When the wall exploded, everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Percy and George tried to run as far as they could, Ron and Harry were still slightly dazed as to what was happening, but they were able to apparate away. Fred was the closest to the wall when it exploded, so nobody knew where he was, and they thought he was dead.
That is, until Hermione came into the picture. When the wall exploded, and everyone started running away, Hermione started running towards Fred. She had to save him, she couldn't imagine what George would do if he died.
When she reached him, his foot was caught underneath some rubble, and he was having trouble getting it out.
Hermione pulled out her wand and levitated the rubble away, setting Fred free, and at the same time, pushing him out of the way, and taking the blow for him.
As soon as the dust cleared, Fred rushed back into the rubble, trying to find Hermione. When he found her, she was laying still, with her eyes closed, her breathing very shallow.
He moved to get the giant chunk of wall off of her. As soon as he did that, he got a good look at Hermione, who started coughing. Fred picked her up and moved her out of the rubble, leaning her against another wall in an empty corridor, and started to assess her wounds.
A few of her fingers were purple, meaning they were broken, and he lifted up her shirt slightly to reveal a large purple bruise from where the wall had landed on her. Luckily, it didn't land on her ribs. The last big wound he saw was on her forehead. It started right in the middle and continued to the left, stopping just above her temple.
Fred took the end of his shirt, ripped it off, not caring what shirt it was, and conjured up a small bowl of water. He took Hermione's face gently, and started dabbing at her forehead. She opened her eyes slightly.
"Fred.." She said weakly.
"Hey, 'Mione," he said quietly. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired, I guess," she coughed. "What happened?"
"Well," he said as he dipped the shirt back into the water, "a wall exploded." She nodded. "George and Percy ran as far as they could. I know they're okay. Ron and Harry apparated away, and you ran into the rubble..." He trailed off.
"Mhmm," she nodded. "I remember going back in to save you. I couldn't imagine what George would do if you died." She coughed slightly and gave him a small smile.
Fred stopped dabbing at her forehead and stared at her in disbelief. "You.. went back in to save me? I thought you were trying to get out and just stopped to help me."
Hermione shook her head and gestured to her body. "If I had just stopped to help you, I wouldn't have pushed you out of the way."
"Hermione, I-"
He was interrupted, because at that point, all of the Weasley's, save Charlie and Bill, and Harry came running towards Hermione.
"Hermione, are you okay?"
"What happened?"
"Fred what are you doing here?"
"What's going on?"
All of the questions came at one time, and Hermione couldn't handle that, especially when Harry, Ron, and Ginny all went to hug her. And it was a tight hug, too. Fred could see Hermione hissing in pain beneath them, but they were too oblivious to notice. It was as if Hermione had a silencing charm put around her.
"Enough!" Fred screamed. Everyone turned to stare at him.
"What are you talking about? Hermione was our friend first, we can hug her if we want!" Ron shouted at him.
Fred ignored him. "Do you all want to know what happened or not?" Everyone nodded, a little scared by his sudden outburst.
"Then I suggest you all sit over there, away from Hermione so she can breathe."
They turned to look at Hermione, who was taking short shallow breaths. Fred rushed over and kneeled down next to her.
"Hermione, look at me." She turned her head, silent tears falling down her face.
"It.. hurts.. so much." She said through her shallow breaths.
Fred wiped some of the tears away with his thumbs. "Hermione, take a deep breath. You're okay now, deep breath."
Hermione did as she was told, and soon she could breathe normally again. Fred turned to tell everyone the story, but Hermione grabbed his sleeve. "Sit here," she said quietly, patting the space next to her.
Fred quietly sat down and motioned for everyone to come a little closer.
"When the wall exploded, Percy and George, you two ran off, right?" They nodded. Fred turned to Harry and Ron. "And you two apparated, am I right?" They nodded. "Well, Hermione ran back into the rubble. My foot was caught in a piece of rubble and she levitated it off of me and pushed me out of the way. I thought she was trying to get out and I just happened to be there, but no. She deliberately ran back in there to save me. Said she couldn't imagine what George would do without me. The chunk of wall that fell on her stomach was right where my head had been just a few seconds earlier. So, she not only took the blow for me, she ended up saving my life. And that is a debt I'll never be able to repay."
Everyone was silent for a moment before Mrs. Weasley stood up.
"Fred, I want you to listen to me." He nodded. "I want you to take Hermione back to your flat above your shop in Diagon Alley and take care of her, okay?"
Hermione tried to stand up. "But I can't! I have to stay and fight!"
In trying to stand up, she only caused more pain to herself. Fred stopped her from standing. "You're in no condition to stand right now, much less fight." He looked at Molly. "Let us know what happens. I love you guys."
With that, he grabbed Hermione's waist, and they apparated to Fred and George's flat.
"Fred Weasley! Let me go back and fight!" She said as they appeared at the flat.
"I can't, Hermione. You heard mum." He said as he walked into the bathroom to get some medicine.
In apparating, Hermione's head wound had gotten worse, causing her to lose more blood. Feeling dizzy, she sat down on their couch and pressed her good fingers to her forehead. Pulling them away, she saw bright red blood clinging to her fingers.
"Fred," she called out weakly, "Fred come here."
Fred came rushing in, both of his hands full of medicine, which he promptly dropped in order to help Hermione.
"What is it? What happened?" He asked.
"If I knew," she gasped as another sharp pain went through her head, "I wouldn't have called you in here."
"Your head. It's bleeding again." Not wanting to leave Hermione's side, he conjured up a bowl of water, a bottle of medicine, a rag, and a bandage.
"Lay down. But don't go to sleep. Merlin, I don't know what I'm doing."
"Thanks Fred, that's reassuring." Hermione said sarcastically.
Fred chuckled and shushed her. "Now hold still. This might sting a little." He slowly, gently cleaned off her head with the water, then added the medicine to it. When it touched her head, she hissed in pain and grabbed Fred's free hand, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Shh, Hermione. You're fine. I'm here. It's okay." When he finished, he wrapped her head and stared at her. "Hermione?"
"Hmm?"
"You need stitches." He pointed to her forehead.
Hermione gulped. "Do you know any spells?"
Fred took a deep breath. "Luckily, I do. I had to learn them," his eyes traveled down to one of her hands, the one with the hurt fingers. "Merlin, Hermione, your fingers!"
He took out his wand and cast a quick episky at her fingers. With a sickening crack, the bones fell back into place.
"Fred, I'm tired," Hermione whispered.
"No, no. Don't go to sleep yet. Think of happy thoughts. I really need you to stay with me, okay?"
Hermione nodded weakly, watching Fred's concentration as he worked on repairing her head. His red hair was long enough to cover his eyebrows, but it went to the side. His brows were furrowed in concentration as his lips moved to perform some spell unknown to Hermione. His nose scrunched up for a little bit, and he bit his bottom lip as the stitches on her forehead sealed themselves.
"There," Fred said as he leaned back, "you're fine now."
Then, without warning, he picked her up bridal style, and carried her to his bedroom.
"Fred," she said weakly, "what are you doing?"
"Well, I can't let you sleep on the couch now can I?"
"But I was fine with the couch. I really don't have to impose in your room like this."
Fred chuckled as he moved the blankets back and laid her down in the bed. Hermione sighed when she laid on the bed and Fred smiled. As he was getting up to leave, he felt something on his arm.
"Fred, stay with me. Please."
Fred moved to the other side of the bed and crawled in, kicking off his shoes in the process, and situated themselves where he was flat on his back and Hermione's head lay on his chest.
He rubbed soothing circles on her back as she fell asleep. "Thanks, Fred," she said, just barely a whisper.
"Anytime, Hermione." He kissed the top of her head as her breathing evened out. Smiling to himself, he allowed himself one last look at her before falling asleep himself.
Hi! I know, I know. I got lazy towards the end. For the record, I wasn't going to post this story, but my friend said something about it, so I had to. I ship Fremione hardcore, like, they're my OTP. So if you read my stories, by prepared for some more Fremione stories. Actually, it might be other pairings too. Any pairing but her and Ron, or her and Harry. I know Romione is canon, but their relationship bothers me. Anyway, thanks for reading! Reviews please! xxx