"That's it! I'm leaving!"

"No, Draco! Wait!"

Unsurprisingly Harry and Draco were still fighting in the study too wrapped up in their own silly soul expressions to realise how vital these final hours were to be for them. But for now they had a lot to get out of their system so until then they were blissfully unaware.

Harry was still tied to what was left of the chair and was jumping shakily trying to get across the study to Draco, who was shifting things from in front of the door. A bookcase had fallen down in front of it and its contents were sprawled across the floor, so he was quite unsuccessful. Giving up he turned around to confront Harry.

"I know I am not wanted in this cruel world…" he spoke solemnly, looking down at the floor. "No!" He yelled suddenly holding his hand out in front of him, as if he was telling Harry to stop.

He reminded Harry of a traffic controller standing there all stiff with his hand in front of him, now if he only just had a whistle then it would be perfect. He tried not to giggle at his inner thought; he knew Draco would be mad at him.

"It's okay, don't beg," Draco continued, his hand from in front of him now, it was placed over his heart instead. Harry bit his lip trying to hold it back. Still shuffling closer in his 'chair'.

"I'll be fine, I will have to fend for myself in this cold, dark world, even though I am the darkness in the world but that's not the point! No, it's okay! I'll be fine." Draco carried on to blabbering on to himself calmly, Harry stopped jumping and looked at him as if he had just grown two heads. Was Draco really planning on going? He couldn't just leave him here like this!

"No, that's it, I'm going, glad that's all sorted now, ta-ta." Draco then turned around and walked straight into the bookcase.

Harry couldn't help it he burst out laughing at his friend's stupidity whereas Draco got very angry as Harry predicted he would.

Draco was growing tired of these games and just wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. But with everything going on in his confused mind at the moment, he turned back around rubbing his newly bruised hip and directed all of his anxiety at Harry. "You have a caring expression! Comfort me then!" Draco was eyeing him with a dirty look and Harry frowned.

"Comfort you? Comfort you? Malfoy, I want to fucking kill you!" Harry said back firmly all laughter gone and his anger increasing.

"Potter, you dirty bastard what have I ever done to you!" Harry raised an eyebrow and looked accusingly at the chair remains he was tied to half sitting half balancing on it.

They glared at each other waiting for the other one to make a move, at the same time they screamed and charged at each other as if going into battle. This was going to be a very long and painful night…

Can you help me?

I'm hurting,

I'm confused with muddled thoughts,

Can you help me?

I'm bruising,

And I've surrendered in this war.

Can you help me?

I've took too much,

I'm endangering my system,

Can you help me?

I need your touch,

And all your help with this.

Can you help me?

I've made mistakes,

But I don't want to exit this place,

Can you help me?

Please help me it's not too late.

Can you help me?

I'll change,

Become a better person,

Can you help me?

To stop this facade,

And lessen what I've worsened.

"Can you help me?" I whisper,

The breath is not entering my lungs,

Can you help me?

I've let go, but I'm so young,

Even I didn't deserve this.

Hermione sat up sharply and forgot the poem that was floating around her head and the tears that trailed down her face. There had been a knock on the door and a voice barked at her to get ready. She buried her hands into her face and cried, not daring to look at the dress on the end of her bed.

She stood up screaming and crying hysterically, she couldn't take anymore. Banging on the windows and sobbing her heart out she screamed for them to let her go. She picked up things and threw them at the windows willing them to break so she would be free but they just bounced off and she felt like she was doomed.

She let out a long painful scream as she fell helpless and exhausted on the floor. "DRACO!"

"I'm holding on your rope, got me ten feet off the ground…"

It would have been a peculiar situation for anyone to walk into. Draco was indeed hanging upside down on a rope about 10 feet off the ground; Harry was panting on the floor smiling up at him triumphantly.

"Right Malfoy, now are you gonna chill out? I know I went a bit loopy earlier and you tied me to a chair, now you went loopy so I've hung you upside down. Now we're even."

"I'm hearin' what you say but I just can't make a sound!"

"Well, that's rude."

"You tell me that you need me…"

"Hey, now don't get too cocky, I said nothing like that of any sort." Harry objected. "But come on, stop singing then I'll cut you down." Harry said reasonably as he stood up. He scanned around the room looking for something to help him get Draco down. Thinking about it, he wasn't even sure how he had got him up! He decided Snape's desk would probably be the best.

"Then you go and cut me down, but wait…" Harry stopped pushing the table to where Draco was hanging. He had his hand out in front of him again, motioning for Harry to stop.

"You tell me that you're sorry. Didn't think I'd turn around, and say…" Draco paused… "It's too late to apologize, it's too late!" He said waving his finger at Harry as if he was telling off a small child. "I said it's too late to apologize, it's too late!"

SFTM_SFTM_SFTM_SFTM_SFTM_SFTM_SFTM

We return hundreds of miles away from Snape's House to Hogwarts where Crabbe and Goyle were still standing outside the Slytherin Dormitories trying to get in. It had been so long since they had been there that they didn't know the password, so they had spent the past hour waiting for a Slytherin to come along. They was just about to leave when they spotted there old dorm mate Theo walking towards them.

"Finally." Vince said smiling and standing up, he had been sitting on the floor waiting. "Just the person we needed." He joked slapping Theo on the back probably a little too forcefully, he had no choice but to stop dead in his tracks.

"Why? Why could you possibly need me?" He stuttered, looking between the two friends.

"We were waiting for someone to let us into the dorm, I mean we haven't been around for ages we've been, erm… looking for someone. Trying to fix this Soul Expression thing." Goyle tried to lie smoothly, but that hadn't come out right at all, he realised he shouldn't have said anything but it was too late now.

Vince cracked his knuckles, a habit he got from being scared. Theo gulped and looked down at them. "You alright mate? You look a bit… off." Theo faltered but then held his head high walking into the common room with the boys following.

"It's a good job he came down isn't it mate," Crabbe said to Goyle who nodded again.

"Oi, Theo!" Crabbe called out to him, he froze just as he was about to walk into the dorm. He turned around slowly.

"What?" He said trying to keep all emotion out of his face. Crabbe and Goyle were big, and if they knew about him and his plan then he wouldn't be able to fight them off by himself.

"I think you might have something that we…" Theo had got too edgy and he ran into the dorm at an alarming speed.

The two boys had never been too bright but they knew that was not normal behavior. Crabbe and Goyle exchanged a look before sprinting in there after him. They barged their way into the dorm both drawing there wands and pointing them at Theo who had ran himself into a dead end.

Crabbe glanced down at Goyle's wand realising that he had drawn it backwards in excitement and quickly changed it for him. He wanted to say something smart to this idiot but nothing came to him. It was too late they had faltered for too long and before they knew what had happened they were disarmed and Theo was pointing three wands at them and smile slightly madly. This wasn't going how the boys had planned…

Meanwhile, Ron wasn't in a very good position either. Ginny had dragged him into a classroom and was demanding he listen to her. Of course he couldn't answer because she had pertrificus totalus'ed him.

"Finally! Now you WILL listen to me, Ronald?" Ginny screamed at her brother, slamming the classroom door behind her, directing an angry silence charm at the classroom door.

"Something weird is going on okay? I know I'm your sister and you NEVER listen to me but I've been noticing really strange things. Now if I take this charm off, you WILL listen to me." She stared at him for a good while until finally she undid the spell. Ron didn't know what to say he just stared at her with a guilty look on his face.

"Okay, well I guess I'll start from the beginning. It was something small to be honest. I've been sorting out Snape's store cupboard, long story cut short I have to clean it for the rest of the year as I... mumble mumble..."

"What?"

Ginny sighed. "I got caught cheating on my potions exam last year, Snape said he would keep it secret and let me redo it next year if I did his cupboard." Ron went to yell but she raised a hand. He rolled his eyes and sat on a desk. "While I was there someone came in, they didn't notice me as I was sat on the floor at the back. At the time I didn't realise who it was but now I know it was Blaise Zabini. He was stealing potions and ingredients; I didn't think much of it, him being a Slytherin and all so I left it. The ingredients he took weren't dangerous I had checked and so I forgot about it. But I thought it was weird, he must have been making a complex potion from the ingredients he took because it was from the restricted section. Why would he need such a complex potion? He was obviously up to no good Ron. And now I see you hanging around with him!"

"Blaise started the Soul Expressions." Ron explained to her. "He put one on Malfoy and it spread by accident but you can't tell anyone Ginny." He was rubbing the back of his neck feeling uncomfortable.

"Listen Ron, I was there a month or so later when Zabini returned with the left over ingredients and the rest of the potion. He put it to the back of the shelves with some griffin feathers, he was hiding it, but why didn't he keep it? He wasn't acting like himself as well, it was freaky. It was like he was bewitched, Ron. He was in a haze. After he left another boy came in, it was like he had followed Zabini and he took the rest of the potion! And now I realise that was the Soul Expression potion. I checked."

"So, Blaise made the potion, which I knew before, then put it in Snape's store. He didn't tell us that!"

"Did you listen to what I said? You dummy! He must have been under a spell, Imperius even." Ginny yelled getting frustrated.

"Who was it that followed him? Maybe that is who is responsible for the attack on Draco and what's been going on around the school."

"Exactly Ron, that's what I was getting at. You're not the brightest wand in the shop are you? Wait? What attack on Draco?"

"Oh, Malfoy had a lust potion put on him; this was ages ago mind you. A really strong one, he practically raped Snape..." Ron waffled on not seeing the look on Ginny's face.

"Zabini made a second potion Ron, just after that one, he put it in the cupboard just later that night." Ron stopped mid sentence. "A lust potion... I was sure that was what it was. I'm so stupid I should have tipped it away." She panicked, Ron shot up from the table and strode across to his younger sibling, grabbing her arms roughly.

"What did you say? FUCKING SLYTHERIN'S! They're all back stabbing bastards. It's Zabini isn't it Gin?" Ron fumed, but he had gone pale.

"No," She shook her head. "It's a boy called Theo; I don't know his last name but he was the one who followed him in after. He took the potions; he must be the one who is doing this."

Ron released her arms. "I don't even know who that is, I have no idea."

"He's in your year, he doesn't have many friends I always see him alone." Ginny said thoughtfully. "He would be the perfect person to do this, no-one would find out because he had no friends watching him, everyone would over look him."

"So he was using a spell to get Blaise to help him do all the Potions? Because he didn't have someone he could trust to help him, so he had to force someone." Ron turned this scenario over in his head as he spoke.

"He must have been brewing them with Zabini and then leaving him to finish them, so he took them to the potions store where he would collect them later. He must have, both those potions are very complex and they would need two people."

"But why would he pick Blaise?" Ron wondered out loud, it just didn't make sense.

"Ron, Zabini and Malfoy are always together so he could give him the potion, and Theo is crap at potions, Blaise is really good. You should know this; they are in your year not mine! And besides, Theo is in Slytherin, he must be in the same dorm as Malfoy and Zabini, he could easily put a spell on one of them. But not close enough for a potion! He must have got Blaise doing that as well." Ginny started to pace back and forth in the classroom. She knew very little about what was going on, but she understood that it was something big. Hermione and the Professors had went missing. It did make sense when all the pieces came together. "Ron, when Snape went missing he must have caught Theo going in his stores. So he must have caught him."

"Maybe. But why would he go to the stores? We are all in our own dorm now so Theo wouldn't be able to use Blaise anymore, he wouldn't see him."

Ginny sat deep in thought, trying to decipher what was going on. "So..." She started slowly. "That's why the only thing he could use was the soul expressions on everyone again. That's the only potion he must have had left after he used the lust potion on Malfoy. He couldn't make any others without help.

Ron nodded. "That does make sense, I've just remembered something. Pansy told me the Soul Expression was made wrong and it wasn't as strong as it was supposed to be. Which is why they were so shocked when Blaise announced he was the one who put it on Draco, he doesn't get potions wrong. Jason must have made a mistake. We have to go and let everyone know!"

With a glance between them, they ran to the door with the new information and to try and save their friends, not knowing it was too late. All their friends were long gone. They would all need a hero now.

Hermione cried silently as she changed into her red dress, muttering uncontrollably under her voice, "Where have all the good men gone? And where are all the gods? Where's the street-wise Hercules to fight the rising odds? Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed? Late at night I toss and turn and dreamof what I need. I need a hero. I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night. He's gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast and he's gotta be fresh from the fight. I need a hero. I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning 's gotta be sure and it's gotta be soon and he's gotta be larger than life."

Songs- "Apologize" is a single by One Rebublic featuring Timberland and "I need a hero" is a single by Frou Frou, the original was by Bonnie Tyler.

Fanfiction is by Faith Valconbridge. This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.