CHAPTER NINE - WARMTH AND WARDS

Hermione woke with a stellar hangover. She groaned, refusing to open her eyes. Sleep was too wonderful. She rolled over in bed and cuddled against the warmth radiating behind her. Whatever it was, it felt amazing against her. It was hard, but still soft at the same time. Whatever it was it was so warm.

Realization hit Hermione like a brick wall, and her eyes snapped open. The sight she was met with made her sick to her stomach.

It wasn't a something it was a someone-and not just any someone. Hermione sat up suddenly, causing her sight to darken and her head to spin rapidly.

"Go back to sleep, 'Mione." He mumbled, shifting position so he was now facing her. He was still asleep. He talks in his sleep.

Hermione stared at Malfoy's sleeping face, trying to remember exactly what happened last night. Her face reddened when the last thing she could remember properly was Malfoy carrying her back to the room. Then it got spotty. She had been so tired. She moved her legs uncomfortably… was she wearing pants? She glanced down. Sure enough, her dress had been replaced with a tee-shirt and pants. She began to panic.

What happened?

She lifted the collar of the shirt and peered down. She was still wearing her green bra. So either she had put her bra back on (which seemed highly unlikely) or nothing she would regret happened. She also noticed that someone had de-charmed her hair back down to it's frizzy state.

What time is it?

She looked around for a clock. Nothing. Her wand, however was sitting on the bedside table next to Malfoy's. On the other side of him. She sighed, and carefully and slowly reached over him. He shifted slightly, making her freeze. When he settled once more, she continued on her mission. Her wand was just out of reach, but his wasn't. He wouldn't be too upset if she borrowed it for a second, right?

"Tempus." She whispered once she had ahold of his wand.

It was five-forty in the bloody morning. She was going back to bed. In her own bed. She slowly slid out of the sheets, careful not to wake Malfoy. Once free, she quickly made her way around the bed and replaced her wand with his before making a break for it towards the door. She opened it just a crack and peered out. The coast was clear. She bolted for her own door.

And was rebounded back.

"Merlin's balls." She muttered. "Lumos."

After double-and even triple-checking that she was, in fact, at her own door, she tried again. To no avail.

Fuck.

Guess she was sleeping on the common room couch.

She crept down the stairs, making sure that she didn't step anywhere she suspected had a creak. When she made it down, she froze in horror. All the furniture had been cleared out, and instead there sat a bed… which was already occupied by Luna and Ginny.

Hermione collapsed on the ground and wanted to cry. All she wanted was to go back to sleep. Had there been enough room, she would have just crawled in with the other girls. But not unlike her brother, Ginny was sprawled out, mouth hanging open and taking up the majority of the bed, and Luna was sleeping like an angel taking up the rest.

In defeat, Hermione went back to her room. The wards bounced her back once more. She tried again.

And again.

She even tried a few spells she thought might work, to no success.

She tried Pansy's door. Same result. Tracey's did the same. Just for good measure she tried every single door (excluding Cormac's), and the only one that didn't try to knock her back on her bum was Malfoy's.

If it weren't for her sleeping friends she would have screamed in frustration.

Slumped in utter exhaustion and defeat against the wall across from Malfoy's room, she cast another tempus. It was now six-thirty, and she was too tired and her head was screaming to attempt to stay awake for breakfast. She had half a mind to sleep out on the floor in the common room, but she was so cold.

Malfoy's bed wasn't. He wasn't.

Hermione stood, and justified that no one knew she was awake right now. No one would know that she tried to leave and decided to come back, even if her wards weren't working properly.

Silently, Hermione made her way back into Malfoy's room. He was still asleep in the same position she had left him in. She quietly slid herself between the sheets, this time leaving her wand in a much more accessible place (under the pillow) and curled up as far as physically possible from Malfoy.

To her dismay, Malfoy was having none of that. Subconsciously at least. He must've felt the shift in the bed, because as soon as she was even remotely comfortable, his arm snaked around her waist and pulled her to him.

Hermione didn't move. Her back was now pressed against his chest and he had tangled their legs together. She tried to move away, but his arm was secure against her stomach and he refused to budge beyond burying his face into her hair.

"You smell nice." He mumbled.

"Are you awake?" She whispered to him, half hoping he was so she could ask him to move away.

He wasn't. His breath was still even and deep, and he didn't respond.

She sighed. If she wasn't moving, she might as well take advantage of the warmth, and get some much needed rest. She used his legs to warm her toes, and tried to get comfortable. She was vaguely aware of a few more mutterings of Malfoy (something about tea and broomsticks) before sleep finally claimed her once more.

"Drake! Quick! Hermione's missing!" The voice was accompanied by a loud thud, that ripped Draco from his sleep. He sat up in shock, grabbing his wand (which he missed the first time, what was it doing on the other side of the bedside table?) just to see a shocked face of Pansy and Theo, who had burst through his door.

"Go away. She's probably in the library." He groaned, collapsing back onto the bed, only to sit back up when he realized that she was not, in fact, in the library.

"Library my arse." Theo said angrily as Malfoy stared at her in confusion. "What's she doing in here?"

"Did you find her?" Ginny called from the hall. She froze in the doorway next to the other two. Granger was next to him, completely ignorant of the happenings around her as she was still out cold. Ginny's face turned a nice shade of red, and she pulled out her own wand. "Draco Malfoy, you scum!" She screamed, launching a hex at him, which rebound above her head.

"I didn't do anything!" He cried, rolling out of the bed.

Granger finally woke up.

"What's going on?" She asked in a haze.

"Are you okay? He didn't do anything to you did he?" Ginny asked, attempting to rush to her friends side, but instead bounced back on the wards.

"Drake, even I won't forgive you if you took advantage of her." Theo growlled.

"I didn't do anything! I swear!" Draco cried out again.

"He didn't." Hermione said sleepily. "My room won't let me in."

"Thank you." Draco stood up, glaring down the redhead.

"Are you sure?" Ginny asked.

"I'm sure, now if you don't mind, I have a splitting headache and would like to go back to sleep." Hermione laid back down, drawing the covers over her face.

"Hermione, it's two in the afternoon. We've been looking everywhere for you when we discovered you weren't in your room." Pansy said, pulling at the covers.

Hermione sprung up. "You could get into my room?" She asked in confusion.

Pansy nodded. Hermione leaped from the bed, pushing past everyone as she rushed to her room.

Again, the wards bounced her back.

"What the hell!" Hermione screamed, pushing against the wards futility.

The others just stood there in awe at Hermione, who finally collapsed against her door.

"I was able to enter just fine an hour ago." Pansy stated, stepping around Hermione. She easily opened the door, and stepped through the threshold. Hermione was still sitting there, her back pressed against the invisible wall. Her eye twitched.

"Great." Hermione mumbled.

"I'll go get Professor McGonagall." Neville said as he vanished down the stairs.

"So you slept in Drake's room? You could have just come into mine." Pansy stated.

Hermione didn't even bother to explain herself, and instead repeated her attempt from this morning to enter each room, and once again, each ward bounced her back except Draco's.

She glared at Draco, as if it was somehow his fault. It obviously wasn't. The bloody castle had a funny sense of humor, which he couldn't decide whether or not he appreciated. Hermione was still glaring daggers at him, which he did his best to ignore. The teens stood there in silence for several moments before they finally heard the shuffling of people at the portrait hole. Seconds later, McGonagall was pushing past Theo and Pansy.

"What's going on?" She glanced between the eighth years, giving a double take to Ginny, still in her pajamas standing next to her. "What are you doing here Ms. Weasley?"

"Hermione's room won't let her past the wards." Pansy said flatly, catching McGonagall's attention long enough for Ginny to sneak away. It worked, because the professor's attention was fully on the doorframe, with a look of bewilderment.

"The castle protects its students from unwanted visitors." She stated. She didn't have to explain that to the students. The past seven years they lived with stairs the turned to slides and wards and living paintings keeping them out of certain areas of their dorms. The Hufflepuff common room even had a set of armor that acted like a knight in shining armor fighting off any boys who attempted to get into the first year's dorm. "It taps into the magic of the residents to let them and those they want in. I've never heard of them keeping out the rooms' owner's." She looked completely confused, which wasn't a look that the others were too familiar with.

"So what do I do?" Hermione groaned. "Others can get in, but I can't."

This seemed to bewilder McGonagall. "Is anyone else's wards having issues?"

They shook their heads. Draco even spoke. "Mine seem to work just fine. Kept the ginger and her hex at bay earlier." He instantly regretted opening his mouth when McGonagall shot him a look that asked a thousand questions. He looked away sheepishly and kept his mouth shut after that.

"I will have Professor Flitwick look into it immediately, for the meantime, why don't the lot of you make your way to the great hall. I don't recall seeing any of you for breakfast or lunch. You need to eat. I will have the elves prepare you a small lunch. We'll get this resolved shortly." She spun on her heel and made a brisk exit.

"Pansy, can you get me a change of clothes?" Hermione asked, an annoying pang in her voice. Pansy nodded, and stepped around Hermione once more.

Draco sighed, and vanished into his room. He was in the middle of changing when his door opened again. He stared at his visitor, who was bright red in the face and staring directly at the floor.

"I need to change." Hermione said quietly.

"You couldn't knock?"

Hermione scuffed, closing the door behind her. "I've seen you without a shirt, you'll live."

Draco opened his mouth to argue, but decided against when she dropped her clothes on the bed and sat with her back to him. He debated telling her to leave while he changed, but he wasn't in the mood to piss her off anymore, so instead he yanked a clean shirt over his head and left the sweats he had slept in on.

"Close the door on your way out." He said as he left. He had made it all the way to the washroom when he realized he had left his hair potions in his drawer. He groaned inwardly, and turned back around. He slammed the door closed as soon as he had opened it though, and decided he'd rather leave his hair to be disheveled for one morning. He could feel his face redding from the sight of Hermione's back and hips, now void of clothing. Who the hell stripped naked to change?

Obviously Hermione.

It was official. The castle had a sick sense of humor and was out to get him.

The great hall was completely empty aside from the handful of eighth years now sitting at the Slytherin table. Hermione was pleased to discover coffee had been included. She chugged two mugs full of pumpkin flavored coffee before digging into her sandwich. She was a lot more hungry than she originally thought she was.

"What are we going to do if they can't fix your wards Hermione?" Neville asked, finally breaking the silence in the room.

Hermione's stomach dropped. She refused to think that the professors couldn't fix her problem. They were impressive witches and wizards anyway. So she just shrugged. "I'll sleep in the common room I guess."

"And let McLaggen have access to your sleeping body? I think not. You can sleep in my room, I'll sleep in the common room." Malfoy said, his voice filled to the brim with anger. His tone shocked Hermione into looking up and connecting gazes with him. They held it for a moment before Hermione sighed.

"Fine."

"That's just asking for the same person to do something to you." Theo pointed out. "Crash with me, it can be like old times. Pillow fights and all."

"We could just have make a giant blanket and pillow fort in the Room of Requirement and have a huge sleepover and tell scary stories." Pansy said wishfully. Everyone turned to look at her in confusion. She blushed. "It was something I used to do as a kid. Theo reminded me of it." She said sheepishly. Hermione was surprised that Pansy would look so embarrassed about something so adorable.

"We could do that anyway." Neville suggested. "Just add some alcohol and it wouldn't be much different from what we've been doing anyway." He joked.

Hermione kind of liked the sound of that. As an eleven year old muggle, that's what she had imagined dorm life at Hogwarts to be. A group of girls building pillow forts and gossiping about boys while practicing magic. To bad she had to be grouped with Lavender Brown of all people.

"I'd like that." Hermione chirped.

Sorry it's so short, I had the WORST writers block this week. I've decided to make this fanfiction mostly about fluff. I'll rewrite another that'll be more to canon when I'm done (I probably won't have more than 15-20 chapters in this one). I gathered so many ideas that would require changing a lot. Therefore; fluff first, plot second.

Also; for some reason I only listened to VIXX - Voodoo doll while writing this. Their stage performance is to die for.