Whispers in the dark
Chapter 29: Exploding toad
A/N: I own nothing except my mistakes
It had been well over a week since their last encounter in the corridor where he almost kissed her. To her astonishment, Ron hadn't brought it up. Clearly he had spoken out of shock because he simply hadn't expected to walk in on that, and something told her that he had noticed how desperately she was trying to avoid any conversation about it, and had wisely kept his mouth shut.
As for Fred, he had been acting like he hadn't even so much as tried to kiss her that night. He was acting as he usually did, and still kept up their charade whenever around others. Enjoying it more right now as she was even more humbled by it, simply because every time that he had come close all she could do was think back to that night.
It drove her absolutely mad. She would have preferred by now that he would just yell it through the school, spread the message or boast about it. Anything but this silence as if it had never played out.
Nothing in his behaviour changed, and she even began to wonder if he had just done it with the single intent of just teasing her like mad and get a reaction out of it. Perhaps he hadn't even intended on ever kissing her in the first place, regardless of whether Ron would have interrupted them or not.
Yet, that didn't explain the agitation in his face. Or perhaps she had imagined that as well.
Yes, she was going nuts. She wanted answers – clarity; anything to prove that she wasn't imagining things. But she didn't want to go ahead and confront him either.
And then there were her feelings. She had been feeling confused about it before their almost kiss. There was no denying that they had grown a lot closer, especially over the summer at Grimmauld Place, and she thoroughly enjoyed his presence.
Fred brought out the best of her. The part that she didn't even imagine having. He taught her how to balance fun and education, and to show that both are as equally important. But more importantly, he was the one who was joining her in the fun.
She doubted that she would have enjoyed it half as much as she currently did if he hadn't been right along her side. It was his excitement that was so contagious that made her think otherwise.
It was for that matter that she felt a smile tug on her lips as she watched the Gryffindor players practice on the Quidditch field.
Hermione wasn't usually one to come and watch Quidditch practice. She had plenty of more important work to do, and yet, lately she had been coming by more often. Mainly because she enjoyed seeing the twins do their thing.
At any other moment those two were always joking around, not a single day passing by without one of their pranks. A straight face wouldn't be kept for longer than five minutes, and yet, on the Quidditch field they were more serious than she would ever dare to dream to see them in school.
What she enjoyed even more, however, is when practice was ending like right now, and they would slowly ease back into their usual selves, having a bit of a cat and mouse game between each other as they slowly got back into their jokes before heading back to the dressing rooms, hair heavily coated with sweat and their robes ruffled by the wind.
And every single time that she came to watch she would always wonder if they even noticed she was sitting there. They were so thoroughly caught up in their concentration, that she doubted that they would even see.
And yet, after every practice as the lot of them lowered their brooms down, patted each other on the back and slouched to the dressing room, Fred would always shoot a look over his shoulder, staring straight at her with a wicked grin on his face and muttering the words "Enjoyed the show, did you?"
And every single time Hermione would feel flustered and leave the stands in a hurry, earning her a teasing chuckle as he focused back in front.
Today was no different, except this time she didn't scurry away. She simply kept his gaze, thinking back to that one night that had been causing her restless nights, and felt a taunting smile play on her lips.
"Would have liked to see that arm swing around a bit faster, but it was all right, I s'pose," Hermione playfully spoke into the wind, Fred becoming smaller and smaller the further he walked. And yet, she saw his eyebrows shoot up, surprised by the different reaction than he was used to, but was quick to burst out into laughter regardless.
"I'll just have to try harder next time to impress you, don't I?" Fred said, and she could practically hear the smirk tugging on his words. At that George also briefly whipped his head around to see if she was close by – he knew by now that he often spoke randomly to Hermione – and grinned as he turned his head back around.
Feeling flustered once more, she was grateful to see him turn around right before her cheeks could redden up, and once more hurried off the stands.
By the time that Hermione had gotten off the stands and had crossed the field, the boys had had the time to quickly shower and change, and had caught up with her just as she was halfway into the castle, on her way to the Great Hall for some dinner.
"You know," a voice started, though she already knew who it could be. It could only be one person. "I feel slightly hurt by your comment," Fred finished, and Hermione felt an arm prop around her shoulder. There he went again, putting on their façade.
Hermione played along, as she always did, and let out a hearty laugh. "Just want to see you succeed, Fred," she spoke sweetly, purposely batting her eyelashes dramatically before dropping that charade.
Fred chuckled, then pressed her closer into him, his arm moving from her shoulder to her waist. "Aren't I just lucky to have you around?" He purposely flirted, speaking up a bit as a group of students passed them by, shooting a look at the two of them.
At this he leaned in, his lips resting themselves against her cheek, planting an exaggerated kiss before moving to her ear. "Enjoy your dinner," he breathed into her ear as they had arrived at the Great Hall.
Fred dropped his arm and parted ways with her, leaving her dumbstruck before quickly composing herself and hurrying off to find her friends in the middle of the table, Fred and George positioning themselves with their friends at the end of it.
Taking a seat next to Harry – who had arrived just before she and Fred did - she saw two redheads staring back at her, both caring equal grins as they looked her over. Yet, both for different reasons.
The first redhead, Ginny, was presumably grinning about the ordeal that had just played out, and the second redhead, Ron, was grinning about what he had walked in on and the little charade from a few seconds ago.
Both clearly had the wrong ideas.
"What?" She innocently asked, and got simultaneous shrugs from the both of them. "Potato?" was all Ginny said as she passed her a basket full of baked potatoes, and Hermione hesitantly accepted it.
Had Ron perhaps let it slip to Ginny about what he thought he had walked in on last week? Ginny was acting way too gleeful to have just seen her be kissed on her cheek by Fred.
Shooting a – what she hoped to be – a discreet look at Ron as if asking "Did you tell her?" he simply caught her eye and shook his head. Ron looked at his little sister and back at her, and gave her a single shrug as if to say that he didn't know either why she was so happy.
Feeling slightly relieved, she went to eat her potatoes, but couldn't help but think that the little witch knew more than she was letting on.
- x –
"That filthy toadheaded bloated piece of-" Fred spoke angrily, but Hermione quickly hushed him before he could finish that sentence.
She had watched an ordeal play out from the stands after the Quidditch match between Slytherin and Gryffindor and had seen how Harry, the twins and Malfoy had gotten into a rather nasty fight. Which included wand raising and a lot of physical actions.
At the time she had already tried to calm Fred down under her breath – she was seated next to Neville and Ginny; the first not knowing about their charm – but it had been fruitless. She didn't know what they had been arguing about, anyway.
After the lot had been pulled apart by teachers, she had followed Fred down as he left to go for a walk instead of going to the dressing room.
Gryffindor had won, and instead of them throwing a party, they were all sulking away, leaving Hermione rather confused.
"Can you please tell me what happened?" Hermione asked, watching as Fred paced back and forth, his face as red as his hair, the latter being stuck to his face by sweat.
"Umbridge banned us from Quidditch," Fred snapped at her, though she knew it wasn't directed towards her. He was angry at that woman – furious, even.
Hermione dropped her mouth open in surprise, at loss for words as she saw him angrily kicking away some rocks with his feet. "What? She can't do that!" Hermione spluttered, though knew that Umbridge had in fact gotten that authority a while back.
"She can, and she did," Fred fumed, pulling on some strings on his robes so he could take them off, needing a bit of a breather.
Stepping in as she saw him angrily fighting with a knot in his strings, she slapped his hands away and untangled it for him, helping him take off his robes. "If I hadn't been so pissed I would say that you're trying to hit on me, Granger," Fred tried to joke, but it only came out as a snidey comment.
Hermione rolled her eyes at him, holding the damp robes in her hands as she watched him shake his arms out. He had been playing really well as a beater.
"But why?" Hermione asked, and he stopped mid-way stretching. "Why what?"
"Why did she ban you?" Hermione explained, figuring he had forgotten about their little topic in his rage.
Fred scoffed loudly, his lips snarling up as he shot an outraged look back over his shoulder at the Quidditch field. "We got into a bit of a fight with Malfoy after his endless bullying towards Ron, and she deemed us too violent to ever play again."
Hermione let out an exasperated gasp, furrowing her eyebrows in equal anger as she thought of Umbridge. That bloody woman brought out the worst in her.
"But you two have been playing for years. You've been the best beaters the team could possibly have." Hermione defended.
Fred tried to smile, but just shook his head rapidly side to side. Not so much as a disagreement, but more to shake off the waterdrops from his hair.
"What's the point of staying here without Quidditch?" Fred mumbled to himself, but she heard him clear as day.
"Well, for starters, if you were to leave you would no longer be able to tease Merlin's pants out of me," Hermione tried to joke, hoping to light up the situation. She could understand that he was resentful, but she didn't want him to give up hope.
Fred let out a lopsided half-hearted grin as he finally looked up at her, a stray piece of hair hanging loopily over his eyes. "You know you secretly like it," he teased back, though his heart wasn't fully in it. At least he tried.
Hermione shot him a smile, shaking her head lightly as she released an easy chuckle, stepping a bit closer.
Pushing the stray piece of hair away from his face, she wondered if perhaps she should lean in. Maybe he hadn't brought it up and pretended nothing had happened last week simply because he might have feared that she hadn't wanted him to kiss her. Perhaps he was afraid of rejection – I mean, who wasn't afraid of that?
And yet, she didn't think it was the right time. He needed time to sort out his emotions after getting delivered such bad news. Besides, the thought of even thinking about kissing him right now scared the heck out of her.
And thus, she quickly took a step back, though kept a smile rested on her lips. "C'mon, you need to get ready and have some dinner. We'll get our revenge on that nasty toad," Hermione proposed.
Fred chuckled lightly as he easily let an arm drape over her shoulder. "Only if you're the one to blow her up," he joked, earning him a hearty laugh from Hermione. "Deal."