Whispers in the dark
Chapter 20: Two can play a game
A/N: I own nothing except my mistakes. Also, I got a couple of reviews asking me about Harry funding the twins the money! Yes, he did, but I didn't put it in yet, because Harry hasn't arrived at Grimmauld's Place yet and thus hadn't been able to give them the money yet. And I really want him to give it at Grimmauld's. So, that's why I haven't mentioned it yet! It will reoccur later on in this story. Thanks to all of you for your kind words and your constructive criticism!
Huffing, she tried to reach for the highest shelf as she carefully balanced a set of plates on her hands, having been asked by Molly to help set the table for dinner. The thing is, Mrs Weasley could easily do this all by herself. A simple spell could set the table for her without having to waste any energy. Just like she was doing with the cooking right now. But even though it was only the second day here, she knew that Molly tried to find as many ways to keep all children occupied as to keep them in the shadows of what actually going on.
Holding her breath and biting on her bottom lip, she nearly drew blood as she made an inhuman bend in her back to get all the plates on the table without breaking them. After successfully putting them down, she blew away a strand of hair that had fallen into her face as she placed a plate at each chair.
"You know you could just easily ask Kreacher to do that, don't you?" Hermione looked up at the male voice, a bit taken by surprise as she was under the impression that only Molly and her were in the kitchen. Seeing that it was Fred, she tutted at him as she shook her head. He clearly had to learn a thing or two about her.
"I do not condone house-elves, Fred, and neither should you." She scolded as she watched him casually lean in the doorway, his shirt lightly holstered up at his shoulder as he pressed it into the wall. "Why not?" He asked, but before she could even open her mouth he held up his hand and added "Wait, don't tell me, I am quite certain that I don't want to know."
Biting her lip, she debated whether to tell him anyway or not, but figured that she'd give him this point. At least he was clever enough to know that she would be fighting him on this matter, and also, that she would continue until she had won.
"Where did you leave your other half?" Hermione asked, reaching for the utensils in the drawer, and then handing him half of it so he could make himself useful instead of just creepily staring at her in the doorway.
Fred cocked her a smile, but wordlessly took the utensils and carelessly dropped them next to the plates. Disorderly as well. "Ron and Ginny were bickering. Figured my sunshine was needed somewhere else. George was amused though, so he stayed to enjoy the show."
At this Hermione froze in her movement before she would drop her last utensil and squinted in what she hoped would be a threatening look. "You wouldn't have anything to do with that, now would you?"
Fred did what he always liked to do when he was in a good mood to tease her: he feigned hurt by dramatically slapping a hand on his heart as if she just broke it. "Hermione I cannot believe you assume that I could do such a thing." He then took a few steps around the table so he could close the distance between them.
"Fred, call out for dinner, please," Molly said, and by this Fred slapped a hand on her shoulder as he winked at Hermione. "But you might be right." He said with a laugh as he escaped his mother's slap of her towel, scolding him for causing a fight. At this he hurried out of the kitchen to retrieve people for dinner, leaving Hermione standing alone quite awkwardly as Molly curiously looked at her, clearly suppressing the urge to ask why in heavens Fred and her were talking.
Deciding that breaking eye contact would save her some awkwardness, she opted for taking a place at the dinner table, greeting Remus, Sirius and Arthur as they came in one by one.
Molly had just put the pans on the table before Ron and George came in, George clapping him on the shoulder as they made their way to the table. "Nearly felt the wrought of that." George said, a wicked smile on his face.
Ron took a seat next to Hermione, and she curiously looked at him. "What happened with Ginny?" At this George laughed. "Yes, what did happen, little brother?" Right on cue, Fred came in as well, taking a seat opposite of her next to George, and he easily copied his brother's smirk. "Do include me in the fun."
Hermione watched as Ron turned a deep shade of pink, but it wasn't so much in embarrassment, but more in a light sense of anger. "Fred and George here scared Ginny by apparating behind her, which in turn scared me and made me spill my drink on her." Ron shrugged, as if saying that he really wasn't at fault. "Yeah, got our little sister a little bit mad." Fred laughed, but got hit on the back of his head by his mother, just as George got the same thing.
"I told you to stop apparting all of the time!" Mrs Weasley grumpily exclaimed, but was soon calmed down by Arthur as he insisted that she should go ahead and sit down. "Where is Ginny now?" He asked his children, looking expectantly at the twins, but it was Ron who answered. "Well, eventually she started crying and headed upstairs. Must be changing clothes or something."
Taking a sharp look at the twins, Hermione was about to stand up to go and fetch Ginny, but Arthur gently turned her down. "That's very kind of you, but I think George should do it."
"Why me?" He whined as he was just about to serve himself some potatoes. "Well, one of you would have to go ahead and do it. And somehow I do not trust Fred with this." This time Fred did not feign hurt, but simply smiled proudly in return. When looking to her, she made a point to exaggeratedly roll her eyes.
As George left to get Ginny, Sirius urged everyone on to go ahead and eat before the food would get cold, and so the chatter and clattering of utensils on plates emerged.
Minding her own business and emerging herself in a conversation with Remus and Arthur about historic spells and why they are no longer used, she found herself get distracted by a certain redhead. "Actually, we no longer use those spells because no one remembers them." Fred whispered under his breath as he stuffed a spoonful of food into his mouth, contradicting his father when he had said that those spells had only belonged to a selected group of Purebloods.
"Quite useless, really. From what we did gather, they were simple spells such as getting your shoes laced." Hermione nodded and smiled at what Remus said, but was ever so grateful for Ginny and George to show up and catch their attentions so that Hermione could focus on Fred. "I'm trying to listen, Fred." Hermione tried to scold, but only got Ron's attention, as he just so happened to lean over to her to grab some more meat.
"What was that?" He asked, taken aback. Hermione politely smiled and shook her head, "I didn't say anything." She claimed, but opposite her Fred was snickering as he clicked his tongue.
"I wonder how long I could tease you before driving you mad." Hermione looked up and saw Fred staring at her, an intensely wicked glimmer in his eyes. This could not be good. "I swear to Merlin, Fred, if you try t-" but Hermione was cut short as now Molly whipped her head to her.
"Did you say something, dear?" Knowing she could not lie again by saying she didn't, Hermione decided to nod and smile and point at the basket next to the woman. "Yes, I was asking if you could perhaps pass me the bread." Hermione lied.
"Oh yes, of course, here you are." Taking the basket of bread – that she was actually not intending to eat – she thanked Molly, and was glad when Arthur grabbed her attention. "Yes, you were saying?"
Hermione shot a nasty look his way, but this time he was not looking at her. He was acting as if he was in a conversation with George, who had by long grabbed onto Fred's plan and was eagerly participating, an equally wicked smile on his lips as he let him be used as a cover.
"You're going to expose us," Hermione warned as she pretended to drop her spoon and used her retrieval off the ground as a way to whisper her words.
"Very clever witch," Fred taunted, and at this Hermione stood up to walk to the sink. "You know, I quite like this. Carrying this great big secret. Feels a bit naughty, doesn't it?" Hermione dared a look over her shoulder, and saw Fred's eyes focused on her, a taunting smile on his lips as he wiggled his eyebrows. In the meantime, George was simply trying to cover up his laugh.
Turning back to the sink she turned the water on, allowing the noise to cover up her voice. "You're right, Fred, it's very exciting indeed." Hermione challenged, a light anxious smile spreading on her lips. Two could play a game. Turning the sink off after she finished washing her spoon, she turned back around to find Fred's eyebrows raised in surprise, quickly averting his eyes.
Biting back a grin, she took her seat back at the table. "Are you going to eat those?" Ron asked, pointing at the basket of bread. Hermione shook her head, waving her hand at it. "Go ahead." She encouraged, and he eagerly grabbed the basket.
"You should eat plenty, Hermione." Fred spoke out loud, grabbing the attention of people close by, like Ron, Molly and Ginny. George simply remained silent, clearly enjoying the teasing show.
Knowing that it would only satisfy him more if she would react embarrassed or anxious, she decided to cross him by sugar-coating her smile. "Thank you Fred, I think I will indeed." Hermione said, reaching over Ron's arm and grabbing a piece of toast. "Hey! I thought you said you didn't want any." Ron muffled, his mouth full of bread. "Changed my mind." Hermione said, grinning as she bit into the bread whilst staring at Fred, who was curiously looking at her, his lips turning up into an intrigued smile.
"Okay what is going on between you two?" Ginny interfered, clearly having watched the show, as well as Molly, but she made it more subtle, only shooting glances out of the corner of her eye. "I wouldn't know what you're talking about, Gin." Hermione said sweetly after swallowing a piece of toast.
Grumpily she shook her head, but dropped the matter as George sneakily grabbed a piece of meat off her plate, ensuing more bickering and making Molly raise her voice.
Fred took the opportunity of the commotion to focus back on her, a grin stretched on his lips. "So you do know how to have fun." He said, and Hermione simply shrugged her shoulders at him. "Who ever said that I didn't?"
At this Fred laughed, and Molly raised herself from her seat as she took away dinner and replaced it with desserts. For the remainder of the meal Fred let her drop, continuing a conversation with George as well as with Sirius, talking about pranks and certain joke products.
Hermione was very grateful for the moment of silence, because she wasn't quite sure how much longer she could do with all those curious glances. At times like those she wondered if she shouldn't just tell everyone what was going on with Fred and her. It's not like they would be having an antidote anytime soon, and the secrecy was definitely hard to keep sometimes. Although, like tonight, it did add some spicy tension, in a good way.
Dessert was quicker gone than she would have liked, and before she knew it she was walking into the living room with Ron. Ginny and the twins were put on cleaning duty, and the others were hanging at the dining table, caught up in their conversations.
"Have I ever told you about the origin of Wizarding Chess?" Ron asked, disturbing the silence as he seated himself in a chair and caught a glance of the Wizarding Chess laying on a nearby table. Hermione sighed to herself, plopping herself down on the couch, ready to lose focus as she was certain that Ron would bore her to death with his explanation. It just wasn't really her thing.
In fact, she was so zoned out, that she hadn't noticed that the twins and Ginny were done cleaning, until Fred came to sit down next to her and leaned over to her, his shoulder pressing into his as he went to say something in her ear, but said it loud enough for Ron to hear anyway. "Do you want to hear something a little more interesting?" Fred breathed, and pulled back with a smirk.
Hermione unwillingly chuckled, but was grateful for some relief from Ron's story. Ron, on the other hand, did not find it as funny, but was all too soon distracted as George invited him to play a round of chess.
Just before she could pick up a conversation with Fred, Mrs Weasley came in to hand her a letter, and intrigued, she opened it. Surely, it could only be from one person: Harry. And upon taking a closer look at the handwriting, she knew it was indeed him before even seeing his name.
Propping her legs up, she made herself comfortable on the couch as she opened the letter. Just as she was reading hers, Ron got one as well, though wasn't there to read it as he had gone to the toilet, and the letter now laid forgotten on the table.
It was indeed Harry, telling her about an incident he had with a dementor around his nephew and the letter from Hogwarts that he received saying he would get expelled. He was clearly very worried in the letter.
Looking up once she finished it, she saw Fred looking at her, a frown etching on his forehead as he curiously looked at her. "Bad news?" He asked, but Hermione didn't know what to say. Instead she simply handed him the letter and waited for him to finish reading it.
"Well, they can't just expel him, can they?" Hermione bit her lip, but went to grab a book from under the sofa. "Blimey, d'you carry that thing everywhere you go?" Fred asked, taken by surprise as she retrieved: Hogwarts: A History.
Not giving him an answer, she hastily skimmed through the pages until she found what she was looking for. Expulsion of students. "There," Hermione said, pointing to a crucial sentence in the book.
Fred leaned in closer to see what was written, and Hermione tried hard to not let his breathing on her neck distract her. It didn't happen often that they were this close, his warm body pressing into hers. "If Harry had indeed used magic around his nephew," she cleared her throat as it broke down, "out of self-defence, then there is no way they can expel him."
"Blimey, I wish I could write to him about it. Ease his worries." Hermione said, nibbling on her lip as she stared at the book in her hands.
Hermione could hear Fred smile before she even saw him do it. It was in the way that he would breathe out the smallest amount of air before doing so. "I'm sure he'll be here soon. You can tell him then." Fred assured, then grabbed the book out of her hands and closed it, tossing it to the side so she could no longer obsess over it.
In a way, that was a very gentle gesture. It was as if he was saying not to worry.
Hermione smiled at Fred, not minding the close distance so much right now. "Yeah, I guess you're right." She breathed.