Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

Chapter Twenty Nine

Poison

It was the day before she was to go back to school, when she got a visit from an unexpected visitor. When she open the door and found Fred Weasley there she was shock to say the least, but that was nothing to how she felt after he had pulled her closely to him, closed her front door, flinched his wand so it would lock itself and then Apparated to some unknown location.

"What are you doing?" Hermione hissed at him when she could speak.

"Kidnapping you… isn't this fun," Fred smiled at her.

"I don't think this is the time to be joking around about that," Hermione said glaring at him.

"Fine, I needed a nice place where I could talk to you alone," Fred said more seriously but of course he was still smiling.

"And my home wasn't good enough for you," Hermione said flatly, obviously not amused with this at all.

"Er… right, that would have worked," Fred said trying to look sheepish, she didn't buy it.

"Why am I here Fred?" Hermione said sternly.

"Because you're probably not going to like what I have to say and I need you to understand something," Fred said.

"Fine, but I'm not going to listen until you take me home," Hermione said flatly she wasn't going to give him an option in this.

"But Mione…" Fred started to whine.

Hermione took out her wand and pointed it at him and Fred gulped. "Now Mione, you wouldn't want to do anything rash… you would get in trouble for this…"

"I'm Seventeen Fred… and I know plenty of spells that will keep me out of trouble," Hermione smirked at him.

"Right… your birthday is in September, I forgot about that," Fred mumbled to himself. "I bet that's why George was laughing so much when I mention doing this…"

"So George is in on this too," Hermione said narrowing her eyes.

"No he's not," Fred said snapping his head up. "I doubt he thought that I was serious about this…"

"Hey Fred did you…" George said walking into the room; they were in their Apartment over their shop. He took one looking at Hermione, who was looking at Fred with an evil glint in her eyes with her wand pointing at his chest. "Never mind, I can see you're busy," he said as he turned around and left him, chuckling loudly. "Please don't maim him too badly; my favorite joke is when we pull the whole wrong twin thing."

"I could just use the same spell on you," Hermione shot after him.

"Hm… you know what, that's okay, I can live without that joke for a little while," George chuckled and then left them alone.

"So..." Hermione said. "It's up to you."

"Fine," Fred sighed. "I'll take you home, but you've got to listen to me when we get there."

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him and he sighed again.

They were in Hermione's backyard in no time and Hermione had half a mind to go inside and not listen to whatever it was that Fred had to say, but she had to admit that she did feel better having him here. It kept her mind off of things, and it was nice to laugh again.

"Are you coming or not," Hermione said when she got to the back door, opened it with a charm and turned to look back at him.

"Yeah," Fred smiled and then made himself at home in her living room. "Wow, this is a nice house."

"Thank you," Hermione smiled fondly, she always loved her home.

"I can't see why would want to come to our place and get cramped into the Burrow," Fred said.

"I love the Burrow, everything is so alive there," Hermione smiled, but it hurt to think of the Burrow now because it made her think of her last summer there. "What did you want to tell me Fred?"

"I don't know what happened between you and my brother," Fred said. "But whatever it is, I don't think it's what you think it is."

"You just said a lot of nonsense there," Hermione pointed out. "And I don't want to talk about your brother."

"I made him believe that I wanted to go out with you and you know what he said," Fred went on fearlessly. "Well, just wait awhile, she's probably anti-Weasley at the moment..."

Hermione head dropped at that; it was clear to her that that meant that Ron didn't care about her anymore.

"Can you believe that," Fred said shaking his head. "Mione!" he then exclaimed because he say that she had taken it the wrong way. "Look, I've known my brother since, well, since he was born and this is not like him at all. He never gives up on anything he cares about, and believe me, nothing will convince me that he doesn't care about you. Whatever it is that's got his knickers in a twist, I don't know, but er… I… er… he'll get over it."

"Well that's nice to know," Hermione said coldly.

"I'm not really helping am I," Fred frowned.

"Nope," Hermione said.

"I should be going, shouldn't I," Fred said.

"Yep," Hermione agreed.

"Just remember," Fred said, his voice was almost pleading. "If he has the bullock to talk to you about this… hear him out."

Hermione didn't answer him, she doubt she would ever hear an explanation from Ron, but she knew she would always listen at the very least if he did try.

"Fred," she asked before he could leave the house. "How did you get him to believe that you wanted to see me?"

"Well…" Fred said smiling at her, the tip of his ears turning red. "That's not as difficult as you might think."

"Oh," Hermione said, she could feel her face turning red, but she was sure the burning look that Fred was giving her was being exaggerated a bit.

"How could he not believe that a strapping young man such as myself, is taken by a fair maiden as beautiful as you," Fred said, flourishing his arms around, taking her hand and trying to kiss it.

"Right," Hermione said, shaking her head. "Good, so you don't really like me."

"I wouldn't say that," Fred chuckled, his eyes twinkling.

"You just like being mysterious don't you," Hermione huffed.

"It's best if you never know what I'm thinking, much easily to pull pranks and such on people if they can't read my face," Fred admitted shrugging. "But let's just say after the time you yelled at me last year for giving the first years an opportunity to make…" she was glaring at him now and he quickly corrected himself, "okay, giving they highly dangerous items- I could see why Ronnie picked fights with you so much. You're hot Granger…"

And with that Fred was gone and she just stared at the spot he disappeared from. Well, that certainly was an interesting conversation that had, despite herself, cheered her up. Once again, she thought of the week before her break up with Ron and the two weeks after and she could feel her own uneasiness with the way things ended. It didn't change the way things are now, she chided herself, hours later when she heard her parents come home from work. She did realize that Fred was right, there was something odd about what happened, but there was nothing she could do about it now.

O

When she got back to school, everything went make to the way it was before she left. Ron was always with Lavender, she didn't pay any attention to them, not even to notice that they didn't seem to be happy with each other. It still hurt whenever she looked at him but the ache was dulling a little and if this kept up, she would be able to stand being near him for longer than a minute in a few years. Of course, the only time when this really mattered, being able to stand being near him, was when they were patrolling. That always was the hardest time of the week, filled with awkward silences and longing looks.

So an uncomfortable routine came about for the next month. She would study in the library, sometimes with her friends, sometime alone. She would go to her class and do just as good as she always did. Twice a week at least she would spend an hour walking so close to Ron she could tough him, but not even saying hello to him. It was horrible. Especially those times, being so close to him but still not talking. She almost broke down and said something just about every time they patrol together, but she reminded herself just in time that he was the one that wanted it to be this way so he should break the silence. She could tell he wanted to, the longer they've been a part the more often she could feel his eyes on her, but she couldn't be the one to break the silence. She knew it was more than just her own pride keeping her back too; there was just something that told her to keep this up.

The only real memory she could pull easily about this time, because everything else sort of blended together with its mundaneness, was when Harry told her about his latest 'lesson' with Dumbledore. This time was about him killing his father and grandparents and blaming it on his uncle. Merlin, who would want to be part of his family? And about something else that was a little more intriguing. It seemed that Harry had gone into a memory that belonged to Slughorn, but somehow, the memory was tempered with. She didn't think that was possible, but then again, the way that Harry had described the memory it wasn't done well. It had something to do with Horcrux, whatever the hell that is. She could see Harry's disappointment when she said she didn't know it seemed he had come to believe that she knew everything. Dumbledore had also given Harry some 'homework'; he was going to have to persuade Slughorn to give him the real memory.

She had always known that Ron would think the simplest way to do thing and that Harry would do just about anything that his best friend suggested, but really, just straight up asking Slughorn for the memory… what was he thinking? All he was going to do was make Slughorn suspicious when he was around and he won't get anything from him.

That class itself had made her infuriated at Harry too, she remembered that well. She had worked all lesson long, trying to get the potion just right, a potion she smugly thought was something the stupid potion book that Harry loved to read (and take spells out of when he doesn't know what they would do) will help him with. However, in the end he did think of something that would work… something so ridiculous… but she had to reluctantly admit that it would have worked on the poisons they had in the room. He handed Slughorn a beazor. Of course Slughorn just beamed at Harry finding a cheeky answer and her potion she had near made to completion and was perfect went completely unnoticed.

It was a few days after that that Harry asked her to help him with something. She was still a little angry with him and he could see it, at least she thought he could because of the bemused smile on his face.

"Oh, okay then, I guess I'll talk to someone else about this," Harry sighed, looking down and altogether over playing his part.

"You do that," Hermione said impatiently still reading her book, though she smiled at her friend's poor acting ability. They were out on the grounds for once and it was just the two of them. The grounds were deserted for the most part because it was the middle of winter and covered with snow. However, since it wasn't snowing at the moment and Hermione was rather good at conjuring blue fire and doing the warming charms they both felt toasty.

"It's about Ginny," Harry said, "but I can see…"

"Fine, I give in, tell me," Hermione said putting the book down and Harry chuckled.

"I don't think I want to…" Harry started but she glared at him to get on with it. "I kind of… er… like her."

Hermione rolled her eyes, Harry was saying this like it was news, but of course she figured this out during the summer. "Go on."

"You don't have to make it sound so obvious," Harry groaned. "I just figured this out, for Merlin sake."

"Really?" Hermione said. "I thought you knew ages ago… you know when I tried to ask you about it the common room…"

"Er… I sort of did, but not really," Harry blushed. "Er… it's just I knew that's what you were asking me, but I didn't have an answer…"

"Okay Harry," Hermione said kindly this time. "What do you need my help with?"

Harry just looked at her, not sure what to do. He really shouldn't have gone to her with this, but she has always been the one he went to (okay so it was only one other time, but still, she was the one that he went to) with matters like this. "I don't know what to do now."

"I believe you ask her out," Hermione said.

"It's not that simple," Harry moaned miserable.

"Argh, are all guys this afraid to ask the girl they like out," Hermione grumbled, rolling her eye as she thought of the beginning of the year when she was talking to Neville about something similar to this.

"Yes," Harry admitted. "It hard when you're not sure if the girl likes you or not."

At this point Harry looked at her almost hopefully, but she just looked back at him.

"Darn," Harry snapped his figures. "I was hoping you were going to tell me if she liked me or not."

"Harry! You know I wouldn't do that," Hermione said exasperated. "It's not my place."

"I know," Harry sighed. "But you do know… what she thinks about me."

Hermione just looked at him blankly and didn't show him any emotions at all.

"Right," Harry sighed again, he wasn't going to get anything from her at that end. "Well, as I was saying it's scary to ask a girl out, but that's not all that I'm worried about."

"Then what is it?" Hermione asked.

"It's…" Harry tried to say, but he couldn't, he didn't really want to talk about this, and he didn't want to bring up this topic when Hermione was looking so happy at the moment.

"It's Ron, isn't it," Hermione said, bringing the subject up herself.

"Yeah," Harry said. "How did you know that's what I was talking about?"

"I can tell when you're trying to avoid talking about him," Hermione smiled sadly.

Harry looked at her sadly, but it was clear that she didn't really want to talk about this right now. "I don't know what to tell him."

"You're afraid that he might react badly to you going out with his sister," Hermione said thoughtfully. She tried to picture that; Ron yelling at Harry for betraying him in this way. She couldn't really picture it. Ron was hot headed, and he liked to protect his sister, but he could also be reasonable and sweet. He also loved Harry, she knew that more than she knew anything else, and in the end that was more important to Ron then being angry at his friend.

"Yeah, just a little," Harry admitted, and she could see the internal debate he must have been going through. "It just, he said that you shouldn't go out with a bloke's sister… he was talking about Dean (he spat out the last word bitterly). They're not even that close and Ron was angry at him for just looking at her."

"But Harry you're his best friend," Hermione tried to say.

"I know… how could I…" Harry started miserably.

"He'll understand," Hermione interrupted him. "It's obvious that you have strong feeling for her… I'm sure he'll see that…"

"Right," Harry said.

"Now you just have to think of your next problem," Hermione said amused.

"Yeah, and what's that?" Harry looked at her warily.

"Which sibling should you tell first?" Hermione said trying not to laugh.

The color in Harry's face vanished. "Merlin, that's a good question. They'll both kill me if I tell the other one first."

"So I guess the better question is which one are you more afraid?" Hermione did laugh this time.

"This is not funny," Harry groaned. "I'm in serious trouble… and you're laughing at me."

"It's not so bad," Hermione said still laughing. "I'm sure whoever you tell second will eventually understa…"

"Mione," Harry moaned.

"Okay, if you tell Ron how you feel, and make sure you don't ask his permission or anything like that," Hermione said seriously this time. "I'm sure that would be the best way to go."

"Right," Harry nodded his head. "Simple as that."

"Yep," Hermione said. "But you might want to get on the whole asking her out thing. She's a beautiful girl and there are a lot of guys that would like to go out with her."

"Yeah, I realized that one," Harry grumbled.

"I'm sure everything is going to work out for you," Hermione smiled, and the smile was happy at first, but it started to fade as she thought of her relationship with Ron, and how she thought everything was going to work out with that too. Harry could see how upset she was and wordlessly got up to set closer to her as he wrapped an arm around her. They stayed like that for awhile longer before they made their way back to the castle.

O

Ron woke up that morning like it was any other. He was miserable, haunted by his dreams that were so nice that he almost wish that he could just keep sleeping all day. He looked around and Harry was up, rummaging through his trunk again, so he could check to see where Malfoy was. Ron tried to care about what Harry was worrying about, but it was hard to believe that Malfoy could really have some kind of sinister plan that would do them any harm.

He got out of his bed sleepily and he knocked against his bedside table and next thing he knew there was the sound of breaking glass. He looked down and noticed there was a broken vase on the floor with a few flowers in it and next to it was a box of cauldroncakes. He picked up the cauldroncakes, repaired the piece of broken glass and but the flowers back in them.

"Er… why did Lavender give me flowers?" Ron grumbled.

"Because it Valentine's day," Harry mumbled, he was closing the map and sat up to look at him more closely.

"Valentin... argh great," Ron groaned; now he was going to have to think of something to get her fast or she would probably break up with him. Not that that would be such a terrible thing to happen, but he didn't really want to be alone. Okay, so he hardly talks to her, he tried not to kiss her if he could help it, because it still made him feel uneasy and guilty, and he could barely stand to be near her for too long, but still... it was better than being alone. And really, she wasn't so bad when he thought about it, she just wasn't the girl that he wanted to be sitting next to.

He opened the box of cauldorncakes, often one to Harry and then said, "Why would you know that it's Valentines' day anyway?"

"Er..." Harry said, stiffing uncomfortably, putting down the cauldorncake he was about to eat. "No reason."

"Oh really," Ron smirked, seeing immediately that Harry had a reason. Ron was only just able to marvel at how lucky he was having Harry here; his best mate has really been helping him get through this difficult time by being there for him, before he tried to force his friend to tell him everything. "Come on Harry… is there someone that's caught your eye."

"You can said that," Harry mumbled not looking Ron in the eye. "Look Ron…" Harry said this time looking up, about to confess his feeling for Ginny but Ron's eyes had glazed over and he had this goofy look in his eyes. "Ron…"

"Harry…" Ron said in a dreamy voice that would have given Luna Lovegood a run for her money. He didn't know where it came for, but suddenly he felt more at peace than he has in a while. Since Hermione's birthday and she was just laying peacefully in his arms. But he wasn't thinking of Hermione now. No he was thinking about Romilda Vane… the name just kept repeating in his head. He had no idea what she looked like but that didn't mattered. All he knew was that he had to find her somehow.

He wasn't really sure what was happening after that. He got the impression that he might have hit Harry for some reason, but that couldn't be right. Harry was helping him to find Romilda… Merlin did he love thinking that name… why would he have hit him for that. Still, why did they have to go the Slughorn's place, he was sure that wasn't a good place for him to impress a girl… he sucked at potions after all. But the old walrus was giving him a potion for his nerves, that should definitely help him right about now.

The clarity and peace he had evaporated in a second and he felt like the biggest idiot in the world. He groaned miserably, glad that he couldn't remember everything that he said, but he was sure that it was going to be impossible to face Harry for a while. He hardly noticed that Harry was trying to smarm up to Slughorn, it didn't matter much, except that if it helped Harry get the memory that he needed, he suppose he wouldn't mind suffering through this ridiculous incident.

Soon after that he was offered some mead and he drank it quickly, hoping the alcohol would numb his embarrassment. Well it didn't, but that was because it wasn't alcohol… it was poison. He felt its effects as soon as the liquor touched his tongue and he was chocking, but it was too late. He could feel his body going limp, his throat closing, and he shut his eyes. He envisioned Hermione at that moment… wishing he could have seen her happy just one more time. And yet, he was pleased now for what he did… She wouldn't be as hurt this way.

But again, he thought of a happy Hermione and he didn't want to die. He wanted to see that again… he had too. Things started to get darker, and the Hermione in his mind started to fade, but he wouldn't let it go and then… he felt something slide down his throat and it become just a little easier to breath…

A/N: I thought that I would have gotten to the decision after the poison incident, but it feels right ending here. I'm not really sure where the first part with Fred came from, but I thought that having a little lighter beginning would be nice. I hope this chapter wasn't too angsty, though I fear the next one, where Ron and Hermione will talk just might be… Well, I think I'll give you the next chapter in a week and I'll update this story on Thursdays' from now on.