Staring straight ahead into the red fire that nearly contradicted with the green of the Slytherin Common Room, Draco couldn't help but feel at a loss. The apple had successfully went from Hogwarts to Borgin and Burkes and back, but the bird...

When he held the dead bird in his hand, it's body stiff from where rigor mortis had already started to kick in, it's little sticklike legs sticking up in the air, an image Draco would never get out of his head. Draco had stared down at the dead bird, instead seeing his own body laying there in his hand. This is what it all boiled down to as he sighed in defeat, got caught, then heard a third degree from his godfather, Severus Snape, begging to help. He couldn't take anymore innocent lives, not Snape's on top of his mother's by failing. Instead he had pushed him away, told his godfather who had always been there to help him, to leave him alone. This task was assigned to him.

Now, as he watched the flames dance in a way he could only dream of dancing with Hermione once more, his heart breaking as he watched the flames intertwine as their legs once had, the heat of the fire reminding him of the passion they had held until Blaise sat down next to him, bringing him back to reality.

"What was that about mate?" Blaise asked, wondering about the supposed gate crashing at the Slug Ball. "You haven't been yourself all year and suddenly you gate crash the Slug Ball." It had been months since Draco had crashed the Slug Ball but Blaise hadn't had a chance to talk to him alone, Draco pretty much making himself unapproachable all year and Blaise couldn't lie, he missed his friend.

"What if," Draco asked distantly, "we are all just born to die?"

"You are seriously worrying me mate." Blaise answered, raising an eyebrow. "What is going on?"

Draco shook his head, his eyes not leaving the flames as he continued. "Wish I could tell you." He answered, rubbing his arm subconsciously. "What if...well, what if you had to break off part of yourself to save someone else?" He asked, trying not to give too much away. "Giving away the only person who has ever let you live so that they don't die?"

Blaise thought this a rather odd question, especially coming from Draco but concerned for his friend answered, "Well if its to protect someone I love then I'd do it. No questions asked. But thats kind of one tracked thinking don't you think? Theres always more than one solution to a problem. Always. So I would think that would be saved as a last resort."

"There are no last resorts," Draco answers in defeat. "Can't you see, that is the only way." He answered with a sigh as if he had already explained everything to Blaise that was running through his head, as he thought like he had been all year, nothing really making sense. "What if you knew you would fail either way?" He asked in questioning. "What if...what if every idea that this person threw at you, that they didn't know they had thrown at you but had, failed. What if they were the smartest person you knew and even they couldn't figure out how to make it work, even though they don't know what it is or that they are helping you?" He asked, his mind rushing.

"Mate your rambling a bit. I'm more than willing to help you with whatever your 'problem' is but you've got to give me more to work with. Right now you sound like your completely mental." Blaise said with a laugh, punching Draco in the arm.

"Yea..." Draco answers distantly, "Mental... Umm...What if...what if you had to let one person die to save others?" He asked quickly, trying to make it make more sense, "But you don't know how to make that sacrifice and no one else does either? What if the only person who can help you, you can't ask for help because, even though they used to complete you, now they don't even know you exist?"

Blaise sat back thinking about Draco's logic. "Well to answer your first question, the needs of all the people always outway the needs of one person. As far as asking the one person who can help you...if they used to complete you and now have no memory of it...I would remind them. Even if only for a short time in order to solve the problem. After that...whatever happens...happens mate." Blaise rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he remembered a time or two where he had to do what was absolutly necissary to succeed.

"That's just it." Draco answers, "They can't remember. The only way to get them to remember is to...to torture them and I can't do that to someone like that. You know that. What...wait Blaise! Your mother's a black widow..." Draco said finally in realization.

"Hey! Don't call her that! So what if she's had..." Blaise began to count on his fingers and when he had to start counting on his second hand, quickly shook his head and continued, "It doesn't matter how many...just don't call her that. What of it?"

"Nevermind," Draco answered, remembering that he still had the bottle of Rosemerta's mulled mead with Slughorn for Dumbledore. If nothing else worked, that would. Dumbledore loved mead, especially when it tasted like black licorice but he needed a back-up plan. "I have to go!" Draco exclaimed, having one last idea. "Crabbe, Goyle, follow me!" He hollered, jumping up as the duo did the same, following him.

As they left the Slytherin Common Room, Draco filled them in on what needed to be done. "I am going to go into that disappearing room that Potter used." He informs them, "You two are going to stand guard. Got it?"

Crabbe and Goyle exchanged glances, unsure of what Draco was getting at but, having never questioned his demands before, nodded their heads in agreement, standing outside the door that Draco opened. "No one comes in." He remindes them as they both nod their heads.

As Draco entered the room, he was reminded of the mission. The broken chairs that surrounded him, a pile of lost mittens, years of collection building them up with sweaters and scarves as well. Anything that had been forgotten with the years sat in the room. It a demented way, it made Draco feel at home, peaceful as he saw broken wands, held together by spell-o-tape, spineless books that with warped pages from rain. The room of fogotten objects, where Draco too had been forgotten. He walked the familiar path to the back of the room, standing in front of the cabinet that held his fate.

Dumbledore flew down to the Hospital Wing, having heard immediately of Ron Weasley's poisoning in Slughorn's living quarters, Snape following closely behind him as they rushed down the corridors.

"How long are you going to let this madness happen?" Snape asked coldly as he rushed to keep pace with Dumbledore. "Two students now, thanks to Malfoy. Why don't you just stop this?"

"Don't you see Severus?" Dumbledore answers, not slowing down as explained. "This is what he was meant to do. He has to kill me."

"He isn't killing you." Snape answers, "He is nearly killing everyone else in this school. He is dangerous. You have to stop him."

"I can't," Dumbledore answers, "I told him I would keep his mother safe if he helped me."

"Helping you by destroying a vanishing cabinet he would have to fix in the end?" Snape asked, even more confused. "Don't you see, you did nothing but made it harder on him."

"I bought myself time Severus." Dumbledore answers, "I am making him think, making him work it out for himself."

"And in the end?" Snape asks, already knowing the answer.

"In the end, it will be you Severus." Dumbledore tells him, "I trust you to do the right thing."

"Then why? Why all this?" Snape questions.

"Don't you see?" Dumbledore answers, "Don't you see what we did? Two people, two students who because of everything they are, everything they will be are supposed to hate each other. We took that fire, we turned it into something new. Two students who were supposed to do nothing but hate and dispise each other, are now both fighting against everything they have ever believed in to save one another."

"Granger doesn't even remember loving Draco." Snape answers.

"She doesn't have to." Dumbledore reminds him. "She will save him, whether she remembers loving him or not. Something in her mind still tells her he isn't able to kill me."

"But he isn't." Snape says in defeat.

"Precisely," Dumbledore answers, opening the door to the Hospital Ward.