AN: Here's another chapter, I wanted to get out the slow chapters out pretty quickly but still giving Hermione her time to mope. After all she did get dumped at the altar.

Chapter 3

"Thank you," Ginny told the concierge as he opened the door. After knocking at the door and calling for Hermione continuously for ten minutes with no response, she had gone down to the front desk to them to let her in. Initially, they had refused, citing guest privacy, but after hearing about what had happened the previous day, they agreed.

She wasn't pleased with Hermione's decision to stay at the hotel so as soon as she got up after a sleepless night, she made sure she prepared her best friend's favorites dishes to help cheer her up. Then she was bringing Hermione home with her. Enough was enough. She had already promised herself that she wouldn't let Hermione go back to flat and spend her nights reliving the times she and Chris spent together. Regardless of how much she insisted she could handle it, it wasn't the time for her best friend to be alone. She was coming with her and that was that.

But five minutes into knocking on the door and calling her phone, Ginny had began to panic. Hermione wasn't the type to do anything drastic. Even through everything she went through she had never done anything drastic. But this could've been her breaking point.

Pushing the door open, she absentmindedly handed the concierge a few pounds from her purse, not bothering to see what it was then tentatively stepped into the room.

Her heart settled and she let out a sigh of relief when she saw her friend's gently heaving chest lying across the bed and then looked around the room.

She tried her best to stop the tears as she looked at the mess. Her poor friend.

She bent down and picked up the mini bottles of vodka and other alcoholic drinks. A tear dropped down her cheek as she imagined the pain her friend had to experience again the night before and hoped that what looked like the entire contents of the mini bar had at least helped dull the pain a little. Maybe it was her fault for making Hermione pursue her interest in Chris.

"Wake up, Honey. Wake up."

Hermione was awoken by the gentle shakes of her friend. As it had been a few years since she had lived with Ginny, she was about to ask her what she was doing in her room till her headache hit and all the memories flooded her.

"Ginny, what do you want?" She asked before turning her back towards Ginny. The previous night had been bad enough and the last thing she wanted to do was spend the day watching everyone giving her sympathetic looks and using sickening clichés to make her feel better. She just wanted to lie in bed, order room service and pretend that nothing had happened.

She spent the past few weeks packing for the move to the house Chris had bought and she wasn't in the mood to go back to the flat and start unpacking. A few days in denial were all she needed, she thought as she pulled the comforter over her head.

"Mione, get up. If you go and take a shower, I'll give you what I brought," Ginny said in the baby voice she used on her five year old students she taught.

"Ginny just leave me alone." Hermione said, her voice muffled by the pillow.

Ginny shook her gently again. After cleaning up the room, she sat and watched her sleeping friend and tried to find the courage to put up a brave front but every time she thought she was ready, a few tears had escaped her eyes so it had taken her about thirty minutes to get to her current state.

"Mione?"

"Please leave me alone. I just need to sleep a little."

"It's already past 3 o'clock," her friend pointed out.

"I slept late last night. Please leave me alone." She begged.

Ginny reached across to brush her hair with her fingers but Hermione pushed her hand off. Didn't her friend realize that sympathizing with her only made her feel worse? Didn't she understand that she would only feel worse from seeing her best friend pretend to be optimistic?

"You should at least eat something."

"I will."

"Is there a microwave oven in here? Or I can just use a warming charm."

"Don't worry about it. Leave the food here and I'll do it myself."

"Will you at least take a shower?"

"I will, Giiny."

"Now?"

"Ginny!" she yelled suddenly turning over and sitting up. "Ginny, I'll do everything."

On seeing her face for the first time, Ginny tried her best to keep her cool but she couldn't stop herself after seeing her daughter's bloodshot and puffy eyes. She hadn't seen her best friend like this since her parents had passed and that was almost ten years ago. What had Chris done to her? "I'll leave as soon as you take a shower, okay? I won't make you come home with me but please get out of bed for a while. Just take a shower, eat something and let me leave here knowing that you are okay. Please."

The phone rang as Hermione walked out of the bathroom. She groaned and put on her robe. She loved that everyone wanted to reach out to her and offer their support but wished they understood that she wasn't ready.

Ginny turned to her. "Are you expecting a call?"

"No," she started to say before she got an idea. "Ginny can you do me a favor?" she whispered.

"What?" her friend asked curiously, automatically lowering the pitch of her voice to match hers.

"Can you find out who that is and tell them I'm not here?"

Ginny looked at her sadly. "Hermione, they're only calling because they love you."

"I know," she interrupted, "but I am not in the mood to talk to anyone. So please tell whoever it is that I'll call them later."

Ginny gave her one last look and reached for the phone. "Hello?" After a moment, she put her hand over the mouthpiece and looked up at Hermione. "Did you order a taxi?"

She shook her head. "No."

Her friend shrugged. "Maybe it's a mistake." She took her hand off and spoke into the phone. "Hello, I think you might.."

"Wait!" Hermione interrupted, suddenly noticing the neatly packed pair of suitcases filled with brand new clothes next to the closet. "It's my cab to the airport."

Her friend's face colored for a moment before she moved the phone closer to her mouth. "Can you please apologize to the cab driver? Our plans have changed and we won't be needing their services any longer," she said before hanging up.

Ginny stared at Hermione for a few moments before planting a fake smile on her face. It was sad because she remembered going shopping with Hermione for her honeymoon clothes and how much she had looked forward to visiting Aruba.

Ginny watched Hermione as a barrage of emotions shot through her face till she suddenly jumped across and picked up the phone. She dialed 0 and waited for the line to be answered. "Hello? This is room 1645. I think you just called me. Yes. Yes. Please tell the cab driver to wait for me. I'll be down there in about ten minutes. Thanks."

AN2: Thanks for reading.