Chapter 6
The Secret Date

Jamie was trying her best to not give away the fact that she would be going on a date the following Friday with Romeo Malfoy... and was doing a pretty good job. Surprisingly, no one except Jamie, her friends and Romeo Malfoy knew what had happened down on the Quidditch Pitch. Jamie supposed that Romeo was really wanting this date with her and was trying to stay on her good side.

It is quite hard to keep a secret about a certain boy... well, secret... especially when your friends continue to pick on that certain boy. It is worse when they expect you to make fun of that boy too. Jamie had kept more secrets from her friends in the past few days, then she had her whole life. She wasn't the kind of person who kept secrets! But when it came down to risking a date with the boy she was supposed to hate, Jamie knew she had to do something unusual.

It is also hard to keep a certain secret when the boy you secretly like keeps writing you letters. The Tuesday before the date, Romeo had written what he had called a "reminder letter" to Jamie. Jamie figured she had to put the situation in her own hands, so she did something she thought she would never do. That Wednesday, the day after she had received Romeo's letter, Jamie had stayed behind and watched her friends go into the Great Hall. Jamie walked over to the door that led to the dungeon, and when Romeo walked out from the dungeons, Jamie dragged him into the maintenance closet, which, to Jamie's good fortune, was empty.

"Whoa, Potter," Romeo said, with a surprised look on his face, "I thought we agreed to keep this date secret."

"That is hard to do when you keep writing me letters, Malfoy!" hissed Jamie.

"I sent my owl to your dorm, Jamie," said Romeo, "I am not dumb enough to send you letters at breakfast."

"Alice and Jane are two of my room mates," said Jamie, "And they know me best. You are lucky they didn't hear your bloody owl pecking on the window! It would be hard for me to keep this date secret if I had to tell them why Romeo Malfoy's owl was sitting outside my window!"

"Okay, okay," said Romeo, "I understand."

"And would you please not follow me around the halls," said Jamie, "My friends keep asking if I am sick or something because I am not throwing insults at you!"

"You don't want to insult me?" asked Romeo, "Wow."

"Look, Romeo," said Jamie, "The reason I said yes to this date on Friday is because I really do want to have the date. I want to see if you can actually be a gentleman around me. And I don't want to screw it up by having our friends find out that we are dating!"

"Dating?" asked Romeo, "As in... more than one date?"

"Yes, Romeo, more than one date," said Jamie, "But don't bet on it if you intend to keep on doing stuff like you have been doing. Now if you excuse me, I am going to go get some breakfast. And wait for a couple of minutes before you decide to come out. I don't want people to see us walking out together... especially since we are inside an empty closet."

"Fine, fine," said Romeo, "But please, Potter, lay off the coffee. You are already hyper enough today."

Jamie rolled her eyes and walked out of the closet. Thankfully, no one was around. She walked into the Great Hall and when Jane asked where she was, she replied with a "I forgot something for class." remark. As Jamie was getting some bacon and scrambled eggs, she had realized she had just lied to her best friend, but decided it was for the best. Anyway, it wasn't the first time that week she had lied to her.

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It turned out that Romeo had been true to his word, because he hadn't bothered Jamie anymore. He hadn't even given her trademark smirk in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and when Professor Lupin asked for them to show off their non-verbal skills again, he had let Jamie win. Jamie supposed this was just his way to apologize to her without giving away anything. Many of their friends just happened to be watching their little duel.

Peck! Peck! Peck!

It was Friday morning and the day that Jamie and Romeo would have their little secret date in the Room of Requirement. Jamie opened her eyes and looked out the window. Romeo's eagle owl was sitting on the ledge, a letter in his beak.

"I thought I told him not to send me any more letters," Jamie whispered to herself.

She got up slowly and opened the window. The owl dropped the letter in Jamie's hand and took off. Strangely enough, the letter smelled of something like the sweet odor that Professor Longbottom's plants spewed whenever they were woken up.

"Romeo, what in Merlin's name did you spray on this letter?" Jamie whispered to herself as she walked back over to her bed, sat down and closed the curtains.

Jamie opened the letter and began to read it to herself:

Dear Jamie,

Please don't be mad. I know you told me not to send you any more letters, but I got bored. I have been thinking what you said that day in the closet and I apologize. Though you may have already guessed I did that from what happened in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Unless you have a cold or something, you will notice that sweet smell I sprayed onto this letter. I thought I would just give you a preview of what is to come. It is my cologne that I wear for only special occasions.

There is something I want to say, but it won't work in a letter. So, you will just have to wait.

I hope you will still meet me for lunch, I am going to bring some stuff up.

Love,

Romeo

"Romeo can be sweet when he wants to," Jamie said to herself.

Jamie heard some murmuring from Jane's bed and quickly hid the letter under her pillow. The curtain around Jane's bed opened and Jane sat up. She noticed that Jamie was up.

"Jamie, what are you doing up so early," said Jane, "It is Friday, we don't have classes today."

"Thought I heard something out the window," said Jamie, "So... you have anything planned today?"

Jamie had asked this, hoping Jane would say yes. It would be so easier getting to the Room of Requirement at noon without her friends around.

"Yeah, Joseph has something planned," said Jane, "We haven't been able to spend much time with each other because of schoolwork. I think he wants me to walk with him around the lake today, so we can spend some time alone. I have a feeling he might want to do more. He told me yesterday that I shouldn't eat much breakfast today. He has some stuff planned. Maybe a picnic."

"Aww, how romantic," said Jamie.

"Yeah," said Jane, "What were you going to do today?"

"Oh, I got a date," said Jamie, not thinking about what she was saying. She then realized what she had said and tried to correct herself. But...

"Really?" said Jane, "With who?"

"I was kidding, Jane," Jamie said, thinking quickly, "I am going to be sitting in the common room doing my homework."

"Sounds fun," said Jane.

Jamie was relieved to see that her mistake came out as a joke.

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Lady Luck seemed to be on Jamie's side that day. By the time eleven-o-clock came, Jamie was alone in the common room. Jane and Joseph had gone to take their romantic walk around the lake and Alice had gone outside. Alice always liked the smell of fresh air when she was writing her little articles she loved to write. Richie and James weren't as lucky as seventh year students, and were in class.

Jamie decided she had better get ready for her date and walked up to her dormitory. By the time eleven forty-five had come, Jamie was in black jeans and her favorite Gryffindor shirt. Jamie felt this was nice enough for a woman her age who was going out on a first date and didn't like to wear dresses. She took her favorite possesions out of her trunk, both which were handed down to her from her father: the invisibility cloak and the Marauder's Map, and headed down to the common room.

Jamie walked out of the Gryffindor Common room and headed for the Room of Requirement. She knew where this place was because she had mistakenly found it in her fourth year. Ironically, it was the day she was trying to hide from Romeo Malfoy. She didn't know exactly what the place was until she told her father about it, and he told her what it was.

A couple minutes to noon, Jamie was nearing the location of the Room of Requirement. She removed her invisibility cloak, which she had put on so none of her friends would spot her, and walked down the hall. Romeo was waiting for her outside the room.

"Well, Potter," he said, "You are on time. You... look nice."

"I was just about to say the same thing to you," said Jamie.

"I have been here for a few minutes getting ready," said Romeo, "The room did most of the work though."

Great, it is time to see what the Room of Requirement would look like when a Malfoy is getting ready for a date! Jamie thought to herself. Romeo opened the door and Jamie walked in. Her jaw nearly dropped to the floor. Jamie's first opinion was that it kind of looked like Trelawney's classroom... but different in a way. The wallpaper was a rosy shade of red, and there were candles floating around the room. The fireplace was lit, which explained why the room was kind of hot, and there was a small table with two chairs around it. A red rose and a candle were set in the middle of the table.

"You like, Potter?" Romeo said.

"I must say I am amazed," said Jamie, "How did you know I liked red?"

"I didn't," said Romeo, "The room did I guess."

"Uh-huh," said Jamie, "Malfoy, don't tell me that. You are your father's son. I would bet anything that you know how to read minds."

"That hurt, Potter," said Romeo, "Really. But it is true, I did read your mind to see what your favorite color was."

"I would appreciate it," said Jamie, "If you left my mind alone."

"Jamie, I wanted this date to be nice," said Romeo, "I didn't want this room to have a nice shade of green when I know that it can't be your favorite color."

"You could have asked me, you know," said Jamie, "Whatever, let's just sit down."

"You will like what we are having," said Romeo, "I brought up chicken and rolls and stuff like that."

"Aww, my favorite," said Jamie, "Another thing you got on your journey through my head?"

"I watch you eat," said Romeo.

Jamie quickly sat down to hide the fact that she was blushing.

"None of your friends know that you aren't in your Common Room, right?" Romeo asked, as he was sitting down.

"No, they are busy," said Jamie.

Jamie and Romeo continued to talk while they ate the lunch. They talked about themselves, letting the other get to know more about them. It's funny how much you don't know about a person, even though you knew them for at least seven years. But then there was the little fact that they thought they hated each other. Jamie couldn't help but thinking that maybe Romeo wasn't like his father. He seemed a lot sweeter than she would have thought.

"Would you like some champagne?" Romeo asked, nodding over to a bottle on a bookshelf.

"Compliments of the room, eh?" Jamie asked, "Oh, fine, I guess."

As Malfoy stood up and walked over to the other side of the room, Jamie took out her Marauder's Map and got the shock of her life. Two dots with the names of "Joseph Lupin" and "Jane Weasley" were headed their way.

"Uh, Malfoy," said Jamie, "Rain check on that champagne! We have to go. We got company coming!"

Jamie jumped up and pocketed her map. She took out the cloak and put it around herself. She then put it around Malfoy and dragged him out of the room, before he could say anything. They hurried down the hall and around the corner, when they heard voices.

"Joseph, you can be such a romantic guy," Jane's voice rang through the hall, "Where are we going?"

"Great, this is just what I wanted" Malfoy whispered, "To have my date cut short by the Head couple!"

"I am sorry about that," said Jamie, "I should have thought about it when Jane said they were going to have lunch. Bad timing, eh? I..."

Suddenly, Jamie realized how close she was to Romeo. Romeo smirked at her, leaned in and kissed her. Thirty seconds later, Jamie backed away.

"I should smack you, you know," said Jamie, smirking, "But that was actually nice."

"My thoughts exactly," said Romeo, "I guess that means another date?"

"Yeah," said Jamie, "But... we better go before someone finds us. We already had one close call."

Romeo walked Jamie back to the Gryffindor Common Room and said goodbye. This time it was Jamie who leaned in for the kiss. Thirty seconds later, Romeo backed away, blushing He said he didn't want to get caught near the Gryffindor Common room, and left.

"He can be so annoying sometimes," said Jamie, rolling her eyes, "But that is what makes him cute actually. Buttercup."

The Fat Lady's portrait opened and Jamie went inside, back to the warmth of the Gryffindor common room.

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I know, I know... awww! Right? That was the point of the chapter... that was really fun to write. Not sure if I can get another chapter up today... might be lucky enough to, you never know.

Feedback... as always, is much appreciated.