There will be continuity errors and plot holes because I was rewriting the series when I had to abandon my account.

***

September 1st!

"Oh my God," I muttered, gathering all my things. I was catching the Hogwarts Express today and was completely terrified of what people would do when they saw me. I had a spell or two a few weeks ago, but today I'm feeling pretty good!

 "Hydra cannot come with you," father said, though I already knew this. She was curled up on my bed, and boy was she huge!

 "I know," I nodded.

 "By the way, these came a little while ago. I should give Draco his, too," father said, handing me an envelope. I opened it to see my owl results.

"Well?" father asked.

 "Oh no," I whispered.

 "Astronomy, outstanding; Care of Magical Creatures, outstanding; Charms, outstanding; Defense Against the Dark Arts...oh my God! I got an outstanding!" I laughed and father smiled.

 "Go on," he nodded.

 "Divination, acceptable; herbology, outstanding; History of Magic, acceptable; Potions, outstanding; Transfiguration, outstanding," I said and father put a hand to my shoulder.

 "You did very well considering I interrupted your history of magic exam. Seven outstanding, and two acceptable; I'm very proud of you," he smiled.

 "Thank you," I said, closing my trunk and heading downstairs with Alisana.

 "Draco," I called, walking up behind him. He turned around and I gave him the envelope. He opened it and scanned the page, wincing. He handed it over to me and I scanned it as well.

Astronomy: Acceptable

Care of Magical Creatures: Acceptable

Charms: Exceeds Expectations

Defense Against the Dark Arts: Outstanding

Divination: Acceptable

Herbology: Exceeds Expectations

History of Magic: Poor

Potions: Outstanding

Transfiguration: Outstanding

"You did well! I don't see how I did better in History of Magic though," I laughed.

 "I was worried about you. God, you did so much better than I did," he said, looking over mine. Bellatrix walked in and traded Draco's O.W.L's for my guitar. She looked over them and nodded once in approval.

 "Now, you two are ready, correct?" she asked and I nodded.

 "It'll be stressful," she warned.

 "I know," we said together.

 "Then let's go," Bella said. She gave us Floo Powder and we arrived at Kings Cross discreetly. I had on a leather jacket and made my hair pitch black, so that it looked like a ravens wing. I had it fall over my face and tucked my wand into my skinny jeans pocket. I filled back in, thankfully, and my bruises healed. My scars, however, were still there. We walked through platforms nine and ten, and Draco took my hand as reassurance.

 "How's your depression today?" he asked as I raised my head to put on a confident look.

 "Fine," I shrugged.

 "Are you sure?" he asked and I nodded.

 "Oh God," Pansy said, walking over and hugging me.

 "I still cannot believe you're here," she smiled.

 "It's great to be here," I smiled genuinely. I'm dreading killing Dumbledore, but if Draco fails, I've promised myself that I'll do it. I really hope he'll understand. I feel like I owe something to him.

 "Well you look much better than when you first got back," she smiled. I heard a sudden roar of whispers and looked around to discover that students have officially seen me.

"This'll be hell," I groaned and we got on the train.

 "Cute little...thing," Pansy said, pointing to my pygmy puff, whose name is officially Brian. Yeah, be jealous.

 "It's a pygmy puff," I smiled.

 "Awesome," she laughed as we sat in a compartment with Thane and Ariana.

 "Hello beautiful," I winked at Ariana and she laughed.

 "Hey gorgeous," she said.

 "You look lovely," Thane complimented.

 "Why thank you, cult member number two!" I said brightly and he made a face of confusion. Draco just chuckled and rolled his eyes. Blaise walked in and smiled at me.

 "Hey!" he said.

 "Hi, cult member number three," I smiled and he gave me a look of confusion too.

 "I'm ahead of you; number two," Thane smirked.

 "I'm number one, so I win," Draco said, kissing me quickly.

 "For now," I smirked and he gave me a teasing scowl. The train got moving and people were gawking as they passed by.

 "Shouldn't you be on prefect duties?" Pansy asked.

 "Eh," I wrinkled my nose. Truth be told, we've given up on that. Our attention is on our mission, but we can't tell them that. Our compartment door opened and Claire walked inside.

 "You're back!" she hugged me, and then took out two scrolls.

 "This one is for you, and this one is for Blaise," she said, and then strolled out. I frowned and opened it, seeing an invitation.

 Leah,

     I would be delighted if you would join me for a bite of lunch in compartment C.

Sincerely,

   Professor H. E. F. Slughorn.

"Who's that?" Blaise asked me and I shrugged.

 "A new professor maybe? Why is he inviting us to lunch?" I asked and Blaise shrugged.

 "Well, let's go," I sighed, and we made our way to compartment C. People gawked at me in wonder and some people even asked me to sign their Daily Prophet with my interview. I declined. We walked into Compartment C, and there stood some bald, mustached man that I didn't know. We were not the only ones invited.

 "Ah, Leah and Blaise, correct?" he asked and we nodded.

 "It's a great pleasure to meet the both of you!" he smiled.

 "I am Professor Slughorn," he said, shaking our hands.

 "I don't believe you know Cormac McLaggen?" he said and we shook our heads. He smiled at me in a greeting, but I kept my gaze icy. Just because everyone believes I'm a good girl now, it does not mean I'm going to act any differently.

 "This is Marcus Belby...do you know each other?" he asked us, and we shook our heads again. Marcus gave us a thin smile, to which I gave a not so nice smile back.

 "Oh and this charming young lady says she knows you!" he said and Ginny rolled her eyes at me when Slughorn wasn't looking. I gave her a smile and Blaise nodded once. I guess he was going to be civil to my friends as well. We were seated and then the door opened once more. Ginny was next to me, and then we looked up to see Potter and Neville.

 "Harry, M'boy!" Slughorn said warmly. Once introductions were done and I glared at Potter, we were interrogated about our history. It seemed everyone had great connections to someone famous or of great influence.

 "So you're called 'The Chosen One' now," Slughorn said to Potter. I narrowed my eyes and Potter said nothing. Slughorn started rambling on about the night his parents were murdered.

 "...the word was that you must have powers beyond the ordinary," he said and Blaise coughed next to me.

 "Yeah, Zabini, because you're so talented!" Ginny snapped, and then looked at me apologetically.

 "Oh dear, you want to be careful Blaise! I saw this young lady perform the most marvelous bat bogey hex as I passed her carriage! I wouldn't cross her!" Slughorn chuckled.

 "Well so long as he's able to hide behind Leah, he can say whatever he pleases," Potter glared.

 "At least he's got a powerful friend," I said coolly, looking at Neville.

 "Oh my, tempers are running high today!" Slughorn chuckled.

 "Anyway, so many rumors this summer!" he said, speaking to Potter again. I rolled my eyes, and gave Blaise a look as he rambled on.

 "You three were there, too, correct?" Slughorn asked, and I saw all eyes on me.

 "...what?" I asked and Potter snorted.

 "Azkaban has left her a bit spacey," he said nastily.

 "Why don't you take your attitude and shove it up your ass," I glared and Ginny stifled a giggle.

 "Yes I was there," I turned back to Slughorn.

 "I'm a spy for Dumbledore, as I'm sure the whole world knows now. However, it seems no one knew that at the Ministry, and when I told them, they didn't believe me," I said, resting my cool gaze on Potter.

 "We still don't," he glared.

 "I believe her," Ginny said firmly.

 "She's intelligent, unlike the likes of you," I said.

 "Hm, I heard you had some spark in you!" Slughorn laughed and I tensed. I knew where this was going.

 "Speaking of spark, you have the Power of the Phoenix, yes?" he asked and I just looked at him. Blaise looked at me sideways and I saw him frown.

 "Show us, show us!" Slughorn urged and I looked at him.

 "I can't," I said.

 "Why is this?" he smiled.

 "In Azkaban...it got muted. I just have to trigger it, that's all," I shrugged. He looked disappointed but moved on to question me.

 "So you're the Dark Lords daughter! You must get in trouble often for being on our side," he said.

 "No, not really; he believes I'm on his side. He's in denial, I think," I shrugged.

 "So the comment about being depressed in the Prophet..."he moved on.

 "What do you think?" I raised one eyebrow.

 "Oh it's true," Potter butt in. I threw him a vicious glare and he smiled smugly.

 "Dumbledore told me all about it. When he went to visit her she was actually bleeding. He said she had a bunch of scars all over her wrists," he said, and then before I could do anything, he reached over and pulled up both my sleeves.

 "Oh dear," Slughorn said.

 "You are not permitted to touch!" I snapped, pulling my arms away.

 "You're asking for it, Potter!" Blaise snapped, putting a protective arm around me.

 "Oh really? That seems like Malfoy's job, not yours," Potter raised his eyebrows.

 "Oh he's a cult boy," Ginny winked at me and Blaise gave me yet another confused look.

 "Friends protect other friends, but then again you wouldn't know a thing about that. You let her rot in Azkaban, didn't you? Some friend you turned out to be in the end," Blaise sneered.

 "Oh it'll be like war of the worlds in here!" Slughorn laughed, but made no move to stop us.

 "She deserves to be suicidal. I have my connections you know; I heard Leah had a major break down when she got home. Broke the mirror...went crazy on Malfoy," he raised his eyebrows. I gave him the meanest glare I could muster, and he flinched.

 "You don't know anything," I rolled my eyes.

 "It's true and you know it," he narrowed his eyes.

 "No, it isn't," I snapped. It was a lie, but oh well.

 "Harry, enough!" Ginny yelled. We fell silent and Slughorn finally chuckled.

 "Well you lot are sure feisty! It's like light and dark," he looked from Potter to me.

 "Speaking of dark, it's awfully late! We best wrap this up," he said, and we all stood. He gave us all departing words and said to stop by anytime. Yeah right. We walked back to our compartment and I put a hand to Blaise's shoulder.

 "Thanks for sticking up for your whacky friend," I smirked.

 "No problem," he smiled. We pulled open the door and I walked in while Blaise leaned against it.

 "People suck," I glared. Draco laughed at me and when Blaise went to shut the door, it got jammed.

 "What the hell?" I asked.

 "What's wrong with this thing?" Blaise asked angrily. Suddenly it flew open and Blaise fell back, elbowing my stomach and landing on Pansy.

 "Ah!" I yelled out as Pansy gasped. We struggled to get him off of us and once he did, I shut the door and Blaise sat down.

 "Jesus!" I said.

 "You just elbowed my girlfriend," Draco raised his eyebrows.

 "I fell on mine, so let it go," he said and I laughed.

 "So what'd Slughorn want?" Draco asked.

"Just trying to make up to well-connected people; not that he managed to find many," Blaise rolled his eyes.

 "Who else did he invite?" Draco asked. I uncrossed my legs as Draco put his head in my lap and I stroked his hair.

 "McLaggen from Gryffindor," he said.

 "His uncle's big in the Ministry," Draco nodded.

 "Someone from Ravenclaw...Belby?" Blaise said and I nodded.

 "He's a prat!" Pansy snorted.

 "And Longbottom, Potter, and that Ginny girl," Blaise said.

 "He invited Longbottom?" Ariana scoffed.

 "What's Longbottom got to interest Slughorn?" Thane asked.

 "I want to know why you weren't invited," I said, looking from Draco to Thane.

 "We're too sexy," Draco smirked and I laughed.

 "What's so special about the Weasley girl though?" Draco wrinkled his nose.

 "She's pretty," I offered.

 "So are you, I suppose that's why you got in?" Draco snorted.

 "Don't get feisty with me," I glared and he sighed, taking my hand and playing with my fingers.

 "Well I pity Slughorn's taste. Maybe he's going a bit senile. Shame, my father always said he was a good wizard in his day. My father used to be a bit of a favorite of his," Draco said.

 "I don't think he's interested in Death Eaters," Blaise said.

 "Excuse me," I said.

 "Well everyone thinks you're on the aurors side. As for Lucius...well we all know he isn't," Ariana said.

 "Well I am on the aurors side," I examined my nails. Draco gave a short laugh and snatched my hand back.

"Well who cares what he's interested in? What is he, when it comes down to it? Just some stupid teacher. I mean, I might not even be at Hogwarts next year, what's it matter to me if some fat old has-been likes me or not?" Draco said and I froze. Not coming back to Hogwarts?

 "What do you mean you might not be at Hogwarts next year?" I demanded and he looked up at me.

 "Well you never know. I might have- er- moved onto bigger and better things," he said. Only Pansy and myself knew about Draco's dark mark, but the others looked just as shocked.

 "I doubt it," I snorted.

 "Do you mean...Him?" Ariana asked as Draco gave me a look of surprise.

 "Mother wants me to complete my education, but personally, I don't see why it's important these days. I mean, think about it... when the Dark Lord takes over, is he going to care about how many O.W.Ls or N.E.W.T.s anyone's got? Of course he isn't...it'll be all about the kind of service he received, the level of devotion he was shown," Draco said.

 "I'm pretty sure my father cares about your education," I said.

 "I'm pretty sure he doesn't," Draco smirked.

 "He needs us to be bright and intelligent. You cannot have Death Eaters who don't know anything," I said.

 "Well, Miss Golden Girl, you're all for the trio anyway, whether you work for your father or not," Draco scoffed.

 "That is not my point," I said.

 "She's right, you need to be smart," Ariana said.

 "Well I did terribly on my O.W.L.s so, naturally, school isn't very important for me anymore," Thane said.

 "Will you guys promise me, that no matter what happens to me, you'll stay in school? I don't want you guys on your own, acting like idiots because you weren't properly trained," I said.

 "What the hell is possibly going to happen to you?" Pansy asked.

 "You never know," I said, thinking of the horcrux inside me.

 "Plenty of people would want me dead...I live a dangerous life," I continued saying.

 "Don't scare us like that," Ariana glared.

 "Just promise me," I snapped, and they all made hasty promises.

 "I don't think Voldemort will take any sixteen year old Death Eaters anyway," Blaise changed the subject.

 "He has me...and he had Alex," I said.

 "That was completely different though," Pansy said.

 "I can see Hogwarts," Draco said, and Blaise grabbed his bag. I heard something up on the luggage rack and my eyes shot up, searching. I didn't see anything, so I guess it was just the bag. Draco was staring up at it too, but figured the same as I did. He met my eyes and smiled, but suddenly, I didn't feel too happy. He looked at me in concern and sat up, facing me. I gave him a weak smile and Pansy was watching in concern. None of us said a word, and I'm assuming they were all worried about me. The train came to a stop and Thane cleared his throat, making everyone leave except Draco and me.

 "You alright?" he asked, and then kissed me softly.

 "I think I need a potion," I said. He smiled and went into his trunk after shutting the blinds. I frowned out of curiosity and then he spun around with his wand in hand.

 "Petrificus Totalus!" he said, and someone fell from the luggage rack with a loud thud. I gasped, stepping back as I looked down at Potter.

 "Potter!" I snapped.

 "I thought so. I heard Blaise's trunk hit you. And I thought I saw something white flash through the air when he came back," Draco said smugly.

 "You didn't hear anything I care about, Potter. But while you're here..."Draco smirked and I eyed my bag with the razor in it. I jumped slightly when Draco suddenly stomped on Potter's face and then I smirked very lightly.

 "That's for my father," he glared. Draco grabbed the invisibility cloak and threw it over Potter.

 "I don't reckon they'll find you until the trains back in London. See you around, Potter...or not," Draco shrugged. He took my hand and looked at me in concern.

 "Are you alright?" he asked as I bit my tongue so hard it bled.

"I need a potion. Now," I said, and we made our way off the train. We caught the last carriage to the castle and Draco had his arms around me as a comforting gesture.

 "That didn't upset you, did it?" he frowned.

 "No," I gave a harsh laugh.

 "Good because I don't feel sorry," he said and I smiled slightly. The carriage let off in front of the school and we walked into the Great Hall to find Severus, who was not there.

 "We didn't pass him, did we?" I asked.

 "I wasn't paying attention," Draco said. We sat down and I put my head in my hands.

 "Ayyyy she's back!" Ryan Nott smiled.

 "Welcome home Leah!" Amortentia smiled from down the table.

 "Good to have you!" Leon smiled.

 "She stayed strong!" Sapphire laughed, hugging me tightly.

"That she did," Damon nodded, hugging me as well.

 "Hi," I said to everyone.

 "All we get is a 'hi'," Amortentia teased.

 "That's okay though," Daphne shrugged. Crabbe and Goyle were still not hanging around with us, and I suspect it had to do with the time I sparked Blaise.

 "Your father killed my mother," said a quiet voice that no one heard but me. I looked over to see Astoria staring at the floor with shining wet eyes.

 "Good," I said coldly and she scurried off. Just as the feast reached its end, Severus walked in with a haughty expression on his face. Then, as dessert began, Potter walked in with blood all over him. We all stared and Draco began telling the story of how he broke his nose. That's my little Death Eater.

 I twisted my hands and eyed the knife on the table, which Ariana saw. She quickly took it away and gave me a stern look. I shot up from the table and felt all eyes on me as I walked out of the Hall. I quickly made me way down to the potions room and frowned at the slightly different vibe it gave off. I rummaged through the potion ingredients, pulling out everything I needed. I started working on the potion with tears streaking down my cheeks. It took a while and just as I went to chop up the last ingredient, I sliced open my thumb. I gave a shout and jumped back slightly, quickly sticking my thumb in my mouth. It was bleeding pretty well so it took a few times to stop the flow.

 "I do have to say your potion skill impress me," said someone behind me and I gasped, spinning around. Slughorn stood there with an easy going smile, and I relaxed seeing that he wasn't angry at me being here.

 "Sorry professor, I just couldn't wait for Snape to get down here. I figured he wouldn't mind if I used his supplies," I said.

 "No, I would assume he wouldn't, but they aren't his," Slughorn smiled.

 "Pardon?" I asked.

 "Professor Snape is no longer our potion master," he explained.

 "What? He didn't get sacked, did he?" I panicked.

 "No my dear girl," he chuckled, "he's simply teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts now. I'm the new potion master."

 "Oh, I'm so sorry sir, I didn't know," I said, bottling the potion up so I had a pretty good stock.

 "Would you like it back?" I asked, and I saw that my hands had started to shake.

 "No, no, I'd been watching you and I know this is merely for your depression. Feel free to use the potions room whenever you'd like!" he smiled and I smiled back.

 "Thank you, sir. I'll just be on my way then," I said and he nodded as I walked out with my stock of potions.

***

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