"You should at this point have completed your potion. In the chest you should find two small boxes containing a crystal-variying in color and shape-a silver clasp and a silver chain. It doesn't matter who uses what box, but once you start you can't change so consider carefully..."

Draco was fading. They had over a month left in the mini hell, their reasonable foodstuffs were dwindling into an excess of chocolate and soda and Draco was slowly losing an inner battle with himself. Harry had tried to engage him in a chess game or get him to pose for some drawings but he wouldn't. He spent his time on the bed starring at the celing, he hadn't eaten in two days and refused to work on the summer projects or read any of his text.

"Draco. I'm worried about you...can you look at me please?" Draco carefully turned so he was looking into Harry's eyes. "Draco, I know what your feeling...trust me, I do...but you can't let it swallow you. I'm losing you, and I want you back." Draco licked his dry lips.

"I haven't seen natural light in almost two months Harry...I just...can't fight it any more. I can't."

"Yes, you can and you will! I've gotten through this numeral times and you can and will. Did you know when I was four Petunia locked me in here and forgot about me? I was stuck in this little closet for four months. A four year old, in the dark, little food and little water for four months. And I made it through fine." Draco was shocked to hear this and very suddenly wanted to cast every curse and hex he could find on the Dursleys.

"How the hell did you manage to turn out like you did? God! If something like that happened to most people, they wouldn't have turned out half as loving or forgiving as you have." Harry blushed softly, and pulled Draco into an embrace.

"Try to stay with me, okay? Don' let yourself become lost, find things to keep you occupied...draw, write, sing...anything. Come work on the summer assignment with me...talk to me...or the walls, who ever's more interesting." Draco smiled at the mild joke and pulled himself off the bed. Harry immdiatly handed him a plate of food and located the summer assignment instructions.

"Okay" Harry cleared his throat in a dramatic manner and held the paper up close to his face, reading the first few lines more to himself then to Draco who was still eating. "Boxes...boxes....boxes...ah!" The boxes were at the bottom of the chest, each hardwood and ornatly decorated, the insides lined with velvet and each contained a crystal, a silver clasp and a silver chair. "How wierd." Harry commented wonderingly, looking inbetween the colored crystals.

"What's wierd?"

"The instructions say the crystals will vary in shape and color...but the wierd thing is...one is green and the other is black." Draco laughed softly.

"That's a bit of irony in motion, wouldn't you say?" There was still an air of depression in his voice, but he was slowly returning to normal. "So what do we do with them?" Harry made a face and passed the boxes off the Draco for his choice. Not surprisingly, Draco selected the green one. "Required materials: Summer potion assignment-I love how they still haven't named this potion-Crystal, silver chain and clasp, provided box lined in velvet with silk cushion, wand, charms text book....this should prove real difficult." Harry said sarcastically.They brought their still simmering potions over and retrieved their as yet unused wands from their chests. "Alright, research the containing charm spell. I knew there was a catch." Draco laughed at Harry's deadly expression and retrieved their books. Since the text books had been charmed so the index was invisible, they had to search through the whole book. After two hours Draco found the containing charm spell in the last unit, apparently one of the harder charms.

"Oh, lovly." Harry sighed and flipped to the page himself. Indeed the charm required a lot of time, and concentration. Since Harry was in no mood to read any more, Draco took the instructions.

"Cast charm over crystal and immediatly drop it into simmering potion." Draco looked at the green oddly-shaped crystal in his hand and then back at the book. The only problem with immediatly was that the charm took twenty minutes preperation and another fourty to cast on any specific iteam. Not to mention the caster side effect of numbing any skin it came into contact with to the point that there was no feeling at all. Harry was scruntching up his face at the last part; since the charm required closed eyes, and the object would be held in the hand it would be almost immposible to drop the crystal without sight. Bitting his lip, he let his eyes wander.

"Draco...the chains. We can put the crystal in the clasp, hang it on the chain and dangle it over the potion. That way our hands don't go numb and we can let the crystal go." Draco scanned the instructions and saw that they didn't call for the clasp or chain at any given time.

"That could very well work...do you think you can hold your hand up for almost an hour though?"

"Well this is the only way I can see to go about it, so I guess I'll have to huh?" They carefully but securely tighten the clasp on the crystal and ran the chain through it.

"Here goes nothing." Harry read the charm again and memorized it quickly. The charm required complete silence, so both boys were absolutly quiet, eyes closed. Harry concentrated on the crystal and in his mind he formed the size, shape, texture, the way it spun, it's obsidian color and when he had it built, he worked up and constructed the simple silver clasp and the thin silver chain. He was breaking out in a sweat, but was calm, his arm no longer aching with the effort of keeping the crystal up above the potion. He didn't know how much time had passed when he slowly brought his wand up, imagining the way his hand curled around the base, the deminsions, and the nurtured sheen. He took several deep breaths and released his control over his body. There was a warmth in his wand arm and he felt his arm, hand, and fingers all moving without his imput. Then his lips moved and his dry tongue produced sllyables of their own accord. "Kellistikia no-nya shea tsoni kesiliae" It wasn't screamed, in fact was barely whispered. The warmth in his arm charged toward his finger tips and straight through his wand. Knowing without knowing, he understood on some subconcious level that the charm had hit its mark and without concious thought, he released the sliver chain seeing the crystal in his mind's eye as it took a slow motion course into the cauldron. Moments latter a bright flash followed sucessively by another brought Harry back to the land of the living. Draco swayed on his knees for a moment, then collapsed with a soft sigh. Harry caught him just before he hit the floor and pulled him into his lap.

"Are you alright?" Draco smiled slightly and noded.

"That was a trip...I wasn't even in control of my body..." Draco squeezed his eyes together tightly and shook his head and sat up. "Did it work?" He asked the air, crawling on all fours to look into the cauldron. His green crystal was at the bottom of a very empty, very dry cauldron. Harry was also looking at his own. "Don't touch anything!" Draco hissed when Harry reached to pull his out. Draco retrieved the instruction and squinted at them. "Do not touch the crystal, or it will release potion and have to be done over!" Draco glarred at Harry for a moment before continueing "If done properly, no potion should remain in cauldron and cauldron should be dry. Well at least we did it right." He commented, running a finger along the rim of the cauldron. "This concludes the charm portion of the assignment. Important: Enchantment portion must be started within the hour." Harry sighed, rubbing his arm that had just decided to start throbing from its recent punishment.

Author's notes: Hello again! Well next part is obviously up(I have six written, I just have to convert them all to HTML) Thanks for the comments, hope everyone is liking the story. It will however be completely re-done when I get the time(I was reading it this morning and I realized how many discrepencies there were!) Thanks again ~Lady Shadow~