Chapter 11: That Photograph

Fred watched her out the corner of his eye as she slowly started to eat her pancakes. A vacant expression seemed to be set in stone on her face, as she numbly chewed each bite still lost in her own world. Fred's heart sank a little as he watched her hesitate between each bite taking longer after each mouthful. Another five agonising minutes later she had given up eating and just rolled the remaining pieces of pancake in the chocolate sauce drizzled over her plate.

"Mia?" He asked softly a weak smile on his face. Her head jerked up, startled at the sound of his voice filling the silence of the kitchen she made a logical guess that he wasn't used to such an quiet environment, always being with George or the rest of the Weasleys.

"Yes?"

"Do you wan…"He paused, as he caught the rabbit in the headlights look on her face and stopped. "I'm here when you're ready to talk." Fred knew that it was probably for the best to let her come to him rather than forcing it out of her. He pushed himself up slowly making his way into the living area, before he heard her voice.

"Thanks Fred, I appreciate that." She said delicately.

Fred was relieved that she would explain the situation, how soon though he did not know. The only thing he really wanted to do was just give her a hug. A wave of jealously surged through as he thought about all the Christmases at the Burrow and the countless amount of times that he watched his other brothers hug her. The amount of times that his git of a brother had reduced her to tears. He had always felt strongly about those times, wanting to often strangle him until he saw sense, but George put a stop to it. They would then seek out Ginny who would explain to him and George the whole story, they then would go and ponder for a while and usually something rather unpleasant would suddenly spring upon their youngest brother. The amusing thing was that Ginny usually found them first and would rant about how disgusted she was with his behaviour, practically leading Ron into a cage full of starved lions.

"What's so funny?" Hermione asked him, interrupting his thoughts and memories after watching Ron squirm or yell out in disgust or Ginny's glee. Some of their best products developed from their plotting, of course they were all slightly tweaked to make Fred and George look completely innocent from the incidents that had occurred and could normally blame the Ghoul in the attic or Charlie.

Fred hesitated in his answer slowly realising that his feelings for Hermione went back further than he thought. He was always the over bearing protective brother that would defend Hermione when Ron whined, Fred must had been kidding himself all along to think that his feelings for her were only those like a brother.

"Just some pranks that me and George pulled which revolutionised the shop." He said almost too cheerfully for Hermione's liking.

"Poor Ron." She muttered under her breath already guessing that he was test subject, only if she knew why Ron was chosen as the victim, test subject.

"It wasn't just Ron that deserved them, Percy got them too!" He said poking out his tongue looking like an adorable over grown child. Adorable Hermione repeated through her head, there's no way that I just thought that Fred, co-founder of the biggest joke shop in the wizarding world was adorable.

Fred got up and cleared the plates the away, knowing that she wouldn't eat anymore even if his cooking was some of the best in the Weasley family third of course to Molly and strangely Charlie. He didn't see the light blush that spread across her cheeks.

Hermione slowly stood up to help Fred with the washing up to in attempt to distract her. She felt her pocket suddenly felt like a lead weight pulling her to the floor. Fred turned in time to watch Hermione fall, he whipped out his wand muttering a spell at the transfiguring the floor into a rather odd coloured set of fluffy pillows that matched the carpet. He rushed over to side to check for injuries. He pulled her into his chest not saying any words just wanting to shield her from the rest of the world. Little to his surprise she quickly fell unconscious in his arms, so he carefully picked up her dead weight and moved her into her room.

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"He's dead." The figure smirked as Hermione sprinted towards them before a hex was aimed at her, sending her flying back into the wall hitting her head, causing her to feel immensely sick.

"Not one more move, otherwise he'll be joining them." The voice said bored by Hermione's predictable actions, before bringing forward a rather lanky body that seemed unrecognisable.

"Mia." The man rasped out struggling to hold onto life.

"George?" She barely breathed, knowing that if she made one wrong move now could cause the death of him..

"Go on, go and crawl to the filth." The voice sneered, disgusted. Hermione still had no idea who the voice belonged to, but she was sure that she had heard it somewhere before.

George dragged his body towards Hermione mouthing to her that she had to stay still. She waited for him as he made an agonising journey towards her taking at least five minutes, it had to be the longest five minutes of their lives. Whilst the voice in the background let out a low sinister laugh as he tried desperately to reach, as he desperately tried holding back screeches of pain. George finally took comfort in her embrace as she held out her arms to welcome him into her arms. She watched the other body in the room, silent tears cascading down her cheeks. Which George had somehow managed to start to dry her cheek on his torn up shirt, caring for her more than himself.

Hermione saw a movement out the corner of eye, her breath hitched. She watched again desperately praying that it would happen again. The chest of the body in the room seemed to be moving, hoping it was not some cruel trick that could be played on her. Dropping George, she ran over to the body of her father in the room.

"Avada Kedavra." The green jet of light shot across the room, just missing Hermione as George had struggled to jump in the way.

"GEORGE!" She screamed. "GEORGE!" Her voice started to settle into quiet sobs with only one word escaping his her lips.

"George…"

Fred felt a tight pang at his chest he wanted to strangle his brother after hearing Hermione whispering his own twin's name. He carefully shut her bedroom door not being able to take her calling out George's name any longer. First there was Angelina, well actually first there was Hermione. He remembered being worried sick at the Quidditch world cup when he was sent with George to protect his little sister, how he wished he could have whisked Hermione away with as well. Of course he automatically thought it was just because she was like a sister to him, and also put it down to the fact that Ron and Harry were both missing as well causing him to worry the more.

He then remembered encouraging his youngest brother to try and ask her out for the Yule ball, knowing that she would be taken soon if he didn't hurry up. Everyone knew that Ron had a crush on her and she reciprocated it, however they were both blind as bats to it. Fred even went as far to ask out Angelina on the spot to nudge Ronnikins along but it didn't work. No instead it just left him devoted to Angelina willing to do anything for her, to only find out she didn't care.

A rather loud scream pulled him out of self-wallowing session as he raced to Hermione's door. "George… No…"

Fred quickly ran back through the flat trying to forget that it was his brother's name she was crying out in agony. He managed to ignore the pain in his heart, as he told himself that if he loved her then he would care no matter what just as long as she was happy. He would definitely be having words with George later on though he thought holding her tightly to prevent her from hurting herself.

"Sshh." He gently whispered into her ear. "It was just a nightmare Mia. Just a bad dream" He soothed gently hoping that she would wake up, or fall back into a more peaceful slumber. Her breathing slowed down returning to a more natural rhythm than the frantic breathing of just a few seconds ago. Fred stroked her hair and into the bed keeping her safe in his arm. He kissed the top of her head, before whispering soothing words into her ears.

"Fred?" She whispered quietly.

"I'm right here, you're safe. I'm not going to let anything happen to you." She relaxed into his arms taking comfort without a thought.

"I'm sorry." She mumbled to Fred trying to escape his tight grasp.

"There's no need for you to apologise." He said reluctant to let her go, but deciding that it was probably for the best.

"It's just…"

"Maybe we should take you St. Elena's I don't think all this stress is good for you." He heard her suck in rather large breath.

"I'm fine really. I'll tell you what happened. I'm not going back Fred."

Fred deeply inhaled, irritated that he had to come to this compromise. "Okay, but we should at least get one of Malfoy's healers to check you later."

"Fine. It seems I can't make my own decisions anymore."

"You are perfectly capable of making your own choices. We're all just worried and want to help you."

"Thank you." Hermione replied sincerely. Her hand then began to reach down in a unsteadily fashion towards her pocket, her hand stifled around in her pocket for a few moments until she clasped a rather worn muggle photograph that had almost worn out completely along the lines where it had been folded.

Hermione refused to look at the incriminating photo again. She decided that the best explanation would be just to show him the photo. He unfolded the piece of paper she gave him, careful not to damage it any more than it already was. In the photo was a heavily pregnant woman smiling and laughing with a large man. Before jumping to any conclusions Fred examined the photograph trying to work out why it was cause her to be so distraught. He noticed that the woman actually had the same bushy brown hair, nose and lips that Hermione had. It became apparent very quickly that the woman held a rather striking resemblance to Hermione.

"Your parents?" He asked although it was more of a confused statement. "This photo must be twenty years old." He muttered as he looked closely at it again. He looked over at Hermione as she shook head at him.

"I..It's n…not." She stuttered. "It was taken last week." Once again she found herself wrapped snugly in Fred's arms, as he tried to comfort her while he tried to process the entire situation. She was barely nineteen and she had been through so much pain, then again they had all had their childhood snatched away from them.

"She's….she's not…even wit… with dad…he…had…an affair." The words came pouring out of her slowly still not accepting what had happened. He held her tighter hoping it would try and numb so of the pain she was in.

After what seemed like hours of emotional torture for the pair he was able to make sense of what her latest information from Malfoy was. Fred attempted to put the piece together so far he had that Hermione's dad had an affair with another woman, divorced her mum, run off with said other woman and then completely vanished. To top it all off Hermione's mum got remarried and was about have a child with her new husband, starting a brand new family.

"I ca… I can't do it." Hermione whispered sadly, pulling Fred from his thoughts.

"You are the most brilliant witch that I have ever met Hermione. There is nothing that you can't do." Fred said seriously, causing a sad smile to appear on her face.

"I couldn't give her back her memory now. She's happy Fred." Hermione said softly. "If I gave her back her memory now she would never forgive me. It would rip apart her new life."

"You are the bravest witch in the world Hermione. The most compassionate, the most caring and the most selfless witch there is." Fred said slowly, automatically placing a kiss on top of her head, not realising his action until Hermione gave him a confused look before settling back down into arms.

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It was a rather quiet noise that startled Fred from his slumber, taking a moment to see if was Hermione still asleep and saw stir before lulling off once more. One thing that the war had changed was his sleeping. Being a Weasley he was once been a deep sleeper due to the noisy household that he grew up in. However since the war he had become a very light sleeper and he doubted that would change.

He grabbed a pillow from behind his head. He grabbed his wand from the side table in case it was an intruder, then thought to put a locking charm on the door of Hermione's bedroom as a precaution, one that the intruder wouldn't get so easily especially if it backfired.

He silently crept through the apartment thanking Merlin that years of sneaking around Hogwarts hiding from Filch had paid off yet again.

"Fred?" Harry's voice called from the fire.

"How do I know you're Harry?" Fred questioned sceptically still cautious. "You fancy Mione." Harry stated waiting for the laughter to follow. Fred's eyes widened.

"How did you know?" He asked seriously, confused how Harry could possibly know, he'd been so careful not… Fred thankfully then heard Harry's laughter.

"Good one Fred, for a moment I actually believe you." He carried on chuckling. "I mean… you …and Mione…" He said between laughs causing Fred to momentarily scowl, before quickly remembering that he needed to join in the laughter to keep up the little act.

"You're so gullible sometimes Harry." If only you knew he added on silently in his head. A question formed in his mind, would it really be that unbelievable for him to be with Hermione he silently asked himself, wondering what Harry found so funny about it.

"Hello? Earth to Fred?" Harry's voice pulled Fred from his thoughts. "The last time I checked you still hadn't agreed to curse off your ear to match George, unless I'm mistaken." Harry said trying to Fred's attention.

"Very funny Potter, didn't know you had it in you." Fred replied his mood rapidly deteriorating. "May I ask why you have summoned me. Did you really miss me that much? I'm touched, really I am, but just so you know I value my life too much to be on the end of Ginny's Bat Bogey Hex. We all know that, so spill Potter." Fred stated.

"Mione's not around is she?" Harry asked hesitantly.

"I'll go and check she hasn't escaped." Fred trudged back to her bedroom finding her still peacefully asleep, he relocked the door in case she got out of bed. She may be the brightest witch of the age but that lock would take about a couple of days to unlock for someone who hadn't performed it before, and that was with instructions hopefully meaning it would take Hermione a few hours. Fred remembered that he would have to thank Bill for that particular locking charm one day it had saved his arse quite a few times now. He flicked his wand muttering another spell making sure that she wouldn't be able to hear any of the conversation, again it wasn't the average silencing spell that would be far too easy for her.

"She won't be able to hear a thing." Fred said to Harry as walked back into hearing range of the fire.

" Good." Harry replied grateful. "The results came back from the fire." Harry said quickly getting to the point.

When the pair originally arrived at her flat to visit her they immediately realised that something was wrong. Hermione's story didn't even match up to the evidence they found, but they had decided on the spot not to inform Hermione until they had answers. Fred audibly swallowed, worried what the results and evidence could show.

"Arson, someone planned it. Someone tried to murder Hermione."