Anyone But Me

Chapter Seven

"I need a place to hide. I need a place to hide. I need a place to hide." Hermione mumbled as she passed in front of the wall three times. Would it work with her brain shouting the hundreds of different things that she needed at her? She forced another deep breath down into her lungs. They ached from the trek up to the seventh floor and it did not help that she had fought to keep her sobs subdued the whole way.

She exhaled in a sigh of relief as the door to the Room of Requirement popped into being. She quickly dashed over and placed her hand on the grooved wood before checking over her shoulder. The sensible part of her knew she should have scouted for anyone watching prior to summoning the room, but her edginess wouldn't allow her mind to think of important measures like that. As she scanned the darkness her hand slid down the door, working its way down to the cold metal of the doorknob.

At a snail's pace she inched the door open just enough for her body to pass through. With one final look around the deserted hallway, she slipped into the room and shut the door with a gentle click. Hermione leaned her forehead against the ancient wood. She did not turn around to check out her surroundings. Instead she relished in the fact that no one would be able to find her. Even if one of her friends grew worried and thought to check for her here they would need their own place to hide for the door to work for them.

Finally safe, she let her tears cascade down her face. She knew all of Ginny's hard work was in the metaphorical toilet but she couldn't muster up enough sympathy to care. Large tufts of her curls fell from her updo and the sweat on her brow was enough to tell her that the painstakingly applied makeup was a mess already. The fact that she could be vain enough to care how she looked caused her silent tears to switch to full-blown sobs. She was an idiot...

She turned around so she was facing the room but her eyes were too clouded with tears to take in anything about her environment. She leaned back against the door and slid herself down until she was sitting on the ground. Hermione pulled her knees up to her chest and allowed the anxiety to take hold. Her raspy breaths felt like fire scorching up and down her throat. Every muscle in her body felt like a violin string ready to snap. She continued to sob, letting her head fall forward and smack her knee with a hollow thud. The pain didn't register as her extremities went numb.

Slowly her body slumped to the right and her shoulder slammed into the ground at an awkward angle. A sharp pinch at her temple let her know she had hit her head. When her vision started to dim she knew it had to have been harder than one would expect at that short of a distance but her only thought as she rushed to unconsciousness was... "Thank you!!"

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The first thing that Hermione noticed when she came to was a deep pounding in her head. It felt like a herd of Erumpents were charging around in there. The second was that she was cold. Little by little she started to piece together what had happened and where she was. She sighed painfully and pushed herself up into a sitting position.

She groaned at the sudden rush of blood back into her right arm caused the sharp feeling of thousands of needles prickling along the tender skin. She flexed the fingers and lifted her left hand up to her right temple checking for blood. When her fingers came away dry she was grateful, at least she didn't have to deal with an open wound. As her world started to right itself and her senses could take more in than simple self-evaluation she noticed that she wasn't in a small room like she had initially thought. Not even close...

In fact, she wasn't even sure if what she was in could be considered a room. It was more like a cavern. She couldn't even see the other three walls because it was filled to the brim with stuff. Everywhere her eyes could see there were stacks of random odds and ends. Books, quills, parchment, broken furniture, weapons, clothing of every variety, brooms, bookcases... The endless amount of things was overwhelming. Thousands of students must have found this room the same way she had... Needing a place to hide (or more than likely needing a place to hide something).