Chapter 2:

This fanfic includes excerpts from the original texts: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. These excerpts will be inserted in a bold font to differentate. I do recognize that all characters and passages are the property of JK Rowling and I am not using them for profit in any way, but for creative purposes only.

Hermione was seeing everyone out of the Room of Requirement after a rather long DA meeting. She was exhausted. Term exams were coming up in only eight weeks and she'd been studying rigorously, sacrificing precious sleep to review notes and quiz herself. She ushered a first year out after checking the halls. Ron had already left, leading a group of younger students safely to the Gryffindor common room. Harry was hastily gathering his things before running off after Cho Chang, who Hermione had noticed give him a few secret looks. Hermione guessed they had a prearranged meeting place.

Finally Hermione was the last one left in the large, empty room. She checked corners and easy to miss spaces for lost or left behind items to return to the other DA members later. Finding only some candy wrappers and a button, Hermione returned to her bag. She pulled her hoody on and slipped her books into her satchel.

She turned to the old cracked and stained mirror where they had tacked photos of family members and friends who had died at the hands of Voldemort. She brushed her hair out of her face and examined the bags under her eyes. She sighed.

A hand slipped into hers and she saw in the mirror standing beside her, her favorite ginger. He wore the all-too-familiar grin on his freckled face and his golden brown eyes seemed to melt all the tension from her body. She turned to look up at him, smiling softly. It turned quickly into a look of concern as a frown flickered across her face when she noticed an almost perfectly concealed cut on his lower lip.

"What have you done to yourself?" she whispered, exhaustion creeping into her. She was beginning to give in to the darkness of the times that had begun at Hogwarts—the oppression under Umbridge's rule and the ill omens that the DA meetings increasingly implied…that war was inevitable. Fred's jostle and his attempt to hide it from Hermione only added to the strain.

Fred's brow furrowed as he kissed her forehead and pulled her close to him. "It was only a skiff with one of Umbridge's watchdogs," he assured her. He pulled her away to look smile at her and add, "I won."

Hermione tried to smile, but her lips wobbled and she began to cry.

"Hey now, love!" he cooed, drawing her in. He didn't ask her why she cried, he only held her until her sobs subsided.

When she was finished, she sniffled and laid her head against his chest, listening to the assuring thump of his heart. "Beats for you," he mumbled into her ear. She hugged him tight. "I have a proposition for you," he said.

Reluctantly, Hermione let go of him. He began his pitch. "George and I have saved up a bit. Placing bets and selling the snack boxes, and our earnings have come up to a substantial amount." Hermione's eyes narrowed trying to understand where this might be going. "Now, you know George and I have no real need to stay at Hogwarts. We excel at what we're good at and we leave the rest—and it's of no consequence to us. We don't mind failing exams." He smiled. "And we always knew that we wouldn't stick it out all the way through—"

"What are you talking about Fred?" Hermione didn't like where this was headed. He hurriedly placed his hands on her shoulders to soothe her.

" 'Mione, you knew it too! As much as you love your studies, you've always known George and I to have no academic ambitions. We've always been more business minded than anything else."

"And?" Hermione was confused.

"And so we bought a place…" His sentences began to drag and he hesitated more, waiting for her reaction at every stop. "In Diagon Alley. We've already developed a commercial interest here and we've finally worked out the kinks in a lot of our products." Hermione raised an eyebrow, waiting. "And we…we won't be finishing this year out, love."

The room was silent. No wind against the window, no mice in the walls, no snores of portraits wafting in from outside the heavy door. All the better to hear her pounding heart.

"You're leaving Hogwarts?" she said in a surprisingly calm voice, which Fred knew to be only the quiet before the storm. And then in a smaller voice, "You're leaving me?"

Loud protests erupted from Fred. Hermione argued back. The two were a swirl of flailing gestures and open arms trying to reconcile. How could Fred leave her? Right on the brink of what she was sure was a war? With all the responsibilities of running the DA and school and worrying about everything else. And, more personally, how could he separate himself from her? Right on the brink of war…a separation could be for good and they'd never see each other again. But Hermione didn't say this to him.

"What about us, Fred?" She threw her hands up. "Are you throwing us away as well as school?" She would have to stop throwing his education into the argument. It meant nothing to him. "We've been together so long and now it's done? I'm to be left alone here? Harry has a one track mind, bent on Voldemort and Ron, you may not know, is a rather poor excuse for company nowadays since my rejecting his affections." Fred kept trying to throw a word in every now and then to no avail. Hermione was crying tears of rage as she shouted. "No one could replace you, Fred, I can't believe you'd ask me to forget you and go one here without—"

"HANG ON!" Fred bellowed. And although he hadn't intended to, he shouted the next few words as well, "Haven't I offered you a proposition?"

Hermione's eyes were wide and she seemed to shrink at the strength and volume in his voice. There were paths of tears cutting down her cheeks and her eyes were swimming. The sight of her made him want to rush at her and hold her, but he didn't. He'd planned this and although none of it had gone his way, the situation may yet be salvaged.

"I never once even suggested we end it. Not once. And I can't believe you'd think it of me. I'm just as afraid of everything as you are, Hermione." His voice was softening. "There's no point in me continuing at Hogwarts, but I would never leave you."

He suddenly looked very nervous as he checked all his pockets and then flicked his wand and muttered the summoning charm under his breath. She couldn't hear what he'd said, but she heard it coming. He caught a small box in his large hands.

He struggled to open it and then thrust it out, blurting, "Come with me. Marry me, Hermione." Remembering, he quickly got down on one knee. Her silence was pure torment. His mouth opened and out came a sudden torrent of pleads and assurances. "We bought a place with an apartment up top, it's small, but there's plenty room. And we're young, but there's no time to wait—you mentioned the war yourself. And if you're worried about money, you shouldn't be, everything's so promising and…"

He continued not noticing that she had fallen to her knees in front of him. She scooted close to him and taking his face in her hands she kissed him mid-plead. The silence now was warm and tender as they kissed and hugged.

Back in the tent, Hermione's lids lifted slowly, but she was wide awake. Someone had just put a blanket over her where she sat at the table. She had fallen asleep reading and dreamed her memories. She heard Ron's bed creak as he sunk back into it. She squeezed her eyes tight trying to shut out the guilt she felt at letting Ron continue to bestow his affections on her. There was nothing she could do really, he knew everything. Everyone did.

Waiting for Ron to fall asleep, Hermione tried to hold onto her dream. She could still feel Fred's kisses on her lips…in her hair, on her forehead, on her cheeks. She could still feel his arms around her, warm and strong. She was so safe in his arms. But out here…in the woods. She felt so alone. She always felt uneasy and targeted. She didn't know if it was the eyes of the snatchers she always imagined on her back or if it was the presence of the locket that perturbed her.

That night in the Room of Requirement had been blissful. She accepted his proposal and they had sunk into a wide, fluffy loveseat in front of a window and fell asleep curled up in each other's arms. After that night of course, they had continued to argue. Hermione was torn. At the time all she could see was the present—not what mattered. Her education still meant the world to her. She couldn't leave Hogwarts. She begged him to stay with her but he reminded her that regardless he would still have to leave before her.

He continued to plead her own points to her—kept bringing up the oncoming war and how little education would matter then, but she wouldn't hear it. In the end, she asked him to just wait for her. They would correspond and see each other during the holidays while she finished up at Hogwarts and then they would be married. As soon as she got out.

Ron was asleep now. She could hear him snoring. She got up and crept to the opening of the tent. Hugging the blanket around her, she stepped outside into the chill. She sat down and the twigs and leaves crunched beneath her. She pulled out a chain from around her neck. On it was a small gold ring. There was an opal set in the middle and that was all. It was plain and simple, but it was beautiful. It was her engagement ring. It had been his grandmother's. Molly had given it to him with her and Arthur's blessing.

She kissed the opal and wept. How little it all mattered now. She herself hadn't even finished Hogwarts. She had left just as suddenly as Fred had. How much better it would have been had she gone with him. They'd be married now…her family would have gotten the chance to know him, they'd be together, maybe he even would have come on this quest with her. Maybe he would have convinced her to stay.

As it was, no one even knew of their engagement. Hermione had tried to give the ring back but Fred had said he could think of no reason he'd ever need it back. It was hers and so was he. But with no one knowing, people—namely Ron—had started to believe they had moved on. Ron considered himself back in the game and he was slowly trying to win Hermione's affections, as determined as ever.

He just couldn't understand that he was the wrong Weasley.