One Week Earlier

The sun had just set and the world was bathed in twilight blue as Draco walked with quick strides up the steps to the owlery, Manimi coiled around his neck as she allowed him to carry her. It was colder in the smelly tower than it was outside, and Draco shivered as he whistled softly, calling the family's eagle owl down from its perch and obediently onto his outstretched arm.

"Hello," Draco spoke quietly to the owl as he began to untie the letter from its leg. "What've you got for me today?"

Once the owl was free of its letter, it fluttered back to a perch in the wall with an urgent air - the owls didn't trust Manimi - and shut its eyes. Draco turned and began to walk back out of the owlery, opening the letter and lifting his wand with a "Lumos" to read his father's elegantly slanted writing.

Dear Draco,

I hope you are well-

Draco stopped reading. Obviously, that wasn't the real letter - the actual letter must be hidden by some spell to prevent the letter from being read by the spying eyes of Umbridge. After thinking for a moment, he experimentally tapped his wand to the parchment, and the letters instantly transformed into new words. The parchment must be trained to recognise his wand. Again, Draco began to read aloud, so that Manimi would understand.

Draco,

I am writing to you because of some news that has reached me via your godfather. He has reported that you sit next to Harry Potter in his potions lessons, and therefore he has noticed that you and Potter seem, in his words, "disturbingly close".

Now, I am aware that in your first year I advised you to befriend Potter. However, times have changed since then. It is completely shocking to me that you haven't already ended whatever friendship you have with Potter, and I believe that this reveals a severe lapse of judgement on your part, which I do not expect to see again, and for which you will be punished duly.

Furthermore, not only has Severus reported your apparent closeness to Potter, but Mr Parkinson says his daughter has also noticed an odd closeness. You are arousing suspicion from both Severus and your fellow Slytherins.

"Fuck," Draco swore. Manimi had tensed around his neck. He kept reading.

I have concluded that you must not only end your friendship with Potter, but also prove to your housemates that there is no friendship between you two. We cannot have rumours going around in such dangerous times. Severus will be watching closely, and if I do not hear that you have followed my instructions within two weeks, there will be serious trouble for you.

Your mother has fully recovered from her chest infection.

- Your Father.

Draco had stopped walking as he read and now stood to stare at the letter in shock. He read it over once more, a feeling of anger growing inside him.

"Fuck," He repeated, and stuffing the letter into his pocket, he began to hurry back to the castle.

0o0o

Father,

I don't think I can do what you ask me to. I'm really sorry, but I just can't hurt him like that.

-Draco

Draco's hands shook as he stood in the darkened owlery, holding the incredibly short letter in his hands. Manimi was still around his neck - he didn't want to do this alone. Never in his life had he directly disobeyed his father like this, and the consequences of what he was about to do were enormous. He turned, as though to walk out of the tower, and then twisted back around with a sound of frustration.

"Just do it, Draco," He told himself through gritted teeth. "Harry would do this for you without even thinking about it."

Manimi pushed the top of her head against his jaw, showing him she was there for him without having to use words. Feeling as though he were about to jump off a cliff without a broom or a wand, Draco whistled and a flurry of wings announced the eagle owl's presence. When the bird was perched firmly on his arm, Draco took a deep breath and attached the parchment to its leg. He then carried it outside and allowed it to swoop noiselessly off into the night, feeling as though he had just signed his own death warrant. From his neck, Manimi hissed quietly. Draco couldn't help but agree.

0o0o

"Draco," Blaise's voice caused Draco to twist around just before he got to the door of the fifth year dorms. It was two days since he had sent the letter, and so far he had managed to forget about it as much as possible.

"Hm?"

"I almost forgot, an owl came for you at breakfast," Blaise walked over with an envelope in his hands, holding it out for Draco. "Where were you, by the way? And where's Manimi?"

Draco took the envelope, blushing as he remembered exactly what he and Harry had been doing that morning.

"I was just with Harry." He shrugged, hiding his red cheeks by looking down at the letter instead of at Blaise. "And you know Manimi, she does her own thing." Then, he realised what he was seeing. "Oh, shit..."

"What?" Blaise stood next to Draco, looking down at the slanted handwriting on the front of the letter.

"It's from my father."

Blaise looked confused. "You get letters from your parents all the time, what's up with this one?"

Draco went over to his four-poster and sat down heavily. "Severus noticed me and Harry in potions and told my father that we seemed weirdly close, and Pansy's dad told him that Pansy had noticed us too."

Despite the fact that the common room was empty, Blaise looked around furtively. "So? I thought your dad wanted you to be friends with him?"

Draco shook his head, still staring at the letter in his hands. "Not now that the Dark Lord has returned. Now he doesn't want me to have anything to do with him. He told me with his last letter to very publicly make it clear that I'm not friends with Harry."

"You mean like having an argument in public?"

"I guess, something like that." Draco sighed. "Obviously I can't do that, and I can't fake it because Harry can't act or lie for shit and Severus can read me like a book anyway. So I told my dad I wouldn't do it."

"Seriously?" Blaise sounded impressed as he sat down opposite Draco on his own bunk. "How very Gryffindor of you."

Draco stared at the letter in his hands. "Okay, why am I so scared? It's just a letter, right?"

Blaise shrugged. "You might as well open it. You're going to have to eventually."

Draco closed his eyes momentarily, then opened the envelope and pulled out the letter.

Dearest Draco,

How lovely to hear from you,

Of course, the real letter was concealed. Pulling out his wand, Draco tapped the tip to the surface of the paper. Suddenly, an excruciating pain shot up his wand arm and spread through his body so that ever fibre of his being felt as though it was on fire. Draco screamed out and was suddenly on the ground, curled up into a ball as the agony rose, worse than any crusio he had ever received. Blaise yelled out in panic, falling to his knees next to Draco.

"Draco? Draco!" He looked around for anything that might help, but nothing came to his aid. The pain was so bad that just listening to Draco seemed to hurt, and Draco's sobs were like knives through Blaise's chest. Powerless, he could do nothing but listen to his best friend scream out in terror and pain and pray to anyone who was listening to make it stop.

Finally, it did. After what seemed like hours, Draco finally went limp and lay panting, curled into a ball on the ground with his eyes squeezed shut and tears running down his face. Neither boy said anything.

Finally, Draco spoke in a hoarse voice after his breathing had slowed and his heart rate had returned to something more like normal. "Blaise, could you please fetch me the black phial from my bathroom cabinet?" After taking the phial Blaise brought, Draco gulped the thick solution and allowed the calming effects of the potion to take full effect before he pushed himself off the ground weakly, and sat back down on the bed.

"Are you okay?" Blaise asked, shakily. The question seemed ludicrously insubstantial against the magnitude of what had just happened. Draco nodded.

"I'm fine." His voice said otherwise. Wrapping his hand in covers from his bed, he very carefully picked up the letter from where he had dropped it onto the bed.

Draco,

If you do not do as I ask within a week, You can say goodbye to that snake of yours. I hope this little taste of pain has made you see sense.

Lucius.

Draco looked at Blaise. "He's going to kill Manimi if I don't do it."