Hermione let her eyes narrowly scan the room that she recently had been so rudely shoved into. It was about the size of a small bedroom, chilly and dim, the room was decorated with dark tapestries that hung over the stone walls, and two marble statues that Draco seemed to be investigating franticly. A table and chair stood next to the larger of the two statues and looked as if it hadn't been sat in for quite some time. Not dirty, just not broken in.

A soft patting noise brought Hermione's attention back to Malfoy and the statues, why would he look so frantic all of a sudden?

"Eh hem," she coughed, trying to diverge his attention from the strange statues, "But where have you taken me Draco Malfoy?" Hermione finished her question with a huff of her chest and very purposely (and forcefully) placed hands on her hips.

Malfoy looked up and scowled, "I thought I took us into the Room of Requirement, but it seems as if we're, well, someplace else."

"Someplace else?"

"Yes, someplace else," Malfoy snapped.

Someplace else! Malfoy had been rude to her in the past, but purposefully hiding information from her when they were in a dire situation was too much, and Hermione was not a girl to withhold information from.

"Well if you refuse to tell me where I am, you should at least tell me what you are doing with those statues!"

When he gave no reply, Hermione decided that there was no longer a need to stay in the blasted room any longer and turned to leave.

But the door was no longer there.

Panicked, Hermione began to feverishly search not only the wall directly behind her, but also, all four walls of the room for the missing door, but the closest she came was the swinging doors of the closet.

Where is it? Where is it? There's no door! Why is there no door?

This went on for several more minutes by the time Draco had actually noticed the bushy haired girl's hysteric search,

"What are you doing Granger?"

"Looking for a door!" she screamed. "Because apparently you've brought me into a room without one!"

Malfoy's grey eyes went wide for a second, and then back to their original state. Looking calm, relaxed, and even amused he retorted, "Very funny Granger, but how would you explain the fact that we got in through a door, meaning that there has to be a door, or at least an opening, to get out?"

"Well if you're so cleaver why don't you find the door then!"

"I'm busy."

"WITH WHAT?" Hermione screeched, "WHAT COULD YOU POSSIBLY BE BUSSY WITH?"

Malfoy shrugged, and returned to his search on the statues. Hermione watched him for a few minutes, trying to figure out what the blond could be searching for. What could be so important about the statues? And did Malfoy know where they were? He certainly seemed too comfortable to not know. Maybe if I try being "nice to him" he'll give me some answers, Hermione reasoned.

"May I inquire as to what-you-are-doing?" As hard as she tried, the end of the question still came out a little too bitter sounding for her tastes. She had to be nice.

"Nothing," But Hermione's nice-plan seemed to have worked because instead of Malfoy responding in a gruff, and annoyed manner, he sounded rather exasperated and solemn. He looked tired and incredibly lost in thought.

"Draco," Hermione said smoothly, in which he jumped slightly as being referred to by his first name, "do you know where we are?"

He nodded, and Hermione sat down next to the smaller statue, and after a few seconds, Draco followed suit. I'll wait for him to talk first, he'll spill everything soon enough. This was the tactic that she used mostly on Ronald, who typically required a lot of patience. For some reason guys just didn't want to confess that they had problems in their life, some stupid notion about looking perfect, or impressing girls, but it certainly wasn't practical, and unfortunately, with Ron, Hermione had a lot of experience with unpractical things. But after a good ten minutes Hermione could no longer stand the silence.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

At this Malfoy got suddenly angry, and snapped up from the floor and angrily explaining, "Talk about it. Talk, about it? What, are we on some silly girl show where we say what's wrong with our seemingly fluffy lives? I DON'T NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT," he suddenly bellowed.

The brown-eyed girl jumped violently at the sudden outburst from Draco, but it didn't stop there, he continued,

"DO YOU HAVE TO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE? LITTLE MISS "O" GRADES CAN NEVER BE SATISFIED CAN SHE? YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO OUTSMART EVERYONE DON'T YOU?" At this point Draco was breathing hard and looking vivid. Clearly he'd wanted to say this for a while now. He's annoyed that I'm better than him in class, this for some reason amused Hermione, but she was more concerned about his obvious discomfort with the room that they were in.

Malfoy sank in the unused chair and started rubbing his temple with his fingers, the silence that hung between the two lasted for more than a minute, and Hermione shifted uncomfortably on the floor, unsure as to what to do next. Clearly he had something against opening up, but she needed him to. She needed to find out where they were, and why he was acting so strangely. Maybe he is right; maybe I can't ever be satisfied.

Therefore, it surprised her when Draco suddenly started talking, and even more when he started to apologize.

"I'm sorry, even though you are the equivalent of the dirt on the bottom of my shoe, I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."

But all poor Hermione could was to sit there stunned. Seeming to realize that she wasn't going to say anything, yet, Malfoy continued, "It was impolite and I should have just told you were we are, or at least, where I think we are, from the beginning." He took a deep breath and waited for her to reply but she still didn't make a sound.

"I… I used to… I used to hide in this room when I was a boy."

Hermione finally found her voice, "Wh-What do you mean? Why would you be hiding here as a boy?"

"This room is in my house." Think again Malfoy; we can't be in your house, because it's impossible to apparate or disapparate on Hogwarts' grounds.

"Nonsense, we can't be in your house, we got here through the 7th floor."

"I know that. It is also impossible because there are certain enchantments that would prevent you from entering anyways."

"Humph."

"When we were running, I thought this was going to be the Room of Requirement, but somehow, we landed up at my hiding place."

"What were you hiding from?" Merlin! I shouldn't have asked that!

"It wasn't just me who was hiding here, my mother would too-"

"Why would you and your mother need to hide in your own house?" I really need to shut my mouth; I'm beginning to sound rude…

"My mother put and charmed these two statues in here for the two of us to hide in. You have to press your hand to the forehead of the statue, say "aperire", and they would open up in the back revealing a room the size of a broom cupboard. We would sit in them when my father got mad or drunk. Or both."

He actually told me all of that! But hiding from his own father, how horrible! I can't even imagine how tough that would be, even Narcissa had to escape her husband! "Dirt on the bottom of my shoe," humph, well it didn't seem that he regarded me that way when he was saying how Iwas better than him in class…

"But enough about that, we need to find the blasted door," and with that, he got up, and started to inspect the walls of the room, leaving Hermione completely, and totally, confused.