Draco and Hermione, Love and Hate

Trolls and Duels

    Hermione hadn't gotten another chance to convince Harry not to go to the midnight duel. She sat in her bed staring at nothing. She knew she had to stop Harry, but she wasn't sure how to convince him to quit this escapade.
    Finally at a quarter to eleven Hermione got up and put on her pink bathrobe. She snuck down the spiral staircase into the Gryffindor common room and sat in a chair by the fireplace, a few embers were still aglow.
    Hermione heard quite footsteps, then Harry and Ron appeared, silently trying to sneak away.
    "I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry," said Hermione. She flicked on a lamp and frowned at the two boys.
    "You!" said Ron furiously. "Go back to bed!"
    "I almost told your brother," Hermione snapped, "Percy - he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this."
    "Come on," Harry said to Ron. He pushed the portrait of the Fat Lady and climbed through the hole.
    Hermione wasn't going to give up that easily. She followed Ron through the portrait hole, hissing at them like an angry goose.
    "Don't you care about Gryffindor, do you only care about yourselves, I don't want Slytherin to win the house cup, and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells."
    "Go away."
    Hermione was ready to give up on the two. If they wanted to lose all the points Gryffindor had earned and risk getting expelled that was their problem, not hers. The other Gryffindors can get mad at them, she had warned them.
    "All right, but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so -"
    Hermione didn't get to finish her sentence, and what they were, they didn't find out. Hermione had turned to the portrait of the Fat Lady to get back inside and found herself facing an empty painting. The Fat Lady had gone on a nighttime visit and Hermione was locked out of the Gryffindor tower.
    "Now what am I going to do?" she asked.
    "That's your problem," said Ron. "We've got to go, we're going to be late."
    They left. Hermione thought of what to do for a while and decided to go with then. She ran to catch up with them, reaching them just before they reached the end of the corridor.
    "I'm coming with you," she said.
    "You are not."
    "D'you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all three of us I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you, and you can back me up."
   "You've got some nerve -" said Ron loudly.
    "Shut up, both of you!" said Harry sharply. "I hear something."
    "Mrs. Norris?" breathed Ron, squinting through the dark.
    It wasn't Mrs. Norris. It was Neville. He was curled up on the floor, fast a sleep, but jerked suddenly awake as they creeped nearer.
    "Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed."
    "Keep your voice down, Neville. The password's 'Pig snout' but it won't help you now, the Fat Lady's gone off somewhere."
    "How's your arm?" said Harry.
    "Fine," said Neville, showing them. "Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute."
    "Good - well, look, Neville, we've got to be somewhere, we'll see you later -"
    "Don't leave me!" said Neville, scrambling to his feet, "I don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already."
    Ron looked at his watch then glared fiercely at Hermione and Neville.
    "If either of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about, and use it on you."
    Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but Harry hissed at her to be quiet and beckoned them all forward.
    They fitted a long corridor stripped with bars of moonlight from the high windows. They were lucky not to encounter Filch or Mrs. Norris. They sped up a staircase to the third-floor and tiptoed toward the trophy room.
    The room was empty. Hermione watched as Harry and Ron waited and looked around the room in anticipation of seeing Draco, who was nowhere to be seen.
    "He's late, maybe he's chickened out," Ron whispered.
    There was a noise in the next room. Harry had only just raised his wand when they heard someone speak.
    "Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner." The voice of Filch filled the silent air as he talked to his cat.
    Harry waved madly at the other three to follow him. The three followed Harry as quickly as possible, silently scurrying toward the door, away from Filch's voice. Neville's robes had barely whipped round the corner when they heard Filch enter the trophy room.
    "They're in here somewhere," they heard him mutter, "probably hiding."
    "This way!" Harry mouthed to the others and, petrified, they began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armor. They could hear filched getting nearer. Neville suddenly let out a frightened squeak and broke into a run - he tripped, grabbed Ron around the waist, and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armor.
    The clanging and crashing were enough to wake the whole castle.
    "RUN!" Harry yelled, and the four of them sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether Filch was following - they swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor then another, Harry in the lead. They ripped through a tapestry and found themselves in a Hidden passageway, hurtled along it and came out near their Charms classroom, which they knew was miles from the trophy room.
    "I think we've lost him," Harry panted, leaning against the cold wall and wiping his forehead. Neville was bent double, wheezing and spluttering.
    "I - told - you," Hermione gasped, clutching at the stitch in her chest, "I - told - you."
    "We've got to get back to the Gryffindor tower," said Ron, "quickly as possible."
    "Malfoy tricked you," Hermione said to Harry. "You realize that, don't you? He was never going to meet you - Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off."
    "Let's go." said Harry.
    As they were traveling back they were caught by non other than Peeves, which was no good sign for anyone.