Chapter 12: Trapped

"Oi, Mione? I have to go to the Ministry to deal with some of our permits," Fred called into the back room as Hermione put the finishing touches on the potion she'd been working on that day.

"Alright, I'll finish and clean up back here. See you tomorrow, Fred," she said back.

His head poked around the corner.

"Would you come with me? George usually handles this stuff, and you know the laws so much better than I do," he pleaded.

Hermione rolled her eyes and nodded. "Give me a moment to clean this up?"

"Lovely, I'll meet you at the apparation point around the corner, yeah?"

She assented and continued to cast spells to clean the cauldrons and containers she'd been using, then left to meet Fred. Things between them had been quite polite over the last week since the wedding. It had been fine when Harry, Ron and Ginny were still around to keep her busy. But now that she was trying to push her feelings for him aside while she spent time with him, it was clear that one evening of tipsy dancing and snuggling up to him under the fireworks didn't mean anything to Fred. He hadn't said a word about it since the wedding. He hadn't said much at all since the wedding, which was unusual for any of the Weasleys, but particularly for the twins. So she tried to forget about it, as Fred apparently had.

"Hot tea for your thoughts," the redhead said as she approached, handing her a steaming mug.

"Oh, thank you, Fred! Are you ready to go?"

He offered his arm. "You lead, or shall I?"

"Me!" Hermione said, as she turned on the spot, apparating them to the visitor's entrance to the Ministry.

She led them effortlessly to the Department of Administrative Registration, where she explained to Fred the different forms he had to fill out, and the decisions he'd have to make regarding that year's set of permits. It was all done rather quickly, and before they knew it, Hermione and Fred were headed back to the lifts.

She was quiet as they got onto the lift. Being in the Ministry reminded her of her last visit, and of the fact that she had heard next to nothing about the search for her parents. There had been tidbits here and there – snippets of places they had been. But she hadn't expected to go through the holidays without them. Not for another year. And the Minister's people seemed no closer to finding them than she had been months earlier.

She stood quietly, leaning against the wall of the lift, about as far away from Fred as she could possibly be. Her arms were crossed and her brow furrowed as she brooded about her parents, oblivious to the comings and goings of the rest of the lift passengers as they neared their destination. Suddenly, the lift began to shake and a creaking noise filled the small compartment. The lift shuttered to a stop.

"Perfect," she huffed. "As if my luck wasn't already bad enough lately?"

Fred grunted in acknowledgement, but his lack of witty retort pulled Hermione from her daze. Fred was never quiet. Hermione turned to see his eyes screwed shut as he gripped the bar along the side of the lift. He seemed to be having trouble breathing.

"Fred, what's wrong? Are you alright? Did you get hurt when the lift stopped?" she asked frantically, unsure what to do to help him.

"Claustrophobia," he whispered. She had never seen him like this. There was no humor in his face, no sign of a joke.

Okay Hermione. He's having a panic attack. Okay, you know what to do for this. But there's no calming draught. You know what to do, Hermione. When you have them you need distractions. Distract him, he'll be okay.

"So, you know, last time I was here, I was looking for a job, asking for help with my parents. And Kingsley, you know, he didn't give me a job. You and George were there right after that, do you remember?"

Fred nodded, but his jaw and fists were clenched and he seemed to be wheezing.

"How about we sit down, hm? We might be here for a little while," she said grabbing his hand and pulling him to the floor of the lift with her. "You should maybe try to take deep breaths, yeah? And I'll just talk to you, just focus on me okay?"

Fred nodded again and squeezed her hand. She hadn't realized he was still holding it. Well. Anything to distract him, of course.

"I haven't heard much about my parents since then. I thought they would have been home by now. I miss them. You know, I love your family, but I miss mine. I miss them a lot," she said, pushing back tears. Nope, none of that. You're supposed to be calming him down. He squeezed her hand again, pulling her out of her own thoughts. She shook her head and smiled feebly at him.

"But I haven't heard from them, and I'll have to wait, I suppose." She was running out of things to say. They were going to have to move into the awkward territory of talking about what had almost happened at the wedding, if she didn't come up with something to say–

"You should talk to Bill," Fred said. He still didn't sound quite normal, but he appeared to be calmer.

"Bill? Why? Can he help find my parents?" she asked. She was confused, but if there was any hope that Bill could help her find her parents.

"Bill has friends from Australia. Curse-breaker friends. They're probably more competent than whoever Kingsley could spare to send to look for them. I'm sure he'd be happy to ask a favor for you," Fred offered. He gently dropped her hand and ran his own through his hair. She missed it instantly, but forced herself to focus on his words. "Thanks for helping me calm down. I haven't been the best with, erm, cramped spaces since that wall, well, you know."

"It's alright, Fred. I think we've all had our issues since the war. I couldn't even go to Hogwarts without having a breakdown." She sighed. "I'm not used to being like this. I used to be tougher than this."

Fred chuckled. "You're still plenty tough, Hermione. I still don't want to be on the wrong end of your wand, and you're still the smartest witch I've ever met. Me on the other hand…"

Hermione smiled. "You are just fine. You're still the funniest wizard I know. And perhaps the most creative. Claustrophobia, panic attacks? None of that changes the fact that you are one of the two biggest pranksters that Hogwarts has ever seen, and smart to boot."

She looked down at her hands as she wrung them in her lap, reminding herself that she was supposed to be getting over this redhead. Fred was astonished. They had been friendly, lately. But since the wedding, things between them had been so strange, and he had been second-guessing everything that had happened. He had replayed the moment where he'd almost kissed her over and over, wondering what he'd done wrong, if he'd misread the signals. It was unusual for him to feel so out of his depth with a woman. Flirting usually came so naturally to Fred, but now he didn't know what to do. Was it possible that she had feelings for him too? He looked up at her. Now was as good a time as any to find out. He looked up at her, not willing to delay and lose his moment of courage. Merlin, she's beautiful.

"Hermione—"

"Fred—"

They spoke simultaneously, and Hermione looked away, blushing.

"Ladies first," Fred said, disappointed.

"Oh no, it was nothing important. Go ahead."

"Well, er, you know. At the wedding—"

Suddenly, the elevator began to shudder again, and then it continued to move.

"Oh, thank Merlin!" Hermione exclaimed, interrupting Fred in her excitement to be free from the lift.

The doors creaked open and mediwizards rushed into the lift to check on them and makes sure that they hadn't been harmed by their time in the lift.

After a thorough exam, they were free to go, so they headed towards the floo so that they could return to close the shop.

"Oh, Fred, I'm so sorry. You were saying something about the wedding when the lift started working again?" Hermione said, as they cleaned up the shop and covered simmering cauldrons for the night.

"Ah, er. Yeah I just wanted to thank you again for being my date. I—you're a good friend." He patted her on the shoulder, mentally kicking himself. Great job, Freddie. You went from telling her how you feel to telling her that you're friends. Good move.

"I—well it was no problem. We're all done here, yeah? I'll see you tomorrow, Fred."

Without waiting for an answer, Hermione left the shop and apparated back to the Burrow.


A/N: Hello again, readers. Thank you for reading, as always. I hope that you enjoyed – I know that this isn't them getting together the way most of you wanted, but we're getting close! And I think the next chapter will be a nice development :) See you for that next week!

-E. Leigh