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The week passed by quickly. On Saturday morning, Draco didn't even get to finish his breakfast before Neville stood by his side. He obviously hadn't forgotten about Draco's promise to retrieve the Horcrux.

"I've thought about it," started Neville quietly so no one would hear while Draco ate his porridge. "Should we ask Harry to join us?"

Draco nearly choked. "What?" he asked between coughs, "Why?"

Neville fidgeted. "Well, Dumbledore told you that he should know about these things. And we'll need him to destroy it anyway."

Draco knew that Neville was right. That didn't mean he had to like it, though. Reluctantly, he nodded his head and Neville hurried back to his own table, to talk to Potter, no doubt.

Draco finished his porridge, enjoying the few minutes of relaxation he had left. He expected the task of finding the diadem to be dreadfully boring. He knew what a junkyard the Room of Hidden Things was. Looking for the blasted diadem would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Perhaps bringing Harry along wasn't such a terrible idea, they'd at least be able to cover more ground and perhaps find it faster.

"Morning Draco," he turned around again and saw Astoria standing behind him. The sight of her always brightened his day. "Daphne and I were wondering whether you'd want to spend the day by the lake with us?" she asked hopefully.

Draco frowned. This reminded him far too much of the day they had asked him to go to the Quidditch match with them. "Uhm, sure. But maybe later. I have to take care of something first."

"And what would that be?" asked Daphne, who was now standing beside her sister, her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised.

"Uh… nothing important."

"So, you can postpone it?"

Draco held Daphne's gaze. "No."

Astoria frowned. "Are you and Neville up to something again?"

Draco's lack of a response seemed answer enough for them.

"Oh, come on," Daphne said. "Not again. You tried to keep us out of the loop last time and see where that led. You need our help."

Draco sighed. There really was no keeping secrets from them. "It might be dangerous." He didn't really believe the retrieval of some jewelry was all that dangerous. Not if none of them touched it. But they'd want to know why he was looking for a girly crown. And telling them of Horcruxes - that could indeed be dangerous.

"All the more reason for us to help," said Daphne, and it sounded final.

It was then that Neville joined them again, followed by the Golden Trio.

"Really?" Daphne huffed. "You're telling them but not us?"

"I didn't tell anyone! Neville!"

"I'm sorry. They wouldn't let Harry go on his own," he eyed Daphne and Astoria.

"Are they," Harry indicated his head towards the two girls, "joining us, too?"

"Yes," answered Daphne defiantly, "got a problem with that?"

"Uhm- no?" said Harry.

Draco sighed. This wasn't at all what he had envisioned. "Fine, let's go."

While leading all of them to the seventh floor, he explained what they were searching for. "We're looking for a diadem-"

"Sorry, but what IS a diadem?" asked Ron Weasley.

"It's a type of crown," supplied Daphne, "like a tiara."

"Uhm, yeah," said Draco. "It's silver with a blue sapphire on it."

"Wait a second," said Astoria, "are you talking about the Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw?"

Draco stopped and looked at Astoria. He hadn't known that it was Ravenclaw's but since the cup had belonged to Hufflepuff, it made sense. Now that Draco thought about it, he couldn't picture the Dark Lord just randomly choosing a diadem for his Horcruxes. He wasn't one to wear jewelry - Draco almost chuckled at the thought of Voldemort wearing a tiara. "How do you know?"

"Well, I am a Ravenclaw," she shrugged her shoulders. "It's supposed to give its wearer wisdom. But it has been lost for centuries."

"Hmmm, I think we'll change that," smirked Draco.

"And why are we doing this?" asked Daphne. That was exactly the question Draco had hoped she would not ask.

"It's a dangerous piece of dark magic. We need to destroy it." That was all he was willing to tell them. Harry looked at Draco knowingly.

"And where is it?" asked Hermione.

"Ever heard of the Room of Requirement?" Draco asked. "It's a room that appears only if you really need it and can take whichever form you need."

"Isn't that just a myth?"

They had reached the left corridor on the seventh floor.

"You tell me," said Draco, walking up and down the corridor, thinking about the Room of Hidden Things and the Diadem.

He could hear the others gasped when the door appeared. "Okay. Let's go in. Look for the Diadem, but don't touch it, when you see it." He opened the door.

"Oh my," gasped Hermione, "it will take us ages to look through all of this stuff!" She looked, rather horrified, at the maze of hidden things.

"Can't we just summon it?" asked Astoria.

"Sadly, that doesn't work," breathed Draco. "But we're 7 people. We should be able to find it."

"Let's split up, then," suggested Weasley and the others agreed. Draco went with Neville, Daphne with her sister and the golden trio went together.

"Have you seen that thing before?" asked Neville once they were out of earshot.

Draco nodded his head, keeping his eyes on the piles of books and broomsticks and swords. "Potter found it here, during the final battle… I… tried to stop him," he really didn't like to talk about his past mistakes.

"What happened?"

"The Dark Lord was attacking Hogwarts and he wanted Potter. Crabbe, Goyle and I went to look for him and found him here. Crabbe and Goyle attacked. Crabbe, the idiot, conjured Fiendfyre… He died in the flames…" He sighed. The memory more upsetting than it usually was now that he was standing in the room where it had happened. Crabbe truly had been an idiot, but he had still been a child and he had not deserved to die. And he and Goyle had been the closest thing to friends Draco had had during his time at school.

"I'm sorry," said Neville.

"It's… Thanks. It's okay. It was his own fault, he shouldn't have cast it… but…" he didn't know what to say. The memory still haunted him.

They kept searching the room in silence.

Draco was in the process of looking into a blistered old cupboard, when he heard Neville say, "Draco, I think I found it."

Something was wrong, though. Draco could tell immediately. Neville's voice didn't sound happy or relieved. He turned around and to his immense horror, saw Crabbe and Goyle standing a couple of feet away from them.

"Been looking for this, eh?" said Crabbe and held up the Diadem.

"Oh shit," muttered Draco. "Hey guys. What brings you here?"

"We wanted to play Exploding Snap with you," said Crabbe.

"You never spend time with us anymore," complained Goyle.

"Prefer to hang out with blood traitors and mudbloods instead," spat Crabbe. "Then we saw you leave with Potter and his friends."

"We followed you."

"Alright," said Draco, taking a step towards them, "I'm sorry I haven't spent much time with you lately. I'll change that."

"It's a little late for that, traitor," hissed Crabbe and Goyle turned to look at him.

"Uhm, Crabbe? Are you alright?" asked Goyle.

Crabbe drew his wand. "If Potter wants this," he indicated the Diadem, "I'm sure the Dark Lord, once he returns to us, will want it, too." Crabbe's voice was a lot darker and clearer than it usually was, Draco noted. Better grammar, as well.

"Get away from him, Goyle," yelled Draco. "He's not himself anymore!"

Crabbe pointed his wand at Draco.

"A- aren't you a little overreacting?"asked Goyle.

"REDUCTO!" yelled Crabbe and the only reason the curse didn't hit Draco and Neville was that Goyle shoved Crabbe. The curse hit the cupboard behind Draco and blasted it into pieces. Draco grabbed Neville and pushed him behind a bookshelf.

Crabbe pushed Goyle out of his way.

"Draco?" Daphne yelled. "What's going on? Are you talking to someone?"

With a whip-like movement, Crabbe pointed his wand at a fifty-foot mountain of old furniture, of broken trunks, of old books and robes and unidentifiable junk, and shouted, "Descendo!"

The wall began to totter, then the top third crumbled and fell towards Draco and Neville.

They both jumped aside, but Draco got buried underneath falling objects.

"Draco!" he could hear Neville yell. They were now separated by the fallen wall.

Draco struggled to free himself from the heap of objects. He felt two sets of hands grab his arms and pull him out. The hands belonged to Daphne and Astoria.

Draco heard innumerable objects crashing to the floor on the other side of the destabilized wall: He pointed his wand at the rampart, cried, "Finite!" and it steadied.

Somewhere out of sight, he could hear Crabbe bellow "Mudblood! Crucio!", followed by the tortured screams of Hermione.

"Flipendo!" that sounded like Neville. The Knockback jinx must have hit its target, because Hermione had stopped screaming.

"What's going on?" hissed Daphne.

"Crabbe's got the Diadem. It's possessing him! We need to get over there!"

But it looked rather hopeless, they were trapped in the junk that was laying around them.

"Give up, Crabbe," yelled Potter, "you're surrounded and outnumbered."

"INCENDIO!"

The pile that was separating Astoria, Daphne and Draco from the rest, was now set aflame. The flames soon surrounded the three.

Draco cursed under his breath. It wasn't Fiendfyre, but it wasn't much better either.

"Petrificus Totalus!" bellowed Ron Weasley on the other side of the burning wall.

Draco searched the trash around them for anything useful, like a broom, but he couldn't find anything.

"Aqua Eructo!" yelled Daphne and a jet of water erupted from her wand and was sent towards the flames. Draco and Astoria did the same, but Draco knew that it was hopeless. There were too many and they were too high. The fire was expanding as fast as they were able to put it out. The smoke was growing heavier too and soon all of them were coughing and Draco's eyes were burning. The heat was increasing steadily. Draco felt desperate. Not only was he responsible for his own death, no, he had to bring the Greengrass sisters and drag them down with him.

When he thought all hope was lost, he could see the shape of Neville through the smoke. He was flying towards them, on a broom, holding another broom in his hands.

Neville threw the broom at Draco, who caught it. Draco mounted the broom and pulled Astoria onto it behind him. Neville flew down to them and Daphne joined him on his broom.

Draco could feel Astoria cling to him and he could feel her breath in his neck, which momentarily distracted him. But then he pushed himself off the ground.

Once they were all airborne, they all cast water-making spells to extinguish the flames.

And once the flames were put out, they landed next to the golden trio.

Crabbe lay on the ground in a full Body-Bind. Goyle was cowering in a corner. Harry was holding the diadem, wrapped in robes. Since they were all wearing theirs, Draco assumed they had found the robes somewhere in the room.

"That was close," breathed Daphne, still holding on to Neville, even though they weren't on the broom anymore. Draco could see that she was shaking and coughing. Astoria wasn't fairing any better, so Draco put a reassuring arm around her.

"We should get the diadem to Dumbledore," said Harry.

"And those two," added Draco, motioning his head in the direction of Crabbe and Goyle. "And we should get Hermione to Madame Pomfrey."

They all looked at Hermione, who was sitting on the ground, teary eyed and trembling.

They decided that Harry and Draco would bring the diadem and Crabbe and Goyle to the headmaster and that the rest would go to the hospital wing.

TBC