My wet feet hit the cold stone floors, my tracks leaving marks on the ground. I pinched my nose trying to keep it closed, preventing the blood from flowing down my face. My body stung from the small cuts I had acquired from falling on the small shards of glass that had decorated the floor from the broken wine bottle. I didn't know where I was running, my eyes were blurred and the scenery wasn't all too familiar.

"Ella," I whipped around at the sound of my name without thinking. It was like a knee-jerk reaction. A few feet behind me, clad in only his boxers with clothing and a piece of paper in his hands, was Sirius. I had hoped at first that it was Remus that had followed me and was slightly disappointed, then again I didn't exactly want Remus to see me looking like this. I had already embarrassed myself enough.

I stopped in the hallway and Sirius caught up to me, taking me by the arm and dragging me into an empty classroom. "What the bloody hell were you thinking running off on your own in the middle of the night? Filch could've caught you and we'd all be in trouble, luckily he's on the other side of the castle."

"How do you know where Filch is?" I asked curiously, taking notice of the fact that Sirius's face was ridden with guilt as he hastily stuffed a piece of parchment into his the band of his boxers.

"Secret," Sirius said tapping his nose and giving me a smirk. "You're soaking wet," Sirius deduced. He took out his wand and waved it, instantly drying my body and hair. "Not much I can do about the blood," Sirius said, pinching my chin with his thumb and index finger as he examined my face. "I grabbed your clothes, put them on and I'll take you to to the hospital wing."

I made a move to object but Sirius silenced me with one look. I wordlessly grabbed my clothing from his hands and carefully slipped on my clothes. The fabric brushed up against my open wounds and I couldn't help but wince slightly from the brief stinging pain.

"You look like shit," Sirius said as he continued to inspect me.

"Wow, with talk like that Sirius I can only assume you're trying to get me in bed," I muttered sarcastically.

Sirius chuckled and stepped towards me. "Your nose doesn't look broken," he said inspecting it. "How does it feel?"

"Like I slammed it into the floor."

Sirius chuckled and took my hand, leading me out of the room. "Marlene was barking out of order."

"It was just an accident," I said half-heartedly. Truthfully I wasn't entirely sure, I was a pretty graceful person and I couldn't think of another time in my life where I would trip.

"I'm not so sure about that, Remus is giving her a proper tell-off right now."

"Remus is sticking up for me?" I asked, not able to hide the satisfaction in my voice. However, I was afraid that now because of this there would be some discourse between Marlene and I. Marlene and I had never exactly been friends but we got on fine enough, never had any fights or anything of the sort. She and Lily tended to hang out together along with some girl's from Ravenclaw. Both she and Lily were the smartest girls in our year and Marlene was probably one of the best at defense against the dark arts. To say she was an intimidating would be an understatement.

"You sound surprised."

"Well, I hardly know him, and you guys have been friends with Marlene for a long time now."

"We're not really friends with her. She's a good friend of Lily and Lily and Remus are friends. I think any of us would prefer you over Marlene."

"I think you're giving me too much credit."

Sirius chuckled and shook his head. "You underestimate yourself, you're very charming."

"If by charming you mean I'm a bumbling spaz anytime Remus comes within five feet of me then you're spot on."

Sirius laughed and threw his arm around my shoulders, "here's a tip for you; confidence is sexy. Embrace it. And if you can't, wear shorter skirts."

"Thanks for the tip o' wise one," I muttered under my breath. Sirius laughed loudly and I could feel his body shake as it leaned against me. His hand moved down my shoulder and brushed a particularly deep cut. I winced and shrank away from him. Sirius dropped his arm and frowned as he looked at me.

"I'm going to bleeding murder Marlene," Sirius said.

"Don't worry about her," I said in a low voice as we neared the hospital wing, pushing open the double oak doors. "Leave it up to me."

Healing all my wounds took longer than Sirius and I expected. Each cut needed to be paid individual attention to, and considering I had many scattered across my body Madame Pomphrey was kept busy for quite some time.

"So let me get this right," Madame Pomphrey said as she waved her wand over my wounds. "You and Mr. Black were in the common room and you had a glass cup. You tripped over an ottoman in the common room and your nose hit the coffee table. You then fell into the shards of glass which were scattered across the floor from dropping the cup and breaking it, is this correct?"

"Yes," I said confidently, thinking the story we had invented was solid enough to believe.

"Well then," Madame Pomphrey sighed as she finished healing the last wound. "You're free to go Ms. Vaughn, there shouldn't be any problems but if you have an residual pain feel free to pop by."

"Thank you," I said throwing off my nightgown and putting on my regular clothes. I stepped into my shoes and threw open the curtain where Sirius was waiting on the other side for me. He hopped up from his chair and we started making our way towards the door.

"What I find most interesting about your situation, Ms. Vaughn, is how you acquired all those cuts on your body with your clothes on." She gave me a knowing smile before turning away and going into her office.

A/N: Hey everyone! So I have no excuse for this horribly late update. I graduated from the air force basic military training end of March and since then I've been horribly busy. Last week I got to my duty station (las vegas baby) and I've finally settled in here and have had some time to breath! Thus I present you this chapter! Which isn't great...at all. Really horrible I am sorry but the next chapter is going to be good (I think)! So hang with me, I just knew I needed to give you guys something so I wasn't dead! Please forgive this chapter, the next one is gonna be good, you've got my word ;)