Chapter 12: Outing With Hermione

Draco walked very quickly; Hermione had to jog to keep up with him.

"Where are you going?" Hermione questioned. After having vented all her stress, it seems that she had become talkative again.

"Follow me."

Hermione followed Draco. Soon, they came to the middle of the corridor on the fourth floor.

"We're here." Draco walked straight to a witch sculpture, this witch was hunchbacked and had only one eye.

"Dissendium !" Draco tapped the stone witch with his wand.

The hunchbacked sculpture split in two, forming a hole big enough for a short person to enter.

"How do you know that it would do that?" Hermione curiously asked.

"Secret," Draco replied.

"If you don't want to tell me then don't say anything." Hermione felt a little annoyed, but at the same time seemed to forget her previous unhappiness.

"Follow me; don't get lost."

Then the two entered the hole before them.

The two walked slid for quite some time down the stone slide. they didn't know how long it took till they were once again on solid ground.

"It's really cold here." Draco couldn't help but feel the chill.

"Lumos!" It naturally became lighter after using this spell.

"It's like a rabbit's tunnel." Hermione stared for a moment and came to this conclusion.

"Don't get distracted, look down at your feet," Draco reminded.

The ground had pits here and there, Hermione almost fell into one a few times. Fortunately, Draco helped her before that could happen.

The walk felt a bit boring, but because they were together, they could talk and alleviate their boredom.

An hour passed quickly.

"I'm wondering if you're trying to murder someone or are hiding the murdered body of a muggle-born wizard." As they became familiar with each other, Hermione began to tell jokes to remove the dull atmosphere.

"This isn't funny, I don't agree with my parents' blood supremacist views." Draco shrugged.

"Oh, we're here." Draco felt the ground start to slant upwards.

Ten minutes later, the two arrived at a dilapidated stone ladder. The ladder extended beyond their sight.

The two then began to climb it.

"Huuh." As they reached the top, Draco knocked on the trapdoor twice and pushed it open.

"We're here," Draco whispered to Hermione.

"Here." Draco climbed up and then extended his hand to Hermione and pulled her up.

The cellar was full of chairs and tables, the floor was covered with a thick layer of dust, making this trapdoor look almost the same color as the floor. If you didn't see it with your own eyes, you wouldn't imagine a door being there.

"So where are we?" Hermione asked. "I think we'll be seen as thieves now."

"You don't have to worry about this," Draco replied while going went straight to the stairs.

"I think you are crazy." Hermione held her forehead. She had envisioned a future where Slytherin and Gryffindor simultaneously 20 points or even 50 points. "I am just an accomplice, this guy should lose more points." Just as Hermione was comforting herself, she heard a loud sound.

"Hey, Little Draco, how come you are here." A woman's voice could be heard.

"No wonder he was so familiar with this place." Hermione thought.

"It's Halloween, I came out to relax Aunty Ambrosius."

"It turned out to be Draco. Last time, thanks to your idea, we made lots of profit." The voice of a middle-aged man came over.

"But how come you're here? You're a first-year right, you'll probably lose points for going out when you weren't meant to." Ambrosius asked; this man was the owner of Honeydukes.

"Of course, I sneaked out this time," Draco replied.

"Let me see, it's Halloween and you've brought your little girlfriend to play. How romantic; we won't let you down with our sweets. Do you want to give them a try?" Ambrosius gave a wide smile as she saw Hermione standing behind Draco.

"I am not his girlfriend!" Hermione stressed this word by word, with a light but also very firm tone.

"I see you're popular now." It was clear that the Boss did not listen to her explanation. On the eve of Halloween, two youngsters ran to Hogsmeade in violation of the school rules. Who would believe her explanation?

"Well, don't believe it, I'll take a look around." Draco looked at Hermione's colder face, and the decisively interrupted the conversation.

"You have to look at my new goods. These things are really hard to come by." Ambrosius said.

At first glance HoneyDukes' location is seen as bad, it was enough to make people have a panoramic view. But the store's densely packed shelves full of candy are enough to attract people there.

Large chunks of creamy peanut butter, shimmering red coconut sorbet, neatly arranged were hundreds of different kinds of chocolates, a large bucket of multi-flavored beans, a bucket of Honey Flavoured Toffee, etc could be seen around the store.

Along the other wall were a variety of sweets with "special effects." Drooble's Best Blowing Gum (which fills the room with a bluebell-colored bubble, that refuses to pop for days ), strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps ("breathe fire for your friends !"), Ice Mice ("You'd hear your teeth and creak crack!"), peppermint creams shaped like toads, fragile sugar-spun quills and exploding bonbons.

Hermione was almost stunned by all this candy, the sweets in the muggle world looked less appetizing as these did.

"I guarantee you'll feel satisfied," said Ambrosius while handing a Honey Flavoured Toffee to the two. "Try it, it tastes good."

"Yes, but we haven't paid yet," Hermione said.

"Draco has already paid for it, haven't you?"

Hermione threw a questioning look at Draco.

"Go on, I'll tell you later," Draco said.

"Ok then." Hermione slowly reached out and took the candy.

The facts were proven once again; Never underestimate the temptation of sweets to women. Even for humans, the craving for sweets has already been engraved into their genes.

"That was good." After eating a Honey Flavoured Toffee, Draco said.

"Well…" Hermione gently nodded.

"Do you want to bring some back to school?" Draco asked.

"I can't eat so much." Hermione curled her lip.

"Can't you can share it with those two friends of yours?"

"They are not my friends!" Hermione suddenly got angry and shouted.

"Are you sure? Let's bet. Today, you will attend the Halloween party as usual, and I bet they will apologize to you."

"Really?" Hermione asked subconsciously.

"Look, you still can't bear to leave those two friends of yours."

Hermione's face became stiff. She muttered: "Me and my mouth."

In the end, this bet couldn't happen, because Hermione seemed to have believed what Draco had said: "A Gryffindor's courage should include their recognition of their mistakes, such as your apology to me last time."

"If you take a candy there, their chins may fall off directly from surprise." Draco continued.

Hermione pu chi laughed as soon as she seemed to imagine what Harry and Ron would look like.

"Then I believe you." As if something was wrong, she quickly returned to her normal expression. However, the renewed radiance in her eyes still betrayed her happy mood.

"Oh, it's getting late, we have to get back." Draco looked out of the window and suddenly said. The sun seems to be going down the hill.

"What?" Hermione looked out of the window and suddenly panicked.

"Don't worry, I think we have enough time, everyone is celebrating the holiday anyway, and they won't pay attention to a few people," Draco said while standing by the counter and putting several kinds of candy into a barrel placed on the ground.

"Do you want to taste this?" Draco asked while pointing at the gummy bear.

"Well, I think my parents would like it too." Hermione subconsciously nodded. "No, we really should go. If we're found we'll be deducted points!" Hermione said as she seemed to remember the school rules.

"Well, let's go." Take the wrapped candy and handing it to Hermione.

"I wish you a prosperous business, see you next time, Boss," Draco said goodbye to the Boss.

"Thanks for the hospitality." Hermione did not forget to bow to the Ambrosius couple.

"Be careful on the way!"

"Of course," Draco replied. Then he climbed down the cellar as Hermione followed him closely.

Then they returned through their original route.

"I didn't have time to ask you, how are you so familiar with that shopkeeper?" Hermione pulled the sleeve of Draco.

"When I first came here, I gave him a few muggle business skills. What is it called? Right! Hunger marketing, it seems that he has made a lot of money, so he doesn't ask for any payments." "

"How old were you then?"

"Sometimes it's obvious that one's wisdom cannot be measured by age." Draco pointed to his head, although maybe it wasn't so visible due to the dark.

"How did you not go to Ravenclaw?" Hermione was puzzled.

"Are you thinking that I should be in Ravenclaw? Maybe we could become closer?" Draco said suddenly and teasingly.

"What are you talking about!" Hermione blushed, but he couldn't see that's because of the dark.

"Just kidding."

It was a light joke, but it had touched Hermione's heart: "He wants to be a Ravenclaw." Hermione patted her face.

She had to say that the outing with Draco this time greatly changed herself. She reflected on her mistakes and apologized for her discrimination she'd shown the first time they'd met.

"What am I thinking about!" Hermione tried to get herself out of her thoughts.

"Well, I think we're almost back." Feeling the terrain gradually slope downwards, Draco said to Hermione.

After some time, the two saw a glimmer of light in the dark. They could tell they were approaching the exit.

Draco went out first and looked around to make sure that no one had seen them coming out as Hermione also followed behind him.

"The banquet is starting soon. I think Ron and Harry are looking for you to apologize to you right now. Let's go."

"Thank you for today," Hermione whispered.

"Don't mention it," Draco said.

"This is a solution to the Troll incident." Looking at the back of Hermione as she walked away, Draco let out a long sigh of relief.

The next development should be between the Golden Trio. Hermione's goodwill to him had also risen as a result of this outing.

"I've disappeared for too long, I should get back as well." Draco was thinking about going to the Slytherin common room before going to the dinner party.

When he turned and was preparing to lift his leg, he suddenly met a pair of cold eyes.

"It'll be hard to get out of this one." Draco suddenly felt the world slow down around him.

In front of Draco, stood a girl who had folded her arms across her chest while giving him a sneer.