Keeper

Chapter Eleven

Thank you to ThatNewDemiGod, edwardsgurl9493, kk1999, OBLuvr13, Charlotte, Sarjhi and MadeNew.
Beat me with a stick if you please, I have been away too long.
(Or a broomstick if you prefer as crazy as this chapter will be.)

Hermione lingered in the corridor a moment's longer, unsure of what exactly she was waiting for now that a break can commenced after her third class and busying corridor had given her a reality shock - in contrast to the weeks of empty hallways she'd had to stalk for so long. It was hard believe that this was that very same corridor, once so empty and still that anything that stirred within a distance of the place could be felt beneath your feet, and now the crowds of eager children to meet with others had caused her to avoid the thought of shoving through and had left her to retreat into a cove in the wall for safety.

She shut her eyes tight and at a failed attempt to drown out the sound of the roaring children's conversations, about holidays, gifts, relationships and aimless gossip, that she succeeded to wrap her arms tightly around her books and hug them to her chest. She opened her eyes, and let them adjust once more to the light, which was a bright winter morning light that shone mercilessly through the arches, mocking to letting you believe that it would be a beautiful warm day out, when actually it's crisp and as icy as you left it to be.

She peered up and down the corridor wondering when the endless students of the school would disperse into a more civilized crowd and allow her to pass unscathed - when a voice rang out from amongst the dark black, swinging robes, various heights and assorted hair colours, causing her to squint into the masses in question when the voice had already been made familiar to her all year.

"Well, well, look who's hiding from the sharks?" He called out over the louder voices, so that could just about make out what he said. So they had returned to nonchalant battles of banter now that witnesses had arrived? Hadn't it been much different when the school was empty of prying eyes and gossiping mouths? Or had that changed?

He had merely made it through unharmed as the children were afraid of touching him, in the spite of causing his heightened anxiety, fearfulness or malicious temper – she had not that kind of power and would be murdered in the instant she attempted to move through to classes. A habit of a comeback had sparked in her veins as he reached her in the cove and had to stand within semi- close proximity to avoid being taken down from behind.

"The sharks? What sort of saying is that? It wasn't well thought out was it?" Hermione retorted, shocked at how she produced a smirk only worthy of a Malfoy boy so she glanced away to calm herself and let it defuse.

"Hey, aren't you trying to be feisty today Miss Granger? Not that I haven't seen for a good week or so…" He mocked in his playful way as he leaned forward to press his hand onto the wall behind her, seemingly pinning her in position and embarrassed of the many eyes that could witness the scene, "Where have you been hi-ding?"

"Me? Hiding? Don't be preposterous! And move your arm from there, people are looking!" Hermione stage whispered as she moved her face close to his angrily to stare at his eyes and pleading him inwardly to move away. She made an attempt to swat his arm away but failed, as she does so many times, when he remained unstirred and blatantly amused by her wimpiest and ever quickly frustrated behaviour.

"You should know by now, that I have no care for what people see me doing. And by the looks of your face, I could be torturing your little soul by now!" He continued in his mockery as he proceeded in his turn to draw his face slightly closer to look her in the eye and return the looks she gave to him, "It's just everyday scenes to them, me against you ...and I would probably win." That smirk, again, Hermione watched in the perfect way it played and manipulated his expression. Her own expression harboured a narrowing set of eyes and upturned proud chine she loved to use.

"Psh! Let's not take account for the last time I punched you square in the face!" She replied quickly and smugly, in the slight disappointment that his reaction gave nothing away again, leaving her no satisfaction victory even if she thought she had won their daily bantering teases.

"And let's not forget the last time you kissed me!" He said in stage whisper, so only that she could hear it, making her numb till her knees, hard to breathe and unable to conjure an attempt at a witty reply. She thrived to shut her astonished gaping mouth, and that he dared to play that card, in exasperation leaning back forcedly onto the wall behind her, only that it didn't feel like a wall. She stopped her self after another inward battle to smack the back of her book into his twisted smirk of a smile.

The back of her head and hair felt the sharp edges of wooden texture and rough exterior like many ancient doors that lead to undiscovered places around the school, it made her wonder where exactly this would take her if she dared to explore. She unwrapped one hand from around her books and slowly slid it across the splintery surface and compared it to the smooth marble walls that the school so boldly upheld; she proceeded in inclining her head slightly to the side to look at it.

She forgot it for a moment, as she remembered the conversation at hand, and a trivial haughtiness overcame her as she looked into Draco's pale, expressionless face and icy, piercing eyes.

"Well let's not forget it was you who kissed me and not the other way around!" She finally answered back before she was interrupted by the shrill annoying sound of Pansy Parkinson swooning, as usual at the sights of Draco and came shoving into his back without seeing Hermione in front of him. Hermione peered from around his shoulder, amused at the other girl's likelyness to an obsessed fangirl seeing their idol, God or whatever sort.

"What the hell Pansy? Get off!" Draco yelled frustrated as she latched onto his back and he attempted to push her away with the free hand that wasn't leaning on the wooden door behind Hermione. Pansy whined a little and powerfully propelled him forwards as someone from the busying crowd knocked into her, and he resisted in squishing Hermione in his battle between the crazy girls. What a scene this must have looked like - a few stifled giggles left the crowd directed at them.

Hermione was about to laugh aloud at the ridiculousness of the what the situation had become when a loud cracking noise had halted her midway and she turned around just in time to see that the weight of the three of them had caused the door to swing open with a ear-splitting creak, to reveal a darkened small room inside. Before she had time to digest what was going on and how quickly it was happening, another knock from the crowd had disarmed Pansy of the boy in her arms within a second or so, and without the leverage of the door to lean on or the hold of Pansy to keep him upright, the two fell into room unable to recover fast enough as the door shut them inside together.

A fumbled Charlotte fell through the scattering crowd and onto Pansy, who in her anger towards her, shoved her in the shoulder briskly and in the force of it causing the vulnerable victim to stumble backwards and knock over a stray broomstick to fall over and bar down the wooden door unknowingly.

"I'm so sorry!" Charlotte tried to apologize, waving her hands in front of her as a gesture of protection from a violent Slytherin, but was only met with the subjective angry screams of a hysterical girl, overacting at the meaningless and accidental action of being bumped into as a force of keeping with the crowd.

"Ah damn!" Hermione huffed, as she attempted to twist the ringed door handle another time in the hopes of escaping this tiring cliché of being trapped in a room with Draco Malfoy. She smacked a spread hand onto the wide surface of the wood in the amusing effort to either knock it down or making a noise to let someone know to get them out – or not.

"It's too noisy out there, that Pansy appears to be screaming someone down by the looks of it... or the sounds of it I mean." Draco muttered from where he was still sitting, remaining unmoved from where he had fallen in from the blur of outlandish events. He murmured a "Lumos!" and lifted his lit wand into the mid air to observe the surroundings of the small room, Hermione caught his eye as she sat down opposite him and leant on the door, her head titled slightly as if listening curiously outside.

"Well, isn't this fantastic." Draco said after a long silence in the room that he dared to break.

"Yeah, of all the bloody rooms and secret passageways in this school, we land in a broomstick cupboard! And not even the ones for Quidditch, because who knew Hogwarts had a janitor's closet with mops and brooms!" Hermione blasted in her annoyance, she threw her arms into the air with defeat as she eyed the dusty, tiny closet with a glare in her eyes, lit brightly by the golden beams of the spell.

"Must be Hogwarts' way of punishing us."

"Or greater forces…" Hermione interjected.

"You appear to be quite in a foul mood today, and I was just about to start a conversation by asking how you were." Draco teased in his usual way that only led to infuriate Hermione even more, because delving into situations like this was never within her intentions, before or after encounters with Draco Malfoy and his sarcastic mouth.

He shrugged to himself as he placed his wand on a nearby shelf and picked up one of Hermione's books with his thumb and finger as if it were dirty; he lifted it up and swung it around in front of her, "What's this? ...A diary?" He questioned humorously to which Hermione instantly snatched the book from him and clasped it on her lap.

"Excuse me, it is merely a notebook!" She defended though it was unneeded as he had already diverted his short attention to other things, "I don't appreciate you pilfering through my belongings… or talking about kisses for that matter!" She gazed compassionately at the floor, assuming that she had not wanted to avert that look elsewhere and to hide her blushing cheeks also.

"Pilfering? What a word! I was only picking it up from this dusty floor," He pronounced, accentuating the last few words as if it suddenly sunk in as to where they were and how filthy and unused the place really was, "And my talking about kisses is only the truth!"

"I'm not sure whether I'm in more disbelief by the thought of us having kissed or you telling the truth." She seemingly was in a terrible mood, as she placed both pale hands on top of the book on her lap and held it with such tightness, the cover of the book squeaked in protest at the pressure of it, and she leaned forwards in the usual way she did as a threat stance in readiness for a verbose combat.

"I tell you the truth plenty of times, I'll have you know!" He, in contrast, replied imperturbably as his posture was unthreatening and composed as he lay against the stone cold, webbed covered wall at the rear of the minute room.

"I dare you to tell me a lie." Hermione inclined, having her fury die down a little, and letting her subtle sense of curiosity take hold of her once again. Unnoticed by Draco, her right brow twitched upwards in the impatience of the question, waiting for a dreadful answer.

"Not a lie, but a trick. I love to pull tricks on you Hermione Granger… perhaps lies from your perspective just in case you decide to bring this up later." Draco had once more retreated into that playful shell of his, his voice ebbed with mockery or a sense of teasing, joking or was that just how it always sounded… so sarcastic? Or conniving?

"I can't say I'm not used to it."

"Three Broomsticks." He stated aloud.

"What?" Hermione asked confused.

"Last lie, or trick… or both."

"You're not even making sense anymore, forget I asked," Hermione retorted feeling prickles of violent abuse make their way to the top of her throat to take advantage of her given situation, "The confinement of this room has driven you to insanity within a few minutes." She added a "hmph!" and tried to keep the appearance of looking calm.

"That day in the Three Broomsticks I told you I wished for company. But I didn't wish for that, and nevertheless I wanted to trick you to keep you from your precious friends…
At the time, I was doing it in the spite of you and knew you would let me have my way… yet who knew all I wanted was just to keep you to myself." Draco rambled on and stared into the pitch black dark of the ceiling, implying that this room stretched vertically and not horizontally, and making it larger than it seemed. She could not see the expression of his eyes anymore as they had ventured from her, as in times such as this when the Draco's wall came down, she looked to his eyes for answers she could understand.

"I still don't unders-"

"That night, what I wished for you and I'm still not sure if I've got it or not." He said, slowly so that it sunk into her head, but she didn't let it or want to let it. She stared blankly at him and prayed for the offhand mood to return and drive the seriousness away. She knew now he was looking right at her, because as usual, she could feel it and it was now her turn to avert her eyes in any direction but in that one.

"Stop being so melodramatic." She said finally, before crossing her arms on her chest in the appearance that she was brooding or pouting, whatever.

"You asked the question. I told you the truth… see, the truth." He replied, proceeding to shrug uncaringly when she peered at him from the side of her eyes. However they soon became narrowed slits as she decided to turn elsewhere again.

"I profound sense of mixed feelings towards you, I both hate you very much and lo-" She paused, "Well, yes. I loathe and dislike you a great deal."

He smiled a genuine smile of his, brighter than the light in the room, or so to speak. It wasn't a grin or a tight lipped curl, but a nice smile that caused a little – and only a little – flutter in her stomach and chest that she tried to ignore.

"I can't say the feelings mutual."

She ignored the comment, as she sighed a deep sigh of thought and tried to comprehend the predicament that she had dived into – not just the trapped-in-a-broomstick-cupboard-with-Malfoy but the Draco situation entirely. For God's sake it had only been the duration of one term! Dabbling into this sort of issue would make the world a living hell, not that it wasn't so already, but this would make it worse.

"Speaking of kisses." A suggestive voice from the opposite side of the room, which let Hermione believe that a certain boy had regained his typical joking mood; she rolled her eyes in the darkness and compared him to the woman with pms – with his ever changing mood swings from this to that.

"Shut up Malfoy, that conversation is over." She crossed her arms tighter around her chest and tried to keep her dignity intact by uplifting her chin away from him in a proud pose.

"Can't say all our meetings have ended in a kiss?" Her brow cocked up in surprise, as she questioned him. Was he mocking her again? Tricking her to his will and amusement? In her reaction she hesitantly grabbed a broomstick propped up by the corner of the room covered in cobwebs and decades of dust, before holding it out in a horizontal position in front of her across her chest.

He chuckled aloud and she kept her stance in the high risk that this would all go wrong. Unable to anticipate what was to happen and incapable of picturing any scenario in her mind of any sort, whether it should end in a kiss or a beating with a broomstick, because Draco Malfoy had used his tricks on her far too long.

She held the broom at feebly arm's reach and shut her eyes in impatient expectation. When the same loud crack of the door and deafening creak of it as it decided to swing upon at any given time – not – allowed her to fall back out of that tiny closet in her will, with a faint 'thud' as she collided with the floor and remained in the absurdity of her laying down flat, but for the outstretched arms with a broomstick in hand and sprawled mop of her hair that framed her face.

Hermione opened her eyes, and felt the immense rush of blood to her cheeks that she knew would turn into the most ludicrous shade of pink. As she set down the broom on her stomach and sighed, looking up at the familiar face of Charlotte who in her own shock, was rooted to the position of removing the bar from the door and aiding them to escape from that prison she now despised as a tool for her humiliation.

"Oh hi?" Charlotte both greeted and asked, staring in bewilderment at Hermione laying the on the floor by her feet. Hermione heard the distant chuckle of Draco inside the cupboard still, and resisted the urge to kick him hard as she could still reach him.

"Tricked you?" He stated matter of fact-ly between restrained to silent laughs, and in control of himself from stepping over her to escape the scene, as he knew she could easily beat him with the weapon she still had her fingers wound over.

A/N : I already apologize for not updating this in the forever longest time, and subjecting you to read an attempt of a comical chapter that wrote in apology and to lighten my mood. Who would've thought I'd update on a snow day when school is shut! I know the chapter is ridiculous and filled with broomsticks, cliche and much else, but I seem to have lost a plan for this chapter and give you this! Taadaa!

Reviews for the last chapter sure came in! Keep it up! My acknowledgements already went up to you guys! :)

-Fallen11angel