A Room for the Night

It was the week of Halloween, and the weather had finally turned. Hermione met Harry for breakfast on Tuesday with a new twinkle in her eye. Now what! Harry didn't mind her moods anymore, because they all seemed to be good, and he was learning to look past the minor irritations in his life. After all, when you know that someday it's either you or Voldemort, little things become really insignificant...not that he thought what they were planning was little or insignificant.

"Now what's got you all excited," Harry asked with his mouth full of bacon.

"Thursday!"

"So, what about Thursday," Harry continued. Thursday was Halloween, but other then that it was just another day unless she meant...that.

"Thursday is our anniversary. It's a special day, and I want to celebrate."

"Anniversary of what," Harry asked.

"Five years ago, you saved me from the troll, and now I want to celebrate by having you save me again." Hermione's face was covered with the silliest _expression he'd ever seen, but lately new expressions were becoming a regular occurrence between them.

"Okay, I'll bite. I can understand the troll, but what am I saving you from this time."

She moved closer to him and whispered. "I'm tired of being the Scarlet Woman, and I want you to save me from my terrible future as an unfulfilled woman."

Harry turned red, which was rapidly becoming his most common color when they were together. That soon? Somehow setting a date made it even more intimidating. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, but I...I mean we... need to find the right place."

"How about the storeroom...or maybe the Room of Requirement?"

"I thought about that, but once we activate it, other people can see the door, and we might be interrupted. That's not something I want to think about ever happening."

Harry was quick to agree that interruptions weren't part of the plan.

"I've got an idea," she said. "Since I don't have a class this morning, let me go exploring."

"Don't let Filch catch you, or there'll be all kinds of trouble."

"Don't you see? I can tell Filch that I saw someone wandering around, and as a Prefect I needed to insure that no student was out of bounds. He has to accept that, and I can go almost anywhere."

Hermione had obviously given this some thought, and Harry was happy to let her work it out. He had to admit all of her plans for them had been okay so far, not withstanding the breast charm.

After breakfast, she started down the third floor corridor where Fluffy used to hang out, looking in each room to see what was there. This part of the castle wasn't used much, and there were lots of vacant rooms. Near the end of the corridor, she found just what she wanted. It was an old classroom, probably used for magical creatures, judging from the cages and the debris on the floor. In the back was a smaller space, about the size of a bedroom, with a few shelves and not much else. It did have an outside window for light, and the door was stout and solid. She spent a few minutes looking over everything and decided this was the place.

In the next hour, she cleaned the room, conjured some decorations that made it more pleasant, and moved in two simple chairs from the classroom. Upon leaving, she cast several spells and charms on the door, ensuring that it couldn't be opened without a lot of work, and then similarly blocked access within the room. It would take an army to get in, short of Apparation, and she knew that couldn't be done at Hogwarts.

Now there was only one thing left to do, and she wandered around the castle looking for two chairs that would complete her plan. It didn't take long.

"I found a great place for us," she reported during lunch. Harry wanted to respond, but she kept running her hand up and down his leg, making normal speech almost impossible. Harry WAS responding to her touch, and Hermione knew it. She kept up a conversation, while almost making him explode. He tried to keep a neutral _expression, lest Ron and Neville notice his dilemma. Once she leaned over and whispered in his ear, "It serves you right for all the tickling. You have no one but yourself to blame, Potter."

Harry thought that Thursday was going to get here way too fast, but it seemed to be taking forever.