Hey guys! How are you, my lovelies? Hope you're having a great day! Good gracious, I swear, if I get any more busy, I'll probably explode. I don't have a night off this week at all. Crazy! But anyway, sorry for rambling, you guys probably don't care about my personal stuff anyhow. (:

Thanks to Midnight Reader for the review!

Midnight Reader: Her dad did leave, so they don't know for certain that he's dead, but they can kind of assume he is, because they're sorta thinking either Voldemort and the other Death Eaters found him, or that he died on his own. Because all through her childhood, Voldemort was thought to be dead, so they thought that if her father were alive he would have returned to them by then. I really hope that makes sense because I'm not very good at explaining things at all. Lol. :P

Anywho, on to the fic!

Chapter 02-2

Secrets

My fifth year was a wreck. Death Eater twins, Alecto and Amycus Carrow (Flora and Hestia's distant family) became the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professors. I dreaded the class. We were all under very strict rule under Headmaster Snape, Draco wasn't even in school most of the year, and apparently Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley went to try and find and destroy Voldemort's horcruxes.

Finally, near the end of my fifth year, Draco came back for a while. I was so happy. But I was still so stressed out with school that I began to think... Why don't I just leave for a while? Go somewhere where I didn't have to worry about school. And Draco could come with me. It was perfect! Maybe slightly crazy, but perfect. So one afternoon, I went to the seventh floor to find him. I was sure he was in the Room of Hidden Things.

"I need to find Draco. I need to find Draco. I need to find Draco," I repeated to myself rhythmically, almost frantically. Pacing the wall quickly, I was starting to give up hope. Suddenly a door floated up from within the wall and I sighed in relief. I opened the door and stepped in quietly. I tiptoed around for a bit until I found him, sitting on an old raggedy cot, hunched over, his back to me, his head in his hands. I stopped for a moment and just looked at him. His white-blonde hair slightly tousled in the back, his spine showing through his shirt, his back steadily moving up and down with every breath he took. Every so often, he would take a large breath and run his fingers back through his hair a couple times. To me, he was perfect. I leaned against a large pile of junk and simply watched him think for a while. Until a large heavy book fell to the floor with a loud thunk. Draco jumped and spun around, drawing his wand with a face that looked ready for a fight.

Instinctively, I reached for my wand to ward off any spells before realizing I'd left it in the common room.

"Draco!" I yelled, crouching down to shield my head against anything he might cast at me.

After a few seconds of dead silence, I heard him drop his hands to his legs loudly.

"Tori, what in Merlin's name are you doing here?" he said exasperatedly.

"Well, I needed to ask you a question, and I figured you'd be here..."

"You figured right," Draco snapped.

I looked at him, surprised at his outburst.

"What's the matter, Draco?" I asked softly.

He ran a hand through his hair and looked away.

"Well, it's been a while, and I didn't want to tell you because... Well I don't know, but Pansy and I broke up last month."

"Oh," I said simply. I didn't know what to say, "I'm sorry, Draco."

"It's not a big deal, I'm over her anyway..." he trailed off.

Awkward silence for a while.

"What is it that you wanted?" Draco asked finally.

"Well… I'm leaving, for a while. And I was wondering, since you've been friends with me since I came here, if you wanted to come with me."

"Wait, you're leaving? Where are you going?" Draco leaned his back against the cot and put his hands in his pockets.

"I'm just... Getting away from everything. Snape's breathing down our necks, my O.W.L.'s are coming up in a few months, and I'm under a lot of stress. I want to just... Leave. We could go somewhere nice, and be completely free do whatever we want! Nobody ordering us around, or anything."

"Tori..."

"And we could forget about magic and spells and school and everything, just for a while, we could act like normal people for a change!"

Draco looked at me with an unreadable expression.

"So, what do you think?" I smiled at him slightly.

He shook his head slowly.

"I can't, Tori. I've got too much going on right now to leave."

My smile faded. But I wouldn't give up yet.

"Come on! Forget about everything here, and let's just go for a while."

"Tori, I can't go with you! I can't!" his voice was rising, and I didn't know why. But I knew something was bothering him outside of his and Pansy's breakup. The sun shone brightly through a window, almost blinding me. I squinted, struggling to keep my eyes from watering in the sun. He would think I was crying. Although I was worried he would get angry at me if I pressed on, I'd have liked to think that I wasn't one to break down easily in front of others anymore, even Draco.

"Tori, you can't just expect me to turn around and follow you wherever you go!" Draco said defensively.

"I don't expect that, I just want what would be good for both of us," my request started to sound more and more like a plead.

"You don't know anything about my life right now," his voice was suddenly cold and rigid.

"You have no idea what I've been through either! What I've seen!"

Draco's face softened.

"Then why won't you tell me?" he said softly.

I closed my eyes, taken aback by his gentleness. But then I saw the reason I couldn't tell Draco. I saw April's face. I saw the green flash of light and I heard her scream.

When I blinked open my eyes again, they were filled with tears.

"It's complicated," my voice cracked. I sounded scared-and vulnerable-like a little girl.

Draco just stood there and looked at me for a while. Then he reached up to my face, wiped a single tear that had fallen on my cheek with his thumb, and walked away, winding around piles of things, towards the front of the Room of Requirement.

Thanks for reading, lovelies!