Draco

            We waited a full two weeks before choosing to reenter the Room of Requirement. I put it off for as long as possible by taking extra time finding a list of spells to fix the damaged inside of the cabinet, and whenever Eve would carefully suggest that we go back to try them, I would make up some sort of excuse to wait even longer. I just wanted to take as much time as we could to fix the cabinet, because that meant putting off the task for as long as we could. After what Eve had told me about her parents, I'd wanted to keep her out of all this even more than before—but she wasn't having it.

            So eventually she convinced me to finally give up on waiting and making excuses, and we finally went back to the Room of Requirement one Saturday afternoon. I was bent over in the opening of the cabinet with Eve perched on an abandoned piano stool slightly behind me, the borrowed spell book resting on her knees. The weather had turned significantly cooler as winter loomed closer, so I'd given her my suit jacket to wrap around her shoulders. It was warm in the doorway of the stuffy cabinet, however, so I had to roll up my shirt sleeves as I crouched in front of the charred wood with my wand stretched out in front of me.

            "Damn it," I cursed loudly as the spell I tried caused sparks to fly up near my face, jumping back to avoid losing my eyebrows. As I turned around, feeling for any singed hair, I realized Eve was trying to cover her smile with one hand and balance the book with her elbow at the same time.

            "Sorry," she grinned, trying but failing to hide the fact that she was giggling. "That was a close one."

            I rolled my eyes, but her smile was infectious and I ended up grinning too. "Yeah yeah, go ahead and laugh. That spell was shit—I think it made it worse."

            Eve craned her neck to peer past me, seeing the damaged wood inside of the cabinet and shrugging slightly. She flipped through the spell book again, looking for another page we'd marked after we'd borrowed it from the Restricted Section late at night. "Let me find another. One of these has to work."

            "This is stupid," I complained, running one hand through my hair messily as I went over to sit beside her on the piano bench. "We've already tried at least five by now. I'm going to end up with no eyebrows left."

            I had been serious, but Eve laughed anyway. It was almost easier to laugh; what we were doing was so serious that it made it slightly less unbearable. She found another page I had dog-eared last week, and I leaned closer to read it over her shoulder. Pointing to the description, Eve said, "This one sounds right, yeah? It says to mend any magically damaged artifact."

            "That's what the last one said," I told her dryly, but I was already standing up to try it. "Alright, walk me through it."

            So Eve explained to me word for word how to perform the spell, a process that was more complicated than anything I'd tried before—probably because the spell wasn't strictly legal. It took me a few tries to finally get it, and Eve had to get up a few times just to fix the position of my arm. But when the tip of my wand finally sparked blue and glowed against the damaged wood, I knew I must have done it at least partly right. As the blue haze faded away, Eve got off the bench and came over to me to see if it had worked.

            "It looks a little better," I said uncertainly, because the deepest corner of the cabinet still had a charred, ashy look to it. "Do you think I did it right?"

            "Yeah, I think so," Eve told me, glancing down at the book again. "It looks right. Maybe it's just not powerful enough."

            "Great," I sighed, stepping back and stuffing my wand back into my pocket. My back was aching from bending over before the cabinet for so long, and I wanted nothing more than to close it and finally stop testing spells that were mostly just useless.

            Eve closed the spell book too, tucking it under her arm. She gave me a small smile and asked, "Want to go? We've been here for way too long anyway."

            I tried not to groan out loud, because I really did want to get out of the Room of Requirement—but there was something I needed to do first. "Yeah, but hold on. There's something I need to show you."

            "...okay?" she said slowly, looking at me carefully as though she was worried something was wrong. "What is it?"

            "Wait here, I'll get it." I was incredibly uneasy as I left Eve by the cabinet to retrieve it, nervously picking up the item covered in cloth and bringing it back over to her. I wasn't sure how she was going to take this. As I walked back over, I told her, "Alright. I was looking around in here a little while ago when I skipped Potions, and—"

            "You went in here without me?" Eve asked, and I realized she sounded slightly hurt.

            Guiltily I admitted, "Yeah. Sorry, I just—I wanted to look around for something. Anyway, I found this, and—" I hesitated awkwardly, looking down at the object in my hands instead of at Eve as I tried to get the words out. "—and I figured we could use it. You know...against Dumbledore."

            There was a silence after I said it, the task hanging in between us like a black cloud. Neither of us had spoken about the second half of the task since the Dark Lord had first given it to us, and this was the first time I was bringing it up again. Eve's face was confused as she looked down at the small wrapping in my hand, asking in a quiet voice, "Wait—what is it?"

            "It's a necklace," I told her after a moment, but when she started to reach for it, I jumped back so quickly that I nearly stumbled. "Don't touch it. It's cursed. I found it in an old trunk somewhere near the door, but it—it didn't look normal, so I went into the Restricted Section later and found out it's some sort of dark object. I guess if you touch it, it's supposed to...supposed to...you know."

            I couldn't say it out loud, but Eve knew exactly what I meant. She stared down at the wrapped cloth in my hands with wide eyes, as though she was scared the necklace was going to slip out from the coverings and brush against my hand. Her usual small smile was gone as she looked at it, saying softly, "Oh."

            "Are you okay?" I asked her worriedly. I was terrified that I was scaring her—although, to be honest, I was scaring myself a little.

            "Yeah," Eve said quickly, dragging her gaze away from the wrapped necklace. "I just—I just thought we were going to wait to do it. You know, I thought—I thought we could wait until the cabinet was fixed and then figure it out when the rest of the Death Eaters got here."

            "I know. But I think it would be safer to do it before the cabinet's fixed," I said carefully, needing her to understand. My voice was hushed now, even though we were completely alone in the Room of Requirement and there was no one around who could possibly hear us. "I don't want to bring Death Eaters into the castle. It could be bad, and maybe more people would get hurt. If we do it before the cabinet's fixed, maybe we'll never have to lead them into the castle at all."

            Eve blinked up at me, and I could tell that she hadn't really even thought about students getting hurt when the Death Eaters came into the castle. She looked past me at the cabinet then, like she was suddenly realizing why I wanted to put off fixing it for as long as possible. Swallowing hard, she looked back at me and asked quietly, "How are we going to do it? We can't just give it to him ourselves—everyone would know it was us."

            I held the wrapped necklace in my hands carefully, like it was a bomb waiting to detonate. Not being able to look Eve in the eye anymore, I looked at the floor between us as I told her slowly, "I was thinking I could get someone else to do it. But...um, I'd have to use the Imperius curse. So they wouldn't get suspicious of us or anything."

            "...oh," she said after a moment, her voice getting smaller by the second. I couldn't see Eve's expression as she asked, "Who?"

            "I...I dunno," I admitted, because I honestly hadn't even thought about it. How could I possibly choose someone to use an Unforgivable Curse on and force them to hand over a deadly necklace to Dumbledore? "I was thinking we could find someone during the Hogsmeade trip next month. I haven't worked it all out or anything, I just—I wanted to know what you thought."

            When I finally forced myself to look back up, Eve's face was impossibly calm. She gazed back at me, took a deep breath, and said, "Okay. I think we should do it."

            "Are you sure?" I asked quietly, looking at her carefully to see if she was lying to me. "I don't like it any more than you do, but—I mean, there's nothing about this to like, I guess."

            "Yeah," Eve told me, nodding slightly. "I think it's the best we've got, though."

            I swallowed hard and looked down at the cloth in my hands, feeling sick to my stomach. I asked her in a low voice, "Are you scared?"

            She didn't hesitate to tell me quietly, "Terrified. But we'll figure it out together, right?"

            "Yeah," I said softly. "Together."

            I put the necklace back where I had found it, not wanting to bring it out of the Room of Requirement until we absolutely had to. Eve helped me throw the cover over the cabinet again—even though we were sure no one was going to be coming here any time soon.

            Eve held my hand in silence when we left the Room of Requirement, neither of us wanting to say anything. We walked back down to the Slytherin common room deep in our thoughts, the cursed necklace setting up a sick taste in both our mouths.

            Attempting to fix the cabinet hadn't been so terrible, but I needed to stop avoiding what we really needed to do—and that meant making an attempt to kill Dumbledore, no matter how much it scared us both.

~*~

Eve

            It took us nearly a month to work out all the details, but by the start of winter, Draco and I were ready to carry out the plan.

            The Hogsmeade trip was on Saturday, and we knew that we needed to do it now before we could back out. Draco had insisted that we put off fixing the cabinet while we figured out a way to get the necklace to Dumbledore, so we'd done nothing but plan for the past month—if we didn't do it now, all of it would have been pointless.

            Draco and I couldn't bring ourselves to choose someone to use the Unforgivable Curse on, so we ended up deciding that he would wait in the Three Broomsticks until someone happened to be in the right place at the right time. It left a lot to chance, of course, but I never would have been able to pick out a specific student beforehand and force them to do something like this.

            So we had it all worked out—we'd wait in the Three Broomsticks pub until the right person happened to walk by, and then Draco would perform the curse and give them the wrapped necklace while I watched for people. Draco, however, was insisting that we go to Hogsmeade separately.

            "Just go with Potter and his friends," he'd pleaded. The two of us had been alone in the common room late that Friday night. "It'll be weird if we both show up and disappear at the same time."

            "That doesn't even make sense," I had argued. "We've been around each other practically this entire year so far; if we don't go to Hogsmeade together, people are going to think something's up."

            "You can say we got into an argument and you wanted to go without me. Come on, Eve, we can't be suspects if anything goes wrong."

            I'd rolled my eyes and had told him, "Fine. But I'll be watching the bathrooms for you, okay? You're not doing this alone."

            He'd nodded, but I had a feeling he was making me go with Harry and the others so I wouldn't have to see him use the Imperius curse. Did he really think I'd let him go through all that without me there?

            It snowed that Saturday morning. I went down to eat breakfast alone, since Draco had insisted we make it look like we'd gotten into a fight the night before. He'd told me that he would eat breakfast earlier and go into Hogsmeade before anyone else, so I had no one to confess to about how nervous I was. I felt sick, if I was being honest.

            I met up with Ginny and Neville a little while after breakfast, and they told me that we were just going to wait for Ron, Hermione, and Harry to come down to the Great Hall before going to Hogsmeade.

            "They should be down pretty soon," Neville said, his hands already tucked into the pockets of his coat because of the chilly air seeping underneath the entrance doors just a few feet from us. "I guess Harry and Ron slept in."

            "No surprise there," I grinned, and Neville laughed. He had no idea that I was nervously sweating under my clothes, my wand carefully tucked just inside my jacket so I would be able to pull it out quickly. I'd barely slept at all last night.

            "Haven't seen Malfoy around," Ginny said to me casually, and I immediately tensed up. She didn't usually ask about Draco. But her tone was light as she continued, "I was surprised when you said you'd come with us. I didn't think you'd say yes, I thought you would want to go with Malfoy."

            I feigned a look of discomfort—although it wasn't very hard—and told her awkwardly, "Actually we got into a bit of a fight last night. I'd rather go with you guys."

            She told me she was sorry we'd had a row, but Neville tried to lighten the mood by saying, "Well, we're more exciting to hang out with anyway. Look, I think I see Ron."

            The three of them came down the stairs together, grinning at us and tightening their coats around themselves. I fought to keep a calm expression as Hermione smiled and said, "Sorry we're late. Ron here took nearly half an hour just to shower."

            "I did not," Ron snapped, but Hermione wasn't listening.

            We were starting for the doors when Harry somehow ended up walking beside me, and he gave me a small grin and asked, "Alright, Eve?"

            "Yeah," I squeaked, then quickly clear my throat and forced myself to return his warm expression. "I'm alright. You?"

            "Alright, I suppose," he said, squinting and tucking his arms closer around himself as we headed out into the cold winter air. His breath came out in puffs of moisture as he admitted, "Wish it was warmer, though."

            "Me too," I said, giving a nervous laugh. "I'm already sick of winter."

            And then Neville saved me from having to keep up the conversation with Harry by asking him about the Herbology homework they'd gotten the other day. I had to focus on just putting one foot in front of the other as Harry's attention was finally diverted from me, and I was able to let out a shaky breath. Whenever I looked at him, all I could see was his broken and bloody nose from the night we'd come back to Hogwarts.

           I kept quiet as we headed down to the Three Broomsticks, our feet crunching through the freshly fallen snow. Burying half my face in the warmth of my scarf, I focused on taking deep breaths and trying not to let my nerves get the best of me. I couldn't stop thinking about Draco hiding out alone in the pub with the cursed necklace tucked inside his coat, waiting for an innocent student to corner and use an Unforgivable curse on. As I entered Hogsmeade with Ginny and the others, I closed my eyes briefly and wondered if Draco and I were doing the right thing.

            Because nothing about this felt right.

            But it was too late to back out now. Ron was leading the way inside the Three Broomsticks, and I had no choice but to follow them in. He chose a table near the edge of the room, and I quickly made sure to sit in a seat that faced the direction of the bathrooms—Draco said he would be staying in that hallway to look, and I didn't want to miss him. I settled back against my chair uneasily, knowing there was nothing I could do now except wait for Draco to make a move on someone.

            "Do you want anything?" Ginny asked me with a grin, but she looked confused when I jumped in my seat. She laughed a little as she asked, "Are you okay? You seem nervous."

            "What?" I scoffed, pretending to laugh. "I'm not nervous. I'm gonna have a Butterbeer."

            Not that I would be able to drink it, with the way I was feeling right now. But I didn't say this to Ginny, and she nodded as she told me, "Yeah, me too. Ron, you're getting them, right?"

            He glared across the table at her from his place beside Hermione and Neville, asking, "Why do I always have to do it? You can get your own."

            "No, I can't. I want to talk to Eve," Ginny insisted, and I watched as her brother rolled his eyes and started to get up. I wondered if this sort of thing happened a lot when they were at home.

           As Ron left the table to get Butterbeers for us, Ginny turned to me and grinned, "He can really be a pushover, but only sometimes. It took me a few years to figure it out."

            I forced myself to return her smile and nod, even though I was barely paying attention. Ginny launched into a quiet discussion about something Dean Thomas had said to her the other day that apparently made her think he liked her, but I was only half-listening. I was looking past Harry and Hermione's heads towards the bathrooms of the pub, the nerves twisting in my gut as I watched carefully for Draco. I hadn't seen any sign of him yet, and it was making me anxious. I hoped he hadn't run into any trouble coming down to Hogsmeade—the necklace was full of Dark Magic and probably extremely illegal, so it wouldn't be good if anyone caught him with it.

            Ron returned with the drinks, but I knew I wouldn't be able to keep it down if I tried to swallow. So I only pretended to drink it as I pretended to listen to Ginny, raising the mug to my lips every so often. My fingers were shaking so badly that I nearly dropped the mug every time I lifted it up.

            Sitting at a table full of people who had no idea what I was really there for was positively terrible. I barely said anything while the five of them talked seemingly without a care in the world, watching the bathrooms like a hawk with my stomach lurking nervously. What if we'd gotten here too late and Draco had already found someone to give the necklace to? What if he'd had to perform the curse without me there and was now heading back up to the castle alone?

            Nearly a half hour went by before I finally saw him.

            I'd seen movement near the entrance to the bathrooms, and I looked up to see Katie Bell entering the girls' room. I was just looking back down at my mug disappointedly when I saw the unmistakable flash of whitish-blonde hair out of the corner of my eye. My heart jumping into my throat, I barely caught the back of Draco's head as he disappeared in after Katie, and I knew I had to move.

            "I've got to use the bathroom," I told Ginny quietly, giving her a small smile and standing. She nodded, and I was relieved when she didn't offer to come with me.

            I hastily made my way to the bathroom, trying not to make it look like I was in a huge rush. When I finally hurried through the door of the girls' room, Draco had his wand out and was handing the wrapped cloth over to Katie.

           I quickly shut the door behind me and stood with my back up against it, my heart pounding against my chest. Draco had his back to me as Katie took the necklace from him, her expression impossibly blank. He whispered something to her, and then she was starting to walk towards me. I jumped out of her way as she went for the door, my eyes wide as I looked at the emptiness in her eyes.

            Then she was gone, and Draco was reaching for me with shaking hands. I pulled myself against him once I saw how terrified he was, wrapping my arms around him and asking quietly, "Are you okay? Did it work?"

            "I—I think so," he stammered, pulling back and not even trying to hide his scared expression. His voice was uneasy as he said quickly, "I told her to go do it now. I've got to get out of here, I can't let anyone see me—"

            "Okay," I said, trying to keep the fear out of my voice. Maybe if he thought I was completely calm, he wouldn't freak out. "Okay, I'll make sure no one's looking. I'll see you back at the castle, yeah?"

            "Yeah," Draco told me as I started for the door, his breath coming out unevenly. "See—see you then."

            I cracked open the bathroom door cautiously, peeking out and looking to make sure no one was paying attention to this side of the room. After waiting half a second for an old witch in the corner to turn away, I quickly stepped forward and hissed quietly, "Go, go."

            Draco slipped out from behind me, ducking out of the bathroom as quickly as he could. I let the door shut behind me and started back for the table, forcing myself to swallow hard and hold my head high. My legs felt like rubber as I weaved in between the chairs towards my seat, the adrenaline making my bones feel like they were made of jelly. Now I just had to act like everything was fine until we finally went back up to the castle, and then I could find Draco and make sure he was okay.

            None of them looked at me suspiciously when I sat back down, and I let out the breath I'd been holding. As I pretended to take another sip of Butterbeer, I glanced up to see Katie Bell heading towards the door of the pub, her friend hurrying after her. I felt sick to my stomach and forced myself to turn away, the guilt already setting up inside my chest.

            I'd only been back for about two minutes when Hermione suggested we go back—it was getting late anyway, and it was starting to snow again. I pulled my coat back on and forced myself to laugh at a joke Ron had made, following Ginny out of the pub and into the cold. I was incredibly relieved we were leaving; I needed to get away from them so I could find Draco again.

            I squinted through the lightly falling snow to see that there were two figures walking a ways ahead of us back towards the castle, and I felt incredibly sick as I realized one of them was probably Katie. Tucking my arms tightly around myself, I tried not to think about the cloth holding the cursed necklace that she was probably clutching safely in her hands. I couldn't even imagine what Draco was feeling right now.

            We were just crossing the bridge when it happened.

            Harry, Ron, and Hermione had suddenly stopped short, and that was when I looked up and saw what they were staring at.

            Katie Bell's body was crumpled in the snow and her friend was standing over her, screaming and crying something that was carried away by the wind. I was already starting to stumble as I numbly followed the others closer, my blood turning cold. We were then close enough to see Katie's face, and I saw that her mouth was stretched open as though she was screaming—but no sound was coming out.

            It was then that I could finally make out what her friend was crying, and my knees nearly gave out on me. "I told her not to touch it, I told her—"

            The necklace was lying in the snow beside Katie's body, only half-covered by the cloth. My hands went to cover my mouth without my permission, the image of Katie's crumpled form starting to dip and blur before me. That necklace was cursed with Dark Magic, and I knew what was supposed to happen if someone touched it.

            We'd killed her. She'd done nothing to us, but we'd killed her.

            Ginny had to hold me up from the ground as my knees gave out from under me.