What Lies Within

"I have no idea how I am supposed to fix this. I mean... what's even wrong with it?" Draco questions his wife as the two stare up at the tall cabinet before them. It was covered in a very thick layer of dust, the large metal hinges at the corners were rusted and dirty, and the dark wood was chipped away in a few places.

"I have no clue." Sophie admits in a whisper. Honestly, how did The Dark Lord expect a sixteen year old to be able to diagnose and fix whatever problem this cabinet had. "What.." Sophie starts. "What happens if someone travels through it? Or try's to travel through it, at least."

"Well remember when the Weasley twins shoved Montague into it and he vanished for awhile last year?" Draco reminds her, making her nod. She did indeed remember when their fellow classmate had gone missing, Draco later finding him into the boys lavatory after he had managed to apparate out. "Well he told me about what it was like. Usually when you go into one of these, if it is in working order, you can appear wherever it's sister is, no matter how far. This one, I'm assuming, has a broken connection between it's sister."

"So.. how do you fix that connection?" Sophie asks, making Draco sigh. He brings his large, pale hand, forward, brushing it across the wood, wiping it free of dust in one spot. He looks down at his now dusty finger before wiping it on the leg of his pants.

"Some kind of spell, I'm sure." He stares up at the large cabinet, lost in thought. "I just... don't know what spell." Sophie steps forward, resting her hand gently on his back. She looked up at the cabinet before them as well.

"I can do some research in the Library, there has to be something in there about how Vanishing Cabinet's work." She tells him. He turns, showing her his grey eyes full of fear. "It's going to be okay, Draco." She assures him, even though it was hard for her to even believe it.

"I know." He responds, giving her a tight smile.

"Do you want to head to dinner or go to the library to start researching it?" She asks him.

"I think I'm going to hang out in here for a little bit, actually." He says to her, making her frown. "I just.. I want to get a feel for this thing." He looks back at the cabinet. "You go on down to dinner though. I'll meet you in the library later."

"Dray, don't dwell on this so much. We still have plenty of time." She reaches up, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek. "You should come eat something, too."

"I will later." Sophie simply sighs.

"Alright. I love you." She starts to walk back through the crowded isles of the Room of Requirement. The shelves were stacked high with items that past students, or maybe even current students, had to hide from someone.

"I love you!" Draco calls after her, making her smile. She exits the Room of Requirement and makes her way to the Great Hall.

"Hey, Sophie!" Someone yells before she can enter. She turns and see's Harry walking towards him. "Where's your other half? It's weird to see him not attached to you like he has been the last year." Sophie smiles at him.

"He's studying, I decided to give him some space." She tells him, only partly lying. He was studying, but not what what Harry was thinking he was.

"Wanna come to the lighter side of life for dinner?" He offers, making her laugh. She nudges his arm and nods.

"I could handle a meal with the Gryffindor's." He nods and leads the way down to the Gryffindor table and to where Ron and Hermione sat.

"Hey, Sophie!" Ron greets, his mouth full of food.

"You should really learn to not talk with your mouth full." Sophie tells him as she starts to pile her plate full of food. Ron simply shrugs.

"So how is term going?" Hermione asks her, drawing their attention away from the manner less boy.

"It's great so far. It's only the second week so it's not hard to keep up right now." Sophie explains, making them nod.

"How's married life?" Harry asks, a hint of bitterness to his voice, which Sophie decides to ignore.

"It's not much different than just dating, honestly. I just happen to have the name Malfoy now." She says, shrugging. The rest of dinner goes by quickly, the four of them catching up and just being friends. "I'll see you guys later." She tells them as they leave the Great Hall a little later. She makes her way to the Library, hoping to find Draco there, looking up things about vanishing cabinets.

Her husband was not there though, meaning that he was possibly still in the Room of Requirement. Sophie decided to do a little studying and if he didn't show up, she would go find him there. So, she browsed through the shelves, finding books about traveling methods in the magical world, a book specifically on vanishing cabinets, and another on all kinds of spells not usually needed.

She spent hours pouring over the books, looking for something of use. There was a few things but nothing that would really help them so she closed the books, put them back on the shelves and left the library.

Instead of heading up to the Room of Requirement, she headed down back to the Great Hall. She took a corridor off to the side, heading for the kitchens. She used to come down here late at night around her third and fourth year, and just hang out in the kitchen. The house elves let her cook occasionally or would make her a big meal that was always delicious.

"Mistress Hill!" They greeted her, bowing low as she entered.

"Mistress Sophie?" A squeaky voice exclaims and pushes its way to the front.

"Dobby!" Sophie exclaims as she instantly recognizes the house elf that used to serve the Malfoy's when they were younger. "How good to see you!" She greets.

"What can we do for Mistress Hill?" Another house elf asks.

"I'm not a Hill any longer, actually. I'm a Malfoy." She hesitated in saying this, seeing the fear wash over Dobby's face.

"Master Malfoy?" He squeaks, making her nod.

"Draco is my husband." She mutters. "Anyway, I came down here because I would like some food to take with me. Can you prepare me a plate, please?"

"Of course, Mistress.. Malfoy." Dobby squeaks, obviously disliking having to call Sophie a Malfoy.

"You can still call me Sophie, Dobby." The house elf simply nods and follows the others as they rush about preparing a plate full of food for her. She decided against telling them it was for Draco, Dobby would most likely poison it or give her something bad. If she pretended it was for her, she'd get something good.

"Here you are, Mistress Malfoy." A house elf says, walking up to her with a full plate of steak, potatoes and bread, as well as a fork and knife.

"And some pumpkin juice as well." Another house elf walks up with a full goblet. She smiles and takes both from them.

"Thank you so much, I really appreciate this. I'll see you." With that she turns and leaves, pushing the door open with her shoulder. She makes her way slowly up the Grand Staircase up to the seventh floor and to the Room of Requirement. She closes her eyes, thinking of the room her and Draco had been in earlier and then watches as the door slowly materializes before her.

When she enters, it takes her a second to remember the correct path to the cabinet but she soon finds it, along with Draco sitting on the ground in front of it, simply staring up at it.

"Please tell me you haven't been sitting there staring at it this whole time." Draco jumps at the sound of his wife's voice. He smiles at her and stands, brushing dirt off of his robes.

"No.. I threw some random objects into the cabinet as well. None of them have come back." Sophie laughs and shakes her head.

"I brought you food. It's been awhile since you last ate." She holds the plate and goblet out to him.

"I am pretty hungry." He takes the plate and goblet from her. "Thanks, love." He leans forward, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. "Let's sit." She nods and the two of them sit down on the floor. He digs into the food.

"I went to the library after dinner." She starts, playing with a loose thread on her robes.

"Yeah? Anything of use?" Draco asks after he swallows a bite of steak. Sophie sighs and shakes her head.

"No, but I'll keep looking. I'll surely find something." She gives him a smile, making him nod.

"Maybe we can head there after I finish eating." He offers but Sophie shakes her head.

"We've spent enough time with this today, let's just go to bed." She insists, making him sigh.

"Fine." She smiles at him and they sit there in silence until he finishes his food. "Let's head to bed." He says as they stand up.

"We'll get this all figured out, Draco." Sophie tells him, taking a step forward to press against his body, her arms wrapping around his neck while his go around her waist.

"I just wish you didn't have to be involved in it."

"Draco, we have this discussion everyday, I'm not going anywhere. It's you and me, we'll get through this together. So stop arguing that." Before he could say anything else, she pressed her lips to his and the discussion was over.