Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any of the other HP characters. Everything belongs to Mrs. Rowling.
A/N: and as a special new year's treat for all my wonderful readers, here is chapter two!
LAST TIME ON ICE BREAKER: Madame Pomfrey poured some more of the vile sleeping potion for Fred, and he downed it and drifted off to sleep with more thoughts: If George wasn't the one who did it, then who did? And how could he think I like Hermione? I was just comforting her…
Chapter 2: The Problem
Fred woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of someone crying softly. He got up and slowly walked over to Hermione's bed. "Hermione?" he said, "What is the matter? Why are you crying?" he felt insecure as he steadily sat down on her bed.
"It is nothing," she said with a sniff. "Nothing of importance anyways." She composed herself and continued on. "Well, nothing of importance to you, or anyone else, just me. Maybe I will tell you one day, but I am not yet ready to reveal it to the world."
What could she mean? He thought. 'Only something of importance to her'? Well, now I have to know!
"You know," he said, "Even though I am only your best friend's older brother, you know you can tell me anything, right?" He placed his hand on her shoulder comfortingly, and she began to speak.
"I know, but telling you, telling anyone, would just make it all too real, and I don't want it to be real." She squeaked as she began sniveling again.
He pulled her into his arms as she started to cry again, and he soothingly rubbed her back. You know, he thought, girls are so much harder to get information out of than guys. Why can't she be like a guy? Hermione continued to cry into his shoulder and then, eventually he felt her breathing regulate, and she was asleep. I'll ask her about all this tomorrow. He thought. And he laid her back down and went back to his bed and fell asleep.
Fred was happy in the world of dreams. He dreamt that he was ice-skating on the Black lake, and Hermione joined him. She looked so good, she had her unruly brunette hair in a French braid and her cheeks were a rosy pink color that suited her very well. They were having so much fun when all of a sudden he heard a loud crack, and he began to sink, and the last thing he saw was the horrified look on Hermione's face as he could feel his legs being soaked with freezing cold water…
Fred woke up screaming when he felt the cold water on his legs. It felt so real, and then he came to realize that the water WAS real. Someone had poured freezing-cold water onto his legs, or something to that effect. And when he tried to get out of bed, he found that his legs wouldn't move. No one had poured water on him; he was just feeling the effects of a potion that Madame Pomfrey had given him while he slept. The potion, he would come to find later, temporarily paralysis the problem place in the body (in Fred's case, his legs) so that they cannot move it while the potion heals it.
This was not his day. It was bad enough that he was confined in this place, now he was forced to stay in the uncomfortable bed.
"Bad dream?" He heard Hermione say.
"Bad morning," he replied.
"Thank you so much for what you did last night," she said smoothly. "I don't think I could have slept last night if it weren't for you, so thanks." She said and gave him a warm smile.
"So are you ever going to tell me what you were crying about?" asked Fred. "I think since we are going to spend a week in here together, that if you don't tell me, ill go crazy wondering what it is, so you might as well tell me Because I will never let it go until you do." Said Fred with a sly grin. He knew perfectly well how to get information out of people.
"Well," she hesitated, she took a long pause as if thinking it all over, whether she should tell him or not. She took a deep breath and said reluctantly, "If you are absolutely certain that you must know then, I guess I can tell you, but you must promise not to tell anyone! Ok?" she said, and Fred knew that this was more serious than he had thought.
"You have my word." He promised.
"Well," she started, "Last night Madame Pomfrey gave me my diagnosis after a bunch of tests. She told me that the mixture of all those potions.." she broke off and struggled to fight back tears. "It turns out that they have caused me to…" she broke out in tears, she was really struggling with this. "I'm sorry," she said between sobs, I don't think I can tell you just yet."
Fred wished he could go over to her bed and comfort her, but he couldn't move. "Okay," he said calmly. "You don't have to tell me just yet, I can tell it is really causing you a lot of grief, so you can tell me some other time."
"No, I want to tell you now, and get it over with," she said, her voice wavering, "I have to face my fears sometime and I might as well do it now." She took a long, steady breath and continued. "The Mixture of the potions has caused me to have…" she could only mouth the last word.
"RAWS KAPLER?" shouted Fred, and he knew that he should not have said it out loud like that. Hermione's Chocolate brown eyes seemed distorted by a waver of tears waiting to spill out her eyes. He did not know what to think. He was very concerned and scared and he just did not know what to do.
Fred did not know much about this disease, but with the little he did know, he knew that it was a deadly disease that spread through the body causing all the vital organs to malfunction.
Just then, Fred could feel the feeling come back in his legs, and he realized that he could move them again. He got off his bed and walked (wobbled more like) over to Hermione's bed. He patted her on the back and whispered, "I am sorry, I am an idiot. Is there a cure?"
Between her crying she said, "No. The only thing they can do is contain it for a little while, and hope to extend my life for a few more years, but they definitely cannot get rid of it entirely."
She continued to cry as Fred pulled her into a tight hug and said, "You know, the few people that get this disease let it take over their lives. I know you are stronger than they are, so you need to fight this thing! Don't let it take over your life! And you know what? I will help you!" he said getting more confidence as he continued, "And you have Harry and Ron and your parents there for you too, I know that!" he pulled out of the hug and looked deep into her chestnut eyes. "With help, you can fight this!"
Fred's speech seemed to give Hermione courage. She wiped the tears off her face and gave Fred a smile and said "Thanks, that means a lot." She stood up off her bed and got a glass of water to rejuvenate herself. "Never really realized how dehydrated crying makes you!" she exclaimed before she downed the whole glass of water and filled up her glass again.
"Yah, you seemed to have rid your body of all things moist with all the tears you shed!" Fred said. Apparently this was a bad thing to say, because his head was soon drenched with water that Hermione had dumped over his head.
"I did not cry that much!" she exclaimed.
"Oh, so it is WAR you want!" Fred yelled ignoring her last comment. He filled up his own glass of water and threw it at her. Before he knew it, Hermione, with a twinkle in those honey brown eyes of hers had grabbed her wand and had water spurting from the end of it, drenching Fred from head to toe. Now, how could I have forgotten that I could do magic? Thought Fred, as he dove for cover behind his bed and grabbed his wand.
"You can't hide from me Weasley!" shouted Hermione, her voice threatening. She slowly, very quietly snuck beside Fred's bed and jumped out in front of him. But he was ready for her. He shot water out of his wand and she ended up soaked from head to foot. "Ooooo!" She snarled, "I am going to get you for this one!" she pointed her wand at Fred and before she could say a spell, Madame Pomfrey came running in.
"You two!" she shouted! "REALLY! I thought better of you!" she gave them each indignant looks. "Now I want you each to clean up this mess! Right this instant!" she said, her voice getting softer with each word. She was a cobra about to strike at any second, and the two patients did not want to be bitten, so they followed orders and immediately began cleaning up the water mess they had created.
A couple of dry spells and cleaning spells later, the hospital wing was good as new, and was back to normal. Pomfrey looked around with a critical eye to make sure that they had gotten everything perfect, and finally, grudgingly, she approved that it was satisfactory. She gave a loud "harrumph" and stalked back into her office.
As soon as she was safely back in her office, Hermione and Fred burst out in fits of laughter. "Did you see that look she had on her face?" Fred howled while he was holding his sides laughing so hard. "I thought she was going to explode!"
All of a sudden Hermione stopped laughing. What has come over me? I must've just broken at least two rules with that little stunt! I can't believe I disrespected Madame Pomfrey like that! She thought as all of a sudden she had the sudden urge to sock Fred in the gut for making her do that. And since she had done one bad thing today, she decided that one more wouldn't hurt, so she went up to Fred and punched him hard in the gut.
"Bloody He—Helpings Granger! What did you do that for?" Fred wheezed as he fell to the floor clutching his stomach.
"How DARE you make me do things that I wouldn't normally do! You big old' tease!" she said as she smiled triumphantly at Fred who was on the floor.
"So you hurt me because I am a tease?" Fred asked indignantly, "Are you feeling ok Hermione? Because this is definitely not like you! What happened to the sweet Hermione that I know?" Fred asked, a dumbfounded look on his face as he watched this girl smile smugly at him like she had just won a bet at a quidditch game.
"Well she took a Temporary break I guess," she said with a smirk. Fred lifted an eyebrow at her. "And don't you stick your eyebrow up at me! I cant do that, and so I get really frustrated when other people can." Hermione said.
"Well, in that case," Fred said and stuck his eyebrow at her again. She hit him playfully in the arm and extended her hand out to him, and helped him up off the floor.
Just then, Madame Pomfrey came out of her office with the bottle of sleeping potion. Fred Winced at the sight of it being poured into his glass. He downed it in one quick gulp and watched her do the same for Hermione as he fell asleep.
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A/N: And here is chapter two! I hope all of you like it! I would like to thank all of my reviewers! Their comments gave me warm fuzzies! I'd like to give a shout out to my wonderful beta readers! Tracy and Chey! Yall are awesome! Please review! I love reading what you guys think about my story so far! –Thanks- kikikiwi