A FINAL CHANCE

By: Shadowedheart89

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

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Calm Before the Storm

"What am I doing here?" Draco asked angrily. It was two days before we were to return back to Hogwarts, a little over a week till we were due to launch our attack on Voldemort's headquarters and he and I were sitting in the Drawing Room in a circle with Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione.

"That's what I've been asking," Ron rumbled, gaining an elbow from Hermione. It was obvious that everyone was uncomfortable with the company.

"We are all here," I started loudly to drown out any other comments, "because we are all fighting on the same side." Actually we were all together because Uncle Albus insisted that I try to get them to form some kind of truce before the battle, but they didn't need to know that. Admittedly I should have made this happen earlier in the holidays, but I thought that this was going to be unpleasant, and we had enough unpleasantness to deal with lately without purposely adding to it.

"So is that supposed to make us friends?" Draco asked with a raised eye brow. I sighed to myself. Of course Draco was going to make this difficult. I wished for once he would just keep his mouth shut and do what he was told.

"No, but I think that we should all have a truce. At least until the battle is over. Then we can all go back to hating those we hate now, and move on with our lives. It'll be a lot easier to train and fight alongside one another if we have some trust between us all."

"I don't trust him," Harry said blatantly.

"I'm not asking you to trust him with your secrets. All that matters is that we are against one common enemy. All that other petty stuff doesn't matter at this point. We just need to trust that on the night the battle happens, we will try to keep each other alive."

"Am I supposed to trust that he cares whether or not I live or die? Am I supposed to believe that he's on our side? I'm the one that Voldemort is going to be concentrating on. I'm the one who's going to end up on the front line risking my life, yet no one has to prove to me that they are really on my side and not just going to stab me in the back," Harry vented, his eyes blazing.

"That's right Potter, I don't owe you anything," Draco announced, his eyes cold as ice. I felt myself getting annoyed. They just needed to listen to logic, but they were letting their petty differences get in the way.

"Draco," I tried to stop him but he brushed me off.

"Do you think you are the only one that has lost something in this war? Do you think you are the only one whose family has been destroyed? Everyone who is going to be there will be putting their life on the line, not just you. The Dark Lord will not hesitate to kill anyone who is there. Do you think that he treats his supporters with kindness? You saw with your own eyes what he made Wormtail do!" He finished with a ringing silence as everyone stared at him.

After a moment or two, Harry retorted. "I'm quite aware of all of that. I'm also quite aware that this could be a ploy to have me killed if you are still following Voldemort."

Draco chuckled. "Potter, if you can trust me on one thing, it's this: If I wanted you dead, you'd have been dead a long time ago. Besides if I could pull one over on Dumbledore, Snape, and Marlene, I wouldn't be following the Dark Lord, I'd be the Dark Lord."

The two of them glared at each other. "Why don't you just tell us why you changed sides Draco?" I asked, hoping that if could get Draco to speak honestly, the others might be more willing to trust him. He already thought I was on their side over his, and I wasn't making things better by trying to force him into talking, but I had no choice. I knew that I was the only one who had a chance of getting him to listen to me.

As I figured he would, he turned to me looking betrayed. "What? Are you starting to doubt me too?"

"No, of course not," I assured him. "I just think that it'll make things easier."

He lowered his voice slightly, but not enough so that the rest couldn't hear him if they wanted to. "It doesn't matter what I tell them. They have it in their heads that I'm the bad guy, and nothing I can say will convince them otherwise. This is just a waste of time."

He started to stand up to leave, but another voice spoke up, freezing him in his tracks. "I might believe you."

He turned towards the voice and smirked. "Now why, after all of the things I've said and done to you Granger, would you believe me?"

"Everyone deserves a second chance. And it's like Marlene said, if we really are all on the same side, we should trust each other for this. It'd be a lot easier at the battle if we don't have to not only worry about the Death Eaters, but our own people as well."

Draco studied her for a moment as if calculating if she was being honest or not.

"I might believe you too," Ginny announced much to the surprise of her boyfriend and brother.

After staring at his sister for a few moments slack jawed, Ron turned to an equally stunned Draco. "Well let's hear it."

Draco slowly sat back down and ran his fingers distractedly through his hair. He glanced at me, and I knew what he needed, but was too proud to ask for. I took his hand and gave him all of my support. He met my gaze steadily then and I saw him fighting with himself. His pride was telling him not to tell them anything that it was none of their business, but the logical side of him was tell telling him that he needed to do this to gain their trust.

He took one steadying breath as he swallowed his pride and began. "Well it's really not that complicated. The Dark Lord was angry that my father failed at the ministry last year. He decided that I would take my father's place in his fellowship and gave me a mission that he knew that I would fail, just as an excuse to kill me, my mother and my father."

"Why would he need an excuse?" Harry asked.

Draco shrugged. "Why does he do anything? He's insane. Maybe he just wanted to cause my family more shame. He wanted to humiliate us. Or maybe he thought there was a slim chance that I would succeed and was giving me my chance. It doesn't matter though. Dumbledore already knew of the mission through his spies."

"What was the mission?" Hermione asked.

Draco's eyes dropped to our entwined fingers. I squeezed his hand slightly. "I was to kill Dumbledore," he told me quietly.

I felt my stomach drop. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Draco was a lot of things, not all of them necessarily good, but he wasn't a killer. My hand went limp in his, but he just tightened his hold. "Did you ever try?" I asked, my voice sounding hoarse.

"No. I was going to once though. Remember that day I stormed into his office while you were there?" I nodded numbly. "I had gotten a letter in the post just before from my mum subtly reminding me about the mission. I figured that my best chance would be if I surprised him so I ran into his office pretending to need help. I saw you there and lost my nerve. I sprouted some nonsense about how I saw Snape with the Dark Mark since I knew that Dumbledore already knew, and that he threatened me."

"That was your only attempt?" I asked.

He nodded. "I kind of got distracted with other things after that."

"So that's why you changed sides? Because he was going to kill you and your family?" Ron asked.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Well that was part of it. I'm not just going to follow around a guy that is purposely trying to kill me and my family. I did it for the people I love."

"Your parents?" Hermione asked timidly.

"And Marlene," he said squeezing my hand again.

"Your father too?" I asked quietly.

He sighed. "My father is a bastard, but he's still my father. If I can save him, I will. But he won't be able to control my life again. Besides, I'd save him just for my mother. I love her, and she loves him. It'd break her heart if anything happened to him."

"Even if you have changed your mind, your father is an adamant supporter of Voldemort," Harry pointed out.

Draco laughed cynically. "Potter, all my father cares about is power. He thought the Dark Lord would succeed, so he became a supporter. When it falls, you better believe he'll be renouncing his ways, probably with a tale about how he was under some kind of spells. If there is anything my father knows how to do, it's getting out of tight spots and manipulating people. He's a Malfoy. There is a reason we all get put into Slytherin. We are sly and cunning."

"Your reasons aren't really all that noble," Hermione pointed out.

"You sound more like a coward actually. All you are doing is trying to get on the winning side and save your neck," Harry mumbled.

"I never said my reasons were good, or that I was brave. I believe that's your role, as Gryffindors."

"So do you believe him?" I asked, hoping to stop an argument.

"I do," Ginny spoke up. "It sounds just self serving enough to be true for him. Only who knew that Malfoy would actually have a heart."

Draco smirked at her. "I'll take that as a compliment."

I looked around the circle and the rest nodded their agreement.

Draco grinned at me and seemed to relax. "So do I get to hear all of your stories?"

"No." Ron told him.

"And why not? I had to tell you everything," Draco responded indignantly.

"It's quite simple really, Malfoy," Harry responded with a grin. "We're the good guys."

Draco glared at him for a moment before abruptly standing up and striding over to Draco as the rest of us watched, wide eyed and tense. I saw Harry's hand slide closer to his wand before he froze. Draco merely stuck his hand out and stared at him with a raised eyebrow. Slowly, as if wondering if it were some kind of trick, Harry grasped the hand and shook it twice before quickly dropping it.

"Well, look at that Potter. It only took us six years, but it looks like we are finally on the same side," Draco told him with a small smirk.

"Hey Malfoy? Do you still think some wizard families are better than others?" Ron asked.

"I do, but no longer for the same reasons."

Ron nodded to himself. It seemed to be the answer he was looking for.

I sighed with relief. Though not everyone in the room got along or liked each other, I was confident that we all had faith enough in each other that we would be able to get through the battle.

"What's that?" Draco asked as he dropped into the space next to me.

It was late that night, and I couldn't sleep so I found a fireplace and curled up on the couch in front of it and started playing the small silver object that I usually kept in my pocket. "It's a muggle lighter," I told him flicking it open to show him what it did.

He frowned at it. "Why don't you just use your wand?"

I shrugged. "It's just calming. Here, try it."

I handed him the lighter and watched as he fumbled with it in distaste. It took him a couple of minutes before he got the hang of it. When he finally fell into the rhythm of it, he smirked at me. "I guess it is." He handed it back to me with a chuckle. "You know, sometimes I can hardly believe you are a pureblood."

I smiled at him. "I'll take that as a compliment."

He rolled his eyes. "Why do you have that thing anyways?"

"I use it for practice." He looked confused so I went on. "I can control the elements."

"The elements?" he asked skeptically.

"Yes, you know: earth, wind, water, fire."

"I know what you meant," he said impatiently. "What do you mean you can control them?"

Instead of answering, I flicked open the lighter and watched as the flame erupted. I made it larger and started manipulating it into a sort of dance or light show. He watched in awe.

"Bloody hell. How'd you learn how to do that?"

"I spent quite a bit of time in the states. We stayed at a native reservation and they taught me how. I've mastered air, water and earth, but I still am working on fire."

"What in Merlin's name else do you have to do before you are a master?"

I grinned. "Well they say the sign of a true master is to be able to sort of conjure the elements. Fire's the hardest. Wind is the easiest once you get the hand of it. All you have to do is move air." I created a fairly wind that ruffled his hair and made the fire in the fireplace flicker. "Water vapor is in the air. All you have to do is condense it." I cupped my hands together and concentrated. He watched my hands filled with water. Curiously he stuck a finger in to test its validity. "It's the same with earth, well if we were outside or someplace dirty."

He shook his head as if to clear it. "But that's not conjuring it, that's just summoning it."

I laughed. "It is what the natives called it. They looked at it from a different view point that what we would. The point is those three are really simple. But where does fire come from? It's not all around us. That is why fire is the most difficult."

He just stared at me for a few minutes. "What else can you do that I don't know?"

I chuckled and shook my head. "I'm not going to tell you right now. After the battle, if we are both still here, then I will."

"Why after?" he asked curiously with just a trace of hurt.

"If I tell you now, you'll put too much faith in me. You'll think that I'm invincible, and that's definitely not the case. I could be killed as easily as everyone else."

He grinned. "I'm definitely curious now."

"You know what they say, curiosity killed the cat."

He looked confused. "What cat?"

I laughed and shook my head. "Don't worry about it."

He looked frustrated, but surprisingly, he let it drop. I summoned a blanket and then curled up next to him. He absently carded his fingers through my hair for a few minutes before quietly calling my name. I turned to meet his eyes. "I love you Marlene," he whispered.

"I love you too Draco," I told him kissing him softly.

"Do you think that we'll both get out of this alive?" he asked.

"I hope so."
_____

"It's weird isn't it?" Hermione asked.

"What's weird?" Ron asked looking at his girlfriend.

"We are on the train back to school. We are going to go through the next week as if everything is normal, knowing that next Monday, we are going to be going into a battle. It's like the calm before a storm. You can feel that something bad is going to happen."

Ron slid his arm around his girlfriend and looked around at his sister, me and Harry as if it never registered that we were doing exactly what Hermione said we were.

"But we aren't going to be going to class and stuff right? Don't we have to keep training?" he asked hopefully.

"We have to. We have to keep up appearances. Voldemort has spies at school. The Death Eater's children are checking in with their parents and reporting everything that is going on. They'll notice if we've all stopped going to class. Besides, imagine all the stuff we would miss for exams," I told him.

"We'll have to train while we aren't in class," Harry said resolutely.

"What about the D.A.?" Ginny asked. "They could help. They've been practicing for this too."

I shook my head. "Uncle Albus would never allow it. He's already stressed out enough about sending us into the middle of this. If they aren't 17 there is no way he's going to let them leave the school."

"That's not fair. They should be able to help if they want to!" Ginny argued.

"They can keep watch over the school," Harry interrupted quietly. As it neared the battle, Harry was becoming more and more withdrawn and quiet. I kept wanting to talk to him, but I didn't know what to say. "Something might go wrong and Voldemort might attack the school. They can stand guard. We'll just have to tell them what night and they'll be ready."

"Are you sure that everyone in the D.A. can be trusted?" I asked cautiously.

He glanced at Hermione and nodded.

"Speaking of trust, where's Malfoy?" Ginny asked.

"He has to keep up pretenses too, so he's sitting with the Slytherins," I told them.

"Does that mean he has to keep pretending to date Parkinson too?" Harry asked. I was glad to see that spark of concern break through his abnormal emotionless mask.

"Rumor has is that they had been on the fritz, and just before the holidays he caught her with a fifth year Slytherin. They broke up and he embarrassed her in front of their entire house," I told them with a grin.

"I can't imagine what it must be like for him this next week. He has to just go along with the rest of his house knowing that next week he's going to be facing their parents in battle," Hermione pondered.

"Well it's a good thing that Draco is a fantastic actor."

"He is?" Ron asked skeptically.

I grinned at him. "Well he's had the entire school convinced for years now it seems that he neither has a heart nor morals."

______

The next week flew by at record speed. It was filled with impromptu training sessions in empty classroom in between classes, during breaks, after dinner and in the middle of the night. Harry seemed to grow more and more frustrated that he had to go to class instead of spending all of his time training. He was even tossing around the idea of staging getting hurt so that he would have an excuse to get out of class. He would have even skipped meals if Ron, Hermione, Ginny and I weren't nearly literally dragging him into the Great Hall.

Harry and Hermione gathered the members of the D.A. and told them what was going on. They all agreed to guard the school. After a heated argument between Ginny and Harry over where she would be on Monday when the battle was to occur, it was agreed that she would stay behind and lead the D.A. I watched her as she led one practice session of the group, and I had to admit, she was a natural born leader, not unlike Harry. They were great together.

The only times I saw Draco were in class and on the first couple of nights when we went back to the tower. The Death Eater children were beginning to get ready for Voldemort's take of the school and he had to go along with them. Since he seemed to be the natural leader of the group, he had to be the one that was giving the others things to do. He had to make it convincing enough, otherwise the others would be suspicious.

Saturday night I found myself tossing and turning in bed. Monday was the day we attacked and like everyone else, I couldn't get it out of my head. I slid out of the dormitory so as to not wake the other girls and made my way to the common room. I wasn't too surprised when I found Harry down there staring into the fire with bloodshot eyes. When he wasn't training, he was becoming more and more distant, and looked more haggard with each passing day. Every time I tried to talk to him or help him sleep he kept dodging me. Vowing not to let him escape I sat down next to him, causing him to jump slightly.

"How are you doing?" I asked lamely.

He chuckled darkly. "I'm just fine."

I frowned at him. "What's been going on with you lately? You've hardly been talking to anyone," I told him gently.

"I don't think I can do it. We are all going to die because of me," he told me in a hoarse voice.

I put my hand on his shoulder, sending him calming energies. "I thought we went over this Harry, yes you can. You won't be alone either. We are all going to get through this."

He shook his head, though he was visibly calmer. "That's not what I mean. I'm not sure that I can actually kill someone. Not even Voldemort."

"When the time comes, you'll do what you have to do. It'll surprise you what you can do when a life hangs in the balance."

He seemed to think about that for a moment. "Last year at the Ministry, Bellatrix Lestrange killed my godfather. I chased after her and tried to put the Cruciatus Curse on her, but I couldn't even manage to do that. If there is someone in this world that I hate nearly as much as Voldemort, it's her." I squeezed his shoulder, unable to think of anything to say to that. "I think part of me is afraid that if I kill them, I'll turn into someone just like them."

"You won't Harry," I assured him.

"How do you know that? Dumbledore keeps telling me that I'm a lot like Voldemort. We have some of the same traits. Our wands are brothers."

"I know Harry, because you are worried about it. Just the fact that despite everything Voldemort has done to you and this world you still feel guilt at the thought of killing him, as inhumane as he is, is proof that you are not like him or his followers."

He nodded thoughtfully. "Dumbledore told me that it's our choices that shape who we are. I choose not to be like him."

"Dumbledore's right, too. You are a good person. I remember when I first came here I was in awe of you. I had read all about you of course, but you were nothing like I thought you would be. You were so sweet and kind. When I would get upset and cry over trivial things, it was you that was comforting me despite everything you had to deal with. You are one of the strongest people that I know, and you have the biggest heart of any person that I have ever met. There is no possible way you could ever turn dark. Don't ever think that way again."

He smiled at me. "Thank you Marlene. I'm glad you came here."

I smiled back at him. "So am I. Now get some sleep. You'll be needing it soon."

I manipulated his energies and in seconds he was yawning. "No fair," he mumbled, but he still got up and made his way back to his bed.