Keeper

Chapter Four

Dedicated To Charlotte

Hermione grabbed a piece of toast as she sat down on the Gryffindor table, biting into it as her friends all greeted her a 'good morning'. She smiled at each one of them between stuffing her mouth with food and gulping down juice. This weekend was the Hogsmeade trip, and everyone apart from Hermione had remembered about it.

I mean, yeah, she had the permission slip and everything; but her mind had much more interesting things to think and dream about.

She rubbed her eyes to try and rid herself of any sleepiness; seeing as her and Draco had spent the whole night up, surprisingly, just talking. Hermione smiled as she thought back to the previous night.

However, she had only been able to find out about the trip when Draco told her on their way out of the common room.

Thinking of him, Hermione looked up momentarily from her food to the Slytherin table. She scanned the faces of each student and her heart sank when she couldn't find Draco; perhaps he was one of the few students who had already left.

She let out a sigh and resumed cramming the remainder of breakfast into her mouth. Since her friends had already finished earlier, and were now just waiting for her.

Once Hermione had stopped eating they got up from their seats, cheering in relief, and made their way out of the castle, all extremely eager to get out somewhere. Hermione, being left behind, ran after them, trying to catch up and wrapping her scarf around her neck as she did so.

Finally, she caught them just as they exited the Grand doors. Hermione walked next to Ginny, her heavy breaths vanishing into steamy vapour before her. They walked carefully on the icy path towards the town, all getting into loud conversations about their busy few weeks at school, which they felt had sped by.

Hermione laughed along with them, happy to be part of the group, but inwardly missing a certain someone who she had not seen much at all today.

She threw a swift glance over at Harry and Ginny as they held hands; Hermione smiled at them, wishing she had someone of her own, feeling the pang of someone's absence again.

Probably, only just seeing the couple too, Ron looked over at Hermione and snorted to himself.

"Everyone was bloody in love and he still had no one."

Well, that was about to change.

Draco sat under a snowy willow tree, stretching his legs into the snow. He hoped that he was perfectly unseen and when he was sure of it, he exhaled deeply. He took out a small piece of parchment from his pocket and traced the rough texture of it with his hands.

It was a brief letter from his mother which he had received during breakfast. A much unexpected one at that, and it had ruined his whole day, though it had barely even started. Once Draco had skimmed through it quickly, he felt like punching someone, so he then left for Hogsmeade in a hurry.

So that he could be alone.

He re-read the letter a few times before the message actually sunk in. When he had finished reading through it for the last time, he tore it up angrily and threw the remnants of it aside. But the words still stuck into his mind.

"Dear Son,

I'm very sorry, but I won't be home for the Christmas holidays this year. It seems your Aunt Bellatrix is having some trouble at the moment, so I'm off to help. No one will be home so I'm not sure if you would want to come back or not.

Miss you dearly,

Your mother, Narcissa Malfoy"

Swearing aloud, he brushed a hand crossly through his hair and felt a further hate towards his family. That was the problem, they were never around to actually see or care.

Resting his head back on the stump of the willow, he held back a tear and toughened up. Her letter did not even hold any elements of love in it, it was just short, brief and perfectly to the point.

Formal and emotionless, likewise for the rest of his family.

He straightened up suddenly, as soon as he heard an eruption of laughter from nearby. Looking over to where the sound had come from, Draco saw Hermione and some other people joking around.

They were all crowding around Harry freaking Potter so that they could hear what he had to say.

He saw Harry's lips move from a distance, obviously saying something, before they all broke into a furious fit of laughter again.

Draco couldn't hold back a surge of jealousy at the sight of them and thanked the drooping branches of the tree for providing him with shelter.

He threw them each an icy stare; his eyes lingering on Hermione for a while longer than the rest before he tore them away. She seemed somewhat less happy than the others, her eyes were caught in a slight daze and a small frown began to play on her lips. Soon enough, she dismissed herself from the group and walked off away from them. He then saw what was left of the cheerful group enter into Honeydukes Sweetshop, followed by the ginger-weasel boy.

Draco took a look sideways to check if anyone was watching before he got to his feet and he also made his way towards the colourful shop, hoping to stumble upon something of interest to him.

Maybe later he would find Hermione and-

Well, he didn't really know.

Ron stepped into the warmth of the Sweetshop, shivering to try and rid himself of any coldness that was left in him. As soon as he saw the tremendous variety in candy and bright assortments, his eyes bolted around the room with great amazement.

There, before him, lay shelves and shelves covered to the last brim with sweets. There were ones that moved, ones that exploded and even ones that turned your tongue into funny colours. He smiled to himself as he recognized the Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Fizzing Whizzbee's and Blood Lollipops. To be honest, any sweet that you could possibly imagine was there in front of him.

A crowd of enthusiastic students inspected the shop for anything to buy and he too began to search the room rapidly, before he darted off to grab handfuls of whatever he could find.

Once he had a great pile of candy stacked in his arms, he scanned the store one last time to see if he had missed anything. Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of something from the corner of his eye and turned to face it.

He almost drooled when his beady eyes met with the most beautifully decorated sign he had ever seen or read in his life! It said, "Honeydukes Sweetshop gladly presents to you… The sweet that can grant you ONE wish! Limited Edition, while stocks last!"

Ron let out a childish gasp and dropped all of the sweets that he had managed to collect, creating a large pile of them at his feet. His eyes wandered down below the sign and there, wrapped perfectly was a piece of candy sitting on a shelf.

Ron almost heard it calling out his name, or maybe that was someone actually saying hello.

Anyway, even better yet, there was still one left. One left just for him!

He hurried over to it, his eyes on watch for any other claimers, and tripping over his own feet a few times on the way there.

Clumsy Ron.

When Ron arrived there, his eyes widened as he stared in wonder at the 'glorious' candy that sat before him, he reached out an eager hand to grab it but was interrupted mid-way by someone knocking into him.

Ron fell to the floor just as the same person tripped over him, showering him in a heap of sweets. He rubbed the back of his head in a frustrated manner, while he quickly recovered and stood up.

"Oi! Why don't you watch where you're-" He said, turning to the person who had bumped into him. Ron only stopped when saw a girl sitting on the floor in front of him, she looked up and blushed a little.

She wore jeans and a blue jacket, her wavy brown hair tied into a loose-hanging ponytail with a green ribbon. He looked into her eyes, which were deep brown and she quickly diverted her gaze elsewhere.

He felt bad since he was about to shout at her; so he outstretched a hand offering to help her get up.

For a second, she stared from the candy-covered floor up to his hand and then back down again. She shrugged and ignored Ron's helping hand as she began to recollect all of the treats that she had dropped.

Ron blushed and drew back his hand, feeling slightly embarrassed.

It's not like he's never had girl trouble of the sort before, but he actually had a good feeling about this.

He turned his back to her as she got up, in her arms a mountain of candy, and looked over to the One Wish sweet that he was about to take for himself.

Ron looked around for any takers before he resumed his action, going in for the sweet, and opening his hand to seize it. But the girl, who was obviously thinking exactly alike to him, did the same thing.

Both their eye's widened as they accidentally took hold of the other's hand, they turned to each other and their eyes met. It was only for a split second, though it felt much longer.

Ron forced a stupid-looking smile, causing the girl to come back to her senses, she turned a cute shade of pink and let go of his hand.

"Oh, I'm really sorry about that. You can have it." She mumbled shyly, pointing to the sweet.

"No, no! You have it." He replied, picking it up and placing it gently on the top of pile that she cradled in her arms.

She laughed a little, "I really insist, you take it." She shifted uneasily trying to keep hold of her sweets, taking his hand and putting the small piece of candy on the palm of it.

Ron closed his hand, as if to treasure the sweet and he watched as the girl walked off, paying for her treats before she left the store. He felt his heart stop beating shortly when he saw her turn for one last glance at him, the next thing he knew she was gone.

Ron's heart sank as he saw her leave, so he ran hastily to the shopkeeper and threw a few Galleons at the counter when he finally found some in the depths of his jean pockets.

He felt a need to know her, and an urge to spend more time with her.

Ron paced out of the shop into the chilling winter morning and found that she wasn't too far ahead.

The streets of Hogsmeade lay half empty and icy, not yet at its busiest point in the day.

"Hey!" He yelled, running after her and dodging past some people who stood in the way.

"Excuse me!" He shouted, after finally catching up and placing a hand on her shoulder.

She jumped in shock and spun around quickly to see who it was. She both smiled and blushed when she saw it was Ron.

"Oh, hello again." She said quietly, looking at the floor.

"Hi." He answered, considerably out of breath.

She giggled at the state of him, "Um, are you okay?"

He merely nodded as he tried to regain himself. Ron took one last profound inhale before turning back to her.

"I just wanted to know…" He paused and she looked at him, as if telling him to go on.

"W-what's your name?" He continued, trying to catch her eye.

She beamed, and then fiddled a little with her hair, she remained quiet for so long that Ron began to think she was never going to tell him.

"It's Charlotte." She replied sweetly, causing Ron to grin like an idiot.

"Charlotte, that's cool. By the way, I'm-" He began to say, but Charlotte disrupted him.

"Ronald Weasley, I know who you are." She finished his sentence for him and then laughed.

"You do?" Asked Ron, confused.

"Who doesn't?" She said shrugging her shoulders.

"Oh right, yeah." He answered, remembering Harry and the stuff that he had done.

"Well, I must be going." Charlotte told him, breaking the awkward silence and trying to avoid the fact that he was gaping open-mouthed at her.

There was another short pause before Ron stood in front of her and blocked her path.

"No, not yet. Don't go."

For an instant she looked taken aback, but then her expression eased.

Another unspoken silence drifted by before Ron remembered something that lay hidden in his closed hand.

"Oh yeah!" He beamed at her as he held out his hand.

Charlotte looked up from the floor to his outstretched arm. She smiled to herself when she saw the One Wish sweet.

She shook her head in disapproval, "I can't take it. It's yours."

But then, there was a faint 'snap' as Ron took hold of the little sweet and broke it into half. Charlotte gasped when Ron threw one of the halves in his mouth.

He smiled at her again, and held out the other half for her to take.

"Go on Charlotte, make a wish." He said, with his mouth full.

Charlotte giggled as she took it from him, put it into her own mouth and closed her eyes to make her wish.

Ron watched her before he too shut his eyes and made his wish.

There was a lingering absence of words while the two thought of something to wish for; they were unaware that they both really wanted the same thing. Opening their eyes, both of them saw a few white snowflakes fluttering down from the sky.

Charlotte looked up in amazement and laughed at the falling snow, Ron gazed at her as she did so.

"Um, thanks Ron." She whispered to him, tearing her eyes away from the sky and looking at him.

"It's alright." He paused as he thought of something to say.

Ron leaned in abruptly so that their faces almost touched and he whispered back to her, "I hope your wish come's true."

He said it so nervously through stutter, but she thought it was sweet of him.

Charlotte looked into his eyes and could almost feel his warmth breath on her skin. She smiled up at him and inwardly hoped that her wish really would come true.

Actually, she hoped that both of their wishes would come true, whatever they may be.

Draco breathed out a heavy cloud of steam as he walked by the bright light shops of Hogsmeade, tossing a small piece of candy up and down in his gloved hand.

He stopped all of a sudden, grabbing the sweet tightly and stuffing his hands into his pockets when he saw Hermione walking towards him, an aged book tucked under her arm.

She was staring at the snowflakes as they fell from the sky and she smiled faintly to herself at the sight of it.

Draco stood in front of her when she was near enough to him, he spoke out.

"Hey Granger. What's with the tyrannic book?"

Hermione jumped, shocked by the tone of Draco's voice. Her eyes came to contact with his and he smirked.

"It's just a book."

"For what?"

"My personal reading." She answered, to the point.

Draco nodded but then made a face at the book again.

"What? Don't you read, Malfoy?" She asked him.

He stopped making faces and thought for a second.

"Yeah, but not books as ugly as that." He retorted, back to his usual annoying self.

"It is not ugly!" Hermione gasped, hugging the book closely like it had feelings.

"You shouldn't judge a book by its cover!" She continued, trying to sound smart when she was clearly getting upset.

Draco laughed aloud and took a step closer to her.

"Calm down Granger. I was just kidding." He said, placing a hand on her arm.

She immediately composed herself at his touch, refusing to let her feelings show. Hermione sighed and Draco frowned at her.

"You wanna go for a drink?" He told her.

Hermione looked around suspiciously before turning back to him.

"But people will see us together." She replied, in a stage whisper.

Draco laughed again, she looked somewhat ridiculous.

"So what?"

Hermione gasped again, "You mean, you actually don't care."

"If I did, I wouldn't be standing here in front of you." He said in-a-matter-of-fact kind of way.

She nodded and followed him into The Three Broomsticks, where many of the Hogwarts students were spending their day.

Hermione shivered unconsciously as nervousness began to attack her body; she saw Harry and some of the others gathered around the usual table that they sat on. All apart from Ron, she wondered where he had gone off to.

She glanced over at Draco as he got to the door of the building; he opened the door, letting warm air rush out into the cold. He stopped, noticing the people inside and shrugged before turning to look at Hermione.

"You sure you wanna go? Your friends are in there." He said, so that only she could hear.

"Yeah, I'm sure." She said before she could stop herself.

He nodded in return and let her go first, resting his hand on her back as she walked by. He followed her closely, his hands lingering on her for a second too long but she almost melted into him. His touch burned her yet she wanted something more.

His hand slid across her waist as he left her and sat on a table causing Hermione to exhale the breath that she had been holding in.

Hermione stood there for a minute or so before she actually sat opposite him and was sure that she had recovered from that incident.

He was really starting to affect her and she was beginning to think about him more and more each day.

Though they still called each other by surnames, there was something going on between them, they just couldn't admit it to themselves yet.

She smiled weakly and saw that Draco looked quite saddened by something.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Hermione said, causing him to look up suddenly.

"Well, I'm staying at school for Christmas. No one's going to be home anyway." He answered, placing his chin on his propped up arm.

"Oh really? I'm really sorry…Draco." She resisted taking hold of his hand and ignored the fact that she had just called him by his first name.

Draco was comforted by the sound of his name from Hermione and almost smiled; it appeared she hadn't realized she had said it.

"And there's something else." He said, almost inaudibly with all the noise.

Draco dug into his pocket and took out a small, colourfully wrapped sweet. Hermione gasped in recognition.

"Wow! The One Wish sweet!" She looked from his hand to his face, open-mouthed.

"Yeah, but I don't know what to wish for."

Hermione shut her mouth and began to think.

"Why the hell did you buy it then?" She asked, puzzled.

"Cause I wanted it." He replied feebly, causing Hermione to giggle.

"Well then, wish for the first thing that pops into your mind right now." She informed him.

Hermione watched as Draco sighed and stared out of the window into the busying street outside, then turning back to her.

"I wish that I would have someone to stay with me over Christmas." He mumbled.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at what he said but then softened when she realized the reason behind it. She felt extremely sorry for him.

Draco laughed a little, breaking the silence, "It won't come true now, because I've just told you."

It wasn't a very happy laugh, it sounded more miserable yet he was trying to hide it. Hermione felt more touched and wanted to cheer him up.

She sparked up when she thought of a sudden idea.

"It can come true." She said, her voice rose.

Draco looked at her like she was going crazy.

"What?"

"I'll stay with you over Christmas." She blurted out.

Draco's eyes widened in shock before a smirk played on his lips.

"Really? You'll stay with me?"

"Yeah, I will." She answered, feeling surer of herself.

"Alright then." He said, more to himself than to her.

"Listen, you don't deserve to be alone." Hermione said trying to cheer him up and leaning towards him unconsciously.

"Thanks…um, Hermione." He replied, smiling at her.

She returned the gesture and smiled back at him.

Perhaps wishes do come true for some people.

But little did anyone know, Draco didn't really wish for that.

He felt a slight emotion of joy inside him as he glanced over at Hermione. She was looking down as she played around with her hands. As she looked up at Draco, she flashed him a small smile, hoping that he couldn't hear the rapid beating of her heart in her ears.

A/N : Hey guys there's the update! Hope you like, it was real quick and not very well done, but I believe is by far the longest chapter I've written. And oh yeah I threw Charlotte in there because I didn't want Ron to be all alone, I mean I know in the book he was Hermione but in MY FANFIC she has Draco, so Ron is perfectly alone. Charlotte is a friend who really likes him, so well I just wanted to put her in my story, and by the way, she is actually as I write her, her looks and personality! Hehe! Read and review guys! Please. I will try to post again soon.

-Fallen11angel