Chapter 3: Hermione
She ran as fast as she could up to the Gryffindor Tower, crying the whole way there. She noticed the singled-out party was still going. When she got to the fat ladies portrait she gave the password and slipped in, wanting to go unnoticed if anyone was still up. Hermione Granger was leaning back on the couch, chewing the tip of her thumb and looking into the fire, obviously deep in thought. There wasn't anyone else in the common room. Ginny quickly muffled her sounds of whimpering, and quietly snuck to the staircase leading up to the fifth year girls' dormitory. With a quick glance back to make sure Hermione hadn't heard anything she headed up the stairs and through the door, closing it with a click.
She went straight to her bed, dropped the towel and pulled some clothes out of her trunk. She was still crying which made it hard for her to see what she was doing. Then she heard something she didn't want to hear, there was a knock on the door. Terrified, Ginny grabbed the towel and quickly wrapped it around herself, when Hermione opened the door and entered.
"Ginny?" Hermione asked. Seeing her in only a towel and with tears still running down her face, Hermione walked over to Ginny and gave her a big hug which Ginny took willingly. "What's wrong?" Hermione whispered in her ear. Before, Ginny had been trying not to let all her hurt and emotion come out, but it had slowly been leaking out in tears, and now, in Hermione's warm embrace, she couldn't hold it in anymore. "Shhhhh" Hermione kept whispering to her. "Lets sit down, hmm?" she offered, but Ginny just shook her head and hugged Hermione tighter. "Ok, then how about you get dressed? Your roommates should be coming back soon. The party should've just finished" she suggested, looking at her watch.
"Ok" Ginny managed to whisper through her tears, and pulled back from Hermione. "Stay with me. Please" she didn't want to be left alone, not yet.
"Ok, I'll stay. But I'll close the curtain while you get changed" said Hermione. Ginny nodded to let Hermione know she agreed. And with that Hermione closed the curtain and Ginny quickly got changed.
She came out to find Hermione sitting on her trunk. She usually would have chuckled at this and ran the two steps to her trunk and wrapped her arms around Hermione's neck and pulled her into a tight embrace. But instead, Ginny walked up to Hermione and faced her. Hermione stood and put an arm around Ginny with a smile, and together they headed down the stairs to the common room.
"Do you want to stay here or do you want to go somewhere else?" Hermione asked Ginny.
"Here will be fine" Ginny whispered. They went different ways around the couch facing the fire and sat down, with Ginny pulling her feet up onto the couch, she laid her head on Hermione's shoulder, slipping down a bit when Hermione put her arms around Ginny.
They both stared into the fire. Ginny knew Hermione wanted to know what had happened, but she also knew that she couldn't tell anyone. She didn't know what the punishment would be if she told someone but she assumed he would rape her again. Hermione's head was leaning on Ginny's when they heard the portrait door open and lots of happy voices coming through it, Ginny could feel her head lift and look over at the people who had just entered the room.
The voices went silent; Ginny guessed they had just seen her and Hermione. She felt Hermione give a soft shake of her head to the happy students, and Ginny could tell that they knew something was wrong. She heard them all leave, but didn't feel Hermione's head lean on her own again or even turn back. Ginny knew someone was still there, it took all the strength she had not to turn around and look at the person or even look at Hermione. She knew Hermione was giving them a sharp stare. Ginny didn't know who it was or why they hadn't left with the others, she wanted to know, but she didn't want them to see her face. The person left after about a minute, and Hermione replaced her head on Ginny's.
"Looks like you were right" said Ginny, trying to lighten the mood for herself.
"What with?" asked Hermione, a little confused.
"The party's finished" Ginny replied smiling.
"Oh, right, yeah" Hermione looked down at Ginny. "Is that a smile I see?" she said starting to smile herself. "I think it is." Ginny looked up at Hermione, her smile starting to fade. "Uh-uh, no, keep smiling Ginny" she looked away from Hermione still not smiling.
Hermione decided to start a tickle fight, Ginny was laughing and squirming, all thoughts of Snape were immediately driven from her mind. During the tickle fight Hermione managed to turn Ginny onto her back without her noticing. Now, Hermione had her legs on the outside of Ginny's legs and was tickling her so much that neither of them had noticed the position they were in. Ginny fought to open her eyes and plead for Hermione to stop, but when she opened her eyes she saw Hermione on top of her. This isn't right, Hermione was beside me before she thought. right before all her memories of Snape on top of her came rushing back to her.
"What are you doing!" she yelled at Hermione, and pushed her backwards to the other side of the couch. Ginny's smile and all trace of laughter had gone, instead, there were tears.
"I do believe I was winning the tickle fight" Hermione replied, confused at the sudden change of mood. Ginny slide off the couch.
"Don't ever do that to me again!" She screamed while backing towards the stairs up to her dorm.
"What did I do?" Hermione was still very confused. "Ginny, I don't understand."
"Oh, you know what you did. Don't you play dumb with me!" and with that Ginny ran as fast as she could up to her dormitory. Forgetting about her roommates still being awake, she went straight to her four-poster, flopped down on her bed face first and cried into her pillow.
"Ginny?" said a concerned voice coming from the bed to her left. "What's wrong? What did Hermione do to you?"
Ginny tried to stop crying and regain herself. It didn't quite work but she managed to say "Nothing I'm fine. Just go to sleep" she said hoping the matter wouldn't be pressed any further. She sniffed "Please"
"Ok. I'll see you in the morning then"
Ginny decided to close her curtains and put a silencing charm around her bed, in the hope that she could cry in peace without being interrupted for anything. She didn't get any sleep that night. She was feeling guilty for yelling at Hermione because she now realised what she had said and that Hermione doesn't even know what happened in Snapes office. No, don't think about Snape. It'll only make things worse to deal with if you think about it. Think about…. Think about how you're going to apologize to Hermione. Yeah, think about that. She continued to cry through the night, not only because of Snape but because of what she had said to Hermione.
A/N: Hey all. Please review and tell me how I'm going. Flames are excepted.Umm... I'm kind of lost for ideas for what could happen next, I have an idea for later on in the story it's just getting there that's the problem. So any suggestions are warmly welcome and much appreciated:)