"What's wrong with your face, Longbottom?" Draco asked curiously.
Neville grimaced. "Haven't you heard about those blasted Carrow twins?"
He nodded, and then a look of surprise crossed his face after a moment. "Please don't tell me they're at Hogwarts?"
"Well, you asked about my face, didn't you?"
Neville stopped them abruptly following a few minutes of silence. "Listen. I don't know why exactly you're here...but we're about to go in. So just tell me one thing."
Draco nodded.
"Are they alive? Harry? Ron? Hermione?" he ran a pale, bruised hand through his hair.
"Yeah." He gulped. "They are."
"Were you with them?" Neville inquired.
Draco ignored him, and instead opened the portrait door, and climbed outside. Expecting a small, empty room, he jerked up at the sound of sighs and gasps erupting around him.
"Where the hell are we?!" he exclaimed to Neville, ignoring the large group of people behind him.
"Room of Requirement." Said Neville calmly. "This is where we have to go if we don't want to be caught by Snape...or worse, the Carrows..."
"What the bloody hell is he doing here?" another voice called out. Neville turned around to see who it was. "I've been asking that question, myself, Seamus." He grinned.
Before Draco could respond however, a flushed Ginny Weasley ran into the room, followed by a laughing Fred and George.
"It's not him, Ginny." Said Neville.
Ginny's face fell, before she directed her attention towards Draco. "You!" she screamed.
"I believe we've met, Weaselette." Draco muttered, shifting subconsciously towards the portrait hole. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea...
She lunged herself at him, and he backed away. "WHERE ARE THEY? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" She pulled her wand out of her robes, and stabbed at his neck.
He instinctively shrugged her off. "I'm here because of them, you red-headed..." his sentence trailed off, as Ginny pinned him to the wall by his arms. "Why aren't they with you then?!"
Fred and George, who had seemingly magically appeared out of nowhere, pulled her back. "Calm down, Ginny, I'm sure the tosser has something to say!" Fred joked, yet a serious glint wavered in his eyes.
"I'm here because they needed to get here." Said Draco. "I'm here because I was the only one that knew how. I'm here because I'm here, damn it!"
The crowd before him murmured softly after his words.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go."
He stalked towards the door of the Room of Requirement, with a determined expression on his face.
"Oi, where the hell do you think you're going?!" a voice said behind him. Draco turned exasperatedly to see a tall boy glare at him defiantly. Dean grabbed him by the shoulder. "We'll need an explanation first."
"I'm not explaining anything to a room of bloody Gryffindors." He said sharply. "I'm leaving."
He suddenly felt a sharp rap on the top of his head, and the feeling of cold water trickling down his back. "What the-" he started.
"Disillusionment Charm." An apparently, Ravenclaw girl said shyly. "You don't want to be seen."
Draco blinked. "Er...thanks..." he looked down at himself and gasped at the sight of his now camouflage-like appearance. For the first time, he looked around the room. A large group of students were gathered there, watching him silently. And with that, he exited the room; swearing under his breath. 'Where the hell am I supposed to go?" he chided himself. 'They mentioned something about basilisk fangs...and Horcruxes...whatever the hell those are...'
He found himself walking down towards the dungeons, where both Snape's office and the Slytherin common rooms were located. 'Where am I supposed to find that...are they bloody-'
"Ooof!" A boy exclaimed in front of him. Draco froze. "I'm going effing nutters..." he said.
Draco looked up finally, and relief washed over him. "Blaise!" he shouted.
Blaise looked around worriedly. "Who is there?!" He pulled out his wand.
Draco sighed. "Can't you recognize me by my voice, Blaise?"
He backed away slowly, still pointing his wand in front of him.
"I'm under a Disillusionment Charm, and I don't know how to-"
He felt another sharp tap on the top of his head. And then Blaise gasped so loudly, he clamped one of his own hands over his mouth. He engulfed him in a bone-breaking hug. "I knew you weren't-!" he stopped himself suddenly.
"What is it?" asked Draco.
Blaise looked over his shoulder. "Not here. There are always eyes watching, these days."
He furrowed his brows. "Where are we going?"
"Slytherin common room. Then we can talk."
With yet another rap on the head, Blaise led him further down the corridor, where a blank portrait faced them.
"What happened to-"
Blaise shushed him quietly, and muttered something under his breath. The portrait opened, with a strange creaking sound following after it. He motioned him into an almost empty common room.
"Didn't you just leave us, mate?" said a voice to the right of them.
Draco turned to see Theodore Nott lounging on a grey couch by the fireplace. 'Still as reedy as ever, I see...'
Blaise grinned. "I got caught out by Snape." He lied. "Guess I'll head up to bed..."
Once both Blaise and Draco were comfortably situated on Blaise's bed, there was a momentary silence in which they both simply stared blankly at each other, as though neither of them knew where to begin.
"Why are you here?" Blaise responded finally.
Draco sighed, for about the millionth time that night. "I never killed Her-...Granger." he said instead.
Blaise chuckled darkly. "I already assumed that, Draco. You're not a killer. Why are you here?" he repeated.
"To find something." He answered cryptically.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
Another exasperating sigh. "I don't know."
"You need to go back." Blaise said firmly.
Draco raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
"You need to go back." He repeated. "It's not safe here, I thought you would know that-"
"If I was worried about safety, d'you really think I would have come here?"
"Look, I don't know how or why you came here. But, you need to go back."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Just trust me."
"I'm not here for me!" Draco whispered as loudly as he could. "There's an effing war about to go on, in case you hadn't noticed!"
"I knew it." He said quietly.
"What, now?"
"You're on the run with her aren't you? And you came back? Why?"
Draco looked astounded, but Blaise only chuckled. "You're fairly predictable, you know...or at least to me."
"I'm going back." He said suddenly.
"What? You just got here!" there was a mix of amazement and admiration in his voice.
"You're right. I need to bring them back. Without them...the light..."
"Have you gone loony, mate?"
"The light won't ever be..." he fingered the glass shard in his pocket as his voice trailed off.
"I'm going back." He repeated, getting up from the bed.
"You can't just go out there like that! Any minute now, they'll come back. They mustn't know you're here." Blaise whispered.
"What, can't they-" Draco started.
"No." he interjected. "In fact..."
Once more, Draco felt the cold, wet sensation down his back. "I'm getting tired of that, you know, Blaise."
His mouth turned up a bit at the corners. "It's nice to have you back, Draco." He paused. "But I hope you know...Hogwarts isn't as it used to be."
Draco nodded ominously. "I know."
Author's Note- Why, hello there. I hope you've prepared, because it's Harry's birthday today! And J.K. Rowling's of course. The creator of this wonderful world I happen to write fanfiction for. I didn't get him a present, but I did draw a portrait of him. If only it were a moving portrait. Ergh. My Hogwarts letter is longggg overdue. By, the way, I hope you liked this chapter. But never mind about that, that's irrelevant. What we should be really concerned about is the fact that Harry is now 33 years old. What. What?!