Dramione❤️

Chapter 6: Requirements

Any one who was part of the Dumbledore Army last year knows that opposite to the tapestry of Barnabas of Barmy there lies the Room of Requirements. The Room appears only for those who truly need it. That is why I decided that if a note told me to meet the writer of it at Barnabas, this would be obvious place to go. I turn the corner that gets me to the right corridor. I look at a clock. 10.58pm. Perfect timing. I walk quietly, not wanting to be heard. I check. No one is around. I stand in front of the Tapestry depicting Barnabas and the trolls. I stand in front of it. I wait. No one is to be seen. Was this a joke? I must've gotten it all wrong. Had I imagined it? No. I touch my pocket and the note is there. I breath it, close my eyes. Three minutes go by. I'm going to wait just a little while longer. 

Suddenly, a door creaks open. The Room of Requirement opens. I had not seen it before. Maybe I did not need it? 

"Fancy seeing you here." Draco smiles. He leans against the imposing, wooden door. His arms are folded across his chest. He just seems to have mastered every move possible to human beings. 

"Why did you think it would be a good idea to leave me a note?"

"Wasn't it fun?" Ok, maybe a little. I love letters. I love notes. Anything hand-written has an appeal to me.

"What do you want then?" I say, shrugging. He moves closer. He stands next to me. 

"I just wanted you to admire this work of art." He says, pointing to the tapestry. "Isn't it..." He raises his hand to indicate the tapestry on the wall. "This... This tapestry is obscene." He says. We both stare at it. Then, our eyes meet. I feel a spark. I feel something, deep within me. Starting from my toes, rising all the way up to my shoulders. We both burst out laughing at the same time.

"Come with me." He looks me straight into the eyes. He holds out his hand for me to take. I hesitate. What am I supposed to do? Trust the boy who insulted me and my friends from the moment we got to this school? Trust the Death Eater? No. How could I even think for a slight second that I would follow him anywhere? Who knows what he would to me.

"And why would I do that? You can't even be honest with me. All you do is lie and lie and you expect me to follow you? Are you crazy? Are you insane? You've been mean to me the moment I set foot in this school. I can't trust someone like you. I..."

"Hermione." He grabs my arms to calm me down. I had not realized I had started shouting and gesticulating. "If you give me a chance, I will show you..." He hesitates. He swallows. He looks me straight into the eyes. "I will show you what I do in there." He points to the door of the Room of Requirements. "I will show you what I do at night, so late. I just need you to trust me, for one second. I won't kill you." He says, his face looks sad, empty. He looks me straight into my eyes and all that does is accelerate my heart beat. He lets go of my arms. He holds out his hand. I take it. I don't know why I do. It's cold. It's soft. It's cold but it's soft. A month ago, old Hermione would have never taken Draco Malfoy's hand and followed him into the Room Of Requirements. Hermione would have never let this evil, selfish stranger into her life. She was afraid of him. She was enemies with him. So why was this new Hermione following him? But most importantly, why did she not want to let his hand go?

Draco opens the door, it creaks. We look around and enter together. The Room of Requirements appears to those who need it most. It is filled with shelves, unusual objects. They're dirty, they're filthy. Dust rises every step we take. Draco walks steadily. He's been here before, many times. So this is where he goes at night... He finds two chairs, stacked one on top of the other. He shakes his head to adjust his blonde hair. He grabs the chair on top and places just next to the other one. 

"Sit." He tells me. He sits on the other chair.

"So?" I say. I don't know what to expect. 

"Don't ask me questions until I am done. Don't judge me until I am done. I don't know what I'm doing with you here. I thought this might be a safer place to talk than the Corridors. Also, I've been coming here every night for some time. I'm working on something." Who knows what he's working on... "Harry Potter is the Chosen One." He says, looking straight ahead, into the vast room ahead of us. There are piles and piles of ornaments, objects adjusted one of top of the other, clearly unstable, waiting for someone just to breathe, closely, so they can topple off. "He was destined to be someone. He did not choose his fate. The night the Dark Lord killed his parents, his fate was decided." He shakes his head, still looking straight ahead. Did he not want to look at me? "This might seem ridiculous to you, but I am a bit like the Chosen One. The day my parents became Death Eaters, my destiny had been chosen." I wanted to say something, I opened my mouth. "Hermione - don't. Wait for me to finish." He inhaled, went on: "The day my parents made a vow to the Dark Lord, they had made a vow for me to abide to too. I didn't choose my fate, maybe they didn't either. They didn't have a choice." He moves his arm towards me and I think he might want to touch me, I want him to, I don't know why but then he pulls up his sleeve and reveals something that I did not want to see: the Death Mark. I look at the skull, wrapped around by a snake. I sigh. I turn my gaze somewhere else, it hurts my eyes to look at it. As he notices how uncomfortable I am, he pulls his sleeve back down. "Hermione, I didn't choose the dark life. The dark life chose me. I was destined to be a Death Eater. What? Do you really think the son of two Death Eaters could be part of Dumbledore's army?" His gaze had turned back to the surroundings, I look at him. Maybe I am seeing wrong but I swear I can see tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "I didn't want to be this way. I really didn't. But I have no choice. I have been chosen, I have not chosen. Please believe me. I wake up every day with the awful awareness that I am a monster, that I go behind the backs of friends, classmates. He knows where I live, he knows who my family is, he knows everything." His head drops down into his arms, his hands hold it up, weakly. I want to reach out, to comfort him. I resist the urge to reach his shoulder and hug him tight. "I can't tell you all that I do in here because that would only make you risk your life. The last thing I want to do is make you risk your life for me. For a stupid Death Eater who's already put you into enough trouble making enter this stupid room with him. I know what you think about me. I know I have always been mean to you." Suddenly, he stops. He looks at me, his eyes filled with tears. His face pale. He looks me straight into the eyes. "You know what they used to say in elementary school, though? When a boy is mean to you, he usually just really likes you." He laughs. I roll my eyes. I fake to take a key out of my pocket and lock my mouth, I promised not to talk until he's done. "I'm almost done, I promise. I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being mean to you. I obviously can't go back and change what I've done but I can promise to leave you alone from now on. I wanted to explain all of this to you because I felt like you deserved it. But please don't tell Harry anything. Please. Keep this to yourself. He knows everything you know already but I don't need another person he trusts adding on to his theories. Especially not you. Last thing: I am who I am and you are who you are. After what I have told you, you can choose to run away, choose to stay, choose to report me. You are free to do all you want but remember: if I am gone, that does not change anything. I am only one, tiny piece in a puzzle. In the long run, they can survive and replace this piece. All my disappearance would do is just delay the inevitable. The storm will come, Hermione. I can't stop it. You can't stop it. It's inevitable. Forgive me for what I have done and will do. I'm done." 

I want to run away. I almost get up, I swear I do. Malfoy has just confessed to me to being a Death Eater, he is working for Voldemort. Why should I trust him? What if it's a trap? How can I go behind Harry and Ron's back this way? I should tell Harry all I found out but really, there's nothing he doesn't already know anyway. I breathe in, breathe out. What am I doing? Am I risking my life here? 

"Draco. I might not understand what you are doing but I know you have no choice. You can't expect me to go against my friends for you."

"I am not expecting anything from you, Hermione." He says, and I know he is telling the truth. "I don't want to hurt you. I don't know why I told you what I need. Maybe I just needed a friend. Someone to talk to. Not someone who can understand, but someone who can listen." 

"I'm glad I helped but I really need to go now. I've been here too long already. Harry will be wondering where I am. I hope life helps you find relief and comfort, Draco. You really need it." I get up and start towards the door but Draco's hand holds onto me. 

"Please don't go. I know you want to stay, I can feel it." He can read me too. 

"Ok. But not for long." I sit back down and, I was not expecting this, but he falls into my arms and bursts into tears. I never thought I could see this side to Draco. I am touched for being able to see his utter, most pure sense of vulnerability and it is in this moment that I realize that he is sincere, that he is hurt. He has not chosen to be this way. You don't choose the family you are born into, you don't choose the way are brought up and most importantly, you have no choice but to abide to the orders of a menacing, life-threatening Dark Lord. I caress his head, I hold him. In a weird sense, he is the one comforting me. He has opened himself up to me, he has given up time for me, he has told me his most deep secrets and for this I am thankful and flattered. I don't why he would open himself up to me. I could so easily reveal all I found out to anyone. But I won't. If he had told me anything that could've been useful for Harry or Dumbledore, I would have told me but he has just confirmed some theories that they both already are almost sure of. Abruptly, he stops crying. His head gets up and he gets colder.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what happened to me. You probably think I'm so stupid."

"No. I don't. This is good. Let it all out... If it gives you temporary relief then that's good."

Suddenly, his hands move up from his lap and move to my face, keeping it solidly still. He looks me straight into the soul with his icy, grey eyes and I melt inside. He moves closer. I move closer. The world stops for a small second. Before I know it, Draco Malfoy's lips are onto mine. His hands move down to my hips. I feel warmth. He isn't cold anymore. His lips are warm and soft. His tongue finds mine. For what seems like hours, but is only minutes, we are one. Our souls intertwine. He is not so cold anymore, he has melted. His suffering becomes my suffering and for one instant, we are the same. My hand makes its way through his hair. We are close and we are warm. I haven't felt this relief in a long time. Everything disappears. Voldemort is gone. Ron and Lavender kissing are gone. Darkness is gone. Fear is gone. Maybe Draco is not the only one who needs temporary relief.

One of the many clocks in the room strikes midnight. Some cruel force breaks us apart from what was more of a tempest than a kiss. Our foreheads meet. I look into his eyes and he looks into mine. We smile. 

"I promise you that I will do all my in power to protect you from the storm. I promise." He takes my hand, places it on his heart. I feel his build, his chest. "It feels like it's beating for the first time." He smiles. At the same time, we are breathing heavily. 

The Room of Requirements shows himself to those really in need of something. Maybe the Room really knew what I required? Would this moment of relief give our souls the peace we were looking for from a long time? Something told me I would not be sleeping tonight. At least this time it was for a good reason...