Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or it's characters (If I did Fred Weasley would NOT have died).


"But don't you realize?" whispered Hermione. "This means, if we can just get the snake –"

But she broke off as yells and shouts and the unmistakable noises of dueling filled the corridor. Harry looked around and his heart seemed to fail: Death Eaters had penetrated Hogwarts. Fred and Percy had just backed into view, both of them dueling masked and hooded men.

Harry, Ron and Hermione ran forwards to help: jets of light flew in every direction and the man dueling Percy backed off, fast: then his hood slipped and they saw a high forehead and streaked hair –

"Hello, Minister!" bellowed Percy, sending a neat jinx straight at Thicknesse, who dropped his wand and clawed at the front of his robes, apparently in awful discomfort. "Did I mention I'm resigning?"

"You're joking, Perce!" shouted Fred, as the Death Eater he was battling collapsed under the weight of three separate Stunning Spells. Thicknesse had fallen to the ground with tiny spikes erupting all over him; he seemed to be turning into some form of sea urchin. Fred looked at Percy with glee.

"You actually are joking, Perce … I don't think I've heard you joke since you were –"

The air exploded. They had been grouped together, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred and Percy, the two death eaters at their feet, one stunned the other transfigured: and in that fragment of a moment, when danger seemed, temporarily, at bay, the world was rent apart. Harry felt himself flying through the air, and all he could do was hold as tightly as possible to that thin stick of wood that was his one and only weapon, and shield his head in his arms: he heard the screams and yells of his companions without a hope of knowing what had happened to them-

And then the world resolved itself into pain and semi-darkness: he was half buried in the wreckage of a corridor that had been subjected to a terrible attack: cold air told him that the side of the castle had been blown away and hot stickiness on his cheek told him that he was bleeding copiously. Then he heard a terrible cry that pulled at his insides, that expressed agony of a kind neither flame nor curses could cause, and he stood up, swaying, more frightened than he had been that day, more frightened, perhaps, than he had ever been in his life…

And Hermione was struggling to her feet in the wreckage and three red-headed men were grouped on the ground where the wall had blasted apart. Harry grabbed Hermione's hand as they staggered and stumbled over stone and wood.

"No – no – no!" someone was shouting. "No! Fred! No!"

Percy began to shake Fred as if that could wake him from whatever was keeping him so quiet. As the seconds went by Hermione began to realize that Percy was in hysterics because Fred, her Fred, was dead. When he had become 'her Fred' she couldn't say but as she watched Percy her heart broke into tiny little pieces. Any feelings she had thought she had for Ron evaporated in that moment as she ripped her hand out of Harry's and sprinted the short distance to Fred's side.

When she reached him she pulled Percy's hands off of Fred and moved them to Fred's chest. When Hermione had calmed the onslaught of Percy's grief Hermione was able to focus on her own. Moving to Fred's head she lifted it onto her lap and began stroking his face. As she cried her hand moved beneath Fred's nose and she felt warm air touch her fingertips. For a moment she passed this off as wishful thinking but a moment later she felt the same sensation again.

Hermione began to hope for the impossible and felt for Fred's pulse, her hope faltered when she felt nothing but cold skin, then moments later she felt the faintest of fluttering beneath the pads of her fingers. Fred was alive. Hermione acted on instinct calling for Harry to move Percy away and when Ron realized something important was about to happen he went to Harry's aid.

Summoning every healing spell in her repertoire Hermione went to work on Fred's injured body. After some time and some very complicated spell work she had done enough that he would not die anytime in the next 24 hours from these particular wounds. After a few more moments Hermione had managed to bring Fred back to awareness, "'Mione, what –" before Fred could finish his sentence Hermione had thrown herself at him and kissed his cracked and dirty lips with a passion that was absent when she kissed Ron.


Hermione turned around as someone entered the room she was in. It was George and he looked strangely serious, "hey Hermione." Hermione smiled and turned back around in time to see Mr Weasley dis-apparate with Fred in his arms. George walked to the window as Hermione sighed. "I came to say thanks," George hugged Hermione out of the blue and whispered in her ear, "thank you for saving him. I don't know what I would've done if he'd died."

Hermione took a step back with a smile on her face, "trust me I know how you feel." George laughed, and feeling like things were too serious, cracked a joke, "Now you've kissed Ron and Fred. So is it my turn or Percy's?" Hermione walked to the door laughing, "Percy's had his turn now I'm just waiting on Bill and Charlie." Georges jaw hit the floor and he began stuttering. Hermione was out the door already as he found his voice, so running to the door he cried out to her, "wait…wait, you were joking right? Hermione, right?" Hermione continued laughing and walked down the stairs to the entrance hall.


A/N: So I'm willing to continue this story but I'm going to need some help. It's been years since I started it and I've forgotten or lost any plot I had planned. Any ideas are welcome! And a super special thank you to everyone who reviewed. Your compliments and encouragement are amazing!