Chapter 12: Finding the Room of Mystery

Hermione could barely contain her excitement. The whole day, she had to keep asking Harry and Ron to repeat themselves because she kept thinking about the map. Finally, dinner was over and Hermione told the boys that she had some Head business to take care of, so she had to stay behind. They said goodnight and left. Now it was only Hermione, Draco and a few Ravenclaw second year girls left in the Great Hall. Hermione looked up to see that Draco was already looking at her. He nodded his head towards the door, eyeing the Ravenclaws. She nodded in understanding and stood up to leave. She waited for Draco outside the Great Hall. When he came out, he made sure no one was there to hear or see them. Then he held out his arm for Hermione to take.

"May I escort milady to her quarters?" he asked very politely with a bow. Hermione giggled and curtsied.

"Only if I get to escort sir to his," she said, very formally, "since it is on the way." She winked and Draco grinned.

"I would very much appreciate the company of such a radiantly beautiful lady such as yourself." Hermione blushed modestly.

"Draco, stop! I'm not that beautiful," she said, trying to hide her face by looking down and letting her hair fall in a curtain around her face. He tilted her chin up to look into her entrancing honey brown eyes.

"Yes, you are. You're the most beautiful girl that I've ever had the good fortune to lay eyes upon and I love you." He gave her a peck on the lips and led her back up to their dorms. About ten seconds after Hermione and Draco had left the Entrance Hall, a shocked looking Harry came out form behind a suit of armor.

"Hermione, you definitely have some explaining to do," he said out loud before racing up the stairs.

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Hermione paced around the common room, anxiously looking at the clock every five seconds, while Draco sat in a chair pretending to read a book, but really watching Hermione with an amused smile on his face. Finally, he stood up a grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to sit down on the sofa.

"Hermione, calm down! You're getting a little too excited. We don't even know what's in there. So just sit down, relax and breathe." He rubbed Hermione's arms up and down until she relaxed and leaned back into the sofa.

"Thanks," she said with a smile. He returned it.

"No problem." He went back to reading his book and just got settled back in when Hermione thought of a question.

"Draco, who was Maximus Malfoy?" Draco looked up at Hermione and thought about her question for a while.

"I'm not quite sure," he finally said. "But I think that he was my grandfather's great-uncle. No one likes to talk about him because he didn't do anything evil or anything. He wasn't really into all that."

"Are you?" Hermione asked softly and slowly. He looked into her eyes and thought his answer through.

"No. I used to…but not anymore," he said firmly. She gave a sigh of relief and smiled. He stood up to sit next to her.

"What changed your mind?" He grinned, put his arm around her and gave her a quick kiss before answering.

"You," he said simply. Hermione's smile grew wider and she settled herself into Draco's chest. Just then, the clock struck twelve. Hermione jumped out of her seat and excitement filled her eyes. Draco mentally cursed the clock for interrupting such a romantic moment between him and the girl he loved. That seemed to be happening a lot lately.

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Hermione and Draco huddled under the Invisibility Cloak, Draco hunched over since he was much taller than Hermione. They stopped every few minutes to check the map by the moonlight streaming through the windows and to check for people on patrol or Peeves. Finally, they halted in front of an unused classroom. Hermione triedto turn the doorknob, but it was locked. Draco consulted the map again.

"This is it! This is the room!" The excitement in Draco's voice was just too much to hide. He consulted the map one more time to see if it would give directions as to how to open the door. Words began to appear on the ancient piece of parchment:

Welcome, Draco, to the Room of Mystery.

Now, it's time to make use of that key.

Give it one-quarter turn clockwise,

Then tap the door softly twice.

The one you bring must then link hands with yours

Only this way can you both enter through this door.

Draco fished around in his pocket for the key. He found it and inserted it into the keyhole. He took a deep breath before turning it one-quarter turn clockwise. Then he tapped softly on the door twice, just as the directions said. Hermione immediately laced her fingers through his and gave his hand a squeeze. At first, they thought nothing happened. Then it suddenly felt like someone was pulling them into the still closed door. They both land on wobbly feet on a carpeted floor. Hermione looked around the room in awe.

"Wow…" she breathed. Draco looked around and decided that "wow" was the only way to describe the room. A fire was happily blazing on one side of the room and a black velvet sofa and a coffee table set in front of it, a bearskin rug under the mahogany coffee table. The whole room was carpeted with a green velvet carpet and if you looked closely, you could see the silver serpents woven into the design. In another corner was a worktable made out of the wood as the coffee table. It was large enough for two to sit and work at comfortably. Lastly, in the very center of the room sat a beautiful, black baby grad piano, right underneath a very ornate chandelier. Draco tugged at Hermione's hand and led her over to the piano.

"Do you play, Draco?" she asked as they sat of the bench. He smiled at her.

"No, but I heard that you do," he said with a smirk. Hermione looked shocked.

"Who told you that? No one is supposed to know!" she exclaimed, her cheeks turning crimson. Draco wrapped his arm around her waist and looked at her lovingly.

"It doesn't matter who told me. I just know." He kissed her softly. "Now, will you play something for me, love? Please?" Draco was acting so sweet and the way he looked at her made her heart melt. She finally gave in with an exasperated sigh.

"No wonder you're so spoiled, Malfoy. Just that look would make anyone give you what you want," Hermione joked. Draco gave her one of his most dazzling smiles.

"It's one of the only Malfoy traits that I'm proud of." Hermione suddenly felt a bit uneasy as he mentioned his family, but smiled anyway before turning to face the piano. It was so long since she last played for anyone but herself or her parents. At home, she often played when she had no one else to talk to or when she had just got into a fight with her parents. She laid her fingers on the keys and took a deep breath before she started to play. Soon, Hermione got into the song and closed her eyes playing by pure emotion alone. Draco watched her as she played through the song, noticing how beautiful she looked with her eyes closed and lips curled up in a subtle smile, looking so at peace with everything. Draco felt like pinching himself to make sure that all of this was real. He wanted to make sure that he wasn't just dreaming that he was sitting with the most beautiful girl he had ever laid eyes on and that she loved him as much as he loved her. A curl came out form behind her ear and he reached out to tuck it back. She immediately stopped playing and looked at him. He looked straight into her eyes and they sat that way for a moment, just staring into each other's eyes.

Draco's finger, which lingered after tucking Hermione's hair back, traced her jaw-line all the way down to her chin. He tilted her chin up and leaned down to meet her lips with a tender kiss. She responded and wrapped a hand around the back of his neck, running her fingers through his silky, blond hair. He brought her closer with the arms that was still wrapped around her waist and deepened the kiss. Hermione rested her other had on his chest, letting herself fall deeper in love with him with each heartbeat she felt underneath her fingers.

She had once called him her enemy. He had once called her cruel names like "Mudblood." But now they were together in a Room of Mystery, so in love with each other, forgetting all that had happened in the past. Draco came up for air after a while and stood up, pulling Hermione up with him and leading her to the sofa instead. He pulled her into his lap and brought her face down to his.

"I love you," he whispered before he met his lips with hers once more. She pulled him closer by his tie and his strong arms wrapped around her waist and back. She leaned back into the sofa cushions, pulling Draco on top of her. His hand began to slip under her blouse and stopped right below her breast. He stopped and looked at her as if asking for her permission to keep going. She nodded her head slightly and pulled his face back down to hers. His hand cupped her breast and she loosened his tie and began to unbutton his shirt, him following suit soon after. He began to nibble on the soft flesh just below her ear, while slipping her blouse off of her slim body. He smiled devilishly as he looked down at the sight in front of him. He brought his lips down on hers again and traveled down her torso until he stopped at the waistband of her skirt.

His hands moved agonizingly slow as he unzipped her skirt and pulled it down her creamy legs. He proceeded to fumble with his own pants. She sat up briefly to help him and proceeded to slide his unbuttoned shirt down his arms. She slid her hands over his toned chest and felt him shiver under her touch. In the dim light of the chandelier, she could just make out the thin scars and faded bruises left by Lucius' training.

At the thought of Lucius, she pulled away from him and sat as far away from him as possible. Draco grew concerned and drew closer to her, slightly put out that she had stopped such an intimate moment.

"Hermione, what is it?" he asked, cautious not to touch her.

"Do you think we can pull this off, Draco?" she asked, avoiding his eyes.

"Pull what off, love?" he asked gently. She finally looked up, fear evident on her face.

"What happens if your father finds out? I wouldn't be able to stand it if something happened to you, Draco." Her eyes began to water, but she willed herself not to cry. She had done that too many times already. Draco simply looked at her and realized that she was right. And here he was, being selfish and put out that he didn't get his chance to make love to her. He realized that he truly loved this girl and couldn't treat her like that. He had respected her long before he loved her, and now he felt like such a jerk for having tried to do that to her.

"Hermione, I'm sorry," he said quietly, the remorse very evident in his tone.

"Sorry?" she looked at him confused. "Sorry for what?"

"Sorry for trying to get you to do this for me. You deserve to be treated better." Hermione smiled.

"Well, I thank you for apologizing, but it wasn't entirely your fault. I didn't exactly push you away." Draco smiled as he picked their discarded clothes off the floor and began to pull them on again.

"Come on. I think it's about time we left anyway." Draco picked the key off of the top of the piano and the Invisibility Cloak from off the floor, slipping it over himself and Hermione before exiting through the door exactly the way they came in, except turning the key one-quarter turn counterclockwise. They silently made their way through the corridors and hallways back to their dorms in record time. They admitted themselves into the room, changed into their pajamas and met in the bathroom to go about their nightly rituals. After a long goodnight (with Draco complimenting a blushing Hermione on her mint-fresh breath), they both retired to their rooms and went to sleep.

Whoo! New chapters! Aren't you all proud of me? I hoped you enjoyed that and I hope that you review!