Hermione’s Point Of View
Hermione’s mind was racing as they headed towards her apartment. What am I doing? Sure she cared about Will, but what happened to ‘the fling’ she was looking for? Was she willing to take it to the next level? Inviting him to her apartment was just asking for their relationship to change.
Will’s cough shook her back to reality; she looked around and realized she had no idea where they were. She stopped.
“Is everything okay?” he asked. Hermione paused, looking down the nearby street.
“Shoot,” she muttered, turning to look behind her. They were going to her apartment, she should know the way; Will looked at her quizzically. “I just, lost track of where we are. Stupid, I know,” Hermione said.
“Oh,” Will said. He glanced around, not knowing what he was looking for. “I actually have a friend who lives near here.”
“Really,” Hermione said, not listening. She started walking back the way they came, hoping to see some sign of where they were. They came to another road, and looked at the sign. She released a sigh of relief when she recognized where they were. The streets were surprisingly empty as they strode hand and hand towards her apartment. A few lone cars passed as they walked in silence. As they approached the end of the street, she could hear sirens from the street on the other side of the buildings. Her street.
As they turned the corner Hermione saw the fire trucks and a crowd surrounding her burning building. “Oh my word…” she said darkly.
“Is that your building?” Will asked, concerned. Hermione nodded and started to walk faster. The entire top floor was ablaze, as the firemen attempted to control it. Hermione gasped, noticing her flat was just the floor below. She hurried up and slipped between the people crowding everywhere. She saw one of her neighbors and rushed over.
“Karin, what happened?” Hermione asked.
“Do I know you?” the woman named Karin asked, looking at Hermione questioningly.
Damn, I’m still Lizzy, so no one knows who I am.
She moved towards the back of the crowd where Will was waiting for her.
“Sorry, I guess this was a bad idea. I hate to cut the evening short, but I really should deal with this,” she said, looking up at him sadly.
“I understand. I hope everyone’s okay. If you need anything just give me a call,” he said, hugging her.
“Thanks,” she leaned up and kissed him quickly. “I’ll probably talk to you tomorrow.” He nodded and walked away.
Hermione had to wait about fifteen minutes until the potion wore off before she could go deal with her flat. Once again she found her neighbor, Karin.
“Karin, what happened?” Hermione asked.
“Apparently, the McCarthy’s were having a party,” Karin began. “You know, the ones who live on the top floor. Anyway, once they were all sufficiently smashed, someone decided it would be a good time to prove their strength and hold a match till it was completely burned. Well, that didn’t work out too well and when the flame reached his fingers he dropped it and it lit the alcohol soaked couch,” she explained.
“I guess the fire department is busy tonight,” Hermione said, turning to face her burning building.
“What do you mean?” Karin asked.
“Well, the restaurant I was just at had a fire as well,” Hermione replied.
“Wow, bad luck.”
Hermione turned her attention back towards the apartment building. What a great ending to the evening, she thought to herself. She turned back to Karin.
“Any chance I could use your phone to call a friend?” Hermione asked. Karin nodded and handed it to her. Hermione smiled and walked away from the crowd.
“Ginny,” Hermione began. It didn’t take long to fill Ginny in about the fire. “Can I come over for a bit, Gin?”
“Of course, come on over.” Hermione arrived shortly after at Ginny’s flat. Hermione settled herself onto the couch.
“So?” Ginny asked, excitedly.
“So what?” Hermione replied, knowing exactly what Ginny wanted to talk about.
“Your date! How did it go?” She asked, sitting down on the couch. Hermione paused and then slid onto the couch beside Ginny.
“Well, it was interesting,” Hermione started. Ginny listened anxiously as Hermione recalled every detail about dinner, the fight and fire.
“I wish, just once, I could have a date that interesting,” Ginny replied. “All of my dates are boringly normal!” Hermione laughed. “Are you going to tell him who you are?” Ginny asked, suddenly serious.
“I…” Hermione started. She had been fighting making this decision. It was hard to decide whether she wanted to risk her relationship with Will or not. Wait, relationship? When did I start calling it a relationship? We’ve only been out twice, that does not make a relationship. What I had with Ron, now that was a relationship. But this thing with Will, it could be a relationship. Couldn’t it?
“You really like this guy, don’t you?” Ginny said, noticing Hermione’s silence. Again Hermione didn’t know how to respond. “You’ve got it bad, so what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. I’m afraid that if I tell him I’m someone else, he’ll freak out and leave. I don’t want him to go,” Hermione replied.
“Well you can’t live forever as Lizzy, it’s not healthy,” Ginny said, hoping Hermione wasn’t planning that.
“I know, but it’s not like I’m a different person. I still act like Hermione, I just look different. It’s like when you’re a kid, you play pretend. I’m just pretending to be Lizzy,” Hermione rationalized.
“No Hermione, this is different than pretend. You are being Lizzy. You’re supposed to be the logical one in the group,” Ginny said, rather angrily. Hermione couldn’t keep this up. Things could get bad if she even tried. “This isn’t fair to you or Will. If you don’t tell him, I will.”
“You can’t!” Hermione snapped. “Look, I’ll take care of it. It’s nothing serious. Ron and I are meant to be, I just need something new for awhile.” Ginny nodded, knowing full well Hermione was lying through her teeth, even if Hermione didn’t know it yet herself.