Chapter 4

The next week or so passed the same as that first day. Hermione didn't come out of her room for meals, so I always brought them up for her. Harry and I spent time with her when she wasn't visiting her mother, but mostly she was locked up in her room. Things were pretty normal for the rest of the family except the younger ones. Ron still moped around because Hermione didn't want to see him and Ginny kept giving Harry the same answer every time he asked her to go talk to Hermione.

"No" She would say, "Hermione needs more than a couple days to cope with this. I'll know when it's time to go talk to her." So she spent her time with Harry or distracting herself with quidditch.

"Guys, your Hogwarts letters are all here along with lunch so come back down." Mum yelled to us from the bottom of our homemade quidditch pitch. I flew back down to the ground along with George and walked back to the house. George and I had tried to leave Hogwarts last year after that escapade with Umbridge but mum insisted on us finishing our last year saying we could wait another year for our joke shop. I grabbed two sandwiches, put them on a plate and grabbed a glass of pumpkin juice. I then grabbed my letter as well as Hermione's and went upstairs to her room. When I got there she was staring out the window towards the quidditch pitch.

"Here Mione, I brought you some lunch and your Hogwarts letter." I put the food and the letter at the end of her bed and went to leave the room.

"Hey, Fred? Stay please?" She asked. She asked me to stay, I thought happily.

"Sure Mione." I sat next to her on the bed and started opening my Hogwarts letter. Same old, same old, books, robes, permission slips. I looked over at Hermione and saw that she was eating one of the sandwiches.

"So what's up?" I asked. She wasn't usually this quiet around me. There was a pause in conversation. The silence didn't bother me. I just waited while she gathered her thoughts.

"I'm sad. I want to go out…be happy. I can be happy and still miss him…can't I?" She looked at me as she asked this.

"Mione, of course you can. And everyone downstairs, they want to help make you happy. They miss you, you know." She sighed as I said this. She went to grab the rest of her sandwich and then passed the second one to me. I raised my eyebrow at it but she gave it to me any way. We sat there and talked about random things. "You and George want to make that joke shop right?" She said as she finished the remains of her food.

"Yeah, people could use a laugh during these times and who better to do it then me and George?" I said. She laughed at this.

"Promise I'll be the first one to see it?" She said, with a smile on her face. I thought about this for a second. What I wanted to say was Hell yeah!

But instead I said, "No problem."

"That joke shop is going to be amazing. I can just see it now, all colorful and bright… and happy. I can't wait." She said. "The inventions you and your brother have already made are brilliant. It must take a lot of work to make all those things."

"Yeah it does." Wow, Hermione Granger, complimenting me, I thought. "When we go shopping for our school books I'll show you the place George and I want to put the store." It was great that she wanted to get out of this room.

"Ok. Oh…Can you ask Ginny to come up here?" Ok maybe she wasn't ready to really leave the room. Ginny had been sleeping in Percy's old room to give Hermione some space.

"Sure." I grabbed the dishes and walked back downstairs. I saw Harry, Ginny and Ron sitting in the living room. I walked up to Ginny and whispered in her ear.

"Mione wants you." She got up and looked at me with a smile on her face. She leaned over to Harry and said

"And now is the perfect time." She got up and walked up the stairs as I took her place next to Harry, but not as close.

~HG HG HG~

~Hermione's POV~

"Ok everyone get together I'm going to be putting you into groups. Nobody can be left alone got it?" Mrs. Weasley said as we all walked into the living room. "Ok, Me, Harry, Ginny and, Arthur, and then George, Fred, Hermione, Tonks and Ron." Tonks had joined us today for extra protection.

I looked over towards Fred who smiled at me and came to my side. I looked up at Ron to see his fists clench when Fred came closer to us. George of course, had seen it all. Tonks had already been standing by me.

"Where shall we head off to first, ladies?" Fred asked. I saw Ron roll his eyes at the question and grabbed my hand to start walking, and I nonchalantly detached my hand from his but I knew he could tell I was uncomfortable with his poor display of affection. I sighed internally. This is going to be a long day.

Once we got to Diagon Alley, we all split into groups and went our separate ways. Fred, George, Tonks, Ron and I headed for the book shop. After we had grabbed all our books and paid for them I suggested we go get some ice cream.

"Yes!" The twins said simultaneously, I smiled at them. Ron kind of just mumbled, Tonks was excited about it, her hair flashing bright blue for a moment. As we walked through the huge crowd, I realized I couldn't find Ron.

"Fred, George, Tonks!" I yelled over the noise of the crowd. "We got separated from Ron!"

"I'll go find him!" Tonks yelled.

"Ok. When you do, meet us there." Fred said as he grabbed my hand to lead me through the massive throng of people making their way in and out of the shop. I could George behind us with a smile on his face. Fred's hand was rough but gentle as he held on to me. The three of us went inside and continued to look for Ron amongst the people around us. And that was when I saw him, a good five people in front of us but he didn't fail to notice Fred's hand in mine. He stared at our hands and just as I was about to protest he shoved passed us and out the door, extremely angry.

"Fred-"

"I know." He said as he pulled in the direction Ron went. We pushed ourselves back into the throng of people. As he led us away from all the people I asked.

"Where are we going?"

"Don't worry about it, love" George said with a wink as I scowled at him.

"We are going to show you where we want the joke shop to be." Fred said in my ear. I smiled as we walked; I looked up at Fred and saw his long, red hair. I love that hair. He led me away from all the people to a huge deserted building on the corner of the street.

"Whoa." I said. The building was huge. As we walked inside I could almost picture where everything would be.

"The perfect thing about this place is that it has a flat above it were George and I can live." I frowned at this. For some reason the thought of Fred living some place other then the Burrow bothered me.

"That's great." I said. "Have you already bought it?"

"Yes, so you're the first one to see it. I know you meant when it's all done but I can show you twice," He said with a smile.

"But don't tell mum. She'll freak. This place will be ready to be renovated once we finish school this year." George continued.

Another frown on my face, I could tell the thought of finally having a joke shop made Fred really happy, so I smiled instead, not wanting him to see I was unhappy.

"C'mon, I think it's time we found the others." I said as I let go of Fred's hand and walking past George and out the door.

When we got back to the Burrow, Mrs. Weasley, with a flick of her wand, put all our stuff in our designated rooms. Mrs. Weasley and Tonks went into the kitchen to talk as the rest of us walked into the living room and sat down to hang out. I sat down on the couch in between Fred and George, Fred on my right side and George on my left, Ginny and Harry sat on the loveseat together and Ron sat on the other chair next to them.

"Well hello-"

"-Pretty lady-"

"-How are you-"

"-Today?" Fred finished. I smiled; I love when they do that.

"Guys you have got to stop doing that, you confuse people you know." Ginny chastised from her spot.

"Oh Hermione knows-"

"-Who's who." George said as he leaned back into the sofa at the same time Fred did, both of them nonchalantly putting their arms around me. But I didn't miss the look they gave each other and knew something was about to happen. Uh oh.

"Just watch." They both whispered into my ear. I got goose bumps on the right side of my body from Fred whispering in my ear. I turned my head towards Ron just in time for him to take a bite out of his third cauldron cake. Right after he took a bite his face erupted into a bunch of pimples. As he screamed, his voice cracked several times.

"Look, ickle Ronniekins has hit puberty." George exclaimed from next to me. Everyone burst out laughing. Everyone looked at me with huge smiles on their faces as I giggled along with them. Ron ran out of the room towards the bathroom when a tapping noise was heard from the window. Harry got up and opened the window. An owl swooped in and landed on my knee dropping a letter onto my lap. I opened the letter to see that it was from my mum.

Hermione dear, I'm all well now and leaving the hospital, but I'm not going home. I think you can tell why. I'm just not ready. I will be staying with your Aunt Phoebe in America for a little while. If you need me write there, or call me on my cell. I love you.

Love, Mum.

"What's a 'cell'?" Fred asked, reading over my shoulder with George no doubt. I looked over at Harry and he and I burst out laughing. I was about to explain to Fred what a cell phone was when Mrs. Weasley called out to me.

"Hermione, could you come here and help out in the kitchen?" I groaned internally as I went to the kitchen to help Mrs. Weasley. As I was doing the dishes Ron walked in, pimple free, mumbling about cleaning. I took out a stepping ladder so I could reach up to open the cabinet above the fridge.

"Ron, nothing's going on between Fred and me," I stated, exasperated. Ron completely ignored me. I sighed. "Well could you pass me those clean dishes?" I asked, brushing some of my hair out of my face.

"Nope," Ron drawled as he walked passed me sounding a lot like a certain ferret.

"Excuse me?" I questioned him, not believing he would say no, "Why not?"

"Those dishes don't belong there." He grumbled.

"Ronald, there are other dishes inside here, I'm pretty sure that's where they go. I can't hold all those dishes and climb up here at the same time. Pass them to me."

"They don't belong there. This is my house. I think I know where the bloody dishes go."

"Ron, just pass them to me!" I growled, getting angrier and angrier by the second.

"Fine," He said as he practically shoved them into my arms. I wasn't prepared for the weight of his anger combined with the dishes and with a smash they fell towards the floor and broke.

"Ron! Bloody hell!" I screamed at him. Everyone in the living room got quiet. The only thing I heard was someone say Hermione just cursed? And soon Mrs. Weasley bustled into the kitchen along with the twins, and Harry and Ginny behind them.

"What happened in here? Reparo." Mrs. Weasley said, cleaning up and fixing all the dishes with her wand. I stayed silent as I continued to glare at Ron.

"Ron wasn't being very helpful." I said, "With the dishes." I saw Mrs. Weasley's eyes move from where the dishes now stood to where I was trying to put them.

"Ron, you could have just put them up there. They would have been just fine there." As I continued glaring at Ron he stormed away. As Ron passed by Fred I heard him say, "You should have just let her have it her way."

~HG HG HG~

"Is everything packed?" Mrs. Weasley said a few days later. "We have to leave early if we want to catch the train just before it leaves." She said. I smiled, with this family, going anywhere took awhile.

"Yes." We all said as we walked upstairs to go to sleep. I ran to the shower to get to it before the rest of the Weasley clan. I knew I'd only have 10, maybe 15 minutes, tops before someone knocked. I got undressed and turned on the shower, making sure it was the right temperature. I quickly started washing my hair, when I looked outside and noticed it was raining. Uh oh. I thought. I quickly rinsed out my hair and washed my body. Have to fall asleep, fast. I turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around my body.

"Shite." I muttered, "Clean clothes." I forgot my clothes in my room. I slowly opened the door making sure the coast was clear. I ran out of the bathroom, so close to my room, only to hit something full force. I fell to the ground on my butt. Luckily my towel stayed in place. Merlin, did I just run into a wall?

"No silly, you ran into me, but thanks for the compliment." I heard someone say with a smile in their voice. I said that out loud. I groaned internally. The one person I didn't want to bump into.

"Hi Fred," I said, my cheeks turning pink. He gave me his hand and helped me up. I grabbed my towel making sure it stayed in place. "Um, thank you." I said. As I quickly walked into the room I could hear him laughing. That was so embarrassing. I looked over and saw that Ginny was already asleep. Lucky. I went to my dresser and pulled out my pj shorts and tank top.

As I pulled them on I heard a huge clash of thunder. I ran over to my bed and pulled the covers over myself. Trying to sleep, I shivered a little bit, trying to decide whether it was the storm making me shiver or if I was cold. I chose the latter and decided to change my pants.

As I pulled on my pants I heard another clash of thunder. I squealed and misplaced my foot inside my pants, tripping myself. I picked myself up off the floor and finished putting my pants on. I looked down at my hand. I'm bleeding. Jeez, can't Ginny clean her room ever? I didn't want to be in there anyway, so I walked downstairs to get something for my cut. As I walked through the living room, Fred was sitting there sipping from a cup.

"Hey." He said.