Speaking Words of Wisdom
It was incredibly difficult to persuade Hermione that she needed a date at Hogsmeade that coming weekend. She was convinced that she needed to complete homework. In the peace of her sanctuary in the library, he valiantly attempted to attract her with promises of an enjoyable day with him. Every try seemed to fall on the ears of a star student who would not abandon her unfinished work for a moment of bliss. Still, Fred was convinced he was making some headway.
"It'll be good for your health."
The library was quiet except for their low murmurs and the frenzied scratch of Hermione's pen. Her brown head was bent over her parchment as her eyes followed the words her quilltip spoke to the page. The intensity of Hermione's fierce gaze led Fred to believe that his argument was in fact valid. Her eyebrows bent low, daring the ink to stain the parchment somewhere it shouldn't as her hand carried her quill at a rapid pace.
Watching her, Fred waited to see if she had heard his last argument. He sat still across the table from her. As she continued to work without acknowledging him, his eyes drifted from her to the stack of books. The titles of the eight books she had borrowed revealed that they were some theory books on the Defense Against the Dark Arts and some historical and political sources.
"Wotcher writing on anyway?" he asked.
"Trying to beat Umbridge at her own game," Hermione muttered. She still didn't look up from her work.
Fred pursed his lips. Hermione had had inspired paper crazes before, but something told him her heart was almost fully given to this effort. "How, exactly?" he asked, running a hand through his hair.
"Well," Hermione began, with a higher and more pleasant sounding tone in her voice, just as she looked up at Fred. His hand was just leaving his hair, and he shook his head to make his hair sit just as he liked it before he met her eyes again. The side of her lips came up so slightly, but he didn't miss it. She looked liked she was thinking of a nice memory he had brought back with his natural habit.
"What?" he asked.
The other side of her mouth came up to complete the smile, and for a moment, the homeworkaholic was absent. In her place was his happy new girlfriend, completely focused on him and happy with his company rather than feverishly scribbling and almost oblivious to him. Her brown-irised gaze locked with his own, and the two were as still as the stacks surrounding them.
For a few seconds Fred stared back and allowed the giddiness to sit—he wasn't sure where exactly it originated, just that his chest was fully consumed. He sat so still that he wondered if the feeling would move without him. It might diffuse up to his head, and then his head might burst. Rush was the only word that came to him to describe the feeling.
Her brown eyes still looked back at him, and the bare pink lips still smiled at him. Fred was just thinking about leaning over to press his own lips against hers, when they moved and told him, "Nothing."
After a couple more seconds of silence as they euphorically gazing at each other, Fred took in a breath as he braced his feet to stand up so he could quickly lean forward. He began pulling his weight upward.
Hermione dropped her smile, and her eyes fell down to her paper again as she lifted it and launched into her explanation with enthusiasm. The rush that had been coursing through Fred evaporated. His weight sank back into the chair.
"Anyway, I was just going to say that since Umbridge has given us this assignment, it's the perfect opportunity to inform her, with official, credible sources, that her method of using only theory is poor preparation for our futures in the outside world that we're always warned about. And I plan on using multiple news sources to reference the recent events like the Azkaban breakout." She lowered the paper and smiled at him again.
Fred supposed, from her smile, that she was very proud of herself and her plan, which was cute. He saw a number of problems with her approach, though. Brushing the small whiskers under his chin with his thumb, he pondered how to explain them to her.
"Hermione…" he began, with as much gentleness as he could muster, "do you think that's really going to work?"
Her smile dropped like a rock to the ground. He hoped she wasn't offended.
"How could it not?" she asked. She just sounded puzzled, so he felt it was safe to explain honestly.
He took a deep breath and sat up again. "Hermione—" he paused to check the area. He glanced over both shoulders. No Slytherins were nearby, so he proceeded with a slightly louder volume to help get his point across. "Umbridge, and those morons at the Ministry like her and Fudge, are dragonshit mad." Hermione just stared at him. "They don't know what reason is. You and I know that You-Know-Who is back and that Diggory was murdered, because we're logical. Harry came back and Diggory was dead. Harry said the Dark Lord's returned, and Harry wouldn't lie about that, nor is he mad. Therefore, Harry was telling the truth. Logic is a beautiful thing. It makes the world go round. But Umbridge is operating on something else, and who the hell knows what it is. You're not going to be able to reason with her, no matter how strong your essay and sources are."
After he spoke, he waited for her response. She blinked and glanced at her parchment. Her eyes then moved to the stack of books she planned to use. Fred was silent.
The embodiment of everything that challenged the benefits of their education was found in Umbridge, but Umbridge was not the only monster in society. There were more people like her in the Wizarding World, probably a lot more than Hermione realized. Fred wondered if there were problems like these with the authorities of Hermione's and Harry's Muggle World.
"But…" she said. She raised a hand to gesture to the stack of books. "Surely…if it's well-enough organized…" She was almost pleading with him to believe her.
Fred had to bend his head down to hide his tight lips so she wouldn't see that he was trying his best not to laugh. Then he raised his face again, sighing as he glanced at the books once more.
Books were Hermione's number one love, and likely always would be. Fred understood that. She loved learning, loved absorbing all the information the pages had to offer her. Hermione probably had never known them to fail her. But not everyone had the faith in the scholarly written word like she did, and she seemed to have yet to learn that.
"Hermione, no. Some people just can't be reasoned with. They have to be right, no matter what evidence is brought to light. The Slytherins can't accept that a Muggleborn witch has ten times the intelligence they'll ever have because they have too much passion and too much invested in what they believe. Harry couldn't stay out of trouble in Umbridge's class because it was too important to him to speak the truth to someone who has decided not to believe him no matter what the truth is."
He placed a hand on the table. The scarred words were still plain on the back of his palm. I must not cause trouble in class.
Hermione's brown eyes fell to the scar on his hand. She laid down her quill and reached over to gently brush a finger over the words.
"And you can expect this after you turn in that paper," he added. "You know it's her answer to any challenge." Her eyelids blinked, brushing the air with her dark lashes. When her lashes rose again, her black pupils found him and stayed, and he saw that he was convincing her. "Not that I won't have anything to say about it. Believe me, I will."
A half-smile came to her lips again. A breath came out her nose, and her shoulders slumped as she looked at her paper before raising her gaze back to him.
"You really think it's a lost cause?" she asked.
Trying not to be frustrated that he still had to argue, Fred lifted his other hand and used both to clasp Hermione's. "Hermione, I think it's a noble cause, and I think it's wonderful that you want to work so hard to share the truth with people, but yes, it's a lost cause. A complete waste of energy." He brushed both of his thumbs over the back of her hand as he looked her straight in the eye. "So I think you should abandon your paper and come on a date to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow."
He had hoped for a somewhat happy smile, but there was none. She stared at the parchment sadly.
"I wasn't trying to depress you," he told her gently.
"I know. It's not you, it's just that you're right." She paused, then said, "It shouldn't be that way." Her voice was soft and small, unlike the conviction in her words.
The tone in her voice told him that he had something else to fix now. He rose from his seat and walked to the other side of the table so he could sit close beside her. He put an arm around her. One hand rested on the other side of her waist, and the scarred one held her free hand.
"This won't last forever," he said. "We're going to win somehow. Just not now."
The words reached, and she turned to look at him with another of her half-smiles. With a tilt of her head, she leaned up to press a quick, light kiss on his lips to let Fred know that he had succeeded in comforting her.
The kiss left his lips smiling, and his eyes scanned Hermione's face as she beamed back at him.
He became aware of their public setting, and he glanced from side to side then grinned at her. She gave him a glitter-eyed smile and laughed when he stood and pulled her up. Hand on her wrist, he gently pulled her to a place in the stacks where they were hidden from anyone's vision.
Once they were in place, he turned around and closed his arms around her middle. He bent his head down to hers, saying "So," just before touching her lips with his. Then he pulled up and said, "Hogsmeade."
"Alright," she chuckled. He kissed her just after the answer came out, longer. He pulled away again, pressing his forehead on hers.
"Tomorrow."
"Alright," she said, with her eyes closed.
He bent to kiss her again, even more intensely. "All day," he said. He immediately started snogging her again, but she resisted this time and pulled back.
"Um, I kind of only have money for one meal," she said with a sheepish smile.
Fred frowned and dropped his hands to place them on his hips. "What, you don't have a boyfriend to pay for everything now?"
Her eyes flickered back and forth between his. "You don't have to pay for everything."
"Are you calling me poor?" With his tone and his hands on his hips, he looked even more indignant. "I do run a respectable, profitable business you know. And my mum taught me how to take care of a lady."
"I'm sure she did," Hermione said. Her small pink lips curved, telling him how fond she was of him.
Fred rolled his eyes. "Honestly." He stopped himself just before he asked, What kind of boyfriend was Krum, anyway?
"Honestly what?" she asked.
"Nothing." He lowered his head again and kissed her until she wondered when he would stop. He hugged her close, trying to say without words that he would be better to her. The kiss ended, and he moved his head to place his chin over the curve of her shoulder and neck. They enjoyed the embrace until they heard students approaching, and Hermione broke away.
She looked down at the floor and sighed, her shoulders slumped again. "Alright then," she said softly. She stepped around Fred and started walking back to the table as students passed the stacks near the two of them. Fred followed her.
The books, parchment, and quill remained on the table beside Hermione's and Fred's shoulder bags. Hermione stood in silent observance of them. Fred waited, knowing that one more effort had to be made.
Hermione turned, giving him a pathetic, hopeful smile. "Fred…are you sure?" The shine in her brown eyes pleaded with him once more.
He stepped closer to her and took her hands in his. He tried to remember something that he knew would connect with her.
"Hermione…there's this song I know was made by a Muggle band. 'Let It Be.'"
The smile stretched over her lips again, and the hopeful strain on her brow relaxed. "The Beatles."
His hands clasped hers tighter, then relaxed to allow his thumbs to brush over her fingers. "Best advice ever. Trust me."
Half the smile left her lips, and her head fell down. Hermione let go of his hands and turned to pack her parchment and quill into her bag. Before she could pick up the old cloth and leatherbound books, Fred pulled out his wand and waved it to send them back to their appropriate places on the shelves.
Sense of urgency led Fred to take Hermione out of the library before she found some other academic issue to pursue. They passed the stacks and tables at an easy, unhurried pace. Fred took her hand, but instead of holding it for as long as he would have liked, she gave it a tender squeeze and released it.
"I guess you're right," she said. "And I suppose Umbridge would give me a disastrous grade."
..
When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be
And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree
There will be an answer, let it be
the Beatles
…
Author's Note:
I hope you all enjoyed that. I consider it my best work so far. But I know, you're all wondering what Fred's doing being apart from George for three whole fics. George will appear in the other fics, because he must.
If you appreciate this piece, please give an appreciable review. I would love to hear if you enjoyed reading this, but please also tell me what stood out to you, like language or characterization, action, point of view, etc. If you think it was a complete cheesefest, please let me know. Tell me also if you had enough sense of the place or if I need to spend more time with the setting.