Gone Awry

Her dorm room was empty, when Ash woke up early the next morning. Sighing, she let her feet slide off the bed and sat up, looking at the cold made beds and the empty floor that was normally littered with cloths or shoes and such. Next she pushed herself up and walked over to the last remaining trunk, grabbing some cloths, which she quickly put on after taking a shower.

The corridor was empty and silent as she walked down towards the common room. Normally there was always some noise to be heard. No matter if it were the extreme snores from the girl in the 5th door - which Tracy and her always made fun about - or if it were giggles of other students. But today even the portrays seemed to have gone on vacation. Rubbing her arm for warmth, Ash pushed open the first door.

The little room between the corridor and the common room was empty. Both Slytherin portrays vacant.

The common room was empty. Large black couches littered the room, the fireplace was dead and the only movement that could be seen in the entire room was the gentle weaving motion of the seaweed in front of the window. Slowly she walked over to the lake window and sat on the cold marble floor right in front of it. Calmly she let her forehead rest on the cool glass and followed the seaweeds movement back and forth with her eyes.

She stayed sitting like that for what seem to be hours, entranced by the smooth movements, not moving a muscle of her body, until she suddenly heard a door behind her open. Thrown out of her trance like state, her head snapped up and she turned to look at where the noise had come from.

There he was standing frozen in the door frame, doorknob still in his hands.

Not saying a word they just stared at each other. Not moving a muscle they just stared at each other. Never diverting their eyes, they stared at each other.

"Good Morning," she finally choked out, finding her voice again.

"G' morning," he answered quietly.

"Why are you up so early?" she asked

"I could ask you the same question," he avoided her question.

Instead of answering she just smiled at him, got off the floor and walked up to him. Softly taking his face in her hands and letting one of them glide over his soft blond hair. "You look awful," she whispered quietly into his ear as she studied his face. His skin was paler then she ever saw it. It nearly resembled the pale peach marble skin colour that Vampires seemed so proud of. He had dark shadows under his eyes and his normally perfect rose coloured full lips where chapped, pale and broken. Furthermore, she swore that she saw bite marks on them, as if he had bitten on them in frustration. Also his hair didn't resemble it former beauty. His normally silk hair was slowly getting greasy and the ends where splitting - something that he normally never allowed to happen. But worst where his eyes. The eyes that always held so much life, the eyes that normally seemed to glisten and glow with pride, were dull. No more light, no more life, no more pride. Only a haunted look sprinkled with sorrow, pain and self loathing could be found. "What did they do to you?" the girl asked quietly, stroking his cheek softly.

"Its none of your business," he snapped and tried to pull away from her, but she stopped him by holding his left arm tightly.

"Is this the reason?" she asked quietly eyes wandering to the arm she was holding, stopping him with her words.

"What do you mean?" he asked, voice shaking.

"Oh, come on. I saw it. I know what you are," she said quietly, still holding onto his arm tightly.

"You... remember that?"

Now the girl looked at him confused. "Of course I do. How on earth could I have forgotten about that?"

The boy looked at her in fear before shaking his head furiously. "I have to go," he said and ripped out of her tight grasp and racing out of the common room, leaving her standing alone again.

With a sigh she looked around the empty common room again before swiftly following the boy out of the common room and following his thundering footsteps down the corridor.

Soon she heard him reach his destination. But unlike her expectations, he didn't run to the Great Hall or the Room of Requirements, but to Snapes office. Quickly she leaned down to the keyhole and looked inside.

The blond boy was furiously gesturing at their teacher, seemingly screaming his heart out. Meanwhile the professor just quietly sat there with an bored expression letting the boys rant go on and on and on. Patiently waiting for him to finish talking.

Because she didn't hear a word, Ash quickly searched for a better place to sit, but then remembered her expendable ears. Swiftly she summoned them to her, shrunk one end of the ear to fit into the keyhole and began to listen.

"-thought you were going to make her forget!" Draco screamed. "You told me not to worry, that you would take care of her. That she would never remember anything about the night or about the fact that I'm a Death Eater!"

"Hold on a minute, Mr. Malfoy," Snape finally interrupted, "I never said anything about making her forget that you are a Death Eater. I only shoved the memories of that one night into her subconscious, not the fact that you are what you are. That was way to long ago for me to actually being able to stop her remembering what you are and what you did. It would have caused irregularities in her actions, making sure that she would search for the missing memories and eventually finding them."

"Why didn't you just erase the memories? This all would have never-"

"You can not erase specific memories. Either you erase them all or you don't erase any. The only chance we had to not remember what you did to her was by alternating the memory and pushing the truth far away into her subconscious, where she will hopefully never find it," Snape explained and left Ash confused.

What were they talking about? Whose memory did the alter? Hers? No, that can't be right... can it? Would Snape really do this to her? What happened that they needed to alter her memories? And how did Snape know that Draco was a Death Eater? Was he a Death Eater himself? - Millions of questions shot through Ash's mind as she tried to contemplate what she just heard.

"I swore to protect you Draco. I vowed with an unbreakable vow. Trust me Draco. I did my job correctly. She will not remember anything of that night unless you give her reason to search deep inside of her own mind."

"I already told you, Professor. I don't need your protection! I was chosen to do this. From all the others, he chose me! And I will not disappoint him!" Draco said, voice shivering.

"Your scared Draco. Your trying to hide it, but your doing a very bad that. Let me help you!"

"Never! I was chosen, this is my time to shine."

She saw Snape tighten his grip on his chair as he shook his head in disappointment. "Alright Draco. Just don't forget. If you need any help come to me. And don't worry about Weasley. She won't remember I made sure of that"

Ash saw Draco give a quick nod and then turn towards the door. "Wait Draco-" Snape started, but Ash didn't stop to listen to the last part. Quickly she retrieved the ear and ran down the corridor, hiding behind one of the statues just before Draco opened the office door and walked out.

Breathing heavily, Ash tried to calm down and make sense of what she had just heard. It seems that something had happened one night, that she was never supposed to remember. Something they made her forget... But what? What did Draco do to her? But was even more important, what exactly was Draco chosen for?

She guessed the 'he' was the Dark Lord. But why would he choose Draco for anything? What could Draco do in Hogwarts that would help Voldemort? And why would Snape make an unbreakable vow to protect Draco?

Confused and unsure of what she should do now, Ash could only think of you person that could help her now. Swiftly she stumbled up to her feet and ran down the corridor.