Gone Awry

When Ash reached her classroom, she was surprisingly fussed about instead of scolded. Apparently Tracy had noticed that she wasn't there yet and therefore described the most gruesome pains that a girl could have without currently giving birth in order to excuse her. Now, only being late half an hour Professor Sprout didn't want to believe that she was already fine and was currently making her chew heaps of leaves that where supposed helpful in these situations.

When the professor finally thought she did enough to help her brilliant student, she let her join the class again.

"You are so dead," Ash harshly whispered at Tracy with a glare, who was trying to hold back laughter.

"Its your own fault for coming late. Where were you any ways?"

"I tried to figure out what Draco is up to. He doesn't look all to well."

"Yeah, I saw that as well... Did you find anything?"

"Not really... he locked himself in the Room of Requirements. But I have no idea which room he needed," Ash said quietly and pretended to take notes. She already knew most of the stuff Sprout was talking about.

"Did you get a glance inside it?"

"Inside it? Um... no not really, but maybe I can follow him gain and get a little peak," Ash decided.

"Or you can just ask him."

"Ask him? Do you really think that he would tell me something like that?"

"Sure. He loved you, did he not?"

Ash let out a short burst of an unbelieving chuckle, before shaking her head and turning her attention back at the plant in front of her - that was currently trying to eat her hair. Silently she fought her hair back and thought about Draco and the Room of Requirements.

After all her classes ended and she and her friends passed some time at the lake, Ash was sitting with them in the Slytherin common room and was waiting.

Just sitting on one of the couches that faced the entrance Ash pulled out an book and started reading it, as her friends finally went to bed and left her alone in the common room.

Curfew came and went and soon she was really the only person in the whole house to still be awake. Reading her book and carefully watching the door. Finally at around 2 o'clock in the morning the wall opened and revealed an tired Draco Malfoy.

Ash didn't say a word as she watched him enter the common room blindly, heading straight for the dorm rooms. Just before he reached the door Ash let her book slap together, startling Draco. Swiftly he turned around and she saw his eyes widen as he saw her sitting on the couch, waiting.

"What are you doing here?" he asked frantically.

"I'm concerned."

"Concerned?"

"About you."

Draco's eyes sprinted from one side of the room to the other, not knowing what to do.

"You look like death." Ash continued and simply pointed towards another couch across from her. Taking the hint, Draco's shoulders slumped a bit more and he obediently sat down on his designated spot. "What are you doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"I know that you vanish towards the Room of Requirements every day. You only come back at 2 in the morning and every free period is also spent in that room. Furthermore, it seems as if you haven't slept in the last 2 months. Also your idea about making you leave the Quidditch team... It's not like you"

"And what does it concern you? Its not like your my girlfriend any more," Draco snapped at her.

Ash looked at him with a frown. "Yes, I ain't. But that doesn't mean that I can't be concerned about you, as a friend. I know you... very well and your not yourself any more."

"You have no idea what your talking about," Draco growled and stood up to leave.

When he had taken a couple of steps, Ash asked, "Does it have anything to do with the Vanishing Cabinet from Borgin and Burkes." When the words reached him, she saw Draco stiffen and turn around as if he had seen a ghost... or well... as if he had seen a fire demon. His face was even paler then it was normally and his eyes where the side of platters, the dark circles under then made him look haunted.

"What do you mean?"

"I saw you in winter, when you looked at that black Cabinet. Its a Vanishing Cabinet, correct? I recognized it in one of our history books."

"And what should it have to do with what I'm doing?"

"Harry went into the Room of Hidden Things last year... he described a cabinet just like an Vanishing Cabinet that was standing in there. Now I'm guessing that you want to interli-" but she wasn't able to finish her sentence. Draco had starred at her in shock as she told him what she had puzzled herself together, but before she was able to finish he had pulled out his wand and let a spell hit her, making her fly against the wall behind her with full force.

Her back hit the wall behind her painfully and air escaped from her lungs at the impact, making it hard to breath. Next her head came in contact with the wall, making her dizzy and gave her a terrible headache.

Still hanging in the air, back pressed against the wall, Ash starred at Draco in shock. Quickly she tried to grab her own wand, but before she could reach for it, she was thrown across the room once again and the wand was ripped out of her hands. Hitting the Wall with her face first, she could feel her nose crunch at the impact and as she fell to the floor, with her back first she could feel vomit erupt from her stomach.

"Draco!" she gasped as some air returned to her body. But her body was thrown through the air again before she could say anything else. This time hitting the low ceiling with her left side, again she heard a crack and felt a sharp pain shoot through her body.

"Stop it!" she cried next before her body flew through the air one again Again, but this time she didn't come into contact with stone, instead she came to a stop right before Draco.

"You have no idea what your talking about!" he screamed at her and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her body thoroughly.

"Please," she slurred, her eyes closed in pain, but quickly she forced them open to stare at Draco's intense blue eyes. "Tell me about it" she slurred putting all the force she could manage into the words and forbidding any tears to slip out of her eyes.

Shocked, Draco stepped backwards and let her skid along the floor, where she finally hit the chimney frame with her back and spat blood and vomit. Looking to the side, she saw her wand, not to far away from her and scrambled to reach it, but Draco didn't let her. Quickly he summoned it towards him and left Ash lay on the floor helplessly in pain.

Letting herself roll onto her back in defeat Ash starred at the ceiling, tears finally running loosely over her cheeks.

After a few minutes a guilty looking Draco appeared in her peripheral vision and grew sharper as he leaned over her and stroked away a bloody hair strand from her face. Slowly he took out an handkerchief and started wiping away a few tears and the blood on her face.

"I'm sorry," he whispered softly. "I just panicked because you know too much."

"What are you going to do now?" Ash asked shakily, pain ripping through her body with every word.

"Don't worry, I wont hurt you," he sighed and when he finished cleaning her face, he gave her a small peck in the lips before picking her up bridal style and carried her towards the common room exit and through the corridors of her school.

Just before Ash lost her concious, she could vaguely make out her potions professor hurriedly walk up to them.