Hermione was shaken awake. She groaned slightly, and creaked open her eyes. The room was still dark, and the first thing Hermione saw was Ginny's bright red hair lit by the light of a nearly full moon. She immediately closed her eyes again, and tried to not to fall back asleep at least at first.
"I saw something out on the grounds," Ginny told her, and Hermione had to fight not to turn over and ignore her friend. "I saw something fall from the sky. Come with me to check it out."
Hermione raised her hand and waved it lazily. "Someone probably fell off their broom. That's why curfew exists."
"Please, whatever it was, it was glowing!" Ginny told her. "I'd take Luna, but I can't get to Ravenclaw Tower now."
Hermione groaned again, but sat up. "Go see if you can borrow the Invisibility Cloak. I'm not getting a detention for this," she declared, and pulled on her shoes and a jumper while Ginny ran for the boys dorm. She moved slowly, and by the time Hermione made it down the stairs to the common room, Ginny was already waiting for her with the cloak draped over one arm and the Marauder's Map in her hand.
"Harry let you borrow both?" Hermione asked, slightly puzzled in her haze.
"Did you know he keeps them in the same place? Talk about irresponsible!" Ginny told her and Hermione shook her head.
"So where did you see this thing fall?" Hermione asked. Ginny threw the cloak over the both of them, and lead her out the portrait hole.
The castle was quiet, long after prefect rounds were over, and Filch seemed to be settled in his office. Ginny kept the map open and activated, just in case, but there was no one on their path to the Entrance Hall. Once they were out on the grounds, Hermione understood why Ginny had been so keen to see what the thing was. A bright light shone from the edge of the Forbidden Forest, a considerable distance from Hagrid's hut.
"Maybe it's a phoenix?" Hermione whispered. "It feels like it's too bright even for that." Ginny just shushed her. As they got closer, Hermione could make out the vague figure of a person, a man? It was hard to tell, with the bright light that seemed to radiate from the figure in the center. Hermione's curiosity got the better of her, and any thought of caution slipped from her mind. She couldn't take her eyes off of the bright light.
"Hermione?" Ginny finally whispered. The younger girl put her hand on Hermione's shoulder, and that seemed to mostly break her out of her compulsion.
"I thought you wanted to see what it was," Hermione reminded her.
"I'm scared. Something doesn't feel right. We should have gotten McGonagall," the redhead said. Ginny's voice was shaky.
"Are those...feathers?" Hermione knew she should care more about Ginny's worries, but she couldn't think about anything but the figure. She stepped forward, but Ginny didn't, and she slipped out of the Invisibility Cloak.
"Wait! No, please come back," Ginny begged, but she refused to raise her voice above a whisper, and Hermione didn't seem to hear her. Instead, Hermione stepped forward again, once, twice and a third time.
"Hello?" Hermione called towards the figure, now less than twenty feet away from the source of the bright light. The figure finally turned towards the girls, though Ginny was still wrapped in the Invisibility Cloak. The redhead froze on the spot, unable to tear her eyes away from the figure. It stepped towards Hermione, who also seemed rooted to the spot where she stood.
"No!" Ginny finally called out, and the figure turned its attention to where Ginny stood. The figure still moved towards Hermione, and its- his- face was only visible for a moment, but Ginny knew exactly who he was. His face had been burned into her mind since she was eleven. He grabbed Hermione and with a flash of light, they disappeared.
The next thing Ginny knew, she opened her eyes from her dorm room in Gryffindor Tower. Sunlight was starting to peek through the window, and the light had been what had woken her. A bright...light? With a gasp, Ginny ran to Hermione's dorm, and without announcing her presence, Ginny threw open the curtains around Hermione's bed. The girl was there, curled up around a stuffed animal Ginny had never seen among Hermione's belongs before.
"Ginny?" the brunette groaned slightly. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh thank Merlin. I thought he'd taken you for good," Ginny said, and threw her arms around her friend. "What happened last night?" A blush formed on Hermione's face.
"What happened last night between Tom and I is private," she declared. Hermione had never used such a hostile tone with Ginny before, and she had to process for a moment before she even realized Hermione had said that name. There was something terribly wrong here, and Ginny would figure out what happened.