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Chapter 9: Wear me Like a Locket Around your Throat

People trickled up to the dormitories fairly early that night, as they usually did the first day back to school. I never quite knew why, but students always seemed to want to go to bed early after the big Welcome Back feast. Maybe it was all the food, or the long train ride, or even just a combination of both. But regardless of the reason, by nine o'clock the Gryfendor common room was completely empty with the exception of myself, Amy, Luna, and Crookshanks, who was curled up sleeping in front of the fire. Even the trio had decided to call it a night. I came to stand by the big window seat in the far end of the room. Luna was curled up in the corner with her nose crammed in a book, and Amy was gazing out the dark window, watching some phantom of her imagination cross the horizon. She looked hollow for a moment, like some one had scooped out whatever made her who she was, and left behind an empty shell. It made me wonder what she was thinking. I sighed and brushed my hair out of my face, running my fingers through the aubrn red strands. I frowned as my fingers met a small tangle. It was getting really long, and was kind of wavy too…maybe I should cut it... Naw…I discarded the thought as soon as it popped into my head. I was about to sit down when there was suddenly a loud tapping sound on the window. Amy jumped about a foot in the air, the owl outside snapping her out of her trance, and she scrambled to open up the window, smoothing down her touseled hair as she did. The second she fumbled the latch open, a huge black screech owl exploded into the common room, making a full sweep of the entire space. It's great ebony wings streatching wide, before it hurdled its way back towards us. It dropped something heavy and shining from the air and I insinctly reached out and caught the mystery object, just as the great bird exited the way it came in. Luna almost absently shut the window and locked it, not taking her pale eyes off of me. She didn't even hesiate before saying,

"What is it?" I shrugged and looked down at what the owl had dropped into my hands. It was a heavy heart-shaped locket, a border of thorns carved into it's surface, the chain spun of both silver and gold, tiny diamonds studding the little latch on the side. My heart almost stopped and my blood ran cold. The locket fell to the floor with a heavy clank. That was my locket…I had been wearing it the day I was abducted, and one of the men in masks had torn it from my throat. I remember…that was when I had finally started screaming. I was angrier about them taking my locket than I was about them kidnapping me…you do funny things when you're in shock.

I was feeling light headed suddenly, and had to sit down. The flash back so powerful it was nearly staggering. I was vaguely aware of Amy and Luna bending down to investigate the offending trinket. Amy lifted the locket off the ground, holding it by it's chain so it revolved slowly, as if on display, glinting in the dim light.

"Look, there's a latch. Open it." She said to Luna. In a second, the locket was open, and there was a small roll of parchment inside, as well as a small clipping of auburn hair, held together with a black ribbon. They both looked at me simultaneously, both of them recognising the hair as mine. My breathing was coming out in short bursts, if I wasn't careful, I was going to hyperventilate…I had to calm down…relax. I forced myself to take long deep breaths, and soon, I felt a little better. Hard to be terrified when you're doing breathing exercises.

"What does it say?" I finally manage to speak with the confidence that my voice wouldn't shake. Amy opened up the note with trembling hands, her eyes followed the words, but she didn't speak. The silence built around us, until finally, I couldn't take it anymore.

"Well?!" I asked, a little bit of my hysteria leaking out into my voice.

"It says…" She paused for a moment, and brought her gaze up to settle on my face, which must have been just as pale as hers was. "I'm coming. Count backwards from three." What did that mean? Three what? Minutes? Hours? Days? Luna spoke, and I jumped, nearly screaming. My heart felt like a caged bird in my chest, hammering at full speed.

"I think we're going to have to pay Professor McGonagal a visit." Amy and I nodded in unison.

"Let's go, I said, standing up. My legs felt a little shaky, but I was pretty sure I could make it.

"Wait, just wait a minute." Amy said, and she disappeared up the steps to the boy's dormitories. We waited in silencer for her to come back. I tried to think of something to say to keep Luna company, but everything that popped in my mind seemed irrelevant or pointless. The silence didn't seem to bother Luna though, and it never did. Watching her stand there, quietly, and quite content, I wished I could be like her. Oblivious to the inferior mortals blundering about, going about their business. My anxiety levels would defiantly fall down a few pegs, if I saw things the way she did. In fact, Luna seemed to be the only one who wasn't entirely affected by the war. Torture, havoc, chaos…like water on a duck's back with her.

Finally, Amy came back down, waving Harry's invisibility cloak around over her head, a brilliant smile on her face.

"This'll protect us from the evil nasties." She said as she came up to us, and I rolled my eyes. Excuse me for not exactly being in the comical mood. I just received a cryptic note from a possible stalker…who knew that was one of my buttons?

"Whatever, let's go quick, before something kills me." I said coldly, and no one answered.

Amy threw the cloak over all our heads and we left the false comfort of the common room and made our way out into the castle…which somehow seemed so much more threatening than it had an hour ago.

The chimes above the door jingled, and roused me slightly from my drunken stupor. It took a tremendous amount of effort for me to raise my head up off of the bar and glance towards the door. A tall man stood framed in the doorway, the dim lighting of the bar cast shallow shadows across his clean, handsome face. The only flaw in that smooth, perfect flesh was a diagonal scar that cut down through his left eyebrow. His eyes were a kind of hazel, and they seemed to change colour, depending on what he was wearing. He was dressed in a black button down shirt, untucked over black jeans, which here buckled into thick leather boots. A leather jacket fell past his waste and hung unevenly around the pockets…knowing him, the pockets were probably filled with muggle weapons. His skin looked a little pale against the black. His hair was white, but not because he was old, in fact, this man was only a year older than I was. It was spiked on top of his head, but didn't match the colour of his eyebrows. Last time I had seen him, his hair had been black. This was Gregory. Gregory brought new meaning to the term 'Wild Card,' and I was suddenly filled with mixed emotions. The first one to register through the drunken haze was…not quite fear…but caution. Gregory was the most dangerous person I have ever met. I've seen him take down giants, mutilate dragons, dissect vampires…and say no to Voldemort. All single-handed. He was an assassin and killed for a living, for no other reason than he was good at killing. He would kill almost anything or anyone as long as the price was right, and he always got the job done. He was the epitome of practicality…and at one point in my life, he had been my idol. He feared no one, and everyone respected him. Who didn't want that?

"Draco." He said. My name met my dazed ears with a sharp snap, and I rose a little farther out of my stupor. This was not the person you wanted to be around when you were drunk. Hell…you didn't want to be around him when you were sober. I didn't get up to shake his hand or make small talk, but I didn't dare turn my back on him. I kept him in my line of slight, and nodded slowly.

"Gregory." I answered and waited for him to tell me why he was standing here, watching me with a gentle smile on his face, as if we were friends of old. The façade was almost good enough to work until you caught sight of his eyes. His eyes were cold…dead. He'd killed whatever it was that made him human long ago, and it left his eyes like two pieces of dry ice. Burning a hole through your soul as he watched you. He didn't say anything, and I grew impatient. Probably not the smartest thing in the world to do…but hey, I was tanked, and he was interrupting my self-loathing party.

"Why are you here, Gregory?" I asked, my voice monotone, almost sounding bored. He grinned suddenly at the question, and pulled up a stool. The sudden movement made me jump and reach for my wand, but I stopped myself mid-grab. If he were here to kill me, he would have done it already. I could relax…for now. I was sobering up by the second, and could gather some of my wits about me, I sat up a little in my seat and turned the stool to face him, my hand hovering over my wand. If it came down to Gregory and me, I would lose, for sure. But I'll be damned if I didn't make the son of a bitch hurt a little before I died.

"Here on a job. What else?" He asked, his voice light. He rapped on the bar harshly, and glanced up at Bert, who was watching us suspiciously from the other end on the bar. "Jack Daniels." He said before turning back to face me. I watched him coldly, not returning the friendly smile he was giving me.

"Who you offing?" I asked, my voice still that strange monotone. The expressions on his face never changed. He reached out to take his drink from Bert without taking his eyes off mine.

"Confidential." He said, and I sighed.

"Then what do you want?" I asked, and even to me, I sounded tired. I was sick of all these people still bent on violence. I just didn't have the energy to plot and kill people anymore.

"I need to get into the school and security is…tight. To say the least." He said, as if he were simply asking me to pass the bowl of peanuts. I glowered at him.

"No." I said, and his smile didn't even falter.

"But Draco, we used to be such good friends. Aren't we still friends?" He asked pleasantly. His face sincere and serine…I've seen him slaughter people with that same look on his face. "Because, it might not be the best idea to make an enemy out of me." Still, I didn't answer, because almost anything I could say right at that moment would either get me killed, or commit me to a promise I couldn't keep. When in doubt, keep your mouth shut.

"Tell you what. I'll give you twenty-four hours to decide if we're still friends or not. Make the right decision Draco." He said, leaning in towards me, his next words were soft, so only I would hear. "I wouldn't want anything…unfortunate... To happen to you." Then, he stood up, downed his Jack Daniels in two swallows, and left, leaving his back to me, showing me that he didn't think of me as a threat. That smug bastard.

If I didn't help him get into the school the easy way, he would just kill people until he got to whoever his job was. There were no civilians in Gergory's eyes…just collateral damage. I growled angrily, and stood up, whipping my empty glass at the wall, and watched furiously as it shattered into a thousand pieces.

If I helped him, someone was going to die. If I didn't help him, I was going to die, along with a dozen other people…either way, the shit was going to hit the fan. I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair, stepping away from the bar. Gregory was my past coming to haunt me. He was death in human form. And I owed death a favour. Shit. This was either going to be a very long year…or a very very short one.

(AA) OOOO! Things are getting INTENSE! Isn't Gregory BOMB? I based him off of Edward from Laurell K Hamilton's Anita Black Vampire Hunter series. Edward is my love. So mysterious, and dangerous…and BLOND! Yuuumummyyy! Hehehe! Well, I hope you liked it, I know there was no action, but hey, we cant have them going at eachother like bunnies every single chapter, now can we? Neways, nice long reviews promise more chapters! SO hurry up and put those fingers to word!

Works Cited:

Hang me like a locket around your throat: from My Heart is the Worst Kind of Weapon by Fall Out Boy.