A/N: Thank you for the reviews. To reply to a few of the comments, I apologized for not putting in Alicia Spinnet previously as I wanted to limit the characters in that chapter but she's here now and kudos to my reviewer for pointing that out! I would also like to acknowledge the idea of cancelling Bill's wedding and how my reviewer guessed correctly what I intended for the aftermath. Kudos again! Furthermore, I won't be answering any more comments about the Hat or Malfoy but I would encourage my reviewers to keep reviewing! I appreciate all your comments and it brings me joy to see the HP Community thriving with opinions and feedback. Love you all!
Disclaimer: You know the drill by now.
Chapter 11
"Ron, I could kill you!" Ginny screamed as she continued to rub her eyes after being dragged out of bed by her youngest brother.
"It would be well worth it. Now get to it! Harry has something important to tell you!" Ron said as he gently pushed his sister towards the door. Ginny scowled at him before giving in to his actions and reached for the door handle. Smirking, she turned to have one last jibe.
"Don't forget to cast a charm, Ron. God knows Dean and I should have."
"GINNY!"
"Just kidding! Okay, okay I'm going. Stop pushing me!"
Ron heaved a sigh of relief as his sister left the room. Hermione was wide awake now and her face looked half-amused, half-embarrassed at the sight of the two Weasley's antics. Ron took a deep breath before sitting across from her. Hermione smiled at him before patting the side of her bed to indicate she wanted him to sit next to her. Ron's ears turned scarlet as he gulped and proceeded to make his way by her side. There, they both faced the front of the door, not wanting to look at each other. Hermione was the first to break the silence.
"I'm sorry if I ever gave you the impression that I had feelings for Harry."
"No, no. Don't apologize, Hermione. If anything, it should be me. Assuming such stuff."
"Oh, glad we have that cleared."
"Glad we do."
Hermione turned to face Ron as he did the same. Their faces were only inches away from each other.
"Ron, what does Harry want with Ginny?"
"Oh, he wants to take her out tomorrow on an early date to celebrate his birthday since he can't spend it with Ginny. I was thinking the four of us could meet up tomorrow in the evening and we could all hang out!"
"Huh, interesting."
"What?"
"That you're suddenly so cool with Harry asking Ginny for a date. Did you not remember how you wanted to kill him after you saw Ginny crying over the break-up? And now, you're suddenly okay with it all? Not only that but Ginny herself told me that you sort of encouraged her to date Harry again? You're no longer over-possessive about your sister all of a sudden? Tell me, who are you and what have you done with Ronald Weasley?" Hermione replied as she raised her left eyebrow at Ron.
"I'm still me, Hermione. No time turners or anything." Ron hastily replied as he tried to give his best impression of a reassuring smile. "It's just I think that with the impending doom of Riddle coming that we should all show how much we care about each other and have no regrets, you know? Say what's really on your mind."
"So what's really on your mind?" Hermione said as her left shoulder hit Ron's right.
"It's more of what's in my heart."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
There they sat, shoulders touching, heads barely a few inches apart. Ron could smell the lavender scent of Hermione's hair which was intoxicating to say the least. Hermione could count the freckles that surrounded Ron's face, each of them she thought she could give names to. His deep blue eyes were drawing her in as was her brown eyes making all sorts of butterflies fluttering inside Ron's stomach. Not wanting to lean forward and yet not willing to back down, Ron decided to break the tension.
"Boxing Day, 1994."
"What?" Hermione replied, startled at the comment Ron had just made.
"26 December, 1994. Do you remember what happened the day before?"
"Well, obviously it was Christmas. But…wait…but in 1994, we had the Yule Ball!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Yes. Do you remember what happened?"
"How can I forget?" Hermione grimaced at the memory of the dance. "You accused me of fraternizing with the enemy who was the only guy to noticed me before completely ruining my night."
"Well excuse me for ruining your night but he wasn't the only guy to notice you. I did! But you said no!"
"Did I, Ron?"
"Say no? Err lemme think." Ron said as he did a mock pose of him thinking deeply. Hermione sighed in frustration before glaring at him. "Why don't you use that brain of yours for once and rack what I told you at the end of that night?" Ron winced at the memory he tried so hard to forget.
"Well, if you don't like it, you know what the solution is, don't you?"
"Oh yeah. What's what?"
"Next time there's a ball, ask me before someone else does, and not as a last resort!"
Hermione had turned her back from him but not before giving him a cold stare. Ron sighed before continuing to speak.
"Okay, fine. I'm sorry if I gave you the impression that I only wanted you as a last resort. It was not my intention. I honestly didn't realize that you were a girl. I was fourteen, for Merlin's sake, and you know how much of a prat I can be, especially when it comes to women."
"But you learn fast, don't you Ronald?" Hermione said icily as she balled her fists. "I mean out of the three of us, you had the best relationship. You and Lav-Lav couldn't get enough of each other."
"Hey now… wait…why do you care?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why do you care about me and Lavender? I mean I admit we were definitely not right for each other-"
"That's an understatement!" Hermione snorted in disgust.
"But shouldn't you be happy for me? I finally found someone who looked at me special. I'm always known as Harry's sidekick but suddenly a girl and a pretty one at that finds me attractive and you can't be happy for me? Yet you expect me to be okay with you and Vicky?"
"DON'T CALL HIM VICKY! And for the record, Ron, I was upset because Lavender constantly insulted me every time back then because she thinks that you and I had a thing going on behind her back. Besides, you promised to go to Slughorn's party with me and then you bailed to suck face with your Lav-Lav and you wonder why I am not okay?"
"So you could have just explained that to me? But instead, you set birds on me? You disapprove of my relationship without thinking about how I felt? For all your preaching on how I should be okay that you and Krum are friends even though you snogged him, you sure have a strange way of not living up to those words."
"I never snogged Krum! He kissed me and you haven't exactly been supportive yourself, Ron! You ruined my night and you kept bugging me about Bulgaria and you keep making fun of Viktor!"
"Lavender was your friend. I was your best friend. And you couldn't be happy for me?"
"Viktor Krum was your hero. I was your best friend too and you couldn't be happy for me?"
Ron and Hermione were glaring hard at each other now with tension palpable in the air. Yet despite her red face and her icy stare, Ron could not help but admire just how beautiful she looked even when she was furious with him.
"I'm sorry." Hermione said as she sighed and looked towards the floor. Ron was startled. He didn't expect Hermione to back down so easily.
"For?"
"For not supporting you and Lavender."
"Oh, apology accepted. And I'm…"Ron stopped himself from apologizing. This was how he and Hermione usually go. Someone would say something to the other to set off an argument. The argument would get heated very fast but sooner or later someone would apologize and the argument would be forgotten. Either that or a near death situation like him being poisoned last year would be a catalyst to a ceasefire.
"No, I'm not sorry." Ron said as Hermione readied a retort before Ron placed a hand up to let him finish. "I'm not sorry because of the date, Hermione. I'm sorry for being insensitive at times and how badly I treat you sometimes but I cannot apologize for my jealousy. Yes, I'm jealous at Krum. I'm jealous at Cormac and how he got to go with you to Slughorn's party. I'm even jealous of Harry as I thought you might like him. I'm jealous at every boy who thinks he has a chance with you, who fancies you, who invites you to spend summers with him in a foreign country because of the date, Hermione. 26 December 1994. That night after you went to bed, I went up to my room to do a lot of brooding and thinking only to realize I was using the wrong body part. See Hermione, up until that date, I was just a fourteen year old boy who went on adventures with his two best friends. Then I was the fourteen year old boy who realized…who realized… that I was in love with one of them."
The room became deadly silent as Ron felt beads of sweat trickling down his back from the heat that must be emanating from the room. Hermione 's eyes had widened as she realized what Ron was saying to her. Her face went an instant red as a smile started to break out from her face. Stammering a reply, she looked as Ron cut the distance between them to mere inches and she could feel his breath touching her face.
"Ron…I…I fancy you too!" said Hermione as she dived in to give Ron a hug. Eager to break the tension, Ron hugged her tightly before releasing her and staring into her eyes. "By the way, Mione, you know I mean you right? Not Harry? I mean granted he is my best friend and we do spend a lot of time together but he and I are like brothers and –"
"Shut up, Ron!" Hermione laughed as she placed her forehead onto Ron's. Ron gulped as he realized that this could be the moment.
"Anyways, Hermione, I wanted to ask you about tomorrow?" Ron whispered as he moved slowly towards her lips.
"What, Ron?" Hermione whispered back as she moved closer as well.
"Tomorrow, I was thinking why not the two of us go out and have a picnic? Just us two? We can give Harry and Ginny some privacy."
"Ron, that sounds lovely."
"Yeah, it does…err… Hermione…I…" Ron whispered as the tip of his lip was trembling at being in such close proximity to Hermione's.
"Ron…" Hermione whispered as the tip of her front lip was now about to graze the top of his.
"I'M BACK!"
"BLOODY HELL, GINNY!"
….
"You idiots!" Made Eye yelled at Bill as the oldest Weasley son rubbed his eyes. The Order had decided to meet at the crack of dawn and after much complaining, Bill and his fiancée had come down to the kitchen only to meet a furious Moody with Kingsley, Lupin, Tonks and his parents all sitting in chairs in the kitchen.
"What did we do?" Fleur cried in indignation, clearly upset at being woken up from her beauty sleep.
"You can't just cancel the wedding!"
"Harry told us about the vision. Surely you don't want to risk lives over a wedding!" Bill retorted as he too was pissed at Moody for the early morning meeting.
"I know what Potter said. Arthur has filled me in. But by the hair of Merlin, are you all really this stupid?" Moody spat in disgust as he rounded up at the rest of the Order who looked beside themselves.
"If we cancel the wedding, no invitations send and no ceremony held, don't you think that the Death Eaters would suspect something was up? Furthermore, I bet you on my life that Riddle has people watching over the ceremony? He knows how close your son is to Harry, Molly, which means that he knows about the wedding and he definitely has followers who are watching and would update him as soon as something came up. How would it look to Riddle if he had plans to infiltrate the Ministry and then the wedding only to realize the very next day that the wedding was cancelled? He would suspect that Harry has access to his visions and would redouble efforts to hunt Potter down. If someone's waiting for a lie, you can't just give them one."
Realization dawned on the group at the sound of Moody's words. Kingsley cleared his throat to speak. "I agree with Alastor. We should have a wedding. But of course not an actual one."
"What do you mean?" Bill said.
"What I mean is that we need to give an appearance of a wedding. Set up the tent and put in all the chairs, tables and whatever other items you would for a wedding. Then close the tent. Alastor and I can put up charms to show anyone on the outside that a party is indeed taking place inside the tent. That way, if the Death Eaters do come to infiltrate the wedding, we'll be ready."
"Ready for what?" Tonks yawned as Moody gave her a disapproving scowl.
"Ready to take them all out." Lupin chimed in as Kingsley nodded in agreement. "We set a trap for them, letting them enter inside and take out as many as we can."
"We have to take them ALL out." Moody interrupted. "One Death Eater walks free and he would inform Riddle that it was all a trap and Riddle would be very, very angry."
"Okay, so I suppose we are all in agreement." Kingsley said as he looked around the room to all the nodding heads. Molly gave a sudden laugh before turning to her husband. "Go wake up Fred and George. Let the other four sleep in. That teach the two of them to take Bill's wedding lightly. Go on, Arthur." Molly said as she ushered her husband from the room.
After two minutes, they heard a yell from upstairs. Molly raced into the living room followed by the rest of the order only to find a sheepish Arthur Weasley running down the stairs with a note in hand. "They're not in their beds, Molly. The twins! They must have snuck out!"
Molly was positively brimming with rage. "Where the blazes are they?!"
…..
" Damn, Lee! You sure have a lot of Muggle crap! Our dad might just adopt you!" Fred said as he prodded the radio which Lee was currently messing with.
"Lay off, Fred! Has anyone seen Alicia?" Lee said to Angelina and Katie who were both playing Exploding Snap on the bed inside his bedroom. George had taken it upon himself to commentate on the game, leading to Katie smacking him constantly on his head.
CRACK
"I'M HERE! Sorry I couldn't come before. I felt asleep before looking at the button." Alicia said as she apparated into the room, landing on Lee and Fred.
"Oww, get off Alicia! You weigh a ton!" Lee cried as he struggled to get back on his feet.
"Excuse me! I do not weigh a ton!" Alicia retorted as George, Angelina and Katie were howling with laughter.
"Better get off Fred, too" George laughed as he looked at his twin trying to push both Lee and Alicia off his feet. "I imagine Angelina won't be happy seeing how her boyfriend is trying to hit on her best friend in the same room."
"Screw you, Forge!"
"Gladly, Gred!"
"Okay, okay! Enough!" Angelina exclaimed as she stood up and motioned for everyone to sit in a circle. "Let's get down to business. Alicia, I take it Katie has already updated you."
"Yeah, she called me."Alicia exclaimed as she gave Katie a welcome hug.
"Good. Alright so as all of you know, Harry asked us to infiltrate the Ministry as we have to remove the locket from Umbridge. Now before we start, I got to ask. Does anyone want out?"
Everyone looked at each other before shaking their heads. They were all excited at the idea of destroying a Horcrux.
"Good" Angelina continued before George raised his hand. "Yes?"
"No offence, Angelina but who put you in charge?"
"Do you want to be in charge, George?"
"NO!" cried Katie, Lee and Alicia in unison as Fred doubled over in laughter. "Sorry bro, but if you and I were in charge, we probably blow up the entire Ministry."
"Isn't that what Ron wants us to do?"
"True."
"NO! Absolutely no blowing up of the Ministry! Look can we get serious for a moment? "Katie cried while glaring at the twins.
"We could bring Oliver in. He was our captain. He could lead us again." Angeline said thoughtfully as Alicia stared at her with horror.
"Err… no! No offence to Oliver but can you imagine if he was in charge of us again?"
"Yeah!" Fred chimed in. "He probably want us to go inside in Qudditch formation wearing our gear. Angelina, Alicia, Katie! You three disperse and look for the locket! Fred and George, beat whoever gets in our way! I stay here at the door to keep any Death Eaters from coming out. While you're inside, get the damn Qudditch World Cup trophy!" Fred continued while doing his best impression of Oliver as the others continued to laugh. After a while, Angelina cleared her throat.
"Okay fine, no Oliver. Alright, so I was thinking, once Harry goes off with Ron and Hermione, the six of us will need to go into hiding as well. So do whatever it takes when it comes to your loved ones. Convince them of our mission. Do whatever is necessary. This is too important. Remember, we are taking down that son of a bitch Dark Lord no matter what the cost."
The rest of the group stared at Angelina with awe, especially Fred who was beaming with pride at the sight of his girlfriend. "Damn Angie, you are our leader!"
"Thanks for that, Freddie. And don't call me Angie!"
"What if I called you babe?"
"While we all find this interesting…" Alicia interrupted the exchange between Fred and Angelina. "Why don't we focus at the task at hand? So what's the next move?"
"We need to do recon." Lee chimed in.
"I agree. Even though we don't have Harry's cloak, we should sneak into the Ministry and see what we are dealing with." Katie said while nodding in agreement.
"We could cast Disillusionment Charms. That way, no one will see us come in." George said.
"Or we could use Polyjuice. I always wanted to be a well-defined Ministry witch." Fred said
"So we do recon first. That's okay with you, right Angelina?" Alicia said as she stared at her best friend who looked nervous before speaking.
"Actually, I thought of a better idea but I don't think Fred or George will like it?"
"What's the idea?" George said as the rest looked at her curiously.
"If we had someone on the inside of the Ministry, it could help us with our surveillance. Not to mention, if we needed to Polyjuice someone, we could know who to pick so as not to draw attention to ourselves."
"But we don't have someone on the inside of the Ministry." Lee said
"Actually, we do." Angelina replied while still staring at Fred and George.
"You mean our dad? No, he will draw too much attention. He's way into the Order. We can't risk that." George exclaimed.
"George, I don't think she's talking about our dad." Fred said as he glowered at his girlfriend. George stared quizzically at him for a moment before realizing what Angelina was saying. Lee, Katie and Alicia were all now silent as they inferred the meaning of Fred's words.
"No." said George, flatly as he got up to head to the window.
"I'm with him." Fred said as he proceeded to join his twin.
"Guys… Fred… please. This way, we could have a much better advantage."
"I don't care what the advantage is. Think of a new plan without him in it."
"This is the best plan! We need him."
"No we don't"
"Yes we do! Honestly can you just see to reason…"
"REASON?!" Fred bellowed as the group cowered under the ferocity of his tone. "THAT PIECE OF ARSE LEFT US! HE SAID THINGS THAT HURT OUR MOTHER. OUR FATHER. AND NOW ME AND GEORGE ARE SUPPOSED TO FORGET ALL THAT?"
"I'm not asking you to forget what he said. Or even forgive what he did." Angelina countered fiercely, not wanting to back down from Fred. "I'm asking you to allow him to help us."
"Who's to say he would want to?" George said icily as he walked back towards the group.
"Angelina is right, George" Katie said as she stood to stand next to her best friend. "If he doesn't want to help, then screw him. But if he does, I say we use him to our advantage."
"Think of Ginny and Ron, George." Lee said as he got up to face his friend. "They're risking their lives to save the world and we could really help them. Once the Hogwarts mission is done, we're next and the faster we do it, the faster we save the world."
"It's not just your family, Fred and George." Alicia continued as she too stood next to Angelina, Katie and Lee. "It's Harry, Hermione, Neville, the entire DA and so many others that would benefit from our missions. We need to put our differences aside for this."
George sighed as he looked at his twin who was still brimming with rage. George placed a hand on Fred's shoulder.
"Mate, we got to do this. We have to talk to him."
"He won't care about us. He didn't care before and he won't care now. I doubt he even cry if I died, George."
"FRED!" Angelina yelled. "He may be an arse but he is still your brother and I know he would be devastated if something like that ever happens. Not that something like that should happen. In fact don't even talk about it! I cannot imagine a world without Fred Weasley! Or you George! Or Katie! Or Alicia! Or Lee! Don't any of you put such thoughts into my head ever again! This mission is dangerous enough as it is! I don't want to hear you or anyone else say a single word about dying!"
"Angie, I didn't mean…" Fred argued but Angelina burst into tears as Katie and Alicia tried to comfort her while giving Fred dirty looks. Lee stood before the twins and gave them a reassuring hug which they both reciprocated. After cheering Angelina up, Fred went to give his girlfriend a hug and a kiss on the cheek before they all sat on the floor with Fred holding Angelina's hand in his. No one said anything until George cleared his throat.
"Okay, so how do we contact Percy?"
