She let out the trapped breath she had been holding since leaving Draco. Harry, Ginny, Ron and Dean were all huddled around a charmed piece of parchment, where different Quidditch scrimmages played out. Occasionally Harry would move one of the Xs or Os on the paper and it would all start again. Thank the Gods! He had found something better to do with his time than stalk his childhood nemesis…

Hermione gave the small group a wave before she walked as calmly as she could to the stairs that led up to the Girl's Dormitories. Once she was sure she was out of their lines of sight she rushed up the steps and into the shared room she had occupied for the last six years.

Parvati was relaxed back against her headboard reading "Witch Weekly" and looked up at her hasty entrance. She quickly brought down her speed before offering the girl a half smile. Trying not to look suspicious she went over to her trunk and started to gather a pair of pajamas and her shower basics. She figured that was as good of an excuse as any to be running off so late. After a long day it wasn't uncommon for her to use the Prefect's Bathroom for a little R & R.

She felt Patil's stare on the back of her head so it wasn't a surprise when she piped up. "You look keyed up tonight Hermione."

"Oh do I? It has been a long week." She stated as off-handly as she could while she grabbed the top book from the stack of muggle literature she had neatly organized in rows along the back of her trunk.

"Not going to sneak away with Cormac then?" The girl questioned, always the one for gossip.

"Uhhh... No... We decided on the night of the party to just be friends. No real connection there for either of us, unfortunately." She explained as vaguely as she could without digging herself into an even deeper hole when it came to that particular lie.

The dark eyed beauty sighed behind her and she couldn't stop herself from looking over her shoulder to gauge the mock investment in Hermione's life. Parvati continued. "That's a shame."

"I suppose..." She hedged. Unsure of where she was trying to go with the conversation.

"Where are you going then?" She asked out-right.

"To take a bath..."

"Oh right... Duh."

"Was there something more direct that you wanted to say Parvati?" Hermione asked, done playing games with the girl. If she wanted fodder for gossip with Lavender this was a waste of valuable time! She had told Draco she would be there twenty minutes.

"Actually... I have been thinking for a while about how you have such rotten luck when it comes to boys..." The girl shifted on the bed as if uncomfortable with Hermione's unrelenting stare. "And well... You know that people wouldn't judge you if... If you liked girls, right?"

She was shocked into stillness at where the witch's mind had gone. She should have seen it coming considering how old she was and her romantic history, which was admittedly practically none... But she had never given any kind of notions to the contrary of being heterosexual. If anything she would have assumed people thought she just didn't see anyone in a romantic or sexual light.

"Uh... Right. And... I mean, thank you for the... the acceptance, but I don't. Like girls, that is." She told her awkwardly as she turned back and put everything she needed in the bag she normally used to transport her bathroom supplies.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it. I just wanted you to know... That if you did. It wouldn't be as big of a deal as it is in the Muggle World." Parvati rushed out, her cheeks flaming with embarrassment at the social blunder.

"It's fine. Really..."

"If you are sure..."

"I am. Thanks again... I am going to go. Have a good night!" She told her, giving another small smile. It was moments like this that made it hard to dislike her as much as Lavender. The witch might be a gossip, but she also had a sweet side.

"You too. See you around." Patil replied before disappearing back into her magazine.

She picked up the bag and walked from the dorm. Making sure to have her prop slung over her left shoulder so the group waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs would be able to figure out where she was going. She hurried back through the common room, there was no time for any more deviations if she was going to make the constraint she had put on herself.

Plus she now had the added worry of figuring out how to dispel the newest round of rumors that were making the rounds while keeping the only proof she could potentially use hidden. Her life was rapidly turning into an even bigger mess…

-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-

She stood in front of the wall as she stared at the multi-hued gray surface, trying in vain to figure out exactly what to ask of it. She didn't know what he thought up in his mind when he summoned the room! It couldn't be as easy as just asking for it right? She knew from last year that if the occupants did not want to be found it would be impossible to get the door to conjure.

She bit her lip for a second before leaning forward and whispering to the slab of stone directly in her line of sight. "I know this is stupid. But... Could you help me out here? I know that I shouldn't but I really need to get into that room. I desperately need this escape for a little bit and... And that boy in there... He is waiting for me. He actually likes me for some crazy reason. So just let me in... Please?"

"Alright... Now that I am done talking to a fricking piece of rock like an idiot..." She mumbled to herself as she stepped away and started pacing. Mid-stride she made the quick decision to go with the easiest- and least likely to work- option first. "I need a door to Draco Malfoy's room. I need a door to Draco Malfoy's room. I need a door to Draco Malfoy's room."

Hermione closed her eyes tightly. Hoping that whatever magic that controlled the room was able to understand her plea…

Her predicament made her think of Luna and how she could be found doing the exact same thing from time to time. She could not deny that the girl was a gifted witch, but it was hard for Hermione to listen to her when she got a new wacky idea stuck in her brain. Much easier to tune her out while she ranted about moon frogs than try to have a logical conversation about it. If they did end up having a discussion it usually led to Hermione leaving aggravated and Luna staring off dreamily, without a care in the world.

So when Ron had asked her why she talked to the walls one night and the witch had gone into a long description on how Hogwarts would listen to those who slowed down enough to talk. She had tuned out at the beginning thinking it was another ramble along the lines of nargles or dabberblimps. But what if she had been right? Maybe the girl was much more observant than any of them gave her credit for…

She sighed and slowly opened her eyes to peak... A satisfied smirk settled on her face when she saw the door she had asked for in its place on the blank stone wall that had been there moments before. She quickly stepped forward and grasped the cool metal doorknob, afraid it would disappear. For good measure she muttered a quick thank you, before she opened it and stepped inside.

Hermione was momentarily confused at her orientation. Instead of entering and the first thing she saw being the big bed, it was the bookcases... With the actual door to the room occupying its normal space, a few feet away on the wall to her right. She closed the door behind her and watched as it literally fell apart. Much like the entrance to Diagon Alley, but instead of an opening being left, it was an unblemished wall. She turned back to the empty room and shook her head. She must not have been specific enough, but it had still worked so that was all that really mattered.

Draco was nowhere in sight and she found herself wondering if he had decided to bail. She wouldn't be able to blame him if her rude behavior earlier had turned him off…

The realization that she had unrestricted access to the room slowly dawned on her and she set her bag on the cushion of the closest chair before slipping from her cloak and other outerwear. She set them along the back, smoothing out the fabric so it wouldn't crinkle. As soon as she was done she made a beeline for the one item in the room that she had been wanting to explore the most.

The bookshelves…

When she stood in front of the large structures she tried to concentrate on a small section of ten books. Each one stayed the exact same, a distinct and substantial looking outline of the framework was there, but the title was a blurry mess. As if they were enchanted to keep all of their owner's secrets, even his tastes in literature. She reached up and ran her fingers along the bottom of the spines to make sure they were physically there. The soft fraying fabric that made her itch with the want to pull one from the confines of its brothers was very much real.

She knew from her time in the DA classroom that you could summon things that you needed. They had even had a bookcase that held many volumes of works to help on their quest of learning, but it had been a mundane standard storage facility like any other. This was something new and for the moment at least, exciting. It was possible that the thing was like a tiny extension of the room itself. Maybe all she had to do was ask for a title…

Hermione imagined the easiest book for her mind to picture... "A History of Magic". She was on her third copy because she had read the other two to tatters. She watched as the book under her fingers transformed into an exact replica. When she lifted her fingers it morphed back to the obscure hazy version of a book from before. She played with the unique ability for a couple of minutes. Pulling up the various titles that popped into her head.

As the texts became more and more oblique she wondered if it was somehow connected to the Hogwarts shelves... She concentrated on the last book she had studied in the Restricted Section when she was trying to find any information for Harry about horcruxes. She had, of course, found barely anything. Only scraps of extremely vague, not even worth the time, descriptions. Just how far was the bookcases' reach?

A smirk crossed her lips when the ancient tomb came into being under her fingertips. She pulled it from the shelf, opening it carefully so she would not tear the delicate pages. Her eyes ran over the hand-drawn calligraphy. Each word had been carefully etched and flourished by an artist long before it had ended up here- in her hands. Even if the contents were not for the faint of heart, there was no denying the beauty.

Her head turned automatically to the sound of a door opening. And there Draco was... Standing in the doorway of the bathroom.

His hair was still damp and hung onto his forehead messily. The way he was wearing his button up shirt open, showing off those sculpted muscles, made flashbacks of their last time together in the room dance tantalizingly before her eyes. His pants laid loosely on his hips, the fact that he wore no underwear was made apparent by how low they sat. His pubic bone laid just under where the fabric started to cover him from her hungry eyes.

Her mind blanked on what she was doing... And she felt the book slide from her hands, she tried to grab it before it fell to the ground with a loud thump. A blush traveled to her cheeks but she didn't bend down to pick it up, much too distracted by the fine specimen of male standing just a few feet away.

His eyebrow raised as his gaze flicked down to the book and then back up to her. "You should really treat books better, Granger... Especially Family Heirlooms."

Her fingers suddenly felt like she had just dipped them in oil. It was almost as if there was a residue left on her skin from where she had made contact with the cover and pretty pages.

She wondered if it was psychological or if the thing was able to leave traces of the hatred from the generations of owners on her skin…