White Lies {discontinued}

Seven ~ Experiments

Draco Malfoy continued to visit the Room of Requirement, and Aggie continued to watch him. The boy would surely have been unnerved if he knew that one of his fellow students was watching him almost every day, but Aggie couldn't help doing it.

But now that Edith had Quidditch practice, Aggie found herself left alone more often then not. In those lonely hours she found herself being pulled to the Room of Requirement by a strange urge.

Aggie admitted to herself that she had a bit of an obsession with the boy. Well, not the boy so much as what the boy was doing.

As Aggie watched Malfoy over the next couple of weeks mid-September, it became obvious that the boy's only interest was in the very cabinet Aggie had first seen him opening.

Aggie didn't understand what was so special about the cabinet. She considered going to have a look at it, but she was to scared to. What if their was something about the black and gold cabinet that allowed Malfoy to see everyone who came near it?

No, Aggie kept her distance, watching Malfoy from where she was hidden in the sidelines. He never noticed her as he fiddled with the cabinet and, more than often, let out a streams of curse words.

He seemed to be running a series of experiments on the cabinet. Mostly it involved him jabbing at the cabinet with his wand and muttering spells, mostly repairo, repetitively under his breath. He also kept putting items into the cabinet, closing the cabinet, opening it, then cursing when he saw the very object he had just put in. It was like he expected something to happen to the objects, what that was exactly, Aggie hadn't the slightest clue.

One day, while Aggie was hidden behind a large, cracked mirror, Draco entered with a animal cage in hand. Behind the bars of the cage was a small, beautiful white bird.

Aggie watched as Malfoy extracted the bird from the cage with his pale hand.
The bird let out a chirp and perched on Malfoy's hand without the slightest trace of fear.

Worry gripped Aggie as she saw Draco open the cabinet and place the bird in. She suddenly was very afraid that something terrible would happen to the bird.

The boys pointy face was full of shadows as he slowly shut the door of the cabinet. He placed his ear against the wood, clearly listening for something. The bird cage was still in hand.

Aggie waited and watched with baited breath.

After a moment, Malfoy lifted his ear away from the door and cautiously opened the cabinet.

Aggie let out a gasp of horror as white bird feathers exploded out of the cabinet. She clapped her hand over her mouth. Tears pricked Aggie's eyes as she watched one of the white feathers drift to the floor.

Malfoy swore loudly and kicked the cabinet hard. He threw the bird cage to the ground, then sunk into a nearby armchair with his face buried in his hands.

Aggie felt a pang of pity for the boy. Whatever he was trying to do, it was clear that it wasn't going well at all.

The next day Malfoy came into the room with a book in hand. He flipped through the book several times, tried out a couple spells, then left again, cursing loudly as usual. He left the book behind on the floor beside the cabinet.

Aggie was sitting on a tire swing, curiosity welling up inside as she eyed the book. She so very much wanted to go see what the book was, and to take a look at the cabinet. The desire had been building up in her for weeks, but as of yet she hadn't been brave enough . . .

Aggie jumped to her feet and scurried over to the book. She glanced around, then picked up the book. Her cheeks grew hot and red with nervousness. What if Malfoy came back?

Aggie glanced down at the book in her hand and read the title.

Vanishing Cabinets, and Their History, by Bronda Boridge.

The book fell from Aggie's hands as she looked up at the cabinet with comprehension dawning in her eyes. So that's what this was, a vanishing cabinet! A smile spread across Aggie's face, and all worry that Malfoy would come back was forgotten.

Aggie moved toward the cabinet and flung open the door. It was perfectly clean inside, Malfoy had used scourgify the day before after the bird came to his sorry end, and appeared to be nothing more than your average cabinet. But Aggie was not deceived. She already knew a bit about vanishing cabinets and knew that they were almost always disguised as a normal cabinet. Most were just used for hiding in, but if it was a twin pair then it would create a portal between the two objects. Aggie wasn't sure which this one was, but either way it was obviously broken if it was blowing up
things that went inside it.

Aggie pulled out her wand and began to prod at the object. She rarely knew what she was doing when she tried to fix something. She just tried whatever popped into her head.

"What do you think you're doing?" spat a voice.

Aggie whirled around, her eyes wide in horror.

There stood Draco Malfoy. He has returned, probably for the book he'd left behind. His eyes were narrowed and his expression angry, but behind the anger there was a glimmer of something else. Something Aggie didn't have time to identify as her face flushed red in horror.

The two students stared at each other, then Aggie fled. She ran as fast as she could out the door.

"Stupify!" She heard Malfoy shout behind her, but the spell missed and Aggie made it out the door.

Aggie had rarely been so afraid in her life as she ran to Ravenclaw tower, panting and blushing.

That's that," thought Aggie, as she climbed a spiraling staircase, I can never go back their again.
___________________________

A/N:
This chapter is dedicated to KolGarber for reading, voting, and commenting on this story! Thanks so much! <3