A/N – I decided Scarlett and Amber-Rose background checks were in order. It's time for you guys to know some things. Can you tell that I created Scarlett but not Amber-Rose? Because I know Scarlett's story so well. Anyway…off you go, time to discover the secrets.

Draco stood up and exited the room leaving Amber-Rose sitting on his bed surrounded by the boys mess and wondering how on earth Draco had gotten himself into such a dangerous situation. This was a life or death thing, if he didn't go through with this there was no doubt that the Dark Lord was going to kill him. Amber-Rose pulled her legs onto the bed and leaned her back against his pillow, staring around her without really seeing.

Memories floated around in the vast murky waters of her brain, trying to form solid pictures inside her. They were all memories of her past, her fathers past and Draco. She had so many memories of Draco even from the time they were kids. Their fathers had been friends, allied by the Dark Lord's wishes.

Her mind darkened and suddenly she could see the interior of Scarlett's bedroom. The walls were covered with pictures of the two of them and the curtains were open, making her room the lightest area in the house. Right above Scarlett's bed was a picture of a boy of around seventeen—her brother Jake.

On the green bedspread a younger Scarlett and Amber-Rose sat engaged in animated conversation about something that the older Amber-Rose couldn't quite remember. They looked about seven or eight.

The door creaked open and both girls jumped before bursting into fits of laughter as they saw Draco entering. He chuckled along with them and threw himself into the green beanbag beside the door. "Look who it is!" Scarlett exclaimed, grinning. "We didn't think you were coming!"

"It was either come here or stay in the house alone" Draco explained. "And mother didn't really enjoy that idea…not that I would prefer an empty dark house to the two of you but…" he trailed off and shrugged prompting Amber-Rose to throw Scarlett's hair brush at him. It hit him on the arm but he didn't react in pain, instead he threw it right back.

"Does anybody want to know what they're talking about?" Scarlett asked after a few minutes of the hairbrush flying back and forth across her room. She was looking towards her closed door with a curious expression on her face. "I've always wondered but then I was too scared to listen"

"What do you think they're talking about?" Draco asked, raising his eyebrows as if this was obvious. "They're talking about our fathers…that's all they ever talk about"

"But they don't get together specifically to talk about them, do they?" Scarlett asked, looking confused. Amber-Rose and Draco shared a look and Amber-Rose began to explain.

"Notice how they made sure our fathers were busy before they planned to meet up?" she prompted and Scarlett nodded. "Whenever they get together they make sure of that. It's like they want to keep their conversations private. And then they tell us to go to the bedroom and do whatever it is kids do…what else could they be talking about?"

Talking a deep breath, Scarlett jumped off the bed and bounded over to her bedroom door. She reached down and grabbed Draco's hand pulling him up and dragging him out of the door. Amber-Rose followed, not really wishing to be left alone in Scarlett's sunlit bedroom.

Moving as quietly as they could and dodging loose floorboards the three children walked down the hall and towards the staircase. They could already hear voices coming from downstairs in the kitchen and they became clearer as they reached the mouth of the stairs. Draco was now at the front of the line and he stopped the minute they were standing at the top of the stairway and the two girls stopped behind him.

The three woman's voices travelled up to them clearly, all sounding somewhat frantic.

"And they've got it into their heads that the Dark Lord is still alive!" Scarlett's mother, Annabelle said. Scarlett, Amber-Rose and Draco leaned forward, Amber catching Scarlett before she toppled down the stairs.

"Lucius isn't sure…" Narcissa Malfoy mused. "He's considering the idea that the Dark Lord met his downfall. That's what most seem to believe anyhow. He says that it's best to just try and integrate back into the community and try and pretend you've seen the error of your ways"

"Well, Callum seems to think that it would be a betrayal of loyalties. I think he is trying to convince Lucius and Robert to join him in searching the Dark Lord out" Amber's mother, Alicia stated.

"But if they do that they're going to get caught. The Ministry has been capturing past Death Eaters for years. It is still a concern. Our husbands have been lucky to slip under their noses. If they throw that away…" Narcissa said.

"I hate this" Annabelle sounded distraught. "I hate being afraid that there is always that possibility he could be taken away and thrown into Azkaban. Something like that could ruin Scarlett's childhood…and Jake's too" she added the mention of Jake as an afterthought. Amber-Rose noted Scarlett's fists clench.

"We could too though…" Alicia pointed out. "At any moment they could figure out that we were part of it were true"

"No, because the Ministry isn't looking into old cases anymore" Annabelle snapped back. "But if Callum, Robert and Lucius make new cases against themselves then the Ministry has every right to lock them away"

An arm brushed against Amber-Rose's shoulder and she turned to see Scarlett's older brother Jake looking down at them, eyebrows raised. Scarlett and Draco looked up also and quickly motioned for him not to speak. It appeared he didn't understand their charades.

"What are you doing?" he asked, crossing his arms and pretending to look stern. "I thought you guys were supposed to be…"

Scarlett jumped up as high as she could to try and cover his mouth with her hand. Finally he got the picture. He made an O shape with is mouth and nodded. Then he began walking down the stairs and into the lions den.

The girls and Draco didn't wait around to see how Jake's interruption of the meeting turned out. Instead they walked quietly back to Scarlett's room and falling back into their previous positions in silence.

Coming back to herself, the older Amber-Rose began thinking about what Draco had been asked to do. There was almost no doubt in her mind that it would end with him being thrown into Azkaban. But the only other option for him was death…which was worse?

Maybe I can help him she decided, nodding her head even though nobody could see. Then she stood up and walked back downstairs to join Hermione and Scarlett.

She found them just as she'd left them, in silence but there was something there upon her entrance. She could almost feel the tension as Hermione looked at her, almost sizing her up. It was an uncomfortable feeling. Even looking at Hermione was uncomfortable under the current circumstances.

Then she looked at Scarlett who was peering at her from underneath her eyelashes. Scarlett, so perfectly innocent—there had been many moments were people, including Amber-Rose, had questioned Scarlett's house placement. But you don't know someone's true capabilities until they are tested. Maybe, if she told Scarlett what was going on, her friend would surprise her.

Because the thing was, Amber-Rose knew that Scarlett was capable of things that she didn't show. Amber had been there in Scarlett's third year when she died her hair black, bitched everybody out and even managed to smuggle some Firewhiskey down at the Hogs Head. Amber-Rose knew that Scarlett could be cunning and that she had a streak of self perseveration that was present in so many Slytherins.

"Do you know what was going on with Draco?" Hermione asked after a few moments, giving Amber-Rose a pleading look. "He came back down a few minutes ago and just walked out of the Common Room. He's not even speaking to me…I don't know why"

A dark look passed over Amber-Rose's face but she shrugged. "He wouldn't tell me anything" she lied smoothly. "But I do need to talk to Scarlett about something. Is that okay, Hermione?"

"Fine" a cold tone entered Hermione's voice and she turned away, her attention shifting to the flames in the fireplace. Amber-Rose sent a look Scarlett's way hoping for some explanation but Scarlett just smiled and walked up the Girls Staircase. Amber-Rose followed her, trying to come up with a short explanation for Draco's predicament in her head.

Hours later Scarlett stood in front of two large magnificent doors feeling even smaller than she already was. As inviting as some people might find the Room of Requirement, to Scarlett it was like a big black hole that sucked all her happiness into it's' depths.

Rooted to her spot, she didn't even move when she heard faint footsteps coming along the corridor. Her longing kept the door visible but she had no real desire to enter it. Moving her head slightly to the side she spotted Hermione headed towards her. Instantly a fire burned in her gut.

"Scarlett, there you are!" Hermione walked faster, smiling. "I've been looking everywhere. You and Amber-Rose just left me there"

Scarlett nodded slowly turning back to stare at the door once again. Hermione followed her eyes. "You know how to use the Room?" she asked, curious. Scarlett nodded again.

"Since I was twelve" she admitted, shaking a little.

"Aren't you going to go in?"

In a matter of seconds Scarlett lost control of herself. Tears began falling down her face and she sank to the ground leaving Hermione thunderstruck. The door disappeared and Hermione knelt down next to her friend and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" she asked and Scarlett continued to cry as if she had been holding this in for a very long time. Her shoulders were shaking and Hermione looked up to where the door had been, her mind immediately trying to figure out what might have been behind it.

Her face tear stained, Scarlett looked up after a few minutes. "Do you remember in our second year…my brother…committed suicide?" she asked, voice breaking at several points. Hermione nodded, wondering where this was going and why it was going there now. "He didn't" Scarlett murmured, her sobs making it hard to figure out what she had said.

When Hermione finally did her eyes grew wide. "What do you mean?" she asked, trying to keep her questions simple. It was probably best to ask them one at a time otherwise she might overwhelm Scarlett.

Taking a deep breath it all began to pour out of Scarlett's mouth for the first time in her life.

"It wasn't him who…killed him, if that makes sense" she stammered. "I saw them…Jake and two seventh years, I'm pretty sure they were sons of Death Eaters, probably family friends." She shuddered with the horror, thinking about how most of the Death Eater families were connected. There was almost no doubt that the murderer's fathers were connected with her family somehow. "It was late and I was being stupidly rebellious and then I just…I saw them and it all looked unsafe so I followed. I don't know what I thought I could do but I followed and they…" she hiccupped "they led me here"

Hermione's eyes widened and she looked at the invisible door. Was Scarlett saying that her brother had been murdered? In the Room of Requirement of all places!

"I followed them in and they were duelling and it was scary and they didn't notice me. Or at least Jake didn't, if the others did then they didn't really care much. But I don't think they did. And they just…they just killed him without even giving it a second thought. They left laughing. I was so scared and I stayed in that room all night. I didn't want to leave him there." The tears were flowing freely down her face and Hermione wrapped her arm around her shaking shoulders. "And then the next day I found out that a suicide note had been written and given to his best friend. Pretty soon everybody believed he had killed himself and his murderer's were gone"

She finished her story and wiped her eyes only to have them fill with tears again. The secret that she had been holding for so long was finally free and as good as if felt it was also hard to relive memories that painful. She could see it all in her head again. The final look of terror on Jake's face as the spell hit him and he realized what was happening, the laughs and smiles that reached his killers eyes. And she remembered lying next to him that night with her head on his chest just wishing his heart would start beating again.

"Why didn't you…tell anyone?" Hermione asked, astonished by what she had just heard.

"I didn't think they'd believe and trust me I didn't want to talk about it. Hagrid started teaching us about Thestrals earlier this year…I didn't even raise my hand when he asked if we could see them"

Scarlett was calming down a little now. As much as the open wounds stung enough time had passed between the incident and now that she had had room to heal a little. As painful as it still was she had moved on and had a life now that didn't totally involve wallowing in sorrow.

"I'm so sorry." Hermione told her, truthfully. "That's so much to happen to someone. It seems with You Know Who around there are a lot of students who have big family dramas"

Scarlett laughed and nodded. "Yeah, maybe living the life of a muggle is less complicated." Hermione just laughed and shook her head.

"Hermione…" Scarlett said, her face turning serious again. A small crease appeared between her eyebrows. "I'm sorry. I lost my brother, I lost Cedric…I almost lost Cordelia…I really don't want to lose anyone else"

"What?" Hermione felt as if she had been left behind in the conversation. Scarlett was talking nonsense. "You're not going to lose anybody else…what are you talking about?"

"Just remember what I just said" Scarlett told her, the crease never disappearing. Then she stood up and began running down the corridor and out of site, her robes flying behind her. Hermione was left in the dust with a blank look on her face. What was Scarlett sorry for?

When the coast was clear Draco had returned to his dormitory and taken a seat on the bed. It seemed Hermione and the girls had disappeared somewhere and now he was free to turn the thought of what he had been asked to do over and over in his mind. It was a matter of following his heart or his head and normally he followed his head, it made the smart decisions.

He had no idea how much time had passed—time in which he had remembered his whole life and thought of what mattered to him most. But when he next looked up he spotted two figures in the doorway. By their difference in height he could tell who they were. Amber-Rose and Scarlett were back. What did they have to say to him?

They seemed to be waiting for some sort of acknowledgment and so he nodded and they immediately walked into the room. Amber-Rose sat on the side of the bed and Scarlett scrambled over and pushed him to the side a little to make room against the pillow.

"What do you two want?" he asked and his voice was quiet. He hadn't been speaking for several hours. Being alone in his thoughts had been better. Now he didn't know what to say. Had Amber-Rose told Scarlett what was going on? It seemed so, Scar was looking at him in a strange way.

"We want to help" Scarlett told him, giving him a quick hug that he didn't return. "We want to help you with this…thing you have to do. Both of us"

"We can all work it out together. You don't even have to tell the Dark Lord that we're helping. Take all the credit…but dying because you couldn't perform his task isn't worth it. Don't sacrifice yourself" Amber-Rose said, insistent.

"How do you know I've made up my mind that I'm going to do it?" he said, trying to pretend he was still thinking. "Maybe I'm going to…"

"Draco…you're a Slytherin too" Scarlett said, rolling her eyes. "It's what we do. We are much more cautious about who we help. We're not going to die for people, not unless we really care about them."

"Maybe I…" Draco tried to speak again.

"No, not like we care about you" Amber-Rose anticipated his words. "We've all been together for a long time. We're not going to let you die. Okay?"

Draco pondered this for a few minutes. They would help him. If he didn't do this then the Dark Lord would kill him. He didn't want to die. He was young and had his whole life ahead of him. If he didn't do this then he would disappoint his father and everybody depending on him. He had to. He could see no other option. He was terrified of dying; he couldn't choose the other option.

"Okay" he agreed and Scarlett gave him another hug.