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Chapter 12: The Next Step

It was December.

Usually, around Christmas time, Draco was in a better mood than usual. This year, however, that was not the case. At all.

In fact, this year, Draco dreaded the holidays. Everyone was in high spirits, excited about getting to go home and meet their families and friends. Usually, Draco went home to visit his mother and father, but he knew that he couldn't this year. This year, he would have to stay at Hogwarts and work on the stupid cabinet.

It still hadn't been fixed.

On the seventh of December, Draco dragged himself out of bed and forced himself to eat breakfast. Because he had not been eating much lately, he began finding it difficult to eat at all when he had the chance to.

After breakfast, Draco trudged out to the grounds and sat in the snow by the icy lake. The snow sparkled around him in the sunlight, nearly blinding him. Draco pulled his knees up to his chest and leaned against a tree trunk.

If he wasn't in such a bad mood, the scene would look beautiful. Ice-capped mountains, glittering icicles, and that lovely winter feeling. But to Draco, the image looked, frankly, like a wall of darkness. If he didn't complete his task on time, this might very well be the last beautiful winter day he would see.

An hour later, Draco stood up once he saw the steady stream of students come out onto the grounds. He brushed off his pants, then headed inside to the library.

Draco wasn't about to give up on his task. He had to finish it. He couldn't let his mother die because of him. His father, maybe, but not his mother. Because if Narcissa died because Draco did not fulfill Voldemort's wishes, it would be Lucius's fault, seeing as his failure had led to Draco's current predicament.

Draco dropped his bag on a library table, then began combing the shelves for what felt like the millionth time, searching for more information on Vanishing Cabinets. Fifteen minutes later, he pulled a book from a shelf. It looked promising, but Draco knew it wouldn't give him any more information than he already knew.

He sat down at the table where his bag lay, only to find Hermione Granger sitting across from him. Her nose was buried in a book, and she seemed to not notice him. Unwilling to get up, Draco stayed sitting there, and opened the book he had found, The Encyclopedia of Vanishing Objects.

He flipped to the index and looked up the "cabinets" page. Once he located it, he read the small piece on Vanishing Cabinets. There was no new information there.

"Vanishing Cabinets can make objects disappear, or, if the cabinet has a twin, it can send an object..." Blah, blah, blah.

"Stupid book," Draco muttered, throwing it back onto the shelf. He stood up, pulled another book of a shelf, then sat back down, only to find Hermione looking at him with an expression of contempt.

"The book isn't the stupid one," she said waspishly. "You are."

Draco raised his eyebrows. "What's wrong with you? Aw, did you only get an 'E' on your Defense Against the Dark Arts Essay? Well, face it, Granger, Snape hates you."

Hermione glared at him. "Well, he doesn't seem to like you that much anymore, either."

This was true, Draco had been avoiding Snape and his attempts to help with the task, and Snape sure wasn't happy about it.

"Yeah?" Draco said to Hermione, "Well, I don't like him as well." He looked at the book she was reading and saw that she had evidently been abusing it. "What are you so unhappy about?"

"What's it to you?" Hermione snapped.

"Well," Draco said. "It's my job to make your life miserable-"

Hermione cut him off. "Seeing as Ronald's done that already, I don't think you have to!"

"Ooh, is the dream couple having issues?"

To Draco's surprise, Hermione burst into tears. Draco stared after her as she picked up her belongings and ran out of the library. What was her problem? Shrugging, Draco began searching the shelves again. A few minutes later, Draco smirked as he saw Hermione re enter the library. Apparently, this was the only place in the school Weasley would never come to.

As he headed up to the Room of Requirement, Draco wondered what had happened between Granger and Weasley that had upset her so much.

Draco did not have to wait long for the answer to this question. As he continued to the seventh floor, Draco spotted Lavender Brown and Ron Weasley sitting together on a bench in a deserted corridor, snogging. Rolling his eyes at Brown's taste, Draco proceeded to the Room, entering it after he paced thrice in front of the stone wall.

As soon as he entered, Draco headed for the cabinet. He had managed to get the doors to stay on, but the interior was still in a dreadful condition. Draco examined the shabby slabs of wood, then decided that he would first have to mend -or replace- the boards.

Draco pried one of the boards off of the cabinet and held it up to the light. It was badly damaged, and bugs crawled out of the small holes on its surface.

"Gross," murmured Draco as he dropped the piece of wood on the ground. Then, ignoring Borgin's instructions, Draco pointed his wand at the board and said, "Reparo."

Nothing happened. The board had twitched a little, but that was all.

"Ugh," Draco exclaimed as he kicked the board into a bookshelf. The bookshelf collapsed, and Draco stared at the mass of wood it had become. The board from the Cabinet was lying atop a bookshelf board. Draco approached the two pieces of wood. The one from the bookshelf was almost identical to the one from the cabinet.

"Perfect," Draco whispered, pulling boards out from under books. After he had gathered about ten, Draco ripped out the remaining boards from the cabinet. He lined up the new boards inside the Vanishing Cabinets, pointed his wand at them, and said again, "Reparo."

The small shred of hope that had lit up inside Draco was extinguished as he watched the effects of his spell. Well, there actually had been no effects. The Repairing Charm seemed not to work on the boards, or the Cabinet, at all.

Draco sat down and dropped his head into his hands. He had no idea what to do. He sat there for an hour, searching for an answer, but none came to him. FInally, Draco decided that he might as well ask Borgin for help. At least he had a specific question this time.

Draco extracted the fake Galleon from his pocket and wrote out a message to Madame Rosmerta that read, "ASK BORGIN HOW TO ATTACH THE BOARDS TO THE CABINET. THE REPAIRING CHARM DOESN'T WORK."

Then, Draco put the coin back into his pocket, stood up, and headed down to the Great Hall for dinner.

At dinner, Draco sat with Crabbe and Goyle, as Theo, Blaise, and Pansy were no longer speaking to Draco. Watching Crabbe and Goyle shovel food into their mouths was truly disgusting, and Draco found it very hard to eat, despite the fact that he was starving.

"So, Malfoy," Goyle asked, swallowing his mashed potatoes. "Are you going to Slughorn's party?"

"No, you idiot!" Draco said to Goyle, annoyed, "I'm not in his stupid club, anyway, and I have to work that night. Oh, which reminds me, I'll need you to stand guard for me then."

"When?"

"The night of the party!" Draco exclaimed in frustration. Really, trying to have a conversation with Crabbe and Goyle was like trying to interview a wall.

Crabbe stuffed a leg of chicken down his throat and said, "We can't though, Malfoy."

"Why not?"

"Snape gave us detention."

"Why?"

Crabbe shrugged. "He said we aren't doing well in his class. I don't know how, though. I keep getting 'T's on my essays. That stands for 'terrific', right?"

"Yes, it does Crabbe. Obviously," Draco said sarcastically. "I have no idea how you're failing his class." Draco finished his pumpkin juice, then headed to the common room, wondering how anyone could be so stupid.

A week later, Draco received a reply from Madame Rosmerta.

"HE SAYS TO USE A HAMMER AND NAILS. THE MUGGLE WAY."

Merlin, Borgin was trying to make Draco's life miserable.