He continued to replay the conversation in the back of his mind as he walked three times past the wall for the second time. The whole Dark Lord and Harry Potter situation was contrary, it always was, but it wasn't just Potter anymore. If Draco was being frank with himself, he did not want to be seen with this girl; he had to take precautions and if someone figured out that he was lying he'd lose more than everything he loved.

The familiar sound of crumbling echoed quietly along the seventh-floor corridor as the door appeared. Emma had insisted that he stay there with her for a while, and he decided to ask for a room where they could just sit for a while. Before making such a suggestion, she caught Draco off guard by leaning into him and wrapping her arms around him as a way of saying thanks. Draco didn't like it. All it did was torment him with memories that he was certain would never repeat themselves. It felt habitual to lean down and press his face against her hair.

"You're not going to die," Draco promised her as they walked into the room, staring as Emma looked up at him with the eyes that didn't belong to her. 

He was foolish for making such promises; he knew he wouldn't be able to do anything if one day somebody had pieced everything together and Emma was captured. His family was his priority now. Not some girl he had chased after when he was fifteen. He meant it when he said that he loved her but he wouldn't do anything that might put his family in danger. Especially not his mother, who he believed had suffered enough. When his father was in Azkaban his mother was alone in a manor crawling with Death Eaters, though she hardly dared to leave her room. He had no choice but to put Emma second. 

The room looked as it had before, with armchairs as a difference. 

"You can't promise anything," she said quietly, Draco feared for a moment that she had read his thoughts but it disappeared when Emma sat in one of the armchairs and forced a smile, looking rather tired as she did so. He couldn't tell if she was sleepy or just dead set tired. 

He couldn't speak, only nodded. All he did was feel more annoyed as he stared into dark blue eyes that were unknown to him, and he carefully seated himself in the remaining armchair. 

"Wait," Emma said in an uneasy voice, and he looked at her questioningly. She reluctantly went on. "Never mind. I'm sure Daphne won't mind that I've ditched her."

Draco raised an eyebrow. "Girls like her don't take it too lightly when they aren't picked first. How do you think she'll react when she realises that you've abandoned her for an ex?"

"All I'll have to do is bring up what happened in fifth-year with her stupid jumper," Emma mumbled, pinching the leather of the armchair she was on. 

It was strange being alone with her again. For the first time Draco didn't know what to say to her. It seemed he was so caught up on having her with him when he was fifteen that he'd just wasted all his words then and didn't have anything to say now. He wanted to find out what had really happened to her the Halloween that her parents were killed, find out if she had lied about that night to Sabrina, but he didn't want to upset her. Emma would probably become suspicious of something. But Draco was dying of thirst to know. But what if she didn't know either? What if she had no idea? Her entire life had already been a lie, he didn't want to add anymore to it.

"Do you remember all our stupid little fights in fifth-year?" Draco chuckled dryly. Emma smiled with distant eyes. He started to recall all those times he had thought Emma and Harry had a thing for each other - now it was making him feel stupid. He hoped she wasn't thinking about it. He remembered the night he called her disgusting for being interested in someone like Harry Potter, who, at the time, he did not know was her twin brother. He brought up all the times he purposely pestered Emma, though at the time he did not hope for it to upset her, he simply sought a reaction. "I was so stupid."

Emma looked at him with a twinkle in her eye, her nostrils flaring with amusement as she broke into a smirk. "Was?"

He leaned forward with his arms resting over his knees. "I do believe it was Draco Malfoy who helped you with Potions, Freckles. Ah, what's that I hear?" he cupped his ear. "Nothing?"

Draco reacted quickly and caught the small cushion Emma launched his way. 

She sighed dramatically and leaned her fist into her cheek. "I wish we could just stay in here for the rest of term."

He felt the need to analyse her for a moment. From her chin all the way to the freckles peppered across her nose and cheeks. Emma stiffened when he raised his wand to her, and she sent him a questioning look with eyes he didn't like looking into. He simply drifted his arm to the right, along with his wand, and her eye contacts landed lightly on the space beside her, revealing eyes that mirrored his enemies.

He looked at her for a moment. "That's better," he said quietly. 

"What the hell were you thinking - leaving me in the library alone for so long - I was completely embarrassed! Sitting there, by myself, without anything in front of me and craning my neck to see the entrance every half a minute."

"I'm sorry, I just got so caught up," Emma lied as Daphne accompanied her toward the Great Hall for their supper. 

"Caught up? Oh, no," Daphne murmured, giving her friend a look. "Please clarify that statement. I demand a clarification."

Emma and Daphne ate their meal with hushed conversations with Pansy and Millicent, though Pansy tried best to avoid speaking, if kindly, with Emma. Pansy knew, of course, that Emma and Draco were dealt with, were over, nada. But she still couldn't help but feel she was still second to the girl. Emma didn't need her brothers glasses to see it.

"Look," gasped Astoria, her eyes scanning a page of the prophet. Many students around her were leaning in to look at her surprise, many even left their seats to come round and look over her shoulder. Emma leaned forward in her seat. "There's a two hundred thousand Galleon reward on the capture of Harry Potter. And he has - what! - he has a sister? I thought - but - what?"

Astoria stammered as the daily prophet was snatched from her hands from several students who were not delivered their own copy, and their eyes scanned the page eagerly. Students from other Houses were also gasping and speaking loudly. Ginny, from all the way across the room, caught her eye for a quick second. Then Draco caught her eye, before quickly looking away. The Carrows were looking pleased as they scanned the Great Hall from their seats. It seemed the people who knew who Emma really was were afraid to look at her anymore.

"A hundred and eighty thousand Galleons for information on Potter's sister," Theodore read out once he had Astoria's copy of the daily prophet in his hands. He looked greedy for a moment as he looked at Blaise. "Imagine how much we'd be given if we actually handed her over to Him."

"They're probably lies," Blaise shrugged. "You know, maybe somebody hacked into the Ministry. Putting something as big as this in the prophet would definitely draw attention away from Potter."

It was easier to blink now that her contacts were out, sitting in a case at the top of her bag. Not necessarily easier to blink but it felt easier to breathe without them on. It just felt...better. Of course it didn't make her feel any safer, especially now that everybody knew Harry had a sister, but she thought she would be fine till the next morning. By the time her friends had finished eating and were slowly starting to stand from the bench, Daphne looked at her.

"Emma, we -"

She cut herself short when Emma looked up at her with her mouth full of sultanas, eyes looking as though she was a deer caught in a trap. Daphne cringed instantly. 

"Eww," she went on. "You eat those?"

Emma swallowed the sultanas and said, "I eat anything."

Huh, I'm taking this rather well.

"Well," Daphne said, still cringing and standing further away as not to smell any of Emma's sultana breath. "I'll meet you in the library again?"

"No, no, stay here and wait for me," Emma said frantically, fearing walking to the library on her own. Especially now that she felt less protected without her eye contacts on. 

"OK," Daphne said slowly, sinking into the bench once more. She lifted her arm and put her nose under it, her nose wrinkling. "Egh - I need to change, anyway."

Emma and Daphne quickly made their way to their dormitory so that the latter could change her clothes. Professor McGonagall had granted them access to the library earlier before they left with her signature at the end of a palm-sized slip of parchment. They entered the room and Emma instantly fell back first onto her bed, sighing. 

She wished she didn't feel so scared all the time, wished she could be as carefree as Harry was. They really weren't so alike. He had two close friends he could share anything with, Emma didn't even have that. She thought Sabrina had been one of them but it turned out that Emma was in this mess because of her, because she just wanted a friend. Owing to the fact that Sabrina had betrayed Emma, the girl couldn't even tell Daphne anything. 

Clothes were flying everywhere as Daphne hummed quietly, and Emma only sat up when she caught sight of something extremely fascinating. Her fingers looped under the strap of a bra and she held it in front of her face to examine, her mouth agape with incredulity. 

"Whoa," Emma raised her eyebrows. "Holy moly...my cousin Dudley could fit his whole arse in this."

She instantly felt self-conscious and looked down at her own chest. The bra was snatched from her fingers and thrown on Millicent's bed. 

"That's Millicent's," said Daphne, turning red and facing her back to Emma to hide it as she dug through her clothes. Emma knew that once Millicent came upstairs the bra would be thrown to the floor. "I didn't know you had a cousin. What kind of name is Dudley anyway? It sounds like a baby's name."

Emma suddenly froze, unaware that she had just mentioned her blood-related cousin. She clearly hadn't expected to let his actual name out, considering she had been calling him 'Diddy' as of late.

"A very uncommon one," Emma responded absently, feeling rather scared for a moment. People were already finding out that Harry had a sister, and now here she was blurting that she had a cousin with the exact same name as Harry Potter's cousin. She looked away respectably as Daphne began to strip. 

The door opened and in sauntered Millicent and Pansy, just as Daphne finished dressing. As expected, the bra was thrown to the floor and Millicent crawled into her bed without a word and drew her bed hangings. Pansy had just started to talk to Millicent as she, too, crawled into her own bed, completely unaware that Millicent had drawn her bed hangings to avoid all conversation.

"C'mon," Daphne said quietly, pulling Emma by the arm. 

The common room still contained very few students. Many of them were in their dormitories already, while most seventh-years were most likely in the library studying. Blaise, Draco, Theodore and Astoria were still in the common room. The three boys looked rather annoyed but weren't going to give up their seat by the warm fire over Astoria's annoying mouth. 

Emma figured Draco had gotten over the company of Crabbe and Goyle for the time being, bearing in mind that they usually followed Draco's orders. She offered the group a soft smile as she passed, but Daphne made no contact with them. 

"Hey, where are you two going?" asked Blaise, raising his eyebrows. It seemed he had cut into Astoria's sentence for she, too, looked over at them annoyingly. 

"To the library, where else?" Daphne stated the obvious, making weird movement with her eyes with a small huff. 

"We'll meet you there," said Blaise, looking at his two friends. "Can't stand looking at these same walls anymore." 

"Not me," Theodore scoffed, furrowing his eyebrows. 

The two boys proceeded to discuss why on earth Theodore would rather stay in the same room every night rather than leave for some fresh air, even if it meant the smell of old, dusty library books. Emma knew they were not coming with her and Daphne simply because they did not have a slip of permission to walk the corridors at night. 

"Harry Potter and the mysterious sister," Daphne said quietly as she looked around the dungeons for any sign of a figure. "Wow. That sure is something. It's like being told that your parents aren't your parents, that's how much of a big slap in the face it is."

A scream echoed from the opposite end of the dungeons where students were being punished. Emma swallowed as a sinking feeling made itself known in her stomach.

"Yeah, imagine that," Emma laughed nervously, scratching her forehead distractedly. 

"It's honestly so unbelievable," Daphne went on as they exited the dungeons and made their way into the chilly corridors. "You'd think people would know about Harry Potter's sister. You'd think people would talk about her as much as they talk about him. Someone is bound to know who she is. I can't even express how kicked in the face I am. Hold up a mirror and I'd laugh at the sight of a footprint pressed into my cheek."

The castle looked dead and Emma didn't like it. Although she had not been at the school for long, she certainly missed the consciousness of the castle. The way people wouldn't rush to get out of the Great Hall, or being able to point out that it was nearly Christmas. The only sign that gave way it was nearly Christmas was the snow that littered the grounds like a giant white blanket. Hagrid would surely be bringing up Christmas trees. She hoped he would. The students needed some form of comfort and what child didn't like Christmas?

"I know what you mean," Emma said. What better then to act like she, too, was kicked in the face? "You would think that someone would mention her. That she would be mentioned somewhere. She can't be too old, I suppose, since Potter's parents were rather young when they died."

Daphne frowned. "How old were they?"

"I don't know," Emma lied with a shrug. "Like twenty."

"Who have we here?"

Emma and Daphne retreated slightly when two Death Eaters started their way. They held out their permission slips and waited in silence as the two men read them. The younger of the two, Emma noticed, was eyeing them both quizzically. 

"Daphne Greengrass and Emma Baranov," the older grunted beneath his facial hair. 

Emma gave a small whimper of protest as the younger forced his fingers under her chin and tilted her face upward to peered down at her. 

Meanwhile, Draco, Blaise and Theodore all relaxed at the sight of Astoria dashing up toward her dormitory after claiming that she was going to hit the hay. 

"God, does she ever stop running that mouth of hers?" Blaise winced, rubbing his ears. "Makes me wonder where that Ravenclaw boy of hers has gone off to. Wouldn't surprise me if he went into hiding with all those Mudbloods. Or flung himself off the Astronomy Tower."

Draco made no sound as Theodore cackled with laughter. His mind extended on the thought as to where her Ravenclaw boyfriend had really gone off to. Either way, if they had broken up, it didn't really make a difference. Astoria ran after all the boys even when they were together. 

 Blaise stated that he and Draco should get going to meet Daphne and Emma in the library and  bade Theodore goodnight as they headed toward Slughorn's office to ask for permission. It  shouldn't have been hard since Blaise was one of Slughorn's favourites. Snape passed them on  the way and demanded to know what they were doing out of their common room, but Draco  simply explained that they were headed toward the library and needed access. Snape didn't  need to ask twice as the former Head of Slytherin stalked toward the exit of the dungeons.

Thought so, Draco thought bitterly but did not complain aloud. Slughorn granted both boys access without question.

"So, what d'you think of that? A sister. I didn't want to talk anymore into it in the common room since Astoria was already working her mouth about it," Blaise said, Draco visualised him rolling his eyes. "I wonder what she looks like."

Draco said nothing, only shrugged. 

"I suppose if they don't find her soon someone is going to start interviewing the girls under Veritaserum. And they actually believe she's here in the castle," Blaise burst out laughing; Draco cracked a smirk at the sound of it. "Typical Ministry making themselves look like a bunch of idiots. They've already started by claiming that Mudbloods have stolen magic. Er, You-Know-Who pretty much runs the Ministry now so I probably shouldn't say that ever again."

"That would be wise," Draco agreed.

"Who are your parents, girl?" the younger Death Eater seethed at her, his finger was shaking and she thought that perhaps he feared she was a Muggle-born.

"Chelsea and Samson Baranov," Emma answered calmly, trying her hardest not to look away from his eyes. 

"Let 'em go," the older said, slapping the arm away from Emma's chin. He shoved the notes into their hands and waved them off, threatening to curse them if they stayed after hours. 

Daphne, bewildered, reached for Emma's arm to pull her away but the younger Death Eater had already seized the other. The feeling in Emma's stomach was indescribable, but she was definitely about to pee through her skirt. She hoped Professor McGonagall would happen to pass the scene, although the old lady probably wouldn't be able to much, Emma was sure that she'd be able to scare them off and escort Emma back to her common room. 

"Look, we kind of need to study at the moment, we're in our seventh-year, so we need to get going," Daphne huffed, crossing her arms. "Is it really necessary to linger your eyes all over my best friend?"

"It could be her," the younger Death Eater said, ignoring Daphne. "Look at her, Goyle. Striking resemblance, I'd say, what do you think?"

Goyle? The older Death Eater was Gregory Goyle's father? Emma tried hard not to cringe. Daphne, however, gasped at the comment and walked closer to look at her friend.

"I think you needa' get your eyes checked," Goyle grunted carelessly, barely looking over the student. "You've been saying the same thing about the last five girls. Potter isn't the only one with eyes his colour."

"Foolish old pig, did you not look properly at the picture of the parents?" the young Death Eater spat, finally looking away from Emma to glower at the old man. "She looks like the Mudblood," he looked back at her with accusing eyes.

Emma's eyes went big, but she tried fogging them with confusion. "I haven't a clue what you're on about, sir. What Mudblood? My parents are not Mudbloods, their blood is pure I swear it."

The young Death Eater lit his wand and moved it closer to Emma's face. 

"It is, Goyle!" he exclaimed, his fingers gripping the collar of Emma's robes. She forgot to breathe and grew dizzy as he shook her violently. "We've got 'er! A hundred and eighty thousand Galleons!"

"I don't think that applies to us," the old man rolled his eyes, still not believing that Harry Potter's sister was right beneath his nose. 

"Gone into hiding, have you?" the young Death Eater got close to Emma's face as she tried wriggling out of his grip. She was far too shaky and scared to reach for her wand, she did not want to be tempted to hex this young man. It would look awfully sketchy. "Gone under a different name? I'll remember your face. Give me that paper -"

"No," Emma said sternly, pulling her arm back. "What do you mean hiding? I'm not a Mudblood!"

"You're the Potter girl," he seethed, spitting in her face as he spoke. 

"I am not!"

"Can you just leave us alone?" Daphne cried, trying to pull Emma by her free arm. "She isn't Potter's sister, I know her! I've seen her parents before!"

The young Death Eater chuckled. "This girl has no parents."

"We'd better be on our way," said Old Goyle carelessly. "We came here for the Lovegood girl, nothing more."

Emma frowned. Why would they need Luna?

And the two girls did not really need to show these men their permission slips. 

"What's going on here?" a voice drawled. The hand tangled in Emma's collar faltered ever so slightly. 

"This is the one, Snape," the young man seethed again, his eyes locked on something Emma could not see. "She was right under your nose this whole time and you didn't even know, eh?"

"Get your hands off my student," Snape said in a simply monotonous voice. The Death Eater raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I decide who manhandles my students, and that is the Carrows, not you two. You two are messengers."

Emma could tell these two men were quite shocked and insulted, even though the older man had no part in claiming that Emma really was who the young man said she was. 

"Whoa," a second voice echoed quietly, and she heard the falter of two sets of footsteps. 

Emma blinked, the light from the Death Eater's wand was still directly in her face as he continued to stare at her with wide eyes. She thought, perhaps, that he had not heard Snape correctly. She couldn't help but gasp as she was roughly spun around and brought close to the young man's chest, his free arm wrapped just below her neck to keep her from moving and his lit wand hovered inches from Emma's eyes. They began to tear up at the brightness. So far she was watched by four people; Snape, Daphne, Draco and Blaise, who had caught up after all. 

This is it, Emma thought hopelessly. I'm done.

"Release her," Snape said calmly. 

"Look at her, Snape," the young man said excitedly, she could feel his excitement hitting the back of her head as he breathed down. "She looks like the Mudblood, don't you think?"

Snape did not react. He had clearly mastered his blank, emotionless stare.

"Excuse me," Emma said. "But are you a Death Eater or a Deaf Eater?"

"Shut up," the man snarled at her, his lit wand pressing into her cheek threateningly. "There'll be no trouble, Snape. We'll take this one and Lovegood."

"You will not," Snape stated in his usual tone. "You will release her or you will be leaving empty-handed."

"Dark Lord's orders," the young Death Eater said, as though he was a rich child waving his toys in the face of a poor child. "We need Lovegood. Her no-good father and that bloody Quibbler, you think He is happy?"

"Oh for goodness sake," the old Death Eater finally snapped, reaching over and shoving the younger one from Emma. Daphne immediately reached for her and wrapped a protective arm around her. "Hurry up, Snape. I just want to be in and out."

"Very well," Snape said. He looked at his students. "You four will proceed to your dormitories."

"We're going to the library," Blaise said loudly, waving his slip of parchment. 

Snape said nothing else as he walked at a rather fast pace to where Emma, absolutely terrified, assumed was the direction of the Ravenclaw common room.