"What?" Draco jumped to his feet as the shout echoed around the room. He hovered over his concerned mother. She gazed up at him with concerned eyes, praying for an understanding. Draco's golden eyes gleamed a fierce yellow, like a raging flame.

"We serve him, Draco," Narcissa said softly.

Draco whipped away, crawling his hands through his white hair and tugging hard in frustration. "But he has to come here? Here of all places?"

"The Dark Lord is inevitable. We do as he says as we have always done over the years. Our house is open to him as it is open to you."

"No." Draco shook his head, refusing to understand. He turned away from his mother again and shook his head more. "No, I won't have it."

"There's nothing we can do, Draco."

"When?" He asked sharply, still having his back to her.

Narcissa stood and carefully looked over her son. The boy had gotten taller since he had returned from school and she was just noticing. It was sign of growing up, a sign she didn't wish to see, but had to face. He was growing more mature, stronger, and more stubborn.

"When?" Draco asked again in a louder, more frantic voice.

"Any day now." Narcissa said, having to close her eyes to force out the words. "But your father says it will be a while until he shows up. Still… It means we…." She choked on her own words and Draco slowly faced her. "We can't acknowledge the fact of your inheritance next week…" Narcissa covered her mouth with the back of her slender fingers and turned away. Her eyes were wet and her throat was tight, obvious signs of breaking down.

Draco stopped. His tight nerves relaxed and he let out a deep, silent breath to cool down. He was expecting some kind of celebration for getting his inheritance on his birthday next week, but now he honestly didn't care. Their house, and the very brink of their family, had become a ticking time bomb. Something silly like a party for his birthday was out of the question. It hurt, being pushed aside yet again, but seeing his mother like this was worse than that pain.

"I don't care about that," he said between tight lips and looked away when his mother tried to return their gaze. "I just… don't wanna see him…"

Narcissa quickly stepped over and wrapped him in her arms. "I'm sorry, Draco…" She said in a hoarse whisper. Draco merely stood there as his mother apologized again and again for all that was happening. When she released him, he pushed his hair out of his face and exposed that rigid, won't-be-broken-look. Her eyes darkened, her faith returning in her son. "You can leave," she said and watched his eyes widen slightly in surprise. "For your birthday and any day after that, you may leave. Go with your friends, anywhere but here."

Now Draco understood. His mother was as terrified as him. He choked down the slight fear in his throat and nodded. "But," his mother continued, "if… if you are called back here… You have to come back… All right?"

"Yes, mother." He said solemnly and closed his eyes when she kissed him on the forehead. Once again, a soft and warm feeling wrapped around, comforting him with security and… a feeling he couldn't describe. He wasn't happy, but he was… more like accepting something that he needed. Comfort, he guessed.

He left the confided room after that, letting his mother stand in the darkness alone. Out in the hall, he spotted the row of three boys, all impatiently waiting for his meeting to end. Crabbe was on the right and Goyle was in the middle, the two people he was always stuck with. Yet, on the left was someone he hardly seen. Even thought Blaise was suddenly there, having shown up while he was talking with his mother, Draco didn't bother to question his appearance. He immediately stomr past the boys, knowing they would follow without questioning.

"So," Goyle snickered, "what did your mommy have to say to you-"

Before he could finish his question, Draco snatch him by the collar and shoved the heavy weight fiend into the nearest wall. He did it with one hand, one shove, and he didn't even meet the pig's eyes. "None of your bloody business!" He spat angrily and stormed faster away from them as if to get away from them for good.

"Did she say anything about next week?" Crabbe asked cautiously, keeping his words in line to not piss off the steaming white haired boy.

"Yes," Draco hissed and fixed his robe irritatingly. "Nothing's happening?"

"What?" Crabbe asked while he helped Goyle get to his feet and catch up to them. "Why not?"

"I don't want one," he lied and purposely turned to corner to a dead end.

"That's bullshit." Goyle said between rough pants and rubbed his sore shoulders. "We've been talking about causing hell on your birthday for weeks!"

Draco stopped abruptly, getting in both Crabbe's and Goyle's face fiercely. "Well, that's changed! Some things are more important…" His eyes glanced to Blaise uneasily. He hadn't said a single word since he showed up and the rock-hard, blank expression he held was unnerving to Draco. He whipped away and waved his hand in the air from frustration. "Get the hell out of here."

"What?"

Draco stopped ahead of them and pointed to the door at the end of the hall. "Out! I don't wanna see any more of your fugly faces!" It wasn't anything against his two 'friends', but he wasn't in the mood for their foolish talk. He couldn't think straight about everything that was happening; his inheritance coming up, having to face the Dark Lord, not seeing Harry, and what the horrible result would be if all things clashed together somehow. Plus, the way Blaise was looking at him made him feel like he was looking right through him.

He watched Crabbe and Goyle slump by with confusion and irritation, but, to his surprise, Blaise didn't move. Draco met his gaze fiercely to show that he wasn't in the mood for playing games, but once again the dark brown eyes captured him in a state of guilt and it made him even more frustrated. Yet, before he could yell again, Blaise approached him.

"It's about Him, isn't it?" Blaise said with a voice like smooth velvet.

Draco flinched, his first thought appearing on the brunette in the back of his mind. "What?" He asked with an unsteady voice.

Blaise glanced down at his arm and just gently pushed Draco's sleeve up. Draco followed where he was staring at and caught notice of the bandage wrapped around him forearm. Under the white cloth was the symbol, or the curse mark, of the Dark Lord; the deathly skull and cross bones being wrapped and constricted by a hissing snake. He had covered the mark ever since he received it. People questioned it, but he refused to remove the bandages. He hated to admit it, but he was ashamed. He couldn't live with being a servant and that mark was the absolute proof. But he was still hiding it.

Draco pulled his sleeve back down and glared harshly at Blaise. He was a tall boy with dark skin and hardly any hair. He wasn't really bad nor good, he gave off no actual presence of either, but he was cruel at times and belonged in Slitherin, that's why he was beside Draco. Draco knew he didn't respect him and wouldn't be a lackey like the others, but he was still around and he was unsure why. He was usually quiet, but the way he stood now, with his head held high like some African King and his dark eyes piercing like knives through him, was very unsettling to him.

"He's not something you should mess with," Blaise added and Draco relaxed a bit when he realized he was talking about the Dark Lord.

"What should you know about it?" Draco spat in a low tone, speaking under his breath.

Blaise shrugged in that professional way and snapped his robe casually as if rubbing in his face that he was neutral and not frightened by something like this. "I've been around the table once or twice," he said slowly. "And it's pretty obvious that standing in the way of something like that will get you killed. So why you gonna hide out here?"

Draco narrowed his eyes at him in a sharp glare. "Who says I'm hiding?"

"I do." Blaise shot back, coming back at him with just the same amount of fierceness in his tone. His dark eyes glanced behind Draco, then back at his irritated yellow ones. "The Draco Malfoy we know wouldn't miss out on a chance to create some hell. So who the hell are you?"

Draco slowly smirked. He was playing with him, a top-notch game that Slitherins seemed to like. He spotted Draco weakening and was trying to stand up to him like he was looking down on him, as if he was some stupid Hufflepuff. Draco shook his head just the slightest bit and whispered, "Pussy."

Something flickered in Blaise's eyes and he finally looked away from his sharp glare. Draco shook his head pathetically and glanced behind him. Crabbe and Goyle stood in front of the door, never having left since Blaise had spoken up. He saw the surprise and desperate look on their faces and Draco suddenly felt superior then them-then all of them.

"Well, if you guys are so eager to create some hell, then let's do it tonight." He gave Blaise's shoulder a shove and challenged him with a tense glare. "You're seventeen, aren't you, Blaise? You can use magic off of school grounds so let's go have some fun. Huh, what do you say?"

Blaise was clearly irritated. He stayed silent and gave a few nervous glances back and forth between Crabbe and Goyle in the back of the room and Draco directly in front of him. Draco shrugged and turned around to the boys behind him. "Well, if you're scared, we don't have to. It's just…you know, I'm not someone you should mess with very kindly." He purposely pulled up his sleeve behind his back to flash the bandage at Blaise again, merely to taunt him. "Right, Blaise?"

The sight of the bandage brought a different feeling to Blaise this time. He first used it against Draco to scare him, but now Draco was using it against him. He was practically threatening him with it. He came from a powerful family who served the Dark Lord. Draco wasn't stupid and he could even cooperate with the Dark Lord himself and that would be even worse than hell for Blaise. He was suddenly frightened by the sight of Draco, knowing the power he held and that maybe he wasn't so scared of it. Even though he was so thick shelled, he wasn't going to mess with something as powerful as that.

"I'll do it," Blaise said after a long pause.

Draco smirked at the words and pulled his sleeve back down. "Then let's go."

Crabbe and Goyle cheered and gave each other a quick high-five at the news. They were out the door in seconds, leaving it open for Draco and Blaise. The white haired fiend watched as the dark knight walked by him cautiously, but slightly unafraid. Before he passed, Blaise lowered down a bit to get in Draco's face and said, "It's all right to be afraid sometimes. You can follow it, you know."

Draco didn't respond. He refused any kind of reaction to come from the words. He held Blaise's gaze until he turned away and exited through the door. Draco paused for a moment, letting the words sink in and wondered just exactly what he meant by them. Then he silently shook he uneasy feeling away and followed them.

It wasn't long before the boys were out in the Muggle City, terrorizing about everything they could. They had no specific target, really; it was anyone who had the unlucky chance to walk by them. They sat on the roof of the tallest building in the town and gazed down at the pathetic humans. They were laughing hysterically, pointing at their next victim and trying to breathe.

"That one! That one!" Goyle said between pants for breath and pointed to a man on the sidewalk. He was in his mid forties and was carrying a bag of groceries.

"Okay, what should I do?" Blaise asked, rubbing his wand excitedly as he looked down on his target.

"The hair one! Do 'Calvario'!" Crabbe cried.

Goyle argued. "No, no, that'll be stupid. Try the other one, the one that-"

"No, 'Calvario'!"

Blaise snapped his head back from peering over the edge. "Hurry up! He's going to get out of range."

"Just do the hair one," Draco said calmly.

Blaise nodded when the others quickly agreed and turned back to the edge. The rest of them leaned over the gutter to watch as Blaise raised and flicked his wand. He shouted the spell, a simple line of two words and cracked the bolt of light at the man. As he was walking, the light zapped him silently and in a flash, all the brown hair that was resting on his head was gone. It fell off strand by strand, all at once and left a brown, staggered line on the sidewalk. What made the scene even more amusing was that the poor man didn't even notice and kept on walking as if nothing had happened. The boys crashed back on the slanted roof and howled to the sky with laughter. They kicked their legs, slapped the shingles under them, and shoved each other around until they could breathe once again.

"Ooh! Old lady!" Crabbe shouted.

"All right," Blaise said with amusement and pointed his wand at her. "How about the 'Colloshoo' one, huh?"

"Oh, yeah!"

Blaise cried out again and watched a ball of smoke pop around the old lady, although it was invisible to her. Her steps slowed quickly and she soon stopped all together. The rubber bottom of her shoes had suddenly melted into a liquid and stuck to the cement tighter than any glue ever invented. It stopped her in her tracks, making her stare in confusion and struggle to get free. As much as she strained and wiggled, she couldn't pull a single foot up and started toppling over like a fool. The boys cracked up again, becoming even louder this time and laughing longer.

Draco laid back on the slanted shingles and crossed his arms behind his head. "What's next?" He asked with his eyes closed from amusement.

The boys studied over the dark streets for a minute, glancing over sidewalks and open windows. "There's another old guy over there," Crabbe said after a minute.

Draco waved his hand in the air in an nonchalant way. "Nah, too boring."

Blaise almost gasped with excitement. "Little girl," he said with an evil gleam in his eyes.

Draco chuckled and nodded. "Oh, that's perfect. Do 'Bombarda'."

The others chuckled around him and watched as Blaise preformed another spell. The little girl couldn't be any older than eight and she was skipping through the park. She was beside a swing set and a bush when he flicked his wand. All at once, the bush, the swings, and the path before her exploded like a fierce firecracker going off. It boomed and sparked around her, making her jolt and scream in fright. She dashed the other direction instantly, her high pitch cry echoing through the streets and making the boys laugh even harder.

"Ugh, look!" Crabbe called and pointed to a moving car. "It's Ms. Deliria!"

"Who's that?"

Goyle explained, "It's this horrid, old muggle woman that used to turn Crabbe and me in for whatever she caught us doing. Got us in a lot of trouble, she did."

Blaise smiled and played with his wand like a professional admiring a golden trophy. "Then she deserves a good spell, doesn't she?"

The evil grins were passed around the circle as the harsh thoughts came into play. "Bombarda?" Crabbe suggested.

"We can't kill her," Draco snapped, sitting up slightly. "How about… 'Avis'?"

"'Avis'?" Goyle questioned.

Blaise and Draco shared a similar smirk and Draco nodded at him. "Do it."

They all watched closely, except Draco since he laid back down, while Blaise got to his feet. He pointed his wand at the house that the lady had disappeared into and focused hard. He pulled his arm around his head in a large swirl and then snapped it down at the house again, screaming the spell at the same time. In a flash, a huge flock of crows came dispensing out of his wand and flew down angrily to the house. It came out as a large puff of ebony black smoke that quickly took separate forms into the hundreds of birds. They were large and irritated birds that blended in with the dark sky and they swooped together down to the target. They came shattering through the windows and even through the chimney in a fierce dive-bomb. The boys couldn't see much except dancing shadows on the yellow-lit curtains, but they heard massive screams and cries coming from the house, along with shattering glass and breaking objects.

"Oh, man!" Goyle said with a devilish smile and high-fived Crabbe once again.

Blaise sat back proudly and looked to Draco. He was laid back comfortably, arms crossed behind his head, and the white hairs covering some of his face. There was a small smile on his face, one that was enjoying the music ringing in his ears from the terrorized house below. Blaise narrowed his gaze on him until he was staring at the bandages on his forearm. It wasn't until Crabbe spoke to him that he looked away.

"Hey, Blaise, how about we take this party somewhere else?"

Draco snorted. "Like where?"

"I don't know. A muggle's house. We could prank them good. They won't even see it coming!" Draco opened his eyes to glance at the chubby moron then rolled his eyes and closed his lids again.

Goyle went with the conversation. "Yeah, we could prank some stupid muggle that we could find easily…Like some Raven claw kids. I heard most of 'em live in the central part of London."

Blaise remained quiet on the conversation while Crabbe continued it excitedly. "Ah, or even better, we could get someone more foolish and open."

"Like Harry Potter!" Blaise watched in surprise as Draco's eyes snapped open immediately.

"Oh, that's perfect! We could-"

"No." Draco said tensely in tight lips. He sat up quicker than a bolt of lightening, his head hung low.

"But Draco-"

"I said NO!" Draco jump to his feet and stood on the edge of the gutter, refusing to meet their gazes.

"Why not?" Blaise asked curiously.

"It would be a blast to make his hair fall off!"

"Because I said so!" Draco snapped viscously in a harsh tone he had never used before. He sounded like a raging monster, a fierce and sharp tone that made everyone sit back-he sounded like his father. His hands were in fists at his sides, clenching with fury.

"But-"

"It's my party isn't it? So I'll say who we prank and I want it nowhere near that boy!"

"How come?"

"Because I don't wanna see his face at all tonight!" He whipped around, eyes flaming in pure anger. "Besides, I shouldn't have to explain myself to you two halfwits! So shut your bloody mouths."

They went quiet as they were ordered, but a wave of stubbornness washed over them. Their eyebrows pinched together and they glared slightly. "You've been hanging around him a lot lately," Goyle said tightly.

Draco flinched, but didn't let his superior wall fall for anything. "So what?"

"You don't hate on him as much as you did in the beginning of the year." Crabbe added in a low tone.

Draco glared. "What are you getting at?"

"You guys…" The boys seemed to hesitate now. "You seem like friends now."

Draco went quiet for a minute, staring deep into each one of their gazes fiercely. Blaise watched him carefully as he seemed to force out the words. "As if." He turned away again and said, "I came out her for you babies, but I'll make the orders. Plus, we don't even know where he lives."

"We could probably figure it out."

"I don't want to," he hissed. "Got it?" Both boys nodded silently, still with a look of agitation and stubbornness. "Good." Draco fixed his robe and ordered the dark knight that stood before him. "Send me home. I'm sick of you guys."

Blaise gave Crabbe and Goyle a tired look and shook his head slightly in a remark of recognition. He waved his wand simply and muttered the spell that vanished Draco from the roof and back to his house.

Once inside, Draco relaxed. He sighed heavily and ran his hands over his face exhaustedly. He couldn't really grasp everything that happened today. He was pissed about what his mother told him, about his new "job". He was irritated by his friends' foolishness, but ended up playing with them anyway. Although, he couldn't regret the night. It was as much fun as he had in weeks. He loved pranks like that, ones that caused people distress and confusion. It was amusing to him. That was a clear symbol of why he was in Slitherin. Still, the mention of Harry had set him off. Just when he was feeling right, feeling like he used to, superior and successfully cruel, the way he should feel, it all fell apart when he was brought up. He was the one who brought out the soft side of him, the side that he had received a large portion of from his mother. The side that didn't want pain but comfort, something he desired but his pride pushed away. Love.

God, he loved that boy. There was no denying it. That's why he was so upset. That's why he couldn't stand the thought of someone hurting him and having him be apart of it. That's why he cursed at the job he was assigned to do. He couldn't do it. Just saying a harsh word to him was painful enough to tear at his heart enough to make him scream in pain. He couldn't do something like Goyle and Crabbe wanted to. They were such idiots.

And Blaise. He was so otherworldly, so neutral, so different. He challenged Draco when he least expected it and made him almost frightened. Then, he said something so queer to him that he taken aback for a second, even though he didn't show it. "It's all right to be afraid sometimes. You can follow it, you know." What the bloody hell did that mean?

Then it hit him.

Harry.

Harry was what made him so frightened. Not what the brunette said or did, but just him in general. Hurting him, being separated from him, losing him, they all frightened him more than his job. And Blaise was saying… Draco smiled as he stood alone in the dark hall. So Blaise knew all along. That sly bastard. Draco started to strut to his room proudly with a wide grin. 'Follow it.' Follow your fear. He partied today instead of his birthday. He had permission to leave and he had a magical way to leave this house without an adult and without breaking the magic laws. If Harry was his fear, then he was going to damn well follow it.

"Thank you, Blaise," he muttered under his breath as the brilliant plan formed in his head. Through a nearby window, he could see the dark night and the cloud covered sky. The reason it was so dark upon the world was that some heavy clouds were covering up the surface of the moon. It blocked the bright silver lights that were trying to get through, begging to be revealed and meet the surface. Just like Draco. But not anymore. He was breaking out. Whether others liked it or not, he was going to see those beautiful eyes that shined like the silver rays from the bright moon above him.

Hehehehe. Even though I thought this would be the hardest chapter to deal with, I actually finished it really quickly. Hope you like it. Review and tell me what you think.