Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is just a figment of my imagination
Chapter seven: Mistletoe"Mum! Good to see you."
"'Ello, madame Weasley. Eet ees good to see you again."
Mrs. Weasley welcomed her eldest son and his wife into the house with a warm smile.
"Welcome, dears. Give me your coats and I'll put them away. Where are the children?"
"Zey are with my muzzer in France. She vanted to 'ave zem over for ze 'olidays."
Bill quickly guided Fleur into the livingroom so she wouldn't see the relief on his mother's face. The sittingroom had been decorated with colourful christmas baubles and paper decorations. In one of the corners of the room there stood a small tree.
He spotted some mistletoe hovering near the fireplace and reminded himself to stay clear of it. Hermione and Ron were playing a game of chess and George and Ginny were watching. Fred had seated himself in a comfortable chair and seemed to be doing some calculations.
"Bill!" Mr. Weasley said cheerfully, looking up from his paper. "And Fleur too, of course. Have a seat!"
Fred closed his notebook.
"Want something to drink?" he offered them.
Bill looked at him.
"...Did mum make that special egg nog again?" he asked quietly.
Fred grinned. "As always. Shall I get some for Fleur too?"
The girl nodded. "But only a small glass, s'il vous plaît. I am not sure I vill like eet."
Fred walked to the cabinet, avoiding looking at the others. They had been playing that game all afternoon. Well, Ron and Hermione had. Ginny had been whispering instructions into Hermione's ear and all George had done up till now was drool.
Fred sighed. He had already told himself he was not going to let this bother him. Carrying the two drinks back to the guests, he put a smile on his face. He didn't want anyone to notice that he saw Hermione blush every time she was in the same room as George.
'Oh well.' He thought dismisively. 'At least George'll get what he wants.'
"You look distant, Fred." Bill said. "Something wrong?"
"Oh, I'm sure mum told you about the shop."
Bill nodded. As if instructed to do so, Fleur stood up to join the others at the chess game. Fred took her seat thankfully.
"I'm just a little bit tired, that's all."
Bill shook his head. "Not strange either. You must be stressed beyond your limits, what with everything that's going on."
"Yeah. But we're getting help."
"Mum said that too. Hermione, huh? Good thing Ron managed to keep things going between the two of them."
Now it was Fred's turn to grin. "I think you've got the wrong picture here, Bill. George is actually the one drooling over her shoulder, if you look closely you'll see. Ron is apparentally as single as ever."
"So George and Hermione are together?" Bill was confused.
He, like most others of the Weasley clan, had been so sure that he knew what the situation was like.
"I need to come over more often, I'm missing stuff here."
"Well, he hasn't won her over just yet, but it's probably just a matter of time. After all, he does posess the Weasley twin charm."
"I guess it does explain why you're so tired. With George busy getting his hormones to calm down, you're the one who needs to focus on the Zonko-problem."
Fred decided to nod and to leave it at that. For the moment it seemed to be the best explanation. Then their mother appeared in the door opening. She had taken off her flowery apron and changed into her christmas sweater.
"Dinner is served." She informed them with the hint of a proud expression on her face.
When they saw the table and all the food that had been layed out for them, they could understand her pride. She had really outdone herself this year. Eagerly they chose a seat and waited for everyone else to calm down.
Mr. Weasley carefully started cutting the hare that stood in the middle of the table, giving each of them a generous portion.
"Merry christmas everyone." He said happily.
They raised their glasses, muttering 'merry christmas' in return. Hermione was careful enough to take a bit of everything, not wanting to miss out on something. Ron was doing the same in much larger portions.
"Ron, can't you behave at the table just this once?" his father whispered.
Starting to glow red again, he quickly took his plate back and started to eat.
"This is really delicious, mrs. Weasley." Hermione said.
Mrs. Weasley seemed pleased and took another sip of her wine.
"Suck-up." Ron joked to her under his breath.
"Just you wait till I tell Tess about your table manners. See if she'll still like you then."
"You wouldn't..."
Ginny looked up. "Tess?"
"That collegue to which Ron has taken a liking." She answered with a grin. "And apparentally they write to each other, don't you Ronald."
He stared at her.
"You said you wouldn't say!" he hissed.
But as he looked around he saw that no one but Ginny had heard.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"I am positively, absolutely stuffed." He managed to announce.
He sank into one of the chairs and let his hand fall down on his stomach.
"Well you shouldn't eat that much then." Ginny said. "Every year you eat too much and every year you say you're stuffed. And every year you end up feeling like the hare we just ate!"
Hermione grinned. Not wanting to get in the middle of a brother-sister fight, she got up and started to clean up the dishes from the dinnertable. She glanced at the twins in the corner and again found herself blush when George made eye contact.
Quickly turning her attention back to the plates, she left the room. She walked through the hallway and into the kitchen to find Fleur and mrs. Weasley chatting pleasantly about all sorts of things. She placed the dishes on the counter and headed back to the livingroom.
But in the hallway she bumped into someone she hadn't expected. "George..."
"Yes?" he said calmly
"W- what are you doing here?" was all she managed to say.
"Oh, I thought I'd give you a hand...don't you want me to?"
She cursed herself for blushing again. What had brought this on? Why was she behaving like an idiot? And why did everything she said or thought sound utterly rediculous? She couldn't help noticing that George had suddenly taken a step closer.
He kept his eyes on her face and she almost wished he'd reach out to take her hand.
'Get a grip!' she thought wildly.
If she could just find a logical exlpanation for this then- Her thoughts were cut off when he suddenly did take her hand, almost as if he had read her mind.
"Oh..." was all she could say.
He smiled. She looked completely embarassed and somehow it became her. He took another step closer and she could practically feel his breath on her face. He looked up to the ceiling and grinned. She followed his eyes and saw a small bundle of mistletoe sprout just above her head.
She looked back at him and suddenly, but slowly, he started to bend his neck, bringing his face towards hers more and more. She could feel her heart beating extremely fast in her throat.
'This is rediculous...' she thought again.
But she slowly noticed that she was leaning in too. If they kept this up, there wouldn't be any air left between the two of them...
A sudden loud bang made her scream. The hallway started to fill with a rotting smell, acompanied by yellowish smoke. George pulled away and looked at the staircase as the hallway filled with the others.
"What's going on?" mrs. Weasley demanded.
"The Mimbulus mimbletonia!" George whispered horror-struck.
He jumped around Hermione and rushed up the stairs and was quickly followed by Fred, his wand at the ready. The others slowly retreated back into the livingroom, some more angry than others.
Mrs. Weasley was obviously keeping her anger inside for the sake of the holiday.
"Zose boys..." Fleur said to Bill. "We must make sure zat our children do not grow up like zat."
Bill quickly ushered her out of his mother's way. Ginny guided a clearly shocked Hermione to a chair.
"Hermione, are you alright? What happened, what were you doing out there?"
But Hermione shook her head. She was still wondering what they had been doing herself.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"So then what happened?" Tess asked curiously.
Hermione shrugged. "Nothing much. He ran upstairs because it had been their experiment that had exploded."
"Wow...Those Weasley boys are quite confusing, aren't they."
Hermione laughed. "Yes they are. So if you're thinking about going after Ronald, be careful. It might turn out differently than you expected."
Tess giggled. Had her face not been in the fireplace, Hermione was sure she could have seen her blush as well.
"Oh, I have to go now. Christian's back with my mum and dad. Say hi to Ron for me!"
And then her head vanished from the hearth to show nothing but ashes an coal. Hermione stood up and looked at the clock. It was still early. She headed back upstairs and locked herself in her room. She pulled out some fresh roles of parchement, her quill and an inkwell and then bent her head over the files she had received by mail.
She tried to focus, but it didn't work. Ten minutes later she still hadn't written down anything but the title. Somehow the image of George's face up close kept reapearing in her mind over and over again.
'Stop it.' She told herself violently.
This was going to end right now. She forcefully brought her quill down on the paper and jabbed right through it. Angry with herself, she threw it away. Then she threw herself down on her bed and stared at the ceiling. After a while, she didn't know how long, she heard footsteps going past her room.
There was a knock on her door but she pretended to be asleep. She wasn't about to face the entire Weasley family when her mind was in this kind of mess. She heard that someone sigh and walk away. When the footsteps had gone, Hermione turned on her side.
If she didn't sort this out quickly then she didn't know whether she would be coming down at all. Suddenly her door burst open.
She scrambled up, her heart beating in her throat. Ginny stood in the opening where the door had been, her wand in her hand. She stuffed her wand back up her sleeve and walked towards Hermione.
"What are you doing." Ginny asked. "Locking yourself away from the rest of the world, to leave us in worry? Now tell me what's wrong."
"If you would kindly put that door back on its hinges and close it again..." Hermione said painstakingly.
Ginny stood up and waved her wand at the big wooden slab on the floor until it had resumed its place and then leaned against it. She looked at Hermione as if to examine every inch of her face. Hermione turned her eyes to the ground.
"You disappeard quite quickly last night." Ginny started. "Are you ill?"
"No..."
"Then are you...I don't know, homesick?"
"No..."
"Then what's wrong with you? You missed almost everything. See, your gifts are in a pile at your door. You missed mum's singing, the twins dancing a foxtrot together...You missed George kissing Phlegm because she was stupid enough to stand beneath some mistletoe..." she added testily
As she had been expecting, Hermione's attention awakened. Had she been a cat, her ears would have pointed.
"Oh...I suppose she slapped him for that?" Hermione said airily.
Ginny grinned. "No, not really."
"Oh."
"Because he never kissed her. But he kissed you, right? That's why you vanished when they came back from cleaning up the experiment."
Hermione wished fervently she could vanish right there. Ginny's eyes seemed to pry even more.
"I'm right!" she declared with shock. "Merlin, I'm right!"
"No, you're not!" Hermione said defensively. "His mouth never touched mine."
"Oh..."
Hermione carefully made sure she didn't say anything that the explosion had been the only thing keeping that kiss from actually happening. But she might as well have told Ginny anyway, because the girl's smirk didn't seem to move.
"But it wasn't for lack of effort, I presume..." she said, unable to wipe the grin off her face. "I mean, it was pretty obvious to me. He spent the rest of the night looking at the door in the hope that you'd come back down again."
"Well I didn't. And I'm not going to either. I'm going to pack my luggage and head back for my appartement. I've got loads of stuff to do and it doesn't help me that your brother is staring at me like a-" she stopped before she would say anything more.
"What stuff?" Ginny said, raising her eyebrow. "Stuff like spending the holidays alone? Hermione, work can wait."
"Not anymore, Ginny. I'm trying to get my mind back. It took me a long time to get my life back on track again and I'm not going to ruin that just because of a silly crush."
"So you like him too! Tell him, Hermione. I think this might really be it for him. I've never seen him like this...I don't know, but he's...puppy-like all of a sudden."
Hermione didn't answer her.
"Alright. Fine. But at least have the decency to open your presents before you go. You never know, what's inside them might change your mind."
Then Ginny got to her feet and left. Hermione let out a loud sigh. She reached under the bed for her trunk and threw her clothers into it. She directed her wand at the desk, the closet and the pile outside the door and one by one, all her things flew into the trunk. She closed it with determination written all over her face. Levitating the thing down the stairs, she headed down to say goodbye.
"Hermione!" Fred said surprised when she walked into the kitchen, all set to go.
"I have to go." She said apologetically. "I need to do some work and I've only got a few days left, so...Thank you for your hospitality mr. and mrs. Weasley."
"Oh, don't mention it dear." Mrs. Weasley said confused.
Hermione nodded, took her coat from the coatstand and took her wand in her hand. With a soft 'pop' she disapparated. The Weasleys looked at each other.
"Was something wrong?" mr. Weasley asked.
His wife shrugged. Ginny was the only one who didn't need to wonder. She looked straight at George.
"No, she was just fine." She said, stressing that last word.
George looked back at his sister almost guiltily
"But it's cruel not to go through if you build up someone's expectations."
She reappeared in her livingroom with a thud. She hadn't been concentrating enough, she told herself angrily. Not enough 'deliberation'. Otherwise her landing would have been graceful and, most of all, soft.
She upturned her trunk and pushed it up to the kitchen table before looking around. It was silent and dark. She had almost forgotten how empty this place could be.
Crookshanks looked up from his basket in the corner and yawned at her in recognition. Waving her wand at the kettle, it flew towards the stove where it began to boil slowly.
The biscuit tin on the table stared at her and she reached out. Inside it were some ginger newts, although she didn't know why. She hated ginger newts. But, looking at them, she took one grudgingly.
She opened her trunk, pulled out her files, parchment and ink, and stuffed the closed but unlocked trunk underneath the table. She looked at the things in front of her for a moment. This was why she had left the Burrow. To work. To escape the hustle and bustle of the Weasley family.
But as she bent her head down over the parchment once more, she realised very well that she had been escaping something completely different.
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