CHAPTER TWO-IN THE ROOM OF REQUIREMENT

"So you just got a letter that said to meet you in the Room of Requirement at 8 p.m tonight? Well, are going to go?" Ron asked Harry.

"Yeah, I 'spose." He was trying to sound casual and indifferent. Inside he was having butterflies in his stomach. He desperately hoped that the person he was meeting was Hermione. He had loved her for so long and he only wished that he could do something to show her but he didn't have enough courage. I mean he'd rather duel Lord Voldemort than confess his love to the girl of his dreams. Okay, well maybe not duel with the most evil wizard of all time but he'd rather do a lot of things that tell Hermione how he felt about her. He thought that she just thought of him as a friend and if ruined that he would never be able to live with himself. He didn't know what he would do if the person that he was going to meet wasn't Hermione. Come to think of it he didn't even know what he would do if the person was Hermione. He wouldn't know how to act. Almost as if Ron had read his mind about not knowing who it was he said…

"You know, I reckon you could just look on the Marauder's map and see who it is to see if you want to meet them or not. And if not then you could just pretend like you didn't get a note at all."

"Yeah I could but the person from the note asked me not to use anything to figure out who it is. They said that they want to surprise me, and I think it would be a betrayal of trust if I look."

"Oh, well you know it was just a suggestion you don't have to get all honorable and honest-like on me. If you are going to meet this person tonight then I suggest we get working on Snape's essay."

"But I wasn't even in class today! Snape's probably not going to let me use that as an excuse though, so I might as well do it. You know, even though I'm putting in extra effort by doing homework that I wasn't assigned he's not going to notice and is still going to mark me off even if I write a perfect essay." Harry was complaining to Ron. They sat working for hours on Snape's essay. Although they were absorbed in the complexity of their essays they both noticed Hermione leave the common room carrying a bag full of stuff. She was trying to be inconspicuous but not doing a very good job. Right before she went through the door she turned around and gave a meaningful glance at Harry before hurrying out of their view. Right after this Harry looked at the clock and found that it was 7:30, so he figured that in order to not be late he might want to finish up his thought and go get ready. He was about to tell Ron that he had to leave when Ron interrupted him.

"What do you think that was about?" Ron asked Harry.

"What was what about?" Harry answered looking confused. He thought that Ron was referring to him looking at the clock.

"Hermione" He said simply.

"Oh that, she was probably surprised that we were actually doing work without her to help us. Well, she doesn't really help us I mean we usually just copy from her." Harry replied.

Yeah, that's probably what it was." Ron said looking very disconcerted.

"Sorry to have to leave you so soon, but in order to not to be late, I'm going to have to leave you about now. I mean I have to get ready and everything, you know how it is when you meet girls and all." Harry said, then as an afterthought he added, "Well, I suppose it is a girl that I'm meeting, don't you?" He directed this question at Ron. "I don't know what kind of boy would ask me to meet them in a secret room at night. I mean I don't come off as gay do I?" He again directed the question at Ron as if he could really answer it.

"Hey mate, don't ask me these things. But of course, I don't think you are gay because no offense man but I wouldn't hang out with you anymore if you were. I'm really shallow and I'm sad to admit it but it's true." Ron said this while glancing at Harry as though questioning if he was really gay or not. Then coming to common sense he realized that he couldn't possibly be gay because Harry kissed a girl and he had liked it. I mean what was the deal with Cho Chang anyway? Didn't they go out or something like that? And then he remembered all the rows that they had and that was the reason why they weren't still going out. So after giving it some thought he decided that Harry was not gay after all.

"Don't worry; I'm not gay if that's what you were thinking. But I gotta go, see ya later!" Harry said grinning at Ron. Harry ran off towards his dormitory without giving Ron a chance to even say good-bye. As soon as Harry got reached the door of the dormitory he stopped running. He began rummaging through his trunk to find the Marauder's Map. When he finally found it he stood there for a moment thinking about whether or not he should look and see who it was that he was about to meet. Right as he was opening the map Ron walked into the room.

"Well, that essays a pain in the you-know-what, and I just can't concentrate without either you or Hermione there to help me." Ron voiced this while throwing his school bag on top of his bed. Then he looked at Harry holding the Marauder's Map half open and quickly snatched it from him. "Whatever happened to being all honorable and not looking at the map because that would be cheating and disrespecting that persons' feelings?" Ron asked quite appalled that Harry was going to look.

"I just really want to know who it is! Don't you want you want to know? I mean what if it is Malfoy waiting there and he's going to hex me as soon as I get into the room? Do you really want me to get hurt?" He asked the latter to give himself more of a case to bargain with. Ron however wasn't to give in.

"Harry I can't believe that you lied to me. You told me that you would never look because that would not be fair, and then I find you up here looking at the map. I'm not going to let you look at this; I on the other hand will look at it." Ron taunted.

"What that's so not fair. It's my map after all, so I think I'm entitled to look at it whenever I very well please. Thank you very much." He then made a swipe at Ron to try and get the map back but Ron's keeper skills were vastly improved from the previous year and so he was too fast for Harry.

"Ahh, come on, can't you let me have at least a little peek?" Harry pleaded after many attempts at snatching the map.

"No, I still can't believe you." Ron took the map holding it up high above his head and left the dormitory in a huff. The silence in the room was unbelievable and Harry was left all alone to get ready for his meeting with a person that he didn't know. He then decided that Ron was never going to give in with the map seeing as how he left the room. Going through his trunk again he found what he was looking for, what he thought as the perfect clothes. When he finally put them on and looked at the full body mirror that was in their dormitory's bathroom he thought that he looked pretty good. He was wearing a tight black t-shirt that accentuated his slim body and his six-pack. Then for his bottom half he was wearing light blue hip hugger Levi jeans with white whiskers and black sneakers. His hair though untidy as it always was completed the outfit and made him look all the more popular, smart, handsome boy that he was. As he walked down the steps into the common room he saw a lot of the girls staring longingly at him. To his surprise Hermione was nowhere to be seen, which made his heart flutter as the thought occurred to him that it really might be Hermione that he was going to meet. He walked out of the common room to the disappointment to many of the girls lingering there. He started walking briskly once he got out of there. This was the first time that he fully appreciated how many girls liked him and were in awe of him. Walking through the corridors he felt pretty good, a girl (he hoped) had sent him a letter to meet him in a secret room at night. This was every guys dream. But then he stopped and thought about it. There was only girl that he wanted to see in that room and he didn't mean to sound cocky but a lot of girls did like him. The show back in the common room had shown him that so once again he was beginning to feel nervous about how he was going to act around this person and why they wanted to meet him in secret. He reached the door of the Room of Requirement without turning back or vomiting. With much anticipation he opened the door and was surprised. The room was dark as if no one was there and it had all been a joke. Feeling like a dork he turned around to leave but then turned back around when he heard a person breathing in the far corner of the room.

"Lumos" he said while turning around. The light miraculously illuminated almost the entire room. The floor was covered with pink confetti and all over the walls were little hearts with the letters H.G ♥ H.P. Harry was really confused, what was that supposed to mean. Thinking about it for a minute he realized that it could be Hermione Granger loves Harry Potter. His heart fluttered and then he looked around again and saw Hermione standing in the center of the room with a flirtatious smile accompanied by a flirtatious outfit. Her top was a tight light pink halter that accented her slim fit body and she was wearing a dark blue mini skirt. These were accompanied by small light pink high heels. Half concealed in her temporarily straight hair were a pair of studded rose quartz earrings. With her standing there in the middle of the room Harry didn't know what to do. She looked so un-Hermione like that Harry wasn't quite sure that it was her or not. Then he looked again and saw that it really was her. Harry was so surprised that it was Hermione that was in the room that he didn't say anything but just stood with his mouth open gaping like an idiot. When he realized what he was doing he closed his mouth and tried talking to her. He cleared his throat.

"Umm…so…" he tried.

"Don't talk, I have a song that I want to sing for you." she interrupted quickly. It seemed to Harry that she said it fast because if she said it any slower than she wouldn't be able to say it at all. As soon as she started singing Harry realized that he had never before heard Hermione sing. He was saddened by the fact that he had never heard her sing for she had the most beautiful voice that he had ever heard and forever more he would compare everyone's singing with hers. The song that she was singing was one that he recognized. He couldn't place where it was from, but then when it got to the chorus he remembered where he'd heard it. It was the long song from Titanic-My Heart Will Go On.

Every night in my dreams I see you, I feel you.

That is how I know you go on.

Far across the distance and spaces between us

You have come to show you go on.

Near, far, wherever you are

I believe that the heart does go on.

Once more, you open the door

And you're here in my heart,

And my heart will go on and on.

Love can touch us one time and last for a lifetime.

And never let go till we're gone.

Love was when I loved you one true time I hold to.

In my life we'll always go on.

Near, far, wherever you are

I believe that the heart does go on.

Once more, you open the door

And you're here in my heart,

And my heart will go on and on.

You're here, there's nothing I fear.

And I know that my heart will go on.

We'll stay forever this way,

You are safe in my heart,

And my heart will go on.

As the last notes of the song faded away Hermione stood staring at Harry with an embarrassed but determined look on her face. Harry again didn't know what to say. But he was set on breaking the silence. He was all in a dither because he still couldn't get over the fact that Hermione liked him and just confessed it to him.

"You know you could have just told me that you liked me and that would have been fine." Harry said this and immediately regretted it. He realized that this was quite the wrong thing to say because Hermione looked as though she was about to burst into tears. Harry tried to compose himself and make the situation a little bit better. "I mean, I'm sorry, that wasn't what I meant to say." He wasn't finding the right words when suddenly he just burst out with it. "Hermione I really like you and I'm really glad that you had the courage to do this for me because I would never have the courage to do this." When Harry said this, she felt that it confirmed that he had indeed wrote her the love letter, for the letter had mentioned something like this.

"Did you like the song?" Hermione was trying to take it slow and she was trying to give Harry some time to think.

"Yeah, it was great, you have such a beautiful voice, you should try──"

But Hermione would never know Harry thought she should try because she couldn't take the waiting anymore and had flung herself on him. She had jumped him in a way that he had been flung to the floor with him in top of her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that…no wait, actually I did. I just hope that I didn't hurt you." Hermione said. She was out of breath from jumping on top of him.

"It's fine. To tell you the truth I've been waiting for the day when you would pin me to the ground." He said nervously. Harry was failing at attempting to laugh. He was just too nervous to go through with anything. Hermione was so close to him. He could see wrinkles creasing on her forehead as she wondered if she was being too enthusiastic. Just as she was about to get up Harry pulled her closer to him and began kissing her.

Upstairs in the boys' dormitory Ron sat on his bed watching the Marauder's Map with a furious gaze. Staring at the map he saw that Hermione was the one that wanted to meet Harry, and as the night progressed he saw that their dots were moving closer and closer together. When Ron figured out that they must be kissing he threw the map down angrily and jumped under his bed covers.