Chapter 34

Hermione blinked, eyes heavy as she shifted feeling her neck catch and forced her eyes open to see the scattered bottles, glasses…chesterfield. She pushed herself upright while looking around too find the room dimly lit and uninhabited, other than herself. Stifling a groan stood, trying to ignore the way the room shifted; noting that she was undoubtedly still…inebriated.

She'd help Minerva clean the mess up in the morning, she thought as she let her eyes trail to the other woman's door, and felt a frown pull on her features at the wide open door meeting her vision. While, Minerva never fully closed and latched the door; when she normally went to bed, the door was pulled to. She must have forgotten, Hermione thought as she carefully walked the expanse. She reached out, placing her hand on the handle, eyes moving to the bedroom as she pulled the door close and stopped.

Minerva wasn't there.

At once she leaned farther in, eyes moving to where the bathroom was and felt her frown deepen at seeing the dark room. "Minerva?" She called out, head turning back to the living room, "Minerva?"

Her headache became less pronounced as both her heart rate and adrenaline increased as her eyes flickered to the clock on the wall – 3:24.

She double checked the entirety of the quarters, taking note that Minerva's wand was not within the chambers either; and without thought, Hermione grabbed her own wand, slipped on a pair of slippers and went to look for Minerva.

Xoxo

Hermione didn't know how long it took for her to clear the unwarded areas of the castle before she had moved to the grounds, and felt her heart sink at seeing the crumpled form lying along the eastern bank of the lake.

She fought every inch of herself from sprinting forward, and continued to walk quietly forward; eyes trained on the still woman whose form was hidden behind the cover of darkness.

Much like the woman herself, Hermione thought, wondering if it had been the contents of the letter that had propelled Minerva out here or something else? And what it could have been? She had known that Minerva, like herself, had had a trying year; but she hadn't known the extent of it. Nor did she believe, as she cancelled her lumos charm enabling the moon's rays light to spill across Minerva's body, that Minerva had shared what happened to her this past year with anyone.

The glint of the moonlight sparkled off the bottle to the left of Minerva, and Hermione easily recalled the moment from just over a week ago where she had found Minerva passed out, drunk. And she couldn't stop the words from falling from her lips as she breathed out, "What happened to you?" Before waving a weightless charm and levitating Minerva's body toward Hogwarts, pausing as a crumpled letter fell from the edge of her robes.

Brown eyes remained fixed on the parchment for several long moments as her own innate curiosity warred with Minerva's desire for privacy. And with a heavy sigh, she wandlessly summoned the parchment, folding it and tucking it into her robes before returning to the prior task at hand – levitating Minerva back to her rooms.

Xoxo

a/n: Good news (for you) - I spent time I didn't have and wrote yesterday; meaning that you'll have updates for the whole of the week again. Bad news - like last week; they are as the story's updates were intended - short. Somewhat better news - I even spent a few hours working on Bonding, so with luck there might be an update...soon (shakes head, no that doesn't mean tonight) ;)