The thing about the room of hidden things is that sometimes, people ended up in there too. not too often, not every game of hide and seek, or every time someone was embarrassed and wanted to hide. It was based on the strength of someone's desire to hide, of course, but their placement was also based on the single mindedness of one's character, the concentrated amount of determination within them, the ones with desires that didn't go against the room of hidden things' rules.
(the room may seem random, but even random things have rules, after all)
Coincidentally, the thing about Hermione Granger is that she embodied the requirements of the room of hidden things, except usually she was blatantly Not Hidden. She was the eternal raised hand, judging voice, raised eyebrow, pursed lips, fluff of hair. She was present even when a slew of people wished she wasn't.
Except that seemed to change when it came to romance. All she wanted to do was hide when she was near Ron and Lavender, witnessed them snog for an eternity, saw them disgustingly happy in spite of her own dissatisfaction. even with the people who didn't like her, she'd always felt her opinion, her presence, meant something, impacted them in some way.
But with Won Won, suddenly she was just another nothing, just like she'd been in primary school.
And so, witnessing another one of their disgusting gross awful displays of public affection, she escaped, for once not to the library, as she'd found the quietness always contrasted too sharply with her sobs. Instead, after she bid a sharp goodbye to harry, she headed to the astronomy tower, abandoned at this time of day, and somehow sniffled her way to sleep, wishing she could hide forever.
She ends up, as you might have guessed, in the room of hidden things, propped up against a futon of some sorts, a blanket tucked around her.
Draco Malfoy is staring at some bottles of sherry, gaze seemingly unfocused, when she comes to, blinking the sleep out of her eyes.
She'd normally be far more confrontational, but it's been a long day.
"What is this?" She asks, a tad too loudly. Malfoy winces, looking away from the bottles and into the distance.
"Trelawney's sherry bottles," he replies, "no wonder she came up with the barmiest predictions."
"Not that, you git." Hermione struggles up, the blanket having been tucked quite tightly around her. She almost trips walking over to Malfoy, and she can see his smile over her haze of self righteous indignation.
He gestures grandly around them, knocking over one of the sherry bottles with a stray hit of his left forearm. "This is a bunch of horseshit. These are the things people hid and never come back for. Well, unless you're Trelawney, I'm assuming she comes back for her alcohol quite a bit."
"Okay, well why am I here?" Hermione says in a sort of tired but accusing way she has. Draco has to wonder how she can be so authoritative when she looks so terrible. "Are you trying to hide me away so I'll never disgrace your presence or anyone else's ever again? 'Cause I imagine staying and explaining to me what's going on is somewhat counterintuitive, unless you're planning to lock me up in here." Draco thinks she must be remarkably unthreatened by him to directly state that, considering Potter's onto him.
"While I wish that were the case, beats me, really. Although I wouldn't rule out the possibility someone did try to stick you up here. Snape maybe, or Lavender?"
Hermione's eyes flash at that, but otherwise she doesn't react. Draco has had a rather frustrating day, though, and he wants to rile her up a little, have her provide some entertainment. As intense as she gets, nothing much seems to get to him anymore. "Or maybe Weasley himself, huh? He doesn't seem to want to play around with the likes of you these days."
"You shut up right now," Hermione says, grasping for her wand. When she fails to find it, her finger points menacingly into Draco's ribs instead. "Don't make me punch you again, you don't know what you're talking about. I think I'm the one who doesn't want much to do with him anymore."
"I'd like to see you try, Granger," he smirks, his hand first grasping, then wiggling her pointer finger. "And good for you, he's rather boring, isn't he?"
"He is the most unimaginative person I've ever met, quite honestly. I'm not sure he'd survive, or function, without bloody quidditch or food. Or snogging some poor girl to near death." Hermione gripes, lowering her pointer finger. "What are you doing here anyway? And where the bloody hell is my wand? Seriously, if you were trying to kill me you could've done it while I was sleeping."
"Shut up, Granger. I don't know where your wand is, I don't think you had it when you got here. And don't be nosy, it's unbecoming. In fact, you're probably the one I should kill." Draco snarks back, but his voice is flat in his death threat so Hermione chooses to ignore it for the time being.
"When I got here?" She asked quietly. "...Did I sleepwalk?"
"No, you annoying bint. No one dragged you in, I'd guess someone wished you away."
"Or I wished myself hidden," She murmured, and Draco couldn't help staring at her a little bit more closely.
"Well, if you'd be so kind as to leave, some people have work to do." He announces, moving behind her as to push her towards the door across the room.
"What work would anyone have to do in here?" Hermione questioned, staying still.
"Has anyone told you you ask too many fucking questions?" Draco responded, muttering something along the lines of 'so many fucking questions' in the silence afterward. "I don't have time for this."
Draco moves to the side and makes his way out of the room, cursing goddamn Hermione and her red eyes that made him tuck the blanket around her and wait for her to wake up. What had he been thinking?
Oh yeah, he'd been remembering a time last year when he himself had ended up in that room, confused and scared enough to warrant a pitying visit from Dumbledore when one of his spying portraits had witnessed Draco stumbling out of the room, leaving the door open in his wake.
Meanwhile, Hermione stayed inside the room for another minute, wondering if she'd really felt that kiss on the forehead when she'd woken up, before she set off to the astronomy tower to hopefully find her wand.
A/N. That's that, I suppose. I was watching the Half Blood Prince and there were so many opportunities for Draco and Hermione to interact, I couldn't resist. I'd say that this was a bit confused and the end's a bit rough, and I did NOT read over it so haha oops at the mistake I made with 'phone' instead of 'wand' in the last line, thanks so much to the reviewer who pointed it out aha!
Also, sorry if I embarrassed myself with the use of British phrases, I'm entirely American so hopefully no one rolled their eyes at it!