Harry and Hermione pack for Cairo and startling information about Hermione is revealed.
Chapter 3: Preparing For Cairo br /
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p The next morning Harry got up and out of bed and once again he felt a felt a cold breeze on his bare chest and legs. Then he walked over to the open window and closed it. Harry hurriedly got his clothes and walked down to the common room where Hermione had said she would meet him the night before. /p br /
p As they started to walk down to the great Hall Hermione said "I wonder what we are going to need to go to Egypt." Harry had been wondering the same thing and suddenly he had an idea. "Hey, since today is a Saturday and we don't have any classes, why don't we stop by the room of requirement." Hermione's eyes lit up and she said "What a fantastic idea! I never would have thought of the room of requirement!" br /
p Like Dumbledore advised, Harry and Hermione ate a good, full breakfast. While they did this Harry realized for the first time that this could very well be their last day at Hogwarts. Dumbledore didn't even know how long the mission was going to take. This meant he had to say goodbye to his friends. This would not be easy. How do you tell a friend you are going away for perhaps the rest of the school year without even letting them know you are going somewhere. But then Harry thought that if Ron could do it then so could he. /p br /
p After they had eaten breakfast, Harry and Hermione headed to the room of requirement. They finally got there and decided they were going to think i show us what we will need to go to Cairo /i . They walked past it three times and waited for the door to appear. But nothing happened, the wall stood solid as a rock. Then it came to them. "Harry, do you think that Dumbledore destroyed the room of requirement after the whole Malfoy incident." That was a very logical guess and Harry decided to go along with it. Always, Harry hated arguing with Hermione. "Well then we should stop wasting our time here and start packing for Cairo." he replied. /p br /
p They headed down the hall to where the portrait of the Fat Lady hung. "Caput Draconis" said Hermione and the portrait swung open. The fire was lit even though it was over ninety degrees outside. Harry took the right staircase and Hermione took the left. When he got to his dormitory he was glad to see that is was completely empty and got his suitcase from out of his bed and began neatly piling clothes into it. /p br /
p After he had finished this he cautiously looked behind his shoulder and reached under his bed and grasped a plastic CD case. It was "Andrew Lloydd Webber's i The Phantom of the Opera /i " He had gone to the Broadway show in London with Hermione and Ron over the summer Ron thought it was a waste of money and Harry and Hermione liked it very much. After the show had ended Harry had pretended to go to the bathroom but secretly went to one of the stands outside the theater and bought the soundtrack. /p br /
p After he put this into his bag he packed the novel he was reading "The Pelican Brief" into his side pocket. He then headed down the stairs and up to the Girls Dormitory. He opened the door to find Hermione putting her novel ("A Time To Kill") into her duffle bag. "Harry, I was just about to come down. Well, are you ready." Harry replied "Yeah, but before we send our bags to Dumbledore let's drink to Ron." Harry pulled out a bottle of wine and two glasses. He poured and raised his glass. "To Ron." he said. "To Ron" said Hermione following suite. Harry noticed that yesterday she had not drunk Dumbledore's wine but today she drank his. Then they lifted there glasses to their mouths and drank. But before Harry could see Hermione swallow she turned her head and Harry thought he could hear a faint trickling sound. "Hermione, what are you doing." he said as he walked a step to face her. At that moment he discovered her spitting the wine back into the glass. Hermione gave up. "Alright Harry you caught me." she told him. "What do you mean "I caught you"." "Okay Harry. It's a long story but we have a lot of time." Harry wasn't sure if he wanted to know what he was going to hear but he kept on listening anyway. "Towards the end of spring break Ron and I started to have a lot of" she hesitated as she started to say this "well a lot of" she hesitated again "casual sex." Harry's heart sank to rock bottom. Hermione continued. "We used protection and everything but I guess it just wasn't enough." tears started running down her face now. She took a drink from her glass and then spit out the liquid as she realized what she was doing "Oh God, take this away from me." she said impatiently and Harry took the glass. Harry didn't think he could ask this but he mustered up all of his caorriage and said "Is the baby Ron's?". "Well, of course. and the worst part about it is that he doesn't know. Neither does anybody else so please keep this a secret because if Dumbledore finds out he won't let me go on the mission and if I don't avenge Ron's abduction then I don't know what I'll do." /p br /
p Harry felt that this little tidbit of information had changed everything. Now that Hermione was carrying Ron's child it would definatly be harder to get closer to her. "You're secret's safe with me." said Harry as he wiped some of Hermione's tears from her face. br /