Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe doesn't belong to me. Only the plot of this story and some OC's does. The Harry Potter books are the intellectual property of J.K. Rowling (even though the extra book information sucks big time) and are distributed by Scholastic Press, a division of Scholastic Inc, at least here in the U.S. Since I have taken the time to write this disclaimer, there is no reason for someone to decide to sue me.'

A/N: I have no excuses. Considering how long I have been working at this story, I'm seriously at the point of doing the unthinkable for me: abandoning it completely instead of going back and forth on it. Obviously, writer's block, general life, and getting distracted by other writing projects like Nanowrimo and fandom pursuits like LJ"s Big Bang are screwing me over big time.

But then again, all this teaches me is the lesson of NEVER post WIP's. Since I really hate to quit like this, I wow to eventually finish this story…it may not be any time in the foreseeable future but it will get done. Anyways, here's the twelfth chapter of "Shattered Illusions" – more or less a filler chapter to help ease me back into the story. Thanks to Jess, drarryfan1, Elfwyn, Akiri, and Meany for the reviews of the last chapter and to everyone who had added it to their Story Alert lists. Feel free to review!

"Shattered Illusions"

Chapter Twelve – Secrets of Hogsmeade

You have been on my mind as of lately. You are an enigma that I can't solve…a puzzle that I sometimes wish that I hadn't even decided to figure out. You have done what so many wished they could…fascinate one who prides themselves on not letting anyone get the best of him. I'm hardly going to show how much you affect me... I would just rather keep you at arm's length … always watchful, always wary.

My secrets aren't going to become known, no matter how much I'm tempted I am to truly unburden myself of them. I've seen the consequences of it before…

"Draco!!"

Hands stuffed into my pockets of my cloak, I had just stepped out of Scrienshaft's when I was stopped by Blaise's loud examination. To my double surprise, Daphne was with him and he was looking more harried and stressed out than I had ever had the misfortune to see him. As of late, we hadn't had much time to chat, even though we shared most of the same classes. Knowing for his sharp sense of style, he looked like he had went one on one with one of Hagrid's monsters and lost with dark smudges under his eyes, and an overall unkempt appearance.

"What's going on, Blaise?" I asked when he, quite abruptly, slid to a stop in from of me.

He jerked his head subtlety to the cluster of trees off of the beaten path. For a moment, I was tempted to continue on my merry way; I had told Anna last night over dinner that I would meet her at the Three Broomsticks after I had stopped by Scrivenshaft's. But once I really thought about it, I figured that whatever Blaise had to tell me had to have been important; we usually didn't interrupt each other's potential dalliances without cause.

And that is all Anna is…a dalliance. Something to distract me from thinking about Potter. I merely nodded my head, making my way down the slight incline, and was taken aback when Daphne, after making sure that the coast was all clear, began firing spells into the air. Obviously, the pair of them didn't want us to neither be overheard nor seen. What in the blazes is going on?

With absolutely no preliminaries, Blaise blurted out once we were standing under the cover of the trees, "It's Granger."

I tried my best not to show a reaction but I have a feeling that I failed, miserably. "Granger? What about her? Where is she?" I asked, paying no heed to Daphne's look of disbelief. "Why in the hell is Daphne with you? I still haven't her anything about this whole disaster."

"A truly stupid decision on your part, Draco." Daphne hissed, angrily. "I wish that you would have trusted me enough to tell me what happened in the first place. Now, I'm forced to hide that insolent brat…"

I took a deep breath. "What is going on?"

"Granger is being held prisoner at my estate...in an attic of one of the guesthouses." Blaise said, quickly. "For a Slytherin, Braff is entirely too quick to let his guard down. All it took was some eavesdropping, some truth serum, and rather amusing blackmail material from him to spill his guts. Since I really doubt that he wants those particular secrets revealed, it wasn't that hard to convince him to move her once more."

I blinked, mind in one of its rare states of blankness. "Daphne..."

"I got dragged into this by mere happenstance." Daphne grumbled. " it turns out that Granger had been at my Aunt Celia's in London all of this time, trapped in the basement…thanks to the efforts of all people, my elder cousin, Lucretia. He must have taken advantage of her huge crush on him; she had always been willing to anything he wanted of her, just for a vague chance to become a Braff. Anyways, servants were cursed in order to move Granger and then got cursed again in order to forget what they had done."

Thinking quickly, I frowned. "Okay, so Granger is for all intents and purposes…perfectly fine."

"Essentially…for now." Blaise said, looking relieved that I hadn't blown up in a fit of rage. "I'm hoping that we can keep her there for a while, yet, just for our own peace of mind. I'm sure Braff is trying to find a way to take both me and Daphne completely out of the picture. I'm positive that his ultimate goal was to get her out of Britain, completely… his family estate in Northern Ireland was probably going to be the last stop before doing who knows what to her."

"How good are the wards on your home?" I asked, thoughtfully. "Maybe --."

"Only for Slytherin would you be so self – sacrificing." Daphne said. "No, it's bad enough that you're still the number one suspect in this whole debacle. We're not going to even risk moving her back anywhere near London. Considering his mother is who she is, I know the wards on Blaise's are strong enough in order to buy us …maybe, a week or two… in order to figure out our next option. "

"Okay." I hissed, rubbing an annoyed hand against my forehead. "Give me a couple of days to figure things out. Most of the professors are still breathing down our backs and we have very limited options. If push comes to shove, I just may have to sell out Braff and his cronies…"

"Have you lost your mind?" Blaise hissed. "What happened to our general rule of Slytherin should stick together, no matter what the cost? Selling each other out is not our usual modus operandi. The rest of your career here at Hogwarts will be a living hell if people thought Malfoy, the de factor leader of us all, can and would betray any of us so easily. All of the respect…the power it took seven years for you to earn would just slip from your fingers. You would be the House pariah…"

"I would do what I have to in order to keep Daphne out of the line of fire." And you, too. Blaise. I crossed my hands over my chest, still thinking intently. "If you let Braff reclaim Granger, all I would have to do is put in a word with my father…who, of course, could use the nefarious connections he has in the Ministry and quite easily take him out. You think the dirt that you have on him is bad enough … try wrapping your mind around the information that I am holding. He may be dumb enough to challenge a Zabini, shoot, he may even be crazy enough to challenge the Greengrasses…but Malfoys, he knows that we could destroy him. All of our problems will be solved, neatly…"

"But you're not going to do that, Draco." Daphne muttered. "You wouldn't…"

"Don't presume to tell me of what I'm going to do." I said, taking a look at my watch. "Now, if you would excuse me, I have someone that I have to meet."

"That Gryffindor – loving slut of yours?" Daphne growled. For a moment, I was almost tempted to laugh; if one didn't know any better, one would swear that she was jealous. But that was the entire point; I did know better. She was only acting like this in some misguided effort to protect me. On one hand, I dearly appreciated it and on the other, I so wanted to curse her from treating me as though I was some sort of child.

"You know, crudity doesn't become you, Daphne." I said, pressing a soft kiss against her forehead. Smirking to myself, I could hear her grumble something under her breath when I pulled away. "The both of you, just keep your ears to the ground, and be sure to keep an eye on Braff without being too obvious about it. Once I think of something, I'll be sure to inform you. Seriously, all of this may not even be worth it in the end." Or maybe you just think that you could somehow make this up to an unconscious, ill Potter by bringing one of his best friends back to him.

"I'll see the both of you around."

"Perhaps Daphne was right about her…"

My already iffy mood was not made any better than the sight that greeted me as soon as I stepped foot in the Three Broomsticks. There she was…Anna, holding court at one of the larger tables with a rather off of the wall collection of students from to my horror, all of the school Houses. Millicent, who surprisingly looked pretty enough with her glossy black hair tied up into a bun and light makeup, was giggling madly at something Terry Boot was telling her from her position right next to Anna, who looked as though she dearly wanted to laugh herself. As I drew closer to the entire group, I couldn't help but growl; the Weasel was sitting right across from her, flailing his arms through the air as he chatted with both his sister and Loony Lovegood, who were sitting on opposing sides of him. To polish off the entire disgusting picture, Longbottom and Abbott were talking with heads close by one another. If one didn't know any better, I swear that they were flirting. Oh, what has the world come to if this travesty is allowed to go on?

"Am I interrupting something?" I asked, stopping right next to the table. I knew what reaction I was going to receive; a stony, sullen silence…but that didn't stop me from feeling a twinge of hurt. Silent messages were being sent around the table with an eyeroll here, and a quirk of the eyebrow there. For a moment, we just stood there, analyzing what we thought each other would do but then, Anna, with a soft grin on her face, broke the choking silence. "Mal -," she broke off, looking appalled at her near slip, "Draco, I didn't think that you would ever show up. I was honestly starting to think that I had been stood up."

"Something came up. I see that you kept yourself occupied, nonetheless." I said, softly. "I apologize."

With that, the Weasel choked back a derisive snort and shot to his feet. "I'm going to go before I end up losing my lunch. It's bad enough I had to even communicate with the both of you," he said, gesturing at both Anna and Millicent, who just looked at him as though he were a slug on the bottom of their shoes, " it would be absolute torture to have to listen to snake flirting. Boot, the next time that you want to take a walk on the dark side with a damned Slytherin, be sure that I'm nowhere in the vicinity."

With another growl of complete disgust, the Weasel stomped away with his sister close on his heels. Lovegood shook her head, watching them go before turning to give Anna a strange look; Anna, oddly enough, just merely inclined her head in answer. Before I could even give it much thought, my attention was snagged by the slight of Boot blushing deeply at Millicent's beaming smile being aimed in his direction. He looked flustered for a moment, obviously hesitant to say whatever was on his mind.

"Well, then…uh…Millicent…"

"I'll be glad to." Millicent answered, smiling even more brightly. Anna leaned over and whispered something into her ear; there was a brief snort of laughter and Millicent nodded. "Fine, fine… I will…"

"Shall we?" Boot asked, looking relieved. Millicent nodded and suddenly, the rest of the table erupted into motion. Lovegood saw one of her other classmates and with a cheery wave at both Slytherin girls, disappeared into the crowd. I hadn't even noticed Longbottom and Abbott disappear; my attention was soon focused on Anna, who after yelling goodbye to Millicent's retreating form, turned to study me as though she wasn't sure on how she was to approach things now that we finally alone. She's a distraction…all right. I can't keep anything straight in my head when I am around her. But I can't let that show on my face.

"We're finally alone, Draco." Anna said, gesturing to a seat. "Do you wish to go somewhere a bit more private?"

"You know, you're not as sneaky as you would like to be." I said, not even bothering to answer her question as I dropped into a seat. "Haven't even been here that long and you're already friends with the lowly Gryffindors. You're hiding something…I just know it." Honestly, I didn't know why I felt the need to attack her at the moment; it wasn't anything in particular that was annoying me at the moment. Could you just be plain old jealous? She is always on guard around you…much as you are with her. That easy familiarity that she seems to share with Millicent…shoot, even the lightly hostile one she has managed to form with the Weasel… at least, they are, in their own ways, sure of their relationship with her. So much of my emotions are tied into Potter that I can't even be sure of what I'm feeling at the moment…

"Isn't everyone hiding something?" Anna shrugged lightly." We're both Slytherin; I'm sure that if you wanted to, you could get one of your cronies to dig into my personal life…as well as my life at Durmstrang. Shoot, I'm surprised that you haven't yet." I gave her a narrow look, grudgingly pleased at how blasé she sounded about the entire thing. Obviously, she knows what I can do. Either she really has nothing to hide…doubtful being that she was a Durmstrang student; they always are into something foul or she is just that sure that her secrets won't be found out. She is a bold woman... I can give her that much…

"Don't tempt me, Anna." I purred. She gave me a saucy grin return before arching her own eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She got up and sat down directly next to me, obviously trying to make me show some type of reaction. "I'm just merely thinking about secrets and how they can come back and bite you in the arse…"

"I don't know what you're talking about." My mind unwittingly flashed to the multiple ones that I was carrying around now. Almost as if she had sensed my discomfort, she backed away slightly, green eyes slightly remorseful. "Some secrets have to be kept no matter the cost…"

"How right you are…how right you are…" Anna said, quietly. "Come on…let's go for a walk or something. It's getting a bit too crowded in there for my tastes."

"Trying to get me alone, LeDeux?" I asked, playfully flirting in order to get my mind off of things. "I didn't know that you were that type of girl." She looked at me, almost as though she didn't know whether she wanted to take offense or not. Shoot, for a moment there I thought that I had crossed some unknown line in the sand that I hadn't even been aware was there. For some pureblood families, beating around the bush wasn't an option…you wanted what you wanted, no matter how it may be perceived at the time. Others, like my own, kept to old traditions; we may stretch them a bit thin sometimes but they were always there.

She took the option of less resistance and gently placed her hand on top of mine. "Who told you that I wasn't?"

We stared at each other for moment before I, gently, wrapped her hand around my own and pulled her to her feet. We didn't say much of anything to each other as we headed out of the door and on our way. I guess that we were immersed in our own thoughts. What am I doing? Getting involved with a woman that reminds me so much of Potter that it's enough to make me scream? I already have enough on my plate at it is; I don't know how I'm going to get Daphne and Blaise out of this…let along worrying about myself and the damned wife that I'm being forced to choose. It's getting closer and closer to Christmas and I still have no prospects. This year was supposed to be easy…not as difficult as it has been.

"What is the deal with Braff?" Anna asked, out of the clear blue sky, effectively stopping me in my tracks.

"Excuse me?!"

She gave a narrow look before continuing walking. "You know, our fellow seventh year? The one who acts more conceited than Blaise? Every solitary time I turn around, he's always watching me like a hawk getting ready to catch its prey. It's creepy as hell…"

I didn't know what to say to her beside the bare truth. "You remind him of someone….that's all."

"The Boy – Who – Lived, right?" she asked. I nodded, tightly, hoping like hell that she wouldn't inquire further. "Just because I have black hair and green eyes doesn't mean anything."

"You're right… it doesn't." I asked, trying to get my rampaging emotions under control. "If you're having problems, I'll be glad to talk to him…"

She chuckled, a low, throaty one that made my stomach tighten in reaction. "We're barely associates and yet, you honestly expect me to let you ride to my rescue? No, I'll handle Braff on my own. I'm going to completely lose my patience, after giving him one too many warnings, and take him out when he least expects it. As I said before, secrets can come back to bite one in the arse. Let's him hope that I don't find his. I don't have gracious reactions at all when 1) my life could be danger because of them or 2) betrayal of any sort, no matter the reasoning behind it. "

"Glad to hear it." I said, smirking. "At least, I know where I stand."

A shrug of the shoulders and a grin was my answer as we continued on our way. After a quick stop by Honeydukes, we headed back to the castle, chattering about other things the entire time. Although I was determined not to let my thoughts ruin what time I had with her left, I couldn't help but be plagued by them:

She cannot abide betrayal at all. How would she react if I told her of what I have done? How would I tell her that I may have to betray my House in order to protect my closest friends? How would I tell her that we wouldn't be even in this mess if I hadn't decided to save Potter's life in the first place? How I would tell her that I betrayed everyone by falling for him in the first place? Yes, secrets can bite you in the ass when you least expect it but sometimes, they can be the very thing that protects you.