. "We're looking for Lovegood."

"She… She's not in here," came the terrified voice of one of the students in the next compartment, and heard as the door was slammed shut again and the footsteps moved steadily closer.

Instinctively, Neville and I moved to stand in front of Luna, all three of us clutching our wands as two men reached our compartment door and flung it open. The glass in our door shattered as well, and we winced as it flew in all directions, thankfully none of us hurting us.

"Ahh," remarked one of the men, who I now recognised as Dolohov. "I reckon we've found the right one, don't you?"

The man behind him, who I didn't recognise, sneered menacingly. "Yepp, reckon you're right there."

"What do you want?" demanded Neville, and I spared a glance at him, worried and shocked by his outburst.

"We're here for Lovegood," Dolohov sneered, moving into the compartment now.

Neville and I backed Luna into the far corner, where we stood in front of her, wands raised.

"Come on, kiddies, give us the girl and we won't have to hurt you," said the other one, moving in behind Dolohov and raising his own wand.

"You can forget about it," snapped Neville, his grip on his wand tightening.

"Yeah, get out," I snapped, my heart thumping at a much quicker pace than usual.

"Now, don't be stupid," snarled the other Death Eater, advancing towards us now as he side stepped Dolohov.

"Give us Lovegood and we'll be on our way," said Dolohov, who was also advancing on us now.

"Why do you want her anyway?" demanded Neville, who was getting red in the face with supressed fury.

"Her daddy has been printing unacceptable stories in his little magazine," Dolohov sneered. "My Lord does not like what he's been writing- we've been instructed to take your little friend here to stop old Xenophilius writing such moral boosting rubbish. Now, step aside and let us take Lovegood without any injuries being caused."

"No way!" said Neville, moving slightly closer to Luna.

Luna was watching the scene in front of her with wide eyes, which for once were actually focused on what was happening.

"Right, you asked for it," snarled Dolohov, pointing his wand directly at Neville, who didn't move an inch. "Stupify!"

I watched in horror as the beam of red light flashed straight at Neville, whose face looked shocked for a second, before he slumped to the floor unconscious.

"How dare you!" I shouted. "Expelliarmus!"

Dolohov's wand shot out of his hand and he glared at me furiously, his mouth half forming the curse he'd been about to shoot at me before I'd disarmed him.

"You little-" he shouted, not finishing his sentence- without my realising, Luna had raised her wand and stunned him.

The remaining Death Eater let out a roar of fury, diving forwards as he lunged towards Luna, grabbing her by her long blonde hair and shoving me out of the way. I stumbled sideways, caught off guard by his sudden attack.

Jumping back to my feet, I saw him dragging Luna, who was struggling and showing more emotion than I'd ever seen, back towards his Stunned companion, who he grabbed before turning back to face me. Panicking, I realised my wand had been knocked out of my hand as I'd fallen- it had landed at least 6 feet away from me, and I glanced at it before throwing myself at the trio before me- too late.

Grinning, the Death Eater spun on the spot, disappearing into thin air, taking the screaming Luna and his fellow Death Eater with him. A loud crack filled the compartment, and I let out a scream of mingled fury and pain- they'd taken Luna.

"Neville!" I gasped, tears streaking down my face.

The train began to move again, but there was little sound coming from the other compartments. I glanced around through bleary eyes and spied my wand lying in the smashed glass by the door. Grabbing it, I threw myself back to Neville, who remained unmoving on the floor by the window.

"Renervate," I managed to stutter out, and I watched as he finally came too.

"Ginny-" he muttered, rubbing his head and sitting up. "Where- Where's Luna?"

"They t-took her!" I cried, sobbing unrestrainedly into my hands.

"They WHAT?" he shouted, jumping to his feet and running out of the compartment.

"Neville- she's gone," I said, getting shakily to my feet and running after him.

"Luna? LUNA?" he shouted, running down past the other compartments, gazing wildly into each one as though she would be sitting there, calmly reading her Quibbler magazine.

Moving after him slightly, I glanced sideways into the compartment next to ours, where six terrified looking fourth years were staring with sorrowful eyes at me. I glanced up as I heard raucous laughter echoing down the train- Neville had obviously just passed a Slytherin compartment.

I headed back to our compartment, which was littered with shattered glass. Luna's possessions were lying on the luggage rack where she'd put it, and her Quibbler was lying abandoned on the floor where she'd dropped it.

Throwing myself down into a window seat, I let myself cry as much as I wanted. First Harry, Ron and Hermione had disappeared, and now Luna had as well- and with Dumbledore dead, I could see no hope that any of them would be coming back.

A/N: My longest chapter! 10 pages, seems like a lot to me at any rate. Well, I hope you like it, as always I would appreciate some reviews on my work- if you don't tell me what I could make better then I won't be able to improve my writing. Anyway, hope it's alright and I'll try and get another chapter up soon. Thanks guys :)