A/N: I'm so sorry for the long wait for this chapter. I finally have some more time to write, and I have been writing lots lately. I hope you enjoy! This was written for the Wand Wood Challenge with Hazel for the prompt, the Disney Character Challenge (Faline as my prompt) and the procrastination competition. It's also written for more, but I'll add the rest later. Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. JK Rowling does.
Hermione was walking to Hogsmeade with Harry and Ron. She hadn't seen Fred since they met at the shop, and she missed him more every day. She had been tempted to use the daydream charm a few times in class, but each time she talked herself out of it. She didn't want to waste it, though she knew that Fred would probably give her another one if she wanted another one.
Harry was talking about Draco again, and Ron and Hermione had given each other knowing looks and pretended to become deaf. Hermione looked around Hogsmeade and saw students everywhere. They had just walked away from Honeydukes when she suddenly saw Fred and George walk into Honeydukes from the opposite direction as them and stopped in her tracks.
The twins were in Hogsmeade? Her heart started dancing. Why didn't Fred tell her he was coming to their first Hogsmeade visit? She had mentioned it in their last letter.
"Hermione?" Ron stopped when he saw that she wasn't beside them anymore. He gave her a concerned look. "Are you ok? You look like you saw a ghost."
She blinked and shook her head. "I think I did…" Just when she decided to tell Ron about Fred, the Weasley twins walked out of Honeydukes, and headed over toward them. "Fred and George are here," she said, unable to keep the small smile off her face.
"What?" Ron asked sharply, but he looked over at the direction she was looking at. She nodded in confirmation.
"Well, if it isn't Ickle Ronnikins," Fred said, reaching up to mess up Ron's hair. Ron scowled and whacked his brother's hand away.
"What are you doing here?" he asked in an unhappy voice.
George frowned at him. "It's nice to see you too," he said pointedly. "It's good to have some brotherly love."
Fred took advantage of that distraction by winking at Hermione. She blushed, but gave him a meaningful look. She was glad to see him even though she hadn't expected to see him that day.
"We're trying to work on a new experiment, and we needed some ingredients from Honeydukes," Fred told them.
"And we were hoping to see you guys," George said suddenly. "After all, Harry was our financial backer."
Fred glanced over at his twin, and Hermione saw a smile start to form. "Yeah. We were wanting to go to Three Broomsticks. You guys want to join us?" Hermione was the first one to nod, though the other two had agreed as well. She was grateful for the chance to spend time with Fred without raising suspicion.
They ordered their drinks at the bar, though Fred placed a hand on hers when she started to get money out for her Butterbeer. "I'll take care of it," he said, winking at her.
"I can pay," Hermione said quickly when she noticed that Ron and Harry were looking at them curiously.
"A lady should never pay for her own drink. It's really no trouble," Fred said and he set some coins down on the counter. Ron opened his mouth to protest, but he narrowed his eyes at Fred and scowled instead.
Hermione gave up on changing Fred's mind, though she smiled at him when Harry and Ron started a conversation and mouthed, "Thank you."
Fred reached over and gave her hand a small squeeze, but quickly let go so the other two wouldn't see.
The twins had to leave shortly after that, and Fred lingered near Hermione for a moment longer when they said goodbye. "So, is there any chance that I can get a hug for paying for your drink?" Fred asked her, wagging his eyebrows up and down.
Hermione giggled and pushed him away lightly. "It was only a Butterbeer, not a million dollars," she scolded him lightly.
"But it was worth more than that to me." Fred looked like he meant the words, but Hermione laughed again. She saw Ron's eyes had darkened over Fred's shoulder. She decided to let go the idea of the hug.
"Thank you for the drink," she said politely, trying to give Fred a pointed look. Fred caught on and turned to his twin.
"Well, we must be off. Stay out of trouble, you three." George winked at them as he started walking away.
"Don't go blowing up any toilets," Fred said with a grin.
They turned away, and the three started walking back toward the school.
Ron seemed to get moodier as they continued on, and Hermione couldn't take it anymore. "Ron, what's wrong?" she asked him. Before he could answer, a scream erupted through the air. Their heads turned toward the direction of it, and she saw Katie Bell in the air.
Her hands went up to her mouth, and Fred and George suddenly rushed over to them. "Who screamed? We heard somebody scream right when we were about to leave-"
Fred cut George off and looked up. "Katie!" he gasped.
Hermione went toward Leanne to comfort her and started muttering soothing words. Her concern for Ron had disappeared.
Harry suddenly reacted. "Wait here! I'll go get help!"
"Hurry," Hermione urged as Ron joined her side. He didn't meet her eyes, but he wrapped an arm around Leanne's shoulders as well.
Harry returned with Hagrid, and Hagrid took Katie to the hospital wing. "Professor McGonagall wants to see us. You should visit Katie though," he said to the twins, and they nodded and walked into school.
Hours later, the trio were safely back in the common room. "Poor Katie," Hermione sighed as she glanced out the window. "I still can't believe that that happened to her. How did she get hold of that necklace?"
"It was Malfoy," Harry said firmly. Hermione rolled her eyes and she glanced at Ron to share their knowing look they had when Harry got like this, but he ignored her. She frowned as Harry went on. "Malfoy couldn't have gotten that past Filch though, Harry. We were all checked before we left."
"Yeah, but he could've had a minion," Harry began to say, but Ron spoke up finally.
"Enough, Harry."
Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Oh, you've decided to speak to us finally, have you?" she couldn't help but snap.
Ron gave her a cold glare. "Believe me, Hermione. You don't want me to say anything to you right now."
"What did I do now?" Hermione asked, throwing her hands up in the air in frustration. She never knew why Ron was mad at her.
"Nothing," Ron muttered as he headed toward the boy's dormitories.
"No, this isn't about nothing. Ron-"
"I know that you like my brother." His words caused her to widen her eyes in surprise. She hadn't expected that. "I can't believe that I was too stupid to realize it before."
"Ron-" Hermione said softly, though she didn't really know what to say.
"Don't bother denying it. I could see it in your eyes. You never looked at me like that. How long have you liked him?" Ron demanded as he glared at her.
Hermione swallowed and looked at Harry. She hadn't expected her friends to find out like this, and she felt awful that they found out like this. "I-"
"Never mind. I don't want to know," Ron muttered darkly. "I'm going to bed."
Harry placed a hand on her shoulder. "We'll talk tomorrow…I should check on him," he said as he gave her a sympathetic look.
Hermione nodded, though she felt numb still. She had to do something to fix this, though she didn't know how to fix it. "Why did I ever think this was a good idea?" she muttered as she headed to bed herself.
A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope it's not too rushed. I really wanted to give you guys something to read for waiting this long. I didn't want to stick to the canon play by play in this chapter because we had the books for that. This is obviously AU for Fremione. Please leave a review!
