White Lies {discontinued}

Forty ~ Hogwarts

Aggie stood in the Hogwarts entrance hall, an overwhelming sense of loneliness washing over her, despite the bustle of students around her.

Normally Edith would be there to embarrass Aggie by shouting her name Aggie's name across the room, and greet her with the tight comforting hug only a best friend can give. But this time there was no Edith. Aggie hadn't heard from her all Holiday.

Christmas had come and gone and now everyone was returning back to the castle for their second term.

Since there wasn't any Edith to greet her, Aggie was surprised to hear someone calling her name. Next moment there came Margo to discuss the Holidays. Frazier also came to say hello (and to ask about Edith). Aggie was touched by their friendliness, but there was only one student that Aggie was really interested in seeing beside Edith.

As Aggie walked across the hall side by side with Margo, she eyed all nearby groups of Slytherins.

Just as Aggie was about to leave the hall, she heard a whisper in her ear.

"Meet me in the Room of Requirement after dinner."

Aggie stopped in her tracks and looked wildly around. Draco was already walking in front of her, without the slightest sign of having whispered anything. But Aggie knew it had been him.

"Aggie? Are you alright?" questioned Margo.

"Yes," said Aggie, and she quickly picked up her pace again.

~~~~~~

Draco and Aggie hasn't said a single word to each other since their brief hellos upon entering the Room of Requirement. Now, as Aggie busied herself over the pensieve, she couldn't help but glance over her shoulder at the pale faced boy as he sorted through Raymond's memories.

"How was your Christmas?"

Her voice surprised even herself. Draco looked up at her. For a second it didn't seem like her understood, he was so lost in thought, but then he said, "Fine."

He returned to examining the memories.

"Oh," said Aggie in a small voice. "That's good." But she had a feeling he wasn't listening.

After a second longer of staring, Draco got to his feet and moved to stand beside Aggie. He looked at Aggie as she swirled the pensieve with her wand.

"Are you ready?" He asked.

Aggie met his look and gave a sharp little nod of determination.

"There is no order to these memories, so I suppose we'll just start with this one."

Draco selected a random memory from the vials Raymond had given them.

"I'm sure it's as good as any," said Aggie.

Draco added the memory to the pensieve. It swirled on the surface, forming a rather distorted image of Raymond Borgin's face.

"One, two, three," said Draco.

They plunged their heads beneath the surface, and emerged in the very same attic they'd been in before.

Raymond seemed to be at yet another stage of building the cabinet. It was now taller than him, and looked to be completed. Raymond had the doors thrown open and he was muttering things under his breath while tapping the cabinet.

"Looks familiar," Draco muttered in Aggie's ear.

She gave a wry smile as she recalled how many times she herself had tapped that very same cabinet.

"Why isn't it working?" Raymond murmured to himself.

He bounced his wand in his hand, then turned to a book propped up on a chair. He muttered some instructions under his breath, and faced the cabinet again.

Aggie was tense, waiting for Raymond to say something that might give them an alternative way to fix the cabinet than the one they were currently attempting.

But Raymond seemed as unsure as they were. He also seemed to be fairly gifted at non-verbal magic.

Aggie and Draco watched as Raymond triumphed in bewitching the cabinet (he went through to the other side — presumably Hogwarts — and came back) then went running downstairs. He had probably left to go get Fay.

Sure enough, moments later, Raymond and Fay came racing up the stairs, and they were back in Aggie's first glimpse of these two.

Draco nudged Aggie's arm. "Let's go he said."

Aggie nodded. They pulled out of the pensieve.

"Well, we certainly didn't learn anything new," said Draco.

Aggie shook her head. "No. But that wasn't the purpose. The purpose is to build a portal. I highly doubt it did, but it's worth a try."

So Draco went through to the other side. When he came back out, he shook his head at her.

"No luck?" asked Aggie.

"No luck," said Draco bitterly.

"Well, I didn't really except it too," said Aggie. "We will just keep going to memories. Eventually it will work. It has too."

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A/N: I'm really not to sure about this chapter. It definitely needs editing, but at this point I just need to keep the story rolling.

By the way, I apologize for the lack of updates over the past few days. I wrote this chapter a while ago, but wasn't happy with it. Also, I crushed my thumb in my window yesterday (long story) and as of right now it is too swollen to allow me to write easily. But I'm hoping I'll be better by tomorrow when I publish this chapter.