It was after three in the morning when Hermione woke in a cold sweat, shivering and shaking. It had been such an intense nightmare, but she had somehow managed to pull herself awake. Her Malfoy Manor nightmare had blended seamlessly into visions of Harry dead in Hagrid's arms and then both Harry and Hagrid had been swallowed whole by the giant snake, Nagini. The snake had turned to her next and she had seen the great fangs as the snake's mouth had closed over her head. She had woken up just as she had known she was going to die. There was no way she would be able to roll over and go back to sleep. Pushing the covers back, Hermione got out of bed and tiptoed from the room, taking care not to wake Ginny. She took the silencing charm off herself in her now-habitual gesture as she headed down the stairs to make some hot chocolate. It was the only way she had found to settle her frayed nerves at that time of the morning.
She made the hot chocolate and was just stirring a spoon of sugar in when a noise made her jump and spin round, wand raised.
"I'm a friend" a voice whispered hastily. The shadow stepped forward and she saw it was George, no hint of amusement in his wide blue eyes. One large hand closed over hers and lowered the wand. "Having trouble sleeping?"
Hermione's wand clattered to the floor and she put out her free hand to steady herself on the counter behind her. "George, I'm so sorry" she hissed, flushing in embarrassment. "I'm… not quite myself at the moment."
There was a good amount of understanding in the slight quirk of his lips. "We're all a bit on edge" he agreed softly. "Fred's up again; I just came down for some water, but I think hot chocolate is an amazing idea. Why don't you come up and drink yours with us?"
Not being alone sounded ideal and Hermione found herself agreeing. She waited for George to make his and Fred's drinks and followed him up to the twins' bedroom. She stopped a little awkwardly in the doorway, not sure whether Fred would welcome her presence.
He did frown when he saw her and Hermione almost felt like backing away. He had clearly awoken from a nightmare. His face was flushed and sweat had darkened his hair, but he relaxed at a soft word from his twin and managed a slight smile. "Keeping your end of our deal already?" he asked her lightly, beckoning her over.
Hermione shrugged and perched on the foot of his bed. "I don't know that I want to talk about it just yet" she said. "But it'll be nice to have some company until my mind can sort out truth from dreams." She chanced a glance up at him and managed to return his slight smile. She could see that it was a struggle for him as well; the smile had not managed to lift the clouded vulnerability in his eyes.
"Then let's talk of something else" Fred suggested. "What do you want to do, now you're free to do want you want to?"
Hermione frowned. "I'm not sure" she admitted, sending George a quick look as he let out a slight snicker.
He held up his hands in a pacifying gesture. "I'm sorry" he said, with a disarming grin. "But you have to admit it's strange that you don't know something. You've always had the answer."
"True" Hermione conceded gracefully, not able to feel offended when he had been so frank. "I thought about going back to school and finishing my NEWTS, but I don't know that I could face it."
"Sitting in a classroom, or seeing Hogwarts again?" Fred asked her.
"Seeing the school" Hermione said instantly, frowning as she struggled to control a fresh wave of misery. Even the beautiful building itself had been destroyed almost beyond recognition. As a muggle, Hogwarts had become a symbol of magic to her; the place where she had learnt everything about the Wizarding world. To see it destroyed before her eyes had been indescribably horrific. She had not realised how clearly her feelings were showing until she felt a firm hand closing around hers with surprising gentleness. Fred's eyes had been on her, filled with concern, but left hers briefly and focussed on George's. After a moment, he looked back at her, a decision apparently reached between them.
"We've got a suggestion for you" he said, suddenly serious. "We've not told the others yet. We asked McGonagall if we could help to rebuild the school. They're starting in a couple of days so that they can be ready to open for the next school year. Why don't you come with us? You'll be able to work through the difficulties before you make the decision to go back to study. Do you think it might help?"
Hermione turned away from his bright gaze and tried to think. Did she want to face seeing the school at all? She knew she wanted to complete her education, but the nightmares were too real as it was.
"Hermione?"
It must have been the first time Fred had not addressed her as 'Granger' and that alone made her meet his eyes again. She shrugged, uneasily. "I'm not sure" she murmured.
"That's how I feel" Fred said breezily, the taut clench of his jaw the only sign that he wasn't as comfortable as he tried to make out. "I look at it as a facing fear kind of thing. Mad bravery is kind of our metier, us Gryffindors. Just come with us. We'll have a good look around before we agree to anything. We're not going to be the only ones facing demons."
"You make a valid point" Hermione admitted. "It's just I don't want to…"
"…let people down?" Fred cut in, smiling slightly as she nodded.
"That's our worry too" George said. "But we want to try. No-one's going to judge you if you don't feel up to the challenge."
"Why don't you sleep on it?" Fred suggested. "Let us know tomorrow."
"Good idea" Hermione agreed, pleasantly surprised to find they were so able to come up with a logical way of looking at things. Just having sat and talked with them for a little while was enough for her to feel able to face the rest of the night. She set her cup aside and stood up, managing to return their smiles, if a little shakily. "Thanks" she said, barely restraining a yawn. "I'll see you in the morning?"
They nodded and called goodnights as she let herself out of their room and crept back to the one she shared with Ginny.
The rest of the night was passed uneventfully enough and Hermione awoke feeling more cheerful than she had for some time. Ginny had already left the room and so she showered and dressed in peace before heading downstairs. Bill, Fleur, Charlie and Percy had left the evening before and the clock showed that Mr Weasley had already gone out to work and so Hermione knew it would be a quieter day. Mrs Weasley was out in the garden hanging washing out on the line and the only other people in sight were Harry and Ginny, who both said a cheerful good morning.
Hermione accepted the tea Ginny poured her with a smile, glad to see how well Harry looked. Three months with Ginny taking care of him had done wonders for her friend. She knew he was still struggling with the memories, as were they all, but there was a lightness to his smile that Hermione didn't think she had ever seen before. "Any plans for today?" she asked as she buttered some toast.
"We were planning to see Teddy" Harry said, blushing a little at Hermione's warm smile. "I haven't been round since… well, you know."
Since the funeral. Hermione knew exactly what he didn't want to say. That day had been heart-wrenching for all of them. To say goodbye to one friend was so hard, but they lost so many good people. She knew that Harry still bore a huge amount of guilt for those who had died; not quite able to banish Voldemort's scathing words; that he had hidden while his friends died for him. She knew that he took his Godfather role seriously as she knew how much it had meant to him when he had Sirius to turn to for guidance. "That sounds like fun" Hermione said, pushing the sad memories away and trying to focus on how good seeing Teddy would be for Harry. "Is Ron not up yet?" Harry and Ginny exchanged a quick look that made Hermione frown.
"Nah" Harry said, not quite meeting her eyes. "He was late to bed last night; said he was talking and lost track of time. He'll probably be around later. Did you want to come with us?"
The last was spoken as an afterthought, as if he just realised she might not want to be left alone. Hermione had to smile; it seemed that Harry had not quite yet learned to be as sensitive as he perhaps ought to be. Some things never changed. "I'll be glad of a bit of peace and quiet" she told him. "I'm not used to all these people."
Harry grinned. "I know what you mean" he agreed. "Well, we'll leave you to it. Come on Ginny, we'll be late."
"See you later, Hermione" Ginny said, draining the end of her tea and standing up.
Hermione waved and started to eat, wondering why they had both looked so shifty when she had mentioned Ron. Come to think of it, this morning wasn't the first time that Harry had made vague excuses for him. She and Ron had found it difficult to spend time alone together for several weeks after the final battle. The kiss they had shared had, at the time, made them both feel that it was 'meant' to be. It had taken less than a week, and several awkward moments, for them to admit to each other that they were definitely better off as friends. Since then, Ron had an odd habit of not being around very much. At first, Hermione had presumed that he was avoiding her until he felt a bit more comfortable with the idea that they weren't destined to be together after all. But at times when she expected him to be with Harry she later discovered that Harry had spent those hours alone. It was a puzzle, but Hermione was sure Ron would tell her what he was up to when he was ready.
She had just poured a second cup of tea when there was a clatter of footsteps on the stairs and then the twins wandered into the kitchen, yawning and rubbing their faces as if they had been awake for less than a minute.
"Morning" Fred said, noticing her first and gently steering George a bit further along the table before he sat down on top of Hermione. Clearly Fred was better at mornings than his brother. "Where is everyone?"
Hermione shrugged. "Gin and Harry have gone to see Teddy; your mum's around somewhere and Ron's apparently still in bed." She didn't miss the quick look that was exchanged over her head, but despite the rising irritation that she was the only one that didn't know some big secret. Vowing to make Ron admit what was going on in the near future, she did her best to dismiss the problem from her mind.
"Have you made a decision yet?" Fred asked her off-handedly as he opened the kitchen cupboards until he found a box of cereal that seemed to meet with his approval.
"I'd like to go with you" Hermione said, her heart replying for her before her brain had time to intervene. "I don't know that I'll be any help when I get there, but I think I have to face up to it. I don't want to hide from it forever."
"We think it's going to help for us to see it before it gets repaired" George told her, choosing to ignore the quick, surprised look Fred shot him and focused instead on pouring out two cups of tea.
"I think if we don't see it until it's back to normal it won't give us chance to deal with what happened."
Hermione paused, thinking over what George said. She hadn't thought about it in quite that way before; and hadn't expected the twins to be the one to put the thought in their head. Their surprising frankness had been so refreshing that she could not help but wish she had had the opportunity to speak to them before. But she would never have supposed that Fred and George would have had any answers for her troubles. "When are you going to tell the others?"
Fred shrugged. "Tonight, I suppose. It starts tomorrow and we should give them the chance to come with us."
"They're not going to want to" George added. "Well, we're not sure about Harry."
Hermione shook her head. "It'll be too much for him at the moment" she said, with certainty. They had discussed going back to the school and Harry's answer had been a vehement 'no'.
"So what does the day have in store for you, Granger?" George asked.
"Not much" Hermione replied, frowning. "It's strange not to have anything to do, especially after this past year."
The twins exchanged a quick glance again, one that seemed to Hermione to contain a whole silent conversation. "If you're bored, we could always use that massive brain of yours to help us out" Fred said, grinning as her eyebrows rose.
"Some explanation needed please?" Hermione said, attempting to remain patient, especially when faced with identical teasing grins.
Fred took pity on her after a moment. "We're going to the shop today and need a bit of help lifting the wards. Remus helped us out with it, so we need three to reverse the spells simultaneously. Up for it, or shall we leave you to your peaceful day?"
Hermione thought that they were only asking because they felt they should, but studied them both for a moment and realised she was just being paranoid. "I'd be happy to help" she told them, easily able to return their sudden smiles.
"Great" George said, pushing his plate away and standing up. "We've just got to get some stuff organised; see you down here in about half an hour?"
She nodded and the twins sent their plates over to be cleaned as they left the room. Hermione was left to herself for a moment, wondering if agreeing to this was such a good idea.