Chapter 5: A Choice

In the next fifteen minutes, Neville told us how a passage opened up to Aberforth's Pub, that would could get into for food. Aberforth was Dumbledore's brother and he supported our cause completely-and since food and water were two things the room wouldn't provide, he gladly gave us nourishment free of charge.

We also talked about how we were going to get the message out to former D.A members without the Death Eater staff catching wind. And Seamus told us unhappily how his best friend Dean Thomas was on the run, attempting to evade the muggle-born round up.

And soon I found myself by Ginny, needing to talk to her privately because of something that had been weighing on my mind since the second I walked in this room.

"Ginny, what about Draco?" I asked quietly as we drifted over to an unoccupied corner of the room.

"What about him?" Something in her tone was a little too innocent, a little too unknowing. Something about how she didn't meet my eyes was a little too suspicious as she focused her gaze on the windowless wall, running her finger along the dark wood.

"Oh no Ginny, what did you do?" I groaned.

"He's on our side now, Astoria!" She gave. "And I can't believe I'm the one reminding you this. Quinn already knows he's not really a Death Eater, and between the both of us...well, it was easy to provide evidence for Neville and Seamus. Especially Luna. He should be here soon, actually. And be nice, we'll all be on the same side, this room is open to all of us."

"How did you already get time to bring this up to everyone but me?" I asked, a little hurt. Ginny shrugged, not answering. I stayed silent. Thoughts were jumbling around in my head, flying thick and fast. Luckily Ginny knew to explain more-

"Obviously, they don't know he's in the Order," she began. "But they know he's on our side, and not to tell anyone unless they're completely loyal to the DA. He'll be sort of like our second in command, and he'll try to find out things from Death Eaters like who they particularly suspect, so that person can lie low, and when they're conducting a search, so we can be extra cautious then," she added.

"So when did you have this chat, out of curiosity?" I asked again.

"Not too long ago. We told you as soon as we could," she said, her brown eyes meeting mine.

I must have had a funny look on my face, because Ginny laughed and told me- "Breath! Loosen up! It'll be alright!"

"I know, I know. Did you tell them that we used to be..." I trailed off.

She told me yes and I nodded, realizing I wasn't all that surprised.

"When is he coming?" I craned my neck to the door, which remained closed.

"As soon as this class ends. Which is to say, soon. He has to stay more inconspicuous than the rest of us."

I put down the heart-stopping momentous flutter in my stomach to excitement that the DA was re-grouping.

Not long after, when Neville had manipulated the room to only allow students in that were for our cause, (to others, the door would simply look like the wall surrounding it. Neville really seemed to be the best man for working with the room) the door opened.

And breaking off from the flow of students switching classes, came the first of those hurrying in, expanding the room even more.

Parvati and Padma Patil, Terry Boot and Ernie Macmillan held up their galleons, relieved looks on their faces.

"Oh, good!" Terry began, quickly closing the door behind him. "We all met up on the way here-we'd taken to carrying our coins again, hoping the DA would come back!"

"And it looks as if we were right," Padma Patil beamed.

Five minutes later and we were already stunned by the response, the call to action. Everyone's story seemed to follow the same lines-they'd began to carry their galleons again in hopes that the DA would restart-and now we had Lavender Brown, Anthony Goldstein, and Michael Corner.

That already brought our total to thirteen. We talked to them all, giving them a speech about how the DA was starting. And when we told them about Draco, something happened that made me want to cry with joy.

"I always thought he wasn't completely evil," Terry Boot nodded, looking around. "Once I was in the dungeon with a first year, about to be tortured, and Draco let off the first year and tried to get to me but the Carrows came in."

"Last year in the battle of Hogwarts I saw him save someone from a Death Eater's spell," Lavender Brown offered tentatively.

More and more stepped forward, until almost everyone had an account of Draco's goodness. It was incredible.

"Well," Neville said, a bit flustered. "It looks like we won't have to convince you nearly as much as we'd thought that Draco was good." He went on to continue how because of his fake status as Death Eater, he could give us valuable information.

"Are you alright?" Quinn whispered, taking my hands from where they had been previously (twisting my robes nervously) and taking them in his own.

"We won't be doing a sign up sheet again this year because of the incident last year," Ginny added.

"And remember to continue carrying your coins, but be cautious. Where the serial code would be on a normal galleon, that's where the time and date of the next meeting. And as you all know, they heat up when there's a new time. Remember to help each other out...because that's the best thing you can do. We can do this together, everybody. There's strength in numbers, especially now!" Just as I was really getting into my speech the door opened once more and everyone twisted around to see Draco Malfoy. My heart did that odd, twisting pirouette that I'd come to associate with him-but I did not miss him. I just had to give myself longer to completely get over him.

The hallways were almost empty behind him, and I felt a flutter of nervousness, thinking how we'll have to speed things up; we wanted to remain subtle as possible, at least for now, and fourteen late students wouldn't help that cause.

Draco closed the door and sort of strolled up to the six us is standing in front. Quinn's hand tightened around mine.

We hurriedly told them again to be careful and keep their coins handy-to tell any former DA friends they had that we were banding together again. I could tell by the blurted suggestions of names that the Death Eaters were going to have their hands full with us.

They seemed to be getting slightly accustomed to Draco as well-he even got a few cautious smiles as the students departed. Now it was just the seven of us left, and we did a quick survey of the now larger room-a Slytherin banner had not been added-

"Why isn't there a Slytherin banner now?" Neville looked around, puzzled.

"I sort of told it that it doesn't need to sprout one," Draco grimaced. "Not with just one of us here."

The room was larger and airier, and several bookcases now lined the wall next to a small door that lead to the Hog's Head, according to Neville.

Ginny and Luna quickly broke into a conversation about how Dean was going into hiding rather than submitting to the new round-up of muggleborns.

Quinn and I took to kicking back in a hammock while surprisingly, Draco and Seamus immediately began discussing ideas on which methods we could use to irritate the Death Eaters the most, letting them know that there was opposition without endangering anyone.

"I think we've done pretty well," Quinn said as we leaned back, sideways, into the hammock beside each other, feet brushing the ground and providing a gently rocking motion. My hair was splayed out and our arms were pressed against each other-he was tracing patterns on my hand, spelling messages while I laughed, trying to guess them.

It certainly was easy to care for Quinn-he was gentle and kind, quiet, and we hadn't so much as argued. So different than Draco. I looked up suddenly to see Draco glancing our way, and abruptly felt very self conscious of the forgotten smile that Quinn had put on my lips, the way my head was inclined toward Quinn's. Blushing, I looked down, but not before I managed to catch the sight of Draco making his way over to us. I pretended not to see, keeping my gaze down.

"Hey, lover-boy," he addressed Quinn, lazily scratching his chin. "Tell me, does Astoria still snore like a bear when she sleeps?" I gasped and blushed furiously as Quinn sat bolt upright-Draco was snickering furiously.

"Malfoy, you ferret!" I gasped. "He didn't-I never-we didn't-" I looked up at Quinn desperately, hoping he'd get what I was trying to say. "I don't even snore!"

"No, she doesn't actually, she's a very quiet sleeper," Quinn winked only for me to see as he said this last bit, but Draco chuckled quietly, like he saw right through Quinn's bluff, shoving his hands into his pockets and walking off.

"It has come to our attention," Snape's cold voice floats over the Great Hall at dinnertime later that day- "that a number of students disappeared from class this afternoon, never returning." Fear spiked my chest, and I know it was mirrored in several other members in this room. Draco had tried, but apparently failed, to offer an excuse for the absence. His say must not have weighed enough, he couldn't explain six missing students, although he may have been able to over his own. That was most likely what had happened, in fact-after all, he was only slightly late to one class, because he left soon after leaving Quinn and me in the hammock. At least he couldn't be punished, although he deserved a good slap for what he'd said earlier.

But it left one question unanswered-what would happen to the rest of us?

"I will tell you right now, students," he paused. "That secret clubs, gatherings, and meetings are strictly off limits. Any student found linked to this type of infraction will be punished most severely."

The hall was silent now, and I dared my eyes to slide over to where Padma Patil sat at my table-she nodded firmly, resolved, offering a secret smile, and we averted our eyes before anyone took notice.

"...of the Dark Mark. Neville Longbottom! Have you something to add? Seamus Finnigan! Both of you stand!" It was the day after Snape's "no secret clubs" speech-but instead of having the desired effect, it fed our opposition. We sat listening to Snape's talk about the "art" of the Dark Mark-but it was going to be interrupted by a DA stunt.

Neville had commented the day before how it had always given him faith when Harry stood up against people like Umbridge-and now we were going to do the sane. Neville had just made a secret move with his wand, and changing several of Snape's gruesome pictures. Then simultaneously, he and Seamus had jumped to the edges of their seats, waving their wands in the air.

"Professor Snape, what's that?" Neville roared with laughter and pointed to where violent pictures depicting dark magic used to hang-the whole class struggled to contain their laughter for fear of Snape, but eventually a few snickers won out over terror. Every picture frame featured a different Death Eater, portrayed in frilly dresses with clownish collars and make up.

I turned to Padma Patil as Professor Snape unsuccessfully attempted to cover the pictures rather than try to return them to their original form.

"Three..." I mouthed to her, holding up three fingers. "Two, one." I whirled back around and we stood up in the same second, and simultaneously began-

"Professor Snape, you look absolutely stunning in that collar! And so does dear Bellatrix, could we get a copy?" I mentally jumped for joy at our perfectly executed plan-we had said the line at precisely the same time.

Just one more detail had to fall into place-Snape flung one more curse at the pictures, and the effect was instantaneous-the picture disappeared, and flashing messages such as "DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY!" and "DA's still out there!" "We fight! We stand! Dumbledore's Army forever!" Stood out in flashing bold letter. And as he flicked his wand once more, they exploded into blue and red fireworks, the little sparks fizzling and flying all over the room-wherever they struck, the letters DA were etched into the ground and desks. It was certainly a bit of complicated magic-we had had Fred and George's help on it.

If it was possible, Snape's eyes crackled with even more ferocity as he turned to face us. Laughter died, and the room grey completely silent. Snape looked slowly to the four of us standing-myself, Padma, Neville, and Seamus-he didn't say a word, but none of us dared to move, much less make a noise, for the murderous look in his eyes. We'd crossed the line, now we'd pay, read his eyes as he raised his wand menacingly.

With a loud boom and several screams, I remembered a sensation of falling, then everything going black.

I woke up with a throbbing pain reverberating like a jackhammer throughout my skull, and I tried to blink away the blurriness in my eyes. When my gaze focused, I took in my surroundings and I noticed immediately the thick chains biting into my body, winding myself, Neville, Seamus, and Padma against some sort of pillar in what looked to be a cold, large, stone room-we were in the dungeons. After checking as well as I could, with my arms chained to my sides, I noted that my wand was gone, and I was the only of the four awake. Since the room seemed to be otherwise empty, I strained against the chairs, eyes filling with tears when it proved futile. I could only imagine the horrors they had us in for, embarrassing them like that. No doubt they knew it was us who made the pictures. I let out a choked sob, thinking how only seconds of the torture curse had left me wishing for death the first time-and there was no McGonagall to stop them now. I suddenly held stock still, wiping my face of emotion as my ears strained to pick up the sound that I though I'd just heard coming from the shadows-Snape coming to condemn us? The Carrows coming to torture us? My heard was pounding rapidly and my eyes widened. I choked back a gasp as Draco stepped out of the shadows.

Both of us stayed silent as Draco began to walk slowly toward us, keeping his eyes locked on mine.

I blinked and Draco was pressing my wand into my hand, three on the floor beside it. Taking his own wand he began to sever the chains that bound all of us-slow, careful work.

"What're you doing?" I hissed.

"What does it look like? Saving your sorry arses."

"We could have done that perfectly well ourselves, thank you very much."

"Let's see-no wounds, you being the only one conscious, all four of you chained to be tortured? What did you think you were going to do, bite through the chains?"

"No!" I seethed. "But I'm not some damsel in distress! I can handle myself!" This caused him to pause as he realized that wasn't the first time I had uttered those words...that last summer, in fact, was. Something in his expression changed as he looked up at me. He had just cut through the last chain and I should have been standing up but I couldn't-not with him so close to me,his face mere inches from mine. Some hardness seemed to have left his eyes, and I couldn't have looked away if I wanted to. Was he going to kiss me? I wanted him to.

"Take care of this," he breathed, and ran his fingers, soft as light wind, across my cheek, were I realized a cut lay across-and then he was gone, and I had to shake myself into action.

I slipped off the chains and winced as Padma slid to the right without them holding her upright in place.

"Whoa!" She bolts upright as I put my hands on her shoulders to shake her awake, eyes snapping open.

"Astoria? Where are we?"

"The dungeons, I think," I replied, pressing her wand into her hand as we stood up, stretching our sore legs.

"Who got us out of the chains, and what happened to your cheek?"

"Draco, and I don't know." I turned my face away so she couldn't read my expression and began to rub at the red marks the chain had left on my arms.

"I see," she said in a tone that made me blush.

"Let's get the other two out," I suggested. After shaking them awake, we contemplated going back to our own common rooms, because it was sure to be the end of the day, but Seamus shot down that idea, saying that would be the first place they looked.

We finally decided to camp out in the room of requirement as Neville had before, thinking we would stay, weeks if we had to, until other members said that it was safe to come out, when the Carrows' anger had disintegrated.

We'd camped out in the room for two days now; luckily, a bathroom had appeared. Today, on day three of the Carrows still not catching onto how we communicated or where we met, we were getting ready to hold the first official DA meeting.

"Welcome to the DA!"

"Glad to see you back!"

"Looking good mate, you can hardly even see the bruises!" The room grew yet again as more people trickled in-it was good that all members of the DA knew about Draco now, but I still worried that he might be discovered. He had been on my mind a lot in our two day stay, and I felt guilty that I had wanted him to kiss me. I was dating Quinn.

Neville had come up with the idea that Draco wouldn't come to all of the meetings-therefore, his pattern of disappearances wouldn't be identical to our own, making it difficult to trace him back to us. I wasn't sure if he was coming to this one.

My grin widened as I observed the almost-twenty people crowd chattering excitedly, happy smiles stretching.

"You look happy," Quinn observed, nudging my shoulder.

"Yeah, look at all these people!"" I pushed up the sleeves of my white, cotton muggle long-sleeve t-shirt.

"There's no Slytherins," he pointed out, something in his dry tone telling me he didn't find this surprising.

"Draco's here, and he's risking a lot," I said, not sure why my tone had taken on such a defensive quality as I craned my neck in an attempt to locate said Slytherin.

I seemed to be doing a lot of that lately; I can't seem to shake the moment when Draco was beside me, closer than he had been in months, cutting the chains.

"Astoria!"

"Oh, sorry, what?" I jumped, startled, not noticing until now, that Quinn had, in fact, said another sentence, and it had gone straight into one ear and fallen out the other.

"Never mind," he said, looking slightly peeved. "I'm going to talk to Seamus."

"Alright," I told him, and to my surprise, I wasn't really upset at all that Quinn all but brushed me off. Soon it appeared that everyone who had been coming had come, and Neville began to speak as Ginny, Quinn and Luna gather around us.

He talked, and as we get closer to the end, the teenagers looked even more and more fired up, but I wondered-was it going to be enough to stand up to the Carrows? Then I thought-we'd need a Harry Potter-like miracle to help us do that.

I was still thinking by the time the room was dark on our last night in the Room Of Requirement-I was lying on my hammock, eyes wide open.

"Harry. We need him. You ned him. Shouldn't we try to find him?" My words to Ginny uttered weeks ago floated back up to the surface of my consciousness, and I realized-they had never left.

"S...or..." incomprehensible mutterings were coming from Ginny's hammock to my left, and I knew from her thick voice that she was sleep talking.

"What's a sor, Ginny?" I whispered, giggling softly. I'd learned from experience that even in her sleep, Ginny could-sort of-still respond.

"S...or..." she muttered again. "I'll...the...Harry. NO!" She suddenly shrieked, causing me to land with a thump on the floor, starting at the sudden noise.

I cursed softly under my breath, rubbing the knee I'd landed on. From my position now, I could hear Ginny's mutterings better, and what she had been saying became clear-

"...I'll get the sword, Harry," she paused. "No, no. It's in Snape's office." Another pause. "Okay. Me too, Harry." She rolled over and fell silent, and I felt strangely guilty, like I was trespassing on something private.

I crawled back into my hammock, and my body was telling me that it was late, and that I needed to sleep, but I had no urge what so ever to close my eyes.

But I tried anyway, and-

Bang Bang Bang!" I sat bolt upright. No one was pounding on the door of course, because there was no door from the outside looking in...not when we were up here, at least. But this banging has a feel to it that whoever was pounding knows where the door would be, and is trying desperately to alert someone inside. I padded softly to the door, trusting an instinct that this wasn't the Carrows.

I opened the door, dim light flooding in from the torches, revealing Michael Corner.

"What's up?" I asked, taking in his wild expression.

"The-Carrows," he managed to get out. "I ran-all the way-from the dungeons. They've got a-a few-second years chained up."

My eyes bulged. "Come on, let's go!" I quietly closed the door and as we began to run toward the dungeon, I asked-

"How did you know the kids are down there, anyway?"

"Because it was my fault," he said miserably. "They were in my house and they'd forgotten something they needed tomorrow in one of the classrooms-for the Carrows, you know. They were worried they were going to punished if they didn't get their homework done, so I let them go. Even though it was after hours," he added hauntingly. "After a few minutes I realized I should have gone with them, so I ran out after them, but the Carrows had gotten them and brought them to the dungeons."

"We'll get them out now, don't worry," I said firmly.

We stopped running as we were both out of breath, jogging the rest of the way to conserve energy. We silently made out way through the castle, jumping at every sound.

"This is too easy." Instead of being relieved, Michael looked suspicious. I'd like to shake off his suspicions, but something wasn't settling right with me, either. No sign from anyone or anything as we made our way through the hallways-as we made it to the dungeon-

It was completely empty, even of the second years.

"Where are they?" Michael asked, puzzled, spinning around the dreary room. Then his eyes bugged out. "I swear, the Carrows did-"

"I know. I believe you. C'mon, we've got to look for them, we don't have a lot of time."

"You don't have any time."

The voice made my blood ran cold.

"Look and see. I told you it was a good idea to hide them." Not it was Alecto talking, no doubt speaking of the second years. My stomach plummeted like I was falling-maybe if I closed my eyes, I could convince myself that I actually was-

"Oh, I wouldn't try that, girlie," Amycus stops my hand inching toward my wand, and both mine and Michael's fly through the air and my heart begins to beat more frantically now, my hands clammy and adrenaline pumping-but I was still frozen to the ground.

"Give us back our wands!" Fear betrayed his voice, and it cracked on the word back. "We haven't done anything!"

"On the contrary!" Alecto lost her cool demeanor in a flash as she began to circle us slowly. Something about how she screeched that last sentence reminded me of Bellatrix-"And you know how we punish trouble makers."

Everything around me had a fuzzy look to it, and all around was sort of golden, bright-I was standing, barefoot, in what appeared to be an endless plain of soft grass-full of green plants and white flowers that match the color of my airy sundress.

A slight, warm breeze rustles the grasses, sending whispers rolling down the sunlight plain. When it hit the open flowers, though, a sort of silvery mist curled out of them and the pearly stuff began to transform in front of me, and I gasped as I made out the shape-

"Dawn?" The girl I'd seen die last year in the battle of Hogwarts stood before me now, smiling and whole. The light behind her was the brightest, where I had been walking into before she stepped before me.

"Hello, Astoria," she gave me a sunny smile, whole and well again, bearing no sign of battle scars, looking small and innocent in her simple white dress similar to mine.

"But you're..dead...Dawn? Where are we? Am I dead?"

"That depends, actually. You could be, that's certain. The Carrows certainly tortured you enough for it. You very well could be. But you might not be, as well. They almost killed you back there, and, well...now you've got to make a choice."

"A choice?" I echoed.

"Yes," she confirms, nodding her head. "If you chose to walk with me, you could leave all of that behind."

"I'd die."

"Yes, you'd die. Or another term, walking up into the light. It doesn't hurt, I promise. But if you chose to turn back now, you may do so. Someone alive will escort you back into the world of the living. But it will be hard...the world of the living is so full of pain." I nodded, agreeing. "But you can't come yet, you're not ready!" Her face crumpled a bit. She enfolded e into a hug, wrapping her arms around my waist. "I know you've still got living left in you. But you may chose either way. I'm not supposed to influence you. It's rare, you know, when people are on...how do they phrase it...teetering on the very edge of life and death, and so in between they get to chose."

She pulled her arms back but keeps her small hand pressed in mine, turning out backs away from where the light was the strongest. We saw someone coming in from the distance, walking. I didn't see their face until they got closer, and that was when I realized that he was my escort back to the living. If I chose to, that is.

"Draco," I smiled. In this place, nothing bad had happened between us yet-there was no intricate spiderweb work of lies, distrust, or animosity.

And this wasn't really Draco, I guessed. Draco was down with the living. This was just some sort of projection, derived from my sub-consciousness. That was as much as I could figure out. But Dawn was real, though-her actual self would be my escort..."out"...if she need be. Anyone else from the side of the living would also be merely a projection.

"Tori, you can't leave us," Draco pleaded, stepping up to be a breath away from me, face inches away, hands enfolding mine. I didn't feel any need to pull away, even when Daphne and Julie-or their projections, whatever-came up from behind him.

"Go, Astoria," Dawn said softly from beside me, and I watched myself reflected in Draco's cool grey eyes. A feeling of longing so powerful it literally had my knees buckling found me taking a stumbling step forward. Instead of finding myself in Draco's arms I found myself standing in the middle of the three-Daphne, Julie, and Draco-and Dawn, slightly to the side of our tight group, caught my eye.

"Wait, Dawn, before I go," I cried suddenly. "I'm...I'm so sorry I couldn't save you."

"Don't even think for a second it was your fault. There was nothing you could do. You held my hand, stayed with me, and that was all I needed. But don't forget me, alright, Tori? And don't be sad. Because we'll meet again someday. Though hopefully not for a long, long while."

"I know. Meet me when I come, for good, okay?" I whispered. She nodded in silent promise, and I watched until only her silhouette was highlighted as she walked into the shining light...and then she was gone.

"Ready?" Daphne spoke for the first time.

"See you on the other side," Julie whispered.

"Dump that kid Quinn, will you?" Draco winks at me. "I mean, this should count for something. Me being your escort and not him." Shaken, I realize he's right.

"I can't think about that now, Draco!" I blushed furiously. "I'm...I'm going to be in a lot of pain when I get back, aren't I?" I was suddenly scared.

"In a shaky state both physically and mentally. But I think you'll pull through," Daphne gave me a small smile. "Write to me, okay?"

"Mentally shaky?" I whispered, terrified.

"Oh, come one!" Julie stomped her foot impatiently. "When you're up here, your heart doesn't beat down there, only time isn't the same. Down there, you've only been gone for about ten seconds. You'll be fine, but everyone else is..." her eyes focused downward on something I couldn't see. "well, best not to keep them-and me-waiting for much longer."

"You're in for a rough few days, kiddo," Daphne informed me grimly.

"Watch what you mutter in your half-crazed, sleeping state," Draco winked, and I opened my mouth to protest, but that wink was the last think I saw before everything became a spinning blur around me.

A\N-Three more chapters after this one's done...can we get to 500 reviews? :) You guys are all amazing, thanks for sticking with me!

-Cassia