A blonde haired figure stood in the doorway expectantly waiting for any kind of reaction.

"How the bloody hell did you get in here." Fred stormed.

"Anywhere she is, I can go. Think of itas merely as a package deal if you like. I'm not here to cause any trouble, I just want to make sure that I can easily get a hold of Hermione on a short notice due to the circumstances."

"You knew that he could waltz straight in here!" Fred said irritably, clearly unimpressed with the idea that ferret could strut in whenever he pleased, without prior warning.

"Quit your whining Weasley." He warned not liking the tone that the lanky Weasley had taken with her. "She wasn't expecting me until tomorrow but something came up." Hermione's head automatically turned and stared at Draco, forgetting about Fred.

"We need to talk tonight then I assume?" She said sadden at the thought of what could go wrong now.

"I'm afraid so." He replied solemnly. "I assume that the George has already returned to England." He ignored any signs of Fred's presence as redhead glowered at him.

"He left a couple of hours ago." Hermione walked towards Draco leaving Fred's side, could this week get any worse he thought to himself.

"Granger the quicker we leave the sooner you can get back, it's going to be a long night." He said putting on an affirmative tone that did offer her a little comfort even if she was the only one that could pick up on it.

"Fred?" She called out his name bringing out him out of his trance so that his attention was fully on her. "I'll see you back at the flat, don't wait up I probably won't be back until some ungodly hour in the morning." She walked towards him a gave him a quick tight hug causing Fred to reflectively tense up, he slowly managed to hug her just before she pulled away and took Malfoy's hand vanishing from his sight.

"Oi Fred." He heard George call out of nowhere.

"What?" He sulkily replied still trying to figure what Hermione actually meant to him, before he broke Malfoy into little tiny pieces.

"Hermione isn't there is she?" His body finally came into focus.

"Not any more… She literally just got whisked away with Malfoy.

"That would be why you're sulking then. Besides as you've probably been told she's in for a long night. Malfoy won't tell me what he's found out, but I don't think she's going to take it well. Please for everyone's sake look after her tonight, otherwise I'm going to come back tonight with no say in the matter."

"Hey, I don't need you tell me when I need to take care of someone. I would have done it anyway."

"Sorry I know that. It's just that with this vow business I much more over protective then before, it feel compulsive." George wallowed guilty.

"It's okay, I'm just not me right now." Fred looked away, never having experienced being this miserable in his life outside the war since he went to give away his heart.

"I know, it will get better Freddie." George promised with a wink.

"You think so Georgie?" He asked his voice filled with hope, desperately wanting George to be right.

"I know so." George said reassuringly before he faded away.

-x-o-0-o-x

Fred had fallen asleep sprawled out uncomfortably on the sofa waiting up for Hermione to return. He had tried everything to stay awake from reading about pranks as well as trying to come up with some new inventions for the shop until it was four in the morning all his attempts had been successful, but the long week was catching up with him and he dosed off reading Quaint Charms: sneaking up on fiends.

He dreamt that he was leaping from cloud to cloud with Hermione in his arms, as they floated back and forth over the fluffy cotton like floor. They stopped and a slow rhythm played,he waltzed with her across the floor, the she'd smiled and laugh as he lifted her up in a gentlemanly like fashion all whilst his face lit up like Christmas tree. He felt as though he had twirled her around for endless hours leaving him a frozen moment of bliss until she kept glancing away, he carried on the dance twirling her towards him making her laugh once more. She giggled as he pulled her into chest then as he span her out she let go of his hand. Her eyes became wet with tears, each sob that left her seemed as though it was slowly and agonizingly ripping his heart into piece.

"FFRREEEEDDDD!" She screamed out his name loudly, he went to ask her what was wrong but he began to fall from the sky. His body came crashing down to earth.

"WEASLEY! WAKE UP!" Malfoy shouted at him.

Fred's eyes slowly opened revealing an irritated Malfoy standing above him as he lied uncomfortably on the floor, noticing a dull ache in his back and another on his head. He heard muffled sobs from the other side of the room, he jerked his head in the same direction to see Hermione visibly upset once agin . He quickly got up and dashed across the room to check on her, she fell into his arms clutching his jumper with her small hands. He gently moved his arms around her back holding close, as the cries wracked through her body. He lowered his head so that his body was completely shielding hers, cocooning the pair into their own little world.

"What did you do to her Malfoy?" He hissed out the words in hate, as well as comfort Hermione at the same time which was proving to be extraordinarily difficult.

"I told what she needed to know. I would have kept with me until morning, but by doing that I would miss my portkey."

"Trust you to not want to miss your precious portkey, while you caused her all of this."

"It….w…wasn't hi…his fau…fault Ffred." Hermione sobbed into his chest, Fred could feel her small frame shaking against his chest.

"I want to stay with her, but she insisted that I go, because otherwise the circumstances could become even more fatal than they are now, and she's right. I'm only leaving her with you for her own good in the long run, so don't try and second guess me or my motives until you know the whole story. She's one of the actually two people in my life I care about so don't even think about lecturing me." He all but growled.

"Draco…?" Hermione weakly questioned. His facial features soften dramatically. "Can I?…Can I tell him?"

"Granger…that's not a good ide… I know it hurts but…I wish I could be …" Malfoy kept trying to think of the best solution, on the one hand if she had stayed with him she could of talked about everything till she could no longer dwell on the subject, but as that was not possible right now it didn't have any options. "Only what you learnt tonight, anymore could only result in more fatalities."

"I understand."

"I'll be in contact soon, probably in three days considering what we discussed first. That he doesn't need to know yet- wait until the time is right please." He stated rather than questioned, but this was the only person he had ever had to beg to before, and he could only go so far for her own good.

"I'm sorry Hermione." Malfoy whispered before apparating out of sight.

x-o-0-o-x

Fred held Hermione firmly in his arms as she finally drifted off to sleep just before the bright light of summer sun crept through the windows. He gently picked her up, knowing that she was too exhausted to wake as he transferred her into her bed. Fred wrapped her up in blankets and stayed with her not knowing how much time he had spent almost in a trance just staring her peaceful face. He knew she probably wouldn't appreciate him staring as she slept but he wanted to make sure she had a peaceful slumber before the nightmares could start again. . It wasn't until he heard a rather loud grouchy grumble from his stomach that he actually thought about moving from her bedside. Fred slowly stood up before leaning back down to Hermione as he placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, he walked to the doorway before turning back to throw her another practically besotted gaze before he left her to rest.

Needing a distraction from the girl… woman… He mentally corrected himself, sleeping less than two walls away he began to rack his brains for any ideas for a decent breakfast before his mind stopped at banana pancakes and chocolate sauce.

He decided that the muggle method of cooking would distract him more so he wouldn't be constantly running between the kitchen and her room. He pulled his wand out of the cuff of his old tatty jumper with G on it from Hogwarts, just to confuse Snape in their second year. He switched a rather ancient looking muggle radio ( a Christmas present from his dad) placing a silencing charm over the kitchen so that the music wouldn't wake her. After a few minutes of flicking through channels he settled on a big band station. He started to get the out the ingredients from various cupboards, dancing to the music as he laid them out on the counter. In a very small amount of time, the smell of pancakes wafted throughout the apartment as he flipped the pancakes high into the air as he spun around to catch them. Hermione had quietly walked in the room and smiled at his private dancing, knowing that Fred had yet to realise her presence. Fred picked up his wand and dramatically flicked his wand in time to the music, flicking it at the bananas, smiling at the sight as he watched them plodding along to the beat reaching the counter.

Hermione couldn't stop herself from smilingat the scene of Fred dancing as he made breakfast. He was her only was the one of the few that could make her smile no matter what ever happened to her. She took a seat at the breakfast bar, purposely scraping her chair a little on the floor to make him aware of her presence. Fred turned around suddenly his eyes wide not expecting her to be up this early. Any other time he would have smiled and joked about the whole situation, he would have dragged her up making her dance with him as he would smile and laugh as she'd twirl awkwardly around showing that stunning smile of hers.

"Hey." Fred softly spoke. "I hope you like banana pancakes."

Hermione was rather surprised at his sudden change in behaviour, she really wasn't expecting a bright, happy Fred. Not the one that was currently there, treating her like a fragile porcelain doll that could break at any second. She felt herself get angry, but a small voice in the back of her head said to her that he was only trying to show that he cared. She was about to tell that she wasn't quite ready to talk about it.

"Fred, that's sounds great." Her voice said, shocking herself that she didn't abruptly tell him what she planned.

"Fantastic!" He said giving her a massive grin, then dumping a huge pile of pancakes onto her plate. "How about some homemade chocolate sauce with those?"