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- I, Draco Lucius Malfoy, have mended the Hogwarts vanishing cabinet. -

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Next week is the deadline for the vanishing cabinet, and it is yet to have been mended. Almost four months have gone by and there has been little noticeable difference. Last week, I had been ecstatic, thinking that I had solved the puzzle when the bird I had sent to and from Borgin and Burkes flew out of the cabinet completely unscathed. I wrote Borgin about the success, but was disappointed to here that there were a few feathers left behind in the Borgin and Burkes cabinet.

I was so stressed about fixing the cabinet in time that I confessed to Hermione my plan. She screamed at me, telling me that she didn't want any association with Professor Dumbledore's murder and that I was daft to believe that she would actually help me. Of course I retorted by telling her that she was associated through myself, but she didn't like that. She had left my company, assuring me that she would keep our promise, but insisted that we should stop meeting in the Room on a regular basis.

Reluctantly I agreed, knowing that it was for the best, but it still pained me to see her walk out, just to flirt with Weasley the next morning.

Today, I pushed my luck. I collected a handful of birds, and shoved them carelessly into the cabinet. I shut the door and mumbled the incantation, "Harmonia Nectere Passus." Their startled chirping disappeared in a whoosh. A success. "Harmonia Nectere Passus." The chirping resumed. I opened the door. No bodies, no blood, and as far as I could tell, no missing feathers either. This was good news. I wanted to test it on someone, but the only person available was myself, and that was a risk I was absolutely never willing to take. Then it hit me, Crabbe and Goyle. They have been loyal to me from the start, and would never betray their fathers' cause, and even if they wanted to, they were too thick to know where to start. Excellent.

I dragged them out of our dormitory and showed them the Room of Requirement. They still didn't understand how the Room worked and kept asking me the same questions over, and over, and over, and over again, but in the end, they got an understanding.

"So, no one can find us here?" Goyle blubbered.

"Yes, that's what I have told you."

"Brilliant," added Crabbe.

I showed them the cabinet, saying that I needed them to go inside and see if they could double-check what was inscribed on the wall. Of course, there was nothing inscribed inside the cabinet, but I had to get them in there somehow.

"You know that you're better off checking Malfoy," Crabbe uttered.

"Yeah, why don't you do it?"

"I have, I just... need a second opinion."

Once the two came to a consensus that this made sense, they lumbered into the cabinet and I shut the door on them.

"Malfoy what is going on?"

"Stay inside until I open the doors again," I warned them, "Harmonia Nectere Passus."

They gasped as the cabinet whooshed them to Borgin and Burkes. "Harmonia Nectere Passus." I hoped and prayed that this had worked and I hadn't killed anybody, but to my glee, Crabbe and Goyle were still intact, not a single hair displaced. They looked sick, but that was expected.

I had done it. I had done the impossible. I, Draco Lucius Malfoy, have mended the Hogwarts vanishing cabinet.

"What in Merlin was that?" Crabbe asked, clutching his stomach.

"Nevermind that, I'm just glad it works."

They stared at me in horror as I said those words. They couldn't believe that they were just test dummies to me. That didn't bother me, like The Dark Lord had said, they were too small-minded for this task. Only I have the brains and the nerve to put his plan into realization. I smiled smugly to myself. I will prove myself to him yet.