Chapter 52: The Room of Requirement
"Merlin's beard! Why are you here?" Draco turned around and almost had a myocardial infarction - if wizards could have a myocardial infarction.
"That should be my question! Why are you here?" Hermione folded her elbows, her face serious, as if she had caught him with some grave handle. She raised her chin and asked him, "Where does this room lead to? Why have I never seen it before?"
"Can we leave first?" Draco glanced around cautiously. Fortunately, no one else was passing by.
"No. Not until you can explain it all," Hermione said firmly.
Moonlight shone through the window onto them, and her eyes, under the dual effects of night and moonlight, flashed a charming brown color. Draco suddenly felt that this color was somewhat similar to the color of the tip of his wand.
"If I say that I just happened to be here, can you let me go?" he asked without hope, trying to force the corners of his mouth and smile at her.
He didn't want to put her in danger... When it came to Horcruxes, the more you knew, the more dangerous it was.
It turns out that Hermione is not an easy person to talk to.
"I don't believe a word you say! Sneaking out when everyone's celebrating..." She ignored Draco's pleas and narrowed her eyes dangerously at him, "I know you're up to something! I remember we once discussed the issue of honesty between friends, Draco Malfoy!"
She called him by his full name—Draco could tell the girl was angry.
Of course, Hermione Granger was furious. She had been keeping an eye on him all night. She had witnessed that flash of platinum gold passing through the hall's entrance, forcing her to leave the celebrating crowd behind and follow it from a distance.
She didn't even know if this was against school rules! Yet, she just followed him out without blinking an eye. She had to admit, she wasn't being very rational tonight.
She followed him irrationally and found that his expression was a little worried.
She deliberately kept her distance and slowed down her pace, like a curious and agile cat, following the boy closely.
In order to prevent him from being alerted to her presence, she kept a certain distance behind him and was not aware of all his actions. She only knew that he went to Ravenclaw Tower first and then hurried to this corridor on the eighth floor.
It couldn't be stranger! What on earth was he, a Slytherin, doing in these places?
What was even more surprising was that in just a blink of an eye, he disappeared from this corridor, near the tapestry where the troll hit Barnabas with a club.
She wandered the corridor, perplexed as to why she had lost him. He clearly had no other way to go; even if he tried to sneak back to the auditorium, he would have to meet her face to face.
However, there was no trace of him, as if he had been evaporated by the scattered moonlight. Just when she was dejected and ready to stop, he suddenly appeared, appearing behind an inexplicable door that seemed to have grown out of the wall.
"I've heard people say you like hanging around Ravenclaw Tower, but I didn't believe it at first." Hermione suddenly remembered some gossip her roommate Lavender Brown had told her—she heard it from Parvati Patil's twin sister Padma Patil, who lived in Ravenclaw—and she finally decided to believe them for once: "Okay, open the door, I know she's in there!"
"Who?" Draco was confused.
She? Miss Grey seems to have been gone for a long time, right?
"Your girlfriend. I bet you're having a secret date in there?" Hermione said with a sullen face, feeling unhappy. "I don't see what's so shameful about that."
Draco was shocked by her irresponsible judgment. This was absolutely ridiculous! When did he get a girlfriend? How could he not know? Are all young girls so imaginative?
"You think I have a Ravenclaw girlfriend?" He was furious. Who was such a boring person to spread rumors like this?
"Isn't it? The friend you asked for help on the last list - the friend you and Luna have in common - is probably your girlfriend, right? I know it's a girl, but Luna called her 'she'!" She asked aggressively, staring at him straight in the eyes, as if to confirm whether he was just trying to fool her.
"Of course not!" Draco was helpless. He looked at her with a mixture of laughter and tears. He really wanted to open her head and see what was inside.
"No? So what?" she asked angrily, wondering where her anger came from.
In the moonlight, the platinum-haired boy and the brown-haired girl stared at each other, and the conversation came to a standstill.
As they stared at each other, Hermione suddenly noticed from the corner of her eye that the strange door had gradually disappeared from the wall. The wall had returned to its pristine state, as if the door had never existed.
"What happened?" Hermione forgot her argument with Draco and rushed to the wall to touch, but she felt nothing. "Where's the door?" she screamed, unable to believe her eyes.
"Of course it will disappear! This is the Room of Requirement!" Perhaps because Hermione's silly schoolgirl-like question was so funny, Draco's fatigue and depression were actually alleviated a lot by her interruption.
He couldn't help revealing a smug look on his face as he began to chatter, "You have to walk back and forth in front of the wall three times, thinking about where you want to go—oh, why not think of a date room and see if there's any Ravenclaw girls in there!"
Hermione pouted in disbelief and walked back and forth in front of the wall three times. He really hadn't lied to her - the smooth door was looming on the wall again.
Draco laughed inwardly. This naive young woman had finally been fooled by him. He was certain that the next place he would go into wouldn't be the utility room. He calmly opened the door for her and said, "Come in."
Hermione looked at his gentlemanly and polite demeanor and suddenly felt a little short of breath. She tried her best to remain calm and walked into the door, not wanting him to see her guilty conscience.
As Draco expected, the interior decoration and furnishings of the Room of Requirement had completely changed.
The clutter vanished without a trace. Before them lay stacked shelves, neatly arranged rare books, antique study tables, and the scent of old pages and new parchment—a perfect library setting.
"This place is so amazing! It's exactly what I imagined!" Hermione looked around excitedly and couldn't help but admire.
"So, you think the library is a good place for a date?" Draco looked around with interest.
"Well..." Hermione was speechless.
——She seemed to have accidentally revealed some of her secret fantasies about dating to a boy... This is not good.
Draco saw her dilemma and didn't press the issue. He just said with a strange look on his face, "Anyway, first look around to see if there's any of my girlfriends here."
It would be a miracle if she could find it, this silly know-it-all lady!
Hermione looked around to make sure there was no one else here besides the two of them.
"It seems not." She said guiltily in the silence.
"Are you sure? Are you sure?" The corners of his mouth twitched, and he was suddenly amused by her guilty look.
"I think I might have made a mistake." Hermione lowered her head in embarrassment, but in her heart she felt secretly happy for no reason. "You know, sometimes people always jump to conclusions..."
"I thought you would be more rational about gossip and rumors." Draco resisted the urge to burst out laughing, turned to look at the bookshelves, and hid his expression that was on the verge of losing control.
If he laughed out loud now, she would probably get angry and embarrassed.
His fingers casually slid across the spines of ancient books on the bookshelf, and finally pulled out a book called "A Guide to Rare Potions" at random. The owner of the hand found a comfortable seat on the sofa in the middle of the room and sat down. Then he said to Hermione, "Why don't you sit down? Aren't you tired of standing all the time?"
Hermione obeyed silently. She sat on the sofa beside him, staring at the fire in front of her.
She was a little caught off guard.
——Why did things turn out like this? She originally wanted to find out some secret of his...
But now, they were in her ideal date spot, sitting together and killing time?
Then she felt a little embarrassed and slightly happy.
Things are getting weirder and weirder.
"Are you hungry?" Draco noticed that she was a little uneasy and took the initiative to speak.
"No. Very full," she said dryly. She hadn't digested the rich food from the banquet yet. Although, she didn't care what she ate - she was just focused on watching him.
"Then have some tea." Draco tapped the table with his wand, and a large steaming teapot and two cups appeared out of thin air. At this moment, he rarely had the heart to make tea himself - there were already many things occupying his attention.
The color of the tea was different from usual. Hermione took a sip of it curiously, a look of surprise on her face. "Is this—hawthorn tea?"
"Yes. It helps digestion." Draco took a sip, a faint smile on his face. "My mother likes to try some scented teas. I learned a little bit from her too."
"Very well." Hermione took another sip. She had so many questions in her mind that she wanted to ask him some. But for a moment, she didn't know which question to ask first.
"Why would you refuse the Special Achievement Award?" She had heard Harry and Ron's account of what happened in the Chamber of Secrets—he fully deserved it.
This was the second time Draco had been asked this question tonight. He was about to repeat what he had said to Harry and Ron before, but she seemed to see through him: "Draco, I'm not stupid. If you want to put me off, you might as well tell me directly that you can't answer. This hasn't happened once or twice anyway."
Last year in the Forbidden Forest, she had kept a similar secret for him. He was always like this, liking to hide behind others, doing good things, and pretending to be indifferent on the surface.
He was the strangest boy she had ever seen.
"Well, I'm sorry I can't answer that," said the strange boy bluntly.
Her understanding saved him a lot of trouble. Draco didn't like being given the runaround. Better to be blunt than be treated like a fool. In this regard, they were surprisingly similar.
Hermione paused, but instead of getting angry, she changed her question: "Why haven't I heard of the Room of Requirement before?"
That's an answer. Apologies for not being able to answer the previous question, Draco said a little more than usual: "This is a secret room in Hogwarts, known only to a few. The Room of Requirement only appears when someone truly needs it. When it appears, it's always arranged to suit the needs of the person seeking help. The user needs to concentrate on the desired area and walk through that wall three times, and a door will appear."
Hermione's eyes were full of novelty. She looked around the place again and couldn't help sighing.
Draco admired her lively expression for a moment, then lowered his head to flip through the book in his hand, hiding a sly smile on the corner of his mouth. "Well, now you know what I'm busy with. It's nothing big, just exploring the various secret rooms in Hogwarts."
"What's the matter with you sneaking into Ravenclaw's tower every day? Your female friend—" she asked unconvinced, obviously still quite concerned about the matter.
"I have a little acquaintance with the Ravenclaw ghost, Miss Grey." Draco said half-seriously, turning a page of a book in his hand. "You may have seen her tonight. She brought me to the Room of Requirement."
Hermione's mouth dropped open in disbelief. She had indeed seen Ms. Grey. However, from her perspective, it seemed she had merely exchanged a few words with Draco before shyly drifting away.
She had never considered the possibility that Draco's mysterious Ravenclaw female friend might be a female ghost.
"Now, do you realize how outrageous your guess is?" Draco muttered, holding up the book to cover the slightly curved corners of his mouth.
"Ah, it's her... I'm sorry, I think I wronged you." She suddenly wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl into, and her anger had disappeared into thin air.
Draco tilted the book, revealing his eyes, and looked at her in surprise.
Miss Know-It-All's apology... came unexpectedly.
When the fuzzy-haired Hermione Granger looks at you apologetically with her round, bright eyes, you just find her adorable and it's hard to be really angry with her.
Draco couldn't get angry at all.
She looked so full of life at the moment, much better than being petrified. Even when she was angry, she was adorable, let alone when she apologized.
He just felt lucky that she wasn't hurt.
Besides, he himself had not been completely honest with her.
"Never mind that. Anyway, why did you notice me leaving?" Draco decided to use a new topic to dispel the heavy atmosphere. "I thought I slipped away quite discreetly. At that time, everyone was busy celebrating."
He was quite concerned about this. Did many people see him leave?
How else would she have noticed this? She had only just recovered from her petrification. Why was she staring at the door to the auditorium instead of enjoying the vibrant life and the noisy celebrations?
"I was just about to come find you to thank you for saving Ginny." Hermione was a little embarrassed - she couldn't admit that she had been paying attention to him.
After being rescued by Draco, she developed a sense of dependence on him that she herself could not understand, and she could not help but wonder where he was. He seemed to have become a source of security for her.
But she lied to herself and denied it. How could you let a girl casually admit that she cared so much about a boy?
This puts her in a moral dilemma - she demands Draco be honest, but she herself has ulterior motives.
Hermione was in a state of panic. She quickly thought of something else, trying to cover up what was happening. "Oh, I admit, you won the bet. I heard what Lockhart did, and I also heard that he wanted to cast a Memory Charm on you! Now, I don't have any good feelings towards him at all."
"It's long overdue," Draco said lazily. He glanced up at Hermione, who was staring at her teacup in a daze, looking a little uneasy.
"He's not worth your sadness. It's not shameful to be deceived by him. Just think about the huge crowds in Flourish and Blotts! So many mature wizards have been fooled by him." Draco poured her tea and tried to comfort her.
"Thank you, Draco. I'm fine, just need a little time to adjust." She frowned.
She wasn't even thinking about that scumbag Lockhart right now. She was preoccupied with something else. She was frustrated that she couldn't be "completely honest," and she felt awkward admitting her concern for him.
In this case, what right did she have to ask him?
She stole a glance at the boy beside her who she had "treated harshly" and felt a secret sense of guilt rising in her heart. She wanted to say something to break this feeling of guilt, but then she noticed the book in Draco's hand belatedly. "What are you reading?"
"Felix Felicis." Draco gave Hermione half of his book and gestured for her to read. He had originally just wanted to ease the awkwardness and picked up a book at random, but he hadn't expected to get a pleasant surprise.
There really are all kinds of treasures in the Room of Requirement, Draco thought silently.
"I know what this is! It's a luck potion, it'll bring you good luck, right?" Hermione leaned over and said with interest. He always found something new to study.
"Exactly," he said. Her hair fell down one side of his arm, a warm color.
"Draco, you're not going to brew this potion, are you?" Hermione looked up at him, her rosy lips curled up mischievously, "What are you going to do with it?"
She was very close to him, with a look of no defense on her face, which appeared more and more often when she looked at him.
Draco knew that this was the side of her that she would never show him in her previous life; but now, everything was messed up.
He wanted to put on a stern face again, trying to restore the safe distance between them, but she moved closer to him, not caring about his stern face at all.
She seemed very sure that he would not hurt her, and she showed him her delicate face, small nose and clear eyes with full trust... She approached him so blatantly that he was a little distracted.
"Just out of interest. I've only heard it's difficult to endure." Draco coughed lightly, his face flushed slightly, and he struggled to turn his gaze back to the book.
In fact, he had long wanted to try to mix some Felicis Felix himself. In his previous life, he had been obsessed with Professor Slughorn's bottle of Felicis Felix.
Think about it, with a bottle of this stuff, everything can be done with half the effort. If it is used in a critical moment - if Hogwarts encounters another battle and is besieged by Death Eaters, he must drink some to feel at ease.
"That's not a convincing reason." Hermione didn't believe he was just doing it for academic purposes. Draco must have been thinking about something else. He wasn't the kind of boy who would do "useless work."
"Just think about your luck. Out of all the people in the school, you're the only one who encountered a basilisk." Draco chuckled. "If a monster appears in the school again, I strongly suggest you drink some."
"Oh, shut up! There won't be any more monsters in the school!" Hermione blushed, disagreeing with his weird sense of humor.
But her eyes were still glued to the book—Draco could see that she was hesitating.
"It's just to prevent some particularly critical moments. You also know Harry's 'trouble-making' physique. He is always inexplicably involved in danger. As his friend, you are the first to bear the brunt. I didn't say that you should drink it every day. If you take too much of this stuff, it will cause dizziness, recklessness and arrogance." Draco turned the pages of the book and gestured for her to see with his chin - there are many taboos and precautions for the Felicis Felix.
Now, her innocent and carefree look disappeared, replaced by a serious expression. She nodded silently and memorized carefully.
"It's very complicated to brew. If you make a mistake, the consequences will be disastrous." Hermione continued to identify the words at the end and read softly. She looked at the steps in the book, her face showing uncontrollable interest.
She carefully examined the ingredients: belladonna extract, seraph egg shells, eight-eyed spider venom, salamander eggs, fresh amaranth petals, unicorn horn and blood...
She opened her eyes wide in surprise and sighed softly, her spirits no longer high. "This is impossible. Some of the ingredients are too hard to find. Even if I could find them, it would take half a year to prepare them..."
"I'm not saying to make it right away. It will take some time to find these ingredients. What I mean is, if I can get them together, we can at least give it a try..." Draco couldn't bear to see her so disappointed, so he comforted her in a relaxed manner.
"We?" Hermione turned her head sharply, and some of her hair slid onto his face, making it a little itchy. She raised her voice awkwardly, "I didn't say I wanted to get involved—"
Her eyes clearly showed a desire to try it out. From the top of her head to the tip of her tail, she was full of eagerness and curiosity.
She is the worst duplicitous person in the world.
At this moment, her thoughts were as transparent as a beautiful jellyfish in a black lake.
Draco decided to give her some motivation.
He softened his voice, his light grey eyes softening. "Please help me. I'll find the ingredients, but for this potion, brewing it is far more difficult than finding the ingredients. You're a Potions Master who can brew Polyjuice Potion. If even you can't make it, I don't know who else I can turn to."
"Having said that... you're a potion expert yourself," Hermione said embarrassedly, "the ingredients it requires are so rare, what if it goes bad..." She didn't mention that she didn't want to make it, but was just obsessed with the issue of the ingredients.
"If we fail, it's mine. If we succeed, we'll each have half of the Felicis Felix. How about that?" Draco yawned and said lazily.
"It's a deal?" She looked at him with sparkling eyes, completely moved.
"It's a deal." He raised the corner of his mouth complacently, obviously in a good mood. He looked at the little girl nestled beside him, smiling broadly, raised his hand, and gently touched her palm.