Chapter 11

I don't own any of the characters apart from Melanie Malfoy. All of the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

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 "It's from the Dark Lord."

I turned to face him in shock. No way. The Dark Lord could not have sent us a letter. It was too risky at times like these. He wanted us to keep a low profile this year and if someone found out that we were working for him, well, there would be hell to pay.

"Are you sure Drake? I mean, you haven't even opened it yet, it could be from anyone," I pleaded, trying to convince myself we had in fact just received a letter from the Darkest wizard of all time.

Instead of giving me an answer, he just turned the envelope over in his hand to show me the back. I gasped and shuffled backwards slightly. The Dark Mark was printer onto the seal of the envelope, moving slowly. It almost looked like it was moving towards Draco.

"Oh."

He tossed the envelope towards me. As soon as I saw the black on the seal again, I started running to the other side of the room in an attempt to escape from it. When I felt safe, I peered out from behind the Vanishing Cabinet. I saw a mixture of confusion and humour lining Draco's face before he slowly started pacing his way towards the letter.

"Why did you run Mel? It's not like it's going to kill you," he muttered the last bit. In the back of my mind, I couldn't help but disagree with the last sentence.

"This is the Dark Lord we're talking about. He could try and curse us through a letter," I half-joked. I must have looked like a 6 year old when I ran away and hid behind the cabinet, but I was honestly scared. Only he could scare me badly.

"You used to run like that when the Death Eaters would come to the house. Do you remember? Mother used to have to bribe you out of our little hideout," we both smiled at the memory.

"Yeah," I breathed. "They always used to glare at me though. I remember overhearing father talking to them all about me. Never good things. They did avoid me though," I smiled at the end. Draco just looked at me questioningly.

"It doesn't bother you then?" he asked.

"Nope!" I said, popping the 'p'. "It used to, but I don't think about it anymore. You gonna open the letter or not?"

He slowly starting peeling off the snake that held the envelope closed. I held my breath, unsure of what was going to happen when the flap finally opened. When Draco pulled out a small piece of parchment, I let out the breath, relieved nothing was going to attack us.

"I was actually expecting a hex to come at us then," I tried to joke, but my voice came out strained. Draco still hadn't moved, his eyes trained on the small square in his palm. "Drake?"

The letter dropped to the floor along with the snake. I looked into the steel grey eyes of my twin and was instantly panicked. Fear. That was all I could see from his eyes. No other emotion, no other way of knowing it was all going to be okay.

I slowly leant down to retrieve the small square that had caused that emotion for my twin. The whole time, my eyes were trained on the boy in front of me, trying to guess what the small letter had said. When I finally persuaded myself to look at the parchment, I understood Draco's reaction. Just four words. Four words, with the power to make my heart stop.

'Time is running out'

**

"Are you sure Draco is okay?" Cho whispered to me while we sat in the library. I wasn't concentrating on the conversation properly as my head was spinning from the many events that had happened in the past few days. "Mel!"

"Sorry. Yeah, Drake's fine. He's just a bit tired, loads of homework I think," I mumbled, turning my attention back to the textbook in front of me. "Why?"

"Well, he seems a bit out of it, like he's never really concentrating. To be honest, you've been acting the same. Is it some twin thing? Or has something happened at home?" she pressed quietly. I looked up and shook my head slowly. She was just worried about us; I couldn't be annoyed at her.

"Everything's fine. I'm just tired and school is finally getting the better of me I guess." I put my quill down and stretched my back out. Cho smiled at me and pulled the text book I'd been using into the middle of the table.

We both sat in silence for a couple of minutes, copying out the information we needed for our potions homework. I quickly glanced across at Cho to see she was staring blankly at the paper in front of her.

"What's up?"

"I'm just bored of having to go over the same things over and over again. I mean, I didn't get it the first time around, and I still don't now and it's just..." she let out an exasperated sigh.

"We haven't even looked at this yet. Slughorn just set us this so we would have a-" she cut me off.

"I never told you, because I was embarrassed. Just promise you won't laugh or anything?" I nodded, wondering why she was suddenly so shy and quiet. The Cho I knew was normally bubbly and loud. "Well, I'm repeating my sixth year. I failed my end of year exams and I've been told I have to redo them to stay in the school."

Her head dropped in sadness. I don't know why she thought I would have laughed at her, but I felt a wave of pity for my best friend.

"Why have you been held back a year?" I asked quietly, pretending to be working so she wouldn't feel as embarrassed.

"When Cedric died, I sort of went into a stage of depression. Then when I was with Harry, it started to get better, my grades picked up again and I was doing alright, but then we split up - badly - and I got worse again. I was still in a depressed state when I took the exams so I failed them. This is pretty much my last chance."

I reached over and hugged her. She had been through a lot and I felt bad for her. It only lasted for a minute or so and she smiled gratefully in return and muttered a small 'thank you'.

My mind had been taken away from my last visit to the Room of Requirement in a week. No matter how hard I had tried, I couldn't seem to get those four words out of my head. We were into November now, and it must have been clear to the Dark Lord we weren't getting far. His words weren't a threat. They were a promise.

"I've gotta go and meet Drake," I lied smoothly to Cho. She nodded and I picked up my bag with the books I had been studying from. I walked through the castle and made my way to the grounds where I could get some air to stop my head spinning.

"Melanie? Melanie!" someone shouted me from the other side of the clump of trees I had settled myself under. I looked over and saw Luna Lovegood walking towards me, with a dreamy look upon her face.

"Hey Luna," I said, my voice sounded distant. She just glided slowly forward holding a scroll of parchment, bound with a purple ribbon.

"Thanks Luna. Do you know what it's about?"

"No, I just got told to give you it," she told me. With that, she started gliding back towards the castle. I sat for a while wondering what it could be about. In the end, I gave in, and pulled the scroll out of my pocket and gently undid the ribbon.

Miss Melanie Lestrange

You're invited to a Christmas Party in my office on the 21st December 1996. Please feel free to bring a guest with you

I hope you can make it

Professor H Slughorn

I read the invite over a couple of times before fully taking in the fact I was being asked to his Christmas Party. I've heard that he only invites powerful witches and wizards or ones with a famous family, so I was pretty shocked. I stood up and started making my way back through the school.

The next thing I knew, I was pacing backwards and forwards in front of the Room of Requirement, thinking of the usual place me and Draco met in. The door appeared and I slipped inside quickly, hoping no one was walking down the corridor as I did.

The cabinet stood as tall as usual, some of its old colour back now it had been slightly repaired again. Two large desks had been dragged into the middle of the room along with two huge armchairs. It had been my idea so we wouldn't get behind on our studies. Another small table sat next to the cabinet where all diagrams and spells relating to it were kept. I quickly scanned the room for Draco, noticing as I did that he wasn't here and there was now 10 new books spread onto my desk with a note on top.

I carefully walked over to the desk, dread filling my mind as I was unsure about the note. It could be from anyone. It could be a threat from anyone. As I got closer, I recognised the writing of my twin.

I'm coming by later, sorry I can't be sooner. Got a detention from McGonagall. The books should give us a bit more of an idea on the cabinet. Start looking through them for me?

Drake x

I placed the note back on the table, along with the invite I had received for Slughorn's party and settled myself in the armchair behind my desk. The biggest of the books was at the top, so I picked it up and opened it onto the first page of tiny writing.

'This is going to be a long night' I thought as I started scanning my eyes over the page.

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Hey guys! This chapter has taken me a full week to write, so I hope you like it! I have just a few things I need to say.

First, this chapter is dedicated to leedbookie. You should all go and check out their amazing story 'A Complicated Love Story'. It's a Dramione fanfic, and it's absolutely amazing!

Secondly, the next chapter is going to be the biggest so far, with a big detail coming up in it, so the update might take even longer but I'll try my best to get it up soon

Thirdly, you have probably noticed that now when Mel talks about Draco, she calls him Drake. Since they are close twins, she uses the shortest version of his name, but is the only one to do so, unless I decide Pansy will. I've gone through the other chapters and have changed it in them as well

Lastly, I have an English narrative and descriptive resit coming up, so I'm going to post them both on here in the next few days. When I do, I would realy appreciate it if you could read it and let me know if it's good or not 'cos I would love a good grade on this!

So you know the drill. Vote and comment if you like it, and fan me if you're feeling nice ;) Until next time...C x