by Angelkatt
 
 

Chapter 4
 

"Hey, Harry." Ron nudged him, "Where do you suppose Hermione is?"

Harry only shrugged. The two friends were getting worried about the girl. First she runs off
after Malfoy, of all people, and then the both of them had missed dinner. Sure it wasn't
uncommon for she-who-lives-in-the-library to miss a meal, but the thought of her with Malfoy
did not give them any assurance.

"I hope she's all right. Malfoy better not have done something to her, or else..."

"Relax Ron. Crippled kid doesn't stand a chance against our Hermione." Harry was glad those
words eased Ron's mind. He just wished he believed them too. Who knew what Malfoy would
put Hermione through?
 

*****

"Stop it! I can't take your whining anymore!" Hermione was almost in tears. Draco Malfoy, the
most spoiled brat she knew, was also the biggest complainer in the world.

"My whining? Take in our situation right now. All you have to say is you can't stand my whining?"
Draco remarked as the two of them were venturing down the long-lost hallway of Hogwarts. "I'm
sure the all mighty Hermione has something to say too."

"But then I'm sinking to your level, aren't I? I mean, I could complain about how it's hard enough
to be stuck with you, but to be alone, lost and stuck with you...about how it's just my luck we've
found, and gotten lost, in some weird limbo hall...but no. I have to keep a positive attitude so I
can figure a way to get us out because Snape will dance the polka before you stop complaining
and help!"

"Erm..." Draco blinked a few times as he watched her, unsure of what to say. "I take it back. You
just continue suffering in silence."

She gave him a look. "Thank you ever so much. I would hate to annoy you with my complaining.
Just because it was you who tried to kill Harry and then ran out of the library."

"And who told you to follow or help me?" Draco retorted.

"Professor McGonagall."

"Oh, right."

Hermione sighed. "Okay, this isn't getting us anywhere. Let's just put our differences aside and
work on getting out of here."

Draco nodded. "I agree. We will make that our first priority, no matter how much we want to argue."

"Great! Now that we have that worked out, all we need to do is--"

"Hermione?"

"Ginny! What are you doing here?" Hermione had never been so glad to see the redhead.

"What are you talking about? You're in the Gryffindor hall." Ginny eyed Malfoy and leaned closer
to Hermione to whisper, "How did you smuggle a Slytherin in Gryffindor? What's he doing here?"

Hermione reddened. She looked around and sure enough, she recognized her location as the
Gryffindor Hall. "It's not what it look like. We got lost..."

"In the Gryffindor Tower?" Ginny was confused.

"Never mind." She turned to Draco. "Let's go."

He was a little preoccupied, examining the core of his house rival's base. If he could just
memorize and draw out blueprints, think of how useful that would be. Maybe he could even
sell it to other Slytherins to waste their little allowances on. Oh, the possibilities...

"Ugh, you little rat..." Hermione figured out why he was so interested and promptly wheeled
him back out, hopefully without incident. And that's when they ran into Professor McGonagall.
 

*****

After making sure both students were in their respective dorms, Minerva tiredly went to
Dumbledore. She stopped as she approached her own room, realizing it was too late to bother
the Headmaster at that instant.

'I highly respect that man, but I wish he could see all the trouble this is. A Gryffindor in the
Slytherin dungeons is bad enough, but to have a Slytherin infiltrate the Gryffindor Tower? That
is just not acceptable.' She thought to herself. 'I shall take this matter up to Dumbledore again
tomorrow.'
 

*****

By the next morning, most of Gryffindor had heard at least one rumour about what happened.
The impossible had occured. Some Slytherin had either manipulated Hermione into letting him in,
threatened to kill her if the password wasn't given to him, or Draco Malfoy and Hermione
Granger were caught snogging in the common room.

"Harry! Where is Hermione? What is all this about?" Ron had just finished hearing Seamus'
retelling to what happened the night before.

"I don't know. Hermione hasn't come down yet." Harry was really angry at all this talk behind
his friend's back. He knew there was a logical explanation. He would have accepted her reason
for bringing Malfoy into Gryffindor Tower to murder him and chop him into pieces more than
she willingly sneak him in.

"Everyone keeps twisting my words!" Ginny explained desperately. "It wasn't like that."

"You know what happened?" Ron eyed has sister suspiciously.

"She didn't even know she was in the Gryffindor Tower." Ginny frowned.

"Didn't know? Please! What kind of excuse is that?"

Suddenly the whole common room went quiet as everyone watched Hermione come out of the
girl's dorm. Seeing all the attention she had, she covered her face with her hands and shook her
head. After theat one second of silence was over, the whole Gryffindor House crowded around
her and were talking all at once.

"Is it true?"

"Did Malfoy cast a spell on you?"

"Hermione--"

"Hey Hermione--"

Everyone talked at once while waiting for her reply. All she could so was sigh and hope Draco
was in a similarly horrible situation himself.
 

*****

Meanwhile in the Slytherin common room, the great Draco Malfoy was up and gracing his
housemates with his presence.

"Morning all."

"Heard you saw Gryffindor Tower last night." Blaise commented casually.

"Indeed I did." He grinned.

"Cool."

"Yup." Draco then frowned. "Is that all? 'Cool'?" But Blaise and the other Slytherins were too
busy trying to dent the walls by throwing books at it. Draco rolled his eyes and went off.
 

*****

Hermione was definitely not looking forward to meeting Draco that day. But really, who could
blame her? She was used to being talked about, because she was so annoyingly academically
gifted and was friends with the great Harry Potter, but any rumour with Malfoy tended to get
blown out of porportion.

"Malfoy?" Hermione called when they both had their breakfast in hand. "Just to make it clear,
we're no eating at the Gryffindor table. Not that I would give up sitting with my friends to eat
with you, but since I have no choice, we're not going to be seen by them."

"No problems here. I'd rather die than eat with you Gryffindorks anyway."

"We're not eating with the Slytherins, either. No force on this planet can make me hang around
with you guys more than I have to." Hermione strictly stated. Draco's mouth curved into a sly grin.

"If I didn't know better, Granger, I'd say you were trying to get me alone."

Hermione just rolled her eyes and exited the the Great Hall without waiting for Draco. "In your
dreams."
 
 
 

Back to Chapter 3
Chapter 5