Before The Past

Ch. 47

I had absolutely no idea where the room of requirements actually was. I'd only been there one time and that was during the one and only party I'll ever attend. As much as I had wished I could ask Draco, that wasn't an option. I could tell that we had to keep this rather quiet, so my best bet was to follow him from a distance. I figured if I stayed back and made sure no one was following before joining him last minute, that it would be sufficient enough. 

As I read the letter though, I realized why Draco hadn't eaten much. As soon as I connected the dots I lost my appetite too. We were to work on the vanishing cabinet. The only reason I figured this out was because I could recall Draco mentioning something about it being in the room of requirements. 

Matteo still wasn't to be seen that night, so I sat alone reading my book. I looked up every few seconds to make sure that I didn't miss Draco walking by. I waited and waited until only a few people were left in the common room. At that point it was almost midnight. I was getting slightly impatient and wondering if I had already missed him. 

Fortunately, I didn't and finally saw him walking down just five minutes before twelve. He looked around, saw me and then walked out of the common room. I waited another minute before putting my book down and following him. I hurried around the corners, trying to catch up. Finally, I managed to catch a glimpse of his robes turn around the corner. I peered around to see that he was standing in front of a wall. I looked behind me to make sure no one was there before walking towards him. 

By the time I actually caught up to him the doors had already began to appear. 

"Woah." I gasped, watching the intricate designs poke out from the wall. 

Draco looked over at me and then back at the door. He didn't say anything, but simply walked through the newly appeared door. 

The inside was a lot more different than when I was in there before. There were thousands of random objects piled together like an intricate puzzle. If you needed something, it was more than likely in here. There were chairs, tables, jewelry, fancy plates and bowls, even porcelain dolls and animals in glass cupboards. It was all dusty though, and looked like it had been there since the the school had first been built. 

We walked through a maze of clear pathways before making it to a rather large object with a red sheet over it. Draco took the sheet off to reveal that it was in fact the vanishing cabinet. 

"Shall we see if it works?" Draco whispered. 

"Should I grab something to put in there?" I asked. 

"No need." He took out a green apple from his robes and closed his eyes. 

He whispered some sort of enchantment and the locks began to undo themselves. I opened the doors and Draco placed the apple inside of the cabinet. I shut them and Draco whispered the same enchantment again. We waited for a few moments and then heard something from inside. Draco's eyes lit up as he hurriedly opened the doors. 

The apple was still there, but when he picked it up there was a large bite mark, taking up almost a quarter of the apple. Just like what we had discussed at Borgin and Burkes, another death eater was at the other end of the cabinet. 

"So that's it then? It works?" I questioned. 

"Not quite, we still have to find out if it works with something alive." Draco answered. 

"How will we do that?" 

"Remember those birds in the cages before we entered here?" 

Oh. 

We were going to use animals to see if they lived or not against their will. Don't be ridiculous. This is a small price to pay to avoid something like that happening to you. In a way the same things were happening. Being used for something bigger involuntarily. They were birds. We could get more birds from outside, but we couldn't get a second chance.