White Lies {discontinued}

Fourteen ~ How?

Draco's frustration was mounting.

Two months of meddling with that damn cabinet, and their had been no change. The thing continued to repel, and explode whatever Draco put inside.

For a boy who'd had everything easy in life up to this point, it was especially infuriating. He was slowly learning that life wouldn't spoil him like his mother had.

On Sunday October 13th, Draco headed to the Room of Requirement after lunch, with a bird cage in hand. He sent Crabbe and Goyle to keep watch outside the room.

The idea of using the vanishing cabinet as a way for the Death Eaters to enter the castle had occurred to him when remembered how Montague, a fellow Slytherin, had been shoved into a vanishing cabinet last year by the Weasley twins.

The cabinet had been hard to find. Draco had finally managed to get it out of Filch that he'd put it in a room full of junk on the seventh floor so no student would be able to meddle with it.

"Although it'd serve 'em right if you all got stuck in it," the man had said with a vindictive grin.

But Filch claimed the room had disappeared straight after.

"Filthy squib," Draco had muttered as he stormed up to the seventh floor to have a look.

But it turned out the miserable man was right. There was no room.

Draco had begun to pace the hall in agitation, wishing he could find the place where the vanishing cabinet had been stashed away. His life depended on it.

Then, miraculously, a door had appeared in the wall. Draco had entered a huge room, filled with towering piles of random objects. He quickly located the vanishing cabinet amongst it all.

This cabinet would be the answer to all his problems, this cabinet, and its identical twin sitting in Borgin and Burke's.

It didn't take long for Draco to realize that the room he was working in was the the Room of Requirement. The very same room where stupid Potter had held his stupid "Dumbledores army". At first he was disgusted by this, but then he realized he had other things to worry about. Much bigger things.

Now Draco reached into the bird cage he carried with a rather sickened expression on his face as he removed a small white bird. Draco hated doing this. He had never given much thought to lives that were much smaller than his, but every time he saw one of the birds die, it reminded him of the fate that awaited him if he didn't manage to fix this cabinet.

Of course he had other plans besides this one, like the necklace he was planning on slipping someone, but they were much feebler.

And everything seemed to be standing in Draco's way. Especially Professor Snape. The man wouldn't leave him alone. And when Draco thought back to when he used to admire the potions master very much . . . 

But now Draco didn't admire anyone. Everyone he knew just stood to the side while his father was stuck in Azkaban. Draco knew he couldn't rely on anyone anymore. It was up to him to save himself, and his family. It was all up to him. And once Draco succeeded in what he was setting out to do, the Dark Lord would see what he was really worth.

Draco looked down at the bird in his hand. It blinked up at him, unafraid. It didn't even squirm in his grip. It looked so . . . trusting.

Draco swallowed. He couldn't do it. He couldn't bare to see another bird die. Not right then.

Draco shoved the bird back in the cage, then pulled a apple out of his pocket. It was shiny, and green.

Draco opened the cabinet and stared into the empty blackness.

"This better work," he muttered under his breath.

Draco swung back his arm back, then let go of the apple. He held his breath as he watched the fruit soar into the cabinet.

What happened next was astonishing; the apple disappeared into the blackness. Even more incredible what was what didn't happen. The apple didn't explode. Bits of apple mush didn't come flying onto Draco's face like they had before.

A slightly crazed smile lit up the boy's pale, pointy face.

"Yes!" he cried out, "Yes!"

But then his smile faded to be replaced by a perplexed expression.

He just had one question, how?