Detention
Let Filch catch her, she didn’t care. She was sprinting through the dark hallways, rounding corners with reckless abandon, the image of the man falling off the tower flashed in her mind over and over again in an endless loop.
She would get her hands on Luna’s deck and burn it. She would change the future, there would be no tower-
She rounded another corner and hit what felt like a brick wall.
As the scream went up her throat she felt a large hand press over her mouth and she was backed into an alcove, behind a large suit of armor.
Her eyes blew wide at the sight of Draco Malfoy, glaring down at her, inches from her face, pressing her bodily into the wall.
Quiet. He mouthed, without making a sound.
A meow came from down the hallway. Filch’s blasted cat. For a moment Hermione wished the basilisk had killed it.
She gasped at the terribleness of her own thought, but the sound was caught by Draco’s hand. He glared at her more intensely.
As they stood there as silently as possible, Hermione was suddenly aware of her paper thin tank top, and Draco’s hand spread wide across her back, holding her in place.
His hands were hot, not the cold, lifeless feeling she expected. She briefly wondered what he would do if she bit the hand covering her mouth.
Then she remembered Draco’s reputation and flushed at the thought of being caught like this with him. People would make crazy assumptions.
She stayed quiet. Draco’s eyes didn’t leave hers for a moment, freezing her in place until at least five whole minutes had passed since the cat had left.
Finally he released her mouth, although he didn’t step back. Hermione quickly crossed her arms over her chest. She should have worn a bra.
Examining Draco’s face she noticed his nose was fixed, but a bruise was shadowed under his eye. She smiled. Then she realized she was smiling at him and scowled.
Draco pushed off the wall with what seemed like great effort. His muscles must have gotten stiff as they stood locked in that position. She felt she should say something to him but she couldn’t think of anything. Certainly she couldn’t thank him.
She went for the throat instead.
“Everytime I break your nose it gets just a little bit pointier.”
“I had no idea you paid me such close attention, kitten.” Theo’s nickname was a weapon in his mouth.
“I don’t!” she squeaked. That was a lame answer. She needed something else.
“And- and, NEVER , trap me like that again.” she pushed past him, ran straight into the suit of armor, and sent it tumbling to the ground with a horrifically loud crash.
“Fuck.” Malfoy groaned.
_____
Seeing as Hermione had detention already, Filch decided to add Malfoy to her and Theo’s Monday detention, probably knowing that was punishment enough.
Hermione turned, nose in the air, to head in the opposite direction, back to her common room.
Wait, no, they shared a common room now. She let out a long breath through her nose. There seemed to be no escape from him.
Malfoy did not seem put out at all by his detention, in fact, he seemed in a suspiciously good mood.
He kept just a few paces ahead of her, forcing her to take multiple steps to match his long stride. He had grown since fifth year, and was now almost as tall as Ron.
“Well at least you got the punishment that you deserved for yesterday.” she said, glaring at the back of his head.
He didn’t turn around. “And what punishment is that? Watching you and Theo snog against a wall of potion ingredients?”
Hermione made an indignant noise.
“Maybe that’s what you do in detention, but Theo and I are top ranked, good students, who abide by school rules-”
Malfoy snorted, but she pressed on, “- AND , and we are just friends.”
He let out a soft chuckle. “Well, you should probably let Theo know that.”
She was truly furious now, and grabbed his arm, forcing him to look back at her.
“You better leave me alone Draco Malfoy, or I’ll give you a reason to.” she was using her best impression of Molly Weasley, but Malfoy only smirked down at her.
They had reached the common room entrance and she angrily shouted Gobstones! at the wall, without breaking eye contact.
“See you on Monday, kitten.” he said, grinning.
_____