The Great Hall was slowly starting to fill up for dinner as students noisily poured in from their last classes before Christmas break. Vanessa sat at the Ravenclaw dinner table alone, her anxiety building by the moment as she stared down into a textbook. She hadn't seen Draco all day thanks to class schedules and her missing breakfast; he seemingly skipped lunch as well, so that didn't help either. Vanessa was beyond stressed. She just wanted to see him and get the possible argument over with. Did he know what happened last night at the party? And if he didn't, should she tell him? Or could she just pretend it didn't happen for now while she waited to have the talk with Artemis?

She sighed in frustration, resting her elbows on the table as she leaned her forehead into her hands. This was by far the biggest screw up she had ever made. Vanessa wasn't a promiscuous girl; up until last night she had always been loyal to a fault to anyone she was seeing- even if they weren't as serious as her and Draco were. Why did she decide to go against that now?

It had to be the alcohol, she decided. You wouldn't have slept with Artemis otherwise. He's just your friend.

Or is he?

Vanessa shook the thought from her subconscious. They had been best friends for five years now; that wouldn't up and change now. Would it? Honestly Vanessa wasn't sure anymore. With hearing from both Alex and Luna that Artemis was in love with her, part of her started to wonder if he had only been friends with her because of that. She quickly dismissed that idea. If that was truly the case, she doubted he would've stuck around this long- especially through all the bad times. Artemis had been her one constant since starting at Hogwarts- the only one who had always been there for her and never abandoned her. He was genuinely her friend, and she felt momentarily guilty for thinking otherwise.

But not as guilty as she felt for sleeping with him.

And why did she sleep with him in the first place? Was it the alcohol? Was it because she was pissed off at Draco? Or was it because Artemis said all the right things at exactly the right time, making her feel wanted for the first time in months?

Perhaps it's a bit of all of that, she thought.

At this point, until she spoke to Artemis, she could only speculate. Her brain was still too foggy to properly think about it. Right now, she needed to deal with Draco. Hopefully he knew nothing about what happened and she could play it off for a few weeks at least with the holidays coming up. That was the best case scenario, and while Vanessa hoped that was the case, she didn't think she could get that lucky.

Vanessa sighed, removing her face from her hands just in time to see Draco striding towards her. He looked far from happy, but that wasn't anything new at this point. More often than not, Draco was in a foul mood. Honestly, Vanessa only hoped he was upset about something other than her actions from the previous night. Hell, maybe he was still angry about getting caught gatecrashing.

A few seconds later, he came to a stop in front of her. Vanessa didn't have time to even greet him before he grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her to her feet. "We need to talk. Now," he demanded.

Vanessa yanked her wrist from his tight grasp, ignoring the dull pain now coming from her wrist as she glared up at him. "First of all, that was highly unnecessary," she snapped, unable to hide the irritation in her voice. "Second of all, about what?"

"Don't play stupid with me; you know exactly what we have to talk about," Draco hissed. "What the hell did you do at that party last night?"

Vanessa knew this was a trap. He was trying to get her to admit to whatever he had heard happened. He seemingly knew about something, but Vanessa didn't know what. She decided to stick with her plan of lying through her teeth. Sure, Draco was going to be beyond mad later when the truth finally came out, but for now if she could make him believe that nothing happened between her and Artemis, she was going to take it. After all, it was Draco's fault she was upset and drinking to begin with. If he hadn't been so horrible to her, maybe she wouldn't have sought comfort in booze and Artemis.

Then again, maybe she would've anyway. Honestly, Vanessa wasn't sure what she would and wouldn't do anymore, but he didn't need to know that.

She shrugged nonchalantly. "Nothing really. Artemis and I went, spoke to Slughorn and some of his guests, and we left shortly after Snape dragged you into the hallway for gatecrashing," she replied. It was close to the truth and yet so far from the truth all at the same time. "Thought you couldn't come?"

"This isn't about me," Draco countered angrily. "What did you do with Fowl?"

"Nothing," Vanessa insisted. "We literally just stood around and talked."

Draco snorted. "That's not what I heard. What's this about you kissing him?"

So that's what he knew. Vanessa was momentarily grateful that seemed to be all he knew about her unfaithfulness from the night before. That was at least easier to lie about than the whole ordeal.

"Uh, no?" Vanessa answered. "Who the hell told you that?"

"Doesn't matter who told me," Draco responded.

"Well whoever they are, they're lying," she continued, hoping she sounded convincing. "He's my best friend, that's it. And I certainly didn't kiss him." She paused, shaking her head. "They must've drank too much mead if they think that's what they saw."

"So there was alcohol at the party?" Draco questioned.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean anything," Vanessa snapped back. "Artemis and I each only had a small glass of mead, and were sober. A vast majority of the other guests were not. Their drunk minds probably made it up."

Draco was silent for a moment, anger still all too apparent on his pale features. "You expect me to believe you over them?" he asked.

That hurt a little, but then Vanessa remembered she was legitimately lying to him, so he had every right to believe whoever it was who witnessed the kiss. She needed to sell this so he felt bad for ever doubting her. Eventually she knew this was going to backfire, but if it meant she could have a few weeks to figure her life out she was going to take it. Time to put the waterworks on.

"Why would you believe those rumors about me? I certainly don't believe the rumors about you," Vanessa retorted, although it was a bit of a lie. Tears swelled in her eyes as she looked up at him, silently hoping this was enough for him to drop the suspicion. She wasn't sure if she thought he was truly a Death Eater or not. She desperately wanted to believe he wasn't, but too many things were starting to not add up. But at the moment, that problem would have to wait. She needed to deal with this issue first.

Draco looked down at her, and Vanessa was having a hard time reading the expression on his face. His jaw was still clenched in anger, yet his eyes had softened a bit. What the hell was going through his mind?

Vanessa didn't have much time to wonder. Draco opened his mouth to say something, but something caught his eye and he looked away from her. Vanessa followed his gaze and saw Artemis and Alex approaching them. Alex was talking in hushed tones about something, and Vanessa could only pray it wasn't about last night.

"I know, Alex, I know," Artemis dismissed as the two of them stopped next to them. He sat his bag down on the floor next to the bench, only to turn and have Draco move so they were practically nose-to-nose. Until now, Vanessa hadn't noticed how close the two of them were in height. Their eyes were even with each other, and Vanessa was anxious just watching. Artemis blinked a few times, and Vanessa knew he was trying his best to not say something snarky. Instead, he went with, "Yes, Malfoy?"

"Heard you kissed Vanessa at the party last night," Draco cut to the chase, his voice just as harsh as it had been with Vanessa. "Want to explain that?"

Vanessa silently prayed Artemis wasn't truthful about this. He certainly had a checkered past as a notorious liar, and she hoped he was going to employ some of those abilities here. He swore he had turned over a new leaf, but certainly this was different from the grandiose schemes he had concocted previously. Artemis had a way of making people trust and believe in him- even when they had no business in doing so- and if Vanessa was lucky enough, it would work on Draco too.

"No, I did not. I would never," Artemis answered calmly and simply. "I respect your relationship too much to cross boundaries like that."

"And the mead?"

"One glass each, and we were completely sober," Artemis assured. He offered Draco a weak smile. "Come now; you can't seriously believe that we would do something like that?"

Oh he could, Vanessa thought. And Artemis knew that too from all the talks she had with him. Draco had insinuated more than once that he thought the two of them were a thing, and hearing that they kissed was probably only fueling that thought. She glanced between the two of them, waiting anxiously for Draco's response.

Draco didn't say anything for several moments, eyeing Artemis carefully. He huffed. "I'll believe what I want, and I believe that you did," he replied.

'Vanessa resisted rolling her eyes. Of course he wouldn't just let it go.

"You've got to be joking," Alex muttered. Honestly Vanessa was surprised by her friend's relative silence in all of this. Normally Alex was a lot more vocal, but she assumed she was trying her best to keep her mouth shut as to not reveal what she knew.

Artemis smirked. "Believe what you want. I know what happened and what didn't. It's not my fault you're so insecure with your relationship that you feel the need to sabotage it yourself by believing any little rumor that passes by."

Draco was no longer calm. He drew his wand from his pocket so fast Vanessa almost didn't see it. Instinctively, Vanessa stepped between the two of them, her back to Artemis as she faced Draco. "That's enough from both of you," she snapped. She put her attention on Draco. "And put the damn wand away. Dueling isn't going to solve anything."

"Yeah, it will," Draco replied.

Vanessa didn't need to see Artemis' face to know his smirk hadn't faltered. "Believe me, you don't want to duel me, Malfoy," he assured. "But... then again, you won't even believe me about a mere rumor so why would you believe me about that?"

"That's enough, Artemis," Vanessa said, more calmly than she thought she would as she glanced over her shoulder at him.

She averted her attention back to Draco in time to see him begrudgingly putting his wand back in his pocket. "This isn't over, Fowl," he muttered. "I will get to the bottom of this."

Artemis was seemingly unfazed. "Oh I'm sure you will," he replied. "And when the truth does come out, I think you'll feel pretty ridiculous."

Draco didn't say anything to that, and instead sat down at the table on the left side of Vanessa's belongings. Seeing that at least for the moment, a huge fight had been avoided, Vanessa moved away from Artemis and took her seat once again. He took the empty seat on her other side, while Alex sat across from the three of them. The four of them were eerily silent and Vanessa hated it.

She stared down at her book on the table, as she tried to calm herself down. This whole situation was not good, and if she was already this on edge about all of it, how was she going to keep up this facade for any length of time? She felt a rush of emotions, and she felt horrible for all of them. Vanessa took a deep breath, fighting back tears as she wished she was anywhere but sitting in the middle of the boys she was torn between.