What's Your Plan?- Fredmione Fic
She was walking down the ornate staircase into the Great Hall, dressed in the lightest blue he had ever seen. She looked angelic and he had to admit: Granger cleaned up well.
He watched as her eyes flitted from face to face, searching for someone in particular. He knew she wasn't going to the dance with ickle-little-Ronikins, so who was the beautifully dressed bookworm searching for?
As her doe brown eyes landed on him, he saw them light up..was she looking for HIM? There was no way she was looking at him like that. They had a friendly enough relationship, with her practically living at his house over every break Hogwarts could offer, but he sometimes felt that she lived to thwart he and George's plans. He had lost countless number of points for Gryffindor due to her snitching on the infamous Weasley Twins to Professor Mcgonagall. So no, she was definitely not looking at him, Fred Weasley, like that; however, her eyes never left his direction and she stayed near the top of the staircase. In a split second, he decided to go see what all this staring was about. It was making him feel weird—a pleasant weird, but weird— and he could tell Angelina was getting jealous by how obviously he was staring back at her. As he walked over to his annoying little brother's favorite bookworm, he felt someone push past him. He turned towards this rude intruder and saw who Hermione had been staring at. It was Viktor Krum.
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"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" He knew he didn't have to yell, but it was a powerful spell, he was a powerful bloke, and I mean he was alone in the Room of Requirement, it's not like anyone would hear him..unless he wanted them to, which he didn't.
As little white wisps came out of the tip of his wand he grunted angrily. Apparently, he and George's prank with the garden gnomes that ended up with Bill angry at them for weeks wasn't a powerful enough memory. "Okay well what else is there?" he spoke out loud not fearing anyone hearing him and thinking he was insane. "There's the time we put the spider in Ron's…No that's not good enough..It has to be the happiest memory that I have. What's the happ…BY GEORGE I GOT IT!" He looked around for his brother waiting for his twin to respond with a cringeworthy pun, but George was still in the Great Hall eating, well flirting if he were being honest, with Katie Bell. Oh well, time to try this spell again.
As he braced his feet and held out his wand, he heard the door to the DA's secret room open. He quickly spun around and there she was. He had noticed how beautiful she was at the Yule ball in her Fourth Year and in his Sixth, but he wasn't about to let her know that. Hermione had already been hurt by one Weasley brother, he wasn't about to ask her to give him a chance, even though try as he might, he couldn't get the bossy little bookworm out of his head.
Before he could open his mouth to ask her what in Godric's name was she doing there, he saw her face. She had been crying. What was going on with his girl?
Everyone BUT Hermione seemed to know that Fred had feelings for the younger witch, it's not like he had been secretive. But once people knew that one of the famous Weasley Twins had a thing for the snobbish bookworm, they let up with teasing her…well everyone but Malfoy. She didn't know it, but he would do anything to make sure she always had a smile on that pretty little face of hers…even if it meant fighting the entire Slytherin house without a wand.
So, when he saw that she was crying he knew either his git of a little brother or the Death Eater Spawn himself had done something to her.
Quickly he was at her side and he scooped her up into a tight embrace, causing the young witch to let out a started squeak. She was not expecting Fred Weasley to be in the Room of Requirement and was incredibly embarrassed that he had obviously seen her crying.
"Mione whats wrong?" he asked her swiftly, not loosening his grip on her. As he asked her the question she embraced him just as tightly and began crying even harder into his chest. They stayed there holding onto one another as she calmed her breathing and he smoothed out her hair. He hated the fact that she was crying but by Godric, he was holding the witch he had been pawning after for the past year!
As he was thinking about how close they were to one another she stiffened and slowly let him go. He took that as a sign and untangled his arms from around her tiny torso. She looked up into his eyes and as her big doe eyes started to fill with tears again, he led her over to the benches on the far side of the room. Once he sat her down, he kneeled in front of her so that he was eye level with the young witch and asked her again what was wrong. Instead of answering, she lifted her left hand and showed him what was etched onto the back of it: 'I must not speak out of turn.'
As soon as he saw the bloody cuts, his vision was immediately clouded with red. That evil little toad had caused Hermione to torture herself, but as he stared at her hand he started to realize that it wasn't Hermione's neat handwriting that was cut into her skin. It was messier, more rushed. He knew that handwriting immediately. It was the handwriting that he frequently saw at the Burrow when Ginny or Ron left their letters lying around. It was the handwriting of The-Boy-Who-Lived.
Hermione's voice startled him out of his thoughts. She had wiped away her tears with the unharmed hand that he wasn't holding. Her voice was hard and steady, "I asked Umbridge when we were going to start learning actual defense against the dark arts. I just had enough with all of her rules and her lack of teaching ability. I know we have the DA, but shouldn't we have a competent teacher as well?" As he started to nod, she started again, "Anyway I went off on a tangent about how even though Moody was in a box for the entirety of last year, we learned more in the last couple weeks he had been our professor than the entire time we've had her as a teacher. Of course, she started to get red faced and as she was about to give me detention, Harry spoke up. He said how he agreed that we weren't learning anything and even went as far as to say that Neville's toad would be a better teacher, if the Ministry had decreed that DADA needed to be taught by a toad. Obviously we both got detention, but instead of making us cut into our own hands, I had to, I-I, she made us.." breaking off in a sob Hermione started to cry again.
Fred had fallen into a livid silence as she had retold her story but as she started to cry, his anger was pushed to the back of his mind. The only thing that mattered was Hermione. He slowly pulled his hand up to cup her cheek. He now had one hand holding her bloodied hand and another on the crying witch's face. He started to brush away her tears with his thumb. She slowly quieted and looked up at him.
If anyone had walked into the Room of Requirement at that moment, they would have thought the two were snogging..if this was any other bird, 2 years ago, Fred knew he honestly would have done just that, but this was not just any girl, this was Mione and he lov..respected her too much to take advantage of her.
Instead, Fred flipped over their clasped hands and showed her his own scars. 'I must not be tardy.'and 'I must follow the rules.' were scarred into the back of his hand. The first in his own handwriting, the second was nearly identical to his own, but the letters were skinnier and longer.
Hermione gasped and ran her fingers along the back of his scarred hand and so quiet he could barely here her, she whispered his twins name.
"Yeah, Filtch caught us giving second years some of our Nose Bleed Nougats and some of our other pastries and he immediately took us to his favorite teacher's office." He rushed before she could cut into his story, "Before you get angry Mione, we weren't testing them on the second years, we were trying to help them get out of DADA class with her. Sometimes you just need a break from the old toad…Anyway, as you can obviously tell by the messy handwriting of the less handsome twin etched onto my hand, she forced us to cut eachother. She never did catch the second years that were eating the sweets so me and George took the punishment and considered it a win," he chuckled with no evident humor, " I mean, we both obviously didn't want to do it, it was damn near the hardest thing I had to do, he's my twin, he's my closest friend not to mention my brother and she forced us to carve lines into eachother's flesh. I thought she only made us do it, ya know, 'the pranksters that are always breaking the rules,'" he chucked again half heartedly, "but I should have known she'd eventually attack the Golden Trio. Or 2/3 of it at least. Where was Ron?"
He was starting to get fed up with his little brother. How could he have left Harry and Hermione to get tortured by Umbridge. If nothing else, he could have told him or George so they could have tried to make some sort of distraction to get Hermione..and Harry..out of that pastel pink torture chamber.
"He was flirting with Lavender.."she replied, obviously annoyed. "He didn't even realize Harry and I had 'dared to defy the ministry.'" She sneered as she mimicked Umbridge's sickly sweet tone." I'm glad he didn't have to do what we did, but it won't be long before she does this to first years Fred. We have to do something."
"Hermione Granger wants to break the rules? Who would have ever thought..Perfect Prefect wants the help of the Weasley Twins." As he lowered his hand from her cheek, she immediately took it in her free hand. As he chuckled at the nights turn of events, her breath quickened.
"Yes Fred," she whispered, "I need your help..you and George's help..we have to get her out of this school before anyone actually gets hurt. She's trying to take away everything that makes Hogwarts a home to so many kids who otherwise have nothing. The ministry is trying to get rid of Dumbledore. If he's gone she'll be able to do whatever she 'sees fit.'. Who knows what she'll do next.." She started to speak so quietly that Fred wasn't sure if she was talking to him or herself anymore.
"We have to stop this." Her voice like steel. When he looked into her eyes, he could tell why this young witch was a Gryffindor. There was no question about it, she was going to get Umbridge out of Hogwarts, with or without his help.
"Well Miss Granger," Fred replied with a light, yet serious tone, "I always knew you were secretly mischievous..me and George have been toying around with some ideas, what would your brilliant mind have us do?"
Before Fred could even take a breath, Hermione leaned in and brushed her lips against his own. It lasted barely a second and if Fred wasn't so hyperaware of Hermione's every move, he would have missed it. But he didn't, and as he looked at her, he watched a blush creep up on her cheeks. He felt his ears turn the characteristic Weasley Red as well.
Huh, that wasn't what he had been thinking, but good Godric he wasn't about to argue.
He didn't even have time to lean in to deepen the kiss before she looked him in his eyes and simply stated, "What's your plan?"
And Fred told her.
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Before the twins mounted their brooms to leave Hogwarts and Umbridge behind for good, Hermione took Fred's hand and led him into one of the secret passage ways not far from he and his twin's hiding spot.
"Why Miss Granger, why are you pulling me into this dark and secluded tunnel, people will start to assume things.." he taunted with a cheeky grin. He was actually hoping to get one last word with his fluffy headed prefect before he left, so he was perfectly happy that she had initiated the seclusion. It made talking to her privately so much easier.
"Stop it Fred. I know I helped come up with this plan, but are you sure you want to do this? You're leaving school, dropping out. I know you and George have the joke shop, but Fred, if you want to sta.."
"No Hermione. I don't care that I'm dropping out. I don't care that I won't have a diploma that says my name on it. They'd probably give me George's by mistake anyway," he looked at her with a wirey grin, "This is what I want to do. Me and George, were the Weasley Twins, it's not like people expected much of us anyway..We're doing this for us, but most importantly we are doing this for Hogwarts."
Hermione knew that there was no point trying to argue, so instead she stood on her tip toes and kissed him.
Fred reacted immediately. He had been waiting for this since his sixth year and he wasn't about to let her get away with just a quick brush of lips like she had in the Room of Requirement. He moved his body so that they were pressed as close as they could be to one another and deepened the kiss. His hands immediately went to her surprisingly soft hair. Leaving one hand entangled in her curls, he moved his other hand to cradle her cheek, almost exactly the way he had in the Room of Requirement. He slowly started to trace her bottom lip with the tip of his tongue, begging her to let him in. She let out a quiet, airy moan and he took advantage of her open lips. He explored her mouth as she did the same with this, taking turns with one another. He could feel her hands on his arms then his back then his chest..Good Godric her hands were now in his hair..
He had to break the kiss. He didn't WANT to break the kiss. He didn't WANT to stop touching her or for her to stop touching him but if they continued, he wouldn't be able to go through with their plan.
So he broke the kiss, resulting in a slightly disgruntled Hermione.
"Listen Mione, I'm not leaving forever. I'm going to go to the Burrow after we leave here then me and George are going to move into the flat above the shop." He chuckled at her surprised expression, "Yeah me and George do actually have a plan, no need to look so surprised. You know it's almost Christmas break and I'm sure I'll be seeing you and Boy Wonder at the Burrow. So. Quit. Worrying. This will all be over soon," taking a deep breath he continued, " I-I actually had something I really wanted to tell you before I left though." He took another deep breath and grabbed her hand, "Hermione, I fancy you. More than I ever thought I could fancy someone. I'm not asking you to wait for me, you're the brightest witch of our age; you're part of the Golden Trio, a Hogwarts dropout doesn't deserve you. But I WILL wait for you, and when this war is over, because we both know there will be one, I'd like to.."
"Okay Gred! Time to Bolder and Roll!" George's voice interrupted from the entrance to the passageway, "Whoops! Sorry Hermio..wait a second, am I interrupting something here?" he asked wiggling his eyebrows at the pair who had guilty swollen lips and messy hair.
"Well actually.." Fred started.
"No, Fred was about to come looking for you Georgie. We're ready, just give us a minute." She cut in quickly, "And by the way George, it's 'Rock and Roll.'"
"Rock, Bolder. Tomato, Potato." George giggled, "We have 5 minutes until operation 'Take Down the Pink Cat', so hurry up you two." As he left the passageway, he was whistling something that sounded like a mixture of the Death March and 'Fred and Hermione sitting in a tree."
"Listen Herm.."
"No you listen to me Fred Weasley. I've been in lo..I've fancied you since I met you in first year. You're reckless, you don't care about the rules.." Pausing for a moment to catch her breath and hopefully calm her quick heart rate, she continued, "I know there will be a war. And I know that I will be near the center of it. I know that people will be hurt, I know that there is a very real probability that I won't make it out. I'm best friends with bloody Harry Potter. I'm a..a mudblood. I-I have a target on my back. But if you promise me that you will do everything in your power to stay safe, I promise to do the same. You can't be reckless during this war Freddie, you have to fight smart, stay alert. You have to take care of your family, Ginny, George, so you cannot be worrying about me. You have to protect yourself. If you can promise me that, I'll wait for you. I'll travel through hell, I'll kill bloody Voldemort, I'll do whatever it takes to get back home. Back to you."
"Deal." he replied, his eyes shining. If this brilliant witch wanted him to fight bravely and smart so she could come back to him at the end of the war, that was exactly what he was going to do.
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As Fred was reliving his fondest memories of he and Hermione, the fireworks he set off in his seventh year were slowly taking on new forms. They seemed more menacing. His twin didn't seem to notice but Fred could tell something was wrong.
The reds and the greens looked more like the lights that accompany curses.
What was going on? And why was no one else worried? As he looked down into the crowd of people watching he and George, he caught sight of Hermione.
She was crying. No, she wasn't just crying, she was screaming at him as well. Why couldn't he hear her? This wasn't how this was supposed to go...They were supposed to make a swamp of the halls of Hogwarts. Then they were supposed to set fireworks and fly out on their brooms during the fifth years DADA O.W.L.S. with Umbridge. This was supposed to be an exciting time for the students, so why did Hermione look so distraught? Why couldn't he hear anything? And why were the fireworks explosions so strange. They were supposed to make animals and the 'WWW' sign of their new joke shop. They weren't supposed to be firing into the crowds of students. They weren't supposed to look like spells.
He looked back down at Hermione and saw something caused him to immediately stop flying. His twin didn't seem to notice and continued to fly like everything was normal.
But everything was not normal. Where the once distraught Hermione once stood was a different Hermione. She looked older. Her eyes looked like they had seen much more of this war than had even started. She was bruised and bloodied and she had her wand pointed straight at him.
He couldn't hear her, or anything really, but he could read her lips: "Ligabis Vitae."
What the bloody hell..
Before he could even finish the thought Fred Weasley was hit by a flash of blue light, and everything was dark.
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As Fred started to sit up, he could tell something was wrong. Where was he? And why was he covered in rubble? Had something happened with the fireworks?
As he looked around him, it all came back. He was in the middle of battle, the Battle of Hogwarts. A wall had exploded and fallen on top of him. He should be dead. Why wasn't he dead?
As continued to look around, he saw his family and friends all around him firing curses and hexes at the seemingly never ending army of death eaters.
He was starting to become frantic when he didn't see a bushy brown haired girl fighting alongside his family. Where was she? Finally, turning to his right, he saw the face he had been searching for, Hermione.
She was dressed exactly how he had seen her when his..life flashed before his eyes?..no it wasn't his entire life, George would have been there more..No those memories were just memories of her.
He looked up at her face and was startled when he noticed how pale she was. She had blood dripping into her eyes and around her temples from what looked like a slash along her hairline. Her arms had bruises and cuts all over them, one cut looking like it could almost have spelled something and she looked like she could barely stand. Her grip on her wand was tight however and for some reason it looked like she had a slight blue glow around her entire body.
What was going on?
"Hermi.." he reached towards her.
"Huh, it actually worked." She breathed, slightly surprised.
As he tried to get to his feet to get closer to her, he felt an intense stab of pain near his temple and in his chest. His sight clouded over for only a moment, but when he regained his vison, he watched as Hermione collapsed right in front of him, all of the light that surrounded her vanishing as her wand rolled out of her hand.