A FINAL CHANCE

By: Shadowedheart89

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

Chapter Twenty-Seven:Into the Darkness

I heard someone call my name and felt a little shake. I opened my eyes to see two luminous green orbs peering back at me. "Snape sent me to wake you up. Malfoy is in the kitchen with Dumbledore," Harry told me.

I felt my eyes widen as I scrambled out of bed and raced to the kitchen. Sure enough sitting at the table was Uncle Albus, Severus, and looking extremely ruffled and more tired than ever, Draco. I hurried to the seat next to him, looking him over, trying to see if there was anything wrong with him. "Are you okay?" I asked.

He nodded wearily. "I'm just tired," he assured me though I could see a slightly haunted look in his eyes. Something must have happened, or he saw something that really bothered him, but he wasn't going to tell me about it. At least not in front of the adults. I also noticed a faint coldness about him. He seemed even more distant than normal, even more so than when he had on his normal façade. I couldn't do anything about it at the moment, so instead I turned to Uncle Albus expectantly.

"I assure you, he is fine. The mission was a success."

"So what happens next?" I asked, stealing glances at Draco who was fiddling with a scrap of paper in his hands, refusing to look up at any of us.

"Since Mr. Malfoy has agreed to work as a spy for me, Severus will take him under his wing and watch over him. He'll teach Draco everything he needs to know to keep safe. You on the other hand have another mission to complete. That one will be put into motion tomorrow."

I nodded and bit my lip, debating whether or not I should ask my last question. Finally my curiosity won. "Will Draco be staying here for the rest of break?" I felt myself flush, and I could sense Draco's eyes on me, though I didn't look to see what his expression was.

"That is entirely up to Mr. Malfoy. Severus could easily reach him either place, and he would no longer be kept to the confines of his room if he were to wish to stay here. So, Mr. Malfoy, what do you think?"

I turned to Draco and met his eyes. There was a flicker of something in his expression before he turned away. "I'd like to go back to Hogwarts," he said softly.

I stared at him in shock, only distantly aware as the conversation continued. "Very well. You can rest here today, and then you will return to the castle. Was there anything else that we needed to cover Severus?"

"I believe Miss Wizidore had wanted to talk to you about the possibility of memory charms placed on both herself and Draco."

I started at my name and took a moment to replay the conversation. "Oh, yeah. Yesterday, I noticed something weird in Draco's memory." I recounted what happened as he listened thoughtfully.

"Well, it looks like your other mission may have to be pushed back. We will look into this, but first, both of you need to catch up on sleep. After this is sorted out, Mr. Malfoy will return to Hogwarts and you, Marlene will continue with your responsibilities."

Draco and I took that as a dismissal, and we headed to his room. I waited until we were both in his room and the door shut before talking to him. "Why are you leaving?" I asked, trying to keep the illogical hurt out of my voice. It shouldn't hurt me that he didn't want to stay. He wasn't my boyfriend anymore. Obviously he felt the same way.

He threw himself on his bed before responding. "Did you honestly expect me to spend more time here with Potter, Weasel, and the Mudblood than I had to?" he snarled.

Fighting my anger I shrugged. "I thought there might be something here worth it."

He smirked at me. "What? Seeing you and your boyfriend Potter acting all lovey-dovey?" He let out a sharp barking laugh. "If I wanted to be tortured I'd just go spend more time with the Dark Lord. I'd much rather spend the rest of my break in peace, as far away as Potter as I can get."

I winced. "I'm sorry."

"Why do you even want me around anyways?" he asked angrily. "You don't want to be with me. You don't love me. What does it matter if I'm here?"

I was taken back. "I still care about you,' I told him in a shaky voice.

He laughed, and it was a scary sound. "I don't really want to be around you right now if we aren't together. It's too much. You've made your decision clear, so I'm making mine."

"I thought you weren't going to give up," I mumbled.

"I'm not. This is just too much to deal with at the moment."

I couldn't do anything but stare at him in shock. This wasn't the Draco I knew. This wasn't even the Draco that terrorized the school with his sneers and razor sharp tongue. I tried to dip into his thoughts, momentarily forgetting my morals, but his mind was very well blocked. I had definitely taught him well. All I could get from him a tangle of emotions: anger, hurt, fear, betrayal, hopelessness. "What happened to you last night?" I asked my voice barely above a whisper.

"Nothing," he told me, his eyes becoming cold and hard.

"You were fine until you left. You took every opportunity you could in the last few days to try to change my mind. What happened?" He didn't answer. I reached out to touch him, but he turned away from me. "Draco…" I started

"Just leave me alone. I'm tired."

After a moment or two, it became obvious that he wasn't going to say anything else to me so I left. I went back to my room and was surprised to see Harry still there, lounging on my bed.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Waiting for you," he said, blushing a bit. "Are you okay? You look upset."

I sighed and slid into bed next to him. Immediately he wrapped his arms around me and I curled up against him. "I'm fine. I just got into another argument with Draco."

His eyes darkened and narrowed. "Why are you guys always fighting lately?"

I shrugged. "It doesn't matter. You'll be happy to know that he'll probably be gone tomorrow."

He grinned and lit up. "Really?" I nodded and he kissed me. "That's great. Maybe now you can finally relax some."

I chuckled. "I doubt that. We still have one more thing to worry about," I told him, tracing his scar with my fingertip causing him to shiver under my touch. "If that goes smoothly, then we can talk about relaxing."

He frowned. "It never ends, does it?"

I kissed him softly. "It will someday. Someday soon."

"I hope so." His lips captured mine, and we both got lost in the moment, forgetting the world around us and the utter chaos of it all. It wasn't until we could hear someone calling up from a few floors below that we broke apart. "It's time for breakfast."

"I think I'll pass. I'm still exhausted. I'm just going to catch some sleep."

He nodded and brushed a few stray strands of hair out of my face. "Okay, so I'll see you later?"

"Definitely."

He kissed me one last time before slipping out of my bed and out of my room.

____

I was standing in the field, once again staring out at the sea of bodies that lay before me. Everyone I knew and cared about was dead. Draco was lying at ye feet, his sightless eyes staring heavenwards and his face contorted in fear.

"They didn't have to die, you know," a cold voice whispered in my ear. I froze, unable to even turn to see who was talking to me. "They could have been fine if only you listened. You knew what your destiny was."

A hand gripped my shoulder and my paralysis broke. I turned to see a bony, pale white hand on my shoulder. I followed the arm up and saw blood red eyes peering at me from beneath the hood of the cloak. I opened my mouth and started to scream.

"Marlene, Sweetie, wake up!" I heard my mother say, bringing be back into consciousness.

I sat up, still screaming, drenched in sweat. "I killed him," I sobbed, throwing myself into my mother's arms.

"Killed who?" my mum asked quietly while trying to sooth me simultaneously.

"Draco. Everyone. They were all dead," I bit out between sobs.

"Calm down. What are you talking about?" my father asked, and I could feel him trying to work his soothing powers on me. I managed to calm down just a bit.

I summarized my dream for them. My mum hugged me close to her. "It's okay. It was just a nightmare. We are all alive and well. Draco is even downstairs getting some dinner."

I sniffled. "It didn't feel like a nightmare. It felt real."

My dad gently took me from my mum's arms. "Marlene, listen to me. You know yourself better than anyone. You would never do anything to hurt anyone you cared about. Don't let this get to you now. You are a good person. Don't let anything ever make you question that."

I nodded but kept hugging him, taking comfort in his warmth.

"Why don't you get yourself cleaned up and join us downstairs for dinner? There are a few people that we want you to meet," my mum told me.

I nodded again and pulled away from my dad. "Are you okay now?" he asked looking me over with a critical eye.

"Yeah, thanks Dad."

He gave me one final squeeze before leading my mum out so that I could have a bit of privacy to finish gathering myself.

When I got downstairs I was surprised at the array of people gathered in the kitchen. The trio was sitting at one side of the table with a bunch of the adults. Draco was sitting on the opposite side of table, as far away as the rest of them as he could. Next to him sat Severus, staring moodily at a plate of food.

"See, Draco is there and he is fine. It must have just been the last few days taking its toll on you," my mum announced causing every to look at me curiously. I felt myself turn red. Draco met my eyes briefly, a questioning look in his eyes before he let his eyes fall back to his food and began pushing it around his plate.

"Care to share what that's all about?" Severus asked as I took a seat by Harry.

"I just had a nightmare. That's all."

"Is that what all the screaming was about?" Draco asked coolly.

"Well seeing everyone you've ever cared about lying dead before you isn't much cause for laughter," I snapped. His eyes widened slightly and I felt a sense of guilt surround him.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked quietly so no one else could hear.

I gave him my best smile. "I'm fine."

My parents then captured my attention by introducing me to all the other adults. It was a bit weird since I had been at the house for a few days already, but I had been so holed up with Draco that I hadn't met the others staying or coming through. I found out that one of the adults was a Metamorphmangus as well. After giving a brief explanation of me and some of my extra abilities, we spent dinner having a little competition to see who could make the best change. She won our little battle. I was able to morph faster, but she was more used to doing it on a regular basis than I was. I spent most of my time trying to stay in one consistent form, while she was always changing.

After dinner Uncle Albus appeared again. He talked with some of the adults for a while and then he took me and Draco aside. "Are you sure you want to find out if a spell has been placed on you?" he asked me.

I hesitated for a moment. Why wouldn't I want to know? My curiosity won over though. "Yes," I told him simply.

"Very well then. We will do that now." He took out his wand and began casting spells. It felt more like he was doing a medical diagnostic on me more than anything. Finally he finished and looked at me gravely. "It appears that you are under some kind of spell."

"Well then you can reverse it, right?"

He shook his head. "Without knowing what exact spell was used, it would be too dangerous. Who know what the side effects could be."

"Who could have put it on me?" I asked.

The twinkle went out of his eyes. "That seems to be a very good question. Unfortunately I do not have the answer. All that I can tell is that it must have been someone who was close to you. They would have had to know exactly which spell would work on you and be someone who you wouldn't expect."

"You didn't put it on me?" I asked, half hoping. While I wouldn't be happy that he did, it was more comforting to know that it was him that had the power to pull one over on me.

"I've done a lot of things that I'm not proud of. I've done things behind your back that you would be infuriated if you know the details of them, but I assure you, I did not do this."

I nodded sadly. "How am I going to figure out who?" I asked.

"I wish I could give you that answer."

My eyes drifted to Draco. He saw me looking at him, and automatically became defensive. "I didn't do it," he told me testily.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Why thank you Captain Obvious. I know you didn't do it. You wouldn't have put the charm on yourself, and the level of magic required to do a spell like that would be far beyond any level you could hope to be on at the age of thirteen." He seemed to relax a little bit. "Do you remember anyone around that summer? Anyone we were close to? They had to have known both of us."

He seemed to think about it for a moment before shaking his head. "The only people we came across were our parents on that one day. No one put any memory charms on us that day, that's for sure," he said suppressing a shudder.

Uncle Albus nodded as if his suspicions had been confirmed. "It appears as if this mysterious person has managed to make you forget all about him."

"So what does this all mean?" Draco asked, sounding bored.

"It means that you two must know something that someone has gone to great lengths to hide."

________

"Are you really leaving?" I asked Draco as I watched him finish gather what little belongings he brought with him. He was stubbornly refusing to look at me.

"Yes."

"Even if I ask you to stay?"

He hesitated a moment, but kept his eyes off of me. "Why would you do something like that?"

"We have to figure out what's going on," I told him, grasping at straws trying to find some reason for him to stay. I knew that I was irrational to want him around so much, but I did.

He scoffed. "You don't need to me to figure that out."

"You are a part of it. Maybe we need to be together to figure it out."

"If you find out that we need to be around each other, I'll show up."

I stared at him, unbelieving. "What's wrong with you? This isn't you Draco."

He finally turned to me. "And you know who I am?" His eyes were flashing with anger.

"Yeah, I do. You are someone who's whole world is changing all around him and you don't know what to do. You've never had much choice in what happens to you before, and now that you do, you are afraid you are doing the wrong thing. You don't care much for either side of the, war. All you are really worried about is self preservation, but unfortunately neutrality is not an option for you. You care about people more than you pretend to. You want to make sure your mother is alright, and despite everything you still love your father."

He glared at me. "You think you are so smart, don't you? With your little mind tricks. Since you know so much, why don't you tell me what is wrong with me?"

I studied him for a moment. "I think you are afraid. It never really hit you what you are doing until you showed up in front of Voldemort."

"Don't say his name," he snapped.

"That's it, isn't it?" I asked, feeling a bit smug that I got it right without resorting to reading his emotions. "You always did try to act braver than you were."

He whirled on me and before I had a chance to react, he had me pinned to the wall. His eyes were harder than I've ever seen. "You have no idea what he's like. He was in my head. He was so close to finding out about you. He would have found out about everything."

"But he didn't. You protected me. You protected everything."

His eyes changed. They blazed with a different kind of intensity. Moving so quickly that I didn't see what was happening he leaned forward and pressed his lips against mine. There was so much passion, so much need in the kiss that it threw me off. When I was able to gather my wits, I pushed him away. "I can't do this to Harry."

"Do you really want to be with him?" he asked quietly. There was no anger or repulsion in his voice, only curiosity.

"He's a good guy. I like being around him. He makes me feel good."

"Are you in love with him?" he asked, reaching out to brush stray strands of hair out of my face.

"I haven't known him long enough to even think about that."

A small smile ghosted across his lips. "I have to get away for a bit, but I'm not giving up."

I dropped my eyes, not able to look at him as I made my confession. "I'm afraid that if you leave I'll never see you again."

He chuckled. "I'm far too annoying to be gotten rid of that easily."

I didn't smile. "You can't control what happens."

He shrugged. "I think of all people, Potter would be the one to kill me."

This time I smiled. "Well you have been enough of a jerk to him."

"it's part of my charm."

________

I stayed with Draco until it was time for him to leave. I still wasn't about him leaving, but there was nothing I could do about it. I was just glad that we were leaving on better terms than it looked like we weren't going to be when I woke up.

After he left, I went off in search of the others. I found them in the drawing room. I stood in the doorway quietly for a moment, enjoying the sight of the dynamic between the three friends. Ginny was with them, and they appeared to be talking about something they all did together once. I saw Ginny and Harry look at each other, and something weird passed between them. It was gone as soon as it came. Pushing an odd feeling away, I made my presence known to the group. As soon as Ginny saw me, her easy smile fell.

"I have to write a letter to Dean," she said quickly before leaving the room to the surprise of the boys.

"She's gone mental, that one," Ron said, commenting on his sisters weird actions. Hermione just gave me an apologetic look.

I made my way over to Harry and he pulled me into his lap. "You all will be happy to hear that Draco is gone. You shouldn't see him until we get back to school now."

Ron let out a cheer and was elbowed by Hermione.

"Did everything finally get sorted out?" Harry asked.

"As much as it can be. There are still some things left to be figured out, but there really isn't anything we can do about it at the moment. So that means tomorrow you and I get to experiment and hopefully not kill ourselves or destroy our minds."

He frowned. "Are you having second thoughts about it now?"

I shook my head. "I guess I'm just worried. I mean I'm pretty sure that nothing will go wrong. I just don't like not knowing for sure."

He nodded. "It'll be okay. I trust you."

______

"Are you ready?" Uncle Albus asked. Harry and I nodded. We were sitting in chairs facing each other holding hands. Uncle Albus and Severus were on either side of us. I knew that Harry was uncomfortable with Severus there, but it was agreed upon that it would be a good idea to have Occlumens with us in case anything went wrong. "You may begin when you are ready Marlene," Uncle Albus told me calmly.

I took a deep breath and dived into Harry's mind. I bypassed all conscious thought and began to search for the like to Voldemort. It wasn't that hard to find. If I were in the physical realm, it would have been a tunnel. At Harry's end it was bright, but as I passed through it, it got darker and more sinister. There was a barrier separating Voldemort from Harry's mine, but it wasn't too difficult to get through. Either Voldemort wasn't as good as blocking his mind as everything thought, or he didn't think too highly of Harry's ability to get past the barrier. Someone should really tell him that he shouldn't under estimate his enemies. Then again, I wasn't going to complain. It made my job infinitely easier.

I waded through his thoughts. It was the equivalent to wading through slimy water. He had an extremely quick thought process, but nature of his thoughts made me feel dirty. I lost all sense of time as I tried to find some information that the Order could use. Suddenly all conscious thought stopped and Voldemort was filled with rage as he realized that there was some unknown presence in his mind. Before I could escape from the confines of his mind, all went dark, and I knew no more.