White Lies {discontinued}

Forty Six ~ Something

With an idea, but no way to use it, Aggie found herself aching to do something. She longed for the Room of Requirement and found she was unable to resist any longer.

While everyone else was asleep, Aggie crept through the dark Hogwarts corridors all alone. It was very late, almost midnight, so Aggie didn't expect Draco to be there.

She couldn't help but wonder what he had been doing this past month. She wondered if he had doing someone else to help him. Or if he'd already found a solution.

The latter did not appear to be so however. Aggie found the Vanishing Cabinet waiting where it always was, without the faintest sign of change from when she had last seen it.

Aggie stood for a moment, wand held aloft, contemplating the cabinet, the bowl of swirling pensieve glowing in the dark, and the very place where she and Draco had kissed. She did not know what she was doing here. She had no plans. She'd simply come.

Aggie's eyes fell upon the little row of unvisited memory vile's lined up by the pensieve. It was odd because Aggie felt sure Draco would've visited those memories. So why were they still out? Why had they not been put away with the other memories they had already seen?

Aggie pushed these quandaries away and decided she would visit those last memories. She wanted to know what had happened to Raymond and Fay for their story was not yet complete.

Aggie picked up a vile, emptied its contents into the pensieve, then went in.

Right before her eyes, the rest of Raymond and Fay's story unfolded.

Mr. Borgin discovered the cabinet. He forced the answer out of Raymond with his torturing. Then he took the cabinet away and hid it.

A frightened Fay hugged her brother's middle. Sobbing, she exclaimed, "I'll never be able to go to Hogwarts again! We'll never find the cabinet!"

"We will," said Raymond. "I promise we will."

Aggie could tell from Raymond's expression that he was lying. He knew they would never find it.

And they never did until it was too late.

Fay died. She fell ill and wasted away in sickness and sorrow. Destroyed by the death of his sister and no longer feeling any obligations towards his 'home' Raymond ran away.

Though Raymond found freedom in life beyond, he was visited often by nightmares in which his father tortured him and he re-watched his sister's life fading out of her body.

Years later Raymond revisited his father's shop. And there was the Vanishing Cabinet, sitting in the corner of the room, waiting for someone to purchase it. Raymond touched it like a man revisiting a nightmare.

Then Mr. Borgin saw him. A fight broke out between the father and son. Spells flew in every direction. Raymond dodged and danced. But just as he opened his mouth wide to yell a spell, his tongue was hit by his father's sectumsempera spell.

Aggie watched as Raymond stumbled into Saint Mungo's, drenched in blood, and was told that he would never be able to speak again.

Done with the wizarding world, Raymond retired to the life of a Muggle.

There the memories ended.

Aggie emerged from the pensieve, trembling slightly from everything she had just witnessed.

"I told you look ridiculous when you do that."

Aggie gasped at the unexpected voice and whirled around. Draco Malfoy was sitting in a stray chair nearby, arms folded across his chest. He wore an odd expression. He was not smiling, but he did not look angry or upset either. If anything he looked a little embarrassed.

"Have you just been sitting there watching me?" Aggie asked. Her frosty tone took herself by surprise. "What are you doing here anyway?"

Draco raised his eyebrows. "Last I knew, you did not own this room."

"But it's the middle of the night," said Aggie. "Shouldn't you be in bed?"

"Shouldn't you?" countered Draco.

There was a few moments silence as they regarded each other.

Draco got to his feet. Rubbing the back of his neck he blurted, not looking at her, "I want to apologize."

Aggie hated the way her stomach swooped at those words. She told herself she didn't want his apology. But she did. Very much.

"You what?" said Aggie in a slightly strangled voice.

"I want to apologize," said Draco. He sounded annoyed, but more from awkwardness than anything else. His gaze was still fixed on the floor. "I shouldn't have blamed everything on you. It wasn't your fault. I was just aggravated. I shouldn't have told you to go. I need your help." Draco looked up at her. "And I shouldn't have told you it didn't mean anything because it did."

Aggie didn't have to ask was 'it' was. She suddenly felt rather breathless. Not only from Draco's words, but from the earnest look upon his paled face.

But Aggie was not about to be persuaded that easily.

"You're right," said Aggie. "You shouldn't have. And I'm sorry but I need to go to bed now —"

Aggie moved to walk past Draco, but he grabbed her arm, preventing her from going any further. She reluctantly met his gaze. It was full of pleading.

"Please," whispered Draco. "Please. I don't think I can do this without you."

Words she certainly never expected to hear from Draco Malfoy. And, without much fight, Aggie felt herself give in. She took a breath and nodded.

"Alright. Fine. I'll help you," she said.

Draco let go of her arm and breathed a sigh of relief.

"I have a new idea, but first, I have a question," said Aggie. She could feel her face turning red, but she had to ask. "If it didn't mean nothing, then are we something?"

For a moment Draco didn't speak as he stared at her.

"We can't," said Draco with a shake of his head. "You're a half blood. My parents would never approve."

Aggie felt her heart sank, but then a thought occurred to her and she decided to boldly voice it.

"But it could be something, while we are at Hogwarts, couldn't it?" asked Aggie, looking up at the boy hopefully.

Draco hesitated. He said finally, "It could be, possibly."

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A/N: so I've somehow condensed 70 chapters into 57 (maybe 58) chapters, which means only 12 chapters to go.