Mm I get high with a little help from my friends

Mm gonna try with a little help from my friends

"Um, Harry" Hermione began, from behind him "I read the note… and I, well… I think I know who the impostor is"

"Who?" He asked getting up, spinning around, and grabbing her by both shoulders, all in one swift motion "WHO Hermione?"

All eyes in the room where on her, and she seemed suddenly to be very aware of that. He shook her gently, and she nodded, steeling herself.

"It is wise to keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. Someone in your circle is not who you deem him or her to be. Find this impostor, and it will lead you to me. And be careful who you trust, Ava learned that lesson far too late" She quoted "Ava's body was a warning, and now she's mentioned in this note as well…. and there is only one person she has trusted lately, just around the same time everything started… I think the impostor is"

"Jasper" Harry said, finishing her sentence.

"What?" Elliot and Ron said.

"Jasper" He repeated, knowing Hermione was right.

"Jasper came to you claiming he just knew Ava had been taken because of her suspicions the night Chloe went missing" Hermione continued "and the only way anyone could have found out about what was said that night was if someone who was there said something. We know none of us here did"

"Jasper wasn't at the table with us when Landon got poisoned, come to think of it" Ron joined in after a few seconds of silence "Do you think he had anything to do with it?"

"It is probable" Harry said, running a hand through his hair.

"Harry, my boy" Elliot said "What do we do now?"

"We find him" He replied, brain kicking into gear "Elliot, I need you to go to Landon's house and alert him of what we suspect. Tell him to go to the Ministry with this information"

"Certainly, but what about you?

"The three of us are going to Jasper's apartment. We will bring him to the Ministry, and if he is not there, we might be able to find clues that will help us"

"Tell me where he lives; I imagine other aurors will want to help"

After Elliot was gone, Hermione reached for the boys' hands. Together, she apparated them to the outside of Jasper's apartment.

Pain; it was her first and, thereafter, constant sensation as she slowly regained conscience. Her body had never hurt like this before, so much that even breathing became agony. She opened her eyes ever so slowly and waited for them grow accustomed to the dim light so that she could look around. She dared not move, so her field of vision was very limited, but she could see the canopy of a bed right above her, bed side tables to either side, and a window to the left. She was not in the dungeons… and Draco didn't seem to be here with her… so, where was he? Was he okay? Was… her body hurt, breathing hurt, thinking hurt. She closed her eyes again, hoping to fall asleep and escape the pain but somewhere a door opened with a bang and she sat up. Pain ripped through her body like a knife on fire, and she collapsed back on the bed as she shrieked in pain.

"You shouldn't move so fast Chloe" A male voice, far off, told her "Your body will need time to rest from last night's events"

"Ed... Edward?" She whispered, letting out another yelp.

"Yes, my dear" His voice responded, much closer now.

She opened my eyes; he was standing to her right and looking down at her. He was holding a tray that he soon set aside on the bed side table. Grabbing a goblet from the tray, he sat down next to her.

"Can you sit up Chloe? I have a potion for you, to help with the pain"

It took her a few tries, and Edwards help, but she finally managed to sit up. She stared at the potion with suspicion before finally deciding to drink it; her body hurt so much whatever he gave her couldn't possibly make things worse.

"Very good" He nodded as he watched her drink it "You will feel much better in just a few seconds"

He was right; it didn't take long at all before the pain vanished almost entirely. She took a deep breath and stretched her sore muscles.

"Where is Draco? Is he okay?"

Edwards's eyes squinted in anger for the briefest of moments.

"He's back in the dungeons, where he belongs. He's in worse shape than you, oh much worse…"

"What have you done?" Chloe asked, and he raised an eyebrow at the venom in her voice.

"The same we did to you, but for longer" He stopped to give her a sick smile "When father told us to take him away, my brother and I tortured him a bit more…"

"You are monsters" She hissed "Take me to him, now"

"Now Chloe, what kind of monster would bring you a potion to help with the pain? And what makes you think that you can just demand I do things for you?! Need I remind you of your place?"

"Fine, I'll go to him myself" She said, pushing the covers away.

She didn't make it very far; in a swift motion, Edward was sitting over me, pinning both of her hands to the bed.

"Get OFF ME" She yelled, trashing underneath him.

He laughed.

"Oh Chloe, you are far more entertaining than I could have ever hoped for. I will take you to him" she stopped moving, and he grinned "In time… I told you last night that we weren't done, but you didn't last very long under the cruciatus curse, so now we will make up for lost time"

Chloe tried to fight back as he continued to pin her body against the bed, planting kisses on my neck as he traced his way to her mouth. When his lips touched hers, she cringed and bit his lips with all the strength she could master. She tasted blood as he pulled back, cursing loudly.

"You shouldn't have done that" He said, freeing one of his hands and slapping her in the face.

The force of his slap was so strong it slammed her head against the pillow, and she tasted more blood. Her cheek was warm and stinging, her eyes full of tears.

"Don't do anything foolish again" He warned her "I will not hesitate to use my wand"

He lowered his lips towards her face, but the door busted open again. He straightened up and turned around; Chloe didn't bother to look at the new arrivals.

"Get up Edward, now" Isla said in an icy tone "get away from her"

"Mother, what are you doing here?" Edward asked, heatedly "Can't you see I'm busy?"

"I will not let your hormones get the best of you. That girl does not deserve to be touched by the likes of us. Get up, now. I will not say it again"

It took a few seconds, but Edward eventually got up and left the room, without a second glance Chloe's way but with an irritated look at his mother.

"Take her back to the dungeons, Jasper. And see that she stays there" Isla commanded.

After Isla left, Jasper walked to Chloe and helped her get up. She was weak on her feet and almost fell over, pushing him away when he tried to help her balance. They began their walk back to the dungeons in silence, as he watched Chloe from the corner of his eyes. She was hunched, looking almost deflated, and she had one hand over her cheek, which was very red.

"What happened there?" He asked, tilting my head towards her.

"What?" She replied.

"Why is your cheek red?"

"It's nothing" She said, moving her hair over to cover her face from me.

"Chloe" He said, stepping in from of her "What happened?"

"Let it go Jasper"

He reached for her hand and pulled it away. The handprint on her face was still perfectly visible.

"Who hit you?"

"One of your bloody friends" She snapped, pulling her hand back and storming past him.

"Edward?" He asked, catching up with her.

She nodded, and Jasper felt his hands turn into fists.

"I'll see to it that he never touches you again" He promised.

"Why do you even care? You killed Ava, that's much worse than a slap on the face"

Her words were as if she has slapped him on the face as well, but she had a valid point.

"That's what I thought" She said rudely "You don't bloody care"

They had made it to her cell by then and he reluctantly opened the door. Before she stepped in however, he grabbed her hand and turned her around.

"I did what I had to do Chloe, for our cause" He began "But Edward hurting you had nothing to do with what we are trying to accomplish. Evil for the sake of evil is wrong"

"You are bonkers, don't even pretend to care or that you are a good person. You are a monster, just like the rest of them"

And she snapped her hand from his, marched inside the cell and never looked back. He closed the door and left, anger dangerously boiling inside of me.

"You are back" Narcissa said, from her seat next to Draco "What happened to your face?"

"Never mind my face, are you both okay?"

Narcissa nodded positively, her eyes still on my Chloe's. Draco grunted from the bed, looking pale but otherwise unhurt.

"How is your body?" She asked him, sitting on his other side.

"Sore" He replied "I hurt allover"

"I did too, until Edward gave me a potion. I wish I had some for you… is there anything I can do to help you?"

"You can start by answering mother's question. Who slapped you?"

"I don't want to talk about it"

"Chloe Lewis" Draco said in a sternly "Who did that to you?

"Will you just drop it?!"

"You know I won't, might as well tell us now"

"You are infuriating"

"Yes, you have said that before"

She stared down at him angrily, and he met her eyes with equally angry ones, though she knew he wasn't mad at her. She also knew he wouldn't let it go, no matter how long it took for her to tell him, so she did. His face grew darker and angrier as she told them what had happened this morning, including what Jasper had said.

"If we ever get out of here… I'll make him pay for hitting you…" Draco vowed "For so much as touching you. If Isla hadn't shown up…."

"That's very nice of you" She acknowledged "but I'll deal with him myself. And I don't want to go there Draco. Narcissa, have you rested any?"

"Not much" She admitted.

"Go rest, I'll watch over him"

"I'm not incapacitated, Chloe" Draco protested "No one needs to watch me"

"Get some sleep Narcissa, I'll wake you up when we get something to eat" She continued, ignoring Draco.

"Thank you dear, sleep will be most welcomed"

"Oh, so I'm invisible or something now?" Draco whined.

"Oh, just grow up Draco" She replied, not unkindly "Although it would be helpful if you were invisible"

"A wand would fix that" he said, leaning down and closing his eyes "But an invisibility cloak would work even better… I don't suppose we have one of those lying around here, do we?" He said sarcastically.

"Don't be absurd Draco" Narcissa replied.

"Yeah Draco, don't be" Chloe began, but stopped midsentence.

"Chloe, not that I'm not enjoying how stupid you look with your mouth open like that, but you are starting to creep me out a little. What is it?"

"An invisibility cloak" She whispered, mainly to herself.

And then she was up, racing past the beds and towards the chest that held the few change of clothes they had, including her Ravenclaw blue cloak she was wearing the day they were taken. She pulled everything out of the way, throwing it over her head, reaching for her cloak at the very bottom. When she finally found it, she sat down and reached inside the right side pocket.

"Chloe" Draco said, as both him and Narcissa towered over her "How is your arm down up to your elbow in that pocket?"

"Undetectable extension charm" She replied "Hermione casted it for me months ago; it is quite helpful. Found it"

"Found what?" Narcissa asked, as she pulled her hand out.

"Chloe… is that?" Draco asked, eyeing her hands as if she were holding something unconceivable.

"Harry's invisibility cloak" She replied with a genuine smile "Ready to be truly invisible Malfoy?"

"You had this the ENTIRE time we have been here?" He said, nearly yelling.

Chloe's expression changed from excitement to annoyance in the blink of an eye and next to him, Narcissa cautioned him.

"Do you realize we could have gotten out of here weeks ago?" He asked.

"Draco" Mother cautioned again; this time louder.

"I forgot I had it Draco. I placed it there after we took care of your father's Veritaserum and things kind of took an unexpected turn afterwards" Chloe said, angrily "In case you don't remember, we were attacked and kidnapped after a long and stressful day and a lot has happened since"

"We had plenty of down time Chloe!" He said, his voice growing louder with every word "You should have remembered it; we could have escaped already…. And Ava, your best friend could still be alive if we weren't stuck here in the first place"

"Draco Malfoy" Narcissa said sternly.

As soon as those last words left his mouth, he knew he had gone too far and immediately regretted having said it. It was true, or at least very likely, that Ava would be alive now if they had escaped but her death wasn't Chloe's fault, even if he had just suggested that.

Chloe sat by the trunk, still as stone, looking at him with the angriest look he had ever seen in a person. And then the tears came, her body shaking as she held the cloaks so tightly her hands were turning white. Without a word, Chloe stood up and strode past them but right before she reached the loo she turned back around and stopped right in front of him. Draco saw it coming, but he was too late stopping it. Her hand hit his face with a strength he wouldn't have expected from her and the noise of the impact echoed in the otherwise silent room. When he looked back up, she had already disappeared inside the loo.

"I am most disappointed in you Draco" Mother said, making her way to the loo after Chloe "You owe her an apology, and you better make it a sincere one"

"Are you certain they know?" Alastair asked.

"Yes Master" Jasper replied, sitting across his desk. They were in Alastair's office at the Malfoy's Winter State, alone in this meeting "I have placed protective spells in my apartment to let me know of any intruders, and those went off earlier today. Potter and his friends were there, still are as a matter of fact…. They suspect me; they must have finally understood your clues"

"Wonderful" He said, a small smile playing on his lips "We are drawing closer to the end, to Potter's end. Delightful news Jasper, you have served me well"

"And will continue to do so, Master"

"That you will. Send an owl to Lucius and tell him to be at the Ministry today. And assemble everyone else at once, it is time we have a meeting"

They had been at it for hours, looking into every single corner of Jasper's apartment and all his belongings, but they had found little of help. There were some letters from his family, whom Liam had left to contact, and a copy of Ava's first few drafts but nothing else in the apartment was personal. The more they searched, the more it became clear the whole place was nothing but support for his cover as Ava's boyfriend.

"Harry" Ron said, his upper body visible as he leaned in from the hallway "Hermione is back"

He stood up, leaving Jasper's small office as he followed Ron back to the living room.

"No luck with the owl" Hermione began, sounding upset "It knows it's being followed, no matter how we tried to deceive it. I'm sorry Harry, but it will not take us back to the sender"

"It's okay Hermione; it was a brilliant idea anyways. We haven't had much luck here either"

"Mind if I look around?"

"Go ahead. Any news from Liam?" I asked Ron.

"Not yet"

They dispersed as Hermione headed to look over Jasper's books. Ron sat next to her, and Harry sat on the couch to go over some papers he had found in a drawer. Thet were busy at work for another ten minutes when Liam stepped out of the fireplace, a grave look on his face.

"The letters from his family are not real" He said "Jasper's parents died when he was three and he has no other family"

"But then, who…" Ron began.

"Wrote those letters? We haven't figured that out yet but I did find something else" Liam replied "Jasper's father used to work for Cromwell Ink. When he died, Jasper was taken in by Royston Turner"

Ron, Hermione, and Harry shared a brief look before turning to Liam again.

"We should go see him in Azkaban" Ron said.

"Landon is already on his way"

"We should go see Isla" I said "Her brother seems to be involved more deeply than we first assumed, and she might be hiding something"

"But Harry" Hermione interjected "We already interrogated Mr. and Mrs. Cromwell"

"So, you suggest we do nothing?"

"Of course not, but we should try a different approach. If they are hiding something, they managed to trick us the first time but if they don't know we are onto them…."

"You are suggesting we spy on them?"

"Precisely"

"It might just work mate"

"We should go to the Ministry. We need to bring it the head of the department and Kingsley for a meeting, before we decide on anything"

"I'm going to meet Landon in Azkaban" Liam said "We will come meet you at the Ministry when we are done"

Narcissa and Chloe were in the loo for a very long time. Narcissa tried her best to calm Chloe down, telling her Draco didn't mean what he said and that Ava's death wasn't her fault but no matter what she said, Chloe knew deep down that Draco was right. If they had escaped, Ava wouldn't have been captured, tortured, and killed. She was responsible for Ava's death, in more ways than one and the weight of that realization was threatening to overtake her. Narcissa tried to get her to come back to the other room, but Chloe was not ready to face Draco just yet, to see the accusation in his eyes. Eventually Narcissa left, telling Chloe on her way out to call on her if she needed anything. Chloe managed a weak reply, and then was left to her own misery.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner came and went untouched by her. Narcissa brought them in, and later came back to find each tray intact. She tried talking to Chloe, reasoning that going without eating wouldn't help a thing but her body had all but shut down. Chloe did manage to shower and change, if anything to get rid of the dress, which smelled faintly of Edward's cologne. Hours later, she was finally giving in to fatigue when she heard a knock on the door. She didn't respond, but the door opened nonetheless and in came Draco, looking uncharacteristically nervous. He walked over to the wall Chloe was leaning against, and silently sat down next to her. If the silence between them was uncomfortable, she was too tired to notice but she up had tensed the moment he came in and he seemed just as nervous.

"Will you believe me if I say I'm sorry?" He began, breaking the silence "I shouldn't have said what I did"

"You spoke the truth"

"We don't really know that Chloe. Even if we had escaped, they could have gotten to Ava before we could have alerted her"

"They tricked her because she was my best friend; her entire involvement in this is because of me. It is all my fault Draco. You were right"

"You had no way of knowing Chloe; it isn't really your fault"

"But it is"

"I shouldn't have said what I did; I don't believe you are to blame. I was angry, and it was wrong of me for taking it out on you. For that, I'm sorry"

She looked at him for the first time since he had walked in, in utter disbelief. This was a softer, nicer side of him she had never really seen before and, to be honest, it was slightly disconcerting. Some of her disbelief must have showed because his famous grin crossed his face for the briefest of seconds.

"Mother talked some sense into me" He began "Not that I really needed it"

Chloe rolled her eyes at the last part, but didn't interrupt him.

"She made me realize it isn't right to purposefully hurt a friend, and she also said I need to do better at controlling my anger… None of this is your fault Chloe, or Harry's. Neither of you asked for this, it just happened because of who you are. This isn't easy for me Chloe, apologizing and"

"Realizing you actually have feelings?"

"That's a tad harsh, don't you think? I've always had feelings"

"Just not the right ones"

"Maybe not, but I'm trying to do better. Ever since the Battle, I've been trying to"

"I know that… I came to you for help, remember?"

"I had momentarily forgotten" He said sarcastically and she smacked him playfully "I'm not used to caring about anyone other than my family…. And I… well I never really had a friend like you"

"Oh, so we are friends now?" She joked.

"Don't make this even more awkward, would you?" He said, clearly uncomfortable.

"My apologies… thank you for telling me all this Draco. And I'm sorry I slapped you"

"I deserved it"

"You did, but I shouldn't have done it"

"Are you still mad at me?"

"I was never mad at you Draco. I'm mad at myself for this mess we are all in. You just made me see it for what it really is"

"You know what I'm about to say right? About you being so dramatic"

She raised an eyebrow at him, but he didn't seem disturbed by it.

"Yes" She replied "You are going to tell me to get over it"

"Tough, perhaps, but necessary for the time being. We have things to take care of"

"For the time being… yes… and what are you talking about?"

"That" He said, nodding towards the two bundled cloaks on her lap "We have a true chance at escaping now, it's time we do something about it"

"I agree. I've been thinking about it and I think I have an idea but I would like your opinion on it. And your mom's… we are in this together and we all need to be in agreement before we attempt an escape. We won't have another chance if we mess this up"

"I'll bring mother in; it might be safer to speak in here"

"And far more suspicious. No, we will talk outside"

"You do realize we have to be extremely careful with this, right?"

"Of course, Draco, we all do. Let's go back out there, the sooner we can agree on a plan the sooner we can get the bloody hell out of here"

"I will not authorize that… entirely" Kingsley said.

They were about half an hour into this meeting, and Harry was already troubled. The Minister's senior officials, the Aurors Department head, along with Liam, Landon, Ron, Harry, Hermione, and some senior officials from the Department of Security were all in attendance and the general mood of the meeting so far had been of frustration and annoyance. The trip to Azkaban yielded nothing useful and now the Minister was partially shutting down Hermione's idea to spy on the Cromwells.

"Nothing they will do in public will lead us anywhere, and we cannot spy on them privately. Unless" Kingsley continued "We can gain access to them. If we could have a couple of low-profile wizards or witches working for the Department of Security join Alastair's business, we might have a chance of uncovering anything useful"

Harry wasn't satisfied with the Minister's decision; He didn't believe it to be enough even if his reasoning was sound. For the remainder of the meeting, they all discussed who they could assign this mission to, and how to make sure they would get hired by Alastair's company. Because the Department of Security would be overseeing this, there wasn't much for the rest of them to add and Harry left the meeting feeling only slightly better than before. He followed Ron and Hermione back to her office, and settled down to eat the lunch one of Hermione's assistants had brought in.

"I think we should do something about the Cromwells" Hermione said.

"The Minister is taking care of it, Mione" Ron replied "What else could we do?"

"The Ministry will have to do this the right way… maybe we should do our own investigation"

"What?" Ron and Harry both said.

"Hermione, are you really suggesting we go behind Kingsley's back?" Harry asked.

"You can't be serious" Ron added.

"There is only so much the Ministry can do, without breaking its own laws… if we act on our own"

"We wouldn't have to worry about the rules" He said and she nodded in agreement.

"If we get caught" Ron began.

"I'll take care of it" Hermione finished "Are you in?"

"Hermione, are you sure about this?" He asked.

"Do you have any other ideas?" She replied.

"You know I don't"

"Then we can either wait for the Ministry to work its way in, or we can act"

"We should act" Ron said, although he sounded unsure.

"Harry?" Hermione said, turning to face him.

"We should act" He agreed.