Authors Note: Hi I hope everyone is well and are enjoying 2019 so far. I am sorry for not updating recently. I've had multiple assignments due in over the last three weeks, and they have been my priority. I have a presentation tomorrow, and then Uni should calm down for a bit as I will only have lessons and no assignments for a few months. I should be able to spend more time writing these chapters. Thank you to everyone that has been reviewing, following and favouriting my writing, I am happy that so many of you enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing it, this will be the last chapter of Hermione's first year and the next chapter will take place during the summer holidays. I cannot believe I almost have 200 reviews. Keep letting me know what you think. I am also going to try to update my other stories more regularly if you want to check them out.
Chapter: 29
After waking up in the hospital wing Fred and Hermione had always been surrounded by people. The first people they had seen upon waking up had been their mothers, Fred's mother had called for Poppy, and Madam Pomfrey had bustled over to them casting multiple diagnostic spells on them both and forced them to drink several foul concoctions.
Once Madam Pomfrey had deemed them well enough for visitors they had had a constant stream of people wanting to visit them. The first to attend had been Professor Dumbledore who had brought along a friend while their mothers had gone away to get some rest.
"Fred, Hermione I am so glad the two of you are awake. You sure did worry us all quite a bit." Dumbledore had told them giving them each a bar of Honeydukes Chocolate.
"How are you both feeling?" He asked them.
"We feel fine sir." Hermione had answered for them both, smiling at the headmaster.
"Miss Granger this is my friend, Nicolas Flamel" Dumbledore had said gesturing to the old man at his side. Hermione gasped excitedly, but Fred was unsure as to the reason why.
"Are you really?" she asked her eyes alight with curiosity.
"I am indeed Miss Granger," Nicolas replied with a kind smile.
"You're the inventor of the Philosophers stone," Hermione stated.
"Yes, I am, and I am very thankful to you and your friends for protecting my stone last week. I am very sorry however that you sustained such grave injuries. It wasn't wise to keep the stone in a school full of curious young minds." Nicolas said sadly.
"Hermione, Nicolas has a learning opportunity for you if you'd like." Professor Dumbledore said. Hermione's chocolate eyes widened at his words and her little head bobbed excitedly like one of Fred's dad's muggle bobblehead dolls, Fred thought it was ever so cute.
"Miss Granger I have heard many things about you and think you would be the perfect candidate to be my apprentice," Nicolas told her.
"Your apprentice?" She questioned excitedly.
"Yes, my apprentice, I'm an ancient man who has lived much longer than what is natural. I want to move on and see the next adventure in the afterlife. I am one of the last Alchemy masters on the planet; I am the only person in the world that knows how to make a Philosopher's stone. I do not want to leave this world without knowing that I have passed on all my knowledge to the next generation. I have tried to teach people over the centuries but non-have been smart or dedicated enough to learn what they must. I think you are the apprentice I have been waiting for." Nicolas said.
"What would I do as an apprentice, how would it fit around my studies," Hermione asked worriedly.
"Hermione you are miles ahead of the students in your year group. Over the summer you can floo over to Nicolas home to apprentice five times a week and floo back home afterwards. I'm going to give you the second-year material to go over while you are at home. Before returning to Hogwarts, you will take the end of year exams for the second year. I do not doubt that you will pass them with flying colours. Provided that you pass them, I will allow you to skip ahead to be a third-year student. Had you been born twenty days earlier that would have been your year group anyway? You will do OWL exams of your choosing and will continue your private lessons with myself. On the weekends you can floo to Nicolas for your apprenticeship." Dumbledore had told her, Hermione beamed, and Fred had never seen her look so happy. He thought to himself that his princess was such a cute little bookworm.
"That sounds amazing", she breathed out almost whimsically causing everyone to chuckle.
"I'm happy you think so, rest up and we will hash out the details more clearly after Poppy releases you," Nicolas told her, he and Dumbledore bade them farewell leaving the two alone once again.
"That's why you kept leaving the common room, private lessons with Professor Dumbledore." Fred told her in a fake angry tone."
"Professor Dumbledore said I couldn't tell anyone." She said desperately pleading with her eyes for him to understand.
"Princess I'm just happy you weren't doing anything dangerous and that you were supervised," Fred said pulling her into a hug and kissing the top of her bushy head of hair.
"Should we have told Dumbledore about what we learnt while unconscious." She asked worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.
"No, I don't think we should tell anyone. What we learnt was private and about the two of us. We should do research and find out what it all means before sharing anything with anyone." He replied, and she nodded in agreement.
After Professor Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel had visited the whole Weasley family as well as Harry and Lee descended upon the hospital wing to ensure that they were alright.
"Freddie, Hermione are you both alright?" Ginny asked running into the hospital and throwing herself onto Fred's bed so that she could hug him.
"We are both fine Gin-Bug," Fred reassured hugging her tight.
"You two worried us you know," Bill said taking a seat between the two of them.
"Yeah, especially mum, she never left Hogwarts not even to cook, poor Gin had to have a takeaway every day," Charlie said.
"It was delicious," Ginny said dreamily causing everyone to laugh.
"I'm glad you are both well," Percy said quietly smiling at them both.
"Hermione, we brought your homework for you," Harry said handing her a pile of missed assignments.
"We have notes from all of your classes for you too," Ron added.
"Thank you, boys," she said flicking through the notes.
"Draco took the notes, we thought his notes would be the best for you," Harry added.
"Make sure to pass along my thanks to him," she told them.
"Fred you bloody terrified us in the common room the other night," Lee said with a shudder.
"Sorry about that. Still not certain what happened, just happy to be well again." Fred told his best friend.
Lee opened his mouth to respond put instead George who had stood at the back of the group spoke his voice quiet and full of raw emotion.
"Don't ever do that again, I thought you were dying; I can't live without you, Freddie. If you die, I'll die too because you're my twin, my other half." George said quietly but with conviction, his eyes pleading for Fred to never scare him like that again. Everyone shifted awkwardly feeling intrusive on such a private moment between the brothers.
"I'll try not to Georgie," Fred replied just ad quietly his eyes locked on his twins, he stood up and wrapped his twin in a tight embrace as George broke down sobbing uncontrollably in his arms. He pulled him onto the bed and gently rocked him making soothing sounds as everyone else silently backed out of the hospital wing to give the twins privacy. Hermione quietly moved left her bed and entered the bathroom on the other side of the ward not willing to intrude on such a private moment.
George cried himself to sleep, and Fred sat there holding him unsure what else he could do.
It took three further days of been locked in the hospital wing for Madam Pomfrey to agree to release Fred and Hermione. In that time George barley left the pair of them worried that something else would happen to Fred. Fred himself was beginning to understand how Hermione had felt earlier in the year when he hadn't left her alone after she had fainted in the Great Hall. He was used to George being with him after all they were identical twins and did most things together, but George was obsessive, he cut his food up into bite-sized chunks, and he even tried to follow him into the shower to ensure that he wouldn't slip. Fred hoped that George would go back to normal soon because it was annoying,
During the further three days that they had been in the hospital wing, they had been visited by the Gryffindor quidditch team as well as Neville, Draco, Blaise and Theo. Everyone brought them lots of cards and sweets and happily told of gossip that had been going on. Oliver told them of what had happened in the last Quidditch match of the year between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor.
It had been a brutal game with Fred out of commission they had to hold emergency quidditch try-outs for a replacement. They had ended up choosing, a weedy, pompous, blonde second year named Cormac McLagan. He was better suited to be a beater but had a shitty personality and wasn't good at working as part of a team. He had ended up getting in the way of the Gryffindor chasers multiple times. George had then "accidentally" aimed a bludger at him which had knocked McLagan off his broom, and they had played the rest of the match with only one beater. The chasers had played amazingly regularly stealing the Quaffle and scoring goals. At the start of the game, Hufflepuff had been in the lead for the Quidditch cup having scored 480 points across their first three matches of the year whereas Gryffindor was in second place with 470 points, this meant that it was anyone's game. While McLagan had been an idiot, the Hufflepuff chasers had scored four goals putting them ahead, and Oliver had defended a further twelve goals. After McLagan was knocked out between the three of them Alicia, Katie and Angelina had scored 19 goals; the Hufflepuff Keeper had been off his game. Harry had then caught the snitch and Gryffindor had won the match and the Quidditch cup. The final score of the game had been 340 points to Gryffindor and 60 points to Hufflepuff. For the Quidditch Cup Gryffindor was in first place with 810 points, Hufflepuff in second place with 540 points, Slytherin in third place with 520 points and finally Ravenclaw was in the last place with 490 points.
When they were released from the hospital wing only two weeks of school remained. During that time they had their end of year exams. Usually, Fred didn't care about the end of year exams, but for some reason, George insisted they studied and so did Hermione so for the first time in three years he thought he might have done well in his tests. Hermione second-guessed herself after every test, but Fred reassured her that she would have aced them.
The end of term feast came faster than any of them wanted it to and Dumbledore awarded extra points to Gryffindor which allowed them to win the House Cup for the first time in years. It had been a hectic year, and Fred was looking forward to a relaxing summer.
