It was one of the random days I was actually sitting inside the Gryffindor common room, instead of my normal palace of solitude down in the dungeon. The room was rather empty as it was one of the Saturday Hogsmeade visits. So most of the older students were gone, and a lot of the younger ones were outside enjoying the weather,  I however was enjoying the emptiness of the room and sitting in front of the roaring fire. 

Draco had become a pretty unbearable person to be around since we started trying to fix the cabinet, and his agitation was more than obvious. We weren't making any headway on the cabinet, and any other plan I tried to concoct he shot down almost immediately. I decided he might just need some time to himself, so Iv'e spent more time up in the Gryffindor Tower. I think most of the people up here forgot  I even existed and were surprised  when they saw me plopped on the maroon couch in the common room every morning. 

I had been sitting here contemplating writing a letter to my parents, letting them know I was alright. I had meant to when I first arrived a couple of months ago but things got complicated and it slipped my mind. I had the quill and parchment in my hand, I just couldn't bring myself to write anything down. I haven't spoken to my Mother in almost a year, and the last time my Father saw me I was being carted off by Voldemort him thinking I joined his forces on my own free will. I just didn't know what to write, I just didn't know what I even could write, I can't even imagine what has been going through my Mom's brain over the past year. 

I sighed before writing down three simple words. I love you - Ali  

And I slipped it into an envelope and set aside for me to send off later. "Hey, Ali." I heard behind me, and I turned to see Harry, Hermione and Ron standing behind me. "Hi, Guys." I said softly, standing from the couch.

"Um, were heading down to Hogsmeade if you wanted to join us." Hermione asked, twiddling with her scarf. I raised my eyebrows looking between Harry and Ron as things were weird the last time I talked with either of them. 

"Harry and I aren't friends anymore, right Harry?" I asked looking to the dark haired boy who kept staring at his shoes. Harry wouldn't look at any of us, and I could tell by the look on Ron's face that he had no idea what happened between the two of us. 

"I know things have been a little out of sorts with us all lately, but of course you two are still friends." Ron said, his hands staying firmly in his front pockets. "We're all still friends." Hermione added. 

I sighed looking over to my former best friends, and I realized I really did miss them. I loved Draco and Damian, but I was missing all senses of my former life before I was branded a traitor. A traitor with the mark of evil hiding beneath my skin. 

"Please." Said Harry softly. I wasn't sure if he was saying 'Please forgive me' or 'Please come with us to Hogsmeade' but either way that one single word was enough for me to sprint to my dorm change my clothes and follow the golden trio out of the common room. 

~

"Quidditch isn't the same without you, Ali." Ron said as we sat at a table in the three broomsticks. I sipped slowly at the frothy butter beer between my hands and shrugged my shoulders. 

"Sorry, after everything that happened at the ministry last year I just can't really bring myself to do too much this year."  Hermione and Ron nodded in understanding, while Harry continued to glare at something behind my head, I turned around to look but I couldn't see what he was looking at. 

"Harry told us what you went through, I'm glad you're back." Said Ron with a nod of his head.

"Is that all Harry told you?" I asked with a raised eyebrow, looking between the two best friends. Ron nodded his head.

"Typical." I scoffed. Harry looked up with a glare before grabbing my arm and dragging me out of the pub and out into the cold. 

"Could have at least let me grab a coat, Potter." I growled as he pulled me into the alley between the three broomsticks and Honeydukes sweet shop. The snow had intensified since we left the castle, and my teeth were chattering along with the freezing air. 

Harry didn't say anything, and instead opted to run his fingers through his unruly hair and lean against the brick wall across from me. "If you aren't going to say anything, I'm going back inside where it's warm." I said, but before I could leave Harry yanked my arm back and pulled me farther into the alley.

"Dumbledore talked to me about you." Harry mumbled, taking steps closer to me to where I was leaning against the wall. 

"About what?" I asked with a gulp. Did Dumbledore tell him about my secret, did Harry know everything I was being forced to do and all of the inevitable terrible things that were to come this year. 

Harry sighed before answering. "He told me to trust you. He told me to confide in you, and that no matter what happens or what you do that I should trust you." 

"So you're only talking to me now because Dumbledore told you to?"

"No!" Harry exclaimed. "Look, I hate what I said to you before. And I'm so sorry for that, but I wasn't lying with what I told you."

"You weren't lying when you said you didn't want to be my friend?" 

"No, that part was harsh. I wouldn't be standing here without my friends." He said. "I wouldn't be standing here without you." He said before cupping the side of my head in his hand, and I was suddenly slightly warm, not matter how mad I still was at him.

"I do love you Ali, but everything is still complicated and I really don't think it's a good idea for us to be together right now. Voldemort is doing big things and I can't risk him hurting you to get to me." I sighed in frustration, wanting desperately to just blurt out how much I really knew about everything, but I just couldn't. I was dying for someone other than Draco to know my secret, it was eating me alive not being able to tell everyone that I love that i was working as a double agent with Dumbledore, but that would put them all at risk. 

I realized that Harry was just doing the same thing that I was, doing whatever they thought was best to protect the people that they love. His idea was the same as mine, pushing others away...It was just the first time I was at the other end of it, and I didn't enjoy it. "I understand." I mumbled, leaning my head against the brick wall. 

"Can we at least just be friends again, please?" Harry asked softly, running a finger down my cheek. He knows exactly which buttons to push to get me to cave in to what he wants. "Sounds good. But one thing."

"What is it?" He asked.

"I know you hate Draco, I know you think he's up to something. But he is important to me, and the only way I'll let you back into my life is if you accept that he's my friend too." I said pointedly. Draco needs me, he doesn't have the mentality to stay sane for too much longer with everything were going through, and I'll be damned if Harry wants me to push him out of my life. 

Harry didn't look happy, but after several moments eventually nodded his head. "Fine. I know him and his mother helped you, and I can respect that. I'll do whatever it takes to at least have you back in my life." I smiled and leaned into his hand that still rested on my cheek before throwing my arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. 

Harry's arms went around my waist immediately, gripping me just as tight. "I've missed you." He whispered so softly I barely heard him over the heavy wind. "Me too." I responded. 

Harry opened his mouth to say something else, when we heard a spine chilling scream from the edge of town. We both took off sprinting towards the noise before we found who it was. "I told her not to touch it!" A seventh year Gryffindor yelled to us when Harry and I arrived, Hermione and Ron appearing shortly after, 

"Where the bloody hell did you two go?" Ron asked, noticing the pair of us standing next to him. We ignored him though and turned our attention to the body on the ground. It was Katie Bell, chaser on the  Gryffindor Quidditch  team. She looked unconscious at first before she started writhing around on the ground as if she was possessed. 

I wished there was something I could do to help her, I hadn't the slightest idea what was even happening and soon enough she was hovering thirty feet in the air. "Oh no." I whispered, and before her body fell and hit the ground I held my hand out and gently levitated her back to where she was laying in the snow. 

"Dont touch her!" I heard Hagrid yelling from behind me, he started yelling other things as well but I tuned him out as I found the source of her pain. A necklace in black packaging laid open in the snow, a necklace I recognized well as one of Narcissa's. She had showed me all of her jewelry one day over the summer, she got it into her head that one day I would be marrying her son and it would all go to me. I think that was something Lucius had planted into her head one day, but it was definitely something that would not be happening. Not while Voldemort was still alive anyway.

While everyone was fawning over Katie's twitching body I turned around to find who I was looking for, and his platinum hair was unmistakable peeking out from behind a house down the lane. I shook my head to him, knowing he could see me before stomping back towards the castle. This was not a plan I had in mind, this was not something I wanted to happen and Draco was doing things without my knowledge which angered me to no end.

Oh Draco, what have you done?