"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on!" I could feel my breath beginning to become uncontrollably fast, each intake hurting more than the last. "You-you have to tell me what's going on. You can't just expect me to pack my bags and go with no idea what's happening?! I can't!"

Narcissa looked at me straight in the eyes, a warmth hit me when all I could see in her face was the way Draco looked at me when I really knew he cared. She looked back down to the ground for a moment. "Ok...I'll tell you"

"I knew your mother, Acardia. We were inseparable, any waking second we possibly had we made sure we were together. Although I loved and cared for her deeply she had a side to her I couldn't understand. Cold and harsh, she didn't care about who or what got in her way." I watched as she nervously fumbled her hands together. "She hated Lucius, so much so that I couldn't understand. After all they weren't that disimilar, she would beg me to walk away from him and that I didn't need someone like that when I had her. At the time it never made much sense but the older I got the more I realised. Then slowly Lucius began involving me in the Dark Lords duties and it made her even worse, she would tell me that Lucius would get me killed! That he didn't care whether I lived or died and how could I of involved myself with a man like that. She decided that the only way she could protect me.....was if she was there with me. I tried to convince her not to but she had already made her decision and so had the dark lord." Narcissa paused, I could see the physical pain on her face. Her breath also not as calm as it had been, instead slightly hitched with fustration.

I had a million questions running around in my head yet no words could leave. Even though nothing was clear yet I was realising that mine and Draco's worst case scenario had been far from the truth instead I feared it was much worse.

"Once she had...joined, she changed. A lot. The firey flare that she used to have had now taken over her. She rarely spoke to me after that, I would just sometimes get the odd glare. I could see the pain behind her eyes everytime she looked at me but I did nothing about it which is something now I guess I'll regret forever." She lowered her eyes back down to the ground avoiding eye contact with me.

"Even if any of this is true, this gives me zero explanation as to why you are here telling me to run away!" Any upset that I had had racing through my body had now been replaced with pure anger. This woman I didn't know coming here to tell me about my own mother and the woman she was! I felt the words of anger bubbling inside me, "and HOW DARE you tell me about my own mother, she was nothing like you! She would never have done that.....I've heard enough of this...I'm going" I snatched my belongings off the floor and headed straight up to the castle.

"LISTEN TO ME" her voice stopped me dead in my tracks, I looked back to her but this time her face was different. This time it was covered with panic, so much so that it sent an instant pain into my stomach. I could feel my insides tightening and knotting up, for whatever reason the look on her face right at this moment had told me more than any of the words she had said.

"I didn't protect your mother" she took a large intake of breath. "But I will protect you"

-

I raced quickly up the stairs to get to my room as quick as possible. Narcissa had given me strict instructions to pack my bag, avoid seeing anyone and to meet her back down the lake as soon as possible.

My legs were burning with each step, but I couldn't stop. I had to keep going. Little had been explained to me but Narcissa assured me when I was in a safe place she would explain everything but I just needed to get out of here. She mentioned that something was happening tonight, something bad and it would be best that I was out the way long before it did.

Thankfully the common room only had a couple people who were two distracted with each other's mouths to notice me creep past. I prayed Pansy had left the room and thankfully she had. I dived under my bed to get my bag and began frantically packing anything in sight.

I quickly grabbed an outfit to throw on but as I began to yank off my uniform it caught in something. My necklace.

A small piece of thread had wrapped itself a tiny opening at the side. I unhooked the clasp to get a better look, inside the whole was a tiny round piece of silver that looked like a button, I gently tapped my finger nail against is and then with a pop a hidden clasp opened. I slowly lifted the front of the necklace away from the clasp and there were the words.

Always and forever

The sadness flooded over me once more, tears rolled out my eyes. I placed the necklace onto my pillow and began getting changed. Each small movement physically ached my body, the strength it was took just to move ever so slightly was hurting, paining me beyond belief. Knowing that each move I made I was making one more step away from Draco for who knows how long.

I zipped up my bag and took the time to look at my necklace once more.

"What are you doing?" My head span round to see Draco stood in the doorway.

"I have to go" I looked back down to my bag, I couldn't bare to look at him.

"Go where? What's going on?" I never spoke. "Ivy?! What is going on?! Listen to me Ivy!" He began walking closer to me until his hands were on my arms. "Ivy?! What's happened?!"

"I can't, I just need to go I'm sorry Draco. I can't do this" I ripped my arms away from his hold and tried to move my way around him.

"CAN'T DO WHAT?! THIS?! US?! What's going on Ivy?! Let me help you!" The anger was piercing through his voice all I wanted to wrap myself around him and hold forever. Just me and him without anything else but I couldn't...I needed to get out of here now. I shifted myself around him and began walking to the door.

I felt his grip around my wrist, tighter than it had ever been before. I couldn't get myself to turn around.

"Please don't leave me Ivy, I need you. Whatever this is we can fix it...together. I-I love you Ivy." His words ripped me in two, the weakness in his voice crippled me inside. He loved me and I was walking away, he told that he loved me for the first ever time and I had to go. I feared my knees might just buckle there and then.

"I have to go, I'm sorry I-I can't go this."

*