AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here you go another chapter for you lovely people.

DISCLAIMER: Still don't own Harry Potter.

"Leaving without saying good-bye, are you?" she asked as she leaned on the wall beside her. Draco turned to face her. Her dark hair was pulled into a ponytail, and she was dressed in a black silk pajama set. Her arms were crossed across her chest. She was attempting to look angry, but it wasn't working, she just looked tired. Draco dropped his small bag on the floor with a soft thud, and she walked into his arms. "That's not really fair, is it?"

Draco exhaled, "Sorry," he apologized. "I have to go mend the cabinet." She huffed against his chest. "The sooner I leave, the sooner I can get back," he pushed. She huffed against his chest. He pulled away from her in an attempt to leave, but he couldn't. He really couldn't leave her, not when she looked so innocent. Of course, she always looked innocent. Well, her eyes always looked innocent. Draco sighed. "Do you want me to stay?" he asked her. Her eyebrows lowered; she was weighting her options. Finally, she shook her head. "I can stay until you fall asleep." She shook her head. Draco leaned over and kissed her. "You never told me what you wanted for Christmas," he told her.

Adrienne pulled on his black tie, straightening it, "I don't know," she shrugged.

"It must be lucky to have everything you want," Draco teased.

"What about you?" she questioned.

"I don't know," he responded.

"You know that makes two of us that have everything," the dark haired girl joked. "Come back?"

"Be here?" he asked her mimicing her two word sentences. He watched her play with the ring on his finger. "I'll come back tomorrow night."

"Christmas eve?" she questioned.

"Yeah," Draco rubbed the back of his neck. "My mum gave your mum the is Pureblood Christmas party this year, since our Manor is..."

"Got it," she interrupted. "So I'll see you then."

Draco kissed her again, savoring the taste of strawberry on her lips. She always tasted or smelled of the fruit. It had easily become his favorite fruit.

"Bye, Adrienne," he said as he grabbed his bag and left.

"Adrienne," Blaise drawled. His sister turned her dark eyes up to his. He was leaning on her door frame looking highly annoyed. "You really need to come out of this room. You're going to go crazy."

"Is she still here?" Adrienne seethed. Blaise nodded. "Well I will not be coming out of this room."

Blaise sat on a chaise lounge in her room and sighed. "Adrienne, you can't do this," he told her. "You can't play the rebellious, angsty teenage girl right now. I know that you hate her, Adrienne. I'm not too fond of the woman myself. But Adrienne, we all make sacrifices. All of us. Yours will have to be getting along with mum, just until we go back to school." Adrienne sat on her bed looking out the window. "Andy," Blaise said, using a nickname only for him and Draco. She turned her eyes to him. "Please, just until the Party, then Malfoy will be here, and you can hide all you want, but pretend you like the woman. She's your mother."

Adrienne sighed, as Blaise stood and left her room. As much as she hated to admit it; he was right. She hated it when he was right. Adrienne brushed her bangs from her eyes and hopped of her bed. She then walked out of her room and down into the kitchen, where she knew she would find her mother. Blaise was sitting on a chair at the counter and looked up at her as she entered the kitchen. A few of the elves bowed to her, and she nodded in acknowledgement. Her mother looked up from whatever she was writing to face her.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked her mother.

"Is it fixed?" Bellatrix squeaked.

Draco closed the door of the cabinet and nodded. "It's fixed."

His aunt walked to the cabinet and circled it once before smiling broadly at her nephew. Her teeth were stained. Draco looked away from her and at the mended cabinet. This meant that he was this much closer to killing the headmaster of Hogwarts. He was that much closer to pleasing the Dark Lord. He would be praised as the killer of Dumbledore. For the corner of his eye, he could see Bellatrix talking to Greyback, the werewolf. He'd never felt comfortable around Greyack.

"The Dark Lord will be pleased with you," Bellatrix mused. "We shall go and see him now."

Before Draco could say anything, he was being pulled through an extremely tight rubber tunnel. His chest was on fire and his eyes felt as if they were going to explode. His feet then landed on hardwood flooring in a very dark room. Draco's eyes adjusted to the lighting and saw that it was his home that Bellatrix had taken him to. He exhaled slowly and then looked up. Before him stood, none other than, the Dark Lord himself.

"My Lord," Draco said, bowing his head.

"Malfoy," the Dark Lord drawled. "To what do I own this unscheduled visit?"

"Draco's mended the cabinet," Bellatrix shouted.

"Has he?" The Dark Lord mused without looking up at him. "When shall the deed be done?"

"Sometime in late June, My Lord," Draco drawled coolly.

"Very well," the Dark Lord replied. "You are dismissed."

"That was that worst thing that I've ever had to do," Adrienne snapped at no one as she collapsed on to her bed. Her cat jumped on to the bed beside her and rubbed against her. "You understand, don't you Lilac."

"I would love to know what you're going on about," a voice drawled.

Adrienne rolled off her bed in surprise, almost crushing her cat the process. Before she stood up, she drew her wand. "Draco," she growled through an exhale. "You complete asre." She dropped her wand and then fell back on to her bed. An amused Draco walked over and sat beside her. "I've had the worst day." She closed her eyes, and Draco kissed her softly. "I had to talk to my mother." Draco snorted; she could feel his lips still close to hers. "It was horrible." Draco kissed her again. "What are you doing here?" she asked, opening one of her dark eyes to meet his grey ones.

"I had something to tell you," he drawled.

"What would that be?"

"I mended the other cabinet, it took less time than I thought it would." He kissed her again. "So I'm done a day early. My parents aren't even at home. The Dark Lord had taken the Manor over."

"So you want to stay here?" she asked, opening her other brown eye.

"Do you mind?" he questioned.

Adrienne closed the gap between them and kissed him. "I don't mind." She lay back on her bed and closed her dark eyes again. "Did you visit him? The Dark Lord, I mean."

"How can you tell?" he questioned, lying beside her. She rolled over and buried her face in his chest.

"It's written all over you face," she said into his shirt.

"I did," he said, running his fingers through her hair, down her back, and then back up. "He just asked when I would do it."

"And you said?"

"The end of June," his fingers had stopped running through her hair, and were knotted in the ends of her hair.

"Draco, Draco," she said pulling his hand from her hair. "That is still attached to my head." She crossed her arms and his chest, placed her head on her hands, and met his gaze. "What's wrong?" she questioned after a moment.

Draco looked away from her and let his hand come to rest on the small of her back. "Adrienne," he said slowly. He looked down at her and sighed. "I can't do this."

Adrienne was silent. She'd never thought that she would hear Draco Malfoy say that he couldn't do something. He'd always been the one that she assumed could so anything. When he said that, something in her world died. However, she knew that he had a difficult task. He had to kill someone that he'd knew since his first year. The woman that Adrienne had killed was just some woman, that the Dark Lord had tortured. That woman was nothing compared to Albus Dumbledore, most powerful wizard in the world.

"Draco," she said slowly. "It's okay."

"Adrienne, it's not," he got up quickly and Adrienne rolled on to her back and looked at him as he paced. "Adrienne, if I don't do this, kill that man, he'll kill me. He'll kill my mother. He'll kill you, Adrienne."

"Me? Why me?" Adrienne asked, startled by his statement.

"You're family," he told her. "Since the night that we became betrothed. I can't break an arranged marriage. We have to go through with it, so you are family. He said that if I don't kill him, he'll kill my family." Adrienne blinked stupidly. She hadn't thought of it that way. He was right. They couldn't break an arranged marriage. Is that why- "Adrienne," Draco called to her. She looked up at him as she rolled over. "You're not here with me. What are you thinking? Distract me."

"Is that why we," she paused trying to find the right words.

Draco sat down in front of her and touched her cheek. "No," he responded, without her finishing. "How long have you been thinking that?"

Adrienne rolled her eyes and sighed. "Since a few weeks after that Hogsmeade trip."

Draco sighed. "No," he said again. "I know it looks that way, but Adrienne if I didn't care about you, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"But-"

"No," he said for the third time. "Adrienne, I care about you; I always have," he told her. "If I didn't I wouldn't talk to you the way we talk. You wouldn't know me, if I didn't care about you, Adrienne." He looked away from her. "This had nothing to do with our engagement." Adrienne's eyes flicked over to him. That was the first time that she'd heard him call it that. "I had plans on pursuing you anyway. Blaise just didn't like it. " Adrienne scoffed.

"Honest?" she asked him.

His grey eyes met hers. "Honest."