Harry gave Hermione a long, cold, unfriendly look. 'Lets lock her in the wardrobe,' he suggested.
'I?m not staying in the wardrobe,' said Hermione flatly. 'I?m coming with you.'
'No, you aren?t,' said Harry, not looking at her. 'Its going to be risky, and I can?t be constantly worried that you?re going to do something stupid and jeopardize your safety.'
'You know perfectly well that I don?t do stupid things,' said Hermione, furious 'I think you?ve just proved that you do,' said Harry, taking no trouble to conceal his contempt.
Without pausing to consider what she was doing, Hermione took five quick steps towards Harry and hit him hard across the face. The map fell out of his hands and he stared at her, looking as astonished as if his wand had jumped out of his pocket and started singing the national anthem.
Draco was grinning. 'You might want to sit down, Harry,' he said. 'The last time she did that to me I saw stars for days.'
Harry and Hermione turned on Draco simultaneously. 'Shut up, Malfoy!'
'Fine, then,' said Draco. 'I?ll just go sit over here.' And he stalked off towards the far end of the room. He sounded resentful, but Hermione had a feeling he was eager to get away and let them go on with their argument in peace.
'I?m not going to apologize,' she said to Harry in an icy tone. 'You deserved it.'
'Yeah.' Harry, still looking quite shocked, took Dracos advice and sat down on the end of the bed. 'I guess it isn?t any of my business.'
He looked so miserable, Hermione felt guilty. 'Harry….I know what you must be thinking…..'
'Oh, no you don?t.'
'I know you don?t like Draco-' 'Don?t like him?' Harry sounded as though she had just told him she was going out to dinner with Voldemort. 'This is Draco Malfoy, Hermione, you do realize this is Draco Malfoy we?re talking about here? The one who tried to get Hagrid sent to Azkaban about a million times? The one who calls you a Mudblood? The one whose father got Rons dad fired from the Ministry of Magic?'
'I didn?t know about that!' said Dracos voice from across the room.
'Shut up!' said Harry, not taking his eyes off Hermiones face. 'The Draco Malfoy who said he wished you were dead? Do you remember that, Hermione?'
'Hes different now,' she protested, knowing how stupid this sounded. 'Hes changed.'
'Changed?' repeated Harry, now sounding as if she had just told him she was going out to dinner with Voldemort and bringing a nice bottle of wine. 'What would Ron say, if he knew you were making out in a closet with the guy whose father took his dads job away and practically bankrupted his whole family? If it wasn?t for Fred and Georges joke shop they?d be out on the street and you know it!'
'Thats not fair,' said Hermione, stung by this mention of Ron. 'That was Lucius, not Draco. I don?t blame you for what the Dursleys do, now do I?' She dropped her voice to a whisper. 'Harry…' she said again, 'hes different now. When we were trying to get into the house from outside, he jumped in front of an arrow that was aimed at me. He saved my life. Doesn?t that mean anything?'
Harry looked at her. Her brown eyes were huge in her white face and her lips were trembling. 'Its the Polyjuice spell, Hermione,' he said. 'You know that. You sound like Hagrid, adopting some horrible monster and insisting it's well-behaved. One of these days, he?ll bite your hand off. Either when we take the spell off him or before.'
'How do you know its the spell, Harry?' said Hermione, casting an anxious glance across the room at Draco.
'Because,' he said, paused, and looked up at her. She could tell he was trying to decide whether or not to tell her something. 'Because I can feel the opposite happening in me, all right?'
'You mean….you can hear what hes thinking?'
He shook his head. 'No. Something else.' He took his wand out of his pocket and beckoned her to come closer to him. 'Watch this, Hermione,' he said, and pointed the wand at a pair of spiders who were scuttling across a gap in the flagstones.
'Cruoris!' he hissed.
A jet of black light shot out of his wand tip and hit one of the spiders. Instantly, it turned and savagely attacked its companion, biting off its head and proceeding to devour it. Harry watched the carnage with a grim look on his face.
Hermione felt her eyes widen. 'Harry,' she said, dismayed, 'that was….Dark magic, wasn?t it?'
'That wasn?t even that nasty of a spell,' said Harry woodenly, watching the remaining spider, which was now much fatter than it had been, scurry away across the floor. 'Most of them are loads nastier.'
'But you?ve never done Dark magic in your life,' said Hermione, shocked. 'And it needs masses of practice…'
'I haven?t,' said Harry, 'but he has,' and he jerked his head toward Draco. 'Now do you see?'
'Oh, Harry….' she said, and sat down next to him on the bed. She could see how miserable he was and she felt like her own heart was being shredded. She had promised herself she wouldn?t feel guilty about kissing Draco in the wardrobe, but now she did. It didn?t make sense, she owed Harry nothing, he probably didn?t even like her that way, but there it was and nothing to be done about it.
Silently promising herself she would never kiss Draco again, she said fiercely, 'We will get out of this, Harry. We will get Sirius out of the dungeon, and we?ll get the spell off you, and everything will be back like it was before.'
'What good am I going to be to Sirius like this?' said Harry bleakly. 'What if I suddenly go all mad and evil? And what if the spell won?t ever come off?'
