Merry Christmas Mr. Malfoy (Book 1)

Chapter 22 : Foot Steps of the Past

Foot Steps of the Past

"Be quiet!"

"I'm trying!"

"Well try harder!"

Dennis and Hermione stood near the end of a corridor, flattened against the wall as they tried, in vain, to hear whether somebody was coming or not. Although it did not particularly matter whether they came across a First Year or not, mainly in Dennis's case, Hermione did not need to hear about rumours spreading about as to how she was in two places at once.

Not again.

Sighing softly, she clasped a hand to Dennis's mouth in an attempt to quiet his breathing. This only succeeded in getting his eyes to bug and his hands to flail in fear, as though he worried that she was trying to suffocate him.

"Stop it," she hissed. "Stop making noise or I will hex you into the next century, you understand?"

Nodding, Dennis bit back a whimper as he witnessed the brutal side of Hermione Granger.

Closing her eyes in relief, she opened them and pushed Dennis over, edging closer to the corner of the wall. Taking a deep breath, she slowly turned her head past the corner, enabling her to get a view of the corridor.

"Nobody," she sighed with relief, moving out into the open. "Let's go."

They moved like this the entire way, precarious steps, cautious whispers, and extreme care as to what they did or said and how loud it was done or spoken. They couldn't risk being caught, at all.

Once they finally managed to get to the Gryffindor Tower, however, they were faced with another problem.

"Do you remember the password?"

"What?"

She now knew exactly how Snape had felt whenever he had been forced to come face-to-face with somebody like Ron. She desperately wanted to smack Dennis, but resisted the urge in fear of the consequences.

"The password," she repeated, "do you remember the password?"

Dennis bit his lip as he attempted to recall the password from two weeks prior. Squeezing his eyes, he fought to remember while Hermione resisted the urge to glare and tap her foot impatiently.

She couldn't really blame him, while she desperately wanted to; she had just pulled him into this mess an hour ago, so she couldn't honestly expect him to instantly remember the password.

"I…can't remember," he sighed in defeat. "Sorry, Hermione."

Again, she wanted to hit him but bit back the urge. Instead, she ruffled his hair. "It's okay; we'll just wait until someone comes along and says the password; we should be close enough to hear it."

Nodding, he stared down at his feet, trying to recall the word that would grant them access.

They wait for a good ten minutes before Dennis suddenly cried out. She instantly reached out and covered his mouth with her hand, stifling the sound in fear of being caught.

"Hush!"

"Mmmmfffff," Dennis said, voice muffled against her hand.

"What?"

"Mmmm mmmfffff!"

"Oh…oh, I'm sorry!" she whispered hastily, removing her hand from his mouth. "What were you trying to say?"

Taking in a deep breath, he turned to her with a grin. "I remember the password."

"Perfect!" She smiled broadly and pulled him into a hug. "Let's go!"