Disclaimer: I don't own anything… I'm too poor… characters and surroundings belong to JKR, the plot and Hermione's actions are mine…

A/N: I edited a very important (yet quite banal) fact... thank you MoonFey for letting me know... of course, Fred was a beater at Hogwarts NOT a chaser... how could I forget about this! Stupid me... sorry, well, anyways... that's it... enjoy reading and find the former mistake ... hehe...

Chapter 2: Disturbing Truth

Hermione felt as if her stomach would turn over. She pressed herself closer to Fred as they flew in high-speed over fields, forests and little houses that were so far beneath them; she referred to not look down at all. Her heart was pounding heavily against her chest and she almost feared Fred could feel it too, being so close to her by her bone-breaking grip. She felt his chest go up and down flatly yet he breathed normally. She had never been that close to any other Weasley except for Ron who she had hugged several times in the last years of being one of his best friends.

Yet it was different being so close to one of the Weasley twins who she only remembered having laughed with. She had been highly surprised to see him coming for her after she had owled to the Burrow. She hadn't known the rest of the Weasley family was absent so she had expected Ron for her to come or maybe Mr. or Mrs. Weasley, but she hadn't thought of Fred picking her up.

It felt nevertheless good to see him, finally a smiling face who might care for her. She was glad she now was sitting behind him on his broom heading to the Burrow – even if her stomach made funny flicks all the times they moved out of a straight line for maybe avoiding being hit by a bird – and she was kind of glad he couldn't see her face while flying.

Her eyes were still swollen and deep red from crying and her skin was as pale as if she might have been a member of the Addams family. Now her face showed a slight trace of green for her being sick of flying. She pressed her eyes close forcefully, burying her face in Fred's shirt, which smelled of something like grass and lemons. She immediately threw off the thought about how Fred smelled like and concentrated on not vomiting over his back.

She slowly found herself deep in thoughts of what had just happened to her. She heard her mother yelling and she heard herself screaming back. She heard glass break and wood burst into pieces. She remembered the look on her mother's face when she caught her by doing something stupid. She recalled her words of disappointment, shock and anger. She then reminded herself of the smell of fresh blood and of the pain she had felt when -

"Hermione, we're there!", she heard Fred's voice.

She slowly opened her eyes, realizing they were already back on the ground. Her feet hit grass and gave her a solid stand again. She then noticed her lasting grip around Fred's chest and quickly removed her arms. She hopped off the broom, watching Fred doing the same. He shouldered his broom, smiling at her, before rubbing his chest with a grin.

"I'm sorry", Hermione said, looking pretty embarrassed of her clinging onto Fred while flying.

"It's alright, Hermione, forget it. I'll be fine", he said, still grinning.

He then turned to enter the Burrow they were standing in front of. Hermione looked at it with a warm feeling inside. She remembered the countless times she had been here, enjoying how it was like to have a caring family.

Fred entered the house, Hermione on his tail.

"George, I'm back!", he yelled towards the stairs, not seeing his twin standing almost next to him in the kitchen.

"Yeah, I can see you", George answered, rubbing his ears.

"Oh right", Fred replied, grinning at his twin. "Look who I brought home!"

"Hey, Hermione", George greeted her with a wave and a puzzled smile. "What are you doing here? Ron and Ginny are on vacation, you know?"

"Yeah, I know", she said quietly. "I-"

"She asked us to pick her up earlier", Fred ended - for he sensed she was uncomfortable telling herself. She merely nodded and threw him a thankful look.

George watched his twin and Hermione out of confused eyes, yet closed the topic by saying: "So you'll spend this next two weeks with us? And only us?" He smirked and winked at her. "On your own risk, you may use Ginny's bedroom."

"Thanks… for letting me stay, guys", she said barely audible.

The both of them nodded and smiled at her. "The house is big enough and it would have been strange with just the two of us…", George stated with a smirking towards his brother who suppressed a laugh.

"Well, just say it's good to have someone else here", Fred replied and kicked his twin in the side who immediately started laughing, kicking Fred back.

Hermione watched them, feeling how the pain of the last hours left her body. It felt great to watch these two joke around. She silently left them in the kitchen heading to the stairs. When she took the first step upstairs, she heard someone calling her name.

She turned to see Fred.

"It'll be alright, okay?", he said quietly, smiling at her.

She nodded and gave back a shy smile.

"Try to rest a bit, yeah? We'll have dinner later that evening."

"Alright", she replied, turning to continue her way upstairs.

When Fred was leaving as well, she stopped and turned to him.

"Fred?"

"Hm?"

"Thank you", she whispered, blushing a bit.

He just smiled up at her before leaving to follow George who went outside.

Hermione then continued climbing the stairs until she reached Ginny's room where she had spent countless times talking to the youngest and only Weasley girl about everything she could think of. She had missed Ginny since the last school day. Their talks were kind of therapeutic to her. The first day she was away from school she felt the cold stab of loneliness and the urge to talk to someone. But there hadn't been anyone to talk to.

She slowly entered the room, closing the door and sitting down on the bed. She felt her heart sink at the thought of Ginny's absence. She nevertheless was happy to be here at all, seeing Ginny's things lying around in her room. Hermione lay down on the bed, staring at the ceiling for a while. She quickly fell into the depths of another world, into the world of dreams.

Hermione awoke with a start as someone was calling her name. She almost jerked open her eyes, only to let out a small shriek when she saw Fred Weasley's face very close to hers. He pulled back and grinned.

"I'm sorry to wake you", he said, sitting down on the bed. "But I thought you might be hungry."

She then noticed the plate in his hands, filled with a sandwich and some cookies. Hermione sat up and wiped the sleep out of her eyes before looking at him.

"How long did I sleep?"

"I'd say very long", he pointed out of the window where the sky was almost black with stars sparkling on it. Only a bright moon was spreading dull light through the darkness.

"Oh", she said, following his gaze. "It didn't feel like that."

"Do you feel better though?", he asked, watching her closely.

She nodded, eyeing the sandwich on the plate. Following her gaze, he shoved her the plate, grinning. She then helped herself to three cookies and half of the sandwich in less than one minute.

"Sorry", she said with a mouthful of cookies when Fred watched her highly amused. "I was starving!"

He laughed and got up from the bed.

"Well enjoy the last cookies and have a goodnight!", he said, winking at her.

"I will", she said after swallowing.

He turned to leave the room.

"Good night, Fred!"

"Good night, Hermione!", he replied and left.

She looked after him and then stared into the dark of Ginny's room. The plate was finally empty and her stomach more or less filled. But she couldn't sleep now she was awake and accordingly slept more than enough for one day. She then put down the plate and got up from bed.

For a second she just stood in the middle of Ginny's room, realizing where she was and what has happened. Feeling a little awkward with no particular reason, she took the plate and left the room to bring it back into the kitchen. When she stepped out in the small and dark corridor, she could hear something explode somewhere upstairs. It was just a small and quite soundless explosion yet she was aware that the twins might be testing some of their jokes again.

Hermione, however, let them doing so and headed downstairs. When she reached the kitchen, she saw that the fire in the chimney was still glowing as if someone had been here recently. She put down the plate on the kitchen table and entered the living room. There she saw someone crawled up on the couch. She slowly approached the couch, recognising Fred Weasley lying there, apparently falling asleep while reading a large book called 'The Dos and Don'ts of being a business wizard'. That sounded odd in the hands of one of the twins.

Yet it dawned to Hermione that she didn't know the twins that much. Of course she knew that they left school to open up their own joke shop and this may afford more than just ideas of how to do a great prank. She kicked herself for underestimating Fred and George. Who else than smart and funny guys like them could have done the things they did over their years at Hogwarts and where else.

She watched the sleeping twin, not noticing that she stood in the middle of the room. She never looked at him so intensive as she did now. She then realized that he was in fact almost as tall as Ron, but his hair was like his twin's longer and somehow redder. His freckles glowed in the shine of the fire burning down slowly. His high cheekbones and his lean face structure matched perfect with his slim yet muscled body. Hermione recalled the flight to the Burrow, feeling his chest. That's how she imagined a chaser's chest. Being a beater at the Gryffindor team in Hogwarts for so many years shaped Fred as she could tell. She just looked closer at his hands, when someone cleared their throat.

She almost jumped as she stared down into two shining blue eyes.

"Enjoying what you see?", Fred said, grinning, sitting up slowly.

Hermione blushed immediately. She just stared at Fred. "I… I… I'm sorry… I… I didn't mean to…"

"Calm down, Hermione", he said, laughing. "What are you doing here anyways?"

"I… couldn't sleep so I brought down the plate and-"

"Kind of stumbled over me, huh?" His grin made his face shine in the fire's glow.

"Kind of", she admitted. "I… I also stumbled over the book you're reading", she said, pointing down at the book in Fred's hands.

He looked down at it and placed it next to him on the couch. "Sounds more interesting that it actually is, trust me", he said. "Not to say it's boring… but I need it though!"

"For your shop, right? How is it going?"

"Well- hey, why don't you sit down? You may fall over in boredom", he grinned, pointing on the couch next to him.

She slowly sat down next to him. "I don't think it's boring to listen to you talking about your shop", she said, looking at him.

He smiled. "Well, some say it is… I say it is… but well, yeah it's going quite good… we finally found an empty shop in Diagon Alley where we can start our business. We already have most of the articles we want to sell here… George is testing most of them right now-" It was now that Hermione heard yet another explosion from upstairs. "We may start to sell in a couple of weeks", he said and Hermione saw pride glimmering in his blue eyes.

She smiled. "That sounds great! I'm so happy for you!"

"Don't be! With us selling our jokes to every Hogwarts student who wants them you might get more work to do as a prefect, you know?"

Hermione met his grin and threw it right back. "But that's what it's all about, isn't it? The next year is your very last year, so with you guys gone, I wouldn't have anyone to blame for making trouble!"

He laughed. Her gaze trailed off to the fire that was glowing in the chimney. She felt him shifting on the couch and suddenly felt his hand on hers. Jumping a bit, she looked at him.

"Do you want to tell me what really happened at your parents' house?", he asked, his voice filled with earnestness.

She glared at him, feeling her throat tighten. She had neglected the thoughts of what had happened. Her eyes were burning as tears were forming inside.

"You don't have to", he quickly said, squeezing her hand slightly.

"Well… I… I'm sorry-"

"Stop apologizing for nothing", he whispered.

"Oh, I'm- yeah, alright, I'll stop it", she said with an awkward grin.

"Why were you parents or your mother so mad at you?"

"Well, I did something… that I already regret but I can't turn back time and… well, my mum caught me doing so and went crazy. She even said she would send me to a psychiatrist-"

"A psychiatrist?"

"Someone who speaks with people about their mental problems-"

"Yeah, I know", he said quietly, watching her. "But why did she say that? What have you done?"

Hermione refused to look at Fred. She didn't want to talk about it. Not now. But with Fred staring at her, she merely was able to pull up her sleeve.

Fred stared at Hermione's arm where he could see many red lines on her skin. Many little parallel red cuts.

"You're sure, Crookshanks didn't-"

"Yes. Because I did…"

"Right…", Fred said. "May I?", he asked, touching her arm and pulling it towards him.

He carefully stroke over the irritated skin, he could still feel the blood pulsating underneath these wounds. She winced a bit as he touched one of the bigger and deeper wounds. He let go of her arm, turning to look at her.

Sobbing soundlessly, she covered her face with her hands. He just sat beside her, ignoring the wounds that she had conjured by herself, and put an arm around her, pulling her towards him.

"It's alright", he whispered. "It's alright…"

She was sobbing mercilessly against his chest now, tears wetting his shirt. He felt kind of far away, holding her like this. These wounds made him nervous. He'd never seen something like this before. Yet he understood why one would like to hurt oneself. He'd read about it. Replacing emotional pain with physical by creating another source of pain. He sighed, holding her tightly. He'd never thought that Hermione would do something like this. He remembered her as a happy yet serious girl. Stubborn, adventurous, yet keen on books and on not breaking rules. She never seemed to have inner troubles. She seemed to be just perfect.

He suddenly knew he was wrong about her. Behind her perfect face she was just a girl carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, afraid of being alone, afraid of failing, afraid of not fitting in. He closed his eyes, feeling her still crying. He wanted to help her yet he didn't know how. He'd never been with her a lot. She was Ron's and Ginny's friend and just a schoolmate and girl to him. Until now. Now with the both of them gone, he was supposed to help her.

And he was willing to make this girl in his arm laugh again.

A/N: What do you think? I know I made Hermione a bit too… I don't know… extreme… yet I thought "Why not!"… hope you like it, tell me if or if not… Thank you!