A FINAL CHANCE

By: Shadowedheart89

Disclaimer:I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters, nor do I claim to.

Chapter Seventeen: Human Lie Detector

Draco's eyes met mine, and widened for a moment before returning to the girl in front of him, who I recognized as being the pug faced girl that hung around him.

"Pansy, I already told you, we are over," he told her coldly.

"But why? I thought you loved me," she said, her voice cracking.

"Don't be a fool," he snapped. "I was only with you so that my father would get off my back. Well, he's not here anymore, so you and I are over."

I heard her stifle a sob, and although I had taken an instant dislike to the girl when I met her, I couldn't help but to feel sorry for her now. Draco was being extremely cruel. It didn't help that I was furious with him already for not telling me about this relationship he seemed to have had.

"But what about the Dark Lord?" she asked in a small pitiful voice.

"Let me worry about his intentions for me. You and I are through, and what I do is none of your business," he told her before heading my way. He grabbed my arm and led me to a deserted room. "What are you doing here?" he just about growled at me.

"I was walking around looking for you. What was that all about?" I asking, restraining myself from yelling.

"Were you spying on me?" he asked, his eyes flashing dangerously.

I rolled my eyes. "Draco, do you honestly think that if I was spying on you, you would have been able to catch me? And don't try to act all angry at me for stupid reasons. Now tell me what's going on."

He sighed, most of the hostility bleeding out of him as he turned away from me and sat on a desk, making sure not to look at me. "Pansy and I were together for awhile."

I felt my stomach drop. Though I gathered that much from what I heard, it was another thing to have him tell me straight out. "Awhile?"

"Since the end of fourth year," he murmured. I looked at him disbelievingly. "It's not what you think though."

"How is it not what I think? You had a girlfriend this entire time and you didn't even tell me. I asked you if there were any other girls and you told me no," I shouted feeling tears in my eyes.

"There aren't any other girls." He sighed, his expression unreadable. "I broke up with her."

"When?"

"While you were in the hospital wing."

"After you said I was your girlfriend?" I asked.

"Yes," he admitted reluctantly.

"So you lied to me. Am I supposed to just believe you now?"

He stood up and came to stand directly in front of me to command my attention entirely. "Listen to me. I know that I should have broken up with her when I saw you on the train. I didn't even think that I would ever see you again, let alone that I was going to react like that when I did. I didn't even know how long you were going to be here or if you were just going to disappear again. As soon as I saw you, I couldn't get you off my mind, and it was driving me crazy. I knew I had to end things with Pansy, but I kept pushing off. I promise you, nothing happened with her since I saw you on the train. My relationship with her was mostly just political anyways."

I turned my back to him and hugged myself. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather be with her?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"Bloody hell," he grumbled before turning me around to face him with more force than was strictly necessary causing me to fall into him. "How could you even ask that? Look at what we've been through. I made the Unbreakable Vow for you. I risk my life for you every day by not sending word to the Dark Lord about you, and you are everything I am supposed to stand against. I suffered through my father for you. Do you think that I don't remember all of that? That it means nothing now?"

"I remember that too, but if it took you a week to decide which of us you wanted, then maybe you aren't sure."

"I didn't have to decide between you two. It was you. It's always been you. Ever since that summer it's been you, but I told you, I honestly thought that I would never see you again. Then you showed up completely out nowhere, and I expected it to be some kind of joke, or that you would leave again, and I didn't want to go through that again, so I put things off. I was going to do it that first day on the train, but I just couldn't. It was a stupid mistake." He looked me in the eye, and his beautiful gray eyes, darker now with his intensity, shone with sincerity. "I'd never try to hurt you."

I sat down on the desk and looked up at him. "So what are we supposed to do now?"

He looked thoughtful for a moment then took my hands in his and kissed them. "First of all, do you think you can forgive me?" he asked softly.

I looked at our hands for a long moment, his warm pale ones, holding my cool dark ones, and wondered if I could. The answer came quickly. "I forgive you," I told him softly.

Relief flooded his face and he moved to kiss me but I turned my face away. He sighed, "So what else is there?"

"I need to be able to trust you Draco. When we are alone, it's like you are a completely different person than you are with your friends. Then it's like an even different person when you are with Harry and his friends. I don't know how I'm supposed to trust you when I don't even know who you really are."

He nodded. "I know," he said before he got lost in thought. Finally he said, "Check to see if I'm lying."

I looked at him stunned. "You mean you want me to…" I trailed off unbelieving. He was giving me an open invitation to raid his mind to find his true intentions. It was a remarkable act of trust on his part. By going through his mind, I'd see through every thought and intention he had. There was no way he could lie or alter anything's meaning. And by letting me that far in he was trusting me not to push through and raid his mind for every other thought he's had, including the other secrets he's been keeping from me.

"Yes. You'll never be sure any other way," he told me lacing our fingers together. "Go ahead."

"Concentrate only on the memories so I won't see anything else by accident," I told him. I took a deep breath and dove into his mind. My mind was flooded with visions from him. I could see, hear, and feel everything from his perspective, even his emotions. For those moments, I was him in nearly every sense.

I recognize her and am flooded with memories of our summer together as my heart starts to race. I reach out for her, but she helps me cover my lapse smoothly. I study her as we trade insults, hardly daring to believe that it's really her, but wanting it to be so much…

We are alone in a compartment. Alone after what feels like a lifetime apart. I slide my arms around her, and I feel unexpected relief at being able to touch her, of knowing she's real, and really here. I kiss her and my body reacts traitorously. I pull away before she can notice…

Pansy sees me and wraps her arms around me. Disgusted by her mere touch I push her away. She looks confused and I open my mouth to tell her it's over, but I'm flooded with doubt. Marlene just disappeared without warning before. What is to stop her from doing it again? I tell Pansy that I'm just not in the mood…

I'm sitting in the Great Hall and Pansy is trying to get my attention. I open my mouth to answer her but then I see Marlene laugh at something Potter and his friends say, and how he looks at her as if she the most magnificent creature on Earth. I am filled with rage that he dares to even look at MY girlfriend, let alone talk to her as if she was just anyone, but I can't help but to wonder if she would be better off with him, safer with the savior of the wizarding world than with a son of a Death Eater…

I'm lying in my bed, and she is in my arms, asleep. It feels more right than anything has for a long time. I can forget all my problems, and I don't have to pretend anything. All that matters is that she's here, and she's mine…

I'm kissing her and her body fits perfectly against mine. She's so responsive and so alive, so unlike Pansy. She moves against me and I want her so badly…

Dozens of his memories from the last couple of weeks flooded my mind, each distinct and sharp. Some of them were of me and him, others were of him watching me with Harry and his friends, and yet others were of him and Pansy. The whole ordeal only lasted seconds but it left me panting with its intensity. I was overwhelmed by his emotions from his memories, and we were still connected enough that I could sense what he was feeling now: hope, worry, and lust, as he studied my flushed face, wide eyes, and heaving chest as I tried to calm myself. Before I could even think of what I was doing, our lips were pressed together. It was desperate and needy with lips and hands everywhere, grasping and fondling and pressing and kissing, with absolutely or plan or purpose, just needing the comfort of contact.

I finally tore myself away from him, trying to regain my composure. "I have to go," I told him breathlessly. His mind was still so entwined in mine that I couldn't really sure of what I was feeling and I had to get away before I made a big mistake.

I turned to walk away but he stopped me. "Wait," he said, the question written closely in his eyes: Did I trust him now?

I gave him a light kiss, and when he tried to pull me closer I slipped away. "We'll talk later. I'm kind of overwhelmed right now, and I just need to process everything," I told him before leaving the room before he could stop me.

I navigated my way through a few corridors before I sat down, trying to gather myself. I didn't want to be alone because I knew that being around other would force control that I wouldn't otherwise be able to achieve. I normally would have gone to Xavier, but I wasn't sure what to make of what happened earlier when I reached into his mind accidently. Dumbledore would have been my next choice, but I wasn't in the mood for his riddles and puzzles. Harry and his friends wouldn't understand, and would probably want me to explain more about myself. There was only one other person who came to mind.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. When I opened them I was sitting outside of a mahogany door. I stood up and hesitated for a moment, wondering if this was going to be just a stupid idea, before knocking. It was only a minute or two before the door opened and Severus regarded me suspiciously. "Miss Wizidore, I don't believe it's Tuesday," he said.

I rolled my eyes. "You would be correct, it is Saturday."

He pretended to think that over for a moment. "I don't remember giving you detention either."

"Again, you would be correct. You didn't."

He looked at me critically for a moment. "You haven't been taking your potions have you?"

"I have but it's been an abnormally stressful day. All my mental barriers are shot, and I think my magical ones may be weak too."

He sighed resignedly. "Come in," he told me, moving out of the doorway. "Sit down and don't touch anything," he told me before disappearing though a door. I sat on a plush leather sofa in front of the fire place and looked around. There were two matching armchairs situation at either end of the couch, and a coffee table with a chess board, a goblet of mead, and a book on it, centered between all three. The stone walls were covered with bookshelves that were filled with worn volumes and jars of who knows what. The flickering from the fire threw shadows across the room adding a sense of mystery to the cold distant room, which seemed to fit its occupant perfectly.

Severus returned a few minutes later and held a goblet out to me. I eyed it suspiciously as I took it. "What is this?" I asked.

"It's an elixir I created. It'll replenish your powers, and calm you so you'll stop leaking magic everywhere."

I looked down at myself and realized that I see the magic radiating off of me, and the air crackling around me. I drank his elixir, grimacing at its bitter taste. "Do all potions taste horrible, or just the ones you make?" I asked.

"They aren't meant to taste good, they are meant to work. If you want something tasty go get some butterbeer. Is there anything else you needed?" he asked coldly.

"I didn't come here for potions."

He faltered for a moment. "Then what do you need?"

I glared at him. "I don't need anything. I just thought I'd come to visit you," I told him stretching the truth a bit. I had honestly thought about paying him a visit lately to find out why he had been acting so strange, but I just hadn't found the time to do so yet.

He sighed tiredly. "We aren't friends."

I chuckled. "I don't think anyone could make that mistake. I think we do this whole mutual dislike thing just right."

He sat down in one of the chairs and shook his head. "You are a thorn in my side. I thought I finally got rid of you all those years ago, and yet here you are again."

"Stop, you're making me blush," I said in a flat tone, making him smirk. "Are you really that mad at me for freaking out when I found out you were a Death Eater?"

He had been as relaxed as he had ever been in my company, but at that mention of the incident he suddenly straightened. "I'm not mad," he said coldly.

"You don't try to embarrass me in class anymore. You pretty much ignore me."

He smirked, "So you think I'm angry with you because I don't give you a hard time anymore? Your logic is atrocious. I thought it would be a relief to not have to deal with my sunny disposition distracting you from your studies."

"You are trying to make it seem like you are doing me a favor, and we both know you wouldn't do that, at least not a favor that would include you refraining from criticizing my every fault. You enjoy our little battles. They make things interesting. Usually you like to take your anger out on people, but you haven't even been doing that in class lately. You've been much more tolerable. Everyone has noticed. Most of the Gryffindor think you just finally got snogged."

"That is absurd, and my love life is of no business of any student," he remarked drinking from his goblet.

"Harry said you acted like this last year when he really pissed you off. What did he do?"

He froze for a moment, and he became completely unreadable. "He didn't tell you what happened?"

I shook my head. "Ron and Hermione don't know either."

He thought about that for a moment and then sighed. "I was training Potter in Occlumency, and one day I was late for our lesson, and he found my Pensieve. He decided to visit some of my memories from my younger years."

I stared at him for a moment, realizing finally why he was acting so strange. It caught me so off guard that I started laughing. "You aren't angry, you are embarrassed!"

He glared at me. "What are you talking about?"

"You never get so angry that you'll ignore someone. You like to punish people and make them as miserable as possible, especially if you are in a superior position. You were the one that taught me how to control my telepathy so I wouldn't be always invading people's minds, but I still got into your mind for awhile before I could control it. I know what your younger years were like. You were so quiet during those times of our lessons. I can't believe I forgot it. You are embarrassed of what you were like when you were younger and how you were treated. And you're embarrassed of being a Death Eater, or of me knowing that you were one. Why?" I was thrilled to have figured it out.

"You think you are so smart, don't you?" he asked, almost slamming his goblet on the table, causing the chess pieces to tremble.

I just stared at him nonplussed. "If that's not it, then what is it?"

He gave me his deadliest glare, and I just stared at him. Finally he sighed and seemed to deflate a bit. "You aren't afraid of me, are you?"

I laughed. "No, should I be?"

"Many people are when the find out what I was. They realize all of the things that I must have done and seen. How evil of a person I had to have been. They never look at me the same way," he said softly.

I was amazed. Severus was actually expressing insecurities. It was something that I never thought was possible. He always seemed so sure of himself, basking in his persona of being an evil heartless bastard. I sighed and tried to reason with him. "I know I over reacted before when I realized. I'm sorry. I just thought someone would have told me, and I was surprised I hadn't picked up on it before. It doesn't really matter though. I always knew you were into Dark Arts, and you I've always thought you were a bit evil, but you're still the same despicable person you were before, that I know and love. It's not like I'm going to start cowering in fear from you or anything."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Love?" he spat out.

I laughed. "You know we have this whole love/hate relationship thing going on. You absolutely hate me, but you were just taking care of me a few minutes ago."

"That was me doing my job. Don't confuse that with an act of affection," he replied coolly.

"Oh, Severus, you forget that I can be a human lie detector when I choose. Do you really want me to test the validity of that statement?" I asked with a smirk.

He grumbled to himself a bit as he picked up his goblet once more. "What were you all bent out of shape for when you got here anyways?" he asked.

I smiled to myself, sensing that things were going to be getting back to normal with us. I conjured a blanket and a butterbeer to chase away the chill in his quarters before settling in to tell him the tale.