Babysitting Blues

Room Rage

A week later, Hermione stood in front of her fireplace utterly terrified. She had hoped the last time she had seen Malfoy would be just that, the last. And now she was flooing to number 12 Grimmauld Place to spend the next two months with him alone. She liked to think the experience of almost killing someone and not just anyone but the greatest wizard of our time would change him, but she highly doubted it. He was Malfoy after all. She wasn't going to be so trusting this time.

In fact, ever since she found out about her assignment, Hermione had been looking up every jinx and hex she could find to help keep Malfoy in line. She had a whole arsenal ready at her disposal. She had even interrogated Dobby his former house elf in an effort to find out his weaknesses. She had felt rather bad about that as she suspected Dobby might have punished himself after revealing some very interesting family secrets to her despite the fact that she had forbidden him to. She eased her guilt slightly by vowing to start up S.P.E.W. again. Anyway, with all the research she had done, Hermione felt confident that she was ready for Malfoy. Let him just try and do something to her. She'd gladly wipe that smirk off his face. Stupid Malfoy.

Hermione looked up at the clock. It was 9:00 at night. She hadn't meant to leave this late, but her parents had insisted on taking her out to dinner. They had expected to have her the whole summer and were not too happy with her leaving after only one month. Maybe she could make it up to them by coming home for Christmas. Of course she would probably have to bring Malfoy with her. It would be fun torture making him spend the holidays with muggles, but she didn't want to punish her parents as well. She didn't expect that he would make a very pleasant houseguest. In fact, she was quite positive he would make a rather rude one. Oh well, maybe she could pass him off on another Order member.

"Well, here goes nothing," she murmured. She stepped into the fireplace, threw down the floo powder and said clearly, "Number 12 Grimmauld Place." She felt the odd sensation of twirling through the floo network and landed with a thud in Grimmauld Place. As she stared out of the fireplace, she immediately locked eyes with Malfoy.

"Granger," he said. Then he gave his trademark smirk and walked away.

Hermione wasn't sure what to do. He just walked away. He smirked at her and walked away. It was a hit and run smirk! What the hell? She had been expecting insults, shouting, whining or worse. Not this. She didn't know why, but it infuriated her. So, she stomped off after him to give him a piece of her thoroughly pissed off mind.

Hermione looked around the front parlor and didn't see him anywhere. She then checked the study and only found a room full of books. This was the room she intended on spending most of the summer in. She thought she could maybe get in some research on horcruxes while she was working on her assignment for the Order. The Black family had acquired an awful lot of dark arts books over the years, and Hermione planned on taking full advantage of this. Despite being adamant with Remus about not wanting to always be stuck in the role of researcher, Hermione couldn't help herself. It was just her thing.

Malfoy wasn't anywhere on the first floor. So, she took a deep breath and headed upstairs being very careful not to wake up Sirius' mother's portrait. Hermione didn't need Mrs. Black calling her a mudblood right now. When Hermione got upstairs, her anger subsided slightly, and she started to get a bit nervous. All of the doors were closed. Behind one of these doors was Malfoy's bedroom. She blushed at the thought and then got mad at herself for acting like a silly schoolgirl. She was a schoolgirl, but Hermione Granger was definitely not silly. She was an Order member after all.

Harry and Ron's bedroom was the first she came to. She took a deep breath and turned the doorknob so as to not make any noise. Then she slowly opened the door with her wand raised in anticipation. There was nothing there except an empty slightly dusty bedroom. Very quietly, she walked into the room and looked around. On one side of the room was a tall wardrobe. There was plenty of room for Malfoy to hide in there. Of course, it could just be a Bogart disguised as Malfoy. She would try Stupify first and then if that didn't work she would try Riddikulus. After Hermione had her plan, she flung open the door. There were just some old robes, thankfully none of the strangling kind.

The only place left for someone to hide was under the beds. She went to the first bed and got down on her hands and knees and leaned down to look under the bed. Not the loveliest position to be in but necessary. She quickly pulled up the bed skirt and shoved her head and wand under the bed causing her butt to stick up even farther in the air. Dust bunnies everywhere but no Malfoy. Hermione started giggling. The adrenaline rush had rather gone to her head, and she found the whole situation quite amusing.

"What in Merlin's name are you doing?"

Shit! Hermione bumped her head on the bed pulling it out and whipped around to see Malfoy across the hall casually leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. It looked like he had been there awhile. Hermione blushed and then as an afterthought raised her wand. She silently cursed herself for letting her guard down and completely forgetting about her wand in her embarrassment. Some Order member she was. She bet Moody wouldn't have been caught giggling and blushing and forgetting about his wand on account of Draco Malfoy. At least she hoped not and had to stifle another giggle at the thought of it. What was wrong with her?

"Well, I was um..." stammered Hermione. "Wait a minute. What are you doing in my room?"

"This is my room," replied Malfoy.

"No it isn't," said Hermione testily. "It's my room. It's been my room for the past two years."

"Well, the werewolf did put me in the small room next door, but this one was better, and Malfoys require the best. Even if the best here is somewhat lacking," sneered Malfoy.

"Get out of my room Malfoy!"

"Make me Granger."

"You think I won't?"

Malfoy smirked. "You know, the werewolf said they would be sending an Order member to keep an eye on me. I can't believe they sent you."

"I am an Order member," said Hermione angrily. His attitude was definitely not appreciated. Who did he think he was?

"That's a laugh. The know it all mudblood of Gryffindor is a member of the great Order of Phoenix. I don't know how anyone thinks the Dark Lord can be defeated by your rag tag band of misfits you call the Order. You really think you can defeat him with wonder boy and the help of a werewolf, a one-eyed crazy man, a half giant, a thief, some blood traitors, filthy mudbloods and a bunch of weasels? It's a bloody joke. And now they send a silly schoolgirl to guard me, a Malfoy. It's insulting, that's what it is," seethed Malfoy.

"Well," fumed Hermione really not pleased about being called a silly schoolgirl. "I helped put one Malfoy in Azkaban, I think I can handle his snotty nose kid!"

Malfoy stepped back into the room.

"Where do you think you're going Malfoy?"

"I'm going to my room, so I don't have to look at your ugly mudblood face!" yelled Malfoy slamming the door in her face.

Hermione was livid. How dare he? "Alohamora," screamed Hermione opening the door. "Get out of my room!"

Malfoy of course smirked as she was pointing her wand in his face. Did he have any other facial expressions? Then what he did next made her eyes widen and her mouth fall completely open. He was slowly unbuttoning his shirt. "I don't think I can do that right now. You see, all of this yelling has made me extremely tired. So, I am going to bed. My bed. And incase you're wondering. Yes, I do sleep naked."

His shirt was completely off now, and he started undoing his pants. Hermione was about to flee the room her arms up in surrender when a smile came across her face.

"Like what you see?" he asked maliciously.

"Petrificus Totalus," said Hermione calmly. And with that Malfoy keeled over backwards with one foot already out of his pants. She leaned over him and said, "I've seen better." Then she levitated him out into the hallway and dropped him with a thud. His clothes and other worldly possessions zoomed out after him. She lifted the spell and slammed the door in his face.

"Granger!"

"Silencio!" yelled Hermione pointing her wand at the door. Silence filled the room. Complete and utterly blissful silence. Hermione dropped onto the bed extremely exhausted from her dealings with Malfoy. However, the moment she thought of Malfoy, she leapt off the bed feeling thoroughly disgusted. Malfoy had slept in her bed. Naked! Ewww! She did a quick Scourgify and somewhat reluctantly climbed back into bed. She would have liked to have her comfy pajamas, but she wasn't about to leave her room to go get her things. It wasn't like she was scared of Malfoy necessarily. She didn't think he would kill her. He hadn't been able to kill Dumbledore after all. And she could take care of herself. But she did not feel like dealing with him anymore tonight. She didn't like to admit it, but Malfoy made her nervous. He was unpredictable. She couldn't ever tell what he was thinking, not like she could with Ron or even Harry for that matter. She could read them both like a book. She smiled at the thought.

Feeling uncomfortable sleeping in her clothes, Hermione wriggled out of her jeans and pulled up the cover. Her bare legs against the sheets unfortunately felt even more uncomfortable as she thought of Malfoy lying there naked. Although he had looked rather good with his shirt off. She blushed thinking about it and then started giggling again until she fell promptly asleep.

As usual, Hermione woke up early the next morning but in a surprisingly good mood. To her chagrin, she had slept rather well thanks to some pleasant albeit slightly disturbing dreams. Malfoy had a weird effect on her and so did the knowledge that Malfoy slept naked in her bed. Hermione got out of bed and got ready to venture outside her bedroom to the bathroom down the hall. She figured this was the best time to take a shower, as Malfoy probably wasn't up yet and therefore unlikely to disturb her. After all, Harry and Ron were never up this early. Weren't all teenage boys alike?

She threw on her jeans, grabbed her wand and headed for the bathroom. As she had thought, no one was about and she made it to the bathroom unscathed. As she stood underneath the hot steamy shower she felt all of her troubles wash away and took a little longer than planned because it felt so good. When she finally got out of the shower, she reached for a towel to dry off and then let out a groan. She had completely forgotten to get her trunk from downstairs with her clothes in it. She considered just putting on her clothes from yesterday but then had a brilliant idea. She could get her trunk and not even have to leave the bathroom. It was wonderful being a witch. She wrapped the towel around her and opened the door. "Accio trunk," said Hermione pointing her wand out the doorway. Then she saw him.

"It's about time. You..." He trailed off when he saw her standing there in only a towel. They both just stood there looking at one another stunned. Then before either of them could react, Hermione's trunk came flying out of nowhere and crashed into Malfoy's back slamming him into Hermione causing her to fall backward and him to fall on top of her. They were now in a very compromising position to say the least.

"Get off me," said Hermione thoroughly scandalized.

"Gladly. It's not like I wanted this to happen," he said climbing off of her. "You probably planned all of this. I never should have let you see me with my shirt off yesterday. Now you have ideas."

"You think I wanted this to happen? You're delusional," said Hermione tightening the towel around her. "How was I supposed to know you would be lurking outside the door?

"I wasn't lurking. I've been waiting for bloody well 45 minutes for you to get out. That mud doesn't come off you know."

"For your information, I was trying to get off all of the germs from you sleeping naked in my bed!" yelled Hermione.

"Well, I won't make that mistake again!"

Hermione looked into the room across the hall and saw the unmade bed that Malfoy had slept in the night before after she had unceremoniously thrown him out of her room. This was just too good. She laughed and said, "You know, you're sleeping in Ron's bed now."