My third Hermione/Fred fic but this one shall be entirely different, I intend to set it directly after the war. A few things I'll clear up at the moment: Fred is, obviously, still alive and I'm also keeping Remus and Sirius alive because I've always been outraged at their deaths and I always wanted Harry to be able to have Sirius as permanent family.
This war is over.
Harry's words still rung out in Hermione's ears as she sat alone in the Great Hall. Everyone was sitting with their friends or their family but she had taken the time to have a minute to herself. So much had happened and they had lost so many, she was only grateful that most of her nearest and dearest were escaping with only a few scars and that was horrific enough.
Some had not been quite so lucky. Remus had lost Tonks, a devastating blow mere months after their son was born, the Weasley's were mourning the loss of Percy, only hours after he had reunited with them, and some of the younger students hadn't escaped in time and had been caught in the crossfire. She didn't even want to think about all of the others that she knew who were now dead. It was far too much to take in at once and it was going to take her a long time to process the events of the night regardless of when she thought of them.
Hermione was also dealing with feelings for Ron. Feelings she didn't know existed and wasn't sure truly did exist. She thought about it rationally, irrationally and tried to ignore it completely but by the time her mind had raced through all of the details she had come to the conclusion that, at least for her, it was an experiment, a test of their friendship and she simply couldn't take it any further than that. Part of that reason was Fred. They were by no means together but Hermione was most definitely harbouring feelings for him that she had never, ever harboured for Ron. But Ron was the one that everyone knew that she would end up with, her happily ever after so to speak. It hurt her head to have to be rationalising it at that moment.
She and Fred had often shared "traditional" kisses under the mistletoe; there was even the years that that led to a little more, which then led to a coming of age kiss that finished the following morning when she turned seventeen. Of course the only people who knew about this were George and Ginny, Harry never had the time for something so trivial and she definitely couldn't tell Ron, especially now.
She looked up from her feet and saw Sirius embrace Harry, both men wiping tears from their eyes.
"Your parents would be so proud of you. If James were here…" Sirius could barely string a sentence together.
"If they were here none of this would have happened." Harry finished for him. "Sirius, go to Remus, make sure he's alright." He nodded towards the man in question who was collapsed next to Tonks on the stone floor, sobbing uncontrollably. Sirius gave him a nod and clapped him on the shoulder with a sad smile before going to attempt to console his old friend. Harry caught her eye and gave her the smallest of smiles before he turned to speak to Professor McGonagall. It was strange to see Harry so calm but it made so much sense. After years of his connection with Voldemort it was finally gone, he could finally live as himself, not in the shadow of the Darkest Wizard of all time.
Hermione dropped her head again as she felt tears forming in her eyes. She ignored the footsteps drawing nearer to her and only looked up when the person sat down and cleared their throat.
"Alright Granger?" It was Fred. His eyes were bloodshot red from crying and his voice was wavering as he spoke but he still managed a smile for her. George sat on the other side of her and they looked at her.
"Fred, George, I'm so sorry about Percy, he'd only just come back and-" Fred was crying again and she stopped talking. Instead she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closely to her unable to stop him shaking as she did so.
George was beginning to whimper with grief on her other side and she reached out to take his hand, wanting nothing more than to comfort them both. The entire hall looked up at the sound of Remus letting out an enormously heart breaking wail. Sirius was holding him and trying to pull him from Tonks' side, just for a moment. Harry crossed the space and tried to help his godfather, all three men crying openly now. Sirius and Harry were murmuring to him, trying as best they could to stop him from screeching, his eyes barely leaving Tonks' body and his hand still firmly gripping hers. Eventually Remus gave up and allowed himself to be moved slightly further down the hall, his sobs reverting to silent ones as Sirius and Harry calmed him a little. It pained Hermioen to see Remus, always such a calm and controlled character, to be in pieces as he was. He didn't deserve to have Tonks ripped from him after such a short amount of time together; this war had been cruel to them all.
"We-we couldn't handle it over there-" Fred began.
"-Mum and Dad can't stop crying-" George continued.
"-Charlie and Bill won't leave Percy's side-"
"-and Ron's trying to calm Ginny down as well as himself."
"Besides, we couldn't leave you on your own, not right now."
"Oh I'm ok." Hermione squeaked.
"Just because you say it, doesn't mean it's true love." Fred wrapped his arm around her waist and George followed suit, the three of them sitting connected for a while. She had to admit that she liked the physical contact and the comfort that it brought, especially from the Twins. Considering that she had felt so alone since the battle had ended it was nice for someone to seek her out and comfort her, she needed it as much as anyone else.
"You have the rest of your family to look after you and help you with this, I have no one. I have to find my parents before I can hug them, I don't even know if I can restore their memories I…" her voice trailed off as she choked back sobs and the twins both held her tightly. George grabbed her hand whilst Fred hugged her tightly and pressed kisses to the top of her head.
"You can worry about that tomorrow, or the next day. You've got us too. We're going to look after you just like we always have. You've been a part of our family ever since the day that Ron and Harry saved you from that troll." He told her.
The morning light was beaming through every new hole in the wall and what was left of every window. The sun burst out at that moment, showering them all with golden light of the new day.
"I've cared for you for a lot of years Hermione, I don't intend to stop that now." Fred told as she looked up at him.
Her eyes were filled with tears and she closed them, unable to deal with any more information.
"You are never alone, not anymore." He said quietly before he lightly pressed his lips to hers.
She was instantly brought back to happier times: accidentally meeting under almost every door in the Burrow that had mistletoe, the time at Grimmauld Place when Fred conjured it especially for her and the night of her seventeenth birthday, when he had kissed her with more desire than previous times and she'd led them to his room. She let out a small laugh and smiled at the memories.
"What're you thinking about?" George asked her.
"My seventeenth birthday." She whispered and the twins both understood what she meant.
She'd always had an odd relationship with them. From the moment she'd met them they'd looked out for her as if she were another Weasley, she was the only one they listened to when she'd scolded them and then there was the whole business with Fred. But she had a connection to them both that was different to anything else she had ever experienced. She could slip in and out of intimacy with Fred and there were no strange feelings on either side. They could confide in her with their plans and she would scold them, tell them what wouldn't work and watch them make adjustments. She was the only one that they listened to. The Twins were usually fairly closed off once you broke away from their charismatic appearance but they both had a soft spot for Hermione Granger.
She was shaken from her thoughts as Ginny approached them. Wordlessly, Hermione stood away from the twins grip and wrapped her arms around her best friend before leading her to sit with them. George pulled her to him then and began to slowly rock his little sister as Fred held Hermione's hand once again.
"We're gonna be ok." George whispered.
"We'll look after each other-" Fred continued.
"-just like we always have."
Hermione looked around once again and found it very difficult to believe that they were going to be ok. They had all lost so much and so much more had been destroyed that it almost seemed like they'd ever be alright again.
"Mione?" Ron asked as he approached. "Can I speak to you?"
"Mhm…L-let's take a walk." She suggested, moving away from the twins warmth and unable to read the expression upon Ron's face.
They walked into the grounds in silence, Hermione's arms wrapped tightly around her torso, wincing slightly where she had been hit with a jinx or a hex of some sort. They came to a stop in the courtyard outside the entrance hall, a mess of rubble and blood now, and sat on a couple of stones that had once been a part of the building.
"I'm glad you're ok." He told her after a few minutes.
"Likewise."
"Harry's…he's…"
"Alive." She finished.
"Well, yeah but he's… he's bloody brilliant isn't he?"
"Yeah, yeah he is." She smiled.
"Look, Hermione, about what happened in the Chamber of Secrets. I just wanted to let you know-"
"You don't have to say anything about that, it's ok."
"But I'm glad it happened, I wanted to for a while and I didn't know how to or how you'd react but now I do and I'm happy." He took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
Hermione began to panic a little, she hadn't meant for that to happen, or for Ron to react in any way close to this at all. She'd felt so alone despite being with them all those months in the tent and when the moment arose she'd simply taken it. She'd felt dreadful after the initial buzz of affection had worn off and now she was going to have to admit all of that to Ron.
"Ron I'm really sorry, I didn't even mean for that to happen, it was so spur of the moment and I don't think that anything like that is right at the moment, all things considering."
There were a few moments silence as Ron took this in.
"Are you saying that that didn't mean anything to you?"
"I'm saying that this isn't the time and I shouldn't have done that."
Silence again.
"We should be back inside, your family need you to be with them." She stood without another word and walked inside alone before Ron could see her cry. She turned right, away from the Great Hall, and began wandering the empty and ruined corridors of Hogwarts alone until she found the library, mostly destroyed, and sat in the middle of it all crying.
It was still the only place that could calm her.
