I've had only one other near death experience in my life. I was eleven, it was my first year on the academy's quidditch team, and my nerves shook something fierce. I dropped the quaffle numerous times on our way out to the field, and  my captain that year had been hesitant to let me play. Seeing as one of the starting chasers had come down with some kind of sickness -- that left me to play in his wake. 

To add insult to injury it was raining that day, not a normal thing for the region in Texas our school resided in, so the field was muddied as we walked across it. The game went on for hours, the snitch seeming to hide itself between the raindrops. I had scored numerous times, which helped my confidence but it did nothing for my ability to see in the rain. 

It only took two seconds and my body was crashing into the opposing team's seeker that was diving after the snitch. The pair of us went tumbling down one hundred feet, our team robes flying against each other in a flurry of Green and Blue. In the midst of the storm nobody even saw us and we both went crashing into the mud. 

We were told so many times we were lucky to be alive, that the fall should have killed the pair of us regardless of the many advancements in wizard medicine. My mother fussed over me for that entire year, not wanting me anywhere near a broomstick. And for most people they probably would have quit the team after a fall like that, but for me -- that was when I fell in love with the adrenaline rush that playing quidditch provided me. 

As I laid in a puddle of my own blood I quickly realized that it wasn't some miracle that I survived that fall. It was my ability as a Telania and my ability to heal quickly saved my life. The opposing seeker's fall was surely nothing short of luck, but mine -- that was something else entirely. 

Draco was knelt beside me in the second floor lavatory, Myrtle was floating obediently by his side. Both of them wore shocked looks as the wound on my arm started to close itself, my pale skin growing itself back together. 

I blinked away the spots in my eyes and pulled myself to a seated position. Glad to know I couldn't even kill myself if I wanted to -- my body wouldn't let me. 

"What the bloody hell were you thinking?" Draco growled, grabbing my arm and pulling me into his side. He held out my still healing arm, both of us shocked to discover that my plan actually worked. The ugly mark was no longer housing itself upon my arm. 

"I don't know. I hated looking at it." I mumbled, glaring at my large piece of skin that was laying across the room. I'm sure Voldemort could track that, lucky for me it was exactly where it was supposed to be. I had half a mind to flush it down the toilet. 

"I can't say I haven't thought about doing the same thing." Draco mumbled, running his fingers over my now healed bare skin. I suddenly turned to look at him with an idea. 

"Let me do it for you! I can heal you after!" I exclaimed, causing Draco to shake his head with widened eyes.

"You've healed me before and you ended up in the hospital wing for two weeks." 

"You were cursed, this is different." I argued, crawling across the pools of water to retrieve my dagger. "We can go anywhere in the world, just like we talked about!" 

"Ali, stop." Draco said softly, grabbing my hand giving me pause. He gently took the dagger from my palm and set it beside him. "No." 

"Why not?" I asked in confusion.

"Ali, I'm not going to make a difference on either side of this war. But you can. You can get out of here, find Harry and help him finish what he's started. You're going to need someone on the inside who can help you, contact you if Voldemort gets suspicious." 

"I won't leave you," I mumbled, pulling Draco into my arms. I didn't want to leave Draco behind, who knew what Voldemort would do to him if I wasn't around. He was my best friend and I refused to leave him to suffer all alone. 

"Ali, please. We'll see each other again. Come back if you really need to, but you'll never forgive yourself if you don't get out of here and try and help." 

I knew Draco was right, I was ready to leave the moment I saw my skin growing itself back together. I just wished he would let me bring him with me as well. But even with the many Death Eaters inside the castle, I knew Snape would protect him from them, and Draco's name would protect him from everyone else. 

Draco walked over to my abandoned dark mark that was lying in a puddle, and picked it up between two fingers. "I guess I'll keep it?" He asked. 

I snorted and shook my head, I gently took it from him before placing it in the pocket of my robe.  "I know what to do with it." 

Draco wasn't aware that Snape was not loyal to Voldemort, only I was aware of that knowledge. Snape and I were keeping each other's secrets to the death, and it was the only way of keeping Voldemort truly in the dark. 

"I love you, please be safe." Draco whispered, reaching froward to pull me tightly into his arms. I quickly threw my arms around his lean neck and tried to commit his scent to memory. Green apples, and his clean scented shampoo. 

I kissed his forehead before palming his cheeks in my hands. "I love you too. Don't get into any trouble. And send me a patronus if you need to get any information to me." 

"My patronus still isn't perfected. I'm not sure if it will even work." 

"It has to. I know you can do it." I told him. I pecked his cheek one last time before rushing out of the lavatory before I changed my mind.

~

"Lillies." I mumbled, giving the password to the statue that protected the Headmasters office. I was the only person outside of Snape himself to know the password, for obvious reasons. 

Snape was sitting behind his desk in the large maroon colored chair that Dumbledore himself once sat in. Hogwarts might have lost it's color, but Snape left the Headmasters office exactly where Dumbledore left it. And it immediately enveloped me in a warmth that reminded me of home. 

He was having a conversation with the portrait of Dumbledore himself when I walked in, causing Snape to whip his head in my direction. "I thought I told you to owl before just showing up,"

I heard Dumbledore chuckle and I waved gently in his direction. "How are you professor?" I asked him.

"Hanging in there." Dumbledore said with a grin, I laughed loudly at his joke. My first laugh in months. I knew Snape was lonely, and I was glad Dumbledore was here to keep him company in these dark times. 

"What do you need?" Snape asked, leaning back in his chair. 

I reached into my robe pocket before tossing my large piece of inked skin onto the desk. Snape's eyes went wide and in the blink of an eye he was ripping up my sleeve to see my now clear skin. 

"That's not possible." Snape mumbled, glancing between my dark mark that was no longer a part of my body. "What did you do?"

"I cut it off. My body healed itself back together." I told him. 

"Your powers are growing stronger. I saw that even on the night I died. You were able to shield yourself from the death eaters as well as cast an wandless killing curse at the same time. Now your body is healing itself much faster than it used to." Dumbledore calmly explained from his portrait on the wall. There was no tone of resentment in the fact that it was I who had actually killed him.

"Can he still track her?" Asked Snape, turning to Dumbledore for council. 

"There's only one way to find out. Unfortunately you don't have the time to test it." 

"I'm leaving. I need to leave and try and help Harry. I need to find him and help end all of this." I said, taking my robe off and tossing it across one of the spare chairs in the room. I conjured up new clothing fit for travel and magically changed the color of my hair. 

"I have no idea where he is, and the snatchers will be everywhere." Snape told me. 

"I have to take the chance. He needs me, I'm failing every second I'm on the wrong side. I brought you this in case he tracks me." I said, motioning to the dark mark lying on the desk. 

Snape looked to Dumbledore who was smiling, before turning back towards me. "You're wasting time standing here talking to me." 

I smiled and squeezed his arm. I smiled and waved to Dumbledore before quickly apperating out of the office. I had no idea where to start or where I was going, but I would travel every inch of the earth to try and find Harry again.