Chapter4
Unluckily for Hermione, the twins had stayed the night, unless of course they had just got there really early. They were sitting at the kitchen table, having a whispered conversation, but as soon as they saw her, immediately stopped and Fred gave her a rather intense stare, then a friendly "Goodmorning". His face was soft and quite expressionless until Hermione returned his look with a rather reproachful one of her own, to which he raised his eyebrows, gave a small smile then turned back to his brother.
She walked across the room with Ginny to the kitchen countertop, where a selection of things to eat and drink had been already prepared by Molly. Using her wand - almost without thinking - she poured her self, a cup of coffee from the jug and picked up some buttered toast from the pile. Ginny did the same and then thegirls smiled and said good-morning to Molly, (who was at the other side of the room talking to Remus) before walking back over to the table, to sit down opposite the twins.
Even though Hermione knew Fred was looking at her and waiting for her to look back, she was determined not to give him the satisfaction.Instead, shetried pretend he wasn't there and struck up a conversation with Ginny, but when she felt something pinging annoyingly against her arm, she couldn't help but stop and look up. She scowled suspiciously at the twins, who immediately tried to look innocent, then Fred gave her a big smile and raised his eyebrows as if to say
"Well, what are you going to do about it?"
Hermione merely looked away, shaking her head and did her best to ignore him again, but when he knocked her foot hard under the table with his, she jumped back and in an irritated voice, loudly exclaimed
"Fred!"
Ginny joined in with a reprimand of her own, knowing her brother was deliberately trying to rile her friend, then threw a spell at him. His face became wrapped, in thick sticky cobwebs - complete with scurrying spiders - making both girls laugh out-loud. With some difficulty he wiped the vile webs away from his face and with a swipe of his own wand they were gone. He laughed sarcastically at his sister and gave her a "I'll get you for this!" look, just beforetheir mother came over to see what was going on.
There were the usual recriminations between siblings, but Molly soon made everyone be quiet and continue their breakfast without any more fuss.
By now Hermione was a bag of nerves, she'd lost her appetite for her toast and couldn't finish it. Pushing it aside, she put both hands around her coffee mug and stared deeply into the contents.
She had just begun to drift off into a daydream, when Fred suddenly announced to George that they had better go and open up the shop. Her heart lightened considerably and she looked up, hopeful of their imminent departure.
After stretching luxuriously, George agreed and the brothers scraped back their chairs and stood up. Fred glanced at Hermione, who gave him an expression that said "What? Do you expect me to care?"
In response Fred smirked at his twin and shrugged nonchalantly; George smiled knowingly back.
After giving their Mum a quick kiss on the cheek each, they at last left the house.
Hermione breathed a sigh of relief once she was sure they were gone and Ginny gave her a questioning look.
"What?" Hermione asked her friend, trying her best to look and sound genuinely non-plussed.
Ginny rolled her eyes, shrugged, then smiled and shook her head.
Hermione wondered what Fred had told his brother and if what had happened the previous night was something they had, cooking up between them. Whatever they were up to, she was going to keep both of them at arms length from now on – she couldn't risk anything jeopardising her relationship with Severus.
Very soon Harry and Ron came trooping in. Ron gave his ex a quick glance with the faintest of smiles, before looking away – which was a great improvement on his usual reproachful sneer. Harry gave her a cautious, but friendly smile. The two of them first walked over to get some toast and pumpkin juice and then sat down at the huge oak table opposite the girls, where Fred and George had previously been sitting.
After the usual good-mornings, there was an uncomfortable silence, well at least it felt like it on Hermione's part, so she decided to try and strike up a conversation with Harry.
"So.. how are you Harry? You've been a bit quiet lately" she asked, smiling gently at the dark haired wizard
Harry looked up from his breakfast and waited until he'd finished his mouthful, before answering. Ron looked up too, briefly.
"Okay, I suppose.. for someone who's going to have to go one on one with err.." he began, then looked round cautiously at Molly - who'd by now got up and moved away again to continue her conversation with Remus. Lowering his voice and leaning in towards her, he whispered "..You-know who!" behind his hand, in a rather sarcastic tone.
Hermione smiled sympathetically "Well.. if you ever need someone to talk to, you know where I am"
"Err..thanks" he answered, rather awkwardly, looking quickly at Ron, who merely shrugged to show he had no objection to the offer.
A short silence followed before Hermione continued with
"I see you've been spending a lot of time with Remus lately, has he been giving you some good advice?"
"Oh.. yes, he's been really helpful, he's told me a lot more about my parents and Sirius. I mean he's the closest thing I've got to.." but then Harry broke off smiling ruefully and looked down. He looked quite emotional for a moment, then looked up again and after a more positive smile at Hermione, continued with his breakfast. Hermione decided to leave it at that.
Just as they had finished and were clearing up the plates, they had a visitor – it was Dobby their favourite house-elf from Hogwarts andhe had brought them owls from Dumbledore.
Because they couldn't risk anything being sent to Grimmauld place directly at that time, they had all their correspondence sent to Dumbledore and then he forwarded it by way of the eccentric House elf, who could move fast and completely unseen even during the day.
He proudly presented Hermione with two and Molly with two also, then sat down on the floor to wait for their replies, if any; steadfastly refusing offers of anything to eat and drink.
Hermione opened her first letter, it was from her parents and she smiled at the rather mundane but never the less interesting to her, accounts of what had been happening in their lives lately. In her mothers small, neat handwriting she discovered of their plans to travel to Africa for a year and work with a charity that helped poor people with medical treatment. Her heart swelled with pride at their generosity, but they had always been excellent people. They had brought her up to feel a great sense of right and wrong and to be incensed by injustice or inequality. Her conscience stabbed a little then; she had been very naughty of late hadn't she? But she couldn't help smiling inwardly at just how. After finding a quill and paper she soon wrote a reply - telling them that everything was fine with her, that she would be starting her training soon, was looking forward to it and for them not to worry etc. etc. She finished by telling them she thought it was a wonderful idea that they were going to Africa and how proud she was of them. She gave her folded reply to Dobby, who tucked it inside his rather grubby green jumper – part of what he called his 'camouflage' clothes.
She knew who the second letter was from – Severus. Her hands shook slightly as she picked it up and her heart began to beat faster. She decided she had better read this one when she was alone in her room and got up to go there straight away.
Once there, she opened the envelope and began to read the letter
It was short, but to the point
Hermione
I am sending you this short note to allow you to prepare your self mentally. I have managed to wrangle a few days at Grimmauld place..
(Hermione squealed with excitement at this point, then firmly clamped her hand over her mouth, to prevent her self from making any more noise)
..with the excuse that I need a refuge for a while. I hope this pleases you and makes up for my previous absence. Please keep up your usual discretion - do not show this letter to anyone and burn it immediately after reading it.
I will arrive late tomorrow evening
Yours S
Hermione bit her lip and traced the loopy, rather scrawly script with her finger. She could hardly contain her excitement and held the letter to her chest with one hand, while punching the air in triumph with the other and quietly exclaimed the word "Yes!" about twenty times.
She leant back on her pillow, with an exultant grin, imagining all the ways in which she and her lover could create opportunities to see each other alone. She was just going through all the many possible scenarios and how they might pan out, when Ginny walked in. On hearing her Hermione immediately hid the precious letter under her pillow, out of sight.
"Right! If I have to torture you, you're going to tell me what's going on between you and my bothers!" Ginny demanded scathingly, standing in a determined militant pose, but with a wry smile.
"What was that about this morning!" She continued"You could have cut the air with a knife when you set eyes on each other!"
Hermione looked down sadly, she knew this was it - she was going to have to tell her the truth.
"I know something is going on Hermione." Ginny urged,when she didn'tget an immediateresponse, then she walked over to sit down on the bed beside her friend. "They have been giving you grief ever since you've been here, but that was different wasn't it? Are you?..I mean.. have you been.. you know.. seeing one of them?" she asked hesitantly, looking incredulously amused, like she could hardly believe she was asking such a question
Hermione bit her lip, then sighed before answering
"Last night when you saw me come in all flustered.. well, it wasn't just because of the size of the towel." She began, smiling awkwardly at Ginny, who nodded cautiously.
After pulling her legs up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them securely, she continued with
"I met Fred on the stairs on the way back from my bath and well.. she took another deep breath and rolled her eyes.
"I mean he was just messing about..at least at first, then.. he kissed me..." but at Ginny's shocked expression, she added hurriedly "of course, I broke off straight away, I mean it was obvious he wanted more..but I thought - no way! I didn't say anything, I was too shocked, I just made a run for it!"
Ginny lookcompletely taken aback for a whileand after uttering a few expletives asked quietly
"Do you like him?"
"No! I mean..yes, but not like that! I mean how horrible would I have to be to go out with my ex's brother! Look, I don't know what's got into him, I think him and George have cooked something up between them to be honest." Then she snorted with disbelief and added, "I know it sounds far fetched, Ginny but maybe they think they can get me and Ron back together by making him jealous or something? I mean, they don't know the real reason we split up do they?"
Ginny shook her head
"Ohhh.. please don't think I invited this Ginny!" Hermione begged "I honestly didn't and don't go thinking he forced him self on me either, because it was more just..well, mutual misunderstanding I think.."
Before Ginny could answer though, there was a knock at the door and they both looked towards it, in annoyance at being disturbed
"Hermione? Is it okay if I come in? You did say that if I needed to talk.." a muffled voice asked
It was Harry
"Ohh..yes. come in" Hermione answered, rather surprised that he'd had taken up her offer so soon
He walked in and on seeing Ginny immediately stopped and came over a little awkward
"Oh..erm, I'll come back later if you're busy" he said apologetically, turning slightly and indicating the door
"No it's fine" Hermione assured him, trying to keep the edge of annoyance from her voice. She wished he'd just come and sit down and relax, as his fidgeting was very irritating.
"Do you want me to go?" Ginny offered helpfully
"Erm, if you don't mind Gin, I just wanted to talk to Herm alone for a bit" Harry answered politely, before smiling gratefully
Ginny got up to go, but just as she reached the door, Hermione ran after her and whispered
"You're not going to say anything are you? Please, I just want to forget it ever happened!" shepleaded anxiously, worrying a great deal about what her friend wasreally thinking
"Of course not! Look, we'll talk about it more later..and don't worry, I know perfectly well what my brother's like, he thinks he's a gift to woman kind and that no one could resist him!" She giggled then added, "he was probably just trying his luck!"
"Well, he's 'lucked out' with me!" Hermione retorted, sarcastically, then smiled at her friend, who smiled knowingly back and suddenly felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She watched Ginny walk off down the short landing and descend the stairs, before shutting the door. She then turned to Harry who was now sitting on her bed, looking at the floor
"So..what was it you wanted to talk to me about then?" she asked curiously, sitting opposite him on Ginny's bed
Harry looked up and took a deep breath,as if he was about to say something, but instead sighed out the breath againheavily, before smiling briefly and looking down again. Hermione waited patiently for him to begin.
"Well..it's erm... well it's like this..I think I'm.. erm.. I think I'm in love with someone and as I well..you know, have to have this fight with..." he broke off sighing,before continuing with"I just.. don't want to wait until it's too late to tell them" He said, stumbling awkwardly over the words and blushing wildly. He played nervously with his fingers for a few seconds, before looking up at Hermione expectantly.
"Ohhh, I see!" Hermione exclaimed thoughtfully, not really knowing what to say at first, in response to this confession. He hadn't had a heart to heart with her like this for so long, that she hadn't got much of an idea of what had been going on in his head lately and she was quite taken aback by it. She was also immediately filled with curiosity.
"Oh! that's wonderful Harry! I'm really pleased for you!" She enthused joyfully, then asked, "but, who with? Do I know them?"
He snorted gently, before answering
"Yes..yes you do" then he looked directly at her before saying "very well in fact.."
I just want to say a big'thankyou' to everyone who has reviewed this story so far, you're all wonderful! You reallykeep me going!