A/N: Hello everyone! Thank you so so much for your pm's and notes and reviews. I read each and every one and always love talking to you guys. This is long over-do, but I hope you enjoy it all the same. Xoxo

~o0o~

"Lupin? Please tell me this is some form of sick joke to try and distract me from how awful I feel…" Lucius glanced toward the door of the private waiting room where Ginny had taken him and spilled all of the secrets previously held from him.

"I told you in wanting to be completely honest with you, not so that you can go confront him and make an arse of yourself," Ginny said, watching his blue eyes dart to where he knew Sirius and Remus were sitting by Lacey's hospital room, "He treats Narcissa really well…"

"You are misguided in thinking I care how he treats her. From what I now know, she is partially to blame for all of this and if she wants to consort with some half-breed, let her…"

"Lucius!" Ginny's eyes went wide and she flushed in anger at the insult. He sunk down in his hard, plastic chair, fingers steepled on his temples.

"Forgive me. I just didn't think this is how it would end with her and I. We both should have just handled this like adults and we wouldn't be in this mess," he sighed. Ginny had to bite her lip to keep from remarking on that thought, "From now on there can be no secrets. Everyone should know why I am here and how I feel about Lacey. Narcissa and I can work things out on our own, but she certainly should be here instead of hiding from me."

"I'll make sure she knows," Ginny nodded, feeling a thousand times better about everything but also nervous that once they left the room, at least a half a dozen people were going to be very, very angry, "It's getting late. Did you want to stay here with Lacey? I'm going to."

"Leaving is not an option," he responded, standing up and giving her a nod, "And Ginev—Ginny, do not think I have forgotten about the promise I owe you. Whatever happens, I will make sure I fulfill it."

~o0o~

"IT'S BLUE! BLUE WITH A GOLD BINDING!" Harry was yelling through Malfoy Manor, thankful, but unsurprised that Hermione had opened the floo if they needed to get to them.

"Potter, she's not an idiot," Draco snapped when Harry came stumbling into the library, about to yell his message again and gestured to the book in question open on the table in front of him and Hermione.

"Sorry…we have Astoria in custody and she told us about this book…"

"Any word on Pansy?" Draco asked, watching as Hermione pushed an errant curl behind her ear, her nose literally in the book as she scanned the pages feverishly.

"Kingsley, Ron, and a dozen others are on it, but we are sure she left England, any luck Hermione?"

"SHHHH…." She hissed as she continued to flip through pages, but finally she stopped and dragged her finger down the column of one page, eyes growing with each sentence, "I think…I think this might be part of the spell. It is supposed to keep the victim in a state of comatose, but is often unstable at best. But here…it says when combined with other spells, the results are even more unpredictable…"

"Which is why she's doing poorly. Pansy must have combined it with whatever charm she used to get Lacey's broom to buck her off and it changed the nature of this spell," Draco looked over her shoulder, carefully making note of the incantation.

"How am I supposed to reverse a made-up spell?" Hermione groaned; time was running through their fingers like sand and they only had the dumb half of the pair that had caused this.

"Hermione, take the book and head to St. Mungo's. Draco, would you come back with me to the Ministry to see if you can get any more information out of Astoria? And maybe we can get a lead on where Pansy might be now," Harry decided for the trio and Hermione clutched the book to her chest as she hurried to the floo first, looking pale. Draco, although begrudging having to be around Harry, followed him back to the Ministry.

"I know you are going to ask Potter, I can tell by the stupid look on your face so we might as well clear this up now," Draco broke the silence between the pair as they walked downstairs to the trial chambers where Astoria was going to be questioned and then sentenced, "The only person Lacey is shagging is, as much as I do not want to imagine it, my father. I've grown to really care about her and consider her a close friend, so whatever this nonsense is about her being with Lupin, I want you and Weaslebee to know it is false."

Harry had his suspicions ever since Draco walked into the Auror office earlier that day that he had to have some involvement with Lacey that they all didn't know about, but finding this out left Harry half-relieved and half-shaken. He felt bad that he had nearly written off another mentor of his for dating someone younger than him, but he also couldn't piece together how Lacey would have met or ever fall for someone like Lucius Malfoy.

"We'll talk about it later. She just needs to wake up, that is all I care about," Harry told Draco as they walked into the chamber where Astoria was being held.

~o0o~

"Where's Lucius? Is anyone else here?" Hermione was out of breath as she pushed past a medi-witch coming down the hallway with a trolley and ran to Ginny who was slumped sleepily in a chair outside of Lacey's door.

"Mmmffff, yep, yeah…I'm awake…" Ginny shook her head and looked groggily up at the mess of curly brown hair in front of her, "Oh, hey, 'Mione, everyone is gone. It's just me and Lucius…he's inside with her and the nurses are pretty pissed about it…"

"Great…" Hermione didn't wait for any more information and just opened the door, shocked to see how pale Lacey looked. She looked as if she had lost a significant amount of weight and her features were starting to become gaunt. Her hand looked so frail in the palm of Lucius', who was sitting by her side and looked as if he was trying his best to fight off sleep, "I think I found something..."

He instantly looked years younger when she told him the news and set the spell book on the table near Lacey's bed, "I never thought I'd be so thankful to hear that from the know-it-all Draco could never beat when it came to exam marks, let's see it then…"

Hermione smiled and opened the book to the page of the spell she was sure Pansy had used, "She combined this with the spell to make her broom act up. It is probably similar to the spell Quirrel….well, Voldemort used to try and make Harry fall from his broom first year and I thought maybe…."

"Having the history I do, that I might know the spell?" Lucius finished for her when she looked up at him, "It pains me to say it, but I think I do have a fair idea of the spell in question. And we have the one that I am sure you are right in thinking Pansy used. The Healer was just in here and said he wouldn't be back to check on her until early this morning. They have a few spells on her to keep her blood replenishing, but I think it is worth trying while we can."

Hermione nodded. She had absolutely no intention of waiting around for the Healers to try another cocktail of unsuccessful remedies. "Do you have any idea where Pansy might be, Lucius? I spoke to Harry and he said they had Astoria, but Pansy is gone…"

Lucius looked concerned as he pulled out his wand from his robes, "I don't. And I wish I was more useful but I don't."

She pulled out her wand as well and took another look at the long, complicated incantation in the spell book, "I'm assuming Ginny told you everything, otherwise you probably wouldn't have felt comfortable having this conversation with me?"

"To answer your question, Hermione, I am certainly not looking forward to a few hours' time when everyone is here again. Now, shall we begin?"

~o0o~

"It's funny, actually. Everyone out there completely shocked that you are with him and here I am, sitting with you because everyone is too busy fighting and I actually get it Lace, I completely get it. In some weird way that I don't really wanna try and think about or understand…you guys make sense. And I don't particularly like it, but I just want you to know Lace, that I'm not mad at you and I'll always care about you. Hell, you'd probably sit here laughing with me my Mum and Dad and your Dad and the bloody Malfoys all trying to have a civilized conversation over you and obviously Mum is…"

"Fred?" Lacey's head hurt so badly that she couldn't open her eyes, but she heard him and he sounded so close to her. She didn't know what he was talking about, but soon she was able to open her eyes and although her vision was clouded, his ginger head came into view and she tried to reach out and hug him.

"Shite…" Fred stared at her, jaw slack. It was no secret now that Lucius and Hermione had spent the better part of the night trying to reverse the spell on her and had a very big dressing down for it by the Healer this morning, but she had stayed the same, if not looking slightly worse off. Once the Healer had checked her vitals and said there were no signs of improvement, most of his family had shown up, along with the Delaneys, and to everyone's surprise, Narcissa Malfoy, and there were definitely no more secrets between any of them after a half hours' time. His mother had practically fainted at learning that her 'second daughter' was apparently in love with a Malfoy, Lacey's father couldn't believe that his daughter's boyfriend's nearly ex-wife had originally bribed her to date him, and Sirius and his sister were rowing about her telling Lucius everything without asking anyone else. Fred heard what he needed to, but didn't really want to know how long this had gone on for, so he had slipped into Lacey's room to have a moment alone with her in case he didn't get another chance. But now she was staring up at him with her pretty blue eyes, looking just as shocked as he was sure he did.

"Why am I in hospital?"

"You fell off your broom at the match, remember…? I really should go get the others…" Fred knew Lucius would probably castrate him if he found out Lacey was awake and no one told him.

"No, what match, Fred. Others? Who is here?" Lacey started to cry. She felt so confused and scared. Nothing was making sense. She tried to search her mind for anything but all she had was this long expanse of nothing but blankness filling her brain. She knew who he was and who she was, but the last concrete thing she could think of was Hogwarts…a little after…playing for the…"Oh my god, did one of those pricks from Puddlemere knock me off?"

"Lace…you play for Puddlemere…" Fred said slowly, realizing that something wasn't right and still glancing, panicked, at the door.

"You shitting me? I'd rather lose a leg than play for them, come on now, Fred you know me better than that…"

He was happy to see that she was immediately in such good spirits despite hardly looking like herself, but she clearly had no idea what was going on, "Right, just let me get Ginny and we'll sort this out, alright?"

She gave him a wan smile, watching him leave the room, not being able to quite put her finger on it, but knowing something was wrong.