PLAYING A FACADE | D.M fanfic

twenty.

DRACO

"It should be fixed now," Emerald said, "We did everything according to the instructions from Mr. Borgin."

I nodded, "Harmonia Nectere Passus," saying the repairing incantation one last time and I took another bird out of the cage, hoping that this would be the last time and placed it inside the cabinet.

"We really owe them our lives, huh?" She added.

"That, we do." I replied and closed the cabinet.

We waited for the bird to return in silence as its chirp faded away slowly. Emerald stood across me, leaning onto the table as she usually does. Repairing this cabinet wouldn't be as hard if we brought it to Borgin and Burkes so they would be able to see the damage on the cabinet, but knowing that doing this would raise a lot of suspicions, especially from Potter and his two friends, we decided to just fix it here. Soon after, the chirping got louder, telling us that the bird is coming back and Emerald bolted up faster than I did, opening the cabinet to show the bird's fate and it came back alive, with all parts of its body still attached and still chirping. The grey bird immediately flew past the both of us and flew around the room. Emerald bursted out into a euphoric series of laughter, "We did it." She didn't seem to get what was coming next after we successfully fix the old cabinet. It took her a while to catch on on why I wasn't happy with it and her expression fell, "Oh."

"Yeah."

"Do we really need to inform them today?"

"We're already pressed on time, Em." I answered, not keen about it either as she leaned on my shoulder and my arm went around her waist, keeping her close to me.

"Can we just owl them then?"

"You read my mind," I replied with a weak smile, "It'll give us about a day before everything else."

"Yeah, I know." And Emerald lifted her head to look at me, "Let's do something tomorrow, after school, before they come."

"Meet me at the common room at four thirty. Wear something nice." I replied, with a picnic viewing the great lake and the Forbidden Forest on my mind.

"If you say so, Malfoy."

I kissed her head, "We should head to the owlery."

Emerald nodded and we started walking back to the owlery, a stop we had to make before going back to the common room. We were exhausted, both physically and mentally. Emerald took over as quidditch captain for the team and everyone weren't as shocked that I was quitting, knowing how I was playing these past few weeks. I know that deep down, Emerald was happy that she became captain once more, but she would never admit it. I kept my end of the deal. I would come to practice if I was feeling okay, or needed to get things off my mind and Emerald would force me to play with the team occasionally, telling me it was better than just sitting on the stairs, watching them flying around. Emerald saw right through me, she knew that I miss it. I miss quidditch. But I also know that asking her to be captain was a step for her to get scouted by any Quidditch Cup officials, a step closer to be a Falmouth Falcons Chaser. It doesn't take a genius to know that she was a better captain than I am. We reached the owlery and I was so deep in thoughts, not realising that we have arrived.

"Draco? We're here. If you haven't realised," Emerald said, bringing me back to reality.

I hummed in response, immediately looking for my eagle owl, Screech. I found him sitting in a corner, all alone, still awake. I grabbed a piece of parchment that was provided and dipped the quill in black ink before writing down the message.

The cabinet's ready.

- Draco Malfoy

I rolled the paper and Emerald handed me a dark green ribbon to secure it with. I walked over to Screech, "Malfoy Manor, Screech." As if Screech understood our language, he subtly nodded and took the letter, securing it on his legs and flew away in the dead of night, leaving Hogwarts.