"Vanessa! You have to get up!"

Vanessa pulled her pillow over her head, ignoring Alex's pleas for her to get out of bed. The sunlight coming in through the windows was giving her a splitting headache. Her stomach was already churning, her body aching... she felt bad enough without a headache. All Vanessa wanted to do was sleep off this horrible feeling.

"Just leave me here to die," she muttered. She wasn't even sure Alex heard her; Vanessa just wanted her to go away so she could get some more rest.

"You already missed breakfast. We have to get to class here soon," her friend urged, pulling the blanket off of Vanessa and the pillow off of her face. "I saved you some food, so c'mon. Get up."

The cold air hit Vanessa, and she instinctively pulled herself into a ball, trying to retain some body heat. Her efforts were futile, however. Her legs lost their heat almost instantly, since her pajama bottoms were only a pair of shorts. Her upper body stayed warm, thanks to the dress shirt she was wearing. She buried her face in her arms, trying to block out the sunlight some more.

"Um... since when do you sleep in button-up shirts?" Alex asked, her voice filled with concern. "Can't say I've seen you borrow one of Malfoy's before."

"Oh don't get any ideas. It's just-" Vanessa started as she sat up reluctantly, but then she was hit with a familiar smell of cologne. Suddenly the nauseous feeling in her stomach got much worse as realization set in. "Shite."

Alex raised an eyebrow, confused. "What's wrong?"

Vanessa ran a hand through her hair, trying to calm herself down. Panicking was only going to make this worse. Vanessa looked around the room, despite how badly the light was hurting her head; there was no one else around other than Alex. The last thing she needed was for someone else to get wind of this mess.

"I screwed up big time," Vanessa muttered, recalling the night before with an unexpected clarity. "This isn't Draco's shirt." She glanced down at her arms, gently tugging on one cuff of the shirt before she looked up at Alex. "It belongs to Artemis."

Alex covered her mouth with her hands for a moment before she lowered them slightly. "You didn't?"

Vanessa took a deep breath as she barely nodded. "I did."

Alex let out a high-pitched scream, causing Vanessa to cover her ears and groan in disgust. She didn't know why she had expected Alex to react any differently. Her friend had been not so secretly wanting her and Artemis to be a thing since the dawn of time. This news was probably music to her ears.

"Okay, okay! Keep it down, will ya?" Vanessa said, trying to calm Alex down. "I don't need the whole school knowing about it."

Alex ceased her yelling, and nodded quietly. "Yeah, that could be bad," she replied. She took a deep breath and looked at Vanessa. "What the hell are you going to do?"

Vanessa didn't say anything for a few moments. It was a good question. What was she going to do? She certainly didn't mean to sleep with Artemis, but it happened. She shook her head, standing slowly, holding onto the side of her bed. "I don't know," she answered.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Alex countered.

"I mean exactly that," Vanessa snapped. She moved slowly to the trunk at the end of her bed, opening it to pull out her uniform. Vanessa started to quickly change out of her pajamas, not caring if Alex saw anything. They had been friends their whole lives; Alex could handle seeing her in her undergarments for a few seconds. She switched out her shorts for her skirt with relative ease. Vanessa hesitated for a moment when she started to undo the buttons of the borrowed shirt, but then hurriedly switched it out for her own shirt and tie. She couldn't stay in Artemis' shirt, no matter how badly she wanted to. It would be far too suspicious. Vanessa set the shirt and her shorts in her trunk, shutting it tightly as she sighed. "I just... I don't know, okay?"

As silence fell over the two of them, Vanessa quickly ran a brush through her hair before pulling it into a loose ponytail. She wanted it out of her face, but not tight enough to put anymore pressure on her head. This would hopefully solve those needs.

Alex frowned before breaking the silence. "What happened exactly?"

Vanessa picked up her robes and her bag. The room spun slightly as she straightened, and she was sure walking to class was going to be an adventure. "I'll tell you on the way."

Alex nodded and picked her bag up off the floor, slinging it onto her shoulder. The two girls started to slowly walk out of the dormitory and down to the common room before they reached the bustling hallways. The noise was deafening to Vanessa, and she cringed at the sounds- as well at how achy her body was in general- as the two of them weaved in out of other students while on their way to Charms.

"So tell me what happened," Alex started. "It's loud enough I don't think anyone will hear you."

Vanessa sighed. Her friend was right. It was so loud she could barely hear herself think. What were the odds anyone was going to hear her explain what happened? She was nervous about it, but she needed to tell someone. Hopefully someone who would help her sort out her feelings. Merlin knew they were all over the place right now.

"Before I say anything you must swear to me what I tell you stays between us," Vanessa stated. "That means no one else knows. Not Emily, not Amber, not Kendall... no one. Eventually maybe they can know but for now I really need this to stay between us."

"I understand," Alex promised.

Vanessa really hoped Alex meant that. She had no reason to doubt her, but she was beyond nervous about the fallout of her actions the previous night. The last thing she needed right now was Draco catching wind of this.

"Okay, good. So... we got to the party, talked to Slughorn, and we had some mead. Nothing too crazy. It seemed like it was going to be a normal party," Vanessa started. "And then Draco showed up and crashed it. You know, even though he said he was too busy to come with me."

"Ugh, what an arse."

"Uh huh. Anyway, Snape had pulled Draco out into the hallway, so he never made it over to us," Vanessa said. "Slughorn was going to let him stay, but Snape wasn't having it."

"Well good for Snivellus! About time he put Malfoy in his place," Alex replied excitedly.

"Right? But him even showing up pissed me off, and I downed another glass of mead. I made a comment about it not being strong enough, and Artemis pulled out some firewhisky his dad had given him," Vanessa continued.

"Hold up," Alex cut her off. "Artemis had firewhisky? Artemis?"

"Yup, I said the same thing," Vanessa replied.

"After all the crap he was giving me about having Amortentia, I ought to kick his arse," Alex huffed. "We're not supposed to have firewhisky on school premises either."

"Yes, yes, I know," Vanessa brushed off. "I apologize for scolding you about that, but can we get back on topic, please? I'm kind of freaking out right now."

Vanessa saw Alex nod out of the corner of her eye. "Yes, of course. I'm sorry. Back to your crisis," she said.

"Thank you," Vanessa sighed. She took a deep breath. "Anyway, Artemis gave me the firewhisky, and he and I both had a few glasses of it while I vented about Draco being a jerk." She looked at the ground, trying to remember the events. "I said I was tired of feeling unimportant, and when he told me I wasn't unimportant to him, I kind of just lost whatever common sense I had left."

"Guessing this is where things took a turn?" Alex asked.

Vanessa nodded. "I kissed him."

"So you initiated it?" Alex questioned. When Vanessa only nodded in response, she continued. "I honestly thought he would've, given everything."

"Yeah, thanks for telling me he liked me, by the way," Vanessa scoffed. "Had to hear it from Luna."

"Look, I swore to secrecy. I wanted to tell you, believe me, but I couldn't," Alex replied. "I tried to make it as obvious to you as I could without actually saying 'hey, our best friend loves you' outright." Alex sighed. "He has for a long time, Nessa. Couple years, at least."

A couple years? Vanessa blinked a few times, partially because they passed a window, and partially because suddenly a lot of things were adding up in her head. Hearing this from Alex was far more meaningful than Luna, not that she had any reason to truly doubt Luna.

She sighed. "I wish I had known sooner," she said quietly.

"You know Artemis," Alex countered. "He's so focused on his studies. Plus he was raised with some sort of decency so he didn't want to come onto you or something. Plus you've always been seeing other people and up until now, he respected that."

Vanessa hadn't dated that many other people. There was one Muggle boy she knew through her dad's coworkers- that went nowhere fast. She briefly talked to some boy from Durmstrang, but he eventually stopped replying to her owls. And Draco- the only one she had been truly serious about. She shook her head; all that was beside the point. No matter how she looked at it, Artemis had been respectful of her choices- even if he didn't like them.

"What were you thinking, anyway?" Alex continued, breaking her thoughts. "Like I never thought you would sneak around like that."

"I wasn't thinking; I was drunk," Vanessa replied. "But he made me feel wanted, like I mattered- something I haven't felt in who knows how long." Her voice trailed off for a second. "And hot damn, him in that suit?" Vanessa groaned in frustration. "He did kiss me back for a second before he stopped and said someone could see. I ended up leading him to a deserted classroom, and well... yeah."

Alex reached over and pat Vanessa's shoulder. "There, there. We all know a well dressed man is every woman's weakness. You can't be blamed for that," she said.

"Alex, that doesn't help me!" Vanessa retorted. "This is going to change everything between us and I'm terrified."

Alex sighed as they reached the door to Charms class. The two of them stood there for a moment before Alex said, "Look... all I know is that there's this saying... if you did it when you were drunk, you wanted to do it when you were sober."

It was the first time Vanessa had heard that one, although she had heard that a drunk mind speaks for a sober heart. She wasn't sure if that was the case here or not. Was it possible that she had some underlying feelings for Artemis she had been repressing? Vanessa felt her stomach churn, although she wasn't sure if it was at the thought of Artemis or because she was still recovering from the alcohol. It very well could have been both.

"We'll talk more later, mmkay?" Alex assured. "Let's just try to get through today. You know Flitwick is just going to let us do whatever like he always does on the last day before break. Try to relax a bit. It will help."

Vanessa nodded, but she wasn't so sure it was going to be possible to relax. The two girls walked into class, and Vanessa's eyes immediately fell on Artemis. He was standing in the front of the room, chatting away with Professor Flitwick. Likely about the extra course work he was doing. If he was hungover too, it didn't show. He looked flawless again, and that alone was enough to make her feel sick as she slumped into her seat next to Alex.

"Where is that food you promised me?" she asked Alex, never taking her eyes from Artemis. Just seeing him sent a wave of different emotions through her, so many she couldn't properly identify them all.

Alex noticed her friend staring as she rummaged through her bag. After a few seconds, she sat a half-crushed muffin in front of Vanessa. "Here you go, Juliet," she replied.

Vanessa rolled her eyes and looked down at the muffin. "This poor thing has been through hell," she muttered.

"No, just my bag," Alex said with a smile.

Vanessa shook her head, picking at the already crumbling muffin with her fingers. She put a piece in her mouth, chewing it slowly. It was blueberry, so at least Alex hadn't betrayed her with bran or something. She was sure eating it was a mistake but she was starving. Vanessa was about halfway through eating it when Alex spoke up again.

"Ugh, he looks so damn smug," she mumbled, shaking her head as she watched Artemis continue his chat with Flitwick for a moment before looking over at Vanessa. "What have you done?"

What had she done? Vanessa wished she had a good answer for that, but she didn't, so she responded with sarcasm. "Apparently showed him the time of his life," she said quietly.

"Yeah, I'd say," Alex sassed.

Vanessa finished off the muffin, just in time to see Artemis walking towards them. Alex was right. He did seem much more smug than normal. He was practically strutting over to them; Vanessa couldn't remember ever seeing him strut before. Hopefully this hadn't gone completely to his head.

"Good morning, ladies," he greeted, taking the empty seat next to Vanessa. "How are you both?"

Alex snickered. "Oh, I'm fine. Seems you're doing well, lover boy."

The smugness faded for a moment as Artemis briefly blushed. He ignored Alex's comment and turned to Vanessa.

Vanessa didn't hesitate. "Artemis, we need to-"

   "I know," he cut her off quietly. "We'll talk later, I promise."

Vanessa nodded. It was a good enough answer for her. She didn't know when later was, but if it wasn't before they left school tomorrow morning for the holidays, she knew they had two whole weeks to get that chat in. She was nervous about what it meant for the two of them, but she supposed she would cross that bridge when it came.

Flitwick started to explain their essentially free period to them, and Vanessa crossed her arms on the desk, resting her head on top of them as she closed her eyes. She felt a hand gently rub her back, and she didn't need to see it to know it was Artemis. It calmed her nerves slightly, but in other ways sent her mind spiraling.

Deep down, she knew things were never going to be the same, and all she wanted to do was ignore it and pretend all was well.