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 Thirty-Four: In five hundred twenty-five thousand Six hundred minutes, How do you measure a year in the life?
Okay, Fred was willing to admit he might have freaked out a bit earlier.
But only a bit.
Just because he was willing to admit that did not by any means mean that he was about to let his witch stay with the rest of the muggleborns at Hogwarts.
Hermione didn't really offer him an opinion in the matter, granted, but he was voicing his opinion anyway.
"I don't think this is a good idea."
"Why?"
Her tone was vague. She wasn't giving him her full attention. He was a little offended. "Because they just blew up a graduation stage to get rid of the muggleborns."
"Mmm." She was really not listening to him. He knew she was shuffling through papers on a table. What was she doing?
"Well, I think you need to take a few days off."
"What?" Finally. He had her attention now. Never mind that she sounded upset.
"I think you need to take a few days off from Hogwarts. You can stay with me."
Hermione set her papers down and turned to face him slowly. He was in trouble now. Why was he in trouble?
"You want me to leave my students because of an explosion that wasn't aimed for me?"
"I wouldn't put it like that, but yes."
"Oh well then, No."
"Why?"
"Because I'm not leaving my students. You're being unreasonable. I'm perfectly safe here. Furthermore, I need to make sure my students are safe."
Fred frowned and shook his head. That didn't even make sense. "If it's so safe here then you don't need to be here to keep them safe."
"Yes, aside from the fact that I have to teach them, I'm one of the people responsible for keeping the school safe. It's the professors jobs to guard the school." Hermione turned back to her papers and began to shuffle through them again. "I'm sorry, but I won't argue about this with you. I'm staying and that's all there is to it."
"I… I don't want you to get hurt. You-I can't lose you, Hermione. You're too important." There was a faint whooshing noise of falling papers, and then Fred's senses were completely enveloped by Hermione. Her scent, her warmth, her softness, it surrounded him and made the lump that was starting to rise in his throat all the more painful. He wrapped his arms around her and held her as fiercely tight as he could. He couldn't lose her, and it felt like there wasn't anything he could do to keep her from getting hurt. Every time, every damn time, he let his guard drop even a little something horrible happened.
"Nothing's going to happen, Fred. You know I love you, and I won't leave you. I never thought I'd belong to anyone. I never particularly wanted to belong to anyone. That was partially because of the impossible situation I was in, but it was an obligation I didn't care for. Yet, I belong to you now, and I love it. I'm not leaving you, not for anything. I certainly won't let something as trivial as death separate us. Besides, it'll take a good deal more than a bomb by some prejudice git to kill me. I refuse to be brought down by someone who does not even have the decency to face me head on."
She paused, brushing a hand along his jaw. Her touch was so light that Fred half believed he was imagining it. "You're mine, Fred. And as such, I am yours. Don't you know that?"
Fred swallowed. The lump refused to move from his throat. He just held on a little tighter and dropped his head so that it was touching hers.
"I'm still not leaving Hogwarts though. I only have three more weeks and then I'll be on summer break. I can rent an apartment and I'll be safe. Don't worry Fred. I'll be fine. I'll keep floating on. I always do."
Fred understood what she meant, and agreed with it to some extent, but he couldn't help feeling that he wouldn't be able to just keep floating on for much longer. He'd been simply floating for far too long.
Besides, Hermione made him want to be grounded. He wanted to set roots down and hold her down with him. Stabilize her crazy life and give her something she could always lean on. Someone she could always hold onto.
The fact that his life, with the explosions, blindness, failed experiments and pranks, was anything but stable didn't matter. He'd make it stable for her.
For her, he'd move the world. He had a good job, he could keep the experiments out of the flat, and he could improve the safety measures.
Hermione pressed a kiss to his lips right as it occurred to him that he was trying to make his flat safe for her to live in it. He decided, as her soft lips took his bottom lip captive, that he'd think about that a little more later. Right now he needed to show the witch in his arms that he'd be there for her to hold onto.
-o-o-o-
"Damn it all!" Fred yelled, waving his throbbing hand wildly through the air. The instinctual motion did absolutely nothing to ease the pain from the burn, and he knocked over a vase on the mantle for his troubles.
The vase fell to the floor and shattered, causing Archimedes, who had been napping at Fred's feet, to yelp and jump up, hitting the coffee table. The experiment Fred had been conducting fell over onto his braille potion book, and he could feel a burst of heat and smell the terrible scent of smoke.
A whoosh noise and then the entire table was covered in warm flames. Fred jumped back, his hand still throbbing, Archimedes still yelping, and slipped on a piece of the vase. He tripped on Archimedes and fell to the floor with a remarkably loud crash.
Well… That had escalated rather quickly.
"What the bloody-Fred?!"
Fred, lying on the ground with a nosebleed and a throbbing hand that was now joined by a throbbing elbow, knee, and left foot, shook his head. He had nothing to say. He still wasn't sure what had just happened to him.
Archimedes whined and pulled at his sleeve. Oh, that was right, the table was still on fire.
George, thankfully, took care of the problem. He leveled his wand at the burning table and shot a jet of water at it. The fire dissipated, and the water splashed Fred.
Now he was wet, burned, and in a load more pain than was really fair.
"So…" George said, grinning a bit in an attempt to lift the tension in the room. Fred shook his head at the pointless action. He couldn't see a smile, and he was tense. He was going to stay tense too. He was lying on a vase, with a bit of something stuck in his foot, a burned hand, and a dog that was trying to drag him away by his sleeve.
"So what." Circe's corset, his voice was hoarse.
"So, you want pork chops or meat pie for supper?"
"What?" Fred tugged his arm free from Archimedes and tried to sit up. He got halfway up before his burned hand reminded him that it was hurt, and he fell back down. "What are you talking about?"
"Dinner." George replied matter-of-factly. "Or did you think I was going to chat about the fire? Hermione's coming over in an hour. I'll let her handle that."
"She's coming over?" Archimedes nosed his way under Fred's back and pushed him up into a sitting position before circling around to the front and letting Fred pull himself up to an almost standing position with him.
George snorted and set a pan down on the stove top. He'd decided on pork chops then. "Of course. She's over here every night. Wonder she hasn't moved in yet."
Fred managed to stand up, and then fall down again-this time on the couch-when his foot reminded him that it too was hurt, and still had a bit of glass or ceramic or god-knows-what embedded in it.
"Might want to try a few healing spells before she gets here." George called from the kitchen. Fred loved that George would let him handle himself, but seriously? A little aid wouldn't be resented right now.
George chuckled and dropped another pan onto the stove. "I'm not going to help you. I told you not to do that experiment in here. You're the one who said we need to make the flat a 'no chaos' zone. Remember?"
Fred stuck his tongue out at his twin. Yes, he wanted to make the flat less chaotic-he wanted to impress Hermione. He didn't need to be reminded of that right now.
Archimedes set his wand in his lap then proceeded to get a dustpan and scrape the vase bits over to a corner of the flat. Good Godric, Fred loved his dog.
Fred rubbed the tip of his wand over each of his wounds and healed them before trying to stand again. He pushed himself off the couch and managed to stay upright (hooray!) before stepping forward and feeling for the table.
It was slick with ash and water and burnt bits of experiment. Uh-oh.
Archimedes nudged him with the dustpan. Fred shook his head and took the offered tool. "Sorry, buddy. I think it's gonna take a bit more than this."
"Try transfiguring it. Worked last time."
"You could give me a hand, instead of suggestions. Just saying."
"Then who would fix dinner?" George laughed at the glare Fred gave him and continued making far too much noise in the kitchen. Fred wouldn't have been surprised if he wasn't actually cooking anything. Git was probably just trying to find a way out of helping.
It was easier to fix than it probably should have been. Archimedes barked his approval at the new design and finished cleaning up the broken vase while Fred tended to the rest of the room.
"Thank you, Archimedes. At least some people know how to help." Fred gave George a pointed look and pet his guide dog's head. George laughed, again, and shook his head.
"You do know that he's not a person. He's a dog."
Archimedes barked indignantly and Fred couldn't help but laugh.
"Sorry, no offense meant, Archimedes. You know I love you." George apologized, and Archimedes gave a grudging nod. They all stood in silence for a moment, George cooking, Fred and Archimedes trying to decide if there was anything else that needed to be prepared.
"Are you talking to her about moving in?"
"Pardon?"
"Tonight. Are you asking her about moving in to the flat?"
Fred didn't bother asking how George knew he wanted Hermione to move in. His twin just knew things about him. He was the same way with George, he could tell things before George even knew them. Like right now, he wanted to move in with Angelina, but he was scared too. Hermione would be a good excuse for him, but it'd be really hard.
The two of them had never not lived together. Granted, Angelina was literally in a flat across the street, but it was still more distance than they'd ever had.
"I haven't decided. Today, it's been a year and one week since I woke up blind. I don't know if it's a good time."
George was silent for a moment. Anyone who didn't know him might think he'd forgotten. Fred wasn't worried. He knew George was aware of what had happened. He just hadn't said anything because he didn't need to. Fred was so much better than he'd been a year ago, and it was mostly thanks to his twin and a stubborn, deaf, witch. He shuddered to think of where he'd be without them.
"I think you should, mate. It'd be a good way of marking the day, by showing that this was the day everything changed for you."
This was the one year anniversary of the day that Hermione had told him she was deaf. One year ago today Fred had decided to let Hermione tell him her story. One year ago Fred had listened, and let Hermione in.
He'd started to heal, and fell in love with the witch in the process.
He'd gotten a dog that had become so much more than a pet. He'd re-bonded with his twin and his family. He'd opened a new branch of Weasley Wizarding Wheezes. He learned to skate, play an instrument, play board games, fly without sight, describe movies, read braille, speak a bit of French (Hermione was fluent and spoke it at night. He'd picked it up by accident), locate people by their smell of sound of their footsteps, how to dance (waltz, tango, and a random modern bouncing thing), duel without seeing or using tracking charms. He could memorize the entire layout of any place, and maneuver it without hitting anything. He could remember where people were and find them without incident.
He owed so much to Hermione. How could he begin to tell her what she had done for him? How could you measure the amount a person had changed someone's life? How could you explain that, without them, you'd probably be dead?
How do you measure a year of love and change?
A/n: BrightestWitchOfHerAge16, iLoveRomance2o11, computer geek, The-Delectable-May-Reach, Fruitality, dance-sing-live, hprbdfan, all got the song correct, it's Born This Way by Lady Gaga. I love that song :)
Now, I have a question for everyone, since there are only two chapters of this story left (not including an epilogue) I want to know which idea you like better. I have two stories ready to be written, neither one are a sequel to this story, but who knows, I might write one someday. Anyway, the choices are as follows:
1) A peter pan spin off, featuring Hermione as Wendy, and Fred as Peter. The rest of the cast will be made entirely of Harry Potter characters, and it'll defer quite a bit from the book/play/movie adaptions of the story.
2) A post DH (Fred alive) story based of Ellie Goulding's song 'Lights.' During the battle, Fred dies, and what he sees during the two and a half minutes he lay dead, continues to haunt him. He gets reckless and things happen. I can't go into too much detail or I'll spoil my story :)
Let me know which idea you like better, please!
Now, to your reviews!
93DiagonAlley: Thanks, lol! It made me laugh, I love cats! SilverLining1294: thanks a million, I fixed the error. You all made me blush with your INCREDIBLY sweet reviews. Seriously, I am as red as a tomato right now. :D
Also, I've updated my profile, so, fun times there. :) Let me know if you have any more questions!