Lizzie's POV:

Draco and I returned to Hogwarts to find it buried in a foot of snow. Apparition lessons were to begin soon, but Draco already knew how and I wasn't feeling any urge to be in the same room with all of the sixth years, so on the days that the lessons took place, Draco and I made trips to the Room of Requirement to work on the Vanishing Cabinet. Since we returned to a still live and kicking Dumbledore, we figured that Slughorn hadn't bought the mead. We still had to kill the man, but the loopholes kept failing us. It was becoming increasingly and increasingly more apparent to the both of us that we would have to cast the curse.

Draco told me of the conversation he had had with his father the night my mother was kidnapped. He told me that she was most likely still alive and he would make sure that I got her back alright.

Shortly after I had arrived at Malfoy Manor, I had owled Grayson and told him what had happened. He never replied.

Anyway, having returned to Hogwarts, my health was going downhill fast and so was Draco's. We barely ate, barely slept, and barely socialized with anyone other than each other. If anyone else approached us, we would quickly make an excuse and run off. We found comfort only in each other.

In the Room of Requirement, the Vanishing Cabinet was slowly but steadily coming along, and I knew that, by the end of term, there would be Death Eaters on the castle and, one way or another, Dumbledore would be dead. Draco had received a letter from Borgin of Borgin and Burke's with a spell that would repair the cabinet. Harmonia Nectere Passus. Draco and I repeated this spell so many times in one sitting that the words would be engraved in my skull until the day I die.

Harmonia Nectere Passus.

Harmonia Nectere Passus.

I had studied the etymology of the phrase one day, having nothing else to do, seeing as Draco was busy finishing an essay for Snape. It was derived mostly from Latin. Harmonia meaning 'harmony', nectere meaning 'to tie or to bond', and passus deriving from the Latin word pati meaning to 'suffer, allow, or undergo'. All together, the phrase means 'allowing to bind the harmony', mending the passage between the cabinets. I found it quite interesting, but figured Draco wouldn't care, so I kept it to myself.

Harmonia Nectere Passus.

Allowing to bind the harmony.

Harmonia Nectere Passus.

Allowing to bind the harmony.

I would be repeating those words even in death, they were so engraved into my memory. I even found myself muttering them to myself when spacing out in class, earning odd looks from the students around me. My ears would turn red whenever this happened and my stomach would lurch, thinking I had just given away our entire operation. However, no one came with pointed wands.

Harmonia Nectere Passus.

Harmonia Nectere Passus.

"HARMONIA NECTERE PASSUS." I bolted up in my bed in my dormitory, realizing that I had shouted the phrase out loud, waking all the other girls in my dormitory. Millicent gave me the dirtiest look she could manage and went back to sleep.

"Are you alright, Liz?" Astoria called out sweetly, yet tiredly from the bed next to mine.

"Y-yeah, I'm sorry, girls. Just a bad dream," I muttered guiltily.

After all of the other girls' breathing had evened out and Millicent began to snore once more, I stood and made my way down to the common room.

"Incendio," I whispered, lighting the fireplace. It sparked once, then roared to life. Sitting down on the stone hearth in front of the fireplace and wrapping my arms around myself, I allowed the warmth to seep into my body.

"Hey, mum," I whispered, careful to make sure no one could hear me, even if they were on the sofa behind me. "I miss you terribly and hope to Merlin that you are alright. I don't know what I would do without you. I mean I'm almost of age, in the wizarding world of course, but I would still have to move in with Grayson for a while, wouldn't I? That would be a lot of personality in too small of a flat with no control. It would turn to chaos in little to no time."

I chuckled at the thought of all the rows Gray and I had gotten into growing up. We both were quite loud people once we got comfortable with people and putting us together would result in World War lll.

"I'm back at Hogwarts, now, and professors are loading us up with homework. N.E.W.T.'s are coming up and with the war brewing I've barely thought of what I'm going to do after Hogwarts. I know I want to be an Auror, but I'd need so many N.E.W.T.'s that it's almost impossible. The thought of the future just makes me want to tear my hair out, even if it's just the thought of breakfast. And if you knew why, you would understand, but I know how you reacted when you found out about Grayson and he said you need at least one innocent child. I hate to say it, but I agree with him. If I told you what my father did, you would have a fit. I couldn't do that to you. Maybe after the war. If we both make it."

I took a deep breath and chewed on my lip.

"Draco's in this mess with me, though, and that makes it a million times easier. He's the one holding me together. Without him, I wouldn't have made it this far. It was our petty fight in fifth year that stopped me from eating any more of that poison. He has saved my life on more than one account and for that I am eternally grateful.

"I love him, mum. So much. Whenever I think about him, my stomach knots itself up and my brain turns to mush. I pray to Merlin that I never lose this boy. He is my other half. He is my savior."

"The feeling is mutual," a husky voice whispered from directly behind me, making me leap to my feet and draw my wand.

"Merlin's pants, Draco! You are everywhere," I said, my heart beating a thousand miles per hour at the surprise.

Draco's POV:

For what was probably the second night in a row, I had a sleepless night. The sounds of the other boys' slow breathing and my warm blankets should have been enough to lull me to sleep, but I was so haunted by the task on my shoulders that I was unable to close my eyes for more than twenty seconds. If Lizzie were here next to me, I would have been able to sleep like a baby, but she wasn't. She was in her own bed, most likely having a sleepless night herself.

I started when I heard a shout from somewhere nearby. The other boys in the room didn't flinch, but I sat upright to the noise. Shouts weren't uncommon in the middle of the night, nowadays. People were so scared of the state of the wizarding world that nightmares followed everyone, waking them in the dark. But this one got me out of bed. I couldn't sleep anyway, so I decided to head to the common room.

There was a form sitting in front of the fireplace, staring into the fire blazing inside. My feet made no noise as I approached them. Upon further inspection, I realized that this was Lizzie and she was speaking.

"Draco's in this mess with me, though, and that makes it a million times easier. He's the one holding me together. Without him, I wouldn't have made it this far. It was our petty row in fifth year that stopped me from eating any more of that poison. He has saved my life on more than one account and for that I am eternally grateful."

A smile tugged at the corners of my lips as I listened to the sweet words she was saying about me.

"I love him, mum. So much. Whenever I think about him, my stomach knots itself up and my brain turns to mush. I pray to Merlin that I never lose this boy. He is my other half. He is my savior." It was at this point that I realized she was speaking to her mother, or rather speaking into the fire as if it were a floo to her mother.

"The feeling is mutual," I whispered. She obviously hadn't realized that I was behind her and jumped, drawing her wand from the waistband of her pajamas.

"Merlin's pants, Draco! You are everywhere," LIzzie replied in a whisper yell.

"How else am I going to protect you?" I returned, sitting on the hearth next to where she had been. She frowned and sat back down, this time facing me.

"I can hold my own, you know." Her face was lit up green in the light of the fire and the shadows danced across her nose and lips and eyes as the fire flickered beside us.

"I know, but I once made a promise to myself that I would never let anything happen to you, and how am I supposed follow through with that if I can't see you?" She didn't reply for a few moments, but simply turned her head to look into the fire.

"How long were you standing there?" She was chewing on her bottom lip, a nervous habit she had acquired this past year.

"Not too long, but long enough," I answered vaguely. She frowned again at my answer.

"I come down here a lot when I can't sleep, and, I don't know why, but I've started talking to the fire as if it's my mum." She took a deep breath and bit her lip. "I miss her," she choked. "What if something happens to her? What if she's already dead? You-Know-Who has no use for a muggle."

"I'll get her back if it's the last thing I do," I swore to her, and I meant it. I couldn't bear to see Liz in pain like this.

"You are the best thing that has ever happened to me, Draco," she whispered, scooting herself closer to me and leaning her head on my shoulder.

"The feeling is mutual," I repeated.