Chapter 12

Hermione was horribly startled, and she almost fell down the stairs after jumping a few feet into the air. It was very dark, and Hermione had not realized at first that it was Draco standing at the bottom of the staircase.

"Hermione, is that you?" Draco called, fear sounding in his voice as well.
"Ya, it's Hermione. Draco? You gave me quite a start."
"Ha! What are you doing out of bed? It's way past lights out."

"Well, actually..." at this point Hermione paused. She wasn't sure she should tell him that she had come out to see him... especially since she had only confessed her feelings to him a few hours earlier.

She sighed in decision, and then quickly said, "Actually I was hoping to see you, but then I realized that I didn't know where the Slytherin dormitories were... which was rather stupid of me and all... but then I got lock-"
"I was coming to see you too," Draco cut her off, smiling.

Hermione couldn't help but smile back. She went down the rest of the stairs and walked to where Draco was standing, a couple of feet away from the bottom step. She then placed her arms around his shoulders and stood on her toes to kiss him.

They broke away from each other smiling giddily. "Come on Hermione, I don't think I could sleep. Let's find somewhere to talk," Draco said, still very happy from the kiss.

Hand in hand, the two walked through the halls, trying to find a place that was unlikely for Filch to come upon. "Here's an unused classroom, I doubt Filch will bother coming in here unless we make a lot of noise or something. Then he'll think it was Peeves," Hermione said, pulling Draco into the empty room behind her.

Hermione shut the door and then turned around to face Draco. For some reason he was blushing.

"What's the matter?" Hermione tried to remember if she'd said anything embarrassing.

"Oh, well. It's nothing... you know. So how was your day?" Draco began, trying to change the subject.

Just then Hermione realized that the comment she had made about making a lot of noise was kind of embarrassing. She began to blush as well. "Draco, I didn't mean it like that. I just meant.. you know.. talking loudly or something," she stammered.

Draco seemed to blush even more, "Oh, well ya. I figured... I just... ya Filch and those ears of his. You know..."

Hermione smiled weakly and searched around in her mind for a change of topic. "Oh, so Draco, I've been meaning to ask you. I know it's kind of off topic, but what exactly DID you do the other day in the Great Hall that got you so many detentions?" Draco broke into a large smile. "Oh that? Nothing important. It was stupid, they were TOTALLY overreacting. Nothing to get worked up about at all really."

"Well what's THAT supposed to mean?" Hermione questioned on.
"Ha, well if you really want to know, I brought the squid from the lake into the Great Hall before breakfast. Crabbe, Goyle, another Slytherin boy and I enchanted it to fly through the front doors... like I said, stupid really. We were just ready for a bit of fun. Of course I was the only one who was caught, none of the others would confess after the teachers told me they knew I was in on it. I wasn't too happy with them for awhile after that," Draco again smiled sheepishly.

Hermione quickly giggled and then sat down on a puffy couch positioned against the far wall. "This must have been one of those classrooms like Professor Trelawny's. How it's supposed to be all comfortable and all," Hermione said, curious as to why there might be a couch in the room and, as usual, analyzing the situation.

Draco sat down and put his arm around her. She looked up at him expecting to see a happy, joking face, but instead he looked grave. "Hermione, so, is this serious? Are we... going to be serious?" he asked, very slowly.

Hermione was surprised for a moment. She didn't know what he meant by that; serious as in forever lasting? If that was the case, she had no idea. But was she serious about loving him? 'Yes, I've already decided that,' she told herself, before answering, "I'm serious about it."

Draco again looked joyful and replied, "I'm serious about it too, but then..." Sadness came over his face. "But then, we'll have to tell Weasel and Po... er... we'll have to tell your friends and.. my father eventually," he said with a slight shudder.

Hermione nodded, and replied, "Yes, we will have to tell Harry and Ron. Soon, though, let's tell them soon. We'll tell Ginny too, she'd like to know. What about your father? Is sooner better?"

Draco contemplated for a moment, sighed, and then said, "No, Hermione. Sooner is not better. Nor is later. He will not be pleased to say the least no matter when we tell him. Let's just wait; at least if he knows we've been together for awhile and we're serious, he might not... be quite as angry."

Hermione put her hand on Draco's cheek. She turned his head so that he was facing her. She was more than surprised to see that the beginning of tears were actually glistening in Draco's eyes. She pulled his head close to her and gently kissed him.

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A/N: K, just so you know about the Draco prank thing- I kinda had actually forgotten about that until last chapter... then i was like "o i should tell them more about that"... so the prank is kind of... oh. But again, like the famous dragon thing, it's the first thing I thought of so be kind ^^.