Slytherin Princess (Draco Malfoy Fanfic)

Chapter 50

~A/N : Oh... I seemed to have dug myself a grave in having Alice help Draco fix the cabinet, as the book doesn't say how Draco fixed it, but I've finally found a solution!

I'll remember to be more careful and think things through before going ahead and writing it in from now on...

This is a short chapter, but I really couldn't think of a place further in the story to stop at without including the entire next chapter.

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I sat in the Room of Requirement, staring blankely at the cabinet.

Why did I think I'd be able to help at all anyways? I wasn't some kind of magical genius carpenter who could just go ahead and fix the cabinet. Draco didn't seem to be one either, judging by how I could see lines where the cabinet had been broken but was somehow being held together. A cage full of white doves was on a table nearby. I wondered what they were for.

"Just how broken was the cabinet anyways?" I asked Draco as I stared, dumbfounded. In the past when I looked at the cabinet without really thinking much about its condition, I never noticed exactly how horribly it had been destroyed. Was there even any chance at making it work again?

Draco mumbled something incoherent. I tapped my fingers on some old dusty table I had found and was sitting on, waiting for him to speak louder.

"It was shattered, okay? Shattered to pieces!" Draco yelled in frustration. I flinched, surprised by his sudden outburst. I could tell this was stressing him out.

"That's okay, we'll fix it!" I cheered with fake enthusiasm. I wasn't quite sure if it was to convince him or myself. I leapt off the table and walked towards the cabinet to look closer at it. It looked like Draco had even tried to fix it the muggle way. I carefully opened the door to the cabinet and peeked inside. A broken, torn-apart bird.

I closed the cabinet immediately, sickened by the sight.

"I found some old manuscript in an ancient language," Draco said as he handed me a worn out piece of parchment and a much newer piece with his handwriting on it, "I've been trying to translate it. I think it might be a spell to fix the-"

I pulled the parchment with his translations out of his hands and skimmed quickly through the words. Death? Flowers?

"Draco, I really don't think this is a spell to fix Vanishing Cabinets," I said slowly. Draco looked panicked.

"No, it must be! I must have translated it wrong," Draco said quickly in desperation. It seemed more like he was so desperate to find a solution that he lost sense of logic.

"Calm down, we'll find the solution," I said as I slowly reached my hand into my robes and searched for my wand. Draco wouldn't be able to see me doing that with only the dim light from his wand, right?

"No, we have the solution right here, Alice! We just need to translate it and it'll all be better!" Draco stood up yelling.

"We'll find a way to fix it soo-" I started, but was cut off.

"No, Alice! Time is running out! He- He'll kill my family if I don't fix it! I have to fix it!" Draco yelled, pulling his hair in distress. It pained me to look at him.

"Okay, I'll go look in the library for anything that might help, okay?" I said. I highly doubted that Draco had missed anything in the library, but I needed peace and quiet to think, and Draco needed to think I was getting closer to finding a solution to calm down a bit.

He nodded stiffly, and I made my way through the piles of junk to the exit.

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I skimmed through the titles of the books on the library, not really expecting to find anything, as Draco had probably searched through here hundreds of times.

A familiar book caught my eye.

Pearse, Meriwether.

The book my compass necklace took me to when I broke my mother's wand.

An idea suddenly popped up in my head. The necklace! It could help me find a way to fix the cabinet! I turned and ran towards an empty side of the library to try to get the necklace to help me so that nobody thought I was going insane and talking to myself this time.

I was reaching into my robes to take the necklace out, when Snape appeared in front of me.

"Springs, what do you think you're doing?" He asked coldly.

"Nothing, Professor. I was simply adjusting my robes. I should leave now," I said. He continued to stare at me for a while before suddenly pulling me aside into the restricted section that he had just come out of. He cast a spell so that nobody else could hear our conversation.

"Remember that the Pathmaker takes things that are important to you in exchange for altering your path." He hissed at me.

"It didn't take anything when I just asked it to find-" I started, but was interrupted.

"The Pathmaker can choose to take its payment whenever it wishes, whether it's immediately or ten years into the future!" Snape snapped, "It is not always obvious that it is the Pathmaker that has caused you to lose what was taken."

"Thank you, Professor, but I am sure that what I am doing will be worth whatever is tak-" I argued, but was interrupted yet again.

"Remember that this will not always be the case, Miss Springs. The Pathmaker values protecting your life over all else. I suggest you get rid of it immediately," he said. I opened my mouth to ask what he meant, but he simply guided me back out the restricted section and left. Isn't it supposed to be a good thing that it'll protect my life over everything else? My life is what's most important! It didn't seem like the Pathmaker worked very well at protecting lives though, as my mother died anyways.

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"Draco!" I said as I entered the Room of Requirement. Draco was sitting on the floor, looking over the piece of paper he had showed me earlier.

"I have an idea," I said carefully, "I'm not sure if it'll work, but it's worth a try."

"What's the idea?" Draco said, perking up immediately. Please work, necklace. It would be horrible if I got his hopes up for nothing. I reached into my robes and fished out my necklace. Draco's eyes widened as he saw what I was taking out. "You can't use that! Look at what it did to your cheek!" He said in alarm.

"That doesn't matter, fixing the cabinet is more important," I said. Draco looked at me intently.

"You're okay with helping me, when you know what I have to do?" He asked. I hesitated. What could I tell him? I had a feeling he wasn't supposed to know that Dumbledore had told me to do this. I looked down at the ground and took a deep breath before nodding stiffly. Draco was silent.

I looked at my necklace again.

"I need to fix the vanishing cabinet," I said as I focused.

Nothing happened.

"Please, I need to find a way to fix it," I tried again, my patience quickly vanishing.

"FIX THE VANISHING CABINET!" I yelled in frustration. I jumped as evil laughter suddenly filled my ears. I screamed and blocked my ears as a horrible hissing sound filled the air. Draco ran towards me in worry.

Good... The broken voice laughed, You're beginning to ask me for real exchanges...

I gasped, suddenly fearful of the necklace and this voice that it was creating. A piercing screeching noise now was mixed with a broken, static sound. I cowered on the floor, hugging my legs and sobbing.

Enjoy, the voice whispered before fading away along with all the other sounds.

I gasped for air, catching my breath. Draco didn't seem to have been affected by the horrible sounds. Only I could hear them...

I looked up towards the cabinet, which didn't seem to have been changed physically. I stumbled to my feet and grabbed the entire cage of doves on the table as I made my way to the cabinet. I opened the cage, feeling sick to the stomach while I shoved the birds inside. They screeched in fear. I closed and reopened the door to see that they had disappeared.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly closed and opened the door again. 

Doves fluttered out in a flurry of feathers, screeching as they flew around the room. Just how powerful was this Pathmaker?

~A/N :

Mini-Game Time, in celebration of 50 chapters! The first person to guess why Alice's mother died despite owning the necklace gets a chapter dedicated to them ^^ (Be specific though!)

Thank you all for your suport!

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-Kira