Commitaphobia
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Harry Potter, and I own nothing.
Summary: Hermione breaks up with her current boyfriend – again. It actually seems to be a bad habit of hers. However, when Fred and she go on a "secret mission," hilarity and romance ensue.
Chapter 4: Look What You Did!
Author's Note: Sorry it took so long. Been busy. I'm happy with how it turned out though. I already have about half of the next chapter typed up, so review and it'll be up sooner!
June 10th – Outside – 1:00 P.M.
No, I haven't talked to Fred yet. I've been avoiding him, and he hasn't exactly gone out of his way to talk to me or anything, if you know what I mean. Sure, we sat across the table from each other at lunch today, but with a family as large as the Weasley's, it's easy to avoid talking to people. I had Ron on my left and Harry on my right.
OH! That's another thing! Harry's finally arrived! He's been doing some kind of auror clinic with the ministry. It's finally over! I've felt so awkward around Ron since mine and Fred's discovery of the BWWNE. I try to keep things normal, and we still talk and hang out... I guess. But now that Harry's here, I think it's easing the tension. He subconsciously manages to bring up neutral topics that have nothing to do with Ellen, making it easy for me to converse.
I was so excited to see Harry, though!
I walked into the kitchen this morning. I was still in a sleep-induced stupor, having just woken up, and suddenly I was ambushed with two wildly screaming boys. Through bleary eyes I could make out Ron's fiery hair jumping up and down screaming. The other person, I realized with a start, was Harry.
"Hermione!" he said happily.
"Harry!" I squealed. I gave him a tight, long hug. I hadn't seen him in such a long time! It felt like ages. It had only been a week and a half though. Weird stuff. When I released him, he was looking silly with embarrassment. You would think by now he would be used to it, but whatever.
Well, I'm off to go on a picnic with Harry and Ron. I'm excited! I'll write tomorrow about how it went!
Hermione Granger
June 11th – Bathroom – 8:00 AM
I'm sitting in here in the bathroom on the toilet (with the lid down) to get away from all of the noise this household seems to always accumulate. Sometimes I just need a moment to myself, you know?
And, ok, I was writing because yesterday the picnic was – Oh, God! Someone's banging on the bathroom door. And I know that voice. It's Fred! What should I do? I told him to hold on one second. He knows it's me! There's no way to get out of this. If I open the door, he'll see me and demand we talk.
Maybe if I jumped out the window...?
Oh no, he's banging on the door louder. He says I'm being a bathroom hog worse than Ginny. He says that I'm not the only one in the house who needs to brush their teeth. I have to go out there. Ohhhh no...
Here goes nothing...
June 11th – Bathroom once again – Noon
Wow. Woooow. That's all I have to say. Wow. That was so crazy, what just happened.
Ok, so I last ended with my being yelled out of the bathroom by Fred. As I left the bathroom I looked at the floor and tried to avoid eye contact, but Fred caught me by surprise. He firmly grabbed my shoulder and pushed me back into the bathroom.
"Hey! What're you doin'?" I asked, completely surprised.
"Talking to you," he replied grimly.
"But," I tried to make sense of this, "you said – "
"I just wanted to get a chance to talk to you! You've been running in the opposite direction ever since you messed up our Operation! Locking you up in this bathroom was the only way I could think of to get you to talk to me," Fred said, running his hands through his hair.
"Hey!" I suddenly came to my senses and began to walk toward the bathroom door. I had to get out of there.
"Hermione Janine Granger! Sit your skinny ass down!" Fred snappe.
I bristled slightly at his words, and then I realized, "Hey, my middle name's not Janine!"
Fred shrugged. "It's the first name I could think of," Fred grinned. "It sort of has a ring to it, huh?"
Despite myself I smiled a little bit. I tried my very hardest not to, and the fact that I was smiling made me even madder. Why I was mad at Fred is beyond me. I was the one who'd screwed up. I was the one who had single-handedly driven our plans into the ground, almost ruining the Operation.
Then, Fred got serious again. "Listen, we need to talk – "
I interrupted him, "Are you mad at me?"
"Mad at you," Fred asked, "why would I be mad at you?"
I looked at him with my eyebrows raised.
"Ok," Fred gave in, "I was mad at you in the beginning. But I'm over that now. Yeah, at first, I was really pissed off. I've had time to cool down considering it's been, oh, two days since the whole ordeal."
I could feel myself blushing. "I – I didn't want you to be mad at me."
"So, what were you going to do? Avoid me forever?"
Yes. "Well, no, I wasn't going to. But – but, what with everything going on, I've been busy."
"Everything going on? What's been going on?" Fred asked, sitting down on the sink. It creaked ominously, but he ignored it.
"Well, you know, Harry's got here. I've been trying to spend time with him."
Suddenly Fred's eyes hardened. "Yes, of course, I forgot about Harry."
I was confused. Why was he mad again? "What?"
"What, what?" Fred snapped. "I had simply forgotten about your precious Harry arriving. Of course he would drive the imperative mission lying before us out of your mind."
"He didn't drive it out of my mind!" I snapped back. "I've just been busy. He's my best friend, Fred! What was I supposed to do? Ignore him? Tell him, 'Sorry, Harry, I'm busy with Fred trying to bust your best friend with some trashy whore!'"
"Why not!" Fred shouted. "You told Ron about it already!"
That stung. I hadn't meant to tell Ron. The truth serum made me. I opened my mouth to retort... something about exactly where Fred could go... when the sink gave another loud groan.
And then it exploded.
The top snapped from the pipe and freezing water began spraying left and right.
"Argh!" Fred shouted as he tried to get out of the stream of shooting water. I shrieked as I got a mouthful of it.
The whole bathroom had turned into an icy waterfall. I fumbled in my pocket for my wand, but the mass of wet clothing was just tangling in my hands. I could barely see Fred through the water stinging my eyes.
He was jumping around yelling, "Do something! Do something!"
"I can't get my wand! You do something!" I tried to block the water which was still viciously spraying everywhere with my arm while I still groped around for my wand. I had dropped it when a fresh wave of water hit me.
"My wand's in my bedroom," Fred said caustically, dropping to his knees and helping me find my wand. It was lying behind the toilet just out of reach. "Accio wand," Fred tried, but it was futile without his own.
"Look what you did," I shrieked over the hissing of the water.
"I'll fix it," Fred shouted at me. He crawled over to the broken pipe and took both of his hands and placed them over the gash, trying to cut off the water. Not a good idea. Instead of stopping it from coming out, the water sprayed in every different direction.
"STOP IT!"
"Do you have a better idea?" Fred asked, trying to stand but slipping on a growing puddle.
I screamed in frustration. "NO!" Wait, yes I did. "YES! Get out of the bathroom! Get out!"
Fred's face fell. "I locked it. So that you couldn't escape."
We had both retreated to a small corner in the bathroom where the water wouldn't hit us. "Look, if we could just get my wand dislodged from behind the toilet, then we could get out. Throw something at it! Do SOMETHING!" I shivered. "Quickly!"
Fred grabbed a shampoo bottle and aimed carefully. He threw it so that it knocked my wand a little closer. I could almost reach it. It rolled a closer as red sparks emitted from it. Almost there... Got it! I had my wand, and I immediately cast a spell to stop the water shooting from the pipe. Then I repaired the sink. Then I surveyed the damage.
I was dripping head-to-toe in water. My hair was probably plastered all around my face and I'm sure what little make-up I wore was running. And, here's the worst part: I was wearing a white shirt. I immediately crossed my arms.
The sudden movement, of course, drew Fred's eyes. Once he realized what I was doing, he dropped his eyes, and a blush slowly crept to his cheeks. I turned my back to him and cast a drying charm on myself. Ok, so you could still see the outline of my breasts, but it wasn't as bad. Then, I turned and cast the same charm on him.
He shivered lightly as the warm air washed over him. "Thanks," he muttered.
I looked around the bathroom. It looked like a tiny hurricane had just come through our toilet. The shower curtain had been knocked down, and it had managed to bring Ginny's many hair care products down with it. The medicine cabinet lay open and bottles were scattered over the floor. The towels were limp and dripping water slowly onto the shiny floor. The rugs were all water logged, and the mirror had fallen to the floor, where it laid, cracked.
"Look. What. You. Did." It was the only thing I could think to say. "Oh my God, look what you did!" I was bridging on hysteria. "Look what you did! Your mum's going to kill us! We're dead. Forever. Permanently. I'll never be able to come back here! Oh, God, how will we fix this without her finding out? She probably already heard! She's probably on her way up here! On her way up here with a knife more likely! Oh, God, what will we do!"
Fred came up behind me and placed one hand over my mouth. "Shhh," he said. "She hasn't heard yet, but your screaming will alert the whole house!"
I bit his hand and then buried my head in my own hands. "We're dead."
"No, we're not," Fred said firmly. "Hermione Granger, look at me! Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to go get my wand, and then I'll come back here and we'll start fixing things up. It'll be great. How hard can it – would you look at me!"
I looked up.
"Thank you, now wait right here."
Fred dissapparated with a loud pop. "Great!" I yelled to the air. "Just great!"
Fred reappeared. "Well," he said, pulling out his wand. "Let's get to it then. He walked over to the mirror and tapped it. It pieced itself back together and flew onto the wall.
After I recovered from my shock, I began to help. It took about an hour, but soon enough the bathroom was back to normal sans a few of Ginny's hair products which had burst open.
Once we were done, I sat on the floor. Fred plopped down next to me. We had both worked so hard that little beads of sweat were dotting Fred's neck.
"Wow," I said, "we're done."
"We're done," Fred repeated. He held out his hand for a high-five, and I slapped it.
"We did good, "I said, looking around at the gleaming tile.
"We did well," Fred corrected, grinning.
"Shut up."
Fred looked over at me one more time. "Now, if you'll excuse me," he said glancing at his watch, "I've got a hot date to meet."
"The bimbo from the book shop?" I asked, standing at approaching the door.
"That's for me to know and you to find out," Fred said, slamming the door shut.
Sometimes I hate him so much.
Hermione Granger
June 11th – The Den – 12:31 AM
I just got this note from Fred:
Spiff: Meet me in the living room tomorrow at 0200 hours. Make sure no one else is with you. Immediately incinerate this after you receive it. That is all. – Bogey
Pssht, yeah right. Like I'm going to immediately incinerate it.
Anyways, that's in an hour and a half. I feel like I'm about to fall asleep, but I can't.
Ugh, this secret mission thing sucks. I'm guessing he's going to be giving me the next step of our plan. I can't wait (sarcasm right there...)
Hermione Granger
P.S. It turns out his date was Parvati Patil. What's up with that? She's the biggest ditz in our year. Plus she's younger than him! What was he thinking!
Why do I care?
June 11th – My Room – 2:15
This was left on the table. Fred is SUCh a loser:
Meet me tomorrow in the garden after you've eaten lunch. Eat as quickly as possible so that everyone else is still eating. –Bogey
Ugh, I waited up for nothing.
Hermione Granger
P.S. I wonder if he was too tired to meet me because he was out with Parvati...?
