Whispers in the dark

Chapter 30: Up to no good

A/N: I own nothing except my mistakes

Dumbledore's Army had been having meetings for a month now, and this was their third lesson they were having. Last time they had practiced the Disarming Charm some more, refining it and helping out those who still struggled.

This meeting they had been given the assignment for the Shield Charm, though Hermione had already mustered this charm well last year. Thus, instead of practising the charm herself, she chose to simply shoot spells and let others practice their charm.

They had been free to choose pairs, and Fred had approached her before she even had to time to think of anyone else.

So far she had been quite enjoying it to throw random spells at him, especially when he wasn't successful from shielding it just in time like right now.

"Real funny, Granger," Fred huffed as he had been dancing around on the spot for a few minutes now. He had been able to laugh at first, but right now he was getting seriously tired. "But it'd be great if we could continue practising right now."

George, however, seemed to think otherwise as he piped in with the conversation, leaving his partner Seamus hanging for a moment. Quite literally: he had hit him with a levitation charm.

"Got your tap shoes on I see, Freddie." George joked as he high fived Hermione, who laughed in return.

"Oi! Yer s'pposed to take my side," Fred grumbled, though let out a laugh as he suddenly changed direction.

Hermione let out one more laugh before pointing her wand at Fred and muttering "Finite."

Fred took a moment to regain his breath before turning back around so he could face Hermione again. George had already made a leave for it as he had brought Seamus back down to the ground.

"You are so going to regret that," Fred spoke, a dangerously wicked grin spreading on his lips. She was not intimidated, however. "Oh really? Because last time I checked I was the one throwing spells," Hermione taunted, but he remained grinning.

Opening his arms wide, he invited her for another spell. "Give me your best," he challenged. And thus, with an overly-confident charisma, she lifted her wand up at him, Fred doing the same as he kept on grinning, a wicked glimmer in his eyes.

"Rictumsempra," Hermione clearly enunciated, feeling quite cocky as she knew he could do nothing but protect himself. If he failed to do so, he would suffer the consequences by getting madly tickled.

Yet, Fred did manage to protect himself, in fact, he managed to do it so well that the spell rebounded from his shield back to her, and she watched with horror as she felt the effects play out on herself.

Laughing hysterically, she clutched her sides as she gasped for air. She hated being tickled, let alone by a charm that was even more intense than the real deal.

Fred just stood there, his arms crossed and a big grin on his face. "If I were to tell you a joke right now, d'you think that you would laugh even harder?"

Hermione laughed, though involuntarily. The tickling was maddening, and she was certain that everyone was looking right now. "All right, all right," Hermione breathed, but then bursted out in another chuckling spree. "You've proven your point," she laughed, feeling hot tears going over her cheeks from all the laughter.

Fred released one more hearty chuckle as he lifted the charm, allowing Hermione a bit of a breather as she wiped away the tears. "Luckily for you I'm quite merciful," Fred quipped, shooting her a broad smirk.

"Right, you're a knight in shining armour," Hermione said as she rolled her eyes, still quite out of breath as a smile lingered on her face.

Fred repositioned himself to stand a bit broader, hands on his hips as he dreamily looked to the side. "Right you are," he said, imitating a knight.

Laughing at the horrible joke, she lightly bumped his arm with her fist. "Now get off your hippogriff," she said as she saw Harry approaching them.

"I saw your execution of the charm," Harry spoke, referring to Fred as he held a mischief smile on his face. "Good work," he complimented and Fred beamed. "Thank you, professor," he joked and Harry let out a chuckle as he stood a bit closer to Hermione.

"It's nice to see you happy," He said in a hushed voice before walking away again.

Hermione smiled at his back, though lightly shook her head, half-heartedly disagreeing with that. Sometimes she was convinced that she'd get a heart attack from all the laughter.

After their meeting everyone had gone back separately to their common rooms, all in different intervals as to erase suspicion.

Hermione, Ron and Harry were the last ones to leave, and Ron patted Harry's back as he complimented him on another great lesson.

"It's really nice to see things coming along, Harry," Hermione agreed, keeping her voice down as they walked through the empty corridor. It was nearing curfew.

Harry nodded vaguely, a bit lost in his thoughts. "They're all very driven to learn," he spoke, a faint smile on his lips as they entered the common room.

Distancing herself from the lot, she was pleased to see that the couch near the fireplace was still free, and thus she quickly occupied it to go ahead and study. They did have their O.W.L.s this year, after all. Though school had only begun for a couple of months now, it still felt like there wasn't enough time at all to learn everything they needed to.

Fred had seemed to have gotten the hint as well, because they had made the agreement last year that whenever she would solely study for her O.W.L.s, he would keep his chatting to a minimum.

Of course, him being the talkative one this wasn't entirely possibly, but she heard him telling George – the two of them were working on products – that he would simply reply with nodding as much as possible.

Enjoying the quietness, especially when it was nearing midnight and almost everyone had cleared out, she went on for a little while longer until at last Fred propped himself down next to her on the couch.

"It's well past your bedtime," he said as he stretched his legs out, letting a low sound of approval out as the warmth reached his feet.

Looking him over, she noticed he had changed into his casual wear; a dark green blouse splattered with white. It was a good look on him, really.

Heaving a sigh as she put away her books, she took a moment to stretch her arms in the air and grunted as she felt some cracking in her back. "What time is it, anyway?" She asked in confusion as she looked around the empty common room, the last two students on their way to the staircase.

"A quarter to one," Fred spoke, sounding rather tired as he rested his head against the back of the couch, staring up at the ceiling.

Hermione noticed the pressure of his body against hers, as well as the gap that was left between himself and the armrest. He had purposely scooted closer to her.

Softly clearing her throat, she tried to relax as well as she stared into the fire, letting her thoughts roam about.

"I see you're enjoying our little façade," Hermione spoke softly, not removing her gaze from the fire, though she could see him lifting up his head from the couch out of the corner of her eye.

Fred grinned slightly, "What is there not to like?"

Biting her lip, she shot a quick glance at him, but saw that he had already put his head back down. "Why do you do it?"

"What do you mean?" Fred asked, now lifting his head up fully and sitting up straight again.

Her breath hitched a bit as he came real close now. "I mean, why do you spend so much time on this façade?"

Fred looked genuinely confused for a moment. "Isn't it what we had both agreed on?" He asked.

Hermione nodded, but then looked at her hands, not daring to look him in the eye as she spoke. "I just mean that you even continue the façade when no one is around."

A sudden laugh erupted from his mouth, and in surprise she looked back up again, just in time to see him rip his eyes off of her as he shook his head.

"What's so funny?" Hermione inquired, almost feeling offended for being laughed at. Surely that statement wasn't that funny.

Fred shook his head once more as he looked at her, a light chuckle escaping as he gave her a genuine smile, a warm look erupting from his eyes. "And they say you're the cleverest witch of your age."

What was that supposed to mean? Did she not see something that was apparently so obvious?

"There's just one thing I don't understand," Hermione went on, choosing to ignore his little scene. "What's that?" Fred asked lazily, though kept her gaze.

"Ever since we started the façade," Hermione began, but then corrected herself, "no, wait, before we even started the façade, Ron has just been so off."

"I mean, he's come around now," she added as an after-thought, letting her gaze drift off to the fireplace, noticing the fire was almost dying out. It needed another log of wood. "But for a long time he's been acting as if it was a personal offence."

Standing up to collect a log of wood, she gently put it on the fireplace. She didn't intent on staying up much longer, but the fire was about to die out any second now, and she didn't feel like sitting in complete darkness.

"That's obvious, innit?" Fred said, looking her over.

Furrowing her eyebrows, she shook her head. "What d'you mean?"

Fred stood up as well as he grinned slightly, already towering over her as he came to stand in front of her. "He used to fancy you, of course." Flabbergasted, she furiously shook her head as if it was the most insane thing she had ever heard.

Fred simply cocked an amused eyebrow at her. "Is that so hard for you to believe?"

Hermione actually began to laugh at the thought, then shook her head again in disbelief. Surely he was mistaken. Ron and her had just been really good friends.

"It's ridiculous, that's what it is." Hermione chuckled as she looked at Fred, who was simply looking back at her in mild amusement over her disbelief. "I mean, according to Ron you fancy me as well." Hermione joked, genuinely not being serious, though she still did wonder why Ron said that and why Fred did act like he did almost a month ago when he had been about to kiss her.

Fred cracked a smile, watching as Hermione calmed down from her laughter. "Obviously." Was all he said.

And before she even had a chance to process that one single word, he easily closed the gap between them with one simple step, resting his hands on her waist as he leaned his face in.

For a moment he hovered before her lips, watching as she looked at him with eyes spread wide, a nervous hitching in her breathing. Fred let a smile sprawl out on his mouth, and she was almost beginning to think that he was just messing with her.

That he would retreat like he did the last time, just to laugh at her reddened face and tell her that he would have loved for others to see that little charade.

But he didn't.

Instead, he closed the gap and rested his lips softly against hers. A little uncertain at first, as Hermione was momentarily rooted to the spot, unable to believe that this was happening. Something that had kept her awake for weeks was finally happening.

This wasn't a joke. It wasn't one of his pranks.

This felt real. More than real, actually, as he pressed his lips down with a bit more certainty, feeling the light scraping of his teeth against her lips as he let out the smallest of a chuckle, soft air tickling her face. Fred took a moment to take her hands that had previously been hanging numbly next to her body to put them around his waist before getting back to the kiss.

Being brought back to reality and her lack of enthusiasm, she clasped them around his body with a bit more intent, enjoying the soft touch of her hands against his silky blouse, the warmth protruding through it and feeling the slightest hint of a fastened heartbeat through his spine.

And with that she let herself relax into the kiss, giving it a bit more pressure and intent before breaking apart with an almost relieved and flustered laugh. Unable to believe that they had come this far, but being genuinely happy to be at this point. Oh, and also to not have Ron interrupt them this time, contently listening as his snores travelled all the way to the common room.

Hermione rested her forehead gently against his – having to stand on her tippy toes for that – as she bit her lower lip, unable to grin like a madman as she loosened her arms around his waist and instead brought them up to his chest, softly letting them rest on there.

"I can't believe how oblivious I've been," she breathed so softly, though he could hear her perfectly. Feeling the rapid rising of his chest under her fingers as he let out a laugh, he pulled her closer towards him. "Y'know, I might have to strip you away from your title as the brightest witch of your age," Fred joked, but all Hermione could do was let out a shaky laugh, still in disbelief of what just happened.

"I think you might have to indeed," she smiled into his chest.

A/N: Whaaa they finally kissed! I usually don't do author's notes at the end of the chapter, but come on, this one needed one! I just wanted to say a quick thank you to all of you who have been patiently waiting for this chapter to happen, and also to those of you who keep leaving incredibly kind messages! It means the world to me to know you all are enjoying this story as much as I do, and I hope I'll keep entertaining you for the rest of their schoolyears! Lots of love! xx