"So, you and Fred, huh?"

I had just sat down to breakfast, the morning after Fred and I had announced my pregnancy - when Harry approached me.

"Is everyone mad?" I asked quietly, eyes cast down in shame. He knew who I meant: Ron and Ginny.

I could feel everyones eyes on me and hear the whispers up and down the hall.

"Just confused, I think," he said, "but Fred's a good guy. You know he'll look after you."

I nodded, feeling sick. I shakily picked up the apple in front of me, taking a bite and letting it calm me.

"What do you want, Harry?" I asked, as he remained hovering over me.

"I just wanted to make sure Malfoy wasn't bothering you during Potions. Now that your pregnancy is out I was worried he would start making things difficult for you. I could have a word with Professor Slughorn if you want? Get him to have Draco mov-"

"No, Harry, that won't be necessary," I said a little too quickly, panic tearing at me at the thought of our only time together in public being taken away.

"I made a promise to your brother, remember Aurora? And I heard how Malfoy and Pansy outed you yester-"

"It was Pansy! Draco did nothing!" I cried, wishing he would just drop it, along with that stupid promise he had made.

"Exactly," he muttered, shaking his head sadly, before turning away back towards the Gryffindor table.

*****

"I miss you," Aurora whispered to him as Draco took his stool next to hers at their next Potions lesson.

His heart wrenched, and he couldn't help but reach out towards her lap and clasp his fingers around her hand, before quickly letting go of them again at seeing Potter crane his neck to glare daggers at him.

"I'm sorry," he whispered back.

He'd been so busy lately, putting all his time into trying to kill Dumbledore, that he barely had time to see her outside of Potions class.

He thought about the necklace which lay in his trunk by his bed, and felt a wave nausea flood through him.

"Are you okay?" Aurora frowned, her eyes searching his face with concern. "You look awful, Draco."

He nodded, tapping his quill agitatedly against the desk. He noticed Potter craning his neck round again, irking him.

"What the fuck is his problem?!" He spat, suddenly wanting to hurl something at the back of Potter's stupid head.

"He thinks you're going to give me a hard time about being pregnant." Aurora sighed heavily. "Says he can have a word with Slughorn about getting you moved away from me in class."

"Twat!" He spat, as he felt a swirl of panic in his stomach. He couldn't bear the thought of not being able to sit with her in Potions. It was literally the only thing that kept him going these days. If Potter ruined that for him...

"Everyone's going into Hogsmede tomorrow," she said quietly, "perhaps we could risk meeting in the Room-"

"I can't - I'm sorry," he jumped in. Shit. He really wanted to, but he had other plans involving that necklace. And he couldn't put it off.

He saw her face briefly crumple with disappointment, and he felt awful. But he couldn't tell her what he was doing, knowing it would be unfair to involve her.

And besides, he wouldn't be able to bear to see the look on her face if she ever found out he was a Death Eater.

"Oh, okay," She murmured despondently when he said nothing further.

"I- I've got a detention." He lied, not meeting her eyes. He found it really difficult to be dishonest to her.

But he was doing it for her. He needed to protect her from this shit as much as possible. She was already carrying so much stress and guilt over the baby lie, that he didn't want to add a murder plot into the mix, too.

When she said goodbye at the end of class, Draco couldn't fail to miss the heavy sadness in her eyes as she looked at him.

She knew he was lying.

*****

"Maybe he really is in detention. After all, he has been skipping classes and not handing in his homework a lot lately," Blaise said as we walked the footpath into Hogsmede the next day.

"Really?" I asked, stunned. "He always turns up for Potions. And it doesn't sound like Draco not to hand in his homework?"

Although I know Draco would never admit to it, but he would give Hermione a run for her money at being a school swot. What Blaise just said didn't ring true to Draco's character at all.

But when I came to think of it, I had noticed that he had been missing from other classes. It had just never really stuck out as I wasn't sat with him in anything other than Potions.

"Aurora, of course he always turns up for Potions." Blaise chuckled, his dark eyes glinting knowingly into mine.

"I'm sure everything is fine," Cho said, walking my other side. "He loves you, that's clear. It just must be difficult for him having to pretend that the baby's not his."

"Cho, quiet!" I hissed, looking around furtively in case anyone was nearby.

Having had already confided in them before it all came out, Blaise and Cho were the only ones in the whole school that knew mine and Draco's secret.

A secret that we would be taking to our graves at this rate.

*****

I jiggled on the spot hopping from foot to foot as Cho ummed and ahhhed over whether to buy a chocolate frog or a sugar quill.

"Can't you just buy both?!" I asked, feeling agitated.

"Well that's just greedy." She said shrugging, as she returned to her painstaking decision making.

"Are you okay?" Blaise chuckled, giving me an amused look as I continued to hop around on the spot.

"No - I need to pee so badly!" I confessed. It was a nightmare, much my like sickness - it always came on so suddenly and without warning.

"Just go in The Three Broomsticks, Rosmerta won't mind," Cho said, beckoning towards the window where the pub was visible across the street. "I may be a while longer yet."

I left her and Blaise standing in Honeydukes as I practically sprinted towards the pub.

To my dismay, it was packed inside. Gritting my teeth, I started to push my way through the crowded bar, hating that I was so sodding short.

At last, I reached the pub toilets, praying there wouldn't be a queue. Walking down the dimly lit hallway leading to the separate doors, I finally located the ladies and reached out a hand to push the door open.

But before my fingers even touched it, it flew open.

And there, on the other side of the threshold, face as pale and sickly looking as ever, stood Draco Malfoy.