"What are you hiding?" Hermione looked up from her book, startled by Harry's blunt question. His voice was laced with anger at being left in the dark about something else and Hermione felt the butterflies awake in her stomach.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she lied lamely. She knew exactly what he was talking about. Her mind hadn't been on the book at all, it had actually on the dream she had had the night before. Fred had once again invaded her dreams, but this time—thankfully—there were no major problems for her to witness through his mind. She had been dreaming of the lake that was located behind her home—her favorite part of the land her father had inherited three years ago—when Fred had plopped down beside her. It had startled her, of course, but she soon found herself becoming quite comfortable there with him. The two had talked for what seemed like hours. He had wanted to know everything—from her favorite color to her adventures with Harry—and before she had even began to interrogate him, the sun was spilling into her room and she felt her mind slowly come back to consciousness. At first, she wasn't sure if it was just a dream or if he had felt it too. He had treated her the same way he always did at breakfast, and for a moment, she was sure that it had been a figment of her imagination. But as she made her way back to her room after breakfast, she found a single long-stem fire and ice rose (her favorite flower) on top of her pillow and she knew that he had actually heard every word she had spoken that night.

The last thing she wanted was for Harry to be angry. His mood swings had become worse with Sirius' death and his last one (which had taken place around lunch that day) had put him back into bed. "Stop looking at me like I'm a bloody doll! I'm not going to break!" he bit out angrily. Hermione nodded her head.

"I never thought you were," she said, the ghost of a smile on her face. "It's stupid really…" she trailed off, remembering Ginny's expression. It had taken awhile to get Ginny to even believe her and when she finally did, she had burst out into giggles saying "only youor Harry would have bad enough luck to get stuck in this situation with Fred," Hermione had smiled at her reaction, but soon felt her cheeks heat up as Ginny continued. "You know, I always thought you'd marry Ron, but I wouldn't mind you dating Fred either. As long as you marry into the family some how." Hermione laughed softly at the memory before turning her attention back to Harry. "Honestly, it doesn't even make any sense…" She looked at him skeptically. "Do you really want to know?"

"No, I just asked to use up some of the oxygen in this room," Harry replied sarcastically. Hermione allowed herself to chuckle before she began to tell him her story, starting with the very first dream.

Hermione saw Harry smile—really smile—for the first time since Sirius' as she went in to Ginny's reaction, and she felt a burst of pride at being the one to put it there. "I'm glad you find my life so amusing."

His smile shrunk slightly as he spoke. "A lot of things will amuse you if you had to stay in this room all day," he said a slight amount of bitterness in his voice. Hermione opened her mouth to speak but he raised a hand to stop her. "I know, I know. It's my own fault. I really shouldn't have said those things to Moony, but I just lost it." Hermione smiled in sympathy. She still shuddered slightly as she recalled his argument with their old professor. He had woken up angry that morning, his head was still sore and Mrs. Weasley had come to the conclusion that she had let him out of bed much too early and sent him straight back after breakfast. Needless to say, he wasn't very happy when Lupin had come to talk to him about Sirius' death—a subject that was still fresh in everyone's mind as they walked the halls of the old mansion that Sirius had loathed.

No one was sure what had set off the argument (and no one was going to approach either of the men on the subject) but it had ended with Harry passed out on the floor from yelling so much, and Lupin looking down at him with pity in his eyes.

"We're not angry at you Harry. He understands, but you're not the only one who lost him. Lupin lost the last of his best friends, at least you still have one link to your parents." Harry nodded his head, mulling over what she had said. He decided that they had talked about Sirius enough for one day, and the silence was becoming uncomfortable, so he broke it.

"You know, Ron's going to go off his rocker when he hears about this," he stated. Hermione squirmed a little and decided that the sandwiches on the tray Mrs. Weasley had left them for supper were much more appealing than where this conversation was heading. "You were planning on telling him right?" he asked, raising an eyebrow as she laid a plate of sandwiches in front of him. "I could've done it myself you know," he informed her.

"Mrs. Weasley said that you need to rest. That's the only reason she let me stay up here, and I intend to fulfill my job requirements."

"So you're not planning on telling Ron." He smiled as she sat back down on the bed, a little more forcefully than anyone unaffected by his words would have.

"He's going to be angry," she said. "He's going to ask why it's always Fred or somebody else."

"And if you don't tell him, he's going to be ridiculously jealous when he jumps to the conclusion that you fancy his older brother," he reasoned, casually taking a bite out of his sandwich. "He likes you, Hermione. Has since day one." He informed her after he swallowed.

She laughed, but the sound came out hollow. "And he's had since day one to act on his feelings. I can't just wait on him forever Harry. I was hoping that he would come to his senses during fourth year—after the ball—but he never made a move and I gave up hoping he would." Harry nodded in understanding. He couldn't really blame her for giving up on his best friend—after all, he had had five years to work up the courage to ask her—and she had certainly had given him enough clues to know that she had returned his feelings. "It really is a lose/lose situation isn't it? Either way he'll be mad at something that I can't control. I didn't ask to suddenly start talking to Fred in my sleep," she said.

"He just wants to make sure you're safe, Hermione." He said, and both just sat on his bed in comfortable silence for a long moment.

"I feel so helpless!" she confided, her voice sounding extremely frustrated. "I can't help you win this war—that was proven at the Department of Mysteries—and I can't even explain what's going on between Fred and I."

"Frustrating isn't it?" he asked, knowing exactly how she was feeling—a fact that they both took comfort in.

"Unbelievably," she replied, a small smile playing on her lips.

He was going to say more, but the loud stomping of feet on the stairs made them both turn their attention to the door, which shortly swung open, revealing a very angry Ron and Ginny—who didn't look much happier. "Oh come off it, Ron! You act like you own her!" Ron entered the room and pivoted around to face is little sister.

"He knew. He knew exactly how I feel about her and he's—he's going to ask her out on a bloody date!" his whole face had become darker than his hair and Ginny's anger was close to his.

"So I'm supposed to just wait around for you to grow up and ask her yourself?" Fred asked coolly from the doorway. "You had your chance little brother, I can't help it if you never felt the need to take it."

Ron turned his attention to Fred, his face—if possible—darkening with anger. "You're breaking the pact!" He yelled. "We all said that we would never steal another brother's girlfriend!"

"Lucky for me, you're not actually dating her," his voice keeping the cool disposition that Hermione had come to admire.

Ron changed tactics, deciding that it would be easier to discourage him. "It's not like she would date you any way," he said smugly.

Fred pushed himself off of the door way. "Oh really? Lets just ask her, shall we?" he waltzed over to Hermione (who was still sitting on the edge of Harry's bed) and dropped to one knee. Taking her hands in his, he spoke. "Hermione, would you make me the happiest man alive by joining me for dinner tomorrow night?" he asked in exaggerated (almost mock) seriousness/sincerity. Hermione wanted to roll her eyes at his antics—and usually, she would have—but for some reason, a smile was fighting its way to display itself on her face.

She burst into laughter as Fred poked out his lower lip. "Please?" he said. She nodded her head, still recovering from laughter. She highly doubted that he would be this dramatic with someone he really cared about, and they had discussed a way to get her out of the house for research, so "yes" was the only obvious answer for the situation.

Ron obviously thought different. "Wh—No—You can't…" Ron sputtered, causing Hermione to sober immediately. A wave of guilt washed over her, as she realized she had just said yes to a date with his brother, when he admitted right then that he indeed had feelings for her.

"Ron…" she tried to tell him that it wasn't what he thought. She didn't have any feelings for Fred. They would never be more than just friends.

"Just get out," he said, his voice much too quiet. Everyone in the room came to the conclusion that they preferred Ron when he was yelling and screaming. Ginny immediately thought twice about interfering. It was between Ron, Hermione, and Fred after all…. When no one moved, Ron repeated his orders. "I said, get out!" his voice rose in volume, and reluctantly, Hermione, Fred and Ginny made their way to their respective rooms. Did they really have to sneak around? Surely there was an easier way of getting out of the house—she was certainly all for telling the truth.

Hey Ya'll, this is Kaitlyn (nightmarish angel)'s beta Bryce (Chorin). We apoligize for the LOOOOONG time it took for us to update, but we had to do the WHOLE FFA end-of-the-year banquet, then we just had the TAKS test, it's one of those USA state standardized tests. And, as high schoold freshmen, nonth graders, our free time to write totals negative amounts. But we're trying to do our best. Kaitlyn apologizes for how sorry the chapter is. Oh, and the reason why I'm updating this is because Kaitlyn just found out that she has to go to a regional writing competition. Well, enjoy.