Updated at last. Thanks for your patience.

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Chapter 6:

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I looked everywhere for Chang. I was always one step behind her, one step around the corner just as she was entering a classroom, one step too slow as she left one.

Finally, I caught her just as she was leaving Herbology outside with her classmates. Smirking at my long-waited success, I hurried towards her, opening my mouth to call her name…

That's when a hand reached out and grabbed my shoulder, yanking me through a corridor to a private place outside.

It was a man in dark robes, tattered like he had just made his way through the Forbidden Forest to catch me. A death eater, right here in Hogwarts. If he wasn't so close to the cover of the forest, I would think him out in the open was utter madness.

"What do you want?" I demanded. "What are you doing here?"

"I have a message from the Dark Lord," he replied.

"What? Here? Are you mad? Quiet down, someone might hear!"

"He says get on with it or he's yanking you from the mission."

"He can't do that!"

"He will."

"Alright," Malfoy said, glancing around to make sure they were still alone. "Tell him I have a plan coming along. Tell him it shouldn't be much longer now."

The man didn't answer, just simply turned and left.

That's when I realized how distracted from my task I had really become. I was getting sloppy and I knew it. Potter was starting to realize that I was missing Quidditch matches, and no doubt he had realized I was using Crabbe and Goyle as transfigured lookouts too. My time was wearing thin, and it was starting to get to me.

Maybe I should just accept my fate and know that I was a dead man. Maybe eternal glory was not for me.

But now was not the time to give up. Now was the time to get down to it, and finish my plan before it was too late for the entire Malfoy family tree.

-

I had forgotten about a certain raven-haired Ravenclaw for a few days at least. Then I realized that she hadn't forgotten about me.

One day I came back to my dormitory and Pansy was standing by my nightstand, shredding an unidentified paper and letting it fall like confetti to the floor.

"What are you doing?" I demanded harshly. "Is that my letter?"

"Chang-- that Ravenclaw girl Crabbe told me you were oogling-- told Goyle to deliver this to you."

She pointed to the contents on the floor.

"She even said it was important. How do you explain that, Draco Malfoy?"

I stood stunned, staring at the shreds on the floor, a fury slowly consuming my mind so that I was paralyzed until it was finished. She had ripped my letter. My letter from Cho.

"Aren't you going to defend yourself, Draco?" she went on. "Because I'm on the verge of calling us completely over!"

I tore my gaze from the grated letter on the floor and brought it slowly up to Pansy, with a glare was so icy that she shivered under it.

"GET OUT!" I shouted at her. She jumped a mile high at my sudden outburst, and immediately hurried from the room, but still I shouted.

"Don't ever touch my things again! Don't ever come near me! NEVER AGAIN, DO YOU HEAR?"

I collapsed to the floor, sweeping the tattered shreds of the note together with my hands, and trying to piece it back right again. It was like a jigsaw puzzle. I could only make out a few words: Horrible… heard… sorry… aren't… wanted… afraid… Harry…

It made no sense. In sorrow and frustration, I sat on the floor, and gave up. From what I only guessed, Cho had heard about what Harry had done, and written to apologize. Probably feeling sorry for me like she usually does.

Then I remembered my wand, and excitedly waved it over the pieces, muttering:

"Reparo!"

The shreds circled each other and finally, in a small flash of light, formed the letter perfectly. I seized it immediately, and gobbled up every word in Cho's perfect calligraphy.

Malfoy

I've been worrying for you for some strange reason, and I find myself writing to give you my sincerest sympathies. There aren't many that know what you're going through, but you have made me one of them, I'm afraid. I suppose I just wanted you to know that there is someone who understands.

That is all. I don't wish for a reply.

Chang

Somehow, those words cheered me, lifted my spirits ever so slightly. Though I hated the fact that she only was speaking to me out of pity, or fear, I felt the inside of my chest rise, and the edges of my mouth form a smile.

"Malfoy!" Zabini said, poking his head in the dorm, Goyle and Crabbe right behind him. "We have classes right now! You'll be late!"

I quickly shoved the letter in the pocket of my robes, and fingered it in the dark confines of my pocket as I walked with them to Dark Arts. Pansy was nowhere to be found, and I didn't care. I couldn't erase the happy smirk on my face, thinking of the words on that little piece of parchment in my pocket that meant so much to me.

-

I read that damn letter every spare moment I had alone. I savored her words, sometimes imagining that delicate hand writing them with a feathered quill, and her thoughts drifting to me every so often…

"What are you so happy about?" Blaise wondered at lunch one day. I quickly forced my face back to the icy glare it was accustomed to, and spoke roughly.

"None of your bloody business, I'll tell you that."

"You almost are acting like…" his voice faded.

"Like what?" I demanded daringly.

"Like you got a new girl-thrill."

"He has!" Crabbe burst out. "He's been going after Chang lately, haven't you Malfoy? Tap her at last, have you?"

"No, you stupid blighters! I'm…"

They looked at me intently as they walked, waiting for me to finish, but I couldn't find the words to.

"You haven't got a thing for her, have you?" Zabini interrogated like I was under a bright spotlight in a dark room.

"Oh, bugger off!" I said, then hurried ahead.

As much as I hated to admit it, they were right. Something was wrong with me. I wasn't acting right. I felt like a lovestruck girl. I hated it. I hated it more than anything. Why in the world was I stuck on a stupid Light Side half-blood anyway? It wasn't like me, and I was disturbed by it.

I marched down the corridors with determination. I was going to straighten this out straight away. I set out to find her, then and there, not caring that I was supposed to be finishing Snape's 3-foot essay.

I caught her around the first corner I turned, like it was fate. She was just leaving a bathroom with a group of her little popular friends.

"Chang," I said harshly, interrupting her conversation with her pack of gigglers. I grabbed her shoulder and yanked her around. Maybe I was sneakier than I had originally thought of myself, because she seemed surprised and fearful at the sight of me. Like, if she had known I was around, she would've ducked out straight away. Now she had no chance to run.

"We're going to have us a chat," I explained to her, grabbing her wrist and pulling her away from her cluster of now confused friends.

"Malfoy!" Cho protested. "Where are you taking me? Please, let me go…"

"Quiet, you," I snapped. I led her outside into the courtyards, to a shady place under a tree where we were sure to be neither seen nor heard.

"What did you do?" I demanded.

"I… I don't understand…"

"You slipped something into my food, didn't you, you little leech? Seems the trend, everyone's going around slipping those Weasel-bee tricks in everyone's food, sending them enchanted chocolates or something… You did something to me, and I order you to tell me what it was, this instant!"

"I…"

She shook her head, not knowing what to say. Her face expressed complete bewilderment.

"Draco, I haven't done anything…"

"Liar!" I insisted. "You must've! I've never acted this way before… I'm not enjoying myself in anything I used to, not eating, not sleeping right… and I can't get YOU out of my bloody head! You must've put some sort of spell on me, some potion…"

I was so angry that she wasn't admitting it that I didn't realize what I had admitted myself. Not until she fought that smile, and looked to the ground with pink cheeks.

"No-- That's not what I meant," I backtracked. "I meant… er… I meant you have me worried because you know this secret of mine… Don't give yourself that kind of credit, Chang."

That wiped the smile off her face.

"I didn't do anything, Malfoy," she said coldly. "I wouldn't want to. Why would I go through all that trouble for a sniveling wretch like you?"

"Who knows? How am I supposed to know the logic of a twisted mind like yours?"

"You're the one with the twisted mind if you think I could actually feel that way toward you. Toward you, of all people—A Malfoy! It's almost laughable."

I was alarmed at her outspokenness. In every other conversation I've had with her she was as timid as a mouse. Where was this coming from? It was a blow I wasn't prepared for, and I found myself speechless for only a moment.

"Glad that's cleared up then," I said nervously.

She grinned. I hated it. She had the upper hand in this conversation, and she knew it. I simply glared at her at what she dared to ask next…

"Do you fancy me, Draco?" she asked so smooth and naturally, like I was just another mindless schoolboy crush. I had to remind her that I wasn't just another suitor for her; in fact, I wasn't really a suitor at all, was I?

Again, I didn't believe myself.

I was silent too long. She began to form lies in her heads, imagining ideas that weren't real.

"You do, don't you?" she insisted.

I snickered to cover it up, to stall while I thought to myself. I looked anywhere but those eyes staring at me intensely.

Was honesty the way to go? Should I admit how much I had been obsessing over this one? How she had consumed me for the past three weeks?

Never.

Never in a millions years would I admit that to an empty-headed girl on the stinking Light Side, about as opposite of a Malfoy type as they came. Never would I admit it, never in any lifetime--

"So what if I do?" my mouth spat out before I could stop it. "You're something to look at, you know, so you know it's not that uncommon to have boys fall for you."

"Oh my god," she said in shock. "Oh my… I actually—you actually admitted—you actually said you liked me!"

"Like it matters," I retorted snottily. "I'll never do anything about it, ever."

"But you like me…"

"I'd stab myself in the chest before ever becoming yours…"

"But you like me…"

I was getting very frustrated with her.

"Yes! Will you stop being stuck on that fact and focus on reality? I'm not ever going to--"

"I hate you," she said, taking a step over to me. "And you hate me. And yet somehow, there's something here between us, don't you see?"

I took a step backwards, away from her, strangely afraid.

"You had better start making some sense soon, or…" I started to threaten, but didn't follow through.

"We know we could never be, that we're not supposed to be, and yet, we're drawn to each other…"

She took another step forward, and I took another abrupt step back.

"I wouldn't so far as to say that…"

She was definitely advancing on me, and it made me panic, and I have no idea why. My eyes were wide in fear, and I kept on stepping backward.

"We don't want each other… because of all the forces against us… the ways we were raised… But perhaps, we might be so brave as to think for ourselves… and my own mind says… to hell with what anyone else thinks…"

I soon felt my back hit against the large tree, and terror immediately overwhelmed me. I was trapped. There was nowhere to run, no cronies here to save me… She leaned, I winced, actually letting out a whimper in fear…

It was over so soon. I stood wide-eyed, and facing her, no doubt a stunned look upon my face. She had caught me off guard.

I brought my hand to my mouth, tenderly feeling the new wet on my lips. It was so surreal. Was I dreaming? I couldn't believe it… I stood in a complete stupor of what had just happened to me.

Rational thought came slowly at first, then arrived in a full swarm.

"What the BLOODY HELL did you do THAT for, you stupid git?" I hissed at her, trying to keep my voice down in case there were passers-by. She gathered her things and turned to go.

"Now I know why you have so many boyfriends…" I said coldly. "You're a bloody whore!"

She whirled around in offense, her face shocked at my words. She opened her mouth to say something, but I didn't let her. My mouth was already on hers, soaking up her splendor for all it was worth.

-

Okay, yes, I know that was random, but trust me, I have a plan. It's going to unfold soon too, I promise.
Signed,
--RedRogue