Later in the night, I was sitting on my bed with the curtains closed again, watching two dots labelled "Draco Malfoy" and "Abigail Silversmith" leaving Slytherin dungeon together on the Marauder's Map. They were headed for the piano room past curfew, a place and time that I had heard Malfoy refer to as "their hideout" several times before. I knew they were headed there, because I've been watching them like this every night, and I've seen them do this twice before. I couldn't be sure of what they were doing in there, in the dead of night, or even how I felt about it all. I decided to do something about it this time around.

I peeked out of my curtains and found the room quite still and silent; my roommates have all gone to sleep. I climbed out of bed and fetched the Invisibility Cloak from my trunk before tiptoeing out of Gryffindor tower.

I reached the corridor outside of the room at the same time they did. Feeling safe under my Cloak, I followed them into their hideout. Once inside, I walked to the side of the room that had no wooden bench in it. Malfoy closed the door behind us and cast a silencing charm on it.

Her voice still held no detectable emotion when she spoke, "To be honest, Malfoy, I miss the time when we were friends during the night, and complete strangers during the day."

Malfoy gave a small laugh before responding, "what? So now you're ashamed of being seen with me. Maybe we'll take turns with that."

She disregarded him and moved to stare out a window. Malfoy stayed by the door, watching her all the way. They were silent for a few moments.

He soon joined her at the window. "I don't want to miss saying goodbye when you leave again. In the last few years, there were times when I really believed you never existed. Like you were a companion that I had made up to cope with, well, you know."

She turned to look at him. "I wish I had made you up."

Malfoy looked at her with furrowed eyebrows. "Why do you say that?"

"For all we know, I probably did. I'm really good at making stuff up, and your hair," she reached up and touched his hair, "is of a shade I only ever see in made-up characters."

He gave her a half smile. "Now I think you're just avoiding my question."

She moved her hand from his head to his shoulder, then down to his left arm. Malfoy tensed up when she touched his forearm. I instantly sensed that everyone in the room knew what was hidden under the sleeve.

"I just suck at being there for people. I must be the most disappointing friend you ever had." I felt that she meant to convince him of it.

Malfoy shook his arm from her hold. "Nothing anyone could've done about it. Anyway, Voldemort's gone now. It's all in the past, just leave it there."

Abigail shrugged. "Funny thing about the past, Malfoy; some things could find their way back to you. Old friends, old enemies, old promises."

I reached for my wand, ready to do whatever would become necessary.

"And that's why we don't make promises that we can't keep," Malfoy reminded her.

"I'm a Silversmith, Malfoy. There are no promises that we can't keep. We make them, we keep them, or we die."

I tightened the hold on my wand.

Malfoy placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him, bowing to meet her eyes. "Promise me this then: come back to me one day."

"No."

"Don't leave, then?"

"No."

"Promise me… anything?"

She seemed to consider it for a moment. "Shall we exchange promises?"

Malfoy searched her eyes before asking, "What can I promise you?"

"Oh, I don't know. Stop being miserable? Get some proper sleep some time? Make better friends? Confess your feelings to a certain boy who-"

"Basically make a promise that I most probably can't keep?"

"No, just one that is slightly more difficult than others," she smiled brightly.

"And what will you promise me?"

"I'll let you have your proper goodbye before I leave; one that would probably put you out of your misery."

I struggled to stay hidden. My wand was already trained to blast her into oblivion.

Malfoy sighed. "I give up. I'll just stick to you and watch you disappear before my very eyes. You will not sneak out of my world when I'm not looking for the second time, Smith," he mock-threatened her before turning around and moved to sit at the piano. Abigail only smiled, eyes cast down. Was that sadness I saw?

Malfoy struck several tentative chords on the piano. She walked over to watch him. She put a hand on the piano.

"You can do fine without our friendship, can't you?"

Malfoy considered her for a bit. "You were always somewhat weird, but tonight it's something else."

"It's nothing. I just noticed that my magic in your piano is all gone."

"Of course. You have been gone for three years."

"It was supposed to stay in the piano as long as this place was ours."

"Well, it is, once again. What kind of magic was it anyway?"

"Just a silly protection from intruders."

"Oh, we had intruders, alright. Someone left a few stuffed dolphins in this room the other day." Malfoy then looked over to the wooden bench and then around the room. "And came and picked them up again, evidently."

An unprecedented emotion had flashed across Abigail's face at the mention of the stuffed dolphins, but she recovered with just a blink of her eyes. "Oh? Stuffed dolphins? Why would anyone have more than one of those?"

Malfoy shrugged again, "I guess they're kind of nice to cuddle with."

A smile, unbidden, found its way to his pale face. I unconsciously mirrored it.

But then I saw that Abigail was now thinking about something, and I had a strong feeling that she was thinking about the dolphins.

About Hermione, Ron, and myself.

Are we now another loose end to the Death Eater assassin?

When I finally returned to lying in my bed that night, I couldn't help but think back on something Abigail had said to Malfoy that had nothing to do with me at all: she had told him to "confess his feelings to a certain boy who"… Who?

Merlin, I have a Death Eater coming after my best friends' and my blood, but all I cared to think about as I fell asleep was the, for reasons unknown, relieving fact that Malfoy and Abigail were never the item I had thought them to be, and that Malfoy was in fact harbouring feelings for some other guy.

The next morning, before heading down to the Great Hall for breakfast, I pulled Ron and Hermione aside and explained to them how Abigail was now onto us.

"What are we going to do if she finds out that we were the dolphins?" at any other time, I think I might have laughed at Ron's question.

What are we going to do indeed. I turned to Hermione to find her looking worriedly between me and Ron. I turned to Ron and was surprised to find the calculating look on his face. I was once again reminded of how mature he had become since the war, and why he and Hermione managed to stay together.

But the illusion was almost shattered by his announcement. "We're going to confront her."

"Jumping into things like that was how we nearly got ourselves killed a few times before!" Hermione almost smacked him on the head.

"Well, what did you come up with?" he asked us defensively.

I honestly could not think straight anymore, so I held my silence. Hermione did too.

"I'm not saying we go charging into Slytherin dungeon with wands drawn or anything like that. And really, first of all, we don't even know for sure that they mean to kill Malfoy. Abigail never said so, and neither had that old man with the scary eyes. Taking care of a loose end could mean anything at this point."

I mentally smacked my forehead. Hermione only urged him to continue with his train of thoughts. "How are we doing this then?"

Ron brought a hand to his chin. By Godric, the NEWTs were really taking a toll on us. Hermione's asking Ron for a plan and he might actually come up with one, and I was obsessing over Malfoy like it was sixth year all over again.

"I better have my breakfast first." Ron announced in the end.

[Author's Notes]

By Salazar, what's going on here?!