Adamo Fidelitas

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter books and their characters are the property of JK Rowling and Scholastic Books. This is a work of fanfiction. No infringement is intended, and no money is being made from it. This story contains adult content, as posted on the website summary.

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Adamo Fidelitas 10


Hermione nervously examined the contents of her ransacked room with Professor Dumbledore and several of the teachers. She felt better surrounded by familiar and trusted faces, but the thought of someone entering her room with malicious intentions still had her unnerved. She rummaged through her clothes, which had been thrown in a pile in the middle of the room. The empty drawers had been left open, and the latch on her trunk had been tampered with as well. It had taken a good ten minutes to lure Hermione\'s bandy-legged cat out from under the bed, but it appeared that Crookshanks was unharmed at least.

\"There\'s something wrong here. Something that I\'m forgetting, but I just can\'t put my finger on it,\" Professor McGonagall sighed leafing through Hermione\'s ruined schoolbooks.

Professor Lupin looked up from the remains of Hermione\'s bed, where the mattress and pillows had been slashed. He sneezed and waved away the feather lingering in the air by his nose. \"Hermione, is anything missing as far as you can tell?\" he asked, thoughtfully runna haa hand through the greying hair at his temples.

\"Nothing,\" Hermione replied with a shake of her head.

\"So what was the point of all this?\" Professor Lupin muttered to himself, pulling down the shredded bed curtains.

\"Obviously, it\'s a warning,\" scoffed the cold, oily voice of Professor Snape from the doorway. \"Somebody means to spread fear, and this is their means of delivering a threat.\" As he spoke, the blonde head of the Slytherin Head Boy came into view over his shoulder.

\"Granger, your housekeeping leaves something to be desired,\" Draco announced, curling his lip in a sneer. His pale grey eyes glittered with the hardness of diamonds as he glanced around the room. Hermione stiffened at his words, but she held her tongue noticing the hint of a smirk that her reaction prompted. He turned his gaze towards Professor Dumbledore. \"All the students are assembled in the Great Hall, and the prefects are watching them,\" he reported, seriously.

\"Ah, excellent! Well done, Draco,\" Dumbledore commended softly. \"Have they found the Unicorn Maiden yet?\" he asked Professor Snape.

\"Yes, Professor,\" Snape replied, \"She\'s with the Gold Knight now. Unfortunately, neither she nor the other portraits could identify the vandal because her attacker remained concealed behind a hood and wore a robe with no house crest. Since none of the alarms sounded, we can at lest narrow it down to a female.\"

Professor McGonagall looked over so quickly that her tartan cap nearly fell off the top of her head. \"That\'s it!\" she cried out. I forgot to turn off the alarm before we entered the room.\" She stared directly at Draco. \"It should be going off right now! Could the perpetrator have disarmed it, Albus?\"

Hermione flinched at Professor McGonagall\'s words. She had broken school rules by disabling the alarm at the beginning of the year so that Harry and Ron could enter her room. Hermione had gotten the idea from overhearing Pansy and her gang of Slytherin girls talking in the lavatory about how they had disabled the alarm in their dormitories. It would be a lie to pretend that her intentions behind disabling the alarm were purely innocent. Draco\'s look of scrutinizing interest proved that at the very least he was suspicious. Hermione knew from what she\'d heard in the loo that he\'d been a frequent guest of Pansy\'s hospitality at the beginning of the year.

\"Miss Granger, do you have anything you wish to share with us?\" Professor Dumbledore asked mildly, and Hermione had to fight the urge to feel her cheeks to see if a sudden blush had given her away. She certainly felt like her cheeks must have been flaming. She wondered exactly how Professor Dumbledore could always look both so knowing and so in control. No matter the situation, he always gave the air that it was both expected and easily dealt with.

Hermione straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin high. \"That\'s my fault, Professor,\" she admitted. Professor Dumbledore nodded, apparently expecting as much, and Hermione felt a little annoyed at his perceptiveness. Professor Snape raised his eyebrows and with an unreadable expression inclined his head towards Dumbledore, while the other teachers gaped at Hermione. The final occupant of the room crossed his arms over his chest and eyed her as if she\'d gone mental. Hermione was fairly certain that Draco Malfoy had never admitted to any form of transgression in his entire life.

\"Why, Miss Granger?\" exclaimed Professor McGonagall, while Professor Snape predictably reminded the Headmaster of the seriousness of the situation. Professor Lupin just looked rather let down, as though his final chance for one of Harry\'s friends to be sensible had just gone out the window.

\"Harry, Ron and I needed someplace private to plan Dumbledore\'s Army meetings. The common room was too full of distractions, and the room of requirement is too well known now,\" Hermione explained. She omitted the part where she and Ron had spent most nights making out in here before she got hit with Malfoy\'s lust potion. \"It was done with good intentions, but I compromised the security of my room, and I\'m ready to pay the penalty for it,\" she added matter-of-factly.

Draco fixed her with a glare that said he might be seriously sick from such a display of Gryffindor nobility. Somehow the look also gave her the distinct impression that he was silently calling her a big, fat liar as well.

\"I will of course be writing to your parents, Miss Granger,\" Professor McGonagall announced in a stern tone. \"You will also receive detention. I expect better judgment from you,\" she chastised.

Hermione knew that McGonagall was right and wanted to shrink away from the deserved look of disappointment that McGonagall and Lupin were now giving her. Professor Lupin was opening his mouth to add his opinion to what her head of e hae had just stated.

\"Pardon me, Professors,\" Draco interrupted, sounding unnaturally respectfully, \"But as much as I agree that the Head Girl should be reminded of the importance of the example that she sets, isn\'t the lack of safety in her current room the most important issue to deal with first?\" He looked angelically innocent as he stared at the amazed teachers, and Hermione had the urge to smack him for the fun she suspected he was having at the moment. \"After all someone with obviously malevolent intentions knows the location of this room and could return at any time if the Head Girl remains here,\" he drawled, giving Hermione a condescending look.

\"Yes, Mr. Malfoy. Miss Granger obviously can\'t remain in this room,\" Professor McGonagall agreed tersely. She puffed herself up in displeasure at his coldly logical observation as well as his insinuation that her priorities were in the wrong place. \"She will simply have to move back into the Gryffindor dormitories, so there is nothing for us to discuss on the matter,\" Professor McGonagall told him directly.

\"Perhaps, Draco, you could help Miss Granger procure temporary textbooks, until she can manage permanent replacements,\" Professor Snape suggested imperiously.

\"Of course, sir,\" Draco agreed, easily.

\"Since we aren\'t going to catch the offender tonight, I suggest that you both head down to the Great Hall and let the students know that they are free to return to their dormitories,\" Dumbledore instructed, looking from Hermione to Draco. \"The house elves will bring your trunk and belongings to your room,\" he finished to Hermione.

\"Yes, Professor,\" Hermione agreed with a nod. She saw Malfoy follow suit; then he followed her out into the hall. They walked several yards down the hall, before either of them decided that they were far enough out of earshot to speak. \"What do you make of it?\" Hermione asked directly, carefully looking ahead to hide how nervous she still felt.

\"It could be anyone, Granger,\" Malfoy replied in his customary bad temper. \"What I know is that it wasn\'t me, and I don\'t believe you did it yourself. Beyond that, everyone is a suspect,\" Draco growled.

\"It\'s not until you say things like that that I remember how twisted and suspicious your mind is,\" Hermione huffed in response. \"I think we can rule out most of the school easily enough. It certainly didn\'t come from Harry and Ron for example. What worries me right now is the way that most of the damage was centred around my bed,\" she added.

\"It does make it seem like a very personal attack,\" Malfoy agreed. \"It looks to me like someone doesn\'t like your bedroom practices, Granger. It could be someone with a grudge, like a jealous, redheaded tosser. Have you considered the possibility that someone saw us together and wasn\'t happy about it? Just suppose that Weasel King or Potter saw us together somewhere,\" he told her stopping and grabbing her arm to pull her to a stop beside him.

\"Of course I\'ve considered it,\" Hermione snapped back. \"But really! Harry and Ron? First of all, they would never want to hurt me. Secondly, I think Ron would be sick for a week if he ever tried to write the M word!\" Hermione fumed crossing her arms over her chest as she stared up into Malfoy\'s sharp grey eyes. She realized how much she liked the way he looked when he was overly serious and fairly annoyed. It was surprisingly sexy somehow. Hermione self-consciously hurried forward again, before the thoughts that were stirring in her could show on her expression.

\"All those slurs about filthy blood seem almost too obvious, like someone wants it too look like a Slytherin wrote it. Of course Weasel King and Potter wouldn\'t really intend to hurt you, but if they thought they were saving you from the wicked son of a Death Eater, how far would they go? I bet they wouldn\'t be above trying to scare you, if they thought it was a righteous cause. And then once you were good and scared you\'d run away from the big, evil Malfoy and right into the waiting arms of your beloved friends,\" Draco jeered, his jaw tightening as he spoke, and his sneer become more pronounced than ever.

\"So you\'re suggesting Harry and Ron saw us together and want to frame you in order to drive us apart?\" Hermione snorted. She held her chest, afraid that she might laugh hard enough to hurt herself. \"You\'re as paranoid about them as they are about you,\" she chortled, despite thul lul look that the annoyed Slytherin fixed her with.

Malfoy tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for her fit of merriment to pass. He didn\'t appreciate having his opinions written off so easily, and it was killing him to not call her something vile in retaliation. \"It\'s not like they would know why we\'re stuck together. So who do you suspect in that big bushy head of yours?\" Draco snapped crossly, and he was rewarded with a glint of anger from Hermione for his efforts.

\"I doubt Crabbe or Goyle would be capable of doing something so precise. At least half the slurs would be misspelled, and they probably wouldn\'t be subtle enough to remember to disguise themselves,\" Hermione mused, as she collected herself. \"Pansy on the other hand seems quite able to mastermind something underhanded and sneaky,\" Hermione continued remembering the story Pansy had cooked up with Rita Skeeter during their fourth year. Hermione had even wondered if the envelope full of bubotuber pus had been a gift from the pug-faced witch.

\"It\'s certainly possible,\" Draco sighed. \"If the next attack is someone trying to emasculate me with my own wand that will prove Pansy is behind it all,\" he drawled sarcastically, looking bored and unconcerned.

\"You haven\'t done anything to enrage Weasel\'s sister, have you?\" Malfoy asked, looking down at Hermione with an expression of full haughtiness. \"I hear that the poor are excessively concerned about each other\'s lives,\" he said with lazy disdain, evidently trying to take the piss out of her. \"Apparently they have nothing better to do.\"

\"That is unpardonably rude, you little ferret,\" Hermione scolded back at him. She paused, as she tried to put words to the nagging fear that had plagued her all evening. \"You do think it was just a prank, don\'t you?\" Hermione asked earnestly, as they neared the doors to the Great Hall. \"I mean you don\'t think it was written by someone who really intends to kill me, do you?\" she asked nervously.

Draco considered how to answer her. He had been completely honest when he\'d said that he suspected everyone. That included quite a number of people who would like to see Muggleborn Hermione Granger dead, but he wasn\'t sure that the nervous witch beside him really needed to hear that.

Draco realized that there were familiar footsteps racingardsards them, and he quickly switched attitudes to cover, trusting Hermione to do the same. \"I said I didn\'t do it,\" he snarled for everyone to hear. \"So stop accusing me, you vile little Mudblood!\"

He looked into the approaching angry faces of Ron Weasley and Harry Potter and gave his his coldest sneer. No, he didn\'t trust anyone right now.

Vaguely aware of Harry and Ron drawing near behind her, Hermione stared back at Draco in shock and pain. He\'d used that word more times than she could count, but for the first time it hurt deeply. Surely, she\'d been angry with him for it before, but it had never felt like such a wound before--like such a betrayal. After all the horrible threats and the attack on her room and knowing how upset she was, how could he use that word so easily?

Feeling hollow and sick, Hermione turned abruptly and stormed off towards the prefects to release the students to their houses. She didn\'t want anyone to see how she felt at the moment, least of all Malfoy. For all she cared, Pansy Parkinson could emasculate the horrible little bigot.

Harry and Ron rushed towards her falling into step alongside her. \"See, I told you we\'d be better off if he had broken his neck! That\'s what you were protecting!\" Ron fumed, his face nearly as red as his hair as he tried to suppress his anger.

\"You\'re okay aren\'t you, Hermione?\" Harry fussed nervously. \"I mean we heard from the paintings that something happened to your room, but none of the teachers would tell us anything. The prefects have had their hands full trying to quell all the gossip. Especially since the none of us knew what had happened,\" he explained. Harry\'s green eyes studied her with worry.

\"Some idiot decided that it would be funny to scrawl crude messages outside my door and tear my room apart,\" Hermione nearly shouted, her fury at Malfoy adding passion to her words. \"I\'m moving back into the Gryffindor dormitories, so you don\'t have to worry about my safety, Harry. I just want to find out who is responsible and see them expelled,\" Hermione snarled in a manner that was disconcertingly similar to the Slytherin they had just left behind.

In her mind, Hermione seethed with thoughts of how best to get back at the stupid boor behind them. Her thoughts whirled with the possibilities, as she angrily vowed to herself to get revenge against him. Thought, sensibility, and her normal level headedness were gone, as she plotted against him.

With a twinge Draco watched Hermione stomp off. He would have preferred to have her where he could keep a constant eye on h Eve Even if one of her friends had seen them together and was trying to scare her, nobody in Gryffindor would actually pose a danger to her. Being in Gryffindor would protect her from anyone who really meant to kill her.

Draco tried to swallow the fear that any Death Eaters had been involved. Surely his father would be above writing puerile threats on the walls. Of course, the Dark Lord had agents everywhere, and not all of them would be above such actions. Lucius Malfoy would have the authority to act through any one of them, and Lucius would certainly come after both Granger and his own son. Draco fought back the sudden sickness that accompanied the thought of Lucius having discovered Hermione and his secret curse.

Draco left Hermione to handle the prefects and students, and he returned to his room in a daze as he tried to piece together the disconcerting puzzle before him.

Over the next few days Draco and Hermione barely saw each other, as they hurried through the busy December days. The Gryffindors had been able to provide most of the texts that Hermione needed, but he and Granger were for the time being going to have to share a book in Arithmancy, until Hermione\'s parents could replace the lost textbooks permanently. They couldn\'t afford to replace the large reserve of other reference books that their daughter had amassed over the course of her studies, however, including herovedoved copy of Hogwarts: A History.

Draco was more than a little surprised when Hermione passed him a note in Arithmancy telling him to skip Defence Against the Dark Arts to meet her in Snape\'s spare cupboard after Arithmancy. Hermione didn\'t request meetings with him down in the dungeon, and she never suggested skiving. It would look too suspicious to try to catch her eye in class, so he simply tabled his questions until they could speak freely in Snape\'s storeroom.

Draco took his time collecting his books after class, so that Hermione would have a head start and he wouldn\'t appear to be following the pristine Gryffindor. He decided that there was no such thing as being too paranoid, as he glided down the dungeon steps to the rounded door that led to the closet.

No sooner had he slipped inside than he felt the petite witch push him up against the shelves in a kiss that left his heart racing and his nerves zinging. After the events of the other night, this was not the meeting he had expected, but he decided magnanimously that he was more than willing to brainstorm about their problem afterwards if this was what Granger needed at the moment. He marvelled for a moment at his own selflessness as the chestnut-haired witch guided him to the floor of the cupboard and knelt over him.

\"Malfoy, I\'ve been thinking about something I\'d like to do lately,\" Hermione whispered huskily, as she nibbled his earlobe. \"It\'s been on my mind since the Quidditch opening game, and I know you\'ve been thinking about it for longer than that,\" she cooed, as she ran her hand up his inner thigh suggestively. \"You\'ve been thinking about it for such a long time…\" she trailed off breathily, waiting for the lust to kick in and do its trick.

Draco gulped loudly as any rational function in his brain shut down at the implication of what Granger was saying. He managed to nod wordlessly, as Hermione\'s hot little mouth sucked at his left index finger. At the moment it didn\'t matter if Voldemort and a choir of Death Eaters popped out of the Christmas trees in the great hall, so long as no one interrupted what the Gryffindor witch was promising to do.

\"Good, but you have to follow my rules,\" Hermione demanded, smiling in the shadowy space. \"Hold onto that pole supporting the shelves. You aren\'t allowed to touch me unless I say so, understood?\" she told him, waiting for him to acknowledge her directions.

Draco considered arguing, but afraid of losing the opportunity before him, he grabbed the pole and managed to croak out something that sounded like agreement. He closed his eyes as Hermione\'s fingertips caressed the softness of his house sweater. Then she pulled the fabric away, and with a flick of a few buttons her lips were blazingrailrail down his pale chest and over his stomach, as Draco waited with blissful anticipation.

It wasn\'t until her lips began to touch him in more intimate places that Draco realized he\'d been holding his breath. He let out a soft, shaky moan and allowed himself to breathe more normally, as he placed himself completely under Hermione\'s power.

Soon he could feel his body beginning to tense for the long wind up that led to his release, and he could hear his own voice begging Granger to let him touch her. It was a most unwelcome surprise when instead she pulled back, grinning at him with an unnerving satisfaction.

\"Don\'t stop now!\" Draco groaned, sounding hoarse to his own ears. \"For the love of Merlin, Granger! Don\'t stop!\" he wondered if it sounded as much like grovelling as he feared it did.

\"I don\'t want it to be over so quickly, Malfoy,\" Hermione whispered soothingly. \"Besides, the build up will just make it that much better…\" she promised. \"That\hy Ihy I let you wind me up so much every time. You know how much fun you have doing that… so now it\'s my turn.\"

Draco closed his eyes with a moan, knowing that he was in for it if his own actions were being used against him. He felt a nagging sensation that this was not a secure location for their tryst. He couldn\'t remember doing a locking spell even. \"Granger, maybe you could tease me another time, when we aren\'t in Professor Snape\'s unlocked cupboard,\" Draco suggested with as much reason as he could muster, until Hermione sealed off any further discussion with an impassioned kiss.

Draco\'s resolve sagged under the pull of her lips, as he spiralled along into that drunken euphoria that came with the simple act of caressing lip against lip and tongue against tongue. A sharp poke in his ribs alerted him to the fact that he had let go of the pole and was trying to pull Hermione against him while knotting his fingers in her hair with his other hand.

\"I told you not to let go of the pole, Malfoy! You aren\'t allowed to touch me yet,\" Hermione told him smugly. \"Now behave, unless you want me to stop,\" She added firmly.

Draco closed his eyes and caught hold of the pole above his head, anxious for Hermione to continue. He was thankful that the supply closet at least had enough room for him to stretch out fully, although as sas starting to feel a chill all down his back from the cold stone floor. He sighed, his breathing becoming more ragged as Hermione\'s kisses and caresses again grew more intimate, and everything else was forgotten.

Her fingernails tickled his inner thigh as she ran her tongue along the underside of his rigid flesh before taking him into her mouth with a contented sound that left Draco feeling pleasurable little flip-flops in his stomach. Butterflies certainly didn\'t describe his reaction to the erotic sound of Hermione Granger apparently enjoying taking him in her mouth.

Everything she was doing to him felt heavenly, and he found the restriction against touching her growing unbearable. It didn\'t have to be an intimate touch. He just had to ground himself. He wanted to be able to hold onto something solid in the midst of this overwhelming pleasure, and Hermione--the source of that ecstasy--was the only solid thing in the world at this moment. His fingers flexed and released on their own as he struggled to keep his grip on the designated pole.

He could feel her pace again slowing, and he tried to encourage her with all the inarticulate sounds of passion and the movements of his body as it begged her for release. Yet the more he encouraged her, the more she held back, slowing the rise and fall of her mouth upon him and the gentle squeezes of her hands until he cried out in angry frustration.

Hermione hushed him softly, and the mirth in her voice was nearly visible. \"I promise the next one is the end of the teasing,\" Hermione whispered. \"I\'m going to finish for real, Malfoy. I\'m going to give it to you but good,\" she swore, as she brushed his pale and sweaty bangs back from his eyes.

\"You\'d bloody well better, Granger,\" Draco barked back irritably. \"This is right on the verge of torture by now!\" he hissed, seeming slightly placated as Hermione tenderly stroked his face and coddled him with fleeting kisses and enticing promises about what she was going to do to him.

Draco knew that some small masochistic part of him was rather enjoying Hermione\'s teasing; it felt exhilarating to see this normally hidden, controlling side of her. She was begging for him to be just as ruthless by doing this, he decided, looking forward to his turn in control.

Then Draco could feel the hot texture of Hermione\'s tongue against the head of his aching knob, as she laved him tenderly before sealing her lips around the tip of him. Draco looked down the length of his own body, but was frustrated by the curtain of Hermione\'s bushy hair blocking his view of the spectacle. \"Granger, hold your hair back so I can watch you,\" he hissed quietly, hoping that at least on this she might comply with his whim.

Draco grinned as one of her tiny hands snaked up to gather her unruly hair and hold it securely out of the way, revealing the rosy seal of her lips moving over his flushed skin. Draco looked forward to succumbing to the light suction and the wonderful lapping of her tongue, as he watched her working her mouth over his thickening shaft. He found himself entranced by the way her lips had to stretch to accommodate him, and even after he closed his eyes the image lingered driving him closer to the edge.

The darkened closet was filled with Draco\'s whispers of encouragement, his pleas for her to take more of him, cheering her on to be faster and rougher. His whimpers and wicked words picked up tempo like music reaching a crescendo, as a delis tis tightness settled over his groin. He growled in disappointment as Hermione\'s hand replaced her mouth, but relief flooded him that at least she hadn\'t stopped. His balls felt heavy and full, and he could feel himself passing that point when he knew his release was imminent.

Draco realized that Hermione was talking to him, but the words were lost as his world closed down to the impossible tension burgeoning in his shaking body. Her next two words cut through it all with the clarity of ice and the sharpness of a knife. \"Petrificus Totalis!\" Hermione intoned distinctly, and with a look of horror and desperation Draco felt his entire body stiffen out like a board.

Hermione let her anger from the past few days finally bleed through into her expression, as she stood up over the motionless blonde wizard. She knew from personal experience practicing the curse with Harry and Ron, that a person in a full body bind was still awake and aware but unable to move. Judging her handiwork with a critical eye, Hermione decided she\'d timed the curse at an ideal moment. Had she been any later, an involuntary spasm would have had him climaxing even after the body bind took effect. As it was, he was merely frozen on the threshold.

\"Maybe this will teach you a lesson about watching your language and about who not to get on the wrong side of, Malfoy!\" She announced indignantly, as she straightened her robes. She gave Malfoy another cursory once over, and deciding it was too lurid to leave him completely exposed, she covered his stiff groin with his robes. Then she stepped out of the closet with an air of righteous dignity and closed the heavy door behind her, leaving the offending Slytherin alone in the darkened space.

Draco could hear her footsteps moving away as the intense pleasure he\'d been feeling stretched into discomfort, but he was completely unable to call out. She couldn\'t really mean to leave him like this, he thought desperately as the fear curled in his chest and the pre-orgasm tension grew increasingly unbearable.

Hermione counted out the seconds in her head as she quickly made her way up the steps. She had timed it out to herself to determine exactly how long she would leave him there. It would take her about a minute to get to the top of the stairs, so the round trip would leave the little git to stew in his discomfort for two minutes total. They could yell at each other after she\'d unbound him. Then if he ever used that horrible word to her again, she would leave him in far worse circumstances.

Hermione was pulled out of her thoughts by the presence of a figure looming at the top of the stairs. \"And what business would a Gryffindor have alone in the dungeons?\" came the eager voice of Argus Filch who loved nothing better than to find reasons to cause trouble to the students of Hogwarts. \"It looks like our rule-breaking Head Girl is looking for more trouble,\" Filch jeered with extreme satisfaction.

Hermione struggled to find an explanation for her presence in the dungeons that wouldn\'t lead Filch to Malfoy or catch her in an obvious lie, as the gleeful caretaker dragged her by the arm towards his office and rattled on about detentions and how punishment should be carried out at a proper school to ensure discipline.

Looking for any means of escape Hermione looked around desperately. She caught herself reaching inside her robe for her wand, but she quickly realized that such an action would only cause more trouble. She had to find a way to get away from Filch as quickly as possible so that she could get back to Malfoy quickly. She could feel the minutes ticking by like nails being hammered into her. Everything was going catastrophically wrong!

Filch slammed the door to his crowded office behind them, and Hermione caught herself looking up at the clock to see how long she\'d already been delayed. \"Now let\'s find my detention book,\" Filch said to himself happily, as he rummaged through his messy desk.

Hermione scanned the half opened drawers and mass of papers for any inspiration for an escape. Suddenly from the corner of her eye, Hermione spied a string of very familiar looking fireworks ing ing from one of open drawers of a rusty, peeling file cabinet. They could only be among the hundreds that Filch had confiscated from Fred and George Weasley and their clients since the twins had departed.

Hermione grinned to herself, as she rubbed her wand on her robes, causing it to shoot sparks from the tip. She pointed her wand towards the open drawer, so that the sparks shot directly onto the pile of fireworks that draped over the edge of the metal like a nest of snakes. A moment later the room was filled with whistles and flashes of light, as the firecrackers erupted in a blaze of coland and sound.

The sparks from the first set of fireworks ignited the confiscated fireworks in other drawers and the ones stuffed into other nooks and crannies in the room, turning the entire room into a cacophony of explosions and bursts of coloured sparks and magic. Hermione almost laughed out loud, as the string of explosions sent her and Filch scurrying from the room in a hail of bottle rockets, Filibuster Fireworks, and things that could only be Fred and George specials.

As a huge crowd gathered around the room and Filch tried desperately to get the explosions under control before the showers of sparks could ignite his precious detention papers, Hermione slipped away unnoticed. She could feel her breath catching in her throat and her pace still didn\'t seemt ent enough. Malfoy had been locked in that closet for at least fifteen minutes now, and it would be like fifteen minutes of unbearable torture in that state.

Hermione\'s heart surged as she skidded to a stop in front of the door, and she nearly fell as her shoes continued to slide over the smooth stone. She hurriedly threw the door open, and her blood turned to ice. The closet was completely empty.

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Author\'s Note: I\'m sorry about the long wait between updates. I\'ve been working on some of my original writing. I\'ve been trying to do an original online comic for some time, but I seem to be plagued by computer problems. I\'ll try to keep the chapters on Adamo Fidelitas coming faster so there shouldn\'t be so long a wait for the next one.

I know that\'s the most evil cliffhanger that I\'ve ever written, but there really wasn\'t anywhere that I could end this chapter without it being an evil cliffhanger. Once again, I\'ll try to have the next update asap. It will probably be at least a week or two though, because I am busy with a part time business in real life and owe an entry for the next fic challenge for CV.

Poor Draco and Hermione. It just wouldn\'t be right to let things stay quite that easy for them, because the conflict is indeed picking up. No worries, you will find out all about what happened to Draco in the next chapter, and so will Hermione. I may even throw in a bit more about our mysterious vandal if I have space for it.