Chapter twelve

Ron and Hermione quietly made their way down the hall to the stairs. Ron took out the map (it had been so long since any of them had seen it, so no one really remembered where any of the passages were) and tapped it with his wand.

"Welcome back!" it said in swirly black letters.

"We were beginning to think you'd left us for good! Don't scare us like that again!"

"Mr Moony wishes to welcome you back to the lifestyle of the mischievous and crooked, and hopes you enjoy your stay."

"Mr. Prongs wants to thank you for saving us from the horrid possession of that ugly git Snape, and wishes someone would just slap him already."

"Mr. Wormtail-"

"-Stupid prick..." Ron whispered at the sight of his name.-

"-would love it if he got his hands on that obnoxiously greasy jerk Snape…"

"Mr. Padfoot would appreciate it if a certain pair of lovebirds would wake up and smell the flowers...you know who you are..."

Ron quickly glanced at Hermione to see if she had been reading with him, but fortunately she had been busy guiding them down the steps. Ron looked back at the map and found their destination.

"Oh, right, I remember now!" he whispered. "We go down the corridor on the left, right here, and follow it down to this room, yes that's it, and then..."

They made it to the dungeons, more specifically, Snape's storage cupboard. Hermione looked at Ron, very pleased it seemed, and slowly pulled the cupboard door open.

Hermione slowly moved the first row of jars over while Ron held up the cloak. There really wasn't much for him to do yet, so he fumbled with the map a bit. Suddenly, as he was abouot to put it away, he noticed some more swirly black letters appear on the page.

What are you waiting for?

Ron was confused. Was the map actually talking to him?

Trust me...

Ron pretended not to know what the map was saying, even though in the back of his head, he had been thinking about it for quite a while.

Hermione sighed, sounding worried.

"Ron, I can't find the first one! I know it's got to be here somewhere...if it's not, I don't know what we'll do."

Ron hadn't really heard what she said. Instead, he was still thinking about the message on the map and looking at Hermione. He slowly dragged his eyes across every feature of her face, from her frustratingly furrowed eyebrows to her big brown eyes, to the tip of her cute little nose, and down to her puckered-in-deep-thought lips. Hermione was picking up jars and trying to see through the bottoms of them; there was hardly any light at all, and she was becoming really aggravated. Ron watched her and waited...she turned to look at him and hand him a jar when she suddenly felt a pair of soft lips against hers. She was surprised, but pleased, and suddenly every thought left her head except for one: Ron is kissing me...wow, he's actually kissing me...and I'm not stopping him...wow...

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him, and both of their hearts started pounding intensely. It was so romantic…

They heard a crash and the sound of glass breaking on the floor, but neither of them paid any attention, for they were only aware of each other. Hermione slid her arms around his waist and pulled herself even closer to him.

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