Disclaimer: Do we really have to go over this again?

It seemed like only seconds later when Hermione was being gently shaken awake. She blinked up at the person shaking her, and determined through her fuzzy vision that it was Ginny. "G'way," she mumbled into her pillow.

"Wake up, Hermione! I've been trying to wake you up for five minutes now. You're going to be late if you don't."

Hermione growled under her breath and opened her eyes. Since her face was pressed into the pillow, she couldn't see much. "Fine, fine, fine," she grumbled as she swung her feet out of the bed. She heard Ginny gasp, and turned to look at her. Abruptly she remembered her wounds, and her hands fluttered at her throat for a minute as if she wanted to hide the bruises, then she dropped her hands in her lap and just stared at Ginny.

Ginny looked to be on the brink of tears, then she enfolded Hermione in a fierce hug. "I'm so glad you're all right," she sniffled.

Hermione hugged her back, her arms tightening around her friend. For a few seconds last night she hadn't been sure that she would ever hug anyone again. It felt good to be held. Which was why she had slept so well last night--Draco had held her all night. Hermione's eyes softened. Her aggravating, charming Slytherin, she thought with a sigh. She did love him so. Then she tore her thoughts away from Draco when Ginny pulled back and said firmly, "I want Harry and Ron to see you, and then we'll bundle you up so people can't see your throat."

"What's the point?" Hermione asked gloomily. "They'll be able to see my face."

Ginny tsked. "Well there's nothing we can really do about that, Hermione. You'll just have to tough it out in that direction. But no one needs to know what your throat looks like." Ginny didn't mention that Hermione's throat looked almost completely black, and there were angry scratches marring her skin. It was bad enough that Ginny felt her stomach roll at the thought of what Hermione had experienced last night as Ginny slept peacefully in her bed.

Resisting the urge to hug Hermione again, Ginny rose from Hermione's bed. She was already dressed, and she shooed Hermione from sitting on the bed as well. "Go get dressed," she ordered. "I suppose that you can just wear a scarf."

"Yes, Mother," Hermione said dryly even as she moved to obey the younger girl.

Ginny sniffed. "Well someone has to look after you," she muttered.

"I thought that was my job," Hermione mumbled. Ginny shot her a look, and Hermione shut up and pulled on her clothes. Ginny had already pulled out Hermione's red and gold Gryffindor scarf, but kept possession of it when Hermione reached for it.

"No," she said firmly. "We're going to show Ron and Harry and then you can have it."

"Termagant," Hermione muttered nastily, and heard Ginny's quickly muffled chuckle as they made their way down the stairs and into the common room where Ron and Harry were waiting on them. Both boys glanced up lazily when the two girls came down the stairs. Harry rose and put his arm around Ginny's waist and smiled at her. "Ready?"

He glanced up at Hermione and stilled. There was complete silence in the common room for all of three seconds before Harry and Ron exploded. There were several moments of incoherent swearing, then Harry calmed down enough to shut Ron up long enough for him to speak with Hermione. "What the hell happened?" he demanded furiously.

Hermione bit her lip. How was she going to explain that she had been outside meeting Draco? She shot Ginny a panicked look, who broke in. "She was patrolling the corridors," she said smoothly. "She's a prefect, it's what she does."

Harry looked suspiciously at Ginny for a minute, then returned his attention to Hermione. This time it was an outraged Ron, who was flushed as bright as his hair, who spoke up. "Who did it? When I find that rat bastard, I'll kill him," he vowed.

Get in line, Hermione thought with a mental sigh. She had no doubt that Draco had first dibs on that honor. But she kept her mouth shut on those thoughts and answered Ron's question. "I don't know. He was hooded--I couldn't see his face."

Ron glared furiously, his eyes glittering angrily. "I bet it was that damned Malfoy! I'll kill him!"

Hermione gaped soundlessly at him. Where had that come from? Finally she sputtered, "Ron, don't be ridiculous. It wasn't Draco."

Ron glared back at her. "How do you know? You said he was hooded. It could have been Malfoy."

"It just wasn't," Hermione snapped, her temper rising. "I would have been able to tell. I didn't know the person."

"You're sure?" Ginny asked anxiously. When Hermione shot her a disbelieving and betrayed look--she knew that Draco would never hurt Hermione--Ginny qualified quickly, "You're sure that it was someone you didn't know?"

Hermione forced herself to think back to the attack. She was fairly sure that she hadn't known her attacker, but she wasn't one hundred percent sure. But she couldn't admit that out loud, or Ron would continue to think that Draco had done it. "I'm sure," she said firmly. "I didn't know him."

Harry was still eyeing her throat and cheek with simmering anger in his eyes. "I'd bet it was a Slytherin," he said quietly.

Hermione looked at him and felt her stomach clutch. The cold anger in Harry's eyes scared her worse than all of Ron's shouting had. He was absolutely sure that it had been someone in Slytherin. Which meant that he would be hunting down Draco, to try to see for himself if Draco was guilty. That was one thing Hermione definitely didn't need--one of her best friends and her boyfriend circling around one another more than they already did.

"You don't know that, Harry," Hermione said, forcing herself to sound brisk. "It might not even be someone from school."

Harry frowned. "I don't know about that, Hermione. I don't think people just randomly wander through Hogwarts."

She shot him a withering look. Then she glanced at Ginny held out her hand. She waggled her fingers in a "give it here" motion, and with an exaggerated sigh Ginny handed over Hermione's scarf. Carefully, Hermione wrapped it around her neck, covering the worst of the bruises on her throat. Then she looked at Ginny. "Are you sure you don't know a charm to make the bruise on my cheek go away?" she asked plaintively.

Ginny smiled dryly. "Hermione, if I knew it, you would already know it and have used it. You know every charm."

Hermione grumbled. "Not every one," she muttered under her breath. Then she flicked her eyes toward the portrait. "Are we going to go to class?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Still grumbling, the boys moved toward the portrait. Once all four had exited, Ron and Harry glanced at one another. With a feeling of foreboding, Hermione watched the two boys exchange a glance that obviously had more meaning than she noticed. Simultaneously, Harry moved to the right of Ginny, and Ron moved to Hermione's left so that both girls were between the boys.

Hermione huffed. "Is this really necessary?" she asked, already irritated and slightly embarassed by all the attention.

"Yes," Ron said shortly. She muttered and grumbled under her breath, but all three of her friends ignored her. Finally seeing that she wouldn't get a reaction out of them, she shut up. With her determined escort, she and Ginny made their way into Professor McGonagall's class.

Ginny stopped them at the door. "Um, guys, I have to go to Herbology," she said, looking amused.

Harry looked chagrined. "Right. Sorry. Forgot." He glanced at Ron. "I've got Ginny, you keep her."

Hermione huffed. "I don't need to be 'kept', Harry Potter!"

He just rolled his eyes and steered his grinning girlfriend toward the Herbology greenhouse. Feeling even more stupid as people in the class turned around to gape at her, Hermione walked to her seat, feeling her stomach knot with tension. His face grim, Ron walked beside her and sat in his customary seat on her right. She sat down and put her hands in her lap, where no one could see the way they gripped each other anxiously. Even as she told herself she was perfectly safe in a room full of students, just coming out of her dormitory made her anxious. She felt as if she were exposed on all sides to an attack, and it made her antsy. She fumbled in her pocket for her wand, and found it empty.

Her mouth opened in surprise until memory slammed into her. Hands tangled in her long hair as a larger body slammed her ruthlessly to the hard floor. Her wand went flying into a corner from the impact as she struggled wildly, feeling her breath saw frantically in and out of her burning throat.

"Hermione?" Ron whispered, his blue eyes huge. She had been staring straight ahead for almost a minute now, and her cheeks had gone pale. Her eyes were huge, and he saw terror and pain in them. He shook her arm gently. "Hermione, wake up! What's wrong?"

She started violently when he touched her and withdrew from him in a whiplash motion. She looked over at him without comprehension in her eyes for a long minute, then her body relaxed by inches. Ron stared at her. "What was wrong with you? You weren't talking, you were just looking straight ahead like you were frozen."

"I was just remembering," she said quietly. "I forgot my wand."

Ron blinked. "Oh. I'll go up to the tower and get it for you." She shook her head and held him back with a light touch on his wrist.

"No, I dropped it--last night. I have to go get it." Ron gaped at her, and before he could stop her, she rose and walked to the front of the class.

"Professor McGonagall, I forgot my wand. May I go get it?"

McGonagall didn't even glance up at Hermione, and therefore didn't see her battered face. "Yes, Miss Granger. But please hurry."

"Yes, Professor," Hermione murmured. She turned and walked toward the door. As she passed him, Ron snagged her wrist.

"You're not going alone," he said harshly. "Just let me talk to McGonagall and I'll go with you."

She tugged on her wrist, but he didn't release her. His grip tightened as a result of her tugging, and she knew that she'd have bruises there soon. Just some more to add to the heaps already, she thought grimly. "Ron, you're hurting me," she said quietly, and earned her release instantly. When he started to apologize, she turned and walked out of the classroom.

From behind her, she heard Ron's chair crash back as he jumped to his feet to go after her. Then she heard the whip of Professor McGonagall's voice. "Where are you going, Mr.Weasley?"

"I need to accompany Hermione, Professor--"

"I don't believe that Hermione Granger needs an escort, Mr.Weasley. Now sit down."

There was impotent silence for a long minute, and McGonagall's voice lashed coldly. "Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr.Weasley. Sit down."

There was silence, then she heard the slow, furious scrape as Ron sat back down in his chair. Feeling her knees tremble at the corridors that lay before her like a maze, Hermione determinedly set off for the hallway that ran in front of the Room of Requirement.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Reviewers:

Dumbledore-student~ Well, Draco definitely has to be OC if he's going to have a romance with anybody, cause it seems to me from the books that Draco just ain't the tender, lovin' type. ^_^ And about the smacking the alarm clock thing--I do write that in a lot, because it's so familiar to me. Because I do it every morning. hehe. And thanks for adding me! *hugs*

Thank you all for reviewing!