Harry opened the door slowly and beckoned Ron and Hermione into the room.
"I have to have private conversation with them," Harry told Draco. "You can wait outside."
Draco got up slowly and walked out of the room.
"I expect you to keep your word, Potter," Draco said as he passed Harry in the doorway. "Tell them only as much as they need to know."
Harry nodded in agreement and closed the door just as Draco had passed through the threshold where Addie was sitting outside holding two flesh colored instruments. Draco's heart skipped a beat as he recognized them as extendable ears.
She knew.
"Did—Did you?" He could feel his face flushing with color, and obvious give-away.
"They tried," Addie said. "But I didn't let them. I told them you were entitled to a private conversation."
"So you didn't—?"
"Nobody heard anything you said," Addie smiled. "Why? What happened?"
"I convinced Potter to let us continue on our mission," Draco said quickly.
"Oh," Addie looked disappointed. "That's good, but I thought you were going to say something more exciting."
"Well sorry, I'm not here to entertain," Draco drawled.
Addie laughed and pulled her hair back into a loose ponytail as the two sat and waited for Harry, Ron, and Hermione to emerge. Draco was certain Harry would be able to convince the other two to allow him on the mission, but he was nervous about how much he would have to tell. There would be little time for Draco to get Harry on his own again and he was hoping that Potter would at least have the decency to give him some sort of sign that his secret had been kept.
Hopefully, Draco thought, Potter is as noble as his friends make him out to be.
Nearly a half an hour later the door in front of them creaked open and Harry, Ron, and Hermione piled out. Harry was the first to speak.
"We're going to let you help us," He said. "But there are rules."
"Rules?" Addie raised an eyebrow.
"Yes," Hermione said, "rules."
"What kind of rules?" Addie asked.
"Well, first off, we're never going to tell you exactly where we are," Harry said. "In case—in case—well—"
"In case something goes wrong?" Draco finished.
"Yeah," Harry looked down at the floor, "in case something goes wrong."
"Anymore?" Addie asked, clearly frustrated.
"Secondly," Hermione said curtly, "neither of you can tell anyone what you're up to."
"Well duh," Addie laughed.
"By anyone we mean anyone," Harry cut in. "We're not going to let anyone in the Order know that you didn't join him for real."
There was a silence.
"Not even my mother?" Addie asked quietly.
"Not even your mother," Harry responded. "No one can know in case they're caught by him as well. You have to understand what you're doing is top secret. You're going to have more access to our mission that anyone else and even though we're not going to tell you what it is, if you're caught, and he tortures you or force feeds you veritaserum or imperiuses you it could seriously endanger—"
"We get it," Addie interrupted, "nobody finds out."
"Now there are details we need to go over," Hermione said, bringing the conversation back to business. "What are your cover stories?"
"I'm going to tell him that I'm mad with jealous rage that Harry dumped me for Ginny and once Draco was brought into our custody I went to him with a plan of escape." Addie rattled off. Clearly, she had thought it over before.
Draco nodded and said, "I'm going to say that the aftermath of the wedding left everyone in such a frenzy that they hardly remembered I was there and that Addie came to where I was being held (they believe that I am captured, after all) and the two of us managed to escape though we were not able to retrieve my mother."
"Good," Harry said, "but what if he—you know—checks?"
"That," Draco said, "I intend to work on with Addie, if you will permit us to stay a few more days."
"Alright, but you should leave as quickly as possible," Ron said. "The sooner you start the better, you know…"
"Occlumency takes time, Weasley," Draco spat. "If it was easy, anyone could do it."
Harry shifted uncomfortably.
"I feel, however, that Addie will be able to take to it more quickly than most," Draco added.
Addie smiled causing Draco's heart to skip a beat.
"How-so?" Harry asked.
"When I was being taught Occlumency my dear aunt Bellatrix did not merely teach me how she also sought to teach me why. Occlumency is easier for those who, in their very nature, conceal things. Those who are noble, honest, and straight-forward often have a harder time mastering the art because they have less control over their emotions. The type of occlumency that I'm going to teach Addie will not only shield the Dark Lord from her thoughts but will also place alternative thoughts in her mind to conceal that anything else was hidden. Addie is a good liar, so she should be a natural," Draco finished calmly. He reveled in the expression on Hermione's face as, once again, Draco proved his intellect.
"So you're going to teach her to lie to Lord V—"
"Don't say his name!" Draco shouted.
"In this house," Harry began sternly, "we call him by his name."
"I understand that, but please don't say it in front of me," Draco implored. "To become a Death Eater there is initiation—things you can't possibly understand unless—unless you were there."
Draco's memory swarmed back to his days in the dark dungeon underneath the place that he had called home for so long. Unfriendly cloaked men stood around him as the Dark Lord took his place standing in front of the spot where Draco had been tied.
"Say the name," He commanded.
"No, my Lord, please, I would never…" Draco begged for mercy.
"Say it," The Dark Lord commanded again.
"L—Lord Voldemort," Draco whimpered.
"Crucio!" The Dark Lord cried causing Draco to feel as though he was splitting in half.
"I do not want my followers to merely choose not to say the name," The Dark Lord said as the curse wore off. "I want them to be unable to say my name. Say it again, boy."
"Please, n—"
"SAY IT!"
"Lord Voldemort," Draco whispered.
And the pain hit him again. The rushed over Draco again and again, never ceasing . He wished for death. He wished from reprise from this unthinkable torture. He could see his father standing in the crowd, watching, proud that his son was undergoing the ritual.
"Get up, Draco," The Dark Lord said when the ritual was finally over, though Draco could hardly move let alone stand.
The Dark Lord let him lay on the cold dungeon floor as the rest of the Death Eaters piled out of the room behind him. Draco would never be able to hear the Dark Lord's name again.
As Draco finished regaling the tale to the horrified teenagers surrounding him, he felt as though a weight had been lifted off his chest. Draco was not one to confide his feelings in others, but now that he had he felt as though he could understand why some were so willing to share.
Harry's face was like stone once the story had been finished, Ron looked disgusted, Hermione seemed on the verge of tears, and Addie seemed noticeably shaken.
"Please," Draco requested quietly, "please don't say the name in front of me."
Harry nodded, and he and Draco shared a moments glance. In an instant, he knew that Harry had kept his word not to divulge all that was said between the two of them.
"Well," Ron began awkwardly, "now that we're all settled.."
"But we're not Ron!" Hermione scolded. "We still haven't settled how we're going to stay in contact once these two are gone."
"I have it!" Addie jumped up, rushing over to the trunk that she had brought with her and opening its first compartment.
"I got them ages ago," She laughed, holding up two silver lockets.
"What are they?" Hermione asked curiously, taking one in her hand.
"They're friendship necklaces," Addie smiled. "Young witches wear them all the time. See, I have one and you have the other and if I talk into it you can hear me on the other end."
Addie picked up the locket and demonstrated, "Hello?"
The locket around Hermione's neck vibrated, and as she opened it, Addie's voice rang through.
"And if for some reason you can't open the locket when I'm there I can sort of leave a message, see, look."
"Dear Hermione, It's me Addie. You have dirt on your cheek," Addie said into the locket.
Hermione's locket vibrated, and when she opened it a moment later the same message played.
"Addie this is wonderful!" Hermione cried.
"I know," Addie smiled, "and I was serious about the dirt thing, right above your left cheekbone."
Hermione blushed and began to rub the side of her face furiously.
"I think you look fine," Ron said quietly.
Draco felt as though he was going to retch. Though he was trying to resist it, the thought of the mudblood and the blood traitor still disgusted him.
Draco turned to Addie, who was leaning casually up against a dirty wall, picking her fingernails aimlessly.
"Addie," He began, "the sooner we start the better…"
"Alright let's go," She smiled, taking his arm in hers.
He felt the arm that she was holding grow hot at her touch.
He turned to address Harry, "Do you know where we could—?"
"Down here," Harry directed them down the hallway and up a ladder to an attic that smelled as though an animal had been living there for quite some time. Harry descended the staircase quickly leaving Draco and Addie alone in the dusty attic. The setting was a bit more romantic that Draco would have like it to have been, what with the floating candles, dim light, and musty air that surrounded them, but he had become a master at restraining himself in Addie White's presence.
"So—err—I'm going to try to—err—read your mind," Draco wished he was more articulate but the ambiance was affecting his judgment.
"Alright," Addie laughed.
"Now what you have to do is once I open your mind, you've got to stop me," Draco said.
"And how do I do that?" Addie asked.
"Well, you just sort of think no once you feel your mind opening up and then…it doesn't," Draco knew what he wanted to say, but the words weren't coming out.
"Just—just let me show you alright, legilimens!" Draco felt memories that weren't his flooding his mind. He saw himself, at eight, sitting by the bed of a sickly girl with thick black hair. He saw George Weasley at the top of the astronomy tower. He saw Harry leaning in by the black lake. He saw—nothing. She had stopped him. He had penetrated her mind, but she had stopped him.
He smiled, "That was good, but you have to be quicker."
"That was weird," She said, rubbing the back of her head. "I feel violated."
"I don't want to do it!" Draco said hurriedly. "I have to!"
"I know," She smiled. "It's just—I don't know—let's give it another go—"
Draco was right when he thought that Addie would be a natural Occlumens. The practiced well into the night, and by the end of the session Addie had successfully learned to repel Draco's advances into her mind.
"Tomorrow," He told her, "we'll start the hard part."
"Replacing the old memories with new ones?" Addie asked as she climbed down the ladder into the dark corridor below.
"Yes," Draco said as he followed her. "It's one thing to hide something from the Dark Lord, it's another to lie to him."
"Draco," Addie began seriously, "that story you told today—I can't believe you went through that."
Draco paused, unable to respond to such an open show of emotion. He was unused to sympathy.
"It's in the past," Draco said quietly, though he knew that he would never be rid of that terrible memory.
"We're going to get through this together," She took his hand in hers and squeezed it tightly. "We're both going to be okay because we have each other, I trust you,"
"Addie," Draco began, "I will do the best I can to keep us safe."
"I know," She smiled. "Let's get down the bed…"
The next morning Draco awoke well after the rest of the house and he found them in the kitchen huddled around the table. Harry, who was apparently waiting for the house-elf Kreatcher, had taken to pacing in the kitchen whenever he had a free moment. Hermione spent her days pouring over an old children's novel, a past-time for which Addie teased her relentlessly.
"Hermione, why, are you reading that?" She laughed, pulling the book out of her hands.
"It's important!" Hermione cried, snatching it back.
"Oh don't tell me you need fairytales for your mission, Hermione. If we're being guided by some tale about a blonde in a glass slipper then we're all in trouble."
"How do you know Cinderella?" Hermione asked, looking over the top of her book.
"I picked it up in a muggle bookstore once. I liked the picture on the cover," Addie said.
Ron, who had taken to playing with a deluminator that he seemed to have gotten only just that summer, then flicked out the lights.
"Ron will you stop it!" Addie shouted, hitting him on the back of the head.
"Ow!" He cried. "Sorry, it's addicting!"
Addie sighed, "Draco, let's go upstairs and practice. I need something to take my mind off how hungry I am."
"Alright," He said, turning out of the kitchen almost as quickly as he'd entered it, and leaving the trio to bicker to themselves.
It took three days for Addie to finally get the hang of replacing her old memories with new ones. The key, Draco had told her, was to feed on old emotions. When she told the Dark Lord that she hated Harry for leaving her for Ginny, she had to feed off a time when she did feel as though she hated Harry. This was not difficult for her to do. Draco, also, would have no problem convincing the Dark Lord that he still remained faithful since the dark arts were such an integral part of his life for so long. By the end of the third day, Addie had successfully warded off all of Draco's advances without any trace of the true memory behind the false one.
Now, Draco thought, will she be able to do it in front of the Dark Lord?
On the fourth day Draco took to silently trying to invade her mind while her guard was down, to see if she could handle a surprise attack on her thoughts. She rose to the occasion splendidly and Draco felt relatively confident she was ready to face him when the time came.
Unfortunately, the time came sooner than Draco had hoped.
The five teenagers sat together in the kitchen one afternoon. Ron playing with his deluminator, Harry pacing, Hermione reading, Draco practicing legilimency, and Addie fighting him off, when a voice was heard from the stairwell.
"It was not I who killed you, Albus,"
The voice was familiar, but still, a panic arose.
"Hide!" Harry hissed at Draco, who grabbed Addie by the arm and ran her into a nearby room. The two listened in the doorway as Harry asked for verification of the man who had entered Grimmuald Place. It was Remus Lupin.
Under the pretense of having to run to the bathroom, Hermione quickly ran to the room where Draco and Addie were hidden.
"You have to leave," She commanded. "Now!"
"You have your necklace?" Addie asked.
"Yes, and you have yours?"
Addie nodded.
"Here are your bags," Hermione pushed Addie's trunk into the room along with Draco's. "Contact us as soon as you can."
"We will," Addie smiled.
Hermione rushed over and hugged her friend for what very well could have been the last time.
"Good luck," She said, tears filling her muddy eyes.
"Good luck," Addie smiled back, her voice quivering.
Hermione left the room without a word to Draco. It seemed as though a fight had broken out outside. Harry was shouting.
"Do you know where they are?" Addie asked.
"Yes," Draco said quietly. "Malfoy Manor."
"To Malfoy Manor?" Addie took Draco's hand and he could not help but notice that she was shaking.
"On three?" Draco said, trying to remain strong and grasping the bags next to him.
"One,"
"Two,"
"Three,"
Grimmuald Place suddenly spun out of focus and Draco felt, once again, as though he was being compressed into a two-dimensional world. When he finally landed he was standing in front of his old home, Addie by his side, and certain death in front of him.