Draco followed Harry through the twists and turns of the castle until Harry suddenly stopped.

'Well, I think we ignore the Professors on one little detail.'

'What's that?'

'Where we start. Room of Requirement's what we need- that's where you-know-who checked on his Horcrux. I know exactly where it is.'

'But how are we going to destroy it. I don't want to create fiendfyre inside- that's just plain stupid.'

'Okay. If that's what you reckon. What else could we use?'

'Basilisk venom? It's not as if there isn't a supply nearby.'

'Yeah, can do. But don't you need me to get into the chamber?'

'Hardly. If we can't brute force our way in then we can always just try copying you.'

'How?'

'I've got a good memory for these things, and perhaps more to the point you talk in your sleep.'

'Do I really?'

'Oh yes, and after having shared a dorm with you for six years and a room with you for the last few months, I know more about your dreams than I want to.'

'Sorry.'

'No problem. It gave me a good chance to practise silencing charms.'

'Oi!'

'It did though- anyway. You've got something to find, have you. I'm heading then. Fancy coming with me, Hermione?'

'Love to.'

'See you later then Harry. Meet you back here?'

'No, I'll see you in Myrtle's bathroom.'

'Got it. Good luck, and keep an eye on the map. You never know who you might run into.'

'Take care yourself.'

'We'll be fine.'

Hermione led the way as they rushed through the corridors half running, half walking down staircases their feet pounding like pistons and into Myrtles' bathroom.

'Now, we need to find the right sink. It's yes. It's this one.'

'Well, what do you need to say?'

'Errm. Oh yes.' Draco leant in and whispered something to the snake. Slowly the tap unscrewed itself, as if to turn on, but no water came out. Then the sink sank slowly into the floor to reveal a great hole in the wall, with a shaft sunk beneath it.

'So we have to go down there?'

'Yeah. Might be a bit mucky, I think the last person to clean it was Lockhart, sliding down on his backside.'

'Charming.'

'Well, true. Don't worry, lower yourself in and lie back, you'll be at the bottom, crunching on rat bones before you know it.'

'Rat bones?' '

Yeah, there's loads down there. I thought you'd known.'

'No, I didn't go down with you, remember.'

'I remember, you were out cold. I missed you loads. That's why I came down here, I suppose. At the time, I think I told myself it was all about helping Harry, or rescuing Ron's sister. Now though.'

'You think it was about getting vengeance on whatever took me from you?'

'Maybe. I didn't think about it at the time, but it might have been a contributing factor.'

'Well, let's go down. Do you think we could go down together?'

'Yeah, it's certainly big enough.'

'Come here then.'

Draco stepped close to Hermione and pulled her close, before taking one foot to the side and stepping into the abyss. They fell together for what seemed an age, down, down, down the greasy, slimy and generally dirty pipe until it levelled off and they came flying out of an opening and found themselves hitting the floor rather hard.

'Ow.'

'What's wrong?'

'I had a bit of a hard landing?'

'I had a lovely and soft one.'

'I know Hermione. I was the soft thing. Cor, I don't think I'm going to be the same after that.' Draco said, rubbing the bits that ached.

'Well, we just have to follow the tunnel now. This way.'

Draco made to lead the way down the tunnel when Hermione stopped him.

'Wait up. You've got a rat skull biting into you, well, your clothes at least.' Hermione bent over to brush the bones off of his trousers.'

'There we go. Carry on.'

'Thanks Hermione.'

'Not at all.'

They proceeded down the tunnel.

'Is that the snake skin you told me about?'

'Yeah, it's a bit sadder now then it was then. It's really lost most of everything that you could call shape now.'

'Still huge.'

'Yeah. We should have brought it up years ago, think of how cool it would be to have a pair of basilisk skin gloves for potion work.'

'Do they offer much protection?'

'No idea. Still cool though.'

'If you say so. What's that up there?'

'That? It's a door.'

'Really? Do you have the key?'

'In a way.'

Draco walked up to the door and spoke at it in parseltongue, or at least, a good enough impression of it for the door to open.

'Mind yourself, there's a bit of a jump down, or you could use the ladder.'

'Thanks. I think I'll jump.' Hermione said to draco, who was already at the bottom, having jumped himself.

'So this is the chamber.'

'Yeah, bit dark though. Lumos. There we go. There's a great big statue of Slytherin at the end, and just in front of that is the skeleton of a whacking great snake. There's not really that much else here, all thing said and done. Got a bag for the fangs?'

'A leather one?'

'Perfect.'

'I'll dig it out of the bag.'

'You do that, I'll get on with getting the fangs out. Make sure you don't prick yourself. I don't want this going all Rome and Juliet on us.'

'But that's so romantic.'

'Romantic, maybe, but at the end of it all everyone's dead and for no good reason. If you want romance, we can go out for a candlelit dinner.'

'Now?'

'Well, not now, there's sort of saving the world to do, and then probably a bit more after that, but as soon as we can. I promise. I know a nice little place we can go to. It's not magical or anything, but I think you'd like it.'

'I'll hold you to that.'

'I take it you'll let me off if I'm dead?'

'Perhaps. But that's not going to happen. I don't want you going all Romeo on me. No stabbing yourself, remember?'

'I'll try. Got the fangs bagged up. Let's go. I haven't worked out how we're going to get back up that tunnel yet.'

'How did you get out last time?'

'Fawkes gave us a lift- You know, Dumbledore's phoenix- I think we'll have to try a bit harder this time.'

'Yeah. Fancy trying to fly out.'

'I haven't brought my broom.'

'Neither have I, but you can fly without them.'

'No I can't, never done it in my life.'

'Have you tried?'

'Once. It didn't work.'

'Any idea what you did wrong?'

'Oh yes. Jumping out of an upstairs window isn't usually the best way to go about these things. Look, I was only four. I know its daft, but I survived.'

'How?' Oh, my magic kicked in and caught me, either that or there was some really strong wind, just enough to take me to the pond.'

'Fancy giving it another go?'

'Yeah, as much as I want to spend the rest of my life with you, I don't want to spend it with you down here.'

'Come on then.' Hermione stuck her hand out. Draco grasped it and thought about flying. It didn't work.

'Well, worth a go, I suppose.'

'Yeah. We can still get out though.'

'How?'

'Well, we can walk a long way up that pipe, then we can shuffle up it, you know, back to one wall, feet up the other and move.

'You might be able to do that, but I can't. My legs aren't long enough.'

'No. Well, you can grab hold of me and think light thoughts. I'll do my best to get us out.'

'Do you think you can?'

'I don't know. It's worth a go though. Come on.' They walked up the tunnel until the angle began to change and they stopped, Draco put his back to one wall and raised each foot up one at a time. There. With a slight bend in his knees, Draco anchored himself in place. Hermione sat on his lap and slowly Draco began to climb. Slithering his back from side to side like a Snake, he began to walk his feet up the other wall. Slowly but surely they climbed.

'My legs are getting pretty tired, Hermione.'

'You can do it Draco. I don't want to go back down there again.'

'Alright.'

Draco resumed the strange motion, his feet walking up the vertical wall and his back snaking to keep the other side moving. Before long though he was reaching the point where his legs were going to give out.

'Hermione. I don't think I can carry on.'

'Yes you can. You don't have any choice. I can see the light up there coming from the bathroom. We must be getting close. Come on. What use is it you spending so much time playing cricket if you can't climb up a great big pipe?'

'It's miles long, Hermione. I think I've done rather a good job as is.'

'Not good enough yet. Get to the top and I'll give you a surprise.'

'A good surprise, or a bad one?'

'A good one. I promise you you'll enjoy it.'

'Alright. Stay with me, Hermione.'

'I don't plan on going anywhere else for a while yet.'

Draco once more began to move up the pipe, each yard harder than the last, every inch costing him more and more in effort. He was nearing the top when one of his legs started shaking uncontrollably.

'It's not very comfortable, you keeping on doing that, Draco.'

'Sorry, I can't help it. My leg's getting tired. I don't think it likes it much.'

'Neither do I.'

'Sorry.'

'Don't worry. We're nearly there. Not long. Just don't give up now.'

Draco once more willed his legs into action, each of them feeling like jelly after who knew how long climbing. He got a couple of yards further and stopped.

'Come on.'

'Just taking a breather. You couldn't rub my legs could you? It might help, but if I move my back forward then there's a fair chance that we'll end up repeating our downward journey.'

'Ok. How's this?'

'Great. That leg almost feels as if it's attached to me now. Thanks.'

'Do you think you'll be ready when I've given the other one a rub?'

'Yeah.'

'Will that do?'

'I suppose so. Grab hold. Next stop, somewhere further up this blasted pipe.'

'It's not far, I can see the hole now. It's getting much bigger.'

'Do you think you can reach it?'

'Not yet. Another couple of feet and maybe.'

'Okay. How about now?'

'Not quite. My fingertips are there.'

'Right, moving up.'

Draco climbed another three of four steps up the wall.

'Now?'

'Yeah. I can get an okay grip now.'

'Go on then.'

'Right.'

Hermione pulled her arms up and placed them on the ledge, then she started to pull herself up, until her armpits were firmly wedged against the ledge.

'Hermione! There you are.'

''Don't stand about, Harry, give us a hand.'

'Us?'

'I'm half standing on Draco.'

'Exactly where I'm not going to mention, but if you'd move your foot I'd be grateful, came a pained voice from the pipe.'

'Sorry.'

'That's better.'

Harry bent down, grabbed hold of Hermione's hand and started to pull. Slowly Hermione came up and then she was out, her legs scrambling along to get her away from the edge.

'You're out then. How did you manage it?'

'We climbed.'

'Up what, that pipe's as slippery as. Draco?'

'Yeah.'

'What's the slipperiest thing you can think of?'

'This pipe.'

'Yeah. That pipe's as slippery as that pipe. How did you manage it?'

'Well, Draco did most of the work, actually.'

'Yes. And Draco's still stuck down here, so if you don't mind getting me out first, I'd be grateful.'

'Coming, Draco.' Leaning down over the edge they grabbed Draco's arms and pulled whilst he walked the rest of the way up with his legs. When he was out, Draco lay on the floor, panting.

'Tired?'

'You have no idea. I think my legs are about to fall off.'