Safe

Chapter 3: Turning Point

Hermione remained facing away from the door when Malfoy dropped in. She was still furious about their argument the previous day. There was the over exaggerated sound of him slamming the platter down on the wooden table. Hermione did not flinch at the noise. Instead, she huffed aloud to show her utter annoyance.

"Get over it, Granger" Malfoy snarled in her ear. Surprised by the sudden sentence, Hermione instinctively brought her hand up to swat him away. Rather than doing so, she hit him across the face. Hard.

The sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed through the room, and Hermione felt a small stinging sensation in the back of her hand. She turned onto her back to see Malfoy keeled over, resting his palm over his cheek.

"That was a powerful swing, Granger," he said. To her, it didn't sound like a compliment. More of a realization. "Bloody powerful."

Hermione ignored him and found the tray of food. She was almost ready to take her first bite of broiled tomatoes when Malfoy broke down into tears. She looked at him with a sideways glance, wondering if her strike had hurt him that badly. However, it didn't look like a pained cry.

"Are you alright?"

Malfoy looked up at her, tears still falling from his silver eyes. "No, Granger," he said with the classic Malfoy sarcasm. "I'm bloody ecstatic."

"I'm serious, Malfoy. Are you really okay?"

Though they still carried a hint of sadness, Malfoy's eyes sharpened. "Since when do you care?"

To be honest, Hermione hadn't thought of that. When someone cried, her first reaction would be to ask how they were. Not wanting another argument, Hermione replied, "Fine. Forget I asked, then." With that, she stood up and went to the back, where the concealed wall was. She started to feel around, thinking it was some sort of secret passageway. "What's back there?"

"So you're just going to change the subject?"

Without looking back at him, she retorted, "You wouldn't answer me. What else was I supposed to do?"

The next time Malfoy spoke, his voice sounded less tear-stricken. "It's a hidden room. If you pull a certain book, it'll open and a hidden reading room's back there. I also thought it would be helpful if one of them came in here, you'd be able to go in there to hide."

"Which book do I pull?" she asked quickly, intrigued by the magic required for that.

"A History of Magic," said Malfoy simply like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "What else?"

"Bloody prick." Hermione located A History of Magic on the top shelf, it being the dustiest of the all of the other books, though it was probably the most used. She pulled on it, and it left the shelf, dropping into her hand. The two shelves creaked and shifted open, revealing a small room with the same dark walls. There was a black chandelier lighting most of the room, a circular table rounded perfectly on the outline of the light created by the chandelier, and work chairs set around it. There was an even larger collection of books in this room, and Hermione was fascinated.

She wandered into the room and looked around, in complete awe. She looked at her selection of books, most of them by wizarding authors, but Hermione did recognize a few from Muggle novelists. She spun around to ask Malfoy about the odd choice of books, and found him standing at the entrance to the room, looking less distressed. He was leaning against the "door" frame, with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face.

"Confused?" he asked, nodding to the case where most of the Muggle authors were. Hermione nodded. "I find those quite interesting."

Hermione, feeling somewhat relieved, looked at the Muggle writings Malfoy chose. "William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Victor Hugo. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity seeing Draco Malfoy reading Muggle books."