Being able to hear everything that's going on around me, yet no one being able to hear me was excruciating. Each footstep that passed along above me felt like a knife cutting straight through me.

Whatever Lucius had been doing had taken him hours, I had heard Narcissa's footsteps pacing back and forth waiting on him. When he finally did arrive he wasn't alone, I had no idea who I was in this house with! How many of them had planned my death, how many of them knew I was here and if one of them had been Draco.

A part of me had hoped he wasn't, that maybe he had caught wind of his fathers intentions and fled as soon as he could. Not wanting to be part of this life, maybe he thought I had simply moved away that maybe Hogwarts and him were too much for me and I just had to get away from it all. Maybe he had found shelter with a distant family member and that he could go on to live a normal life, move on from me and never look back.

The scenarios I had created absorbed all my thoughts, all the different possibilities that could be happening right now without me even realising. The thoughts helped me block out the crippling reality that if I let even slightly enter my mind I feared it would take over. Death.

I had never really thought about death, not mine anyway. What it felt like....what happens next...does it hurt? Even in the times I feared for my safety, I never allowed the sadness to reach me as it was only a possibility but now it was different. There was no need to fear whether it may happen. It was, it was happening. At some point in the near future I was going to die. I didn't know when and I didn't know how but it was happening. I was going to die being a pawn in Lucius' game against his own son. The son that loved me.

I didn't know how long it would take for Draco to find out, whether it would be weeks or days or even tonight. Narcissa just told me to hang tight and that she would do all that she could. I knew it was an empty promise because there was nothing that she could do. Unless there was a way that Draco could find me first, before his father used me against him. That's what we should do! Have Draco find me! Before anything changes, before they change him.

I waited for what felt like hours on end before Narcissa came back, the manor had been deathly quiet for a while now so I presumed everyone that had been here had gone.

I watched Narcissa creep down the stairs. "Are you ok?" Her voice so quiet I could barely hear her.

"You need to tell Draco I'm here! Once he knows he can get me out of here and we can go, get away! Then nothing happens to either of us!"

Narcissa looked towards the floor. "I can't do that Ivy, the Dark Lord needs Draco. If he disobeyed him...I...I don't know what he would do once he found him. I can't put him at danger like that"

"Then let me be apart of this Narcissa." I could feel the rage building inside of me.

"Ivy..I can't you don't understand your mother she..she fought so hard to protect your sister it killed her." Her voice was beginning to crack.

"Then what's my other option...just die? For what? Least if I am a part of this...least I can be with Draco. Least I can protect him. I know you think you can Narcissa but you can't. Your commitment to Lucius..to this life. You can't protect him like I can...I have nothing else." The rage began to turn into an all consuming sadness. The thought of leaving this world without tell him how much I loved him, how much I needed him ached my body.

"Ok...ok but I can't say that Lucius sill agree and there's nothing I can do if he doesn't. I can't protect you then. You need to know something, Draco will be asked to do something...something indescribable and before you commit to anything I need you to give me your word that whatever it is you have to let him do it...otherwise all of our lives are at danger...including Draco." She no longer had the soft look across her that I had become accustomed to. She meant every word.

"I would never put Draco at risk whatever it was...or you" I tried my best to fix a smile on my face at the small victory I'd achieved even though the real war was far from over.

"You'll have to wait till the morning. Till Lucius has left for the day so we can help Draco understand what's going on. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Very well, I will see you in the morning Ivy."

And with that she was gone, now I must wait. Through the tedious hours of silence until I could be reunited with him again. Till I could see his face, hold him and tell him how much I love him. That I will never leave his side again no matter what obstacles come our way. This was it now. Me and him. Through whatever.

The cellar was no place for sleeping, it lacked in comfort and several other aspects that are needed for a good night sleep. So instead I rested myself against the cool walls and allowed my mind to wander to a place of pure happiness, a place that was just me and Draco. Against the world.