Chapter 12: Candy store and misunderstanding

Draco walked quickly and Hermione had to jog to keep up.

"Where are we going?"

Once they had a destination in mind, Hermione seemed more energetic than Draco.

"Follow me," he replied.

Hermione followed Draco as he led her through classrooms and corridors, eventually coming to the middle of the fourth floor corridor.

"It's you," Draco said as he approached a statue of a one-eyed witch with a hunchback.

"Separate left and right!" he tapped the stone witch with his wand.

The hunchback of the statue immediately opened up, large enough for someone slightly thinner to enter.

"How do you know there's a secret passage here?" Hermione asked curiously.

"It's a secret," Draco said mysteriously.

"If you don't want to say, then don't say it," Hermione said irritably, but at the same time, she seemed to have forgotten her previous sadness.

"Please stay close to me and don't wander off. While it may seem easy to enter from this point, it can be difficult to find your way out if you're not familiar with the area. Trust me, you don't want to get lost in here." Draco warned her.

They entered the hole opened by the witch and glided for a long distance, feeling like they were sliding on a stone slide. After an unknown amount of time, they felt like they were standing on solid ground again.

"It's really cold here," Draco shivered.

"Lumos!" Hermione cast a spell to create a flashlight in the dark place.

"This is like a real rabbit hole" Hermione said after examining it for a moment.

"Don't get distracted, watch your feet," Draco reminded her.

The ground was uneven, and if they weren't careful, they could easily fall. Hermione almost fell a few times, but Draco caught her in time.

The journey was a bit boring, but because they were not alone, the two chatted with each other.

An hour passed quickly.

"I'm beginning to wonder if you're trying to kill a Muggle-born wizard," Hermione said with a hint of humor as their conversation turned to gossip.

"You see how secretive this is, I can't risk hurting you again," Draco replied.

"That joke isn't funny, but I also have to deal with my parents' narrow-minded views," Draco shrugged.

"Oh, we're almost there," Draco said as he felt the passage start to steepen.

Ten minutes later, the two arrived at a dilapidated stone staircase that stretched out of sight.

They started climbing the stairs again.

"Boom," they seemed to have reached the top, as Draco knocked on the trapdoor twice and pushed it open.

"Attention, we have arrived in the cellar," Draco whispered to Hermione.

"Come on up," Draco said, climbing up first and then extending his hand to help Hermione up.

The cellar was filled with chairs and tables, and the floor was covered with a thick layer of ash, making the trapdoor almost indistinguishable from the floor. It would be hard to imagine that there was a door there if they hadn't seen it with their own eyes.

"So how do we get out now?" Hermione asked nervously. "I think we'll be treated as thieves now."

"Don't worry about it," Draco said confidently as he walked towards the stairs, ready to leave in a normal manner.

"I think you're crazy," Hermione said, shaking her head. She had expected both Slytherin and Gryffindor to be deducted 20 or even 50 points for their actions.

"I'm just an accomplice, this guy should get more points deducted." Just as Hermione was thinking this, they heard a sudden exclamation.

"Oh, little Draco, how did you get here?" a woman's voice called out.

'No wonder he's so familiar here,' Hermione thought to herself.

"Just came out to relax on Halloween, Aunt Ambrosia," Draco called out in response.

"It's Little Draco. Thanks to your idea last time, we made a lot of money," the voice of a middle-aged man came from behind.

"But you're just a first year, I remember you getting caught and points being deducted for sneaking out," said Ambrosio, the owner of the Duke of Honey. "The other shops around here aren't as good as us."

"Of course, I secretly ran out this time, and I have a couple of bottles of fire whisky with me," Draco said.

"Let me see, oh, it's very romantic to bring your little girlfriend here on Halloween. We won't let you down here. We happened to have another batch of fresh goods today. Would you like to try it?" Ambrosius chuckled heartily, apparently noticing Hermione behind Draco.

"I'm not his girlfriend!" Hermione emphasized each word with a light but firm tone.

"I understand, I understand, young people these days have such strange names. This one is too unconventional, we can't keep up with the trends," the boss said dismissively, not seeming to listen to her explanation. "On Halloween, the two of you came to Hogsmeade in violation of school rules. It doesn't matter who deceived you into breaking the rules?"

"Okay, let's not talk anymore, let's take a look around," Draco said, noticing Hermione's increasingly cold expression and cutting off the conversation.

There were large pieces of creamy peanut candy, shimmering pink coconut sorbet, hundreds of various types of chocolates neatly arranged, a large bucket of multi-flavored beans, a bucket of Zizi bee candy, and a container of Sherbet drinks floating in the air. Along the other wall were various "candies with special effects". There was Blowing Treasure Super Bubble Gum (which could fill a room with blue bellflower-colored bubbles that wouldn't pop for a few days), bizarre fragmented hairy mints, small black pepper naughty boys ("for your friends to breathe fire out of their noses!"), ice mice ("hear your teeth chattering and creaking!"), toad-shaped cream mints ("really beat in the stomach!"), Crunchy sugar quill pens, and explosive candy. Hermione was almost dazzled by these sweets, which were much more exciting than the sweets in the Muggle world.

"I can't be satisfied just looking at your stomach," Ambrosio said as he passed the nourishing bee candies to the two. "Try it, it tastes good."

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

"Little Draco already paid, didn't he?"

Hermione gave Draco a questioning look.

"I'll explain later," he said.

"Alright," Hermione slowly reached out and took the candy.

As always, the temptation of candy proved to be too much for a woman. Even for humans, the desire for sugar is ingrained in our genes.

"How do you feel now?" Draco asked after eating a zizy bee candy.

"Hmm..." Hermione nodded gently.

"How about taking some back to school?" Draco suggested.

"I can't eat that much," Hermione pouted.

"Don't you want to bring some for your two friends?" Draco asked.

"They're not my friends!" Hermione exclaimed, looking mad again.

"Are you still angry? Let's bet that today at the Halloween party, they will definitely apologize to you," Draco said.

"Really?" Hermione asked subconsciously.

"See, you can't bear to be without these two friends," Draco replied.

Hermione's face stiffened and she mumbled, "You're twisting my words again."

In the end, this bet couldn't be closed because Hermione seemed to have believed Draco when he said, "Gryffindor's courage should include the brave recognition of mistakes, like apologizing to me for what happened."

"If you take the candy again, they may drop their chin directly," Draco continued.

Hermione laughed loudly, seeming to think of the expressions Harry and Ron would have.

"Then I'll trust you for a while," she said, seeming to realize something was off but quickly returning to her normal expression. However, her happy eyes still betrayed her.

"Oh, it's not early, I think we should start preparing to go back," Draco said suddenly as he looked out the window. The sun was starting to set.

"What?" Hermione also looked out the window, panicking.

"Don't worry, I think we have enough time. Everyone is celebrating the festival, and they won't pay attention to how many people are missing," Draco said as he picked out several types of candy from the counter and the wooden barrel on the ground. He handed them to the boss.

"Do you want to get more of this taste?" Draco said, pointing to the hairy mints.

"Well, I think my parents would like it too," Hermione subconsciously nodded.

"No, we really should go. If we're caught, we'll all get points deducted!" Now Hermione seemed to be back to being the school rule-abiding bully.

"Isn't it just cutting your losses after breaking a rule?" Draco smiled.

"Okay, let's go," he said as he took the candy packed by the boss and handed it to Hermione.

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

"Thank you so much for your hospitality today," Hermione said, bowing to the Ambrose couple.

"Be careful on the way home! The road isn't in great condition," Ambrosia said.

"Of course," Draco replied, then darted into the cellar, with Hermione following closely behind.

The return trip was the same as the way they had come.

"I didn't have a chance to ask you, how are you so familiar with the shopkeeper?" Hermione pulled on Draco's sleeve in the dark, where she couldn't see her fingers.

"When I came here to play, I gave him some tips on how to do business in the Muggle world. What's it called? Right! Hunger marketing. It seems to have made a lot of money, so I didn't ask for payment," Draco explained.

"How old were you at the time?" Hermione asked.

"Sometimes it's obvious that you can't measure a person's intelligence by their age," Draco said, tapping his head, although Hermione couldn't see it in the dark.

"Why didn't you go to Ravenclaw?" Hermione asked, clearly puzzled.

"Are you really thinking that I'm a Ravenclaw and our relationship could be closer?" Draco said playfully.

"What are you talking about suddenly!" Hermione blushed, but it was too dark for Draco to see.

"Just kidding," he said.

But his soft joke touched Hermione's heart: "He would be like a Ravenclaw," she thought to herself as she gently patted his face.

It has to be said that this last encounter had greatly changed Hermione's perception of Draco. It even made her reflect on the mistakes she made when they first met. She was determined to make Harry and Ron apologize to him.

"What am I thinking about!" Hermione tried to shake off her imagination.

"Okay, I think we're close to going back to school," Draco said as he felt the terrain start to level out.

After walking for a while, the two saw a glimmer of light and realized they were near the exit of the one-eyed witch.

Draco went out first and looked around to make sure no one was there before letting Hermione come out.

"The party is about to start. It's probably Ron and Harry looking for you to apologize. Let's go," he said.

"Thank you so much for today," Hermione said softly.

"It's just a small thing," Draco replied.

"This is a solution to the troll incident," he thought to himself as he watched Hermione walk away.

The next development should be a reconciliation between the three of them, and Hermione's favor towards himself will increase.

"I've been gone for too long, I should get back as soon as possible," Draco thought, planning to go to the Slytherin lounge first and then to dinner.

As he turned to leave, he suddenly caught sight of a pair of cold eyes.

"This is going to be difficult," Draco thought, feeling the malevolent energy emanating from the person in front of him.

In front of Draco stood a girl, arms crossed and sneering at him.