Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
AN: This takes place about a month into Hermione's first year. This is Hermione and Fred's first real meeting and how the magnificent trio got their start. Hope you enjoy!
Fred was walking up to the owlery. It was still early. Plenty of time before breakfast. He was walking in a secret passageway that cut the trip time in half. It was about a month into the school year and George and he had promised their little sister, Ginny, that they would owl her regularly. So here he was on his way to the owlery to send her a letter when he stumbled upon something that he was never expecting. At the end of the hallway there was someone sitting down in the shadows. That was somewhat odd because he didn't think anyone besides him and George knew of this passageway. Walking up closer he could make out long, bushy brown hair that could only belong to one person. Hermione Granger. Walking still closer he heard something that stopped him in his tracks. She was crying.
Fred froze in place. Hermione Granger was crying. She was crying by herself. By herself in a secret passageway. What was he supposed to do? She let out another quiet sob and it touched something inside of him. It broke his heart just a little bit, but it was enough to make him move closer to her. She didn't hear him coming and as he got closer he could see her more clearly. She had her knees pulled up to her chest and her head was buried in her arms. Her bushy brown hair seemed to be deflated along with her mood and he found himself wanting to comfort her. She looked so small. He slowly knelt down next to her and he tentatively brought a hand up to put on her shoulder while he spoke softly, "Hey, what's wrong?"
She nearly jumped out of her skin and with her momentum pushed him back so that he fell on his bum. His shocked blue eyes met startled brown ones and they seemed to be stuck in place until she broke the silence.
"W-wh-at a-are y-you d-do-oing he-re?" she struggled to speak as she furiously wiped at her eyes. Fred didn't know what to say. She seemed so flustered and disoriented, which were two things that he never thought he would see on her face. Not that he knew her well, but from what he had seen she always stayed strong and composed.
"I-I was just going up to the owlery." He stated slowly. He felt like he was doing something wrong, which wasn't new for him, but he actually felt bad for once. Maybe he shouldn't have interrupted her. He quickly shook that idea out of his head. He couldn't not do anything. She had been crying
"W-what do y-you want?" she asked harshly. Her tone took him aback for a second. Before he could even think about responding she was talking again, "C-come to make f-fun of me too? S-see me c-crying h-here and going to tell everyone, huh? Or maybe you'll just set up another prank? Maybe you could take a picture and blow it up so everyone could see? That way everyone can join in on the game that is making fun of Hermione Granger. Don't worry about my feelings though. No one ever does anyway."
He was stunned speechless. Her voice had gotten stronger as her rant got longer. She was also standing over him now as he couldn't find himself able to move. Is that really what she thought of him?
"I wouldn't do that." He stated clearly and sought out her eyes as if to convey his seriousness. She snorted.
"Yeah, right. Just like you wouldn't give a first year muggleborn girl wrong directions to a class she was looking for, even though she already felt so lost coming into a completely new world? Just like you wouldn't put a bucket of cold water over the first year girl's dorm door just to hear them scream? Not caring if one of them was trying to get away before her dorm mates woke up because they had been talking about her behind her back, but she had heard anyway? I had to go back to change into new robes, so got to see the looks and hear the mean whisperings of my dorm mates. Thanks for that."
He was again rendered speechless during her tirade. He had done all those things. He had given her wrong directions thinking it would be funny. Then he and George had put the buckets of water for both the boys and girls first year dorms. They were first years and it was their job to prank them. He never thought that his pranks could be thought of as anything but meaningless fun. He just wanted to make people laugh.
"I-I didn't know." He shook his head trying to think of something. Anything that would make this right. The only thing he could think of was, "I'm sorry."
She hovered above him and as he looked into her eyes it was like she was peering into his soul. Judging to see if he was telling the truth. If he was worthy of her forgiveness and he couldn't help the feeling of coming up short.
"I'm sure you are." She shook her head breaking eye contact. The way she said it didn't sound like she was forgiving him, it was more like she said it in grim defeat. "Then tomorrow when you're back with your numerous friends you'll go back to your usual self. You couldn't possibly start treating me any different because then everyone else would see it. Nope it doesn't matter that you're sorry. Those are just words."
"No I mean them, I swear." He responded fiercely, but he could see it didn't matter. He wondered how many times she had heard the same words that he was saying now. How many times she had heard someone promise to be nicer to only go behind her back? Only to hurt her worse than they originally had. She sighed and that brought his attention back to her face.
"But don't worry. I wasn't crying up here because of you. Oh no. That would mean that you were special. That you were different from all the other people in this school that pick on me. You're not. You're just like everyone else. Your conscience can be clear because I wasn't crying up here because of you." She stopped a moment before she continued, "Do what you want. I don't care." She shrugged slightly as if saying that last part to herself. She sighed and started walking down the corridor he had come from. If he still wasn't paying attention so closely he might have missed what she quietly muttered to herself, "So much for this world being better."
At the moment neither of them noticed a little white piece of paper that lay forgotten on the floor where she had been sitting. It held the reason to why she had been crying in the first place.
Fred walked slowly to the great hall after his confrontation with Hermione. He had a lot of thoughts running through his mind. For the first time in his life he was second guessing himself and his way of life. He didn't really notice anything around him until he found himself sitting down next to his twin. George immediately noticed something was wrong with his twin by the slumped shoulders, the intense look of concentration on his face, and he just wasn't alive like he usually was.
"Hey Freddie, you okay there?" George asked him concerned.
"Georgie, do you ever think our pranks are mean?" Fred asked him looking up at him for the first time. George was taken aback and immediately confused. Where was this coming from?
"No, I don't." George answered slowly. He honestly never thought about it. The only time their pranks could be thought of as mean was if they were getting back at someone who had hurt someone they cared about. Then they would really go for something utterly embarrassing, but those were for only those that deserved it. Otherwise their pranks were harmless. Just jokes. By the look on his twins face he could tell that Fred didn't really believe him. That was a first.
"What's wrong, Fred? What brought this on?" George asked concern evident in his voice.
"It's nothing." Fred said quickly. Another first for George. His twin was keeping something from him. George got a dark look on his face.
"It's not nothing." Fred looked at him sharply at his tone. "It has to be something important if you're keeping it from me." Some hurt came out in his voice even though he hadn't meant it to.
Fred sighed, "Something happened." Fred deflated even more at his confession. "I don't want to talk about it here though. We'll talk about it later." Fred said as if just realizing that they were surrounded by other people and some could hear their conversation, like their other friend Lee Jordan who was listening closely.
"No problem, Freddie. But don't do that again. You scared me for a second." George whispered as he patted his shoulder in a comforting gesture. Fred nodded and went back to his breakfast abnormally quiet.
Fred's day went by like breakfast. He was more quiet and withdrawn and it worried his twin who had never seen him like this before in his life. Maybe once when he got sick when they were little, but still he was up and making trouble again in no time. They hadn't had time to talk yet since they had classes all day. Now they were walking on their way to the great hall for dinner. They were surrounded by friends on all sides and they were all laughing at some joke George had said. They all sat down while George continued his story. He was trying to take the spot light off of Fred's odd behavior. They were starting to eat when he said something that finally got Fred to laugh and everybody else for that matter.
Fred could feel eyes on him. He looked to the right and saw those chocolate orbs that had been haunting him all day. He saw everything in those eyes. It was like they were telling him that she had been right. Was he really any different? He hadn't done anything to change. Who knows, maybe in a few days he would forget about their whole confrontation completely. But then the longer he looked in those eyes the more he felt ashamed. She was right. Apologizing was just words. They mean nothing unless you show that you mean them. He watched as she went back to her plate. He saw that she was sitting by herself. He even saw how her dorm mates were whispering and pointing at her. He finally had enough. He had to do something. He was Fred Weasley. He stood up all of a sudden and it surprised George.
"What are you doing, Fred?" George asked with that worried tone again. George could see that look of determination in his twins eyes.
"I've gotta do something, Georgie." Fred said with pleading eyes. "Trust me."
"Of course." George nodded without a second thought. Fred gave him a lopsided grin and he finally saw that mischievous glint in his eye again. He heaved a sigh of relief. Fred was going to be just fine.
Fred winked at his twin as he started walking over towards her. He steeled himself. He was a Gryffindor. Plus he was Fred Weasley. He could do anything and get away with it. He strode over and anyone who saw him didn't think anything of it. He walked around and plunked himself down in the seat right next to Hermione. She jumped when she felt someone sitting next to her. She whirled around to see who had actually decided to join her.
"Hello there, Hermione. How was your day today?" Fred asked in a friendly manner as he took another plate and served himself again. The way Fred sat down and started talking to her made it sound like they were the best of friends. Like they did this every day. Fred finally looked at her when she didn't answer. She was sitting there with her mouth hanging open in shock. He also noticed that she wasn't the only one in shock. Most of the table was looking at him with disbelief and confusion written on their faces.
Fred leaned over and whispered, "you might want to close your mouth. And isn't it impolite to stare?" Hermione quickly regained her composure. "Not that I would know, right?" he gave her a wink trying to diffuse any of the tension. It didn't work.
"What are you doing?" she asked dumbfounded.
"Why proving you wrong of course." He gave her a small smile. He watched as she thought it through and then she gave him a puzzled look. She shrugged and decided to look back at her plate.
"You know, I'm not usually wrong." She said as she started moving the food across her plate, but not eating it.
"I see you're a modest one." He gave her a smirk and she got a light blush on her cheeks from his comment. He wasn't sure if it was from embarrassment or because she was getting mad. He decided to keep talking so she couldn't think on it, "But I always like a challenge."
She stared at him and again he found himself being measured by that stare. He held his breath and then as if seeing something she spoke softly, "You know everyone is looking at you wondering what you are doing sitting next to me."
He gave her a small smile in relief. He felt like he had finally passed one of her tests. He puffed up his chest and waved her off, "It's okay. I'm used to the stares. They're only looking because they just can't get enough of my classic good looks." She actually snorted at his comment.
"Yeah that's it and might I add you're a modest one too." He could see she was trying to suppress a smile and it warmed him a little bit to know that he had almost made her smile. He was getting somewhere. That was until someone interrupted them.
"Oy Fred! What are you doing sitting with her?" Fred turned a narrowed gaze to the person who spoke. It was his little brother. Ron.
"I didn't realize that was any of your business and you'd do best to mind it." Ron's cheeks flushed.
"He probably just needs help with some homework or something." Ron muttered but Fred heard him.
"Ron, why don't you try using your brain. I'm a third year and I know Hermione's brilliant but I don't think she's up to third year level yet." Ron's face flushed even more. He saw out of the corner of his eye that Hermione was looking down at her plate, but a corner of her mouth was lifted up. It made him smirk a little bit. That's when his twin jumped in.
"Yeah Ronnikins, and I bet she can talk about something other than quidditch." George said and there were a few chuckles. Everyone who had talked to Ron knew that's all he really talked about.
"Hey Ron doesn't just talk about quidditch." Harry Potter defended him. Everyone raised their eyebrows and now it was Harry's turn to flush, but it had the opposite effect on Ron. He sat up a little straighter
"You're right. He can also talk about chess." Fred supplied making everyone laugh and Ron to deflate again with an even redder face.
"And food." George ended and it just made more people laugh. Everybody thought that this was normal and it took away attention from the reason this all started. That Fred was sitting next to Hermione. Soon after the laughing died down everyone went back to eating. If anyone had a problem with Fred sitting next to Hermione no one said anything. They didn't want to be on the end of the twins wrath.
And that's how it started.