"Claudere Ostium." Snape muttered from his desk, pointing his wand at the jet black door and making it close silently, latching the multiple locks that were placed horizontally underneath each other.

"It's your father." Snape said, eyeing Draco intensely.

"What has he done?" I said more deeply, trying to grasp the situation more seriously.

"He's now using emotional force to prudentially acclaim your position as his master's assistant."

"You don't mean..." Draco's hand started shaking uncontrollably as he raised to to rest on the table.

"You heard it correct." Snape pursed his lips.

He gulped. "I'm telling you right here and right now that I will be nowhere near responsible for Potter's death."

"You have no choice, unless you want your parents to witness the flesh on your skin turning to ashes through the Dark Lord's wand." Snape spat.

Draco exhaled unevenly and my eyes fixed forlornly at a distant sand timer. Somehow he had tons of them placed around his room, maybe as a reminder of something.

"I never knew my parents were - death eaters." I announced, barely above a whisper; letting it all out without meeting the surprised, jerky faces of Snape and my brother as I said this.

"Well now you do." Snape said unsatisfyingly.

My eyes widened and I felt as if my lungs had rocks in them.

"What do you want us to do?" I said bravely, sitting up straight with my shoulders backwards.

Snape flashed a look of concern yet surprise at my eagerness to readily accept his conditions and the situation I was in.

💓

"Morning Harry." I said cheerfully as I grabbed the seat next to him, trying to not sound too miserable from what Snape had told me last evening.

"Morning, would you like to come with us to Hogsmeade?"

"Err yeah sure, when are you leaving?"

"Like, in about ten minutes."

"Okay." I dug into my toast.

"Right, let's go now that we're done."

"Wait, I still have half of a toast left." Ron announced, squashing it all in his mouth at once.

Hermione cringed. "Do you ever stop eating?"

"Yeah - when I have to sleep." He teased back.

"Come on guys." Harry led the way.

"Wow it's snowing!" I danced around, swirling and turning in front of all the others while they laughed and caught up.

"This place is beautiful I whispered." I leant over a fence, staring into the distance

"I know, it is." Harry came beside me and our eyes locked.

"Ahem ahem...." Ron coughed interruptingly.

We looked away from each other and I sensed a sly grin appearing on Hermione and Ron's face at this moment.

"Shall we get a bit closer?"

"Huh?" Harry asked surprisingly.

"To the castle." I replied.

"Oh... I don't know if it's safe in there for you."

"For me?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"I don't want any of you to get hurt in there, especially as we're so close to our OWLs."

"Alright." I breathed, letting out a misty vapor from my mouth with a smile.

"My cheeks are ice cold!" I giggled.

Suddenly, Harry got into some sort of trance and before I knew it, his hand was unknowingly on my cheek, releasing its warmth and taking away my coldness.

He met my eyes and didn't even blink once. I just gazed back innocently, not knowing what to do.

"It really is - ice cold." He said, still not moving or blinking, as if he was jeopardized.

Ron and Hermione exchanged shocking glances and smirked to themselves.

"We'll meet you back in the common room, Harry and Ida." They walked away.

Harry jumped out of his trance and looked around embarrassed. I smiled secretly to myself and couldn't meet his eyes.

"I guess we should better head back before potions start." He said, trying to focus our minds off the subject.

"Yeah..." I said, still smiling.

Suddenly, an excruciatingly high pitched scream bashed on my ear drums and I clung onto Harry's arm.

"What was that?"

We looked around in shock.

"HARRY! WATCH OUT!" I cried to him as a body flew vertically across the landscape.

Pansy Parkinson lay almost dead by our feet.

"Oh my goodness." I bent down to touch her hand, but Hagrid's strong voice almost pushed me back.

"Stay away! All of you! Go back. And inform McGonagall about the Pansy being hexed. Go!"

We ran off as fast as we could, trying to get McGonagall to know about the situation.

McGonagall appeared in front of the door, with a rather tense face.

"I've heard." She said, wrinkling her forehead as she saw our silent but scared faces.

As she left us, we stood around in silence.

The escape of mass murderer Sirius Black from the mass breakout 1996 has caused many rumored information to have been passed around countless cities and towns to inform them of the upcoming horrors of attacks, and to protect them from the fears and the ministry has strictly suggested that minimal magic should be used outside the wizarding world unless there is an exception."

The radio drew Harry into the room.

"Har..." I began, but I turned to see him getting pulled by the radio.

"Mass murderer Sirius Black?" We both glanced at each other.

💓

"Hey, have you heard about Sirius Black being sighted in Hogsmeade!?" Seamus said, gathering a large crowd around him and the newspaper in his hand.

A moving image of Black appeared to be quite frightening, with blood on his ripped clothes and his tangly hair set loose like a lion's mane.

"I'm sure it's a misconception." Harry said unconvincingly.

"The ministry's published this." Seamus said unbelievably. "Can't be false."

Harry nodded.

"Fine, but he can't come to Hogwarts." He relied adamantly.

"Well we'll see about this when they get their prevention scheme on the road won't we?"

"Look! Pansy!" I cried softly, pointing towards her entering the hall with Romilda.

I thought she would just walk past.

"Ida MALFOY!" She cried, shouting at the top of her voice.

Harry Ron and Hermione all looked at her in surprise, narrowing their eyes and getting up from their seats.

I wondered why she was here now.

"What?" I asked.

"She's asking you. She is asking you!" Romilda filled her ears.

"We know very well what happened, and so do you."

"I honestly don't have any idea of what you're talking about." I said impatiently.

Pansy walked closer, I felt my feet backing off.

To my embarrassment, the whole hall was now witnessing a free bitch-fest.

"You hexed me didn't you." She leant in on my confused yet frightened face, spitting the words on every syllable.

"No, I..."

"Don't lie to me!" Pansy shouted.

"Pan pan, let's go - there's no point asking a liar about their lies." Romilda spoke sweetly, gripping onto Pansy's arm as a warning.

Just as I was wondering what that was all about, over her shoulder I saw Draco entering the hall with his gang.

"What's goin on?" He asked in a raised voice, making Pansy jump and soften her expressions.