The Same Mistake

At nine pm sharp, Ellie cautiously opened the door to Professor Snape’s office. Malfoy was already there, perched on the top of the desk nearest to Snape. They were talking in quiet voices, Malfoy looking extremely pleased with himself and Snape looking hostile. Her clacking footsteps alerted them to her presence.

“Good evening, Ms. Loren,” Snape said giving her a dark stare.

Ellie smiled back at him, refusing to be intimidated. “Good evening, Professor.” Ellie slowly walked over and sat down in the desk next to Malfoy.

Malfoy and Ellie mutually ignored one another. Snape appraised them both with his black beady eyes. “Tonight the two of you will be cleaning out a special room. I believe Mr. Malfoy is particularly familiar with it.”

The smugness drained from Malfoy’s face. Ellie watched curiously as Malfoy paled, if that was at all possible for his complexion. “Excuse me, Professor?” Malfoy asked sharply.

“You will be disposing of some of the clutter that currently occupies the Room of Requirement,” an odd gleam glistened in Snape’s eyes.

“Fine.” Malfoy stood abruptly and stormed from the room. Ellie hurried to her feet, rushing after him. She had absolutely no idea what the Room of Requirement was or where it was located. Without Malfoy, she would wander pointlessly around the castle until Snape found her and gave her another detention.

“Attentez-vous!” Ellie shouted as she sprinted down the long corridor. Cursing in French, Ellie focused on remembering the words in English. “Wait! Wait!”

Malfoy didn’t pause to give her a second glance. He continued moving swiftly through the castle, a raw anger pulsing off him. As he turned down yet another corridor, Ellie was sorely tempted to caste Petrificus Totalus on him.

Putting on a burst of speed that caused her side to ache, Ellie caught onto the back of Malfoy’s robes, tugging him to a stop. “Let go,” Malfoy growled through clenched teeth.

“No merci.” Ellie glared up at him. Malfoy was about six inches taller than her, her head coming to just below his chin. “Where are we going?”

Malfoy snatched his robes away from her. “The Room of Requirement.” He hastened back to his former speed but this time Ellie was following close behind him.

“And where iz zis room?” in her annoyance, her accent was accentuated. Embarrassed heat surged to her cheeks, she hated sounding like a child in front of Draco.

“Here,” Malfoy jabbed a shaking finger toward a stone wall. Ellie stared at in utter confusion.

“But zere is no door.” Biting her cheek, Ellie tried to regain control over her ridiculous accent.

Malfoy paced in front of the room muttering under his breath. Ellie was quite concerned that he had lost touch with reality when suddenly a door took shape in the stone wall. She gasped in surprise, Malfoy did not acknowledge her response. He walked to the door and held it open for Ellie.

“After you,” he said in mock politeness.

Ellie entered the room. It was filled with row upon endless row of the most random assortment of items Ellie had ever seen. Fanged Frisbee’s tattered school books, broken cauldrons, frayed broom sticks, discarded potions ingredients, and more. Her head swiveled left and right as she tried to take it all in.

“How did you make this room appear?” she asked, turning to Malfoy who was watching her reaction.

“It doesn’t matter.” He picked up a handful of dungbombs, dumping them in a rusted cauldron. “Put any junk in here.”

Ellie walked down the rows, her fingers running over the piles of unwanted items. Ellie didn’t want to throw out any of the items before her. They belonged to people, possibly long gone, but someone’s none the less. She came to stop in front of a strange cabinet. It was very tall and thin; an ornate design covered its wooden doors.

Ellie reached out to open the cabinet. Her finger tips had barely brushed the silver handles when Draco clamped his hand around her wrist. “Don’t touch that,” he hissed.

“Why not?” Ellie asked in shock.

He glared at her. “It’s very old.”

Ellie returned his hostile gaze with a skeptical one. It was obvious to Ellie that the cabinet and whatever was inside of it mattered to Draco. But, Ellie had plenty of time to figure out why. So, not wanting to push the issue, Ellie delicately removed his cool hand from her wrist. “Alright.”

Ellie slipped down another row blocking herself from Malfoy’s view. Draco moved back to the front of the room. He continued to pitch out an assortment of junk, but his thoughts were far away from the tedious task. Ellie had come dangerously close to discovering the vanishing cabinet; his vanishing cabinet as it was currently. True, the vanishing cabinet wasn’t in proper working order yet, but she might have figured out what it was.

Paranoia prickled at the back of Draco’s mind. Why had Ellie let the matter drop so quickly? His explanation had been hardly satisfactory. Though, it was quite plausible that the Frog was too naïve to doubt Draco. Yes, that must certainly have been the reason. She was trusting and he was convincing, nothing more.

Feeling greatly relieved, Malfoy checked his watch. He and Ellie had only been in the Room of Requirement for twenty minutes. That provided him with another hour and forty minutes to discover more about the girl he was to recruit for the Dark Lord.

So, in his most charming tone, Draco called out to her. “Have you even thrown anything out yet?”

“No,” the answer floated back to him, carried over the tops of many rows.

Malfoy looked at the two filled cauldrons at his feet. Vague irritation strained within him. “Why not?”

“These are other people’s things. What business do we have throwing them out?” Ellie reappeared before him, cobwebs entangled on the edges of her skirt.

“Your point being?” Now the irritation was flowing strong.

“I’m not going to throw any of this out. What if someone comes back for it?” She gestured to the copious amount of battered items surrounding them.

“These people are never coming back for this crap, Frog,” Draco said in exasperation. “That’s why they chucked it in here in the first place.”

Ellie shrugged, she spun around gracefully, the dust looking like snowflakes in the sparse light filtering into the room. “What do you think Snape will do when he realizes I didn’t help you get rid of other people’s property?”

Draco looked from his two cauldrons to the girl standing before him. Was she right? It didn’t bother Draco to throw out or even ruin other people’s belongings, but it did bother him greatly that he was following orders from Snape. Smirking, Malfoy kicked over both cauldrons sending their contents spilling out onto the floor. “The same thing he’ll do to me. Another detention.”

Ellie knelt down, sorting through the debris. She picked up a necklace, it was a long sliver chain with a single pendant hanging from it. The pendant was an elegantly crafted pink rose. She held up the necklace for Draco to see. “What do you think?”

Malfoy tried to act unconcerned even though the necklace reminded him violently of the necklace he intended to give Katie Bell at the next Hogsmeade visit. “It’s a necklace.”

“Yes,” Ellie laughed, “it is.” She raised the necklace to hang it from her slim neck.

“No!” Malfoy’s hand shot out, wrenching the necklace from Ellie’s grasp. He cast the necklace far from them; it skittered across the floor before coming to rest near a towering stack of books.