The Room of Requirement\'s Most Treasured Secret

Chapter Two

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When Hermione woke up the next morning the first thing that popped into her head was, ' I'll tell Harry and Ron to meet me somewhere and then I'll drop the bomb.' But as she got dressed for her first day of Christmas break she started to have second thoughts. ' Why tell them so soon? I mean, I do have two weeks right? What's the point of ruining our whole Christmas break by telling them now?' She was still lost in thought when she descended the stairs from her dormitory and then the steps towards the Great Hall, so lost in her own head that she didn't see Ginny and ran straight into the young redhead.

"What the- Oh, it's you Hermione. Hey is something the matter?" said Ginny worriedly, "Hello....? Hermione? Are you even listening to me?" she asked waving a hand in front of her friend's face.

"Huh? What? Oh, I'm sorry Ginny, I didn't see you there," said Hermione.

"Obviously! You ran right into me! Hermione? Are you ok, you seem....a bit preoccupied. What's the matter?" said Ginny leading Hermoine away from the noisy hall.

"It's nothing..." said Hermione trailing off.

"Okay, if you run into me and don't even hear the five questions that I ask you, then there's definitely nothing wrong," said the redhead with a sarcastic tone.

"Mm hm," said Hermione, lost in her own world again.

"If you didn't even catch that sarcasm, then there is definitely something the matter with you," said Ginny. She led her troubled friend to Owlery where she cleaned up a bit of the floor with a scourging charm and sat Hermione down. "Okay... Hermione! Look at me! What has got you so lost in your head that you don't even know where you are?!" she said quizzically.

Hermione finally woke up out of her trance and viewed her surroundings, looking like, as Ginny had said, she had absolutely no clue how she got there. Ginny got up and placed a charm on the door so that it wouldn't unlock unless she told it to. "Now," Ginny said forcefully, "you're going to tell me what's wrong or you're not getting out of here until the end of Christmas break!"

"Ginny, it's really nothing, just... if I tell you, you have to promise that you will never tell a soul, especially your brother."

"Fine, fine, I get it, now spit it out!" said Ginny urgently.

"Okay, well it all happened three months ago...."

Draco sighed. He had caught himself staring at Granger during Potions once again. He'd been doing this since this their third year, when Hermione had smacked him right across the face after Draco had been insulting Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper, a good friend of Hermione's. This sudden powerful Hermione had really turned him on, made him see her in a different light.

Then in their fourth year, at the Yule Bull, he saw he developed a physical attraction to her... he had never seen her out of school robes.... Damn, those Hogwarts clothes had hidden so much of her petite, yet elegant figure.

He had often found himself actually trying to talk to her, but somehow he always had to spit up an insult. Why did he have to do that? He knew that he felt some sort of complicated emotion about her, but it was just that. Complicated. Whenever he saw her he felt overjoyed, excited, nervous, happy, anxious, confused and angry all at the same time. He was furious with himself for wanting to be around her, because if he felt what he thought he felt, he would be disgracing his morals, his whole way of life for sixteen years. Not even considering the fact that his reputation would be beyond repairing. He wouldn't even be able to transfer to Durmstrang without everyone hearing about 'Draco Malfoy the mudblood lover.' And if he did tell Granger about his feelings she would be so utterly repulsed that she would consider him even lower than the dirt on her shoes. (mind you she already thought of him as a bug, and a nasty bug at that)

The bell rang waking Draco up out of his daydream. He put his horrendously awful potion that he fouled up, into a vial and took it up to Snape's desk. He then left the dungeon wondering what the possibilities of Hermione ever looking at him without a disgusted look of hate in her eyes, when a voice brought him crashing back to reality.

"Draco! Wait up!" said a black-haired, handsome Slytherin boy running to catch up with him followed by two girls.

"Hey Zabini, what's going on?" said Draco smoothly.

"Nothing really. Hey are you going to Hogsmead?" said Blaise wiping his hair out of his eyes.

"Oh, I forgot, yeah I guess I'll go," said Draco.

"I thought that because Crabbe and Goyle were gonna be in detention that you might want to go with me, Pansy, and Millie," said Blaise

"Sure," said Draco, his eyes brightening up slightly. He didn't want to go by himself but he would never let Blaise know that. They dropped their bags off at their common room and started talking about Slytherin's defeat of Hufflepuff in Quidditch the day before. They headed towards the front doors that were already packed with the students milling around wanting freedom from Hogwarts for an afternoon.

"I can't believe that you caught the snitch right under Macmillan's nose after just five minutes!" said Millicent in awe, as they finally got to the door and waited for Filch to check their names of his incredibly long list.

"Well you now that, besides me being such a excellent flyer, Huffelpuff's a push-over! I mean as if I had any chance if not getting the snitch!" said Malfoy proudly, when a voice with malice on it cut through his gloating, causing him to turn around.

"Well we could move if Malfoy's ego wasn't blocking the way!" said Hermione, glaring at the blonde with hateful eyes. Ginny was right beside her, talking to Luna not paying attention to what Hermione was saying.

Draco looked at her with love in his eyes that, quick as lightening, vanished and spite replaced it along with a smirk to accompany it.

"Well, Granger, my ego tends to swell when I'm around mudbloods. Sorry, nasty condition, its hereditary actually. Just dreadful isn't it!" said Draco sarcastically, "Well I must go, prolonged exposure to strange people like yourself does awful things to my health." And with that he turned and strolled down the path with Blaise, Pansy, and Millicent rolling with laughter.

Damnit! I did it again! Draco thought to himself as the foursome trooped down the winding path towards the magical village of Hogsmead.

"Do you guys want to go to Honeydukes?" asked Pansy, shivering, as she stared hungrily at the mountains of sweets in the candy shop window.

"Sure," said Blaise and Millicent in unison. When they didn't get a response from Draco they turned and looked at him to find him staring off at a group of Gryffindors that they couldn't recognize from a distance.

"Draco?" asked Millicent, watching him like he might combust at any moment, "are you coming?" The blonde snapped back to reality and looked at them with a look that plainly said I-don't-want-to-be-with-you-so-leave-me-alone.

"Umm, I left my cloak in the castle. I need to go back and get it. Go ahead, I'll be right back," he said. But when they turned to go into Honeydukes he headed for the spot where the Gryffindors were just standing.

"What's up with him? He's wearing his cloak!" asked Blaise, staring after his friend with interest.

What am I doing? Draco asked himself as he hurriedly walked towards the frozen spot of ground where his crush was just standing talking to her younger redheaded friend. You're going and telling Hermione what you really think of her, he answered himself. I must be insane!

Why was Malfoy looking at me so weirdly? Hermione asked herself as she, Ginny, and Luna walked into The Three Broomsticks and ordered their selves some butterbeer. His insults haven't been as evil lately. I bet he has something up his sleeve. She wasn't paying attention to Ginny and Luna as they called over their boyfriends, Ernie and Colin. So when Ginny asked her if she didn't mind if her and Luna went to Madame Puddyfoots without her she wondered who they were going with.

She soon got bored and decided to pay for her butterbeer so she could go to Zonko's joke shop and try and find Harry and Ron. As she walked she heard footsteps behind her. She pulled out her wand and found herself face to face with a tall blonde boy.

"Tsk, Tsk, Granger. You could poke someone's eye out with that," said Draco coolly, but with much less hate in it as he would normally have said it.

"What do you want Malfoy, I'm kind of busy," said Hermione hatefully, but not before she noticed how different he looked up close. Kind, dashing, even (dare she say it) handsome.

"I was just wondering if you would want to accompany me on a walk," he said with out a trace of dislike on his voice.

I knew he was up to something! Hermione thought to herself as she pondered what she should do. I can't go! He's definitely got something up his sleeve, why should I trust him? Because he is actually acting nice for once, why not give him a chance?

"Why?" she asked him questionably.

"Why not? I have something to show you," he said innocently.

"How can I be sure that I can trust you?" she asked.

"There's a little thing called faith. You might want to try giving some to people sometime, they might surprise you," he said offering her his arm.

"Alright, but any sort of attempt of some sort of plan and you'll get a bit of Ginny's Bat-bogey curse." She said smoothly, putting her wand back in her pocket and taking his arm.

They strolled towards the mountain where Harry, Ron, and Hermione once met Sirius in their fourth year. They walked around the large gardens and talked casually about their classes and other things that were happening around school.

Hermione actually found out that she was enjoying herself, and became increasedly aware of Draco's arm around hers.

"So, what was it that you wanted to show me," she asked, breaking the silence of the last few minutes.

"It's coming up," he said as they reached the forest on the edge of the last house's backyard. They walked on for about five more minutes and then she saw it. It was a small clearing and in the middle was an elegant statue. The ground and trees surrounding the clearing were covered in a blanket of snow, making the clearing look like a picture.

"Wow," Hermione said softly, letting go of Draco's arm to explore. She cautiously walked up to the statue and saw that it was a young couple, facing each other and looking into each other's eyes. As she came up to the stone couple she saw that they looked surprisingly familiar. Hermione studied their faces for a few more seconds and saw that they looked exactly like Draco and herself. She spun around quickly and saw that Draco had moved from his place at the opening of the clearing and was standing no more than a foot from her.

"What is this?" she asked. I knew something was going to happen! Why is he so close and why is this statue here?

"Do you like it?" Draco asked backing away a little.

"It's beautiful, but you didn't answer my question. What is this?" she asked again.

"Its my own creation, I'm glad you like it," Draco said.

"What are you taking about? You aren't making sense!" she exclaimed, "Oh, wait a second. Does this mean that...no that can't be right. Unless...."

Draco sat down on a stone bench and sighed. "My god Granger, I thought that you were supposed to have a lot of common sense! Yes that's what it means! Do I have to spell it out for you? I, Draco Malfoy, fancy you. There I said it. Now go on, laugh. I just had to tell you," he said, "I guess I'll go now, just do me the favor and keep my humiliation confined to anyone except Potter." And he turned to leave.

"Accidentally in love," Hermione whispered softly, "Draco wait a minute! Come here, I need to talk to you!"

The blonde spun around with surprise, but quickly sat down next to Hermione on the bench.

"So, this is why you've been acting so weird this year," she said calmly, amazed by herself that she wasn't repulsed by the thought of Draco Malfoy liking her.

"Apparently, I mean its not like I've tried to like you. No offence, but I've actually tried to hate you. I used to despise you, completely," he continued, " But I've found that I really don't. You're different than any girl that I've ever liked. The most important factor in that is that I could never have you. You absolutely hate me and that's never happened to me before. You are so...amazing that I....can't even find the words to tell you!"

Through Draco's whole spilling out-his-heart speech Hermione sat there and soaked this up. Oh my god! Is this really happening? My most hated enemy is spilling out his heart and soul to me and telling me that he loves me and all I'm doing is sitting here with my mouth open. Maybe I do like him I mean I've never really thought about it. Well now the chance to find out. Do something Hermione, do something!

Draco had finally stopped and was staring at Hermione waiting for her answer. Oh God I knew this was going to happen. Why did I tell her? I am so stupid! "Well?" he said.

She put her hand on his and looked at him. "Well, I was just thinking about what everyone's going to think when they find out that we're going out," she said smiling.

"Really? Are you serious?" he said looking the happiest that Hermione had every seen him. Hermione nodded, still smiling. And with that he got up, pulling her with him and kissed her. A simple, innocent kiss that lasted only a few seconds. Only when they were walking back to Hogsmead they decided not to tell everyone just yet. They thought that it might...upset some people. (To put it lightly) So they decided to slowly become less and less hateful towards each other until they were on friendly terms with the other so it wouldn't be such a shock that they were going out. And the rest is history.

"I never knew that's what you were doing that day. You just told me that you went for a walk," said Ginny, her eyes wide with awe that he friend could keep a secret that big from her for that long.

"And that's exactly what I did, but it was so much more," said Hermione sighing.

"I can see why you didn't want to tell Ron or Harry. You can trust me. My lips are sealed."