The Gryffindor common room was lonely except for a certain young witch with quite wild hair. The girl was sitting on the couch and tried to read a book about dark creatures for her DADA homework, but her thoughts continued wandering.
Hermione was worried. Harry had been acting strange recently, and sometimes he was gone for hours. Nobody knew where he went, not even the Marauder's Map showed his location. He simply disappeared. Like now. Hermione had wanted to talk to Harry about his behaviour, but when she arrived in the common room he was already gone. It was frustrating, really, to watch your best friend come and go and not knowing what happened. Yes, Harry was Hermione's best friend. Accidently she had found out that he liked reading the famous muggle plays, as Romeo and Juliet or MacBeth. From this moment on she and Harry often talked about muggle books and plays. Ron had tried to participate, but the word "book" was enough to scare him off. Not that Hermione minded much. Ron had been quite nasty when he found out about Hermione's boyfriend, Blaise Zabini. Yes, Zabini as in the Seventh Year Slytherin Prefect.The house rivalies between Gryffindor and Slytherin had finally ended. Well, most of it anyway. Many Slytherins had fought on the light side in the war against Voldemort. Thanks to their knowledge of the Dark Arts and of Voldemort's strageties the Dark Lord could be destroyed once for all. Even Harry and Malfoy had called a truce. Only Ron, being typically narrow-minded, had ranted about the "traitorous little deatheaters"…well, until Harry told him to shut it or bugger off, that is. Ah, right, Harry. The big question mark. Now, where was he gone this time? And when would he come back? Hermione didn't like questions she had no answers to…
Stirred up from her thoughts, she noticed the portrait of the Fat Lady open, but noboby came in, and there was nobody in sight who could have opened. Unless…hastily packing her book away Hermione climbed through the portrait and hurried after the sound of disappearing footsteps. Since invisibility charms were seventh year stuff and the term had just started, the girl was pretty sure she was following Harry. Now she had a chance to find out where he always went to! Excited she looked around a corner and saw…nothing but a big, old fireplace. That was strange. You could only floo out of Hogwarts from the Headmaster's office. This meant Harry was still in Hogwarts, but where? Suddenly grinning madly, Hermione started casting a review charm that showed what had happened mere moments ago.
She saw the flames in the fireplace turn green and a male voice – Harry's voice – shout "To the chamber!". Now, there was only one chamber in Hogwarts not integrated on the Marauder's Map: The chamber of secrets. The girl shuddered. Why would Harry go down there? Did he need time to think, to be by himself? But why couldn't he have told her? Didn't he trust her to keep his secret? After thinking about it, she took a handful of the floo powder, threw it into the fireplace and stated clearly: "To the chamber!".
A floo ride later Hermione was spit out by a very decorative fireplace and found herself sitting on a green marble floor. Looking around in the hall she was in, she saw a staircase leading downstairs. Curious as always, she climbed down the stairs and arrived at an archway. Suddenly, Hermione could hear a voice. "You know, I could get used to this…" The girl entered the room, ready to withdraw just in case the other person in the room didn't take her arrival well. There was Harry, only wearing black jeans, lying back up on a mattress of … air? The boy just seemed to be floating. The other surprise was the young mountain lion hopping around on Harry's shoulders. Hermione hadn't even known Harry had a feline pet. Said feline stopped jumping around and couched flat down. Then there was movement and a flash of light and Draco Malfoy, also wearing only jeans, was lying on her best friend's back, a fact Harry didn't seem to mind at all. Hermione gasped. What the hell…? Before she could announce herself, Harry turned and embraced Malfoy tenderly before leaning in for a longing kiss. Malfoy responded with the same passion, and his hands began to wander up and down Harry's body. Harry copied the action, finally placed his hands on Malfoy's buttocks and squeezed. "Oy, careful with the goods! If you keep going on like this, I'll need them rather sooner than later", Malfoy said with a laugh in his eyes. "Definitely sooner than later, my dear dragon. You still owe me a…what did Blaise call it…a rough and breathtaking ride?" This, Hermione decided, was the perfect moment to make herself known. "Well, gentlemen, I hate to interupt, but if you could restrict yourself from going on that rough, breathtaking ride, I'd be most thankful. And please tell me since when Blaise knows about this, okay?" Fortunately, Hermione got her wards up before the fireball hit her. "Hey, I said sorry, no need to roast me, Harry!" The two wizards were standing in defensive stance on the floor. "Mione?" "No, the tooth fairy. Of course it's me, I'm the only one who can ward herself against your fireballs, aren't I?" "What are you doing here?" "Good question. How about you?" "How did you get down here?" "I noticed somebody sneaking out of the common room and followed. After casting a review charm, I knew where you had gone to." "And why, pray tell, did you feel the need to follow me?" "Because I was worried, Harry. I rarely saw you out of class lately. At first I thought you just needed to think, but you carried on disappearing, so I worried on. After all, I couldn't leave my bro to his problems without at least trying to help him, could I?" Harry's stare became softer. "Sorry for worrying you, sis, I just thought about spending time with Dray…" "Dray?" Now Malfoy spoke up for the first time. "Well, Hermione, Blaise and all the other Slytherins call me Drake, so Jay decided he needed to give me a special nickname just for himself." "Jay? After James?" "Well, you can't shorten Harry any more without sounding stupid." "Makes sense…so, you lovebirds, how long has this been going on?" "Well…six months?" "Six months without telling me as much as you being in a relationship? Harry, I'm hurt deeply", Hermione stated mockingly sad. Harry played along and kneed to her feet. "And how, sister of my soul, can I make up for this pain I caused you?" "Well, you could hug me and invite me to a dinner at the Ice Fairy in Paris." Harry laughed while he stood up and hugged Hermione tight. "So, you got the hug, we'll need to discuss the dinner at Paris' finest restaurant again, okay?" "Sure thing, bro. Would you now care to explain me about your relationship, please?" "You remember the snowball fight last March? The one where we all ended up walking around as snowmen because Ron had pissed off Severus by hitting him with an iced snow ball?" "As if I could forget the mass-melting in the common room…" "That night, I sneeked into the Prefects' bathroom to soak. The problem was, I wasn't alone in there. Dray here came in shortly after me, but because the bathroom was extremly steamed we only met after he dived into me. And then…" The girl noticed the boys blushing. "…and then you fell in love with each other?" "Well, more along the line snogging each other senseless and shagging the whole night through…" Hermione looked at them speechless before laughing. "So THAT'S why you were so tired the next morning! I actually wondered if you had caught the cold." "Well, no, I had caught some other things…" "…like a ring of lovebites, some scraches on the back and certain pains in the lower regions…" Draco added. Harry stared at him in shock, what had Hermione cracking up. "Now that's a way so describe it! But well, after sorting that out, welcome in the family, Dray." With these words, Draco was pulled in a crushing hug by Hermione. For a girl, she was very strong. "Oiy, Mione, you're killing my boyfriend!" "Oh, sorry about that. You alright, Draco?" "Figures, but I'll live." "I should hope so, I would delight in seeing that sweet lion mountain again." Mere seconds later Hermione had her arms full of Draco's animagus form. The girl smiled and petted the soft fur. "You look really cute, you know? But I still think it strange you transformed into a mountain lion, with a mane you'd look like the Gryffindor lion." "If you think this strange, wait till you see my animagus form", Harry said and transformed. Hermione was shocked that badly that she dropped Draco. In front of her eyes a cobra, at least three times the seize of a normal cobra, rose to its full height. The scales shimmering black, the eyes emerald green. Before the girl could react, the giant snake had wound itself around her shoulders and looked her straight in the eye. Then the cobra twinkled, glided back down and slithered over to the re-transformed Draco who lifted the snake gently and put it around his neck. "It seems magic has quite the humour, for I transformed into the Gryffindor emblem and Jay into the Slytherin emblem." "Well, alright. How about I leave now and go lecture Blaise for not telling me this and you continue where I interupted you?" "Sounds excellent to me. See you tomorrow!" With a last wave Hermione disappeared. "So, Jay, where shall we continue?" The snake's tongue flickered over Draco's chest and he moaned. "I love your way of thinking, my dear snake."