"How should we kill her?"

"No, no please!" Marietta cried.

An evil grin split Malfoy’s face at her words. He glanced towards he sobbing girl on the floor, his eyes mad with anger and passion.

"Don’t get too excited," she said. "We can’t make a mess or else they might cancel the Hogsmeade trip, and that wouldn’t do us any good now would it?"

Malfoy nodded, his eyes still on Marietta.

"No!"

"There’s a closet right around the corner we can hide her in when we’re done," she continued. "After today we don’t need things to look like accidents or suicides anymore. After today we will be free."

Once again Malfoy nodded. "Can I have a little fun with her first?" he aked.

"If you mean rape her, then no," she said. "We have somewhere we need to be and we don’t have time for you to air out your ding-dong."

"Somebody please help me!" Marietta cried, but she wasn’t loud enough for anyone to hear.

"No," he said laughing at the crying girl. "There’s something I’ve always longed to do, mostly to Potter or his friends, but she’ll do fine."

"Please!"

"I think it would cause too much noise," she said. "Marietta is kind of a cry baby and we don’t want anyone hearing her scream."

"No one will hear," Malfoy said as he pulled his wand out of his robes. "Silencio!" Marietta’s loud sobs were immediately silenced. Malfoy stared at her with a hungry look in his eyes. He glanced away from Marietta.

"Only once," she said him.

"Crucio!" Malfoy shouted immediately. Marietta jerked violently on the floor. Her mouth was twisted open in a scream, but no noise came out. Malfoy kept his wand pointed at her for a long and agonizing thirty seconds, then he lowered it.

Marietta lay panting and sobbing on the floor. Her face was red from trying to scream and her body shook from the pain.

"Please, don’t!" they saw Marietta mouth.

"Avada Kedavra!" she said pointing her wand down at Marietta’s trembling body.

A bolt of green shot of her wand, it hit Marietta directly on her forehead. The girl’s body immediately went limp and stopped moving.

"Mobilcorpus!" Draco shouted. Marietta’s dead body immediately sprung up from the floor and hovered four feet from the ground. Draco walked with the body towards the closet while she opened the door. When Marietta’s body was safely hidden inside, they both ran down to the entrance hall of the school where everyone was gathering for the Hogsmeade trip.

"Have you seen Marietta?" Cho asked Penelope as they walked towards Hogsmead. The two of them were supposed to stay together at all times during the visit. Cho was a little disappointed, she would rather have spent the day with Marietta.

"No," Penelope answered. "She had said she was going back up to her room for something, I never saw her since."

Cho shrugged and walked the rest of the way quietly. She was determined to still have fun, even if she was accompanied by the Head Girl and not her best friend.

"You just don’t get it do you?" Drowry had asked. "Who said it was Harry Potter Voldemort was after!"

All of the Professor’s looked wide-eyed at her. Lupin’s jaw was hanging open as the realization moved across his face. McGonagall looked as if she was going to be sick, but worst of all was Dumbledore. His face seemed to have aged fifty years with her comment. He stared at her, and Drowry knew that he knew she was right. He had just realized it.

"How do you know this, exactly?" Snape asked. His face was the only one that showed no reaction or surprise. "Voldemort wants to kill Harry, why would he be after someone else? Who are you to advise us about Voldemort’s activities and what gives you the idea that he is after someone else? Let’s not forget that I am the Order’s informant concerning Voldemort."

Drowry looked from one of them to the other, her face grave and serious. "I think it is time to be completely honest with all of you," she said. "I think it is time for you all to know who I am, exactly."

"Parvati," Hermione said, "I just wanted to tell how sorry I was about your sister. It was so tragic. We are all hurting with you. And Ginny and I just wanted to let you know that if you need anything we would be happy to help."

"Thank you both so much!" Parvati said hugging them. She was crying lightly, but surrounded by all of her friends, she was starting to feel better.

"I just wanted to say that I’m here for you if you ever need anything," Ginny said. With that she ran ahead, probably to go find Seamus.

"I also wanted to say Parvati," Hermione said, "that Ron would have given you his condolences too if he could have been here."

Parvati nodded. "They were really cute together," she said, "Ron and Padma. Even after what happened at the Yule ball, Padma just couldn’t stay mad at him- she always thought he was so cute," she laughed.

"Do something for me," Parvati said. "When you see Ron, I’m sure you’ll go see him soon, tell him it’s okay and that I’m okay. Tell him that I love him, as a brother- you know, for caring about my sister."

Hermione nodded her head, her eyes were getting misty. "I will she said," and she walked away from Parvati. She headed in the same direction Ginny had to find her and Harry.

"Hey Granger!" Hermione turned her head and saw Malfoy leaning against a tree a little way away.

"What do you want Malfoy?" she asked. "There’s plenty people to see you get hit by a girl today."

"That wont happen again!" he shouted. "Come here, I have someone I want you to meet."

Hermione walked over to where Malfoy stood. She was suspicious about how confident he was, but at best he would have Crabbe and Goyle jump out from behind the trees to ambush her, maybe Pansy Parkinson would be there. But no matter what, Hermione was better and quicker with her wand than any of them. No need to be worried.

"What Malfoy?" she asked glancing around. "I don’t see anyone."

"I just wanted to talk to you for a sec," he said. "How do you think Potter’s feeling today?"

"Why?"

"Well," Malfoy laughed, "I would want him to be in the best of health. That way, when he falls, he’ll fall hard."

"Why would he fall Malfoy?" Hermione asked. Her hand reaching inside her robe to grab her wand. "Are you going to push him down a staircase?"

"Tut tut Granger," Malfoy smirked. "Dumbledore said it was an accident, remember? How could I have pushed Weasley anyway, I wasn’t even near him."

"Something going on?" Hermione whirled around and smiled at the face she saw. She immediately took her hand of her wand and pulled it out of her robes.

"Not much," Hermione said. "Malfoy’s just being a stupid git again."

"Yeah," she said. "He has a tendency to do that at times." She smiled at them both.

Everyone had gone back into the castle, Hermione was now alone with them. But she didn’t notice, Hermione didn’t think anything would go wrong with her standing their.

"Stupefy!" Hermione was hit from behind by Malfoy’s spell. That was the last she knew.

"She was right there," Ginny cried. "I swear! When I left she was talking to Parvati!"

"Why are we all getting worked up?" Seamus said. "She probably went to talk to someone else; it’s no cause to worry just because we can’t see her."

"It’s just that I have this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach," Harry said. "I’m scared for some reason, and I’ve never been this scared before."

"Let’s go!" Ginny said grabbing both guys by the arm and pulling them back down the staircase. "We need to find her."

All of the Professor’s were standing in Dumbledore’s office. It was very cramped, to say the least. But no one cared, all eyes were on Drowry.

"As many of you know," she started. "My parents were Death Eaters." This comment brought several gasps from those who had not known. "What nobody knows is that they were two of the original Death Eaters, or, two of the first people to follow Voldemort. This occurred when Voldemort was still known by his legal name- Tom Riddle- and it took place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry fifty years ago."

Drowry paused and looked around the room. Many of the Professor’s had expressions of utter shock on their faces. The only two who showed no expressions were Dumbledore and Snape.

"My parents, Regina Black and Tor Drowry," she continued. "Were also two of Tom’s most faithful and most powerful followers. In fact, the only other person who rivaled their loyalty and power was Verrah Gertrue. The same Verrah Gertrue that was the twin sister to Myrtle Gertrue, who now resides in a U-bend in the third floors girls toilet. Verrah Gertrue, as none of you know, was in a way responsible for her sisters demise by way of Slytherin’s monster and was eventually the woman who gave birth to Voldemort’s heir eighteen years ago."

This time everyone in the room gasped and began to murmur, even Snape and Dumbledore.

"Please," Drowry said raising her hands. "I know a lot of what I am going to say right now will upset and shock you, but I ask that you just let me say it and get it out. This is not an easy story to tell." Everyone immediately stopped talking and gave their attention back to Drowry.

"I can’t find her anywhere!" Ginny cried as she ran through the crowd with Seamus and Harry.

"Like I said before," Drowry continued, "my parents were two of the most powerful and loyal followers of Voldemort. When they married, it was a very exciting thing for Voldemort. His mind was swarming with the possibilities. Two extremely powerful people joining together in marriage, he could only imagine the power that their children would wield when they were born.

"Voldemort began to build his ultimate plan on that. Between my parents and their extremely powerful offspring and Verrah and him and their offspring, Voldemort was beginning to realize that he could easily achieve what he had wanted for so long- to rule the wizarding world. With so much power behind him, it seemed inevitable.

"When I was born Voldemort’s dreams began to be realized. From the first moment he saw me he felt my power and my potential. He wanted me on his side, he needed me on his side; it was imperative to his plan. My parent’s, who as I have said very loyal, agreed that I must serve him. My parents swore me to Voldemort, even though I was bought a child. They made me a Death Eater."

Again there was a round of gasps and murmurs. Drowry raised her hands and everyone fell silent.

"I became Voldemort’s student. I was trained by him personally in the hope that my full potential would be reached. In fact, I exceeded every imaginable potential. My power at a very young age was exponential, and it was only mirrored by one other- Voldemort’s own heir.

"I never knew who it was. Verrah ran away from Tom before the child was born, I was young at the time but I remember it quite clearly. Because of circumstances I never became the ‘sister’ to Voldemort’s heir that he had hoped I would. We both led separate lives, and though we were both trained directly by Voldemort, neither of us ever met our rival.

"My parent’s soon moved from England to the America’s. It was shortly after Voldemort’s near death over Harry Potter. Though he was weak, his most faithful followers managed to keep in contact with him. It was mainly his heir and I, however, who were able to continue and train within him and communicate with him fully.

"It was through my parents and my move to America that Voldemort hoped to spread his revolution to the other side of the world. We were all very successful for a long time. I began attending a special school set up especially for children like me: St. Caddock’s School of Dark Arts for the exceedingly powerful. I was quickly becoming everything my parent’s and Voldemort had ever wanted me to be."

"Hermione! Hermione!" Harry shouted.

"But then my parent’s were killed," Drowry said. "I was fifteen when it happened, and I watched the whole thing. I was never found by the Order’s Auror’s who had killed them because I quickly apparated to the location of my Master. They never suspected that I could such a thing obviously, and I was believed dead for many years.

"My parent’s deaths had made me realize something though. I began to wonder what we were doing exactly and why the Ministry of Magic and Association of Magical Being’s was continually trying to kill Voldemort’s followers. I also wondered why, after Voldemort’s seemingly death at the hands of the innocent baby Potter, many of his followers merely vanished or claimed to have been forced into his service.

"The honest truth is that everyone who worked for Voldemort did so willingly. Voldemort never threatened anyone that if they refused to join him they would be killed. Every Death Eater was a voluntary and willing servant to the Dark Lord."

"What are you doing?" Snape asked suddenly. "Defending him?"

"On the contrary," Drowry defended. "I am trying to paint a picture of my life, my beliefs, and my worries for you. If you don’t agree with anything I say than I am sorry, I speak the truth." Snape steamed silently in his chair while Drowry smiled at him.

"Anyways," Drowry continued, "my entire life I was told that Voldemort and his Death Eaters were trying to purify the wizarding world. I was taught that there were people who were not worthy to know magic learning it and using it. I was taught that muggles were akin to animals and should be treated as such and I was taught that any muggle or half-breed was only to be looked upon as a servant and never as a magical colleague. I had also been taught that my powers and knowledge of magic were a great gift, a privilege, an honor, and a right. I was taught to respect that knowledge. In the world that I grew up in, there was no excuse for a muggle or half-breed to learn magic- it was simply unheard of and sickening.

"I was taught that it was our duty to remove the animals from magical schools and to make sure that they stared where they belonged- at our feet. When I was fifteen years old, after my parent’s death, I began to question everything I had been taught. Simple teenage rebellion thing. But what I realized was that I didn’t agree with what they were doing. I believed that everything I had been taught and practicing for the last fifteen years was wrong."

"Hermione where are you?" Ginny screamed.

"Of course, at fifteen years old," Drowry said, "I wasn’t going to confront anyone about this. Especially since I was basically living with Voldemort, keeping him alive even. But, throughout the years, my feelings only deepened. I came to this school in the hopes that I could redeem myself. I came here to try and stop the things that I helped to start. I came here in the hopes that I could find and stop Voldemort’s heir."

"And did you?" Snape asked.

"Unfortunately no," she said. "Voldemort thinks I am faithful to him, he thinks I am here acting as his spy. The reality is the reverse. I told Remus Lupin most of what I just told all of you and he was helping me. So in reality, your suspicions Severus were correct."

"How did you know that I was suspicious?" he asked.

"It’s not hard to tell someone is suspicious when they follow you around, listen in on your conversations and stare at you constantly," Drowry answered with a smile. "You are very obvious Severus." Snape turned red with embarrassment and once again sat quietly in his seat stewing.

"For a long while," she continued, "Remus and I believed that the heir was Marietta Edgecombe. With due reason, as we told you Dumbledore. She was following the Golden Trio, asking about the Dark Arts, asking a lot about me, and she was always around whenever anything odd happened. But, when I questioned her we discovered that she was not the heir at all, but a tool to the heir.

"Marietta had been possessed several times, possibly through use of the Imperius! Curse, or through sure power and fear alone. Either way, she was not the one."

"Then who is it Miss Drowry?" McGonagall asked, her face showed utter fear.

"I don’t know," Drowry said quietly. "I’m sorry but I can’t tell you. She’s very powerful if not as powerful as I am, and she has Voldemort’s full backing. He did not reveal to me his heir’s identity."

"Could that possibly be because he does know you are seeking to sell him out?" Snape asked, as sneer on his face.

"No," Drowry said. "Unless I were to confront Voldemort directly he would never know or suspect my intentions, I am like a daughter to him. In fact, if anything were to happen to his heir, I would take the place. I would be Voldemort’s heir in that instance. It is probably for that reason Voldemort did not reveal the identity of his heir to me, simple rivalry."

"How do we know you aren’t trying to find the heir so as to take her place?" Snape asked again.

"First of all, just because I suspected that Marietta was the heir does not mean that the heir is a female. It could possibly be a male," Drowry said. "Also, if those were my intentions Severus, I would not have told you anything about myself or the heir."

"So your saying that Voldemort’s heir is running around Hogwarts!" McGonagall cried.

"It’s worse than that Minerva," Drowry said. "The heir has already killed once, as far as we know. There is nothing stopping the heir from striking again, more severely."

"We must find Harry!" McGonagall shouted rising from her seat.

"Please Minerva!" Drowry said. "I guarantee you that the heir is not after Harry."

"And why can you be so sure?" Dumbledore asked finally.

"For several reasons," Drowry said. "Voldemort wants to kill Harry. It is quite possible that if the heir got into a direct altercation with Harry, one of them would die. Also, Harry is to protected to lure him away or too Voldemort directly, as has been proven several times in the past. Also, Voldemort and the heir will want to take care of those being closest to Harry also."

"What are you saying?" McGonagall asked.

"By taking care of Harry’s friends first," Drowry said. "Harry would be immediately weakened. Also it would make Harry Potter find Voldemort, once again putting himself in a more vulnerable situation, and not the other way around."

"You mean that…"

"Ron’s fall was not an accident," Drowry said. "It was attempted murder, it was made to look like an accident. The day before Ron’s fall, Ron attacked both Harry and Hermione and tried to rape Hermione. It is my belief that Ron was under the Imperius! Curse during the episode. It was staged in order to weaken the bond between Ron and Harry and push Harry and Hermione even closer together, and if I’m not being too bold I would say that worked."

"Why would Voldemort want to push Hermione and Harry closer together?" Snape asked.

"So when he kidnaps Hermione, Harry will be sure to come," Dumbledore said. He sighed. "All along we have been worried about protecting Harry, and he was never the one in immediate danger."

"I think it’s time we go find Harry and Hermione and tell them this," McGonagall said. "That way they will know and they will be prepared."

"Hermione! Has anyone seen Hermione!" Harry shouted as he ran through the crowd of students trying to get back to their dormitories.

"Have you seen Hermione?" Seamus ran up and asked Parvati.

"Yeah," she said. "Her and Ginny came up and saw me a few minutes ago. Then she ran off. I saw her talking to Draco Malfoy a while ago."

"What!" Harry shouted. He came running over to where Parvati and Seamus stood. "Draco Malfoy?" he asked Parvati. "You saw her with Draco Malfoy?"

Parvati nodded.

"Where?"

"They were over there," she pointed. "By the tree. What’s going on?"

But Harry didn’t wait to answer her question, he just ran in the direction she had pointed.

"Harry!" Ginny shouted. "Where are you going? Where is she?"

"Find someone!" Harry cried, never stopping. "Find Dumbledore or McGonagall! Hell, find Snape! I don’t care, just find somebody!"

Ginny ran towards Dumbledore’s office.

The Professor’s all filed out of Dumbledore’s office slowly. McGonagall, Dumbledore, Lupin, and Drowry were on their way to the Gryffindor common room to talk to Harry and Hermione. They were all very grave. It was a very serious situation.

"Professors!" They all turned to look. Ginny Weasley was running towards them. She was out of breath and looked on the verge of tears.

"Professor’s!" she cried.

"What is it? What happened?" McGonagall asked as Dumbledore and she ran up to the girl.

"It’s…it’s," Ginny gasped, clearly out of breath.

"It’s okay, catch your breath," McGonagall said. "Now tell us what’s wrong."

"It’s Hermione!" Ginny cried. All of the Professor’s gasped and looked at one another. "She’s missing! We can’t find her!" Ginny cried. "Harry told me to come get you!"

"Hermione!" Harry cried. He was running towards the spot Parvati had pointed out to him. "Hermione! Malfoy!"

There was nothing. Nobody was there.

"Mmmmm!"

Harry spun around at the sound of the moan. He could barely make out the shape of a body lying on the ground. He ran up to it.

"Hermione!" he cried. But when he got to the body he realized it was Cho.

"Cho?" he said. The girls eyes fluttered open at the sound of his voice.

"Harry?" she asked.

"Cho, what happened? Have you seen Hermione?"

Cho nodded. "I was walking back to the school, I was worried about Marietta. I heard someone scream and I looked over here. I saw Hermione being dragged off by Draco Malfoy."

Harry’s jaw clenched. "Did you see where they took her Cho?"

"Yeah, they took her over there." Harry looked in the direction Cho had pointed. He was looking right at the Whomping Willow.

"The heir has her already!" Drowry cried.

"Who could it be?" McGonagall asked.

"My best guess is a Ravenclaw," Drowry said. "They would have the most and easiest access to Marietta, that’s important because they used her as a tool. Another good guess is that it was someone relatively close to her, like a friend or something."

"I have to go now Cho," Harry said. "I have to go save Hermione." He stood up to leave but he was stopped when Cho grabbed his robes.

"Wait Harry!" she said standing up. "Let me go with you! It was all my fault he took her, I should have tried harder to stop him! And you can’t go alone, let me help!"

"Fine, whatever," Harry screamed. "Let’s just go!"

"I’ll go meet with Voldemort," Drowry shouted. "I’ll come back when I know where she is. In the meantime, find Harry and don’t let him go anywhere!"

She ran out the door before anyone had a chance to stop her.

"Where could Hermione have been kidnapped and led off of Hogwarts grounds?" McGonagall said.

"I think I have an idea!" Lupin said running down the hall.

"It was here!" Cho said when they got to the Whomping Willow. "They crawled underneath, but it wasn’t moving."

Harry quickly grabbed a nearby stick and poked around at the base of the tree for the secret knob that would freeze the tree. He found it quickly. The entire tree stopped moving and froze in mid-air.

"Wow," Cho said.

"Come on," Harry pulled down into the hole at the base of the Whomping Willow, and into darkness.

Hello all! Tis me! Please Review and tell me how you like it so far. "Evil chicks" identity will be released in the next chapter! As I'm sure both Synger and IJustReadThem (and probably many more of you) will appreciate. Anyways, if you want to know who she is-----15 more reviews! Come on, it's not that difficult, it only takes a few seconds, and it makes me happy! So, if you want to know, get writing!!! I love you all, I hope you have a wonderful day!