Slytherin Princess | ✓

forty-four

The ceiling of the Great Hall was serenely blue and streaked with frail, wispy clouds, just like the squares of sky visible through the high mullioned windows. Pansy had seemed to have forgotten about her little argument with me and Draco on the train for she spoke excitedly as if everything was okay. But it wasn't.

Draco and I had spent almost four hours, in the common room, trying to figure out how we would get the Vanishing Cabinets to work. First, we had to find the Room of Hidden Things and then, had to figure out how to actually get it to work. That is why, when Professor Snape came around, I chose only four classes despite getting ten 'Outstandings' on my O.W.L.s— it was full marks.

"But surely you'd want to keep your grades up, yes?"

"I will have the highest marks, in four subjects," I said firmly.

"Very well," Snape said dismissively. "Malfoy, I suppose you'd want to take the same subjects as Miss Ward."

Draco hummed as if he were deep in thought and then said, "oh, yes, sir."

Looking down at my timetable, I realized how much free time I had. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I had morning Defence Against Dark Arts after a break and then double Potions in the afternoon (both with Gryffindors, of course); Tuesdays and Thursdays were only afternoon Transfiguration; Friday was only morning Charms.

With our morning break, after breakfast, Draco and I scoped out the seventh floor corridor and looked for the Room of Hidden Things in the Room of Requirments.

"How do you reckon we get in?" Draco asked me.

"Think about the Room of Hidden Things and ask for a place where we will never be found when we do," I said.

And it worked. The room was a complete mess. We were in a place the size of a cathedral with the appearance of a city, its towering walls built of objects hidden by thousands of long-gone students. Slowly, we made our way through the room and found the large black and blue Vanishing Cabinet, similar to the one at Borgin and Burkes, next to a stuffed troll. It was covered in a huge blue blanket and was dusted, inside and out.

"All we have to do is fix this and we'll be okay," Draco said to me, putting a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

"You've got the incantation, but what if we could speed up the process?" I breathed, thinking of the impossible.

After an hour of looking around and thinking of different charms and spells we could do to fix the cabinet, we made our way to Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Draco and I looked as Harry, Weasley, Granger, and Kemper all spoke in hushed voices at the door. When Granger spotted me, she waved to the other three most likely shushing their conversation.

The classroom door opened, and Snape stepped into the corridor, his sallow face framed as ever by two curtains of greasy black hair. Silence fell over the queue immediately.

"Inside," he said.

I looked around as we entered. Snape had imposed his personality upon the room already; it was gloomier than usual, as curtains had been drawn over the windows, and was lit by candlelight. New pictures adorned the walls, many of them showing people who appeared to be in pain, sporting grisly injuries and strangely contorted body parts. Nobody spoke as they settled down, looking around at the shadowy, gruesome pictures.

"I have not asked you to take out your books," said Snape, closing the door and moving to face the class from behind his desk; Granger hastily dropped her copy of Confronting the Faceless back into her bag and stowed it under her chair, causing me to snigger. "I wish to speak to you, and I want your fullest attention."