Whispers in the dark
Chapter 22: Water ballet
A/N: I own nothing except my mistakes
Hermione huffed heavily as she poured her soul into scrubbing a piece of very old chewed up food off the hallway floor. Not too far away from her she could hear Fred using the same kind of energy as she did as he scraped the doorways clean.
"Honestly, how much more work can your mother give us? It' been a week of cleaning already." Hermione whined, but Fred remained momentarily silenced, and when she looked up to see what he was doing, she could see him balance a bucket in one hand as he stepped on a stool to bring himself a bit higher to reach the top part of the doorway.
As he pulled out an already drenching cloth from his pocket, he dipped it into the bucket and coughed as a cloud of dust came crashing down when he tracked the door lining. "Bloody hell," he grumbled, aggressively slapping the cloth around the wood in the hopes to clean it faster.
Bringing himself safely to the ground again and releasing the bucket, he turned his head to look at her, only to find her sitting on the floor with a big grin on her face as she watched him in amusement.
"Enjoying the show, are you, Granger?" Fred scolded, but she could hear it in his voice that he meant no aggression with that statement. "Oh, very much so, Weasley." Hermione replied, a big grin stretching on her face.
"You know," Fred began, his voice restrained as he lifted the bucket and poured the dirty water out of the window, "when I said I wanted you to have some more fun in life, I did not mean that you could laugh at me."
Hermione let out a hearty laugh, letting the back of her hand go over her forehead as to get rid of some hair that had fallen into her eyes. At the moment it was tucked up in a very messy ponytail, that by no means could hold all of her hair together.
"To be fair, you never specified." Hermione said, and groaned as she put a hand on the wall to help herself up, hearing her bones cracking loose from having sat in the same position for over an hour.
"Careful, I just cleaned that!" Fred taunted, nodding at the wall that her hand was on. Feeling a devilish smile creeping up on her face, she cocked a challenging eyebrow at him as she watched how he was keeping an eye out for her every move, his hair ruffled and wet from all the times he had gone into it with his dirty hands.
"Oh, you mean this wall?" She teased, letting her hand trail a circle over it as she kept her eye contact with Fred. The latter rose his eyebrows up in surprise, not expecting her teasing.
Fred took a threatening step closer, "I'd be careful with what you're doing, 'Mione." Hermione grinned, but took a cautionary step back, just in case. "Or what, Fred?"
A smirk stretched on his lips, and the minute he heard a door closing upstairs he had closed the gap between them with two big strides, and had now laid a careful hand on her face, scrubbing something on her forehead. "There, all clean now." He said quietly, his breath tickling her face due to the close proximity they were in.
Right at that moment footsteps echoed through the hallway as someone made their way down the stairs, and before Hermione could create some distance between Fred and her, he had encircled an arm around her waist, his eyes glistering deviously.
"Oh, don't let me disturb you, lovebirds. Do go on." Hermione instantly recognized George's voice, and as she turned her head to the side – carefully since Fred was eerily close – she saw how George took big strides down the stairs, looking with a smirk on his face at the both of them, soon followed by Ginny, who shot a very confused look at them instead.
As soon as they had come they had left as well as they were presumably off to a different location to do their chores.
When they were gone Fred had dropped his arm as quick as he had put it there, and let out a great laugh as he looked at her face, which she assumed had a look of sheer terror. She had not known how she had needed to act back then.
"You know, if you want to give Harry and Ron a show, you're going to have to learn how to play your part." Fred grinned, taking a step back as to give her a bit of a breather.
Now that she had some more space to think, she had the chance to process what had just happened.
"Well what part am I playing then?" Hermione spluttered, still a bit flabbergasted. Fred smirked as he looked her over. "Not so cocky now, huh?" He commented, referring to her teasing moment from only a few minutes ago.
Taking the empty bucket in his hand, he nodded to the end of the hallway as an invitation to follow him. Since they were done here they had to move to the kitchen to clean some things up. "Act as if you're deeply in love with me." At this her head snapped to him, and he let out a grin. "Or at least pretend that you fancy me." He shrugged, then on after thought added, "I promise I'll return the favour." At this he winked, and Hermione was convinced that her cheeks were turning all shades of pink, being confirmed by Fred's laugh.
"Can't give a show without players, Hermione." He reminded her before their little conversation died out as they had to go through the living room – where George and Ginny were now busily working on the fireplace – so they could get to the kitchen.
"Take it easy in there, guys. Remember it is still a place to eat." George joked as he caught eyes with them. "Can't make any promises, little brother." Fred joked back, and with that they disappeared inside the kitchen, Hermione trying very hard not to look uncomfortable with the joking.
Fred refilled his bucket with fresh water, and deciding that their conversation was not up for further discussion, she moved herself to the opposite side of the room to go ahead and work on the cabinets as Fred would start on cleaning the floor.
At first the only sound in the room was that of Hermione taking out tableware out of the cabinets as she placed it on the table. A task that went on for at least a good fifteen minutes before the top half of the cabinet had been cleaned out.
She then had to do the bottom half, and now a clanging sound came forth as she had to grab a bunch of pots and pans and find a way for them on the countertop, carefully avoiding the wet spots on the floor that Fred had just cleaned. As well as carefully avoiding Fred entirely. Something that he had taken notice of and found highly amusing as he would purposely come extra close whenever he could.
After the entire cabinet had been cleaned out she could start working on cleaning the inside of it. But before she could do that she had to fill her own bucket with some fresh water, but was stopped in her tracks as Fred put his mop right in front of her feet.
"Sorry, 'Mione, didn't see you there." He said, a cocky smile playing on his lips. Clearly enjoying the entire situation a bit too much.
Hermione forced a smile on her face. "That's all right, Fred. I just wanted to refill my bucket." Hermione said and made way to reach around him to get to the tap, but was once again, stopped in her tracks.
"Here, let me do it." Fred offered, and without giving her a chance to reply he grabbed the bucket out of her hands and found some dry spots to walk over as he filled the bucket with some fresh water.
As he handed the bucket back to her, he made a point of letting their hands brush against each other, purposely waiting with letting it go until she could feel her cheeks heat up and earn her a grin. "Why thank you, Fred."
Fred beamed a laugh as he picked up his mop again, "Of course, 'Mione."
As quick as she could she walked back to her cabinet, letting her cloth drop into the water and made sure to rinse it out properly before she made way for the bottom of the cabinet. Silently she scolded herself for the reaction that she kept on having whenever Fred came in close proximity or had any kind of physical contact with her.
This entire show was meant to tease her friends and his family, not to tease her as well. And yet, right now, Fred was having the time of his life as she became a muppet in their own show.
Scrubbing the insides of the cabinet clean with all her might, she made up her mind that she would not let her embarrassment creep up to her in his presence. She would just act like this was the most normal thing in the world. As if they had been doing what they were doing for all their lives. Only then would she be able to enjoy it as much as Fred was doing right now.
Hermione did not know for how long they had been scrubbing away already, but right as she was putting back the tableware into the cabinet and Fred was working on the last corner of the room near her, the kitchen door opened and George's head popped in.
"You two aren't snogging, are you? It's a bit too quiet in here," and with that Hermione turned her head to Fred's twin brother, watching how he teasingly covered his eyes before he got the green light from Fred. "We were about to, until you came in."
At this George dropped his hands and both brothers had a good laugh. Deciding not to act embarrassed, Hermione simply smiled and rolled her eyes light-heartedly.
Clearly that was all that George had come for, because right as she continued to load in the pots and pans she heard the door shut close again.
Closing the last drawer when she was done, she found Fred leaning against a counter top, the bucket of water sitting next to him as he gazed into nothing, clearly bored out of his mind. All this mandatory work was nothing for an active prankster like himself.
Making her way to the sink, she heaved the bucket so the contents could pour out, but right before they had the chance the bucket was lowered again as Hermione felt a very cold splash coming in contact with her face.
Her mouth dropped open as she turned her head to the culprit, and found Fred grinning as he looked at her, his hand wet and close to the bucket of water next to him.
Contemplating on what to do, she knew that the reasonable thing was to walk away after she scolded him for such behaviour. But at the moment, she really wasn't feeling that option, and thus chose the alternative as she put her own hand in her bucket of water and splashed some of the contents to Fred, who managed to dodge only part of it.
She could see a momentary look of surprise that she went in with the game, but then a look of satisfaction replaced it as he let out a hearty laugh, returning the favour as he created some distance between them, taking the bucket with him and throwing a bit of the contents in her direction.
This time it was her turn to laugh as she failingly tried to dodge it, but it found her hair anyway.
At this a game of water splashing ensued, and she had not known for how long it had gone on, but by the end of it she had gotten an entire bucket of water over her head, drenching all her clothes as he had snuck up behind her.
Fred was doubled over in laughter at her squeal when the cold water touched her skin under her clothes that he was completely caught off guard. Taking this advantage she poured the remainder of the contents over his laughing body, which earned her a squeal in return as his clothes were now tightly wrapped around his body by the wetness.
Both of them couldn't stop laughing, whilst Hermione took a moment to look at the water ballet that was now displayed in the kitchen.
At last the laughter died out when they shot a look on the clock on the wall. "We better clean this up before mom sees." Fred said, a laugh following as he looked at her again.
Hermione hiccoughed from laughing, and all she could do was nod and grab a dry towel. Fred did the same, and within minutes they had dried all surfaces, right on time as Molly entered the kitchen just a minute later.
"What happened to the two of you?" She asked in bewilderment, looking at both of their drenched bodies. At Fred she shot a disapproving glance, but at Hermione she could only look at with sheer curiosity.
"We had a bit of an accident," Hermione laughed, and Fred had to remove himself from the room as he burst out laughing again. "Right well, you two dry yourselves up. Dinner will be ready in half an hour." Molly said, slightly disapprovingly, but still soft-hearted as she always did with anyone that wasn't a family member.
Hermione nodded and left for the living room, only to find the others already sitting there, clearly haven't wasted any time after their chores and were now sprawled out on couches and chairs as they were taking some time to relax. And as per usual, Ron and Harry were playing a game of chess. This time joined by Sirius who was watching the game.
"I see you two had fun," Ron said ominously as he watched her come into the room. Hermione shot a glance at Fred, whose hair was sticking to his forehead, drops of water still trailing down his face. At seeing him she began chuckling again, and shook her head as she made way for the door. "Sure did." Was all she could say before leaving out of sight to get changed, listening to the echo of Fred's laughter as he soon followed her.