Anyone But Me

Chapter Eleven

Draco turned and started to walk down the corridor, away from the sounds of footsteps and leaving her to deal with whomever came. Considering how deep they were into Gryffindor territory she could not blame him for wanting to bow out as quickly as possible. Hermione stayed where she was, leaning against the wall and breathing hard. She watched as he slipped into the darkness, giving off the illusion of a fleeing snake it was eerily creepy.

As soon as his frame disappeared completely into the darkness their unexpected visitor turned the corner.

She had figured it was probably a Prefect doing rounds or even a teacher checking on things. She wouldn't get in trouble being a Prefect herself, so she wasn't too worried about any consequences from being out after curfew. No, she had been much more worried over the possibility of getting caught anywhere near Draco. That would have caused too many questions she was not even remotely prepared to answer when she couldn't even comprehend what had just happened.

So she was startled when she saw the flaming red hair bounce into view. "Ginny?!?"

"Merlin! Hermione? What are you doing standing out here?" Ginny asked her accusatorially. Her dark brown eyes narrowed at her, taking in her appearance, before they darted down the way Draco had just fled.

"I was just getting back." Hermione responded, trying to act as casual as she could. "Where were you?"

"Oh you know... Off doing super secret Quidditch stuff." She said with one of her characteristic winks before she grabbed Hermione's arm and pulled her away from the wall. Leading her towards the portrait of the Fat Lady. "So tell me every single detail! No wait... Tell me it was the most amazing night of your life and you ran off with some poor unsuspecting fool and finally lost your virginity."

She balked at how close Ginny was to the truth. She hadn't lost her virginity, but it was still way too close for comfort. Swallowing hard, she shifted her gaze to the floor. She wasn't ready to talk about any of it yet. It registered how much she had been counting on those hours before breakfast to come up with some kind of plan...

"Hardly." She responded. What was she supposed to say? She couldn't offer up any information. Somehow she had to figure out how to tell the truth about what happened at the party, which was going to be castle chatter for weeks, at least among the older years. And yet, there were still hours of time that she needed to account for. Oh, and she couldn't forget about the bruise on the side of her forehead that warranted a good reason either. "Look Gin. I'm sorry but I am exhausted. Can we do this in the morning, please?"

Ginny instantly deflated at her words but nodded. "Yeah... Sure. You okay?"

"Baubles." Hermione hissed at the Fat Lady, who was pretending to be asleep. She didn't have time for the woman's games tonight. Thankfully she let them in without a fuss. They tip-toed through the common room and made their way over to the staircase that led to the girls' dorms by the barely there light given off by the moon and dying fire. Once encased in the enchantments she whispered to her friend. "I will be."

"Alright then, talk to you tomorrow, I guess." Ginny told her before heading off to her room.

She let out the breath she had held in for way too long. Grateful that the light headed feeling caused by the act started to ebb, she slowly made her way to the room she shared with the other Gryffindor Sixth Years. Once at the door she slipped inside as quietly as she could and made her way over to her bed.

Her mind was so wrapped up in her conundrum that her body went on auto pilot, she undid the clasps that kept the dress on her body and felt it fall to the ground. She knew the velvet would crinkle but she could not bring herself to care. She climbed into her bed and pulled the curtains around her. Laying there under her warm blankets that she pulled up to her chin, she had all the intentions in the world to stay up to figure out her cover story, but fell asleep almost immediately with pictures of Draco leaning over her playing in her head...