No, I did not forget the last update. I just had exams last week so I spent the last three weeks studying. Anyway, this is the previous update. I'll also be updating this sunday, maybe tomorrow. The next one is the big one!

The air was cold, it made goosebumps erupt all over her skin through the thin fabric of her nightgown. Her left hand ran over the dirty walls as she walked barefoot over the old floorboards and carpets. But she couldn't see her breath, no matter how cold it was, and the things she touched remained unmoved. Anna couldn't remember how she'd ended up in this place and she didn't know what she'd been doing before.

Where was she? Where was she going?

Anna swallowed nervously as she reached the top of the stairs, teeth chattering soundlessly in the cold, but took a few more steps to a door. It was open and she peeked carefully into the room, not exactly knowing why. The air was warm inside and it smelled musty and old, as if there hadn't been fresh air in a long time, months maybe.

A fire roared in the fireplace, casting dark moving shadows through the room. A thick-set man was kneeling in the middle of the room, busily arranging something in a large armchair which she couldn't see into. He was sniveling and babbling incomprehensibly and she couldn't recognize him, but she could recognize the feeling in the air. The magic. It tugged at her, pulling her further into the room even if she knew it was unconscious. It was him.

It was him but not just him and also not completely him. There was a snake on the floor, huge and majestic with smooth scales that glowed in the firelight. The snake was quiet, though she could feel something akin to emotion coming from it, much more vague than what she felt from Harry. A horcrux, she believed.

And then he spoke. His voice was soft and raspy and she couldn't make out what he was saying but she felt his words enter her head anyway. They twisted around like worms but they also numbed her to her surroundings and forced her to step closer. Vaguely she could tell what was happening and she knew that the only reason she wasn't fighting it was because, at the moment, she couldn't bring herself to. It made something in her stomach burst to life and she didn't know if it was fear or admiration. That should scare her, she knew, but her mind wasn't working properly.

Then the voice stopped and she felt like she was falling and as she reached out to catch herself she fell to the floor beside her bed. A dream. A dream. It was just a dream.

She carefully sat up, running fingers over her face as if to make sure it was still there. Her hands were shaking and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Anna tried to close her eyes as the shaking spread from her hands to the rest of her body, making her wrap her arms around herself to feel like she wouldn't fall apart.

Was it just a dream?

She didn't think so. It was too vivid, the sensations too real... was he in her head? Was he aware that he was in her head? Why was he in her head? ... was it the magic? ... was it the horcrux? Why now and not before? Could he control her?

Yes. Yes he could, she felt it, she knew it. If he found out he could just take control of her, make her do anything...

A whimper left her throat. She couldn't breathe. Her heartbeat was out of control. Her chest was constricting. Was she crying? Tears were running down her face so she must be. Was she afraid? It was all she could do not to crawl under the bed and hide. She was terrified.

She didn't have time for this. She wouldn't waste any time behaving in such a pathetic was. She wouldn't.

With a determined nod she swallowed the sobs that had been struggling out of her mouth and wiped away the tears. Research, that's what needed to happen. And find a way to keep him out of her head.

Anna pushed herself to her feet, knees still weak, and she scrambled around for her wand. When it was in her hand she turned to her trunk and opened it, dragging out the small bag with the extension charm in which she kept her darker books.

"Lumos." She muttered and a small ball of light grew from the end of her wand. With it she managed to find the books with more information about horcruxes... she didn't have any on ritual to find the one she went through... and she didn't have any books on mind magic either.

Anna cursed. Agatha would have some, there would be a lot in Lestrange Manor... but she'd have to send an owl for them and then wait for them to be delivered and she'd have to ask for topics not specific books and then she'd have to tell Agatha or Aunt Narcissa what was going on and... no. That was not an option.

With a last panicked glance at her trunk she made up her mind and ran out of her room. The common room was empty and dark, it was way too late for anyone to be up, and as soon as she entered the corridor a wave of cold air hit her. It was spring, maybe, but the grounds were far up north and it was the middle of the night and she was in the dungeons so she grit her teeth and ran on, making sure the light on her wand was off.

Her steps were silent as she ran on the ball of her feet, trying her best to make as little noise as possible. The last thing she needed was to get caught. She bit her lip and clenched her free hand tight, trying to stop the shaking in her fingers.

"Stop that." She muttered to herself. "Concentrate. Concentrate and it'll all just go away."

Anna turned a corner, jaw tightening as she spotter MacGonagall leaving the same corridor at the other end. Not this way then. She turned around and took the longer route.

Two corridors further she ran face first into Filch, but before he could do more than gasp and try to grab her she'd raised her wand.

"Stupefy." Filch fell to the ground. "Confundus."

That would stop him from remembering that she'd been there. Then she turned to the cat. Mrs Norris was sniffing her owner's face, making soft displeased noises when he didn't move. There was probably no way the cat would tell on her, but she was not taking the chance.

"Stupefy."

Then she kept running. By the time she got to the closed doors of the library she was panting.

"Alohomora." She whispered and the lock clicked open. It was an old lock, it was noisy and made shivers crawl up her spine, but when the door finally opened she didn't waste time in looking around before slipping inside. There she hurried between bookshelves to the forbidden section.

The door to the forbidden section was small, between two large bookshelves, and it had a large sign on it that said 'Forbidden – Keep out'. So much for originality, she guessed. She'd never actually bothered in coming here before, but it had to happen sometime. The door was almost stuck to its frame from lack of use, but a small shove with her shoulder swung it open completely.

The air inside was even colder and there were no windows to let moonlight in, forcing her to light her wand up once more. All she could see was rows upon rows of shelves, covered in old, dusty books. Surely here there would be something she could use.

With a sigh she started looking.

Anna had put the books she'd brought in piles around her, they were so tall they blocked her from sight if she kneeled on the ground like she did now. Five books were opened around her and scrolls of parchment with notes and theories were strewn over open and closed books.

The lights were on so she had her wand in her hair holding up a messy bun of her curls. Her eyes were tired and bleary but she kept reading, sight flying frantically from one page to the other. She didn't know how long she'd been working, it was probably already daytime but she'd decided not to go to class today anyway. This was more important. It was Wednesday, the third task would be saturday, he'd be revived or improved or whatever on saturday and that meant that he'd be able to control her. It was just a few days. She had no time to go to class to learn the menial things she could just as well study herself.

If only the thumping in her head would subside.

It took a few seconds for Anna to realize that the thumping was not, indeed, in her head but rather at the door to her room. It too less than another second for her to bolt between the books and swing the door open.

She was met with her friends' concerned faces.

"Anna!" Draco snapped. "Where have you been?"

He made to enter the room but she pulled it closed until only her head stuck out of the room.

"Here. Why?"

Draco's eyebrows rose and he glanced to the side where Theo was studying her face with pursed lips.

"You missed breakfast and your potion and class and now it's lunch. The prefect gave me this." He held out a small bottle. "Said you'd die without it. Is that true?"

Anna shrugged and took it, chugging it back and earning a few grimaces from her friends when they saw the scratches on her arms and neck. The only way to stop her hands from shaking was to keep them occupied and damn if Daphne didn't give a good manicure.

"Is that all?"

"Is that all?" Pansy's shrill voice sounded and she stepped closer to the door. "What are you even doing in there? What is going on?"

Anna clenched her jaw. "Just a small problem, nothing I can't handle-"

"Can you handle it, though?"

Anna's eyes snapped to Theo who was scowling at her. "You don't look like you're handling it."

She glared. "It's fine. I can handle this. You all go away."

"But-"

Anna slammed the door shut. "Colloportus."

Anna shoved the rest of the pudding in her mouth. Daphne had brought her some food saying that while she disapproved wholeheartedly of her methods she'd rather Anna didn't starve while she went psychotic. Anna told her she wasn't psychotic but she didn't think Daphne believed her. Before she left she'd told her that Theo was pissed. Anna didn't blame him.

It wasn't her fault that it was so damn difficult to find a single explanation for what was going on with her! So far she had six theories, one of which was the most probable. Also the most unpleasant and worrying but she could fix that. She could work with a theory.

It all came down to the potion, she thought as she ran her hands through her tangled hair. The combination of the ritual and the horcrux should have been enough for the Dark Lord to even feel that he could control her, which according to the second dream she'd had when she blacked out not a few hours ago, he was not aware of. It should give him an even stronger grip, and not that he was getting stronger himself that strength should be amplified.

The thing was that the potion was blocking him from her, from her magical core which was connected to her mind -if the way his magic would influence her thoughts and allegiances if given free rein was any indication. It was called Third Party Protection and it was rare but completely plausible as that was the only explanation for any sort of barrier keeping him away until now. And there had to be a barrier keeping him at bay before this, or he'd have had explicit control over her since the horcrux. Now though, he was getting stronger and the barrier created by the potion wasn't keeping him out.

That's what she had to fix. The solution was to learn a way to protect her mind by herself, which she would have had to do anyway because otherwise he'd have gotten in her head when she stopped taking the potion... or the potion wouldn't have worked anyway after he was brought back or... whatever, she didn't have time to dwell on that. Now she had to find a way to protect her mind. Of course there was always occlumency but that was overrated. People could break past that, she would have to keep it up constantly, she could slip if she went through a nasty shock anything could-

There was knocking.

Anna sighed. What part of go away didn't they understand?

But she went to the door anyway, knowing that her friends wouldn't leave if she didn't send them away personally.

Theo was standing there, arms folded and a scowl on his face.

"It's Thursday." He said as soon as the door opened.

"Is it?" She shrugged. "So?"

"You've been in here since Wednesday morning, or Tuesday evening, whichever you prefer. Planning on coming out soon?"

Anna bit her lip. "Maybe. I'm not done yet."

"Done with..?"

"I'm not going to tell you. You'll find out soon enough."

She saw his face darken, his jaw tighten. He was about to shout, she knew that face. She'd only seen it once before, in third year, something happened which she didn't remember but she knew that Theo was never angry. Pissed, ticked, annoyed, disgruntled, yes, but not angry.

"You can't just-" He took a deep breath and pushed her into the room.

Anna didn't protest, barely holding in her temper as his eyes swept over the room.

"This is what you're doing? This is a mess! You're barely eaten, I'm sure you're not sleeping... Anna, you look half dead!" He swung his arms gesturing at her, face reddening in anger. "You can't break yourself down like this, let me help!"

"No." She shook her head. "Theo we've discussed this, I don't want you getting involved until there's no other choice."

"So letting yourself waste away is a choice?" He scoffed, voice becoming louder with every word. "You can't just expect me to be alright with that! The others might think that there's nothing they can do about this but I won't just let you crawl into yourself and run yourself to the ground every time there's a problem! It's not healthy!"

"Nothing about me is healthy!" She yelled. "I'm dealing with this the best I-"

"You're not dealing with it!" He shouted. "You're letting it beat you by merely existing! For the love of Merlin you don't have to do this by yourself!"

"Yes I do!" Anna grabbed the front of his robes, glaring up at him. "This is my problem and I'm not dragging you or Draco or anyone else down with me!"

"Can't you see that there's no way we won't go down with you? You're not alone so stop acting like it! You're hurting every single one of us like this!" Theo shouted and grabbed her shoulders. "We're not some kids who you just talk to when its convenient, we're not a cover you can use to hide what you're actually up to and you can't just use us like this! You can't just become part of our lives and expect us not to care when you grind yourself to dust! "

"I'm trying not to get you involved for your own good! You don't have to-"

"But we're already here with you! You can't keep us away from this if we're still around you and you getting away from us now is out of the question. Anna let us help."

"No." She stepped back. "Not yet. Not now and not with this. You can't know about this, Theo."

He let out a violent breath and stalked out of the room, slamming the door loudly behind behind him.

The best way to block her mind would be a barrier. Sort of like occlumency but instead of the barrier being flexible and her having to keep it up constantly she would just have to do it once and it would be like a physical barrier... except if wouldn't actually be physical... the theory was complicated. The ritual for it was complicated too and she would need a... something like an anchor, something to be the foundation for her barrier, the thing in her mind giving the barrier a reason for being. How the hell was she supposed to do that? What was she supposed to choose? What was she protecting? Herself? Her sanity? Her parents? Somehow she doubted that any of those would be strong enough to use as a foundation. She barely knew her parents, and the fact that she hadn't exactly been taking proper care of herself was testimony to how much she valued herself and her sanity.

She was doing it all for herself, to preserve the control of her mind. Though she supposed that the instinctual need for survival and autarky of her mind was not defining for how much she valued her own wellbeing.

Anna groaned and let herself fall backwards, wincing as she hit her head on the edge of a book. Her arms ached, she'd scratched the skin raw to keep herself calm, she was hungry, she was tired, she smelled and her hair would never be combed again. And she wasn't any closer to protecting herself.

Oh, sure, she'd figured out how, but knowing how to do something and actually being able to do it are two very different things.

She wasn't terrified anymore... she thought. At this point her fear had retreated somewhere into her stomach where it proceeded to make her whole body ache, but somehow she was coping with it. Probably in a wrong way, if Theo was to be believed.

That still made her angry. She hadn't gone looking for him and he hadn't come back. He'd understand in the end.

Another knock on the door. No one had come to see her since Daphne dropped some food off this morning.

It was Draco.

"Can I come in?" He asked. "I won't look at anything, I just want to talk."

Anna nodded and let him in, walking to her bed and grabbing the scrolls that were on it and dumping them on another pile by the books. She sat down and waited for him to join her. He didn't, he stayed standing and started pacing the room, barely glancing at the stuff on her floor as he stepped through it. He was in his sleeping clothes.

"I've been thinking about what you told me." He announced. "About how me being your blood family doesn't guarantee be staying by your side no matter what -which, might I add, is rather hypocritical since your parents have done nothing for you and you still want to make them proud."

Anna scowled. Well if he put it that way...

"But I know my answer now." Draco muttered. "You- you're not just my cousin, Annie. You're like a sister to me and I love you. I thought about it a lot, you know, and I figure that there's nothing you can do to make me leave you alone. Not... not marrying a mudblood or a muggle, not fucking siding with Dumbledore, not... nothing. There's nothing."

He stopped pacing and looked at her, his eyes boring into hers. "I'm with you Anna, no matter what. I'll do anything and I want... I want to help you, I want to protect you, even if it upsets you. I don't care because I love you."

Draco's voice was low but it filled the room and somehow she couldn't help but reach out to him. She was in his arms in an instant, wrapped up and warm. She hadn't felt warm since the first dream. Her hands weren't shaking either.

"Thank you." She breathed.

"I don't know what you're thanking me for Anna, but I'm glad I did something." He pulled back to study her. "Are you- have you finished?"

"No, but I'm better now. You helped."

"How?"

Anna kissed his cheek. "I don't know, you just did."

"Can you let me help you more?"

"Not wi-"

"No. Not this." He assured her. "But you need to take a shower and you need to sleep. Go on and I'll sleep here tonight."

Anna smiled, it was watery and faint but it was there, and then she walked into the bathroom.

She woke up in cold sweat, shooting upright out of Draco's arms which had wrapped themselves around her in their sleep. In a second he was awake as well, running a hand up and down her back soothingly trying to get her to stop crying. He was saying something but she couldn't make out what.

It didn't matter though, she just needed to focus on the sound of his voice. Her racing heart slowed down and she let herself fall back into him. Draco immediately hugged her.

"Alright?"

"Yeah."

"Nightmare?"

"Not exactly." She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "You calmed me down."

"Yes..?"

"I'm not scared anymore."

"... what?"

"Well, no. I'm still terrified but it's not freezing me in place. You... all of you... you keep me grounded. You protect me."

"Yes." This time he said it without hesitating.

"I think I was wrong." She muttered. "I thought the foundation was supposed to be what I wanted to protect, and basically it is, but it's also what protects me. It needs to be a mutual... support, like an actual foundation."

"... I'm not following this."

But Anna nodded and crawled out of bed. Lighting her wand she grabbed one of the books that lay open and started looking for the specific runes for the ritual.

"No, Anna, we need to sleep." Draco sighed.

"Draco, this is the last thing I need to do. You just gave me the key I needed to do this. I need you to help me, please Draco." Her eyes widened in a pleading motion until he sighed.

"Fine. I'll lose some sleep for this. What do I do?"

Anna hummed as she started writing down the runes on parchment and putting the parchment around her to form a circle. "Pass me the powdered wormwood root and the bicorn blood. Then crush half a dozen spotted salamander eyes and mix it with a pinch of calamus."

She heard him hurry over to her trunk and start digging. While he was busy she ran to the bathroom and slipped out of her nightgown, putting on a brah. He knocked on the door.

"Here's the mix -" He grew quiet when he saw her in her underwear. "What are you doing?"

Anna shook her head at him and started drawing runes on her arms. When that was done she tied her hair up and handed him the little bowl.

"Draw the third century celtic runes for mind, spirit, present, past and protection, in that order, on my back. From my spine to my hips." She ordered.

"...Alright?" He grabbed it and started tracing the runes on her skin, leaving dark lines with little grains of calamus in them. "There."

"Great, thanks." She pulled him out of the bathroom and sat in the circle. She poured the blood on a few specific runes and then a few pinches of wormwood root powder on a few other runes. Then she crossed her legs and held her wand with the tip to her forehead.

"W- what are you doing, Anna? You're not-"

"It's not going to hurt me. Sit in front of me."

Slowly, he settled but he kept looking at the runes around her apprehensively. He didn't know them, they were older than what they'd seen in class until now.

"What do I do now?"

"Talk to me."

"And say what?"

"Tell me about what you've been doing these days. Talk about you, about Daphne and Pansy, about Blaise and Greg and Vince."

"And Theo?"

"... Yeah." She paused. "Grab that book beside you and hold it up so that I can read it. When I nod turn the page."

"Alright." He nodded, grabbing the book and holding it up. "Like this?"

Anna nodded. "I'll be chanting but don't stop talking, okay?"

"Got it. Now?"

"Yeah." She started chanting.

"Well, you know how Blaise always pretends to be aloof and everything, he was really worried always asking Daphne how you were when she came back from bringing you stuff to eat. He acts like he doesn't need anyone but he really needs all of us, but we don't mind when he pretends because we all do, you know? And Daphne, he never pretends with Daphne. She'd amazing, you know? Deadly, she's got him wrapped around her finger and I'd be worried if she weren't so in love with him too. You say something stupid and they look back at you with identical bitch faces, it's wonderful. She's so smart too, I mean, she uses her looks and her disarming eyes to get you to lower your guard and she just guts you. And-"

When Anna slumped forwards, exhausted, Draco caught her by the shoulders. He didn't speak and just pulled her up to the bathroom. Once there he left her sitting on the toilet before going back to their room.

"It's already morning." He called. "You should get dressed normally so we can go to breakfast. The third task is right after that."

Anna grunted in response before wiping the dried mix of eyes and powder off of her skin. It smelled bad but that was alright, just wipe it down with scented soap. She could feel the barrier around her mind. It'd have to settle and the first time it's attacked will be painful but she felt... safe. And she could cry with relief.