Disclaimer: I don't have anything clever to put here. Sorry. (Not mine.)
The Room of Requirement was always a safe haven for her, Harry and Ron when they needed it. Which was often, considering the amount of times they had almost gotten themselves killed; or, at the very least, almost failed a class. So Hermione called on it in her time of need, once again. She brought Draco down. She knew he had been here before, if their fifth year was anything to go by. Still, she knew he couldn't have been down here for the reason she was bringing him.
She paced the hallway, three times, and Draco wished he knew what she was thinking. The room could contain anything … a bed, a bathtub …or a library. When Hermione stopped pacing and looked satisfied with herself, he reached toward the handle of the door that was now present.
"Ah, ah!" She reprimanded him, and shifted between him and the door. She peeked inside, and when she had decided everything was in order, slipped inside, waiting for him to follow.
Draco rolled his eyes. "Is everything okay? May I come in, or is there some big secret …" He protested obnoxiously.
"Just get in here!" She said, scowling. Why must he make everything so difficult?
The room was simple in that it was painted white and had carpeted floors. It was very large, square, and Draco recognized little else in it besides that. Hermione, however, did. She knew how to operate the mixing desks that were set up in front of an isolated recording room. The loudspeakers were numerous, as were the headphones and microphones that were hung on the walls and tangled on the floor. Hermione had already picked up an object Draco recognized to be the acoustic guitar she kept in her room. There looked to be many guitars in the room, including one that had four strings and one that had five. There was an enormous grand piano in the corner of the studio, two keyboards standing against the back wall, and some weird object that Draco would have described as 'a number of cylinders held up by poles'.
Hermione didn't even begin to strum the guitar because she had noticed Draco's face. He looked confused. She tried to stifle a laugh, and then failed. Draco's head snapped to her.
"What's so funny? I'm not laughing at you and your ridiculous machines!" He said, furrowing his brow. This only made Hermione laugh harder. She stood up and walked over to him, taking his hand. Draco blinked. For some reason, that was significant to him.
"Okay, where to begin. Okay, that thing over there, with all the buttons? That's a soundboard, or a mixing desk. That guitar I was just going to play? That's the first guitar I ever owned, it's acoustic. Then I have those two … the electric ones, see? And that piano … it's about one hundred years old! My mother bought it from an antique store before I was born. I've been playing since I was three … and this here is a bass guitar! I'm not very good at it, actually, I can hardly play at all. Oh, this is another bass. It has five strings, see? My dad plays it best. And that keyboard … the bigger one? It goes everywhere with me. Except Hogwarts, of course …" Hermione trailed off. Draco had just stood there, listening to her ramble, and he was moved.
"Wait, these are all your instruments?" Draco asked, shocked.
"Er … yeah. Copies of them, anyway. I had a very specific idea in mind when I came down here … this place exists back home,"
Draco didn't ask what country she considered 'home'. "Play something for me?" He asked, softly. She looked at him, startled out of her daze.
"Oh … oh! Of course." She said, grinning. She left her guitar, and walked over to the piano. There, she began to slowly hit the ivory keys. "I don't mind the dirt … that comes with playing rough … I'd give you all … I'd tell you all … as that were enough ..."
Her playing was beautiful. Her features were soft, and she looked relaxed when she played. Draco, too, was entirely at peace. He smiled at her the one time she looked at him. She didn't play long before looking up at him, smiling sheepishly.
"It's not finished yet … I rarely have time to play, with school and NEWTS and you and everything …" She trailed off, blushing.
"I'm not sure what to say, Mai. It was perfect," Draco said, uncharacteristically. Hermione gasped. Draco turned his head. "What?"
"Y … you called me 'Mai'," She said, sounding startled.
"Sorry," Draco said quickly. "Do you not like that?"
"No, I … I like it. It's just – that's what my friends … outside of Hogwarts, of course – called me," Hermione replied, slowly.
"Mai it is, then," Draco said with a wink.
-
Hermione returned to the Head room alone. She had sent Draco back to the Slytherin dorms, despite him begging and pleading to come back to her rooms with her. She rolled her eyes and smirked when she thought about him, and nearly ran into the seemingly empty knight's armor decorating the corridor.
Nothing could have prepared her for what she was about to see once she entered the dorm. As soon as she stumbled through the torn painting, she knew something was up. For one, the lights were out. It wasn't very late, maybe eight o'clock. She heard a thump, and before she gave herself time to be scared, flicked her wand in the general direction of the torches. On the floor in front of the couch was Harry. On top of Blaise. At least they had their clothes on.
"FUCK!" The three exclaimed in unison. Harry and Blaise looked at each other then at Hermione, who was staring at them, not with a look of shock, but a look of disbelief on her face.
"Awkward," Hermione squeaked.
"Mione, we can explain …" Harry trailed off.
Hermione plastered a fake grin on her face. "No need, no need, Harry. What you do – and with whom – is none of my business." Once again, Harry and Blaise looked at each other, and then back at her.
"No, I think we should, Granger," Blaise began. "See, you're kinda to blame – I mean – to thank for this,"
"What?" Hermione barely whispered. She was more concerned about getting out of this very embarrassing situation.
"Well, yeah, you see," Blaise began. He both looked, and sounded, hesitant. She wasn't used to seeing Blaise look like this. "When Draco came looking for you earlier, and you went into your room? Yeah, I heard yelling, and I figured you would have left Draco disfigured if I didn't go do something. And I overheard you talking about me and – well, basically just me, and my 'thing' for Potter," He concluded, allowing a smirk to slip onto his lips.
Harry gulped. "Yeah, so then, Blaise came looking for me – really, Hermione," he said when the older girl raised an eyebrow at him. "And we were talking, and then … well, you can imagine,"
"So … I don't quite understand. Is this just a hormonal thing or -" Hermione began, before she could get anywhere, she was interrupted by the raven haired boy.
"No, Mione … this is … well, we … I think, you know -" Harry gave up, frustrated.
"Get used to it, Granger," Blaise said, his smirk only getting bigger.
"So …" Harry began.
Hermione sighed. "Goodnight." There was a sense of finality in her voice that told the boys it had better be quiet enough to hear a pin drop when she retired to her room.
She grinned when she reached her room and let out a contented little laugh. At least some of her friends were happy. However, she was worried about how the rest of the castle would react. She also knew that Isabel would find out eventually. She sighed. Why did the young girl always get herself in way over her head?
A/N: (Mai pronounced 'My') Okay, I think it's blatantly obvious I don't know a lot about recording. However, most of my relatives are musicians and I have been in their studios a time or two. Oh yeah, I've become so attached to this Harry/Blaise pairing I just might write a little ficlet featuring the two of them. That's not a promise, however.