The next day, Hermione headed up towards the fifth floor corridor while Ron and Harry were at Quidditch practice. She had told them she'd be studying during her free period, but instead opted to spy on Malfoy and stop him from doing anything he would come to regret. She stood at the end of the corridor, waiting for something peculiar to happen. Nothing did, for a while. Hermione didn't know which classes Malfoy was taking and had no idea if he was in one at that moment but she was not going to take any chances. She walked down the corridor and touched the stone of the walls. She thought of the room of requirement and grazed the stone for which it usually hid behind. On cue, the wall shifted and a great metal archway etched itself into the stone. Hermione walked through it and the stone shifted back into its original place. Hermione stared in awe at the sight of it. It looked quite different from when she last remembered it for it was packed with things, random things that students must have hidden away there. Hermione didn't want to touch anything, in case it would reveal her points of discretion, but she was tempted for some of the objects were very curious indeed. Hermione wondered what on Earth drew Malfoy to this room but her query was answered almost immediately. A tall piece of wooden furniture stood mightily at the centre of the room. It was covered by a sheet but only half of it was shielded. She managed to catch the design on it and it looked incredibly familiar. This looked exactly like the vanishing cabinet that Malfoy had examined in Borgin & Burke's. Hermione refrained from touching it, in case something was hidden inside, though she doubted that whatever or whoever was inside it would reveal themselves or they would have killed her on the spot if they happened to be death eaters. She gazed up at it, itching to run her fingers along the design, a golden pattern that wove in and out of each other just at the edge of the door of the cabinet. The handle was rich, as if made of gold, which Hermione thought was probably real. Hermione couldn't help herself, she reached out for the handle to pull on it when she heard a voice from behind.