Disclaimer: Not mine.

A/N: I really appreciate all of the wonderful reviews I've gotten. You guys are the greatest. P.S., spoilers to HP six, just in case. I meant to put that in the last chapter for the fifth book too but I forgot, sorry. Enjoy.

Sixth Year

"I can't believe I let you drag me out here. I've work to do and you know it."

Cree clutched onto my gloved hand tightly, dragging me through Hogsmeade, through the God-forsaken snow. But I let her. Some tough guy I was huh? Letting a fourteen-year-old girl take charge of me.

"You're stressed out," Cree answered, pushing open the door to the Three Broomsticks. "You hardly eat any more, you're paler than usual, and you're always sneaking around or stuck up in your room."

"You understand what I'm doing, Cree," I said, angrily. "I'm a busy man at the moment."

She shot me a look as she went to go retrieve butterbeers for the both of us. I sighed, plopping down in my seat. She understood, all right, but she would never talk about it with me. She didn't agree with what I was doing, I knew, but there was nothing much I could do about it.

And now, here I was in Hogsmeade, a mere month after the necklace incident with that stupid Gryffindor Chaser. Why did Gryffindor's always have to ruin everything?

Cree reappeared, handing me a butterbeer. She sipped daintily on hers while I practically inhaled mine down. I let out a deep sigh when I was finished, setting down the bottle. "Can we go now?" I asked.

She didn't answer me until after she'd finished her own drink and slipped her dark green gloves back on her hands. She looked at me, startlingly angry. "You, Draco Malfoy, are going to stay here with me at Hogsmeade and enjoy the day before you fall apart. This stupid . . . 'mission' is driving you insane and I'm not about to just sit idly by and watch you work yourself to death. Do you understand me?"

I stared at her slightly amazed and slightly angry. I was about to tell her off but she didn't give me a chance. She looked out the window, a beautiful smile coming to her face. "It's snowing again. Come on, let's head out."

She grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the bar into the snow. She spun around, the snow falling on her smiling face. I watched her, more amazed than angry now, slightly jealous, wishing I could enjoy something as trivial as the snow as much as she was. Wishing I could enjoy that smile on her face.

It was this smile now that I kept my eyes on, slightly annoyed with this girl. "I can't believe I let you drag me out here," I told her.

Her smile didn't falter though. "Just because your intent on turning me into a hermit doesn't mean I'll let you. There are people who are actually worrying about me at this moment, seeing as how you've kept me secluded for nearly a month, and I want to quell the fears. You didn't have to come."

"Of course I had to come, especially since you insisted on not disguising yourself and just wearing that stupid hat."

"As you said yourself, it was a disgusting disguise. Blond is unfortunately not my color." She held out her arm to me this time and I took it, still angry.

She Apparated.

Cree knocked on the door of 12 Grimmuald place, that same smile on her face. I wondered who on earth she knew that lived here.

Unfortunately, the answer I got wasn't one I would have chosen as a last resort.

"Hello, Harry," she said, happily.

Potter seemed shocked beyond belief. But the shock soon left his face, replaced by a look of pure happiness. His arms slipped around her waist as he lifted her off her feet in a joyous hug and she smiled and laughed.

It was then that I felt utterly and completely disgusted. Not to mention incredibly furious. I stared at this ugly display of affection and at her wide smile.

Her smile.

She said she only smiled for me. . . .

I was jealous.

The fact hit me hard and fast. I, Draco Malfoy, the guy who'd always gotten what he wanted was jealous of Harry Potter, the guy who had nothing. I was jealous because, even after close to almost seven years of us being friends, she hated me and glared at me every second she could and here Potter was after two seconds, getting the pleasure of having her smile directed at him.

Potter pulled her inside the house, leaving the door open. Angrily, I followed them in, not really caring about no invitation.

Standing in the foyer, I could hear happy voices, some almost shrill. Potter was almost shouting with joy and in between his shouts I could just make Granger and Weasley's voices. I dared not move any further into this house, which almost seemed slightly drab and dark for Potter's taste. I suppose I was expecting a whole bunch of red and gold for Potter's house.

I think I stood in that foyer for at least ten minutes before Cree and Potter came back out . . . holding hands. Potter's words stopped quickly enough at the sight of me but I couldn't move my eyes from their clasped hands.

"What are you doing here?" Potter asked, his words dripping with disgust.

Finally, I was able to raise my eyes locking with Cree's. "We need to leave," I said.

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" Potter asked again. I was surprised his little sidekicks hadn't come to check up on him by now.

"Of course you didn't notice me before, seeing as how you were so caught up in Miss Cranton's presence. But I suppose it is my duty to inform you that Cree is under my charge at the moment."

Potter turned to Cree, eyes wide with suspicion. "Is he forcing you to –?"

"No, of course not," Cree said. "I'm staying with him willing."

I suppose that was partly true. Though, I had expressed my reasons for having her stay with me, she was welcome to leave at any moment. But she hadn't. . . .

A smirk came to my face.

At least until she stood on her toes and kissed Harry firmly on the cheek. "I promise to make my visits less sparse, Harry. Until next time."

She smiled at him, tugging on my sleeve to make me walk, breaking the little stare down Potter and I had been competing in.

"Can we go home now?" I asked, still angry.

"Not just yet. I have one more errand to run."

Cree knocked on the door of a large mansion, a smile, a smaller smile on her face. I watched, apprehensively, knowing what would come of this but not knowing how to keep her from doing it.

The door opened. A man stood there, the same dark hair and same dark, but angrier, eyes as Cree. Those eyes widened in shocked anger at the girl standing in front of him.

"Hi, daddy," Cree said. "Is mum home too?"

He slammed the door in her face.

I was watching all of this from behind her, but I still saw Cree jerk back as the door slammed. She stood there for a long time, her hands and arms limp at her sides. When she finally moved, it was to reach into her pocket to pull out a roll of parchment, which she slipped underneath the door before turning back to me.

Her eyes shown with unshed tears as she slowly walked down the steps of the porch. For a second, a millisecond, I felt as if she got what she deserved for the whole incident with Potter and then I felt bad for that, incredibly bad.

"We, uh, we can go home now," she said.

I took her hand gently, comfortingly, pulling her too me. She gave me a small smile which I returned.

I Apparated.