Hey, guys! Time for yet another chapter!

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Chapter Ten

The next morning, I sat apart from my friends as they babbled and ate their breakfast. I couldn't bring myself to even put something on my plate, let alone eat. My mind was too focused on other things.

I was going to get caught. Potter saw me. He suspected me.

I didn't know what to do. The only thing I had left to kill Dumbledore was some poison, but I couldn't use it yet. The security around the Headmaster would be raised considering that someone tried to give him a cursed necklace, and if that poison failed, I would have to do it personally.

The owls and other messenger birds squawked as the entered, the same cream-coloured bird from the day before landing in front of me. I gently unhooked the letter from the owl's leg and gave him a piece of bread, taking a deep breath of preparation before opening the letter.

As I suspected, it was from Father, and hidden under the code, he was very angry:

How could you fail? We trained you well enough. You passed every test.

I understand that you might still be feeling the effects of the weeks before school, but I expected you to be recovered enough by now.

You have enough time to try again before they come, but if he's not dead by then, someone else will do it for you, and trust me, you will not like the results if that happens.

Father

I slowly lowered the letter onto the table. My hand was shaking uncontrollably. I had to kill Dumbledore and fix that Cabinet before they came. If I didn't, I was going to die.

After that morning, I only returned to the Great Hall for a few minutes to create an alibi before disappearing to the Room of Requirement. For weeks, the Room was the only place I went during breaks in the school day.

I skipped every meal, and only ate enough to dispel my hunger pains. I spent my time doing something more productive than eating, and I planned on continuing the morning of Weasley's first Quidditch match as Keeper. That is, until my friends said that they noticed me absences.

"Now, you're coming to breakfast, and you're eating at least a piece of toast," Pansy ordered as we left the common room.

I didn't say anything. I knew I needed to eat, but I couldn't bring myself to. I was too worried about the Cabinet and my plan to kill Dumbledore. I had to do both, and I only had so much time to do so.

"And you're coming to the match, as well," Blaise added while Crabbe and Goyle ran ahead to the Great Hall. "No sneaking off. One of us will notice."

My friends forced me inside the Hall and into a seat at the Slytherin table. I waited for them to be distracted enough with their conversations and food before I slid down a place. I should have worked on the Cabinet and ignored my friends, but Pansy and Blaise were watching me and would have probably noticed if I had left.

"Hey, Malfoy!" Crabbe laughed, hitting me in the shoulder to get my attention. "Doesn't Weasley look ridiculous?" he laughed gesturing towards the doors of the Hall.

The redhead stood awkwardly at in the doorway, looking scared to death in his Quidditch gear. The gear was clunky and a little to big for him. He was terribly pale and looked like he was on the brink of losing his breakfast before he even ate it.

"Yeah," I fake chuckled. "Ridiculous."

Crabbe returned his attention to his food and mocked Weasley with Goyle for the remainder of breakfast.

After a while, the students started to file out to the Quidditch pitch, and I took the opportunity to slip away, but before I could, Blaise caught me by the back of my collar.

"Oh, no you don't, Malfoy," he laughed. "You're coming to the match."

I groaned as he dragged me off with the rest of the crowd.

I sat as rigid as the cold air on the frozen stands, the deafening cheering of the audience blending into nothing but white noise to fit the whitened surroundings.

It was winter and almost time for Christmas break. I would have to go home to my father and tell him my failures in person, and who knows what they would do to me because of those failures. They might "train" me again. I couldn't go through that for a second time.

"Can you believe it, Malfoy?" Crabbe shouted. "Weasley won the whole match! He blocked every single shot!"

Glancing down to the Quidditch Pitch confirmed what he said. Hundreds of students of every House-except Slytherin-were on the field, lifting Potter and his friend above them and shouting in celebration.

"Yeah," I mumbled distractedly. "It bites."

I quickly rose and left with the other members of Slytherin House, trying to put as much distance as possible between myself and my friends, so I could escape and work with the Cabinet some more. It worked well enough, and I was able to slip off to the Room of Requirement. I was almost done. Just a few more spells, and the pathway would be repaired. After that, all I had to do was test it. It wasn't enough to fix the path. I had to be sure that it could transport life. I would be an even bigger failure otherwise.

I spent the rest of the day in the Room. It was the weekend, so we didn't have class, and no one cared that I was absent for the day. That was proven when I left the Room and joined the other students just after dinner. The rest of Slytherin House, including my friends, asked me how I enjoyed dinner and complained about the Quidditch loss. They didn't even notice that I had left.

The last thing I needed was time spent with people who didn't care, so I slipped off again and retreated to the Astronomy Tower, leaning over the railing and stared at the ground far below.

"I might just pitch myself off of the Astronomy Tower if I thought I had to continue for another two years."

While everyone else was either celebrating a win or complaining about a loss, I was left with nothing. They had their marks to worry about, and in a way, so did I, but in my case, both a pass and a failure meant death.

I tapped my father's ring against the metal railing, the clanging echoing though the night. It was supposed to make him feel close to me, but I felt the opposite. I had no one, and based on my last correspondence with my father, I didn't have him either.

This is the beginning of the darkness for Draco.