PLAYING A FACADE | D.M fanfic

fifteen.

I underestimated the weight of the task given by the Dark Lord. I went to the Room of Requirement every night, fixing the cabinet, telling everyone, including Emerald, that I was busy, studying in the library, avoiding them as much as I could since the first day back from the summer holidays. I was aware that Emerald was starting to get annoyed by my ignorance, but I needed to focus on my task. I could not afford to fail it. The tasks kept me awake at night, filling my thoughts during the day. How was I suppose to kill Dumbledore? Just casually say 'avada kedavra' with my wand pointing at him? I was barely concentrating in class, I got my first ever B in Potions, that had never happened and yet Snape seemed to understand my situation, knowing he was a Death Eater as well.

"You ready for practice?" Emerald asked, bring me back to the reality.

"What?" I asked, trying to figure out what was happening in class.

"Quidditch practice. At four thirty."

I cleared my throat, "Oh yeah, for sure."

"Something's on your mind. What is it?"

"Nothing," I replied in haste, "What makes you think I have something on my mind?"

She looked at me suspiciously, "Whatever you say, Malfoy. I'm going to Charms now. Walk with me? We have it together." She asked as she picked up her books.

I smiled weakly, "Yeah. Come on."

The walk to Charms was quiet and the day went by. I found myself lost in my own thoughts throughout the day, even during practice. Just like clockwork, we all had dinner before going back to our common rooms. Without saying anything, I went upstairs to my room to try to finish my homework and around nine, I went back downstairs to the common room and made my way outside, heading towards the sixth floor, where the Room of Requirement was located, to work on fixing the vanishing cabinet that lead to Borgin and Burkes. Fixing a cabinet was not as easy as I thought it would be. It drained my energy, I was trialling anything I could find, dead or alive, trying to make it vanish to the other point. As I entered the room, it was dark. The only source of light was from the windows that exposes the moon onto the surface of the Earth. Through the mess, I walked up to the dark wooden, triangular cupboard. I wouldn't be mending this cabinet if it wasn't for Peeves, who decided to drop the cabinet in a classroom which happened to be above Filch's office, knowing that they both were sworn enemies, it did not require a genius to figure out that it wasn't just a mere coincidence that Peeves dropped it in that exact location. As much as I would like to take credit for the idea of using the Vanishing Cabinet, it was actually thanks to Graham Montague, the kid I kicked off the Slytherin quidditch team to make room for Emerald. I found him stuck in a toilet bowl for some reason, apparently he failed to apparate to his wanted destination and was shoved off by the Weasley Twins into the broken cabinet. Because of that, he told me of the magic the cabinet had, which led me to fix it right now. I lost track of time as I tinkered with the cabinet, somehow enjoying the quietness that this room held. That was enjoyable until someone banged their head on an object, causing a loud bang and a painful reaction from them. I immediately took my wand out, ready to attack whoever it was.

"Who's there?" I asked loudly and the room echoed my words. No words were said as a tense silence filled the room, "I said, who's there?!"

"Relax, jeez, it's just me." A familiar voice said, stepping out of the shadows, revealing a brunette wearing her Ilvermorny quidditch jersey and gray pyjama shorts.

"Em?"

"Surprise?" She asked awkwardly while her hand was soothing her head.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as I placed my wand back into my pocket.