Hello everyone,

Thank you everyone who reviewed. I love them. I look to you to keep this story on my mind nonstop.

I don't own HP-I wish I did-I would've knocked those rodents out of the box office (G-Force beat HBP...You believe it?)

I shoved the letter into my pocket as Draco entered his room. My hand gripped it so hard that I could hear my knuckles crack.

"What are you two doing here?" He asked walking closer to me, examining the room looking for anything out of place.

I moved back surreptitiously, to close the drawer without Draco noticing. "We were just dropping in. I came to get a few of my dresses. Kim wants them for... a new design. I saw some that could give her some ideas."

"You're a terrible liar, you know that?" He said narrowing his eyes with his mouth in a tight smirk. He looked at Kim interrogatively. "Are you going to tell me the truth?"

Kim looked at me. I glared back at her warningly. At first she looked shaken by both of our menacing stares, but then she must have thought that mine was a bit worse because she crossed her arms and rolled her eyes at Draco. "I've got designer's block. I need some inspiration."

"Okay," He growled at her, "How about the truth now?"

"Maybe they are telling the truth young Master Malfoy."

We all turned to the door. My father was standing there filling the frame with his tall stature. He looked calm enough, but his eyes glowered at me.

I stayed in the back as the four of us made our way down to the dining room. I held a hand full of dresses just to keep up appearances. My mom was sitting with Draco's parents whispering angrily at each other. They all turned around quickly as they caught sight of us.

My mom looked like she was hyperventilating as she made her way over to me putting her hands on my shoulders. "Darling, what are you doing here? Aren't they supposed to be at school?"

"Yes, but it appears as though they've broken out. I'll report it to Dumbledore as soon as they get back."

"Yeah...we were just-" Kim began. My dad cut her off.

"Kids will be kids. I'll send them back now." My father said smiling softly at my mother.

He then pushed the three of us out of the kitchen to the front hall. He handed each of us a handful of floo powder. Kim went first hurrying to get away from my father's subtle glares. Draco shook his head at me as he dropped the dusty blue ash down. I was about to go when my father stopped me.

I opened my mouth but he knew that I was about to lie through my clenched teeth. He put his hand up and I clamped my mouth shut.

"Don't. We've already been through this Emma. I don't care why you were here or what they were doing here with you, but whatever it is, it doesn't change anything. We had a deal remember?"

I clenched my jaws tighter and nodded. Gently taking my arm back, I stood in the fireplace. Without looking at my father I said. "Hogwarts," and dropped the floo powder.

The flames ignited, gulped me up, and pushed me out into the dark common room. Draco, Cody, and Kim were standing there waiting for me. I tried to walk past them, but Draco gripped my arm.

I didn't say anything. I wanted to yell and scream, but I was paralyzed. I simply took out the letter and placed it in the hand that wasn't draining all the blood from my arm. "The truth." I offered angrily.

He dropped his hand and glanced down at the half crushed letter before bringing his stony orbs back up to capture mine. "Don't act like you didn't see this coming." He muttered as he tossed the papers into the fire.

"Yeah, sure. Of course I foresaw that I would have to murder Harry Potter's best friend. That was so obvious to me." I shot back sarcastically.

He turned away futilely. I watched as the sides of the parchment curled up and blackened in the flames. Deja vu. The orange and red flames danced in a way that I remembered well. I dreamed about it enough. My first solitary moment with Draco.

"You act like you're not a Slytherin like the rest of us. You're no different, Emma. If you ask me, you're the vilest person in this room. Evil's in your blood."

"Is that a fact?" I scoffed crossing my arms tightly against my chest. Each word was a new blow to my already constricted chest.

When he turned back to me, his eyes were cold and distant. I almost staggered back with the dejected look he gave me. "We start tomorrow- mornings, evenings, and all your breaks. You've got a lot of material to catch up on."

He then went up to the boys' dorm. I listened to the slam of Draco's door and jumped slightly. Inhaling deeply, I tried to relax my tense body. It didn't help at all.

"Em, look we just-" Cody began.

I shook my head and walked slowly up to my room and slammed the door. There was always some inkling of hope that I could find a way out of it. I wanted to pretend that I was just biding my time. That I would be okay, and that maybe I wouldn't be an heir, wouldn't be a Death Eater. I didn't have the Dark Mark. My arms were still bare. I curled up into my bed and stared at the glass openings. The squid swam past with idle contentment.

Right at that moment, everyone had my back against a wall. It was this way or no way. Now this thing with Hermione... What was Draco thinking? That he would kill Hermione himself? Knowing Draco, that's probably exactly what he was planning. I groaned and pulled my bed sheets over my head, forcing myself to sleep.

Tears ran down my face. I looked around the dark room. I saw lots of figures, but they seemed to be shadows instead of people. They seemed to grow. They towered above me, lurked at my shoulders. I didn't know why. I shook my head in frantic confusion. My breath was stuck in my lungs. I forced it out with a ragged huff. "No..."

"Yes." Someone hissed behind me.

"I-I can't."

I looked back to see nothing but a giant slimy smile. "Well then..."

I turned back around. Figures were now surrounding me. One figure I recognized. His short platinum blond hair could be spotted anywhere.

Blue shots then came at me from every direction.

I screamed myself awake. I jolted up, sweat perspiring my entire body. "Draco." I whispered in a mute voice. I shot my eyes up.

Kim sat up in her bed watching me with careful eyes. I sat up and got ready to go see Draco.

"Are you okay?" Kim asked in a casual voice. She was probably freaking out about me screaming her awake, but I was thankful that she didn't mention it. She didn't seem to mention much to me.

"Fine, but you don't really care."

She looked at my reflection as she brushed her black curls in the mirror. "Emma, really. The only reason we didn't tell you is because we knew that you weren't going to do it. Tell me one good way that Draco could have told you to kill off one of your best friends. Tell me how he could have gotten you to agree and not go blabbing to the enemy."

"Is that why he made me his girlfriend?" I asked sourly.

"...No...Well, not anymore."

I stood straight up from my trunk to look at her. "What?"

"Well, it was Pansy's idea first. She thought it would be helpful if you didn't hate him completely. So, at the ball, she made you jealous and said it would make you want Draco more. So, at the ball he kissed you. I honestly didn't think that you would actually go out with him, but you did. It was going better than any of us thought so..."

"Wait, wait, wait. You wait till now to tell me this. Pansy wanted me to go out with Draco? Seriously? You were in on it the entire time."

"Noooo. She doesn't know that you two are together. She knows that you two are friends-well sort of. Basically, she thinks that he's using you to make you go through with it. She makes a mockery out of you on a daily basis." Despite the amusement playing on her lips, her onyx eyes were hard.

I was so lost that it wasn't even funny. Sure, being a laughing stock of the Slytherins was simple enough. "So, Draco got a letter telling me to kill Hermione. He knew that I wouldn't go through with it so he thought that snogging me would change my mind. And he came up with the idea with the help of you and Pansy. But now, I've found out about it so what now?"

"He told me that he might not even tell you. He was thinking about doing it himself. He could always say that he tried to take on the murder himself and say that you didn't even know about it, but since now you do... If the Dark Lord sees into your mind and sees that you defied him, you'll get an Unforgivable for sure."

I didn't respond. Why would Draco want to risk his own arse for me? I had no idea. She walked into the bathroom and began getting dressed. I did the same, but I decided not to meet Draco. Instead, I went straight to breakfast.

I took my old isolated seat at the edge of the Slytherin table and waited for Draco. He would obviously go looking for me when I didn't show up in the dungeons. I saw Pansy with her usual gang of girls. I smiled brightly at her, showing all of my white teeth into a tight fake grin; the wig she was wearing was faker. The candle had been enchanted. I supposed she was having a bit of trouble finding a potion that would help her hair grow back. Her smirk widened. She whispered something to one of her friends and the girls began laughing uncontrollably.

I snickered mockingly and turned to the door. Knowing that everyone was controlling my every action disturbed me. Knowing that I had what Pansy wanted most, knowing that she had handed it right to me, brightened up my day. Draco stood there scanning the hall for me when his eye caught mine. He kept his grey eyes on me as he took a seat across from me.

"Good morning!" I said with false cheer in my voice. "So, who are we killing today?" I asked loudly. Too bad the Hall was already too loud for anyone to hear me.

"Are you completely insane?" He hissed leaning over the table.

I leaned closer to him so that our faces almost touched. There was a shift in my lower abdomen that made me really uncomfortable. Whether it was how much of a bitch I wanted to be today or if it was how hot Draco looked with his glare plastered on his face, I really didn't care. Either way, I wanted, and needed, to subdue it. "I'm as sane as you are delusional. You actually think that I would-"

He glared at me, so I sighed and changed the subject. I looked across the hall. I saw Hermione hit Ron on the head and his twin brothers began laughing. I didn't even notice how warmly I began smiling.

Draco saw my smile and frowned. "For a person who has to kill their best friend, you sure are cheery. What are you planning?" He asked with skepticism in his tone.

I smiled wider and leaned in close to him. I glanced at Pansy and watched as her grin slipped off her face to be replaced with a scowl. I looked back into Draco's stony eyes. "Why don't you tell me… Scheming behind people's backs is what you do best, isn't it? Like this fake relationship. You wanted to get on my good side right?"

His mask only faltered for a moment. His taunting smirk found its way back to his lips. "Of course, love. I would think that I would want to be on my girlfriend's good side anyway. But let's get back to the point, shall we? You were supposed to meet me this morning."

"Yeah, I just have to get adjusted today. We'll start tomorrow night. Umbridge is watching everything."

"I'm on her Inquisitorial Squad. We're not going to get caught." He replied with an as-a-matter-of-fact tone.

I sighed. "Do you really think that I'm just going to out and kill my friend just because you asked me to."

"No..." I raised my eyebrows in surprise. Then he added, "I expect you to do it because the Dark Lord says so."

I frowned and took a bite out of my toast. I chewed slowly as he gave me that petrifying stare. I focused my eyes on my plate and tried to figure out a way out of this. I couldn't think of anything at that very moment. Despite my father's words, I still wanted to end this. I didn't want to kill Hermione. I didn't want to kill anyone.

"Emma, how about we just start with the basics? We'll learn the spells first and go from there."

He narrowed his eyes as I thought for a moment. "I can live with that." I decided. I still wasn't going through with it- he could forget about that- but I might as well get him off my back for a while.

He kissed my hand before tossing his bag over his shoulder and heading off to his first class. As I headed to mine, I tried to mentally picture myself actually killing Hermione. In every scenario, I was sloppy and it ended up with me dead, Hermione was clever. "The brightest witch of our age", they called her.

Hermione came in right behind me for Magical Theory. I sat by her quietly and took out the essay we had to write on whether or not we believed that 7 was the most powerful number and explain why we thought so. I chanced a glance at her.

She turned to me, eyebrows furrowed in deep thought and murmured. "So, I was thinking about it... and after some consideration and a talk with Harry, we think that I was being a bit too hasty the other day so... well... here."

She slipped a coin under my book. I looked at it curiously for a moment and watched the numbers change. "What the-"

"You were right. You're our friend and we should trust you. We do trust you. So, welcome to the DA. Meet me in the Crystal Passageway tonight. Come alone. And please don't mention this to Draco." She whispered as our teacher began the lesson.

She slipped a map to me with color coded passageways. With that, she didn't say another word to me. I frowned a little as I tore my eyes away from her and began working.

My insides turned into tight knots. 'We do trust you.' I felt like I was going to throw up. I took a deep breath and tried to focus on my work. I had to stop Draco.

That was the plan. Whatever it took, I would stop Draco from going through with this. It was ludicrous. Who did the Dark Lord think he was, ordering school kids to kill their classmates? How well did he think that would go over? Suddenly, I sympathized with Cody.

After class, there was a break. I sat in the courtyard knowing that Draco was going to find me. Before I even had time to say hello, he pulled me into an empty class room on the fifth floor. It was large and dusty. There were hardly any desks, so I guess that Draco had cleared it out already. I watched him curiously.

He put a silencer on the door and stood on the other side of the room. He held his wand out pointing at me. "First spell, Incendia Extraho."

He flicked his wand and a massive dragon made of all fire came at me. Its jaws snapped and blew more fire out of its flaming mouth. A monstrous roar echoed off the ceiling as it descended on me.

My first instinct- scream. I ran to the edge of the room as the dragon grew with every inch that it closed between us. I pulled out my own wand and recited the only water spell that I knew. "Aguamente." I screamed quickly.

It seemed to singe its tongue, but it really didn't do anything.

"Draco!"

The creature disappeared as Draco lowered his wand. I glared at him and watched the charred floor hiss from the heat. "You should've used the Madidus spell- Madidus Somnium."

He demonstrated sending a continuous blast of water, soaking a wall in the process. He turned around and stared at me as if he was waiting for a question. I gave him one too.

"What the hell is your problem?" I asked slapping him on the arm.

"Hermione's resourceful. She'll have a dozen water spells to come back at the fire dragon. That's why you need to learn more spells. You have to be ten times as clever as she is. Given the chance, she would kill you to protect those she loves."

"Draco..."

"No, don't even say anything. You haven't got a choice. You're going to learn this... whether you like it or not. It's enough grief that you put people through. I really don't want to think about it when the Dark Lord kills you because you're so thick. Now, try the spell."

Reluctantly (so reluctantly), I blinked my eyes and trudged to the other side of the room. Then, I repeated the spell that he just used to singe the floor. He just folded his hands and smirked. "Incendia Extraho."

Nothing happened. I said it again. "Incedia Extraho." Nothing. Draco chuckled with his usual smirk and walked over to me.

He touched my hand and walked behind me. "Lesson two- key hand movements." He moved my hand to make the spell successful. I sighed after ten minutes of practicing the same spell.

"Draco, how about a break?"

He didn't respond. He simply sat in a desk by the window. The candles above lit the deserted classroom, so the curtains were tightly shut. I pulled up a chair at his desk and looked straight at him. "This is hard."

He smirked. "You think this is hard, just wait till you're conjuring up souls. You'll swear you've gone and died yourself."

How could he possibly talk about dark magic as if it was nothing? He said it as though it was an everyday occurrence. For him, he probably was. "Draco is it really necessary to use dark spells. From what I know, the Fire Dragon isn't supposed to be used by students."

"You need to learn spells that will make it harder for Granger to heal. Dark curses are the best way to do that. So if she gets away, you can always go back another day and finish her off."

"Merlin, Draco." I looked down at the table. I knew the sloshing in my stomach was from the vomit that was rising up into my throat, but I continued on sourly. "Draco, Kim told me that you were planning on killing Hermione yourself."

"Kim has a big mouth."

My eyes flickered up to his. Brown on blue, and I hoped that he could see the pleading in them. I hoped that the boy who genuinely cared about me would make an appearance. I couldn't take very much more of this conniving Draco Malfoy, this plotting Death Eater to be. He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Yes, I was. So?"

"You can't kill her."

"You, me, Crabbe, Pansy- any way it goes, someone's going to get her. It's not like Ginny or Arthur Weasley- where Voldemort can just let it go. He knows she's a major part of Harry. They're practically joined at the hip."

"You can't." I begged. It was a futile attempt at best. How had Draco gotten me tangled me up in such a mess?

He almost seemed to give in. His eyes wavered studying my features. I wondered what he saw on my face because he glowered and recomposed himself into a stiffly. "We should get back to work."

"This is going to end badly." I stated standing up. I clenched my jaws and circled around him once, taking my position again.

"Not if you do as you're told."

I tried the spell again. A baby dragon appeared, slightly charring the floor.

"Whether or not I do it... it's a moot point." My dreams flashed in my mind. "Something bad is going to happen." Draco came closer to me and showed me how to wave the wand again. "What if the Dark Lord doesn't get the chance to kill me? What if I fail... and Hermione kills me?"

I doubted that that would be the outcome, but the words shook me all the same. I lowered my wand and faced him. His eyes were troubled. His eyebrows knit together with an emotion that I didn't quite recognize.

"You're not going to die. I promise." His eyes softened as he said it.

I looked at him. The way he was acting, I could truly love someone like him. But I would never love Draco. He was unpredictable, cruel... unreasonable, unrelenting... It was a horrible testament, but there was no other way to say it. I lowered my eyes and approached him with determination. "Your mood swings are giving me whiplash."

I dropped my wand onto the desk and pulled his head closer to me. Without any hesitation, I pressed my lips to his in one breath. He easily fell into my deception. There was bliss and guilt as I pulled him in. It was so easy that it was sad. I was quickly realizing that I could play the game as well as anyone. I knew that in the end, I'd get burned. Draco was playing on my feeling to get what he wanted. Well, I could do the same. I could pretend to be smitten with him for my own selfish gain. For now though, I was the fire, raging uncontrollably and burning anyone and everyone to get what I wanted.

He stood with me tasting my lips. When he pulled away, he seemed to get a look at me and he pulled me in for again. The need in his eyes were so strong, I was frightened. If he wasn't pretending, then he was a damn good actor. I couldn't help but respond. It seemed automatic to me. I sighed as he broke away and hurried away to my next class before I started to believe what his body language was telling me.

A/N- You guys rock so hard. R & R.