A/N: GOD! My stupid italics aren't showing up anymore! That pisses me off. Usually, italics are thoughts but now I just don't know what to do. I think I'll just leave them plain. It's not that big of a deal, right?
Anyways, don't own Harry Potter. I'd say I own the plot, but I think there might be some other stories with the same plot, so if something sounds familiar: it's not mine. La, la, la.
Also, I've said this in all my stories: if you're in the mood for a REALLY good story, you have to check out Gryffindor Heiress's "Bouncing Off the Ceiling (Upside Down)." She just finished and it's an a-freaking-mazing story and read it! Read it! Read it!
Here's chapter 3:
* III *
"You kissed me and every piece went back in place, every pain got erased …"
Tim McGraw, "Unbroken"
They, as in Fred and Hermione, sat there by the picnic table for near an hour until Hermione finally stopped crying.
"Oh God, Fred. I'm sorry. You're shoulder is soaked," Hermione said apologetically.
Fred shrugged.
"It's no big deal. Are you feeling better?"
"No," she moaned. "It still hurts."
"Of course it does," Fred said. "But it will get better. I promise."
"Thank you."
"So," Fred said. "Are you ready to go back in? Help Harry and Ginny celebrate?"
Hermione gasped.
"Oh my!" she said, standing up. "I forgot about that. I got so wrapped up in myself, I totally forgot. Oh, we should go back in."
Hermione had turned and taken a few steps before Fred stopped her and said,
"Are you sure you want to go back in? We don't have to. We can just stay out here."
"We?" Hermione asked.
"Well," Fred replied, feigning offense. "I'm not going to let you mope out here all by yourself. Someone has to keep you company. Also, Ginny and Harry have always been a little… open about their affections and I don't fancy seeing some guy sticking his tongue down my sister's throat."
Hermione looked at him, shocked. Then she laughed.
"Fred… you're too much."
"I'll take that as a compliment, thank you," Fred replied, getting up and walking back into the house with Hermione.
But before they reentered, Hermione stopped suddenly.
"What?" Fred asked.
"Do I look okay?" Hermione asked. Seeing Fred's strange look, she added, "Well, I don't want to go back in looking like a frightful mess. This is the happiest day of Ginny's life, except for the upcoming wedding, and I don't want to make it all mopey."
Fred laughed.
"You look fine," he reassured. "Except for the hair."
"The hair? What about the hair?"
"Where's the frizz?"
"Well," Hermione responded, smiling at Fred. "I kind of placed some Sleakeezy Serum on it."
"Why?" Fred asked, bewildered. "You're beautiful no matter what!"
Hermione was grateful for the darkened sky because she was blushing terribly.
Fred is being awfully sweet, she thought. For a fleeting moment, she had actually let herself forgot about that prat, David, and about the niceness that is Fred Weasley. But of course, after thinking about how she forgot to think about David, she began to think about David again.
"Sorry," Fred said, after Hermione didn't say anything. "I didn't mean… What I meant was… well…"
God, he thought. I haven't felt this nervous since my first presentation for Triple W. What is wrong with me?
"It's fine," Hermione said, placing her hand on his arm. "Thank you. It means a lot to me."
Fred was the one now grateful for the darkness overhead because he had a very smug look on his face.
"You ready?" he asked.
Hermione inhaled deeply, then nodded.
"What I tell you?" Fred whispered in Hermione's ear. At first, she didn't know what he was talking about, but looking in the direction Fred was motioning, she had to laugh. Up against the kitchen counter was Harry… who, in Fred's earlier words, "had his tongue down Ginny's throat."
Fred coughed loudly. Harry quickly pulled away and looked very red and uncomfortable. Ginny got off the counter and blushed the trademark Weasley blush. Hermione laughed.
"Harry," Fred said curtly, making Harry look even more uncomfortable.
"'Lo, Fred," he said. If he was trying to sound confident, he failed.
Suddenly, Ron popped in the room.
"Hey, what're you two doing in here?" he asked Harry and Ginny. Fred and Hermione laughed.
"You don't want to know," Hermione said, walking by and patting him on the shoulder. "Trust me."
"Where were you two?" He said, now speaking to Fred and Hermione.
"Talking," Fred and Hermione said at the same time. They laughed. Ron looked confused.
"What?" Ron asked in his trademark obliviousness.
"Nothing," Fred assured.
Ron looked confused, yet suspicious.
"Let it go," Hermione said. "Why would I lie?"
Ron thought for a moment… then shrugged.
"Come on!" he said happily. "It's hard to celebrate an engagement without the… er… engagees."
They all laughed and headed back into the living room where there were now decorations celebrating the happy news.
* * * * *
Hermione got back to her place a few hours later. The party had lasted a long time. People kept Apparating in and congratulating the two – Molly and Arthur had sent owls out to all their friends.. and some enemies to brag that their little Ginny had married Harry Potter, a.k.a. The Boy That Lived.
Or should that be man? After all, he was twenty-six, a long stretch from the boy he was when he was when he first encountered Voldemort and a shorter stretch from the teenager he was when he last encountered Voldemort.
God, Hermione thought, plopping down on her couch. I can't believe that was nine years ago… and that we lived.
In Harry's fourth year, as you undoubtedly all know, Voldemort had rose. He was more powerful and (if it's possible) more evil than he had been. For two fearful years he gained more power and more followers than ever and there was not a witch nor wizard that didn't leave their house everyday in fear. Some bypassed that problem by never leaving. But not Harry.
Hermione was amazed at the courage Harry displayed those years. Every time Hermione asked him if he was frightened, he repeated the same thing.
"What's coming will come," he said, repeating Hagrid's wise words. "And we'll meet it when it does."
Personally, Hermione was scared (pardon the curse) shitless, even though she tried to hide it. After all, she was from Muggle decent and was loathed by Draco Malfoy, who was son of Lucius, a powerful Death Eater. But she modeled her bravery after Harry and returned to school. Thankfully, in her fifth year, she had O.W.L.s so she could busy herself with studying to keep her mind off of her fear. She figured she could repeat that pattern in seventh year with her N.E.W.T.s, but no such luck.
After the rising of Voldemort, security at Hogwart's had risen immensely. There were Aurors patrolling everywhere at every moment… but that didn't stop it. Hermione remembers it like it was yesterday. It's kind of hard not to, when you think about it.
On June 1st of Hermione's seventh year, Voldemort's army appeared on Hogwart's grounds. No one to this day is sure how it happened, but as stated before, it didn't matter. Every student was shut into the Gryffindor Common room – reasoned, Hermione supposed, because the Gryffindors were the bravest – but as usual, Harry escaped and Hermione and Ron stupidly followed.
War was waged in Hogwarts. The first thing Hermione saw was the lake. It was on fire. The Fires of Hell, she remembered thinking. The Quidditch pitch was destroyed, the fifty foot goalposts had been toppled and the stands gutted and strewn with bodies… not just the stands either.
Death was everywhere. Both good and evil lost many lives that day. At that moment, it seemed that Lord Voldemort and his minions were close to triumph. But that was before the last showdown of sworn enemies.
When Voldemort spotted Harry, everyone somehow knew. The silence that followed was deafening. Voldemort wasted no time in screaming out, "Crucio!" Before it hit Harry, though, Ron had leapt in front of him. He received the brunt of the curse and Hermione ran to him to help. Harry was left alone… alone to deal with Voldemort.
It was an oddly fair battle. Voldemort suggested a wizard's duel… traditional. Harry reluctantly had accepted. One – two – three – four – five – six – seven – eight – nine –
"Avada Kedavra!"
But it wasn't the voice you'd expect. It wasn't Voldemort whom had cheated… it was Harry.
But I worked. The spell illuminated the room in a sickening green glow and the crack that sounded when the spell made contact echoed about the room. And then silence engulfed the room again in shock. Shock that didn't last long.
An angry cry was sounded as Death Eaters with the ability to move tried to get out. But since you can't Disapperate on Hogwart's grounds and since they had locked up the castle, they were trapped. More spells were thrown and in the end, more people were killed, but not a single Death Eater that was in Hogwart's escaped. The reign of terror had ended. It had finally ended.
Harry was once again the hero of the Wizarding World and history books were being rewritten as he walked out into the dawn light. Of course there were tears as many people lost their lives and loved ones, but so many more lives had been gained.
A wizard or witch could go on and on about how life drastically improved for people everywhere, but that's unnecessary only because no matter how you phrase it, it all boiled down to this:
Things had changed and they were free from fear of Voldemort.
Nothing else matters, really. Since there was no fear that he could come back (numerous steps were taken to prevent that), the word "Voldemort" became less of a societal taboo and while people still uttered the word with deepest loathing, everyone knew that he was gone.
As stated before, Hermione couldn't believe they had survived. But she was glad she did.
She was still remembering that day when she unconsciously fell into a deep, much needed, slumber.
* * * * *
Hermione woke up the next day in a slight panic. It was a Wednesday and that meant it was a work day. And since she had fallen asleep on the couch, she hadn't set an alarm. But she calmed down considerably when she realized she had a few more hours to go until she actually had to arrive at the Daily Prophet offices.
It took a few moments for Hermione to wake up and recall what had made her wake up. Her window was open and cold air had been blowing directly on her… plus there were three owls sitting at the table.
One was a snowy owl – H.N.F. – which was Harry and Ginny's shared owl (H.N.F. stands for Hedwig Never Forgotten – she had passed a few years back).
The other was a twittering Pigwideon, who even after years of being a domestic post owl, was still, in Ron's words, "an annoying git."
The last one was one Hermione had seen. It was a barn owl and when Hermione approached it, it was very affectionate and sweet.
She first pulled off the letter from Harry's owl.
Hermione:
Just wanted to make sure you were okay. We'll be in Diagon Alley today so we'll try to stop in and see you. Owl us if you need anything.
- Harry and Ginny
She smiled and opened Ron's letter.
Hermione:
Are you okay? I'll kick David's ass if you want me too. He's a major prat and you don't need him. He doesn't deserve you. Oh, Lisa says hi. She also says, "Yes I spent the night. Shut up." Owl me later.
- Ron
She laughed again and opened the mysterious owl's letter.
Hey, Hermione! Are you doing okay this morning? I know it's only been a few hours but I know how it can feel when you break up with someone you loved… oh! Yeah. This is Fred in case you were wondering. I probably didn't make that too clear, did I? But you're smart, you would've read the letter the entire way through and my name is right there on the bottom so you would've figured it out anyways.
Whoa. Sorry about that ramble there. I've been doing that lately. Anyways, I just wanted to see if you wanted to have dinner tonight to catch up since we didn't really get a chance to talk last night. Send Owl back with your response. Hope to see you tonight.
Fred.
At first Hermione thought Fred had really bad grammar, but then realized Owl was the owl's name.
"How original," she said, stroking the owl, who nuzzled into Hermione's hand and let out a content "hoot."
She wrote quick responses back to her friends – and a "see you at the Leaky Cauldron at seven" to Fred – and got ready for work.
After she had eaten breakfast and washed her face and got dressed in her work clothes (black pin-striped pants and a white button down), she Apparated into work, even though she was early.
"Good morning, Alison," Hermione said to the Entertainment Section's secretary.
"Hello, Ms. Granger," Alison chirped. "Here are your messages. Mr. Dawson wants your story for tomorrow on his desk at three – "
"Already done," Hermione said smugly.
"Jessica Miller needs a photo you have for her article on Harpee Days," Alison continued.
"Okay," Hermione said.
"And a Mr. Weasley called to confirm your plans for tonight," Alison added, giving Hermione a sly smile. "I didn't know you had a boyfriend."
"He's just an old friend," Hermione said defensively.
Alison nodded, handed Hermione her messages and then sat back down at her desk. Hermione, in turn, walked into her office and sat down at her desk and began writing up her new story.
She tried to ignore the strange nervous butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
* * * * *
When Hermione got off work at ten until seven, she couldn't ignore the butterflies any further.
Why am I so nervous? she asked herself. It's just Fred Weasley.
She took a quick look in the mirror and pulled her fingers through her bushy-again hair and then walked to The Leaky Cauldron, which was just a few buildings down from the Daily Prophet office. Fred was already there, waving from a table in the middle of the little hotel/pub/restaurant.
"Hey, Hermione," Fred said, getting up and giving her a hug. "How are you?"
"I'm…" she was going to say "fine," but that wasn't exactly true. "A little better. I guess it still hasn't fully sunk in about what happened. But it'll get better."
"At least you're honest," Fred said, taking a drink of his water.
Hermione was getting ready to ask Fred how he was doing when the most unfortunate person walked through the door.
"What's wrong?" Fred asked, seeing Hermione tense up. He then followed her sad gaze to a young man with shaggy brown hair and brilliant blue eyes.
"David," was all Hermione could get out because she was afraid she might start crying again.
"Who?" Fred asked stupidly. "Ex-boyfriend David?"
Hermione barely nodded her head. She felt like a deer caught in headlights – frozen in fear but wanting so bad to bolt. She was so immersed in her thoughts that she barely recognized the feeling of Fred pulling on her arm to get her up and out of there.
"Hermione, let's go. Come on. I'll take you home," Fred insisted. Hermione tried to smile, but felt like crying, and let herself be pulled up. Fred still had a hold of her arm when David sauntered over.
"Hermione," he said pleasantly. "How are you? Do anything interesting last night?"
Hermione felt the tears coming now.
"Yes," Fred responded, eyes narrowing. "She was with me."
David's gaze shot to Fred.
"And who are you?" he asked, surveying Fred in an amused manner.
Fred thought for a moment and said, "Her boyfriend."
Hermione and David gaped at him. David was the one to speak.
"Already?" he asked.
"What do you mean, 'already?'" Fred asked, doing some quick thinking. "We've been dating for three months."
At last Hermione smiled seeing David's shocked expression. He composed himself after a minute and muttered something along the lines of, "whore."
Fred's fist flew so fast through the air that the words had barely just left his mouth before David felt a stinging sensation around his eye.
"You asshole!" David screamed, clutching his eye, which had already begun to swell.
Hermione was still marveling the events that had just transpired when Fred pulled her out and onto the London Muggle street.
"I'm sorry," Fred said as they walked down to Hermione's flat which was conveniently a few blocks down. "He just… really pissed me off."
Finally, Hermione found her words.
"Thank you," she said genuinely, looking Fred in the eyes. "That was really sweet."
"No problem," Fred replied, blushing a bit. "That's what friends do."
Hermione smiled and they walked in silence for another block until they reached Hermione's flat.
"Well," Hermione said. "Thank you for the effort of wanting to go out. It probably wasn't much fun seeing as how I almost started crying in the middle of the restaurant."
Fred laughed and said, "We'll try again another time. I would really like to catch up with you. Last time I saw you, besides last night, you were dating Ron."
"Wow. It has been a long time then," Hermione laughed, feeling a little better. She was quite amazed at the affect Fred had on her. It was hard to wallow in pity and sadness when he was around.
"Well," Hermione said. "I'm going to head in and owl Lisa and Ginny. No doubt they want to know what's going on."
"Ginny always did like to know what's going on in relationships," Fred laughed. "I'll owl you sometime this week and we'll schedule another date."
"All right," Hermione said. Did he say "date?" she thought.
Fred nodded again and did something Hermione was not expecting,
He kissed her.
A/N: Haha. I love ending chapters like that. It's just fun. Don't think this is moving quickly because I have plenty of more lines of the song to use and it would be fairly unreasonable for her to get over someone she loved (or thought she loved) so quickly. But enough of my idiocy and more of my thank you's which I hope don't sound conceited or whatnot.
cuerva: I'm glad you're liking this story. The best compliments people can give me is that they like my story when they don't usually like stories with what I'm writing about… if that made any sense.
allee cat: I live in Seattle too! Wow. Also, I know. I'm not sure why I'm making David such an ass, but it's fun. Writing this kept me from my chemistry homework, too.
Riar Allie: As I said to cuerva, it's so great when my stories make people like (or ALMOST like, in your case) the things I'm writing about. Also like I said to cuerva, I hope that made sense.
Lady Mione: Wow! When I saw I got a review from you I was so happy. I love your story and it's an honor to receive a review from you. Thank you so much!
Hannah Holt: Yeah! A returning fan. I'm glad you love my stories so much! Also, your story I read is hi–freaking–larious. I can't wait for more.
gohansfollower: I know. David is a major ass. But your right, Fred will be there to pick up the pieces because, hey! That's what Fred does.
al: I wrote a new chapter and I'll be starting four tonight. Thanks!
Alexandra: Another returning reviewer! Hooray! I will keep continuing, so don't fret.
Isadora: Wow. My story has never been called perfect before. Thank you.
And a thank you to all the people that (hopefully) read it but didn't review. Just think, you can be immortalized on my story and all you need to do is click the little blue button right
|
|
|
|
\/
here. Thanks! Also, preview for chapter four: "You held me up to the sunlight… Now it feels like…"