**WARNING**
This chapter contains some very graphic and potentially triggering content. A character doesn't meant to, but almost attempts suicide. If this may be upsetting or triggering to you, just skip to chapter 38. You will not find any major plot holes by skipping this chapter. Thank you and my apologies.  

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Lizzie's POV:

"Liz," Draco whispered into my hair, tickling my ear. "Wake up, Lizzie. We've got to get going if we're going to make the train."

I sat bolt upright, tossing Draco's arms from me and gasping for air. I began to shout and reached for my wand that wasn't there. "Where's my wand? Where's my wand?!" I screeched, flailing around trying to find the length of wood.

"Lizzie!" Draco shouted, reaching out and trying to grab my arms.

I back pedaled as quickly as I could, falling on my bum and scooting away from him. "No! No! Get away from me! Get away!" I curled myself into a ball and prepared myself for the impact.

"Stop it, Lizzie! Stop! It's me. It's Draco!" He wrapped his hands tightly around my wrists and pulled me up.

"Draco?" I sniveled, looking into his eyes. He was terrified. "Draco, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." I enveloped him into my arms and blubbered uncontrollably. "I'm so sorry! I- I thought you were- He was going to- I'm so sorry!"

"Shhh, it's okay. It's okay," he replied quietly. "What happened?"

"It was- y-your father. He was going to-" As I spoke, his eyes changed from worried to comprehension to a mix of anger and worry again.

"It's okay," he whispered darkly. "I'll never let him touch you again."

"I love you, Draco," I spluttered.

With a small smile, he replied, "I love you too, but I wasn't kidding. The train leaves in 20 minutes." He cast a Tempus as proof.

"We should get going then," I suggested, eyebrows furrowed.

Yes we'd be leaving Malfoy Manor where Voldemort rules unconditionally, but we'd be returning to Hogwarts where the Carrows rule unconditionally.

With a few well cast spells, our items were back in our trunks and apparating to Kings Cross Station. Somehow we managed to find an empty compartment and drew the blinds before Draco sat down and I put my head in his lap like I loved to. He looked down at me with a small smile.

He smiled at me and laughed so hard he fell over into the grass. I couldn't help but laugh at him.

"Come on, it wasn't that funny," I snickered, watching the way his hair sparkled in the sunlight of the setting sun. "Get up, you loser." I lifted him up and leaned into his chest, wrapping my arms around his neck. He wrapped his around my waist and pulled me closer to him.

"Look at that," he gaped, looking at the sunset that made the blue sky turn rich hues of pink, purple, and red.

"It's beautiful," I whispered. Watching as the sun slid behind the horizon, turning the sky instantly dark.

"It is indeed," a voice cackled behind us. We whirled around to see Bellatrix Lestrange with her wand trained on me. "Avada Kedavra!" A jet of green light shot from her wand and the world slowed down. I was frozen, watching the spell that would end my life getting closer and closer.

I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and instantly knew what was happening. Draco threw himself between myself and the curse, standing with his shoulders squared until the spell slammed into his chest.

His body fell into the grass, his grey eyes open and staring up into the sky, unseeing.

"Lizzie?" The real Draco pulled me from the nightmare and back into the present. I was still lying in his lap and he was staring down at me with confusion. "Hey, what was that? You just spaced out on me."

"Oh, nothing. Sorry," I muttered, trying to bury my anguish so he wouldn't worry.

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"Miss Samuels, Mr. Malfoy," Alecto grinned, greeting us as we walked into the Entrance Hall. Alongside her brother, she was standing inside the doors and watching each student walk through the Entrance Hall and into the Great Hall, where an undoubtedly moldy feast would be taking place to 'welcome' us back to school.

"Alecto," Draco said with a nod as we passed by her. We took a seat at the Slytherin table, away from everyone else.

"What was that?" Draco questioned, nodding a head back towards where Alecto and Amycus stood, still watching students. "It was as if she-"

Draco was interrupted by Snape, who had stood from his seat at the Head Table and cleared his throat, giving a speech that we had heard many times before. "Many of you may have noticed before the Easter holiday that Hogwarts students have been disappearing. We have reason to believe that these students are still inside the castle and are assisting Harry Potter in some way. Now, if any of you are found to be withholding information, you will be punished with the utmost severity."

His speech ended abruptly and with a wave of his hand, the moldy foods appeared, causing a chorus of groans to echo around the room.

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After a few weeks of classes, I noted that the professor's seemed more put off and touchier than usual. McGonagall had taken 10 points from Gryffindor when Seamus couldn't transfigure a goblet into a settee. Everyone had been shocked by the event due to the fact that McGonagall hadn't taken one point from anyone all year.

On top of that, Slughorn had almost shouted at a Hufflepuff who answered with 'ashwinder eggs' to the question 'what is the sixth ingredient added when brewing Felix Felicis?'. Everyone knew that ashwinder eggs were the first ingredient added.

Even Flitwick was off. He had used Aguamenti instead of Tergeo when someone had spilled their ink, making it spray all over said student. I couldn't name one time in my seven years at Hogwarts that Flitwick had made a mistake.

But not only the professors were being affected. I saw two Hufflepuffs fighting in the corridor, shouting about how one had dropped a book on the other's foot. It was so intense that McGonagall and Sinstra had to step in and physically pull the two off of each other.

"Not only that, but I saw a Gryffindor try to hex a butterfly that flew too close to him," I explained to Neville, sitting beside him in the Room of Requirement, Draco on my other side. "The tension is getting to people more than ever and I can just feel that something is going to snap soon."

"I saw Sprout draw her wand on a student for bumping into a mandrake," Draco drawled, his eyes following Sammy as he stood from his hammock and walked over to a group of friends in his year that he had made in the past few weeks. It warmed my heart to know that he was getting on well with the other students hiding away.

"Sprout?" Neville exclaimed, leaning around me and gaping at Draco. "She's just about the most level headed professor there is. If she's snapped, there's something really wrong."

"You're just now figuring that out? The locking up and torture of students on top of the return of the darkest wizard imaginable who's trying to take over the world and kill all muggles didn't happen to make you feel like something was off?" I asked sarcastically.

"You know what I mean," Neville muttered, leaning against the wall behind us.

"Sorry, I'm just..." I trailed off, thinking of an appropriate word.

"Tense?" Draco offered.

"Yeah. I'm just tense."

"Aren't we all," Neville sighed.

"Hey, guys!" Sammy grinned, running over to us with two of his friends. "These are my friends Magda and Jeremiah. Magda, Miah, these are my friends Neville, Lizzie, and Draco. Lizzie and Draco are the ones that rescued me from the dungeons."

Jeremiah, who Sammy called Miah, had curly black hair and brown eyes. He stood somewhat behind Sammy as if he were intimidated by us.

On the other hand, Magda, who had violently red hair that was cut into a blunt bob, looked ecstatic to be introduced to us.

"It's nice to meet you, Magda, Miah," Neville said with a smile.

"It's nice to meet you too!" Magda replied with an even bigger smile than Sammy's.

"Yeah, nice to meet you," Miah squeaked shyly.

"Do you guys want to play Exploding Snap with us?" Sammy asked, holding up the game and nodding enthusiastically towards us.

"Not right now, Sammy. We'll come over in a little bit, is that okay?" I answered.

"Okay!" He, Magda, and Miah hurried to the other side of the room where they sat among the other second years and began to play the game.

"Anyone else think that one with the black hair looked like Harry?" Draco asked quietly. I snapped my head towards him, surprised by the use of Harry's first name-

"Harry! Please, no!" I heard Draco pleading from Moaning Myrtle's loo as I walked down a corridor. Draco's tone and the way he had used Harry's first name instead of his surname had me shoving my way into the loo, where I found Harry and Draco standing in a face off. Harry had two wands in his hand, one I recognized as Draco's.

"What's going on?" I demanded harshly.

"Don't 'Harry' me, Malfoy!" Harry shouted, his wand pointed at Draco, who had been trapped in a corner. "You almost killed Ron and Katie! I know it was you! I know it!"

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I never meant to hurt anyone! He made me do it. He took Lizzie. He said he'd kill her unless I killed him!" Draco sobbed, dropping to his knees which instantly became soaked from the water that was flooding the room.

"What are you talking about, Draco? I'm right here." Confused, I walked up to Draco and knelt by him, noticing that my knees didn't get wet. "What?" Experimentally, I tried to put my hand on Draco's shoulder, but my hand passed right through him as if I were a ghost.

"I don't care if he took Lizzie!" Harry roared. "You can't almost kill someone without being punished!" He took a few threatening steps towards Draco, making me flinch.

"I didn't mean to, Harry! I just want to keep her safe!" Draco dropped his head into his hands and weeped even harder.

"You're pathetic," he spat. "Sectumsempra!" Harry flourished his wand murderously, intent on killing Draco.

"NO!" I screamed, knowing what that spell did.

But there was nothing I could do. I watched as the light hit him in the shoulder and shrieked as I watched Draco's shirt begin to turn red with the blood that was leaking from the slices the stretched across his abdomen. He collapsed backwards into the water, wheezing as he stared up at the ceiling blankly.

"See you later, Malfoy," Harry sneered before splashing out of the room.

"Draco!" I shouted, trying to stop the bleeding with my hands, but I wasn't there. I couldn't touch him. All I could do was watch as the blood turned his white shirt scarlet and began to dye the water around him. "No, Draco. Please! SOMEONE HELP!" I dug around my robes for my wand, but couldn't find it anywhere. "No, no, no, no!"

Draco coughed and the thick red liquid fell from his mouth, dripping down his cheek. "I- I'm sorry- Liz," he spluttered, more blood coming from his mouth.

"Stop it, Draco! You can't die! No! Look at me!" I tried to grip his face, but my hands went through him once again. I wailed and slammed my fist into the wall, finding that I could touch it.

His eyes began to droop and his wheezing began to slow. "SOMEONE!" I shouted, my voice hoarse. "SOMEONE HELP! HE'S DYING! Please, Draco, stay with me."

"Help," he muttered.

And with that final word, his chest stop moving.

"Lizzie?" Draco asked, a hand squeezing my thigh. "What was that?"

"Nothing, sorry," I mumbled with a frown, trying to erase the image of Draco lying in a pool of his own blood from my mind.

"Nothing?" Neville asked with a quirked eyebrow. "You're shaking like a spooked kneazle and wouldn't answer us." He nodded to my hands which were clenched into fists so hard that I was trembling. With difficulty, I unclenched them but couldn't stop shaking.

"Yeah, sorry. Just spaced out for a bit," I uttered.

"That's the third time that's happened this week," Draco stated. "What's going on?"

"It's nothing," I told him, my eyebrows furrowed.

"You're lying," Draco said, his eyes narrowed. "Your nose is twitching. What really happened?"

"I said it's nothing, okay?" I snapped, standing up and storming to the bathroom. I slammed the door shut behind me before locking it with a spell that couldn't be opened with a simple Alohomora and silencing the room.

Just like the last time I had locked myself in the loo, I bent over the sink. Instead of sobbing however, I screamed and slammed my fist into the mirror. I watched the shards of glass cascade to the floor and land with soft clinks. Ignoring the pain in my fist from the glass lodged inside, I punched the already destroyed mirror over and over again, until both of my hands were bleeding profusely.

"I'M SORRY!" I shouted to no one in particular. "I'M SORRY FOR WHATEVER I DID TO DESERVE THIS BLOODY LIFE!"

The image of Draco lying in the bloodied water returned to my mind and I screamed in rage. I brought my knee up into the bottom of the sink with so much force that the porcelain cracked. Similar to the mirror, I continued to kick, knee, punch, and body slam the sink until it was lying in shards on the floor beside the shards of glass from the mirror.

"I'M BLOODY SORRY!" I howled. "I DON'T WANT THIS ANYMORE! I DON'T WANT TO BE A FUCKING DEATH EATER!" I ripped my left sleeve up, revealing the skin that was inked black. Using my fingernails, I clawed at the mark, trying to get it off of me. "Get this OFF!" My skin was turning bright red, but the skull and snake were still there, mocking me.

Then I noticed the shards that were lying around my feet. I bent over and searched through the pile for the sharpest looking piece, which happened to be a piece of the mirror.

Growling deeply, I picked it up and held it so tightly that it pierced the skin of my palm, dripping blood onto the floor. I held my left forearm out in front of me, glaring down at the Dark Mark and lifting the glass shard. "You bloody fucking-"

"What the hell are you doing?" Draco shouted from the doorway, his hand on the doorknob and his eyes wide. Neville stood just over his shoulder with a similar expression.

"I'm sick of this fucking Dark Mark!" I shouted at him, noticing the tears that were gushing from my eyes. "I want it gone!" I held the glass above my head, fully intending on slamming it into the mark, but Draco rushed forward and wrenched it from my grasp, slicing his hand open as he did it. "Give it BACK!" I shrieked, reaching for the shard. Draco held it out of my reach,so I stretched out, clawing at him and demanding that he give it back.

"Neville, give me some ruddy help!" Draco yelled at the boy who, until then, had been frozen in the doorway.

He scrambled forward and put a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and flung a fist right into his nose, which began to gush blood. "Give it back, Draco!" I screamed, whirling around and trying to wrestle the glass away from him.

"Lizzie, calm down! You're not thinking clearly!" Draco shouted, trying to keep it away from me. "Neville!"

Right as I clamped a hand onto Draco's wrist, a pair of arms wrapped around my waist and lifted me from the ground. I flailed my arms and legs desperately, trying to free myself.

"I'm sorry, Liz," Draco said, pulling out his wand and aiming at my chest.

"DON'T YOU BLOODY DARE!" I screamed at him.

He flinched, but said, "Stupefy."

And everything went black.