Disclaimer: The amazing J. K. Rowling owns this world.

A/N: Happy Christmas, everyone! Thanks for reading my first-ever fanfic! Please R&R!


Chapter 9

Hermione yanked Fred out through the portrait hole by the front of his robes and slammed him against the wall. He found himself surprised by how strong she was.

"How could you do such a thing?" she hissed angrily at him.

Fred decided the best way out was to play innocent. "What do you mean?" he replied, trying his best to appear blameless. It wasn't going to work.

"You and your stupid little 'Wizard Wheezes'! You could have really hurt Ron! I bet you hadn't even tested them yet!" Hermione could tell by the quick flash of guilt in his eyes that she had hit the nail right on the head. "You hadn't tested them yet? How stupid could you get? Not to even mention how much you just humiliated your own brother. You know how much I hate seeing you test out your products on innocent people, and you just shove it right in my face, and to your own brother and my best friend no less! Well, Fred Weasley, if you have that little respect for me, then you can consider our music lessons over!"

Fred hadn't been expecting that. His smile vanished instantly at those words.

"No, please, Hermione, don't take that away from me!" he begged.

"It's too late. You clearly don't respect me, and I'm not going to waste my time on you any more. I'm sure I was right from the beginning, this has probably been just some big gag to you, isn't it?" she retorted, and started stomping back in the direction of the portrait hole.

Don't let her leave! his brain screamed at him. If she's this angry, it'll be impossible to get her alone again, and you' l never get her to agree to restart the music lessons! He ran after her and grabbed her hand.

She turned around, eyes narrowed into angry slits. "Let go of me, Fred," she warned.

Fred didn't let go, and since she turned to face him, he grabbed her other hand, so she couldn't hex him. "Please hear me out," he pleaded, looking her in the eyes.

"What exactly is there to hear? You don't have any respect for me. You just showed me that. That's the whole of it."

"No, I do respect you, I swear it. I just wasn't thinking."

Hermione snorted contemptuously. "Well, that's evident. You never think."

His heart dropped further, her last comment really hurt him. But he'd deal with that later, first he had to get her to agree not to quit teaching him.

"I would never purposely openly disrespect you. I hold you in very high regard, that's why I knew I could ask you to teach me in the first place. And I'm…" God, this is hard to say, he thought. I practically never say this, but I'm going to have to. "I'm sorry," he finished, somewhat pitifully.

She paused for several seconds before saying anything. "You, Fred Weasley, are apologizing to me?"

"Yes."

"You've never said 'sorry' to me before."

"No."

"I don't think I've heard you say it to anyone before."

"Probably not."

"Do you mean it?" Hermione raised an eyebrow sceptically.

He tightened his grip on her hands, as if saying he was not going to let her go until they worked this out. "I do, very much so."

She smirked a little. "Will you say it again?" she asked devilishly.

She's smiling, at least. That's a start. "Not if it's just for your own amusement," he answered.

She sighed, losing the impish grin. "I really don't like seeing you test those products."

"I know. I won't 'shove it right in your face' again, I promise. And I do respect you, and I love our music lessons. Please, please, don't take them away from me. From us."

She seemed to be contemplating his request. "All right," she finally agreed. "But if I see you pulling your pranks again, they're over."

"You won't see it again."

"Especially to Ron. He's got it hard enough as it is, okay? Being in everyone's shadow all the time."

"I promise," but he was actually feeling irked by how strongly Hermione was willing to go to her brother's defence. "Can I ask you something, though?"

She sighed again. "Fine."

"Do you really think I don't think? That I'm stupid? Like you were saying?" God, I sound like such a whiny little brat. Thank Merlin George isn't here, he'd never let me forget this one.

Hermione looked at Fred. "I didn't mean it entirely. You're not stupid, obviously a lot of very complicated magic goes into creating those products of yours. I know they take both intelligence and aptitude. But I don't think you think ahead. You say you respect me, but you still pulled this stunt. And you show a talent for magic, but I know you could have gotten more OWLs than you did. I think you can do a lot better than you do. I'm sure you have remarkable untapped potential. That's what I meant."

He was dumbstruck. He never knew Hermione thought anything about him at all, let alone that he had 'remarkable untapped potential'. His clouded thoughts were interrupted by Hermione's voice calling his name.

"Fred?"

"Yes?"

"May I have my hands back now?" He was still gripping them tightly.

"Oh! Yes! I'm sorry," he said, letting go of her hands and blushing a deep red.

Her hands free, she cracked her knuckles, and said, "Thank you. You may go now. I trust you won't forget this."

"I won't," Fred answered. He left, feeling like a bit of a tosser for throwing himself at the mercy of a Prefect, but knowing he did what he had to do.