Hi everyone. I am so, so sorry for it taking me seven months or so to update this story AGAIN.

As you all may or may not know, I'm a mom now! Baby is 4 months old now, and she has been taking up most of my time. I don't get much time to write unless I stay up late or get lucky and she takes a long nap. A lot of my writing has been on my phone recently (I legitimately wrote/edited a chapter for my other story, Shine Again, while I was in the bath tub the other night). This makes the writing process sometimes very slow, and I apologize for that.

I'm trying my hardest to get back into the swing of things so I greatly appreciate your patience with me through this process. <3

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Vanessa took her usual seat in Potions class, filled with a sense of determination as she drug her book from her bag. Today was the day. She was going to get to the bottom of Draco's supposed arm injury once and for all. Was it truly just a bad injury, or was it a cover up for something much more sinister? Vanessa hoped it was just a laceration or something, but with all the rumors going around about Draco being a Death Eater, she was beginning to have her doubts. After all, if it was just a bad wound, he wouldn't be so defensive about it and would just show her it without the bandages. It wasn't like she had a weak stomach; she could handle seeing wounds. She had been bothering him about it for two weeks now, and she had gotten nowhere fast. All it had done was make him upset with her for continually asking, and it usually started an argument between the two of them.

Not that she entirely minded.

Their fights had never been long and drawn out, and honestly Vanessa was becoming rather fond of the making up process. They'd argue, and then by the end of the night they would end up sneaking off to the Room of Requirement to have some fun like they had a few weeks prior. Really it was the only upside to all the arguing. It was a lot of fun, and Vanessa admittedly enjoyed the intimacy. She smiled at the thought.

"I don't think you're going to get a satisfactory answer out of him," Artemis' voice broke her thoughts. "Today or any day for that matter."

She turned to look at her friend, pushing some of her hair from her face to see him better. "Well, we'll just see about that," she declared.

Alex snorted from the other side of Artemis. "You've been at this for two weeks now. If he's not going to show you the arm free of bandages then I say he's a Death Eater," she decided. "If it was just an injury I think he'd be able to show you and just be done talking about it, you know?"

Oh, she knew, and that was the problem. She had come to a similar conclusion already, but was trying her hardest to not think so negatively about her boyfriend. It was difficult to view someone she was fond of in such a horrible light, but at this point until she had definitive proof he had a legitimate injury, what choice did she have? Innocent people didn't act like they had something to hide, and Draco was definitely acting like he was hiding something huge.

"I'll get him to show me the arm, one way or another," Vanessa assured, sort of brushing off Alex's assumption. "Just trust my methods."

"What methods?" Alex retorted. "Using your body to persuade him?"

"No! Not that!" Vanessa replied, trying to not blush profusely.

Before either of her friends could reply to her, Vanessa saw Draco enter the room out of the corner of her eye. She turned away from her friends so she could greet him as he took his seat next to her. Vanessa studied his face for a few moments, trying to place what kind of mood he was in. Draco looked exhausted, as he had for weeks now, but he was steadily looking worse as time went on. Something was deeply troubling him, and Vanessa wanted to get to the bottom of that too. Maybe the two things were related.

"Good afternoon, Draco," she greeted, offering him a small smile.

He forced a smile back at her. "Afternoon, Nessa."

Vanessa's smile quickly dissipated when she heard his tone. The stress was definitely still there, and that meant she was probably going to end up fruitless again today. "Long day?"

Draco nodded, pulling his book from his bag with a sigh. "Yeah, and I don't see it improving any time soon."

Before Vanessa could inquire further, Slughorn came into the room excitedly mumbling about what potion they would all be working on that day. Vanessa hardly listened to him, and instead spent a large majority of the lecture watching Draco carefully. He seemingly hadn't noticed her eyes observing him; he was too lost in his own thoughts as he stared blankly at his book. Vanessa knew something was bothering him, and it was a lot more than just regular old class stress. This was the first year he ever looked so dead and emotionless. Last year in Potions- and every other class for that matter- he was more obnoxious, more... Draco. Not this shell of a man he was now.

Vanessa was not a fan. She honestly missed the sass.

Class came to an end sometime later. Vanessa told Artemis and Alex that she would catch up to them in a bit, and put her focus on getting some answers out of Draco. She walked side-by-side with him down the hall heading towards his next class. Vanessa didn't care if she was late to hers or not; plus being a prefect helped her with an alibi if she was. The hallway was relatively empty, so this was as good a time as any for her to question him.

"How are you feeling? Truly," Vanessa asked.

"I'm fine," Draco repeated for what seemed like the millionth time, even though Vanessa knew it was a lie.

She stepped in front of him, effectively blocking his path. "Quit lying to me, Draco," she demanded. "I'm just trying to help you, and I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong."

"I don't need your help; I don't need anyone's help," Draco hissed. "How many times are we going to have this conversation?"

"As many times as necessary!" Vanessa fired back. "You've been walking around here like a damn zombie. You've got this supposed injury that has been around for weeks, but you won't let me look at it. Something is going on, and you're too much of a pansy to ask someone for help when you so obviously need it."

"Again, I don't need help, you filthy half-blood!" Draco shouted.

Vanessa froze. Half-blood. Well that was insulting, for multiple reasons. There was that pureblood supremacy peaking its ugly head up again. Even though he hadn't said Mudblood, he may as well have; both words implied her blood was "dirty." Technically, she was only a quarter-blood. She had more non-magical blood than anything else, thanks to her Muggle father and her half-veela mother, but she doubted Draco knew anything beyond her Muggle father. It stung, but she wasn't going to let him see that.

She bit her tongue for a moment. "We're really going there, huh?" Vanessa questioned. She huffed. "You know, my blood may be 'impure' or whatever, but at least my family hasn't been inbreeding for centuries to stay 'pure' so at least there's that." She paused again for a moment. "Hope the rest of your classes go well today. Come find me when you're ready to talk like an adult and not throw childish insults."

Vanessa didn't give him a chance to respond before she stepped out of his way, turning on her heel and walking away. Tears started to fill her eyes, but she blinked them away. Not now. The last thing she needed was for Professor Sprout to question her mental state before class. There would be plenty of time to reflect on this later.

Now all she wanted to do was forget that her boyfriend felt the need to verbally assault her, let alone the fact he was probably hiding the fact he was a Death Eater.