Out of Time

Chapter 10

"Hermione, I need to talk to you."

She turns at Harry's words, concerned at the seriousness in his voice. "What is it, Harry? What's wrong?"

He looks so uncomfortable that she almost reaches for his hand. What's happened? In an odd flash, she wonders if Terry Boot has said something derogatory, spreading things around. But surely the memory charm will hold... won't it? It's probably not that anyway, and her mind leaps back to Horcruxes and Dumbledore and all the rest. Or has something happened to Harry?

Harry glimpses around the common room, finding no one in their year, and tugs her into a remote corner. The fire flickers at her back and Harry turns her so he can keep an eye out for anyone who may approach.

"Last night," he gulps, deep green eyes darting around and avoiding hers. Her stomach drops in anxiety. "I swear, Hermione, I wasn't trying to look! I was finding out where Ron was, and before you scold me, I know that's creepy, too, but -"

"Spit it out, will you?"

"I saw Malfoy going into the Come and Go Room, alone."

Hermione pauses, confused. "So?"

"Well, I know you used to meet there together, but you were here, and I just... thought you should know."

Something strikes her, then. He may or may not still think Draco is up to something bad, but he definitely thinks Draco might be cheating on her. "Are you saying he was meeting someone else there? But you didn't see anyone else, did you?"

Harry winces and pushes his glasses up his nose. "No, but if they were already in the room..."

"Harry, you're being ridiculous."

"He didn't come out for hours, Hermione!"

"So you watched for it, then?" She has to battle her voice down in her fury, keeping her volume low. "You said you weren't trying to look, and yet you waited to see when he'd come out? Or with who?"

"No, I didn't! I swear!" Harry insists. "I fell asleep. He still hadn't come out!"

Hermione scoffs, "Good thing, I suppose, since you just said you weren't trying to look."

Harry has the grace to look abashed, at the very least, and Hermione stands to leave. She's meeting Draco there herself in under an hour, and she has some eager preparation to do. She doesn't want to fight with Harry, though, and she knows he's only trying to look out for her - if in an infuriating and interfering sort of way.

"Thank you for your concern, but nothing is amiss. I promise that Draco isn't inviting Pansy there, for real."

Harry looks hilariously grateful that she's not about to start shouting at him, tossing jinxes, or both. Hermione withholds the impulse and asks for the invisibility cloak, instead.

* * *

"Can you stay?" Draco's winded already, caught between snogging the life out of Hermione and inhaling hair by accident.

"You know we shouldn't," she gasps, wrenching in oxygen while she has a chance. That's his doing, but he can't deny the rush he feels in making her breathless.

He attaches to her neck, nudging her hair to make room. The smell of lilac envelopes him. "I don't know any such thing." He alternates between kissing and nipping down towards her collarbone. "I could be in Pansy's dorm tonight, for all they know. And as for your dormmates, maybe you're with Theo."

"You couldn't be in Pansy's dorm; our girls' dorm stairs turn into a slide if a boy tries to come up."

Of course she would correct him. Also, what an odd sort of logic. Draco considers the scenario, amused. "Well, our dormitories go down, not up, so slides are welcome. And I can assure you whatever they try to put in place in the dungeons is ineffective at keeping Slytherins from doing exactly what we want to do."