the girl with all of the choices

s e v e n t y - n i n e

5336 words

june fifth- coming of age

~ Addison ~

It was Draco's eighteenth birthday.

Well, only in technicality.

He didn't want to celebrate. I begged him to, to just take the day off from working on the Cabinet, skip classes, and spend the day up with me up in the Room of Requirement. But he didn't want to. I was convinced that he did want to, but he was just too stressed by the impending due date on his task to focus on anything else. 

So, we were in his dormitory. 

Blaise and Pansy were lounging on the former's bed, reading out of books. I was on Draco's bed. He and Theo were pacing while trying to figure something out. It was quite the scene. 

Very much not like a birthday celebration. 

There had been some problems with the Vanishing Cabinet, which was why we were all here and doing what we were doing. Apparently, Draco had been sending things through it repeatedly to ensure that it worked. 

It had, for the most part. But there had still been quite a few flukes, enough that he decided he had to start looking back through the books and discussing with the others. 

"All I'm saying is that it doesn't make sense," Draco said, pacing fervidly. 

"What doesn't make sense?" Pansy asked.

"Why the Cabinet will transport living things, like birds or mice, but it won't transport inanimate objects," he explained, running his hand through his hair anxiously while his feet continued to move underneath him.

I closed the book I had in my lap, one of my personal ones, not one regarding the Cabinet. Draco didn't want me to have to worry about that anymore, not since the incident with Harry.

"Why don't you come take a break?" I suggested, sitting up so I wasn't leaning against his pillows. 

"I can't take a break," he mumbled, frantically sorting through pages of notes on the top of his dresser.

"Draco-"

"I can't!" he bellowed, his temper obviously having got the best of him as he leaned over the papers on his dresser. He quickly stood back up and turned to see me, his face filled with remorse, presumably for the way he sounded. "I am running out of time to get this worked out and I need to figure out why this bloody thing isn't fucking working, so I can't take a break. I'm sorry."

His tone was pointed and harsh, but still genuine.

"I just don't want you to overwork yourself," I hushed, returning to my book as I leaned back into his voluminous and fluffy pillows. 

"Too late for that." Upon the cessation of his words, he glanced over at Blaise and Pansy, who seemed to be staring at him in shock. "What the fuck is your problem?"

Blaise started. "I have never heard you say-"

"-I'm sorry," Pansy finished. 

"Well now you have," he muttered. "Have you found anything?"

"Sorry, mate," Blaise said, shaking his head in defeat. 

"Why don't we go over it again?" Theo asked, pausing his paces and leaning back against his dresser. "What was the first thing that successfully went through the Cabinet?"

"The apple."

"And how did it come back?"

"It had a bite taken out of it."