"Locked?!What do you mean it's locked!?" I yelled, still angry.
"Exactly what it sounds like, you stupid girl!! Locked, as in, the door won't open. We're trapped," Draco said, throwing up his hands in frustration.
There was no way the door could be locked. These doors didn't even have locks- there was no need. The door just disappeared into the wall on the outside so that no one would know it was there. I stomped triumphantly to the door, pushing Draco out of my way, ready for that moment of sweet satisfaction when I could prove him wrong.
The doorknob was warm from Draco's grip and fit my hand almost perfectly as I began to turn it. Everything in this room- even the doorknob- was made specifically for me. He probably was just turning it wrong, or the room knew someone else was trying to open it, but there was no way it would lock me in. Draco, maybe. But never me. As the knob twisted slowly, I heard a sickening click as it abruptly went still.
No. There was no way it could lock. It had no reason to. I ran my hands down the rough wood of the door over and over again, looking for something, anything that could open it. A secret latch, a hidden lock. I came up empty every time. I took a few steps back and ran at the door, throwing my shoulders against it to force it open. For hours I tried, scratching at it, kicking it, beating it with my fists.
Draco sat on my bed, observing me, taunting me, "This is really all your fault, Hannah. You should have known something like this would happen if you kept playing 'this game' with me. Sorry to burst your bubble, darling, but you've become the biggest player."
I turned and screamed at him over and over again, "This is your fault!!! Why couldn't you just leave me alone, you wretched, wretched boy! This place is mine! Why couldn't you just be content with the rest of the school? If you think this is what will make you win, you're wrong. Dead wrong. This will only make me step up my game, sweetheart!" My screams did nothing. Draco just sat there, watching like I was an exhibit in a museum. All I could feel was anger. I was mad from our fight, I was mad about my hand, I was mad about him being here. There was so much rage that I had tried to conceal for so long. It was time he found out that no matter how much he loved to think it, I was not weak; afraid to get angry with him, to start a bigger fight.. I had never been weak. Now wasn't the time to start.
"I will beat you. One way or another, you will lose, and you will fall," I said darkly.
"Bravo. Wonderful effort, really inspiring to behold. You fight the door and me all at the same time. Too bad you cannot win either battle, no matter how valiantly you fight," Draco snickered as he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me away from the door, dragging me across the floor. "They didn't seem to work very well, dear," he whispered, like it was a secret that he was keeping to spare me from embarrassment. He set me against the bed and smiled deviously, his eyes gleaming.
"I really hate you," was all I could manage to say, completely exhausted. I had been losing quite a bit of blood from my hand since I hadn't let Draco finish wrapping it, and I was getting a little dizzy from all the screaming and beating at that door for so long.
"I know you do," he said, laughing like it was some old joke between the two of us. I waited for him to say he hated me back, but he just sat there, smiling wide-eyed, way to close for my likings. In the time I had been trying to escape like a trapped animal, he had obviously regained control. It was back to the Draco who had a sharp but calm response to everything, making sure that nothing could be his fault.
I put my good hand over his face, covering those marble features, and pushed him away. It hardly disturbed him, barely making him lean backwards. I grabbed the edge of the bed and pulled myself upward, slowly stumbling toward the door. Draco put his hands on my waist before I could get very far, pulling me down to where I landed squarely in his lap.
"You really thought I would let you get away that easily," he whispered in my ear.
It was such an intimate gesture, whispering. It brought an amount of closeness that could make even a crowded room feel empty, like Draco and I were the only ones. Like no matter what he did to me or where he did it, we were alone. No one would see it. He had been whispering to me so much more lately, at every meal, in every lesson. He wanted me completely isolated, and he was, as usual, getting what he wanted.
My insides turned as I struggled to get up from Draco's lap. He was...warm. Shockingly, frighteningly warm. Warmth that was covered by the chill his touch gave me. I had never felt warmth at Hogwarts. He held me tighter and tighter, his heat warming my frozen body but making me shiver and shake. So much for the whole 'don't let him think I'm weak' tactic.
With what little strength I had, I crawled slowly away, and this time he just watched as I went once again to that terrible door. Unable to lift myself from the stone, I lay on my stomach as I looked through the small crack between the bottom of the door and the floor. I could see nothing but a pair of ruined brown shoes and the legs of a chair as Filch's mutterings slowly met my ears:
"Oh I saw that trouble maker, my sweet. They will not fool me again, oh no they won't. They will pay for what they did to you... harmless prank my rear end. Whoever it is I will find them... oh yes...They will get the boot, I will make sure of that..."
"Filch," I managed to spit out as I turned back to Draco. The Room was doing what had been asked of it; keeping me safe. If Filch saw me leaving he would know that I'm the student that was always disappearing, always barely evading him. I wouldn't be able to leave until he left. "We... we won't be able to leave until he goes away," I coughed out.
"You sound terrible. Don't look all that great either," Draco said, not acknowledging my discovery like he had known it all along.
I glared as ferociously as I could as he stood and walked toward me. He picked me up like I was nothing, knowing that I couldn't fight it. He sat on me bed and placed me in his lap once again, enclosing me in a blanket of warmth. He stroked my hair as I quivered at his touch, shaking uncontrollably. I glanced at his face to see a smile that told me he knew. He knew that I was miserable. Exactly the way he liked it.
"I warned you. Told you I was going easy on you before. You need to get it through that stubborn head of yours that I always win," Draco whispered into my neck. He rocked me back and forth, like a child in need of calming. In that moment, I could practically feel my strength leaving me. My throat hurt from screaming at Draco and at the door, pleading it to open. Both hands hurt, the injured one screaming out in agony. I hurt everywhere from colliding with the door, and I had nothing left to keep me going. I had no power to fight my slowly drooping eyelids as warmth seeped into my bones. The last thing I could remember was a distant laugh as I gave in to the gentle call of sleep, cradled in the arms of a foe.