A/N: All right, guys. I'm back and I have this post for you, and it's kind of bad, but I like it. So here it is and I hope that my readers come flocking back after my disappearance.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter.

"Kill me now," Adrienne groaned as she lay on the sofa in the Slytherin Common Room. She ran her fingers up the leather sofa. She'd forgotten how the leather felt. The furniture in her house was all soft. Her dark hair fanned out under her head as she looked up at the ceiling of the common room, the floor of the upper floors. She shut her dark eyes for a moment as Draco walked to her and kissed her lips swiftly. "That wasn't killing me."

"Well, I could use you as practice," he said. Adrienne's eyes opened and she looked around. They were alone. Although, she knew that Draco was smart enough not to say anything like that while they were in mixed company. She swatted his arm, and he picked up her feet and set them on his lap. "What am I supposed to do, Andy?"

"What he told you to do," Adrienne responded. His cool fingers touched the exposed skin on her legs sending a chill up her spine.

"Thank you, Adrienne," he said through gritted teeth.

Sensing that he was clearly distressed, Adrienne sat up and met his grey gaze. She chew on the inside of her lips before speaking. She had to choose her words carefully as of late. Everything either upset him or pushed him into a completely different world. It was hard to get him back from either of those places. "You're supposed to do what you can do."

"That's not enough, Adrienne, and you know it," he snapped his grey eyes leaving her brown ones.

"Are you saying that you can't kill him?"

She regretted asking the question as soon as she posed it. That was one of the topics that was off-limits in the conversations that they had about the assignment that the Dark Lord have given to Draco. Never was she to question his ability to carry out the task. Adrienne's brown eyes grew large as he roughly pushed her legs off his lap. His grey eyes were steely and his pink lips were pressed into a thin line.

"Draco, I-"

He silenced her by lifting his hand. He was gazing off into the dying fire. He didn't seem to be breathing, and he was chewing on the inside of his lip. Adrienne opened her mouth to speak, but decided against it. So she waited in silence.

"I'm going to pretend that you didn't say that, Adrienne," Draco snarled after a long moment. "Do you understand that?" Adrienne nodded. "Good."

"Draco, I-"

"It's forgotten, Adrienne."

Adrienne sighed and leaned back against the back of the leather sofa. Her dark eyes were focused on the dying fire. She knew that she shouldn't have said that. But it was just a question. The only reason that he would have gotten so defensive was if it were true, and it wasn't true was it? This was Draco Malfoy, he could do anything. Or at least that's the way she saw it.

"Can you?"

"Adrienne."

"Do you think that you can't?" she asked, pushing the topic further.

"Adrienne." His voice was slightly louder than it had been before.

"You think that you're going to fail him?" She hadn't realized how loud her voice was in the empty room until it echoed.

"That's enough, Adrienne!" Draco shouted as he stood suddenly. His voice engulfed the common room and echoed loudly in the silence.

But Adrienne wasn't going to give up. "You think that you're going to fail. You think that you're going to let him down." She was no longer asking him, she was telling him. She took a step towards Draco, her dark eyes meet him grey ones. The fury in him eyes almost cooled her angry, but not quite.

"Shut your mouth, Adrienne," he snarled.

"You think that you're going to be some-" Draco's hand suddenly reached out to her and clamped down on her wrist. Adrienne stopped short. He was cutting off the circulation in her arm, her fingers were tingling. He wasn't looking at her anymore, it was almost like he was looking through her. "Draco," she said slowly. "Draco, let go."

"You crossed a line, Adrienne."

His grip on her seemed to get tighter. "Draco, let me go. You're hurting me," she told him as she tried to release his hold her.

He eyes met hers and the raw emotion - whatever it was - silenced her. "You are to never speak to me that way again," he snarled as he released his hold her on. "Is that understood?"

"Yes."

Draco walked by her roughly and up to his dormitory. She'd been stupid. She knew that she couldn't say those things to him and not get something in return. But she hadn't expected that. He could have said horrible things to her and called her names and that wouldn't have hurt her as much as his chosen course of action. She looked down at her wrist. There was nothing there yet, but she knew that in the morning there would be five finger sized bruises on her arm.

"Malfoy!"

Draco turned in the direction of his caller. He recognized the voice as Blaise's. His pale hands slipped into his pockets and he waited for the male to get closer to him. "Blaise." Draco's calmness was not appreciated and Blaise swung at his face. Draco stepped to the side, just in time to avoid his friend's fist colliding with his face. Blaise's fist hit the wall behind his head. "What is wrong with you?"

Blaise looked as if Draco had asked what color the sky was. "You know what you did," Blaise growled.

"I must say that I don't know what you are talking about."

"To Adrienne," Blaise clarified.

Draco's hands clenched in his pockets. "Is she alright?" he asked.

"If you consider being bruised alright," Blaise seethed.

"Bruised?"

"She said that you grabbed her."

Draco looked startled. He hadn't realized that he was holding her that tightly. Vaguely he remember her saying that he was hurting her, but it was so distant that he didn't pay much attention to it. He hadn't actually meant to injure her. He never wanted to injure her, but after she started yelling questions about his incapability at him, he just need her to shut up. He never meant to hurt her, that was the farthest thing from his mind.

"Where is she?" Draco asked, trying to keep his voice calm. She'd hate him for sure now.

"The common room," Blaise told him. Draco started off towards the common room, but Blaise stopped him. "I don't care who decided that you two were to be married, just know that if you every lay another violent hand on her again, you won't live long enough to see a wedding. Got that?"

Draco nodded mutely and walked off towards the common room. The walk was short, he'd been exiting potions when Blaise caught him. Draco had been wondering where she was all day. Adrienne was very good at avoiding him. He didn't see her at breakfast, even though he knew that she was there. He hadn't seen her in class and he just assumed that she was just skipping class, although that was unlikely for her. He muttered the password and a door appeared on the wall and opened.

"Adrienne," he called to her. She was the only person in the common room. He startled her, he knew because she jumped and her quill fell to the floor. "I'm sorry, I startled you." She nodded and pointed her wand at her quill and it flew to her hand. "Adrienne, I never meant to hurt you."

The girl closed her book on her quill, grabbed it, and stood. Her brown eyes feel on him, and without saying anything to him or even a second glace, she walked away and to the girl's dormitory.