Lust, War, and... Love?

Chapter 12: Meeting

    Draco and Hermione tiptoed back. Padma and Theo did not seem to notice anything.

"They are supposed to be patrolling!" whispered Hermione.

"Shush..." Draco leaned to her ear. "They're done with their patrol, Granger. They're free to do whatever they want!"

The rule-abiding Gryffindor was not relenting. "Then they ought to be in their dorms. How are we going to get past them?"

"You're a real stickler for rules. Watch." Draco pulled Hermione after him into a classroom. He lit up his wand, looked around and picked up a shred of a parchment from the floor. In a second he transfigured it into a small stone, poked his head out the door, threw the pebble down the corridor and ducked back. The stone rattled on the floor, and they heard a muffled exclamation. Then the retreating steps resounded in the hallway.

"You've spooked them," chuckled Hermione. Draco grinned.

When they came near the Fat Lady, Draco pulled Hermione closer and kissed her lips lightly like he did after their first night together. She did not resist and it made him feel good.

"Cardamom." The Fat Lady opened her eyes, yawned and swung forward. Hermione climbed into the portrait hole. Her bulging bag burst open. She looked down and spotted one of her books on the floor right under the closed hole. The same second she heard Draco's departing steps. Hermione stuck her head out to check if she had dropped anything outside and saw Draco's back retreating in the direction exactly opposite to the stairs down to the dungeons. What was he up to?

Hermione abandoned her bag and clambered out of the portrait hole. Her shoes in hand, she stole after him, trying to blend in with the wall. Malfoy turned into the corridor leading to the Astronomy Tower.

Hermione peeked around the corner: Draco was nowhere in sight. The hulk of the Astronomy Tower loomed in the tall windows. Suddenly, Hermione saw something.

A hooded figure on a broom, bathed in the moonlight, slid off a window two floors above the corridor Hermione was in. The person flew over a gable and disappeared. She held her breath for a second, then hurried to the Tower.

She entered the steep stairs in the Tower warily, straining her hearing for any noise, no matter how small. Discerning no sign of a living soul, Hermione tiptoed up the worn-out stone steps. Nobody was present on the second landing, nor did she find anyone on the third landing. She backtracked down the spiral stairs and lit up her wand. A bag sat under the window on the landing. It was unmistakably Malfoy's. Hermione darted to the window and scanned the view for anyone on a broom nearby. No one was in sight.

Hermione eyed the bag for a moment. Could anything in it provide a cue for Draco's broomstick ride at night? She tested the window - it was not locked, nor was it sealed by charms. While all the windows were magically locked on the lower floors, they apparently neglected the towers, reasoning that no one would be likely to climb that high.

Hermione dipped her hand into the bag. It seemed to have no bottom. She sensed something that felt like a cauldron and pulled it halfway out. Merlin, how did Malfoy manage to stuff a whole cauldron in his bag? Hermione didn't extract it all the way fearing that she wouldn't be able to squeeze the bulky cauldron back. In it she found several bundles of parchments and frantically shuffled through them in the wandlight. Charms and Transfiguration essays, Ancient Runes notes, meaningless doodles, Arithmancy homework... Nothing seemed to offer a clue on the mystery. Then she stumbled upon two pages of parchments that ignited her curiosity. Those were lists of spells that she didn't recall studying in any of their classes. She read Draco's sprawling notes next to some incantations - Deep Seal... Shocking Spell - must be careful ... If the previous spell doesn't work, try this...

There were arrows pointing from one spell to another. Could it indicate the sequence of the incantations? What was the purpose of the enchantments? Hermione took a couple of blank parchments from another bundle, copied the notes magically and pocketed the replicas. She pushed the cauldron with the parchments deep into the bag, rummaged in it more, fished out several textbooks, a scarf, a torn wrapper with cookie remnants, a crumpled magazine with a scantily clad witch on the cover, broken quills and an empty butterbeer bottle, scowled at the inordinate amount of waste in Malfoy's bookbag and shoved everything back into it.

Hermione thought wistfully of Theo and Padma as she hurried back to the portrait hole. Others could have it such a normal way. Talks in the moonlight, romance, courtship... And what did she and Malfoy have? A contract citing sexual positions? Then Hermione recalled their lambada on the bed and her heart fluttered. Now that was confusing...