Coffee and Spearmint Toothpaste - Dramione

27-Ash

As soon as the boy left the hall Hermione started to follow him, the boy walked off towards the dungeons and he rounded a corner. As soon as she rounded the corner to follow him he was gone. There was definitely something strange going on. As much as she thought about it she couldn't think of why this would be happening, the locket she saw had cracked when destroyed, the diary had a hole in and the pages were stained with ink, she herself destroyed the cup and saw the tooth pierce the metal, she had seen the gaunt ring destroyed as it no longer had a gleam to the jem stone, she saw the snake turn to dust, and she knew that Harry had died and come back, that only left the diadem.

She realised it then, no one had gone to retrieve the tiara after the battle, the last they saw of it was the flames engulfing it, what if that hadn't worked. She immediately started to walk in the opposite direction, to the room of requirement.

Surely the diadem had been destroyed, hadn't it? She started to quicken her pace. All she could hear was the beat of her own heart beat pounding in her ears and the echo of her footsteps in the long corridor.

Suddenly as she rounded a corner she walked right into someone. "Hermione?"

She looked up to see Draco's concerned eyes glinting down at her, his hair slightly unkempt as if he had been playing with it. "Draco."

"Hermione are you okay, you look like you have just seen a demon or something?"

"I...we need to go to the room of requirement immediately."

"That's where I was heading actually for our dancing lesson."

"No... I umm, I need to check something important first."

She realised now that this was the first time they had spoken since she pushed him up against the wall in the hallway.

"Umm Draco, I'm sorry about what happened last night, I don't know what came over me. I think the Fire Whiskey went to my head a bit, I tend to act a bit irrational when I have had alcohol." She stated as she walked.

"It's fine, I mean I was a bit shocked but I was more interested in what you were going to do next rather than the wand to my neck."

She felt her cheeks heat up at the memory. She must have been incredibly delusional last night.

"Did...did you send a letter to your mother."

"Yes, she replied this morning, my father never turned up so I guess he is somewhere else."

Just as she was about to spout out another apology they found themselves in the place where the room of requirement normally appears. Hermione immediately thought of the room where any thing could be hidden and the door appeared from the brickwork. She took a hesitant step towards it and reached out her hand, hovering it over one of the gleaming brass door knobs. As she pulled open the door there was a cloud of ash as the door disturbed what had settled on her the floor.

There was hardly anything left in the room. Just ash and the occasional pile of burnt furniture.

"This is the room where Goyle died."

She stood frozen in place, she had completely forgotten that Draco'a best friend had died here. "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have brought you here."

"Don't worry about it, yeah we were close but we were only really friends because his dad was a death eater the same and my father, he was willing to do more for Voldemort than anyone." Draco took a few steps forward and looked out over all of the ash and ruin, the whole room stained from the smoke. "It's strange, this is what the world could have looked like if he hadn't been stopped last year."

"I need to find the Ravenclaw diadem."

"Why?"

"Well as you know Voldemort stayed alive by making horcruxes, there were seven, the snake, the slytherin locket, the cup of hufflepuff, a ring that belonged to Gaunt family, his diary and Harry, there was also the diadem. I have seen all of them destroyed except for the diadem and this is what we came in here for at the battle of Hogwarts."

"But wouldn't Goyle's Fiendfyre have destroyed it ?"

"It should have but there was a chance that it somehow didn't come in contact with the flames for long enough and it survived."

"I remember that it landed right in front of the door so shouldn't it still be here." Draco looked down at the floor and his mouth parted slightly, as he looked up there was a frightening look in his eye and Hermione knew exactly why. There were footprints left in the ash, leading to a spot where the ash had vanished near the door. "Someone has been in here since."

"If it worked then I should be able to Acio the crown to me because it wouldn't be a horcrux any more." She lifted up her wand, her had shaking and said "Acio Ravenclaw Diadem."

Nothing happened.

"It's not here Draco." She cast another spell that cleared all of the ash from the ground leaving the ruined floor. "Acio Crown. Acio tiara." Still nothing happened. Her hands were shaking  completely now as she collapsed to the floor on her knees. She felt as the tears that had been pricking at her eyes felt to the ground. "This means he is still there Draco, we didn't kill him, and he...he is going to come back...someone has it...it...I."

"Shh it's okay." Draco immediately fell to the ground in front of her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Hermione listen to me, it's going to be okay."

She couldn't see his face clearly through the tears. "Please Hermione, don't cry." He pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear and brought the same hand to her face where he brushed away the tear. "We can stop this, we can get the diadem back and destroy it and things will go back to normal."

"I can't we don't even know where it could be, it...it could be anywhere."

"Hermione you are the smartest person I have ever met and I know that you can figure this out but just remember you aren't alone, I am here for you, I will help you and I'm here for you to lean on."

"I...I..." She reached up her hand, placed it on top of his, and leaned into his gentle touch. His hand was cool against the warmth of her cheek. "I don't know what I would do without you."

Before she knew it, he had pulled her close to himself, tight to his chest, wrapping his arms around her back. She buried her face into the crook of his neck, breathing in his calming scent, the smell of pine and mint. She felt as his fingers drew soothing circles on her back. "I'm always going to be here for you, no matter what."

A/N:Hay how are you all doing. I know that it's exam season so I hope that everyone's exams are going well. Thank you for reading and I'm sorry if this chapter seems a bit sudden, I just think that it needed a bit of drama. BYEEE!