Chapter 4: The Apology

Ginny looked at her watch with heavy eyes, 5:28am. She heaved a heavy and shaky sigh. I wonder if breakfast will be out yet. She thought and she decided to go to the Great Hall. Even if it isn't, I can plan my apology to Hermione in more depth.She changed quickly and headed down to the Great Hall.

When she got there the doors were open, she walked in and looked around to see who else was there. There was no one at the Slytherin table; two Hufflepuffs sitting apart from each other, a group of four Ravenclaws huddled together in the middle of their table and one Gryffindor with bushy brown hair playing with her food with her fork in one hand and her head in the other.

Ginny felt her stomach turn. This is it. Don't screw it up. She walked slowly over to Hermione and sat down beside her. She closed her eyes and tilted her head down, thinking about how to start. She bit her lip, opened her eyes and looked up, looking straight ahead. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then turned to Hermione.

"Hermione, I-I'm sorry for last night" she said, fighting back tears as she remembered the events of that night. She looked away from Hermione. "I shouldn't have said that to you"

"It's ok Ginny" Hermione said softly and pulled her friend into a comforting hug. Ginny moved closer to Hermione, put her arms around her waist and leaned into her, as she lost a few more tears.

"No it's not" Ginny whispered through her tears. She pulled back enough to look up into Hermione's eyes. Their eyes met. "You mean so much to me Hermione. I should've been more careful" she was still whispering with tears gathering in her eyes. Ginny saw movement behind Hermione. She broke their eye-contact to look over Hermione's shoulder, up at the staff table. Where she saw the one teacher she never wanted to see again.

A look filled with worry and horror came over Ginny's face. Snape looked at her and their eyes connected. Her eyes widened with fear and her breath quickened as he smirked at her. Ginny suddenly felt a hand on each of her cheeks, pulling her to face Hermione. The next thing Ginny knew was she was being embraced in a tight hug from Hermione. Tears were streaming down Ginny's face now.

"Let's go outside for a walk, hmm?" Hermione said after a few minutes of comforting Ginny. Ginny simply nodded. They got up and walked out towards the lake. Hermione had her arms around Ginny's shoulders holding her close and Ginny's arms were around Hermione's waist hugging her tight, with her head on Hermione's chest. She listened to the slow but continuous beating of Hermione's heart.

They sat down side by side next to a rock on the edge of the lake, still embracing each other. After about ten minutes of sitting in each others arms, Ginny felt a slight change in Hermione's breathing pattern and discovered she had fallen asleep. This made Ginny smile for a second then hold Hermione closer.

The more Ginny thought about Snape, the further she retreated into herself until she couldn't take being around Hermione anymore, even if she was asleep. She held her close for a moment, then let her go and stood up. She turned, took three steps back towards the castle, glanced back at the silent form of Hermione sleeping, and continued up to the castle.

"Where do you think you're going, Miss Weasley?" snarled a familiar voice from behind her when she reached the castle. She froze in her tracks.

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A/N: Hey all, Exams are over YAY!(They finished on Thursday) So now I'm gonna have more time to dedicate to this. All I need from you guys is the reviews! Come on people, I know some of you have put this story in your alert list and some on their favs list so please review! I need reviews to keep me going or I might just give up on the story. So please please PLEASE! Review