Ginny ran into the common room with tear-filled eyes and went straight up to the girl's dormitory. She didn't even acknowledge Harry's presence, which was unusual. Hermione looked at Harry and Ron, "Maybe I should go see what's wrong?" They both nodded in return, knowing fully well that they couldn't go themselves since the stairs would turn into a slide and they'd just fall back down again.

Hermione climbed up the great stone steps to the girls' dormitory and knocked on the door to let Ginny know that she was there. Hermione then carefully opened and closed the door so that others in the common room who didn't realize what was going on would come and look what was happening.

"Ginny, what's wrong?" Hermione asked, with a 'you can trust me' tone in her voice. "Did something happen at remedial potions?"

Ginny's devastated face looked up into Hermione's. "If I tell you something, do you promise that you'll never tell a single soul? Not even my brother… Not even Harry?"

"Yeah, sure… of course."

"If I tell you, do you promise not to change how you think of me, and you'll still be one of my best friends, and my best girl-friend, no matter what?"

"Ginny, of course, I promise. I mean, it's not as if you killed someone or anything!"

Ginny took out the little box Professor Snape had given to her from the pocket of her robes and set it on her bed. She stared at it for a few moments. "Hermione, will you open this for me? I can't bear to do it myself."

"Sure, but…Ginny, who's it from?"

"My … err… secret admirer." Ginny replied quietly…not knowing yet whether she should tell Hermione exactly who it's from or just give her basic details without mentioning Severus's name.

"Is your 'secret admirer' who made you start bawling?" Hermione was concerned, and Ginny knew this. Her best interests were being looked out for and it was a slight comfort to her conscience. She simply nodded in response.

Hermione reached for the delicate box and pulled the emerald ribbon that was tied around it. She gently opened the lid and looked inside. Her mouth dropped widely open and took out the most beautiful thing she's ever seen. It was a silver bracelet with emeralds and diamonds on it. "Ginny, this is BEAUTIFUL!"

Ginny looked up to see what Hermione was holding up. No doubt it had been the present Snape had given to her, she quickly looked away as her eyes became tear-filled again. "Yeah… it's… lovely." She agreed between sobs.

Hermione set the bracelet back inside its box and retied the ribbon and situated it on Ginny's nightstand. She sat down next to Ginny and put her arms around her. "Ginny, who really gave you the bracelet. I've already told you that you can tell me anything, and I wont judge you for it or anything."

The devastation that had occupied Ginny's face was quickly replaced with guilt. She couldn't look Hermione in the eyes so she settled for looking at her feet. "For the past three months, I've been…"

"You've been what? Go on, Ginny. It's ok…"

"I've been seeing someone behind everyone's back." Hermione gasped quietly but didn't say anything else, so Ginny continued. "At first it was something innocent… just a little crush… some flirting here and there. But it soon turned into something more…something deeper."

"You've been having an affair? But with who?"

"You're going to really hate me for this part… and I'd rather not tell you…because I'd rather keep what little friendship that we still have after I really fucked everything up." Ginny could tell Hermione was upset over this. And who could blame her? Ginny had cheated on Hermione's best friend.

Hermione thought about the bracelet… emerald, silver… it was all starting to click. "Is he a Slytherin?"

Ginny couldn't believe what she was hearing. Did Hermione know about her affair with Snape and just wanted her to come clean on her own time? Nonsense, she couldn't have found out! How would she have? "No—not exactly."

"Oh… can you tell me what house he's in then?" Hermione asked politely. She was doing her best to be patient and understanding; after all, it was apparent something had happened to Ginny involving this person Hermione was trying to get her to admit cheating on Harry with.

Ginny sighed deeply, and thought about her choices. I can just tell her who it is, straight forward, and then she may not be mad about me making her guess…but that probably wouldn't give me a chance to explain anything. Or, I could make her guess at it…which may actually be better for my sake so I can think about how I'm going to explain myself. "He's not exactly IN a house. I mean, he has his favorites…"

"How could he not be in a house? All the students are sorted their first night at Hogwarts!"

"Hermione," she knew she had to tell her straight forward now… or else this could turn ugly. "I never said it was a student." Hermione opened her mouth to speak, "no, don't interrupt me… let me explain. What I did was wrong and whatever happened between us is… is… over." Admitting this out loud made it ten times more real than it had been before. "It's over, dead, gone, finished." Her red and puffy eyes sent another glistening tear down her blushing cheek.

"So who do I have to go jinx for breaking one of my best friend's heart?" Hermione was going to scold Ginny for running around with someone at Hogwarts who wasn't a student… but then thought better of it. She also knew that she couldn't yell at Ginny for cheating on Harry just yet because it'd probably make her cry even more.

"I'm sure you'll hate me. I can't even tell you, that's how ashamed I am…"

"You shouldn't be ashamed if you cared about someone. We can't choose who we care about… after all, look at your brother and I. We didn't choose to be together, it just sort of…happened."

"Yes, but you didn't cheat on someone that loves you more than anything in the world, you didn't have an affair with a teacher, you didn't fall in love with Severus Snape." Ginny didn't mean to say the last part. It slipped out of her mouth before she could stop herself.

"Oh, Ginny… this couldn't be." Hermione wished she was joking, but more tears started pouring out of Ginny's eyes, and she knew that she was serious.