Sorry it's been so long to update, I've had a lot of stuff going on D= ah well! Here's the next chapter, it's a bit intense :P

"Where is it you little Mudblood?!"

"We didn't take it, I swear! No please!"

The most blood-curdling scream rang through the entire Burrow. Even the Ghoul in the attic became deadly silent as he was awed by a more powerful shriek. Fred sat bolt upright.

"Hermione?!" he yelled as the screams continued, splitting his ear drums. He flew up the stairs, three at a time, glancing briefly at the clock as he ran. One in the morning!

Throwing Ginny's door open he saw her, huddled up under the duvet, shaking uncontrollably with tears pouring down her face.

"Hermione? Are you alright? What happened? What's wrong?"

She looked at him for a while, frowning slightly as she slowly recognised him.

"F-…Fred?" she looked thoroughly confused for a few seconds before putting her head in her hands, letting out a shaky breath.

"I'm…It was a dream…I'm ok…" she whispered.

He looked at her intently. Whatever her dream was, it had genuinely scared her and left her shaken up. He walked over and sat next to her on the bed, wrapping his arms gently around her.

"Ssh, love. It's alright," he rubbed her back soothingly as she curled into him. "Do you want to tell me about it?"

She shook her head slightly, her bottom lip trembling. She looked so much like a scared child that Fred automatically began rocking her slowly to and fro. After a few minutes of silence, Hermione whispered one word. It had evidently been bothering her for a while whether she should say it or not, but Fred had waited patiently.

"Bellatrix…"

He paused the rocking. His arms tightened around her and he looked at her directly in the eye.

"She is dead, Hermione. You're okay now, she's dead!" Hermione simply nodded and leaned back against him. "C'mon. You're tired, you need sleep." He moved to lie her down but she clung tightly to him, again like a little child. A petrified look was set across her face.

"I don't want to go back to sleep! Please! She'll come back!"

Fred's heart contracted as he saw her white knuckles, gripping his arm tightly, and her small, pale face.

"I'll be here, 'Mione. I'll stay and keep you safe, I promise, come on," and he sat back down on the bed before lying down and snuggling up to her. Her tiny body was still trembling slightly.

"Go to sleep, 'Mione, you'll be alright, I'm here."

Feeling reassured, Hermione closed her eyes, sinking into the warmth and safety of Fred's protective body.

The memory of Bellatrix's face danced across her mind, a cruel and knowing smile playing on her lips. Screwing her eyes tighter, Hermione shivered again. Fred was here. He would protect her. He wouldn't let anything happen to her.

Fred stirred. Something had woken him. Again. He must have been asleep for only a few hours, it was still night time. He yawned, stretching out his arms and froze. The bed was empty and he could hear some strange snuffling noises coming from the bottom of the bed on the floor.

"'Mione? Is that you?"

A ragged gasp came and Fred heard her voice. It sounded possessed, almost demonic.

"She won't leave. Get out. Get out. GET OUT!"

"Freakin' hell! Hermione?!"

"Mudbloodmudbloodmudbloodmudb loodmudblood!" she repeated the word again and again in her horrific rasp of a voice.

"What the HELL?! Shit!"

Fred swore as he reached the end of the bed and saw her. She had tears streaming silently down her face like before but there was a vacant look in her wide unseeing eyes. Her hand was clawing at her 'mudblood' scar which was, to Fred's utter horror, oozing out blood. It didn't look like normal blood. It was too thick and a very deep red, it almost looked black! And it was everywhere. The dark red was smeared all over her body as she'd evidently been clawing and rubbing at her arm for a good 10 minutes or so. The thin sheets she was tangled in were also stained. Her hair looked wild but not in the usual cute way.

"Hermione stop! Stop! Damn it! Where's my wand?!"

Her eyes rolled back so that all Fred could see were the whites of her eyes.

"Hermione?! I need to know where my wand is! Where have you put it? Hermione! Shit!"

She collapsed back onto the floor and started convulsing violently, coughing a fine spray of blood.

"Bloody Hell! HERMIONE! Where's my wand?!" She was still convulsing and making awful gargling noises from the back of her throat. He lifted her onto the bed cautiously, before grabbing her wand that lay on the dresser.

"Accio Fred's wand!" He hadn't expected much to happen; the wand wasn't his and therefore wouldn't be very effective seeing as it had chosen Hermione. However, he heard a slight tapping noise from his and George's room, next door. He tore through the doors to his room and followed the tapping to inside his wardrobe. The wand was moving a little and had been tapping the door feebly.

"Clever…" he muttered with a hint of a smile as he grabbed his wand. Suddenly he heard a heavy thump from Percy's room followed by complete silence. "Hermione?" he ran back to see her on the floor in a still, bleeding heap. "Shit. Hermione! WAKE UP! Damn it!" he picked her up and carried her carefully downstairs to the fireplace. After somehow managing to grab a handful of the floo powder, he threw it into the fire before shouting clearly:

"St. Mungos."

The room was quiet. A little too quiet seeing as the entire Weasley clan plus Harry (who had been affectionately dubbed Harry Weasley, instead of his own surname, by his brothers-in-law) were crowded into the small hospital room. Even Ron and Luna had returned early from their honeymoon.

A very still, deathly pale Hermione was the centre of attention as she lay on the bed, unmoving, barely breathing and looking closer and closer to death with each passing minute. Fred sat down next to her, gripping her hand with a determined, stony face. He saw nothing else but the small woman on the bed. It had been this way for the several hours they had all been in St. Mungos.

After Fred had stumbled out of one of the fireplaces at St. Mungos, cradling a bleeding unconscious Hermione, she had been rushed off to some rooms that Fred wasn't allowed in. He'd collapsed in a heap of blood-stained clothes on the pristine stone floor and stayed there with a strained look of desperation until someone had managed to get his name out of him and contacted his family.

Now, they all sat in silence as they waited for the Medicinal Wizards of St. Mungos' diagnosis.

Shortly after, a tall man with greying hair walking quietly into the room.

"Good morning. My name is Dr Greg Ramshaw. How are you all?" he asked politely, yet unsmiling. However serious his countenance was, he had kind eyes that took in the tense red-head, who had carried the young lady in, tightly gripping her small hands. Mumbles of "We're fine" and "Worried" came from the rest of the group but Fred stayed silent, watching the woman on the bed. Ah. So that was the way of things. He must love her or at least care for her deeply. Well he wouldn't like what Greg was about to say. He sighed wearily.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news." The intense hazel eyes flickered up at last to meet his own green, solemn ones. Greg wasn't given to awkwardly shuffling his feet or anything of the like, but he certainly felt uncomfortable and guilty as he was about to bring this young man's world crashing down around him.

"I'm so sorry. There is no cure. There's nothing we can do. I'm afraid…she will die."

It's a bit of a cliff-hanger or 'cliffy' as my friend would call it! Sorry about that xD But now you know that we're about halfway through the story? Maybe 3/8ths? :P Keep an eye out for the next one, Laddies and Ladies :) xxx