This / will indicate that someone is using sign language to talk. it's easier to do the then describing the actual motions. if I do this ' it means that lips are being read.

Chapter Twenty-Five: So here you are two steps ahead and staying on guard every lesson forms a new scar they never thought you'd make it this far

Hermione Granger was in a very bad mood. She hadn't slept in a day, she'd been attacked, she was riddled with bruises, and her boyfriend had yelled at her.

She almost felt sorry for her first class. It was the seventh years, Gryffindor and Slytherin. Seamus, Ginny, Dean, Lavender and Fay all sat up straighter as she walked in the room, flashing her concerned looks. Ginny had tried to tell her to take the day off but she wouldn't hear of it.

She'd spent all of yesterday (after Fred had kicked her out) in the bath again. Ginny and Luna had been patient as ever, but she refused to believe them.

'Hermione, he is being a git because he doesn't think he can protect you.' Ginny tried to explain. Hermione had simply shook her head and scrubbed her arms harder.

"Professor, have you been attacked?" Seamus' questioned appeared on the paper in front of Hermione, shaking her from her thoughts and helping her realize that she was in her classroom. She was supposed to be teaching. Instead she had been staring off into space and now her entire class was looking at her.

Hermione cleared her throat before speaking. "I'm sorry, Mr. Seamus, but we won't be discussing that in class. Now, turn to page three hundred and eighty two." Hermione tried to keep her tone strict, but not angry. She didn't want Seamus to think that she was upset with him.

'I'm sorry, Miss, but if some a-hole has taken to beating my teacher, and friend, then I need to know. I'm likely to go off on them, if ya know what I mean.'

Apparently Seamus wasn't going to let it go. Hermione locked eyes with him and shook her head.

"Seamus, not here."

'Was it that bastard wizard again? I thought Harry caught him.' Several of the students sat up in interest at that bit of news. Apparently not everyone had been aware of her attack over the summer. Brilliant.

"After class." Hermione ordered, her eyes flashing. She loved that Seamus cared, that everyone on the Gryffindor side looked concerned, but she needed to maintain control of this class.

'Were you the one that was crucioed on Diagon Alley?' Tom, one of the Slytherin students that had been giving Hermione trouble, questioned.

"That is neither here nor there. I will be happy to answer all questions after class. Now, unless someone has a question relevant to Transfiguration, turn to page three hundred and eighty two."

Godric, it was a little scary how much she felt like Snape.

She sat down at her desk and flipped her own book open, barely glancing at the page before returning her gaze to the class.

Wait, something was off. She dropped her gaze back to the book and blinked. There was a note on it, one that hadn't been there when she'd laid the lesson plan out this morning. She recognized the loose scrawl, and her heart fluttered for a moment before she remembered she was angry at its writer.

I'm sorry, Hermione.

Well, that was unexpected. And rather pointless. Hermione Granger was not about to forgive Fred if his apology was a simple scribble on a note. He had yelled at her in front of her friends, and kicked her out of his flat.

Hermione wasn't going to make it easy for Fred.

-o-o-o-

The notes didn't stop there. They kept appearing everywhere she went. Some just said sorry, others had bits of poems or songs written on them. One that contained a few keywords from Van Morrison's 'Brown Eyed Girl' had actually made her laugh before she caught herself. There were notes in her books, in mug, in her sandwich at lunch, in her scarf, even some that fell out of her hair. Students showed up at random intervals and handed her notes that someone had given them, and several owls dropped by her classroom.

It was incredibly cute and made Hermione smile, even if she wasn't quite ready to forgive Fred yet.

"Now, I expect a foot on the difference between animal transfiguration and mineral transfiguration for Wednesday's class." Hermione dismissed her fifth year class and watched them leave the room with a tired smile. After the last student was gone she dropped into her chair and lifted her bag up.

There was another note where her bag had been. She hesitated for a moment before lifting it up.

My Aphrodite,

Would you do me the incredible (and extremely undeserved on my part) honor of having dinner with me tonight? I should like to attempt to apologize for my deplorable behavior this previous morning.

Should you agree to accompany me, I will pick you up at Hogwarts in an hour. If you would rather not see me, then just turn the light in your tower red.

Sincerely yours,

Fred

Hermione bit her lip nervously before looking around the room. She half expected to see someone else in the room. Did she want to have dinner with Fred?

Yes, yes she did. She would forgive him, he had been traumatized as well last night, and she was fairly certain she knew the reason for his rudeness.

It was the same things as Harry, for Merlin's sake. He hated that he couldn't protect people, and now Fred was feeling the same way.

As if it was his fault that he'd been given a concussion by a bunch of muggles. Hermione was surprised by how well he had fought. Even when he was covered in blood he'd still been giving the muggle a hell of a struggle. They never even guessed that he was blind.

Circe's curse! What was she doing? She only had forty-five minutes to get ready for her date! She ran out of the room and flew down the halls till she reached her room. She blew past a very startled Neville and dashed to her closet, flinging it open to see what she had. She hadn't brought any dresses, probably because she didn't actually own any. She only borrowed them from Ginny.

Did Fred like dresses? Would he care? Where were they even going? Would a dress actually be all that appropriate?

Jeans and a jumper perhaps? Yes, that would work nicely, she could magic them to something else if she needed to. Decision made, Hermione took a quick shower before getting dressed and fixing her hair.

She had ten minutes to spare.

'My, aren't you looking nice.' Neville was standing in their living room in front of the fire, smiling broadly. Hermione blushed and did a little twirl, showing off her outfit. 'Fred's a lucky bloke. He told me to tell you he'll be waiting for you at the Great Hall.'

Hermione nodded her head and left the room, heading towards the Great Hall with a ridiculously large grin. She needed to at least pretend she was still angry at Fred. He needed to know that yelling at her for no reason was unacceptable.

She had made it to the bottom floor when a large figure suddenly blocked her way. She was pushed into a wall and completely crowded against it.

'You're the reason my father was arrested, you filthy mudblood!' It was Tom, her Slytherin student. He growled and then his hands were winding around her throat. He squeezed and Hermione felt herself running out of air. He was squeezing too tightly and Hermione couldn't get any oxygen. She was getting dizzy and a horrible darkness was taking over her vision. She scrambled for purchase on his arms, struggling to get his hands off of her throat. Her wand was on the floor somewhere, feet away from her and impossible to get a hold of. She didn't know how to do wandless magic and she couldn't even loosen his fingers. He was so much larger-and stronger, than she was.

And then he was gone. Hermione crashed to the ground, her head smacking the stone floor and causing more stars to fill her vision. Luna gingerly lifted her up and placed her head into her lap, stroking her hair as Hermione struggled for breath. She blinked her eyes rapidly, her vision finally clearing enough that she could see what was going on in front of her.

Neville was struggling with a fiery red head that Hermione quickly recognized as Fred, and Tom-her attacker-was curled up in a ball on the ground gasping for air. Fred was kicking out wildly at him, clearly yelling at the top of his lungs.

Hermione had no idea how he managed to not only know where she was, but also know where Tom was.

Then she saw what Ginny was holding back. Archimedes.

-o-o-o-

The gardens were beautiful at night. Hardly anyone on Hogwarts ever looked at them, probably because they were associated with schoolwork, but they were gorgeous.

Hermione could hardly take a breath to notice their beauty. Fred was standing a few feet off to her right and he was clutching Archimedes' harness tightly. He had his eyes staring straight ahead and he seemed to radiate unease.

She almost regretted asking him out for a walk. It was entirely too late for dinner now-taking care of her attacker had seen to that-and she'd offered a walk as a apology of sorts. They hadn't said a word to each other out side of that yet.

He'd rushed to her after Neville had said something, held her while everyone else went about calling the authorities and detaining Tom.

They had walked about fifteen feet further into the garden when Archimedes just stopped. He sat down on the ground and refused to move any further. Fred tugged his harness but the dog would not move.

'Archimedes?' Fred inquired quietly. The dog shook his head and huffed. 'Archimedes, don't play.' The dog barked before lying down. 'Really? Git. I wasn't going to do this here.' Archimedes didn't budge. 'Fine.' Fred sighed and brought his hand up to rub at the back of his neck. He stood still for a moment longer then turned towards Hermione, reaching his hand out.

Hermione didn't-couldn't take it. Fred dropped his hand and swallowed thickly.

'Hermione-I-I'm so sorry. I can't even describe how sorry I am that I yelled at you. It was unacceptable, and won't ever happen again. You-you're everything to me and the other night I couldn't keep you safe and I didn't even expect it to happen. I'm not trying to make an excuse, there is none. You don't deserve to ever be yelled at. You deserve to be cherished and treated like a princess. You're too bright and beautiful and incredible for anything less.' Fred swallowed again. 'Will you-can you, forgive me?'

Before she could actually gather the motor skills to reach out and touch him, Archimedes acted. He ran around their legs, tangling them up in his leash before he jerked hard, tightening the loop he'd made around them. Then, in a scene like a romantic comedy that Hermione would never admit to watching, she fell onto Fred.

To her eternal surprise, he caught her.

Because Fred always seemed to catch her.

'You light up my world, Hermione.' Fred whispered, bringing his hand up and tracing her cheek with the lightest touch. How did he do it? How did he know where he was? 'I can almost see you. I swear you glow. How do you do that?'

"Oh, Fred." Hermione couldn't manage anything more. She surged forward and pressed a hard kiss to his lip. Hungry and desperate she moved her lips over his, nearly crying when she felt him respond.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him closer, standing up on her tip toes so she could better kiss him. Fred grinned against her lips and held her tight.

"Apology accepted, Mr. Weasley."

A/n: Street sweeper Pottermore21 got it right, Marchin On by OneRepublic.

So, I watch the BBC version of Sherlock, and argh! I hate their cliffys. What type of show do you guys watch? My favorites are How I met Your Mother, Community, Psych, Doctor Who, Merlin (BBC version), Sherlock (I really love the British, incase you were wondering ;), and Glee (shocker, right?!), )

I live in the USA on the west coast (not too near any water thought. It's about six/seven hours to reach an ocean.)

Any guess on this song? I've seen its movie, but haven't read its book. I'm a little scared because everyone says it's really dark. I hate dark stuff :(

Please leave a review!