CHAPTER SIX

"So you and Malfoy have gotten close." Theo and Ellison were walking towards Hogsmeade, class had ended thirty minutes ago.

"What?"

"Daphne told me you were going with him to the ball."

"Oh, yeah, he asked me a few weeks ago. I guess I forgot to tell you."

Theo stopped walking, "El, you haven't been yourself since school started, is everything okay?"

Ellison, who didn't realize at first that he'd stopped, finally stopped walking and turned to him, "I'm fine, Theo."

"No, you're not. The only time I see you is during class, you're always passing notes with Draco, you walk around the castle at weird hours of the night, you have dark circles under your eyes every time I see you, you look like you've lost weight, you hardly eat with the other Gryffindors— actually I don't think I've seen you eat supper with them since school started. I'm worried about you. Is it your nightmares?"

She scoffed, "No, Theo, it's not my nightmares, it's something else that I can't tell you about. Stop worrying about me, okay? I'm fine." She pushed her hair out of her face and her long sleeve slid down, showing the smallest bit of black ink.

He looked down at her arm and then back up at her, "Oh.." He trailed off. "I see." He frowned. 

She looked down, trying to see what he was looking at, "Theo, I can ex-"

He cut her off, "Ellie, when did you get that?"

She started walking again, ignoring the question, Theo caught up with her, "Ellison, when did you get that?"

She glanced over at him, "Don't worry about it, Theo."

He sighed, "I can't just not worry about it, I've already seen it. When did you get it?"

"It's best if you don't know anything. I don't want to put you in danger."

"Ellison, is this why you've gotten close to Draco? Does he have one too?"

She frowned, "Theo, please drop it. I can't talk to you about this."

"Then I'll go ask Draco, if he won't tell me anything then I'll go ask my father. I want to hear it from you so just tell me."

She looked around, there was no one around them, she pulled him down a dark side street, "I took it right before school started, my mum is getting worse, I offered to take it and spy on Harry if Voldemort would promise to keep my mother safe."

Theo blinked, "Ellison, my father could have went to go and check on your mum everyday if you needed someone to do that. You could've let us help you, I don't understand why you would do this, we could've helped."

"Your father did help."

He stared at her, "What do you mean?"

She shrugged, "He was the one who took me to Voldemort. He was plenty of help."

Theo frowned, "My father did this to you?"

"No, he just told me where to meet him and that he'd set me up a meeting with the Dark Lord."

"Why didn't you tell me? I could've stopped him."

She shook her head, "I didn't need you to stop him. I took this willingly, I have to keep my mother safe and I will do anything to do that. I knew if I told you then you'd try and stop me. I didn't want to be stopped. All I ask of you is to keep this between us. Don't tell anyone."

He nodded, "I've got to get going, the shop closes in ten. I'll see you later, Ellison."

She was about to respond and asked what happened to them walking together but the frown on his face made it evident he didn't want her to walk with him anymore, she'd leave him alone for now.

-

Saturday

Ellison took one last look at herself in the mirror before exiting her dorm room, Harry Potter was standing across the hall from her. "Thank you again, Ellison, for doing this for me. I'm sure you probably don't even want to go to begin with but I appreciate your help."

If only he knew.

She nodded, "Of course, Harry. I probably won't be back until late so I'll come find you tomorrow and tell you if I've learned anything useful. I'm supposed to meet up with Draco in a few minutes to Floo there. His father had OWL'ed my mother and asked if she'd be alright with him escorting me that way I'd be there to represent my family. I wanted to let you know that before you saw him and I together in the papers tomorrow."

He waved his hand, "Of course, I know you'd never willingly go anywhere with Malfoy. Thank you again for your help, your dress looks lovely."

She smiled, "Thanks."

Her arm was burning, she had glamoured it to make the Mark disappear. It took ten different spells it seemed like but she'd finally got it to go away and now she was suffering the consequences of it.

She walked out of the common room, it seemed as if the other Gryffindors were judging her. They probably were, they were all staring. She was headed to a ball at Malfoy Manor. Why wouldn't they be judging?

She practically ran through the hallways of the school and down to the dungeons where Draco was waiting for her outside of the Slytherin common room entry way.

When he heard her heels stomping towards him, he looked up. Her hair was in tight curls going down to her shoulders and she had a bit of black eyeshadow on her eyelids and a small wing. Her black dress was see through in the middle, it was a corset and she had off the shoulder straps and the dress train trailed behind her. He cleared his throat, "Ellison, you look more... put together than usual."

She frowned at him, "That's an odd compliment, but thank you."

He looked away, "We're going to be late, let's get going." He offered his arm out for her to hold and the two walked down to Snape's office where they would be Floo'ing to the Manor.

A few minutes later, they stepped into the foyer of Malfoy Manor and instantly all eyes were on them. The room had gotten so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. It stayed quiet for several seconds before there was a loud click and a flash of light. Rita Skeeter stepped forward, "Miss Avery, who are you wearing tonight?" She asked.

Ellison blinked, "Um, I'm not sure," she turned to Draco, "Draco, do you know?"

He shrugged, "I'm not sure, but my dress robes were a custom piece sent to me from a designer in France though." He had changed the subject to himself.

Ellison rolled her eyes, he was always showing off.

After Rita asked them an absurd amount of questions, she finally walked away, content with her meddling.

Draco offered Ellison his arm and the two walked to the Malfoy ball room.

"How much of her article do you think is going to be true?" Draco asked her.

Ellison laughed, "I think our names will be the only piece of factual evidence that she writes."

"Fifty galleons says she writes that we're madly in love." Draco whispered.

Ellison scoffed, "Please, five hundred galleons that she writes that I'm in love with Theo and that she watched him send glares our way all night because I should be here with him and not you."

Draco shook his head, "I hate myself for not thinking of that idea first."

They entered the ballroom and he walked her over to his parents, "Mum, Father, I'd like to officially introduce you to my date, Ellison Avery."

Narcissa smiled at the brunette girl, "It's very nice to meet you, Ellison, we've heard lots about you."

"Mum." Draco mumbled.

Narcissa rolled her eyes, "What, Draco? It's the truth. You write home to me about her just about as much as you write about Potter."

Ellison side eyed Draco, "Good things, right?"

Lucius laughed, "I'm afraid not, Miss Avery. Draco is a bit dramatic."

Draco grabbed Ellison's arm, "Come on, let me fix you a drink."

As Draco pulled Ellison over to the bar, she began questioning him, "What have you said about me? Is it that hard to come up with something nice to say about me? Am I going to be murdered over something you've said?" On and on and on and on with the questions.

The questions didn't stop until the house elf behind the bar handed Draco a drink and he took it upon himself to push the glass in between her lips, making her shut up and take a sip.

She frowned at him, taking the glass from his hand and removing it from her mouth, "What is this?" She asked, "It's disgusting."

He reached behind the bar and pulled the bottle up so he could read it, "Wine. It's a two hundred year old bottle of it. Explains the taste."

"I hate you."

"Careful what you say, Avery, there's at least fifteen chandeliers in the Manor, it'd be a shame if one fell on you." He teased.

She rolled her eyes, "It's very rude to shove a wine glass into your date's mouth."

He shrugged, "Well if you wouldn't have asked ten million questions I wouldn't have had too and don't say that you're my date so loudly."

"Why? Am I scaring away all of the women who think they have chances with you?"

"Yes, actually, you're also making yourself a target for Him." He mumbled.

Ellison shot him a confused look, "I don't understand."

"If we fail this mission, not only will we be tortured and killed, you'll be tortured way more as my punishment."

"Why?"

"If the Dark Lord thinks I care for you then he's going to hurt you as a form of punishment to me."

"Oh." Ellison looked away.

Draco nodded, "Yeah."

"I think I need to use the restroom, could you direct me to it?" She asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah, I can." Draco held his arm back out for her to grab.

The two teenagers walked through the ballroom and towards a dimly lit hallway, Ellison ignored the stares she was receiving from the creepy older men, she had unintentionally gripped Draco's arm tighter, causing him to look up and notice who had been staring at her.

They had reached the bathroom but Draco didn't feel comfortable leaving her there alone so he nudged her, "Actually, I just remembered, the sink doesn't work that great in there, I'll show you to a different one." He lied, the sink worked just fine, he just couldn't let her know that he slightly cared about her safety.

They passed the group of disgusting men again, this time a few of them didn't bother to hide their creepy smiles, "Who've you got with you, Malfoy?" One of them asked.

"She's a pretty thing." Another added, causing a few others to chuckle.

Draco cleared his throat, "She's my girlfriend, not that it's any of your business. It'd be in your best interest to refrain from looking at her anymore this evening, don't speak to her either or I'll deal with you myself."

He didn't give them an opportunity to respond he just pulled Ellison closer to his side and directed her down the hallway.

Once they were out of earshot, she tilted her head up to look at him, "I thought we weren't trying to make ourselves targets?"

Draco kept walking forward, not  looking  at her, "I wasn't going to let them speak of you like that, it was indecent of them."

She nodded, "I see."

He led her up the stairs and stopped in front of a door at the end of the hall, he pushed the door open, "Once you walk in, there's a door on the left, it's the bathroom, I'll be waiting out here for you."

She smiled, "Thanks."

Once she walked in, he closed the door behind her. He stood at the door as if he were a guard. Only stepping away from it when he saw his mother walking up the stairs, "Mum, what are you doing?" He called.

She frowned at him, "I could ask you the same question."

"I had to show Ellison to the bathroom."

"We have bathrooms downstairs, it looks bad for you to be alone up here with a girl."

He rolled his eyes, "I assure you, nothing is happening with her. Once we're done with our assignment I plan to never speak to her again."

Narcissa raised an eyebrow, "Is that so?" She asked.

He nodded.

"I was under the impression that you fancied her, Draco."

Draco scoffed, "Absolutely not, she's a Gryffindor, she's also extremely annoying. I can't stand her."

Narcissa nodded, unconvinced, "If you say so. I actually was up here trying to find you, there's a meeting in ten minutes in the drawing room."

-

Ellison walked out of the room, she'd learned that it was Draco's room, it was very obvious once she'd walked in, there were a few framed photos of him with his family, one with Theo, another with Blaise. She shut the door behind her and stepped forward. "Mrs. Malfoy." She greeted.

Narcissa smiled, "Please Ellison, call me Narcissa, I'm sure we'll be seeing quite a lot of each other in the coming months so we might as well be on a first name basis."

Draco turned to Ellison, "We have a meeting to go to."

Ellison nodded.

Narcissa smiled at the two of them and then walked away, headed for her bedroom. She'd forgotten to put her necklace on before the ball had begun so she was headed to grab it.

Ellison and Draco walked into the Malfoy drawing room, it was a dark and dimly lit room, surprisingly, no one else was in there, just Voldemort. They assumed they were early.

Voldemort turned to look at them once he heard the door open, "Ah, there you are. My youngest Helpers."

Ellison let go of Draco's arm. That was a mistake she realized soon enough because Voldemort looked at her left arm and frowned. "Ashamed of your Mark, Miss Avery?"

She looked down at her arm, she'd forgotten that she had Glamoured it, "No Lord, I had to cover it. Harry was in my Common Room as I was leaving to come here, I didn't think it'd be wise for him to see it."

Voldemort nodded slowly, "Yes, I suppose you're right." He looked to Draco, "I suppose you two are wondering where the others are?" He asked.

Neither of them said anything. Voldemort frowned, "That was a question."

Draco nodded, "Yes Lord, where are the others?" He asked.

Voldemort smiled, "I wanted to see you two alone." He motioned for the two of them to take seats, "I have another mission for the two of you." He informed them.

"Thank you, my Lord, we won't disappoint you." Ellison smiled.

Voldemort nodded, "Now, now, Ellison, you haven't even heard it yet." He paused, "Along with getting the Death Eaters in the castle, one of you must also kill Albus Dumbledore. You may not have help from anyone outside of each other. I expect you to have completed this task before the school year ends," He looked between the two of them before continuing, "Or there will be consequences."

authors note:
new edits for this book is on my
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