Morning! I'm off to Cardiff today so I thought I'd post this before I leave since I've got another chapter in the pipeline!
Have a good day!
~BH
Chapter 25: Fred
Saturday dragged by. I realised that I had to at least turn in some homework this year if I wanted to get some NEWT's, and even though they weren't that important to me, they were important to our mother, and I could stand being regarded lower than Ron, who was now a prefect.
As soon as George and I were both in our dorm, I sat him down and told him about Hermione's plan.
"That sounds like a great idea." He agreed with me, relaxing against the headboard and glancing over at our cauldron that we left to stew during the day.
"I think they're planning to gather as many people as they can in the Hog's Head tomorrow," I continued. "We could tell Lee, and Angelina…"
George snapped his head up as he heard Angelina's name. "I'll ask her at breakfast tomorrow, since it's a Hogsmeade day." I laughed at his eagerness. "But for now, we need to work on this damned potion." George said, bouncing off his bed and almost skipping to our masterpiece. We had been trying to perfect our nosebleed nougat. Mum had stopped us making it at home ages ago, because when we tested it originally the nosebleeds made us ill for days. Now we make sure only one of us tests a product at a time and we always have some sort of antidote prepared to minimise the damage.
"Who's turn is it to test it?" I asked, inhaling it's weird scent. It smelled of blood, encouragingly. Once we had mastered the potion we could work on making it into bite-sized portions to add to our skiving snack boxes we were developing.
"I think it's yours, since I ended up preparing most of this myself." George said, not sounding bitter, but slightly disappointed.
"Sure." I replied, feeling a little guilty. I'd been spending so much time with Hermione lately, no wonder he felt annoyed. He wouldn't hold it against me, but I still felt bad. He scooped a cup into the mixture and held it out to me, patting me on the back.
"To us!" I cheered, raising it up so it sloshed around in the glass, and downed it in one. I swallowed, and shoved the glass at George as my nose started to bleed. I sprinted to the sink as the blood dribbled down my face, and George grabbed our notebook and watched me.
"We've got the blood consistency issue sorted." He observed. George always tended to talk as he wrote things down, which was useful but at the same time irritating when you were the test subject.
"I don't feel any pain." I added, before the blood had a chance to enter my mouth.
"Good." He replied eagerly. "Let's test the antidote now."
He handed me a boiled sweet we had prepared for when we mastered the potion. I opened my mouth and he shoved it in, and I quickly sucked on it. As I started to swallow the antidote the bleeding started to slow down. I continued to lean over the sink until it stopped completely.
"I think we've nailed it!" I said triumphantly, swallowing the last of the sweet and grinning at George.
"I'm inclined to agree!" He responded, slapping me a high-5 and drew a tick next to his notes. "We can transfer this to the recipe book now!"
"I'll go do that if you want." I said, wiping the worst of the blood from my face and reading through his observations and ingredients. "Since we've sorted it earlier than we expected you could probably see Angelina now." I winked at him and he punched me, chuckling.
"I'm sure the only reason you want to write the notes up is so you can try and catch Hermione in the library!" He shouted behind me as I kicked the door open and headed downstairs.
I got to the library and sat at a table in the private study area. These were set aside for people who wanted to work privately or in small groups on projects and didn't want to be disturbed.
Leafing through our already mastered recipes proudly, I reached an empty page and started to write. I also drew the pictures, carefully sketching what the finished result should look like. We wanted to cover every loophole so we didn't have to spend too much time remaking these products. Especially since testing the products could take its toll.
"You're a pretty good drawer." I heard Hermione's voice from behind me.
"Thanks." I replied. She read through what I had just written, and smiled.
"All of it is great!" she beamed, which made me feel delighted. "It's nice to see a Weasley that can spell."
"You've obviously only seen Ron write." I chortled, pulling a chair over from a nearby table so she could sit down.
"I think I've sorted out my problem." She burst out, obviously eager to show someone what she'd managed to do. "I wanted you to be the first to see it."
In her small hand was the Galleon I had given to her yesterday. "I spent the whole day working on it, in the Room of Requirement. The only date it would change to at first was April Fool's Day." she chuckled a little.
"That's our birthday!" I said. "That's an important date." I winked, making her laugh even more.
"I won't forget it." She reassured me, getting out her wand and a few more galleons. "I duplicated the Master Galleon and put the Protean Charm on it." She explained, placing them number side up on my palm. I noticed how the duplicated Galleons were smaller and more faded than the others, probably so people couldn't just duplicate money and spend it. A shame, really.
"Now watch." She ordered. She tapped her wand on her Galleon and the numbers wiggled around to tomorrow's date. The Hogsmeade Trip. Suddenly my hand burned slightly as the numbers on the three coins in my palm re-arranged themselves to imitate hers.
"Maybe you shouldn't have held three at once." Hermione stammered quickly, snatching them from me. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." I reassured her this time, patting her closed hand. "They're perfect." I indicated the coins. "They'll work great!"
"Thanks." She grinned. I noticed how her teeth had mysteriously shrunk now. I decided not to comment since she must have been insecure about it.
"You've got blood on your face." She mused, her wand still in her hand.
"I supposed I have." I replied slowly as she suddenly but gently cupped my face with her hand.
"Hold still." she said quickly. "Tergeo."
"Thanks again, Miss Granger!" I saluted her as the dried blood siphoned off my face.
"Why did you even have blood on your face?" She questioned, lightly taking her hand away and carefully put her wand away in her bag.
"We were testing a product." I whispered. She looked like she was about to yell at me so I covered her mouth gently with both hands, stifling her protests.
"It's okay," I comforted her, and I could feel her face relax, but only slightly. "We always prepare an antidote just in case something goes wrong, and there is always one of us there to supervise the other."
She wasn't truly convinced by this, but she pushed my hands away from her face.
"I just don't want you to get hurt okay?" She blurted out, before covering her face with her own hands. "I mean… your products will suffer with only one of you there… and people need you…"
Typical Hermione, I thought. Wait… people need me?
"It's okay." I repeated, removing her hands. "I'm not getting hurt any time soon." I got up.
"Shall we adjourn to the common room, M'Lady?" I asked, offering my hand to her. She blushed as people looked over at us.
She smiled. "Of course good sir." she replied, taking my hand as I led her out of the library.
I should go to the library more often.