(Disclaimer: Again, I don't own anything… besides the plot and Hermione's bloody deeds… heheh… yeah, so again… the rest's not mine!
A/N: So here's chapter 4… oh and before I forgot: thank you sooo much, SnowRose23 for your comment, this update's for you I never imagined to get a review at all… so thank you again for reading and reviewing!)
Chapter 4: ConfusionHermione fell into a dreamless sleep. She had felt really knocked out and fell asleep almost immediately. Before she found herself into the depth of black and motionless sleep, she had seen images inside her head. Images of dark forests, of blood and of angry faces that turned into smiling one. There was red hair and blue eyes. And she felt herself reminded of Ron. She had almost forgotten about Fred and George's younger brother. How he had hurt her the last year. How they had become friends again. How everything had changed.
She first had realized her feelings for Ron when it was way too late. He would never feel the same for her, not in the way she wanted him to. She knew he was too young, he was, however, her age but she knew what they said about boys and girls in the same age. Girls were always brighter and more mature than boys in the same age. Cliché, yet truth. She had tried to push her feelings away to where they had come from. Which wasn't an easy mission.
But now there was another type of red hair and another pair of blue eyes.
She felt herself shifting in her sleep. She forced herself to abandon these thoughts and quickly fell into a dreamless sleep.
Hours seemed to pass by but when she finally awoke again, the sky looked as tired as she felt. The sun had just risen and yellowish light spread among the surroundings. She sat up in the bed, staring down at the big blue shirt that was covering half her body. When her gaze wandered to the red strains on her left arm she felt even smaller. She quickly got up and walked towards the window.
A new day had come. She had to use it. Like Fred was saying to her last night, self-pitying wasn't the right thing to do now…
Hermione sighed and walked over to the door, listening if there was still movement around. When she couldn't hear anything, she left Ginny's room and headed to the bathroom at the other end of the corridor. She laid her hand on the door-handle – just in time to see the door open and a half naked red hair coming out of the bathroom.
She stared and quickly turned around. "Oh I'm sorry!", she said, blushing.
"I said no more apologies, remember?"
She turned her head to see Fred smile at her.
"I… forgot…", she muttered, staring at the ground, noticing that Fred was only wearing long striped pyjama bottoms.
"Alright, so, it's your turn now", he said, making her look at her by bending down so that their faces were only inches away.
Hermione swallowed, trying to smile and ignoring his naked chest with these perfect muscles and –
"Hermione?"
"Hm?" His voice pulled her out of her thoughts and she blushed slightly – if that was possible for she already was red like a tomato.
"I assume you wanted to use the bathroom, right?", Fred said, smiling.
"Er, yes, yes, I –"
He just nodded and shoved her into the bathroom by gently touching her shoulders. She could feel her skin burn at his touch. She quickly slapped herself mentally for letting it happen.
"So, have fun", he said, about to close the door. "Oh, I almost forgot, we'll have breakfast in half an hour, okay?"
"I… I'll be there", she muttered, grinning kind of strange.
He laughed and closed the door with a wink.
As soon as he was out of sight, Hermione collapsed on the floor, covering her face in her hands. She felt so stupid… She felt tears running down her cheeks. Loud sobs erupted from her throat; she just couldn't handle it anymore. She didn't know why exactly she cried right now, she just felt the urge to do so. She knew there was no particular reason but she couldn't stop herself. Rolling herself up on the ground, crying into her hands, she seemed to fall into another world where it was dark, dusty and full of disturbing shadows…
A knock let the shadows burst into thousands of little black dots that disappeared very quickly, letting her come back into the real world where she lay crying on the floor of the Weasley's bathroom.
She gasped as the door began to open.
"Wai-wait!", she tried to say, crumbling to her feet.
She just reached the door and prevented it to open further when she saw another red head appear in the small gab between door and frame. As soon as it appeared it was gone again.
"Hermione? Everything okay with you?", she heard George's voice from the other side of the door.
"Ye-yeah, everything's alright", she said, trying to sound normal. She quickly wiped the tears off her face.
"D'you come down to have breakfast with us?", he asked through the door.
"Yeah, I will", she said hurriedly.
"Alright, see you then!"
She breathed hard when she could hear him going downstairs. Sighing deeply, she walked to the sink and threw cold water into her face. Feeling refreshed again, she dried her face with a towel that unfortunately smelled like lemons. She quickly threw it back to where it had been and stared at the reflection of the mirror that showed a terribly torn girl with bushy hair that seemed to have lost the last trace of energy – just like her heart and soul had.
She slowly turned to the door and left the bathroom, hurrying into Ginny's bedroom to change into her clothes again. She then wiped the last tears off her eyes and went, sighing deeply, upstairs. She reached the kitchen where the twins sat on opposite sides of the table, helping themselves to toast, orange juice and pancakes.
Hermione met their gazes superficially and sat down at the head side of the table, after arguing to herself about where she should sit down, next to George or next to Fred. She decided against both. She couldn't even look one of them straight in the eye. She still felt stupid about her behaviour. If she just could get rid of these things inside…
"Hermione?", someone called her name.
She looked up from her still empty plate, turning her head from Fred to George and back.
"Help yourself, alright?", George said and pointed at the plate with pancakes on it. "I made them myself…"
She stared down at the pancakes. "Really?", she asked, her voice cracking. She caught herself again and brought up a smile. "Without magic, I assume?"
"Well, now you got me", George grinned.
Hermione smiled at him. "But good work, though!"
"Thanks", he said with a wink.
She grabbed the fork lying next to her plate and helped herself to a pancake and poured some orange juice into her glass afterwards. The breakfast passed by quite fast, and at the end of it, Fred addressed Hermione, causing her to almost spill out the orange juice she had just drunk.
"Hermione, I thought about your little clothes-problem… what if we fly back to your parents' house and get it?"
She swallowed hard and wiped the left corner of her mouth. "What!"
"Well, you can't stay here without your stuff, now can you?"
"But…"
"I can't borrow you my shirts forever", he said with a grin.
She blushed a bit, nodding sheepishly. "You're right, but –"
"Don't worry", he added. "Your parents won't catch you and put you behind bars or something."
She watched him closely. 'Well, it's worth a try…', she thought. 'Yet again –'
"Look, we'll fly there, wait until your parents leave the house and sneak in, alright? We'll get your trunk and your stuff and gone we are again…", he said, interrupting her inner-fight. "What do you think?"
She turned to look at George who just shrugged. "It's not that hard, now is it?", he said. "We've done more spectacular stuff, haven't we, Fred?", he added with a grin at his twin who nodded smirking.
"Well, alright then", Hermione finally said, looking at the twins in rotary.
"Great", Fred said, standing up. "Let's clean the table and rest a bit, I think it's better we fly in the afternoon, okay?"
Hermione nodded, knowing her parents often used the afternoons to drive around to town. She stood up as well, helping the twins to carry plates and glasses to the sink where George just pointed his wand at the crockery in order to let them clean themselves.
After that the twins both went into the garden to test some of their jokes.
"Don't want to blow up the house", they said grinning. "Mum wouldn't like that…"
Hermione could tell that Mrs. Weasley wouldn't like that. It was strange enough that they were all by themselves at the Burrow - for she knew that Mrs. Weasley never would dare to leave these two alone. Yet she had to admit that Fred and George were already seventeen years old and with that they were of age in the wizarding world. Hermione assumed that Mrs. Weasley wanted to test their ability of being responsible. It seemed very brave of their mother to do so, though.
Yet Hermione felt the reason why she had left her sons. She trusted them – whatever they had done before, she just trusted them. She, Hermione, had to do the same. Before her brain could accept that thought, her heart almost screamed at her that she already trusted them. She watched them through the kitchen window, smiling slightly. She then got upstairs again, hiding in Ginny's bedroom, lying on the bed, reading some of Ginny's old school books. Before she knew it she fell asleep again, falling into spinning dreams.
She was running through the forest again. Darkness embraced her forcefully. The moon was just a small sickle at the black sky. She heard twigs break around her and leaves rustle, she felt stares on her back and hands grabbing her as she ran through the dark. Her heart pounded in her ears, her throat felt as if someone was squeezing it. She started to look around in panic, seeing staring eyes everywhere, sensing the presence of thousand other things that didn't seem to be nice.
Suddenly she felt another breath next to her. She spun around but she couldn't see anything. Before she could keep on running, there were two hands grabbing her upper arms, pulling her into a bone-breaking grip. Her body was lifted off the ground when one arm pressed her against another body. One hand covered her mouth but she nevertheless managed to scream.
It echoed through her head, followed by a gently voice.
"Hermione?"
She woke up with a start, sitting in the bed panting. Cold sweat was streaming down her back and face. She wiped it off her forehead, trying to breathe normally again. She then noticed someone sitting at the end of the bed.
Hermione almost jumped, recognizing Fred's worried face.
"How-how long have you been sitting there?", she muttered, staring at him.
"I heard you scream so I came looking for you", he replied. "You alright?"
"I-I just had a nightmare, that's all, I'm fine", she whispered hurriedly, eyeing him doubtfully.
"You missed lunch", he said.
"I'm not hungry, thanks", she replied, smiling slightly.
"Alright." Fred nodded, standing up. "I'm downstairs when you're ready to go, okay?"
Hermione threw him a puzzled look before recalling their plan. She then nodded, blushing a little.
He winked at her, leaving the room.
As soon as he was gone, she rolled her eyes, shaking her head and kicking herself mentally. Stupid. Just stupid. She got up, put Ginny's books back into the shelves on the wall and decided to visit the bathroom before she went down. She stared at the mirror, watching the pale girl with these deep brown eyes. She tried to straighten her hair with her hands but it was no use. Her bushy hair always did what it wanted. She gave up controlling it and left the bathroom.
Reaching the kitchen, she saw Fred outside, polishing his broomstick. George stood next to him, talking. She slowly stepped towards the door, catching bits of their conversation.
"- you think it's nice?", George asked, his hands in his pockets.
"Why not?", Fred replied, busy cleaning his broom.
"Isn't it rude?"
"Why's that?"
"What will they think? Us inviting another girl?"
"They won't mind, trust me. They like her. Besides, we didn't invite her."
"Well, you better hope they like her. I don't want to see another catfight…"
"No? Too bad… I thought those were highly amusing…"
The twins laughed.
Hermione watched them puzzled, before deciding to show herself. She then stepped outside.
"Hey, Hermione", George addressed her, seemingly swallowing down his surprise.
"You ready?", Fred asked, looking up from his broom.
She just nodded, walking over to Fred who threw a last look at his twin before the other one went inside the house again. Fred then mounted his broom, waiting for Hermione to do the same.
But she just stared at the broom.
"Still afraid of flying, huh?", he said, getting off his broom.
She watched him motionless. She felt kind of awkward and there was something else burning in her head that she couldn't name yet. Fred stepped next to her, the broom in his hand.
"Trust me, will you? You survived the first time, you will survive this one as well!", he said, grinning. "Alright then, sit down in front of me, this might be saver…"
She still stared at him, locking eyes with him. Sighing and muttering under her breath, she mounted the broom, feeling him sitting down behind her. She clutched the handle of the broom with both hands, shaking slightly. He leant over her, pulling his arms around her to also clutch the handle of the broom. She felt kind of squeezed by his body but she also felt more secure than the last time she flew.
He then kicked off the ground, hovering in mid-air, her feet slowly losing stability. Hermione swallowed hard, clutching the broom harder. She could feel his breath on her neck that made her skin feel like on fire. She closed her eyes and ignored the flicking sensation inside her stomach when he leaned in closer to direct the broom through the air.
There were flying which seemed to be more than an hour, but when she opened her eyes to bravely look around and find out where there were, they were still flying over fields and forests, far away from civilisation and her parents' house.
Hermione sighed - louder than she had expected, before jumping at the sound of Fred's voice in her ear.
"Finally enjoying it?", he whispered.
"Well, I'm getting used to it, yeah", she replied, smiling to herself.
It was then that she recalled the feeling she had before flying off with Fred. It came back slowly but devastatingly hard she almost thought she would be knocked over by it.
"Fred", she said quietly. "I…"
She stopped, thinking that admitting to have overheard his conversation with his brother wouldn't be the right thing to do. She quickly reformed her thoughts.
"What is it?", he asked.
"I just wondered, erm, well, do you really want me to be at the Burrow?"
He suddenly slowed down the broom, stopping in mid-air. Hermione saw her legs hover way too high above a wide field. She swallowed and looked up again.
"Are you serious?", he asked, leaning sideways so that he could see her face.
She slowly turned to look at him.
"Well, I just thought about it. I came here uninvited and I must be quite a pain in the ass, now am I not? And I… I just feel like I'm unwanted, you know…", she muttered into the wind.
He turned his head again, looking down, before he took one hand off the broom handle to touch her chin gently, making her turn her head around a little more. They locked eyes.
"You're not unwanted", he said quietly. "I think it's great to have you here. Besides, I don't think you wanted this to happen, right? I mean the reason why you owled us. It wasn't planned, and I'm actually glad you called us for help. Who knows what might have gotten to your mind if you hadn't. So, forget it, will you? We'll now get your stuff, leave your parents a message that you're fine and then fly right back – and you enjoy the last three weeks before the next school year begins, alright?"
She wanted to look away but he still had his hand at her chin. She barely managed to nod. He smiled at her and let go of her chin. While she turned to look at her hands clutching the broom handle, he leaned in again to direct the broom further through the air. The rest of the flight they both remained silent, Fred busy directing the broom, Hermione caught into an inner struggle again. She finally told her herself to shut up. She had to enjoy this now. These self-doubts would destroy her newly discovered freedom. She suddenly felt a bit like a rebel, running from her parents' place, living with the greatest pranksters she'd ever known. She had to admit that it felt great…
'No more tears, you hear me? If you collapse one more time, I'll kick you with my own hands', she thought, grinning at the thought. Rolling her eyes, she concentrated on the houses appearing in the distance. The last task. After getting her stuff, she was free. No more yelling parents, no more troubles and arguments about how to clean her room or how to keep the house clean and so on. When Fred leaned over to slow the broom down and direct it towards the ground, she sighed, feeling ready to fight the demons called parents.
Though she hoped that they were out…
(A/N: Up next: Fred raids Hermione's room, Hermione gets a bad headache because of whatever and so much more… keep reading)