Thanks for all the alerts and reviews! Here's chapter 2 :)
"He knows," Hermione cried," It's all over! We need to get out of here or Umbridge… that foul woman, she'll…she'll…"
"HERMIONE WILL YOU JUST BLOODY CALM DOWN?" Ron shouted in exasperation. Looking up, Hermione blinked at him, her tears rolling down her cheeks in relentless streams. Harry gave an exasperated sigh; trust Ron to be sensitive to crying girls.
Hermione had barged in on a DA lesson, flustered and frantic. When Harry asked her why, she immediately burst into tears and neither he nor Ron could understand a word she was saying. By now, the whole DA was crowding around them, trying to find out what the commotion was all about.
"Hermione, would you just tell us what's wrong?" Ginny stepped forward and patted Hermione's back gently. Finally, Harry thought, someone who will actually be able to coax something out of Hermione.
"It's Malfoy, I saw him in the library…" Hermione paused, and glanced at Neville, "He had a DA galleon, I'm sure of it. He was reading Hogwarts: A History and he was reading up on the Room of Requirement… Oh, what shall we do? The DA is history!"
"Don't… Don't worry Hermione, I'm sure Harry can think of something," Neville said guiltily, unable to look Hermione in the eye. Suddenly, all eyes were on Harry, and he did not know what on earth to do. The obvious choice would be to run, evacuate every single person immediately before they were found out. But that meant the end of the DA, and that would kill the spirits of every single person. The DA was their freedom, their secret lives, they could not give it up so easily.
Hermione looked imploringly at Harry, she had visibly calmed down and was ready to rationally think about a solution to the problem.
"Well," Harry said, with as much confidence as he could muster, "We aren't going to run, that's for sure."
And with that, Hermione once again burst into tears.
~line break~
"The Room of Requirement, a secret room within Hogwarts that only appears when someone is in great need of it. It is a myth, and is most likely non-existent. However, there have been students that claim to have witnessed the appearance of such a room near the portrait of Barnabas the Barmy… "
Draco closed the book, rubbing his temples in deep thought. The portrait of Barnabas the Barmy, now where was that again? He distinctly remembered seeing a portrait of a dancing troll somewhere around Hogwarts. Oh yes, the seventh floor! Triumphantly, he got up from his seat and made his way back to the bookshelf, where he casually slotted the book in.
After an hour of extensive research in the library, he had managed to piece together as much as he could about this mysterious room. One had to walk past the room three times and think about what he needed. Then the door would appear to the desired room. He had just figured out the final piece of the puzzle, the room was somewhere on the seventh floor, near the portrait of a troll.
Draco could finally solve the mystery of the room of requirement. If there were parties held in there, he would finally be a part of it. He had yet to understand how the galleon fit in into everything, but he had a feeling the answer lied in what he was going to do next.
He eagerly made his way to the seventh floor and found a wide expanse of white wall opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. It was definitely there. Gathering his excitement, he paced the length of the corridor.
I want to know what Neville Longbottom does in there.
~Line Break~
Hermione was at her wit's end, the DA was anxiously waiting for her to tell them what to do. Harry had immediately eliminated the option of running, which she could understand completely, but currently, she was afraid that was the only logical thing for the DA to do.
She stood up from her seat on one of the cushions and saw everyone milling around the room in distress. They noticed her, of course, and immediately gathered around her to hear her verdict.
"He-ey everyone," Hermione said nervously, "I know how important being in the DA is to everyone here, so this is really painful for me to say… But I think that we're going to have to stop all DA activities from here on. We just cannot risk it anymore… If we stay, how are we going to know when Umbridge is going to strut in through those very doors?" She pointed towards the doors to the room, her fingers shaking and her face ashen.
Creak.
Now every single head in the room turned to those doors, which at that very moment, were being pushed open. The whole room went still.
Emerging through the doors, was one Draco Malfoy.
~Line break~
Draco took one step into the strange room and knew immediately there was something big going on, but it was definitely not Slytherin parties. Here were a gathering of sorts, Potter, Granger, the majority of the Weasley clan, Longbottom and a few other Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws he could not name. Every single one of them was staring at him with a deer-in-the-headlights look. No one moved an inch, and no one said a word. He took the opportunity to further survey the room, there were shelves of books, dark detectors, sneakoscopes, secrecy sensors, foe-glass and the like.
Draco's mouth instantly curled into its signature smirk. Potter and his friends were going to be in deep trouble.
"My, my, what have we here? Having a little gathering, are we? Perhaps we should refer back to educational decree number twenty-four, 'No Student Organisation, Society, Team, Group, or Club may exist without the knowledge and approval of the High Inquisitor.'" Draco sneered, leisurely enjoying the petrified looks on each of their faces. "And so it seems that everyone here is going to get expelled. Pity, but I'm sure all of you need more time to-"
"SHUT IT MALFOY!" Hermione yelled shrilly, no longer able to control her emotions, "You're just happy that now you have a chance to be the best in our year, so why don't you go and march all the way down to Umbridge's office and be a despicable little tattletale?"
Everyone looked at Hermione in awe, she was on the verge of expulsion but could still shout her head off.
Malfoy raised an eyebrow. "The best in the year? Well that's a spot that's been mine long before I've had to get rid of a filthy little mudblood like you. And for your information, you should be begging for mercy, Granger, after all, every single person here can be ruined on my word."
Hermione looked at her friends, he was right, everyone was at Malfoy's mercy, and here she was, shouting and screaming at him like a mad woman.
"I'm… s-sorry. Please..."
Is it a little too rushed? Or is it going too slowly? I do hope I've kept both Draco and Hermione in character, please tell me if I'm losing the canon.
Please review! :)