(HBP) CHAPTER NINETEEN: Safe

I don't know if I can take another year and a half of this, Fred.

Christmas break was over. Sirius had never caught them in their lie, nor had Molly. Ellie's goodbyes to her father, Molly, and Arthur had all been difficult, but her goodbye with Fred had been the hardest.

Something had shifted between them on New Year's Eve. It wasn't just the talk of kids, nor was it just the intimacy they'd explored. It was the emotional maturity they'd reached—like they had entered true adulthood together.

Just take it one step at a time, Fred encouraged her. She was in the Great Hall, nibbling on dinner with Harry and the others, but, as usual, she wasn't focused on the conversation at hand. Only six days until we see each other again.

Doesn't count. We won't be alone together.

It absolutely counts! I hope I haven't corrupted you into such a depraved deviant that you no longer appreciate anything but sex, El.

She snorted so hard at that, pumpkin juice came out of her nose.

"Tell Fred to leave you alone," whined Ginny. "You spent the whole break with him! It's our turn!"

She isn't wrong, you know, Fred told her. Enjoy your friends. I'll see you soon, beautiful.

Ellie sighed with disappointment as Fred's voice faded from her mind. She tried to focus on Ginny and the conversation at hand, but something else caught her attention—rather, someone else.

Draco was back, too. And he looked rough.

He was with Crabbe, Goyle, Zabini, and Pansy Parkinson, but he wasn't paying attention to any of them. He was even paler than usual, and his usually perfectly styled hair was messy and unkempt. He was staring down at his plate as if it might catch fire at any moment.

"This again?" Harry grumbled, following her line of sight. "C'mon, Ellie. You just got back."

"Yeah," agreed Hermione. "I haven't seen you since before the holiday!"

"I know," Ellie muttered, but she was barely listening. Something had changed for Draco. He wasn't okay.

She glanced at the teachers' table. Snape was watching Draco, too. His black eyes slipped over to hers, and for the second time ever, she heard her uncle's voice in her head.

Don't give up.

There it was. Validation. Confirmation that all of her efforts hadn't been in vain—or at least, that they might eventually not be in vain.

It really freaks me out when your uncle gets in your head like that, El. Also, Snape, if you're still listening, I highly recommend Herbal Essences.

"I'd love to hear all about your holiday later tonight," Ellie said to Hermione as she rose to her feet. "I've just got something I need to take care of briefly."

They all burst out protests and attempts to get her to stay, but she ignored them.

She refused to give up.

"Get lost, Black."

It had been almost thirty minutes since Ellie left the Great Hall to standby for Draco outside of the Slytherin portrait. She had received countless dirty looks and even a few shoves, all of which she ignored.

Draco was alone, which she had initially hoped would work in her favour. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case.

"Is everything okay?" she asked him. "You look really pale, Draco—like, paler than usual, I mean."

He glared at her. His blue eyes blazed with a degree of resentment she hadn't seen from him in months. "I said, sod off. I've entertained your little schoolgirl crush on me for long enough."

Can I come punch him? Fred asked. I'd like to come punch him.

You've already punched him, Ellie reminded him, thinking of the train ride to Hogwarts at the beginning of her third year, when Fred had punched Draco for insinuating that Ellie and Harry had been sexually active while living together.

"It's not a schoolgirl crush," Ellie said to Draco, though she was fairly certain he already knew it. "It's that I care about you, Draco. I know you're having a rough go of it, and—"

He took a step closer to her, full-on glowering at this point. The fury in his gaze was enough to make her stop talking.

"Sod the fuck off," he growled, "or I'll make you regret it, Black."

Ellie. Fred again. I told you I respect your efforts here, and I do, but enough is enough. Please get out of there.

She swallowed. Fred was right—enough was enough.

"I'm here if you change your mind," she told him softly before turning to walk away.

It was long past time she reached out to the B.A. again.

"Hang on," said Katie a few hours later after Ellie had gathered them all up in the Charms courtyard. "You don't speak to us for months, and then you get us back together under the premise of helping Draco Malfoy?"

Ellie couldn't help but laugh; it sounded insane when Katie put it like that. "It's not about helping him, exactly; it's just about keeping an eye on him from afar and making sure he doesn't do anything stupid. And I have spoken to you. I was coming to your suite nearly every night before holiday, wasn't I?"

It was a rhetorical question, of course. Ellie had been terribly worried about Katie, who took months to get past the Imperius Curse that had been cast on her. She hadn't been able to help her much, but she had still visited.

"Why do we think Malfoy will do something stupid?" Liam asked Ellie. "I mean, besides the obvious?"

"Well, we know his dad was the master organizer of the events at the Ministry at the end of last year, and we know that his dad failed and got arrested, right? I have my concerns that maybe the rest of the Death Eaters are now trying to use Draco to, I don't know… pay off his father's debts, or something."

"But…" Luna's eyes bulged even wider than usual. "Would that not make him a Death Eater?"

"Or at least a Death Eater in training?" added Neville.

"It could," Ellie admitted. She was growing so tired of this conversation, she wondered whether she had made a mistake in calling this meeting. "But wouldn't it be better for us to change his mind before it became a permanent decision, rather than add a new enemy to the roster?"

"But you're not talking about changing his mind here," Liam said. "You're just talking about spying. Right?"

"You lot are spying," she said. "I'm still working on changing his mind—at least, I will be after I let him cool off."

El. Come on. Are you sure this is a good idea?

"Okay," said Liam before she could reply to Fred. "I'm in."

Late that night, Ellie was awoken from a very pleasant dream in which she and Fred attempted to recreate the circumstances of New Year's Eve by the sound of someone banging on her window.

She shot out of bed, peering nervously around. Somehow, she was the only one in her suite to have woken up. She crawled out of bed and peered at the window, squinting. It couldn't be Fred, she knew; he had been in the same dream as her.

It was Draco.

This prat has some nerve, Fred snapped in her head, probably having woken up out of concern for her.

She sighed, reaching up to open the window. Draco was balanced atop his broomstick, peering expectantly down at her. When she opened it, he whispered, "I need to talk to you."

"Clearly," she muttered, glancing sleepily down at herself. Her wardrobe choice was a bit embarrassing, though not promiscuous: a pair of plaid boxer shorts and a baggy, long-sleeved Weasley's Wizard Wheezes shirt. "It's freezing. Where are we going?"

He frowned. Clearly he'd meant to take her somewhere outside—probably the roof. "I guess I could come to your common room."

Ellie's eyes bulged at the thought of Draco Malfoy sitting in the Gryffindor common room in the middle of the night.

Do not, under any circumstances, take him up on that offer, Fred warned.

"Sure," she managed to Draco with a reluctant nod, ignoring Fred. "Just… be quiet."

She helped him through the window, then led him to the girls' hall. Thankfully, none of her suitemates or neighbors stirred.

"Get back on that broom for this part," she whispered when they reached the stairs. "Or slide down—your choice."

Draco remounted his broom, seeming familiar with the stairs-into-slide concept. It must be the same in the Slytherin common room, she inferred.

She did her best to ignore the nonstop cursing in her head (from Fred, of course) as she led Draco down the girls' staircase and up to the fireplace. Thankfully, the common room was empty.

"You can't approach me at school anymore," Draco began once they were settled onto the couch. "At least, not outside the common room like that. I guess maybe we could pick a different spot—and maybe some sort of visual cue."

This is really creeping me out, El. Feels like you're plotting an affair.

"Fine," Ellie said impatiently. "We'll flip each other the bird whenever we want to talk. Meet up in…" She almost suggested the Room of Requirement, then thought better of it. "I don't know—Moaning Myrtle's bathroom?"

And now you're plotting an affair in a bathroom. Great.

She resisted the urge to laugh.

"Okay," Draco said, nodding. "That'll work."

"Good. Now, can you please tell me what's going on, Draco? I don't think you need me to tell you that the Gryffindor common room is not a good place for us to meet."

"No," he agreed, glancing around. "Quite a bit smaller than ours."

"Nice try. I've seen yours."

He arched an eyebrow. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah. Year two. Had an entire conversation with you while wearing Pansy Parkinson's face. You were a pretty intense flirt for a second-year."

His eyes bulged as Fred sighed dramatically in her head. She couldn't help it; the story seemed so amusing now that they were in the role-reversal they were in.

"Y… you… what?" Draco demanded.

"Don't worry about it. You didn't say anything particularly embarrassing or incriminating. You did give me some useful information about my dad, though, so thanks for that."

"But why did you do it in the first place?"

"Oh—we wanted to know whether you were the Heir of Slytherin. Turned out you weren't."

His jaw was hanging open at this point.

"Anyway," Ellie said, grinning. "Tell me what's going on."

"I…" He paled. "I really can't say much. I just… Things got worse over the holiday. Bellatrix and Mum are putting the pressure on me to get this… thing… done that I was supposed to get done already."

"The thing with the necklace," Ellie surmised.

He nodded.

"Who was it meant for? Katie said she was supposed to give it to Filch, but he can't have been its intended recipient."

"Of course not. I can't say who, though. I can't."

She nodded reluctantly. She wasn't surprised. "Okay. So have they given you a new task?"

"The task never changed. It's up to me to figure out how to accomplish it. I have until the end of the school year, and then..." He paled even further.

"That's good," Ellie assured him. "That means you have six months to sort this out, Draco. Don't make any rash decisions. Take a deep breath."

He did as she instructed, but he didn't look convinced. "I have to come up with a plan if I'm going to accomplish it. I have to show progress. I—"

"I think we need to start talking about Plan B," she interrupted. "You don't have to do anything, Draco; you just need a plan for keeping yourself safe if and when you say no. Now, is it safe to say you won't be safe with your mum if you don't do what they're asking?"

"My…" His eyes bulged again. "My mum won't be safe. It's not about me."

That was unfortunate. "Then we come up with a plan to get both of you out—you and her. If she loves you—"

But he was shaking his head and rising to his feet. "This was a mistake. There's no way out. I shouldn't have come."

If Ellie was being honest, she was surprised he had come. He didn't seem to have any intentions of backing out of this arrangement; it was almost like he had merely needed a friend.

"We don't have to talk about it," she said, rising to her feet. "As long as you don't make any rash decisions, there's no rush. Do you want to talk about something else? About your classes, or—"

But he was shaking his head again. "We aren't friends. Don't act like we are."

"Well, I say we are."

He glared at her. "You have enough friends without me."

That was a strange thing to say, she marveled—not the usual Draco insult. "I don't think a person can have too many friends, Draco. Sure, sometimes I have to let some of my friendships take the back-burner to others when someone's in need, but—"

"I'm not in need." He picked up his broomstick and headed for the window. "Forget I ever came here. Okay?"

"Hey." She reached out a hand to grab him by the arm. He recoiled at first, but relaxed when she refused to let go. "Look around. Just for a second."

He blinked at her, seeming confused by her request, then reluctantly did as she had instructed.

"The feeling you get when you're here," she said. "The crackling fire—the warmth of the colors—the comfort of the cushions. There's a word for that feeling. Do you know what it is?"

"I don't have time for this," he muttered. But he made no further attempt to leave.

"Safe," she said softly. "It's safe here, Draco. And not just here—anywhere we're together. We look out for each other—all of us. And you could be included in that if you wanted to."

He was shaking his head again. "They would never include me in that. Potter? Weasley?" He scoffed. "I would never want them to."

"Just think about it," she urged him. "Remember the code. Okay? Flipping the bird, meeting in Myrtle's bathroom."

"It's not going to happen. I'm not going to make this mistake again."

But if she wasn't mistaken, there was a tiny glint in his eye that suggested he would.

Sorry for the delay folks! Appreciate the reviews pushing me to keep going. Sometimes I let this fall to the wayside when I don't think anyone is benefiting or reading but I do check back in and keep pushing to finish when I see the support, so I appreciate you!