White Lies {discontinued}

Thirty Two ~ Thieves

Aggie walked into the great hall one evening for supper and immediately knew something was different but she couldn't exactly place what it was. She stopped in the doorway and looked around. Was it the decorations? No. The hall was decorated the same as ever. Was it the sky? No it was the same November grey it had been for days. Aggie's eyes fell upon the staff table, and it immediately hit her — Dumbledores seat was empty.

Aggies stomach leapt in excitement. She instinctively looked around at the Slytherin table and met the cold grey eyes of a Slytherin student. Malfoy had clearly noticed Dumbledores absence as well. He gave Aggie a sharp piercing look, and Aggie nodded to show she understood. Malfoy quickly glanced away before anyone could notice their exchange.

Aggie swallowed down a small bowl of soup, then hurried out of the Great Hall. She was too excited to eat. She would go to the Room of Requirement and wait. She knew Malfoy would meet her there soon.

And he did, but he took much longer than she had expected. Aggie was sitting in a chair fixing a cracked potion bottle when he appeared.

"Dumbledore is gone from the castle," said Malfoy immediately.

"You're sure?" asked Aggie. She hopped from her seat.

"Yes," said Malfoy. "I asked one of the teachers if I could speak with him, and they said he will be gone until Monday."

Aggie said, "That should give us enough time to get the pensive and bring it back again!

"I wouldn't mind a little more time," said Malfoy, "But I suppose we'll have to work with this."

"We are going to, er, borrow it tonight, aren't we?"

"Yes. But not now. We should go back to our dorms. Meet me out here at eleven o'clock. I'll tell the other prefects it's my turn for the night patrol."

So at eleven Aggie waited outside the Room of Requirement in the dark. She felt nervous and twitchy as she waited for Malfoy to arrive. She was beginning to wonder if he would show up at all, when someone put their cold hand on her arm. Aggie shrieked and jumped away. A hand flew to cover her mouth. Aggie looked around wildly, but through the dark, she couldn't see who it was.

Blue light filled the corridor and Aggie found herself alarmingly close the face of Draco Malfoy. His extremely dry expression was illuminated by his wand. He rolled his eyes and hissed. "Don't be so loud."

Aggie pushed his hand away and, in a unexpected display of self defense said, "You scared me! I didn't know who you were. What else was I supposed to do?"

Malfoy raised his eyebrows. "Honestly who else was I supposed to be?"

"It could've been anyone!" Aggie continued defensively. "Filch, Mrs. Norris-"

"Yes because I could definitely have been a furry cat," said Malfoy. "Come. Let's hurry in case your caterwauling woke anyone up."

Aggie would have liked to say that her small screech had hardly been caterwauling, but Malfoy was already walking swiftly away. Deciding he was probably right, Aggie followed after him.

Aggie awkwardly lingered by Malfoy. Not quite walking beside him, but not quite walking behind him either. It just felt so odd being with this Slytherin boy who was really such a mystery to her.

Down one corridor, then another. Up a few staircases. Around turns and down more corridors. They walked in the dark in silence and without any obstacles.