The holiday was approaching an end faster than Emma had hoped even though at the start she was worried about someone finding out about her much easier. As the next few days came and went, she started noticing Daphne's eccentric behaviour whenever she'd thought Emma wasn't looking. It was concerning, seeing as Daphne was pretty much Emma's only friend in Slytherin, but it wasn't like Emma could just point it out and demand an explanation. She could be wrong.

As they finished up their supper and started to head out of the Great Hall, they noticed a very peculiarly happy Astoria, who was blushing and combing her fingers sheepishly through her long brown hair. The girls shared a look with one another but said nothing as they passed the younger student. 

"What was that all about?" asked Emma as they skipped down the stairs that led to the dungeons. She looked over her shoulder but Astoria wasn't following; it seemed she was waiting for someone. 

"Probably swallowed a chili," Daphne said. "Wouldn't be the first time she's been all hot and flustered, which is probably what happens when she swallows one. We're complete opposites her and I; if I were to eat a chili I wouldn't be standing there looking all insecure, I'd be on the loo for hours with a hot ass."

"Tragic," Emma tutted with a pout. 

"Emma . . . there's been some things on my mind," Daphne pulled her friend to a stop before they could tread down the corridor that led to their deserted common room, which sounded all heavenly with the plump pillows on the sofas and that oh so warm fire, and the table to lift her feet . . . "Emma! Are you listening?"

"Yes."

"Prove it. Repeat what I said," Daphne narrowed her blue eyes.

"Emma, Emma, are you listening," she answered with what she'd heard; which wasn't a complete lie.

This didn't seem to reassure Daphne as the girl was reducing the ordinary blinks of her eyes. The blonde shook her head and looped her arm in between Emma's and they continued the short walk to their common room, where from there on they headed to the girls' dormitory. 

"School is so boring now, especially these holidays," Emma complained as she jumped down onto her bed. "When school's on all we do is worry about angering the wrong person, and now that it's holidays all we do is wake up, eat, come back in here, go back out and eat, come back -"

"Yeah, I get it," Daphne said in a hasty voice as she threw off her shoes. "Would you prefer to go back to class, then? Although not much happens to us Slytherins it's still kinda terrifying. And with Potter's sister being hunted down all us girls will probably be interrogated if they don't find her soon, and can you imagine coming face to face with that interrogator?"

"You really think they'd interrogate Slytherins?" Emma said, trying to behave as clueless as she could. After what happened with sharing her secret with Sabrina . . . well, she would never risk it again. "As if Potter's sister would be in Slytherin. And as for the interrogator, if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear."

Daphne gave Emma a look, a look that Emma wouldn't be forgetting anytime soon. "I think you should take your own advice, Emma."

 And with that, the blonde forced herself off her bed and opened up her trunk. Emma blinked, watching all of her friend's belongings being thrown around the room like frisbees. She wasn't sure what to do, but it seemed Daphne was quite determined on locating something. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Emma frowned, feeling like she was alone in the silence that draped over them. After all, there was only one other person in the castle she could vent her true feelings to and he probably wouldn't lend her an ear. "Daphne, are you all right?"

"Emma, on a scale of one to ten, how close of a friend am I to you?" the blonde asked out of the blue, startling Emma for a moment before she collected herself and cleared her throat.

"Well I wouldn't pin you a ten, I might if we'd been best friends for years. And you did try to kill me two Christmases ago over your jumper. So an eight. Yeah, definitely an eight. Why do you ask? How close am I to you?"

Daphne was still looking quite serious in her little area of darkness, looking like a cat ready to pounce for her meal. Emma was just glad Daphne hadn't brought her actual cat back to Hogwarts; it really hadn't taken a liking to her. Her mind went into a void state for a moment, her smile falling as she tried fathoming what point her friend was eventually going to make.

"Do you know what it's like to look at your friend and all you see is a stranger?" Daphne asked, staring hard at the wooden floor. 

Sabrina, Emma thought instantly. "Yes . . ."

"So then you know how I must feel."

She didn't know why she did it, why it suddenly happened without the thought processing through her brain, but her body acted of it's own accord and Emma burst out laughing. But it must have been because she had never seen a quite so serious looking Daphne before. 

Her laughter died out the second her eyes fluttered toward Daphne, who was staring back at her with a blank but impatient face. 

"Oh . . . wait, you're serious . . . why?" Emma wondered. "Wait, you're talking about me?"

There was no way Daphne could know. There was just no way. Sabrina had only told Draco, and Draco swore that he would tell no one. Maybe one of them was a lie . . . It couldn't have been Sabrina that told Daphne, the latter would have said something by now. Unless Draco had said something to her, but he didn't even like her!

You're overthinking, you're just overthinking.

"Daphne, I'm no good at guessing so you're just going to have to put it to me bluntly. What is it that has you like . . . this."

The gulp that came from Daphne's side of the room was loud enough for Emma to hear, and the blue eyes looked guiltily away from another pair. Emma could feel her frown hard on her face. 

"And I'm no good at being patient but I have been," the blonde responded, her face reflecting a sort of sadness. "There's . . . Putting it to you bluntly would make me look bad. But I'll say this . . . I don't think we should be friends anymore."

The racing heart in Emma's chest was literally tearing to small pieces; her chest warmed and her stomach ached. She could not lose a friend . . . not now . . . and for what?

Before she could demand answers, Daphne spoke again, noticing the look on her friend's face. "It's not you - I mean - it kind of is but . . . I mean, we should be friends, I want to be friends, but I don't think we should be seen with one another. Draco's already cut you off and I think I should too."

Emma wanted to say so many things, so many things, but all she could do was spit out an angry, "why?"

On the contrary, Emma thought she knew the answer. But Daphne wasn't giving it to her so easily. 

"I'd had suspicions and I thought it was a lie, but then that man stopped you and . . ." Daphne cut herself off and stared down at something in her hands, which, when Emma looked over, happened to be a thick black journal of some sort. Someone had written about her. "I thought it was impossible that Potter had a sister, there was just no way. It was like she was erased and then suddenly she's back, like a ghost or something. You can't leave out major details like that, Potter is The Boy who Lived for crying out loud! The only one ever to survive the killing curse! Everyone should've known about this sister, dead or alive. Everyone should've known what happened to her. And then suddenly . . . she's back from the dead. She's sitting across from me right now and staring me down as if everything I'm saying isn't true."

"It's not true," Emma said as solemnly as she could. She was determined to find out who that journal had belonged to, but she wouldn't say anything to give herself away. Again. Empty words, Empty words. "I swear it on my mother's grave, it's not true."

Daphne tilted her head to the side and look almost pitiful. "And which mother would that be?"

"Bloody hell, Daphne, it's not true! You really think if I was his sister I'd even be here right now? His sister would be wise to keep on the run or keep in hiding or whatever it is she's doing. It's not even true. There isn't any proof Potter has a sister, I don't believe it, just like Blaise said it's all rubbish written by Potter's supporters who want attention on him somewhere else. You-Know-Who has taken everything, and of all places you think his sister would be here? Come off it . . ."

But still, Daphne looked doubtful. What more lies could Emma even say to convince her that it was a lie?

"Yet still, even after everything we've done together, all the supposed secrets we've shared, after all the sisterly moments we've had, you still continue to lie directly to my face. I've done my research, Emma. Went back on everything you've said. I hear Harry Potter has a cousin named Dudley, yet so do you . . .you said so yourself, did you not? That my bra was bigger than his . . . rear end . . ." the blonde said, her fingers prodding the binding of the journal. She caught Emma staring. "Do you what this is? Or who it belongs to, should I say? We all got gifts from Sabrina, Emma. It wasn't just you and Draco. We were her friends long before you came here, so of course she'd give all her secrets to me. I don't think she truly meant for me to find out, maybe she forgot that she wrote it in here."

"Sabrina was sick," Emma said in a tiny voice, almost like a croaky whisper. An unconvinced whisper. "She didn't know left from right, she didn't even know the days. You believe everything she wrote?"

"I'd only just found the courage last summer to read everything. I couldn't bear to look at it but I'm glad I found the courage to read it. It explains her death, it's almost like a suicide note. She wrote -"

"I don't want to hear it," Emma interrupted, disbelieved. "I know why she did it."

"She was marked a Death Eater but it wasn't like her life was ended because of it!" Daphne seethed, her fingers now limp and shaky against the journal. "She had so much to live for and she ended it because of a tattoo. I think it was an act of selfishness."

"Selfishness?" Emma repeated, frowning at the blonde. "She was afraid! I would be too!"

"Well we both know you'd be afraid, perhaps more than others," Daphne shook her head, disappointed. She hid the book back at the bottom of her trunk before locking it shut. "I just wish you'd be the one to tell me who you really are."

It already happened once and I was afraid of it happening again, Emma wanted to say, but she couldn't. She would not confirm anything.

"The reason I don't want to be seen with you, Emma, is that I'm afraid for myself. If they find out it's you and they realise I've been with you the whole time . . . I could be in a lot of trouble. I want to help you, I really do, but I just don't know how. You needn't worry, I'll keep this to myself. I hope you understand why I'm doing this."

Now she could not sleep, now she wasn't in the mood for it. She threw herself off her bed, she needed to vent - now.

"Whatever," she scoffed before heading out the door. 

Daphne wanted to cut herself from her life, that was her decision. But Emma was judging. Was there no one from the beginning who could just stay with her until it was over, until she felt safe? Having no one by her side, especially now, was more than terrifying. She'd feel so vulnerable, she felt so vulnerable, friends by her side made her feel stronger and more safe, made her feel like she had more protection. She knew Ginny would remain at her side, perhaps even Neville who she had become well acquainted with during their D.A training two years ago and even more so now, but it wasn't like they could do much. They were Gryffindors, and she was a Slytherin. Them being together would only anger others. 

The conversation was still reeling through her head yet still she couldn't believe what had happened. Daphne wanted nothing to do with her . . . her one close friend . . . even Pansy wanted nothing to do with her and she didn't even know what Daphne knew.  And Millicent just hated everybody. 

As she went down the stairs and got a clear view of the scene opening in the common room, on the sofa by the fire, all thoughts about Daphne were wiped away and in it's place amusement boiled. Now she understood why Astoria was all nervous and blushing; at this moment she was sitting on the sofa by Draco, the pair of them lip locking. Well, there went her vent. 

Emma chuckled to make her hurt disappear before sheering ahead into the common room. "Well, it is a lovely night for snogging, if I do say so myself," she announced herself loudly, keeping her chuckle to herself as the two new love-birds broke apart with a gasp and reeled around to look at her. Their shocked eyes followed her to where she sunk into the opposite sofa. "Oh, sorry, did I interrupt? Don't mind me. Just warming up by the fire."

Astoria looked rather pleased with herself, all cocky and smug as she eyed Emma. Like she had stolen something of hers. Or had achieved something that Emma couldn't. Draco, on the other hand, looked like he had been in a game of Quidditch and had done something horrible which would conclude with Slytherin losing the match. She tried not to snicker; snickering was better than letting Astoria know that Emma was slightly bothered that Draco chose her to go after. Of all girls. 

There was an uncomfortable silence. 

"So . . ." Emma broke it. "When's the wedding?"

"Jealous much?" Astoria laughed cockily, curling up beside Draco, who looked oddly stiff. 

"Jealous of what, you and my leftovers? No - don't say anything, Greengrass. I just came down to warm up by the fire," Emma sighed. 

"Where is my sister?" Astoria demanded to know. "She's usually with you, although I can't actually imagine why."

"Don't people need brain cells to imagine?" Emma mumbled, leaning against the arm of the sofa in order to get closer to the fire. 

"Emma," Draco said, she looked over at him with her eyebrows raised. "Me and her, I didn't mean it. Sorry. I just wanted to forget you for a little while."

In spite of her heart warmth, she wished he hadn't said it like that; at least not with Astoria directly by his side, clinging on to him like flies in dung. Astoria's cockiness was visibly shredded to pieces, and she threw herself away from him and stood from the sofa to stare down at him like she was his mother and he had said the words 'I hate you' for the first time. 

"So that's all I was to you, Draco? A distraction? How could you, you knew how much I liked you and that's why you came to me, isn't it? Because you knew I wouldn't refuse you, not an offer much like this one! So much for your moving on!"

Draco didn't appear to be listening, as Astoria's voice was probably blocked out by the loudness of his winces. He stared at Emma with a blank look, apparently waiting out Astoria's outburst. 

"You used me, how could you, I don't know how I could have liked you all this time!" the younger girl cried before burying her face in her hands and racing up to her dormitory. 

Draco sighed, relaxed, and leaned back into the sofa. "About time. Thought she'd never shut up, did you?"

"That was cruel of you to use her like that."

Draco blinked. "I don't see why you care, you two have never gotten along."

"It still doesn't make it right."

"Did you come down for the fire or did you come down to scold me?" he said carelessly, leaning his mouth against his first as his grey eyes searched the ash buried beneath the flames. 

"Actually I was looking for you," Emma admitted, almost wishing she hadn't when he looked at her quickly. "Daphne, she knows."

Draco stammered incoherently. "Wh - how?"

Emma shook her head. "Sabrina left her a journal. I can't believe she'd write that down somewhere. After reading it she sort of clicked everything together, everything I've ever told her."

Draco seemed to sense that Emma wasn't telling him all that she wanted to, so he left the sofa he was on to join her. When he was beside her, she avoided his stare. 

"Then what?" he asked. 

"I believe she thinks this is the reason you broke up with me," Emma told him. "So . . . she doesn't want to be seen with me either. I don't really fancy ending up by myself. Do you think you and me could . . . try and be friends again?"

"What d'you mean try - we never stopped being friends. I mean, on my end I was probably more blunt than I should have been but in my defense I was still heartbroken," he suddenly looked worried. "Don't tell anyone I said that. I've got a reputation to maintain."

Emma smiled. "Well, we wouldn't want that to die out, now, would we?"

____

A/N: So! Everybody, keep reading this authors note. You probably won't, but really, keep reading. 

So I've got two endings to this and I don't know which I should go along with. With each chapter I'm getting closer and closer to the end of this story, yet also with each chapter I'm thinking more and more on the ending. Something that would probably leave readers heartbroken, or would be too much of a happy ending?

So we all know the original ending. Draco marries Astoria and they have Scorpius. If Emma was to end up with Draco in the end, she couldn't exactly give birth to Scorpius because...well...it just isn't right, that's Draco and Astoria's son. But if Draco and Emma were to have a child/children, there would be no Scorpius and there needs to be a Scorpius. 

Hmm . . . decisions, decisions, why must they be so hard?

Maybe I should just leave out that little epilogue and leave the whole ending a mystery? ;)

Also, sorry if some parts don't make sense or there are spelling errors, it's late and I really don't feel like reading this over. Forgive me, I'm a simple man. Woman. Girl. Whatever... ciao for now!