Please let me know what you think so far :D I know this is a long one, but I didn't know how to separate it so please bear and I hope you enjoy.
Hermione sat in the great hall sick with thoughts towards the twins. She felt guilty for enabling the potion, knowing that it was unlike her to willingly allow such behaviour- but the worst part of this was the fact that she wouldn't of allowed it if it were anyone else. Between silly dreams and kind gestures, the young witch couldn't seem to get Fred out of her mind and it made her sick. Sick because she wasn't attracted to him, and sick because he was a major distraction from the things that really mattered to her- like catching up on reading on the train ride to Hogwarts.
Now she was siting observing the welcoming of the new students beside Seamus and Dean- who were well caught in what seemed a very deeply private conversation. She knew that Harry and Ron were staring at her, and although she wasn't that upset anymore, she also wasn't in the mood to settle this quite yet- and so decided to sit in silence amongst her peers. Continuing to ignore the boys, she watched the sorting hat seperate all the students, cheering when Griffindoor got theirs as well as clapping when the other houses got theirs. Eventually her two best friends also moved on and began to watch and cheer for their houses new members too.
After this the hall went silent and Dumbledore began to announce the big news. Hermione already knew what this was going to be, but prepared herself to act surprised so as not to raise the eyebrows of any of her friends. What did come as a shock to Hermione, though, were the introduced schools. She watched in amazement as the students of Beauxbatons strut down the halls in a somber performance, followed shortly by Durmstrang who entered far more hastily and aggressive. Hermione noticed that amongst them was Viktor Krum, who she knew Harry and, more intensely Ron, admired as a quidditch star. Shortly after her noticing him, Ron whispered to Harry informing him of the celebrities presence. Hermione attempted to hide her smile at her friends' awe, but failed to do so, resulting at her looking back at Ron smiling softly at his giddiness.
After the festivities came to an end and dinner began, Hermione dropped her plans on confronting them and decided to do it then and there. "You know I love you both, right?" she said somewhat quietly, to which the boys perked up.
"Of course, and you know we love you too," Harry said. Ron was more taken aback, but nodded in aggreement.
"And I really am sorry, sometimes I talk before I think- but you know that," Ron blurted, before slowing down his talking pace. "Still, I shouldn't of said what I did."
"I forgive you, but I hope you know you really hurt my feelings on the train. I know we joke a lot, but even you can admit that it was a bit far," she replied far more calmly.
"Oh totally, honestly surprised you didn't break my nose or cast a spell on me," Ron laughed, to which Harry and Hermione joined in a chuckle.
"She probably did without you knowing," Harry piped, bumping his friend shoulder to shoulder.
Hermione rolled her eyes smiling, "If I were to cast anything on anyone it'd be Malfoy, should of heard the absolute rubbish he was spewing on the ride," she said, to which Rons eyes opened.
"What did he say, the mongrel!" Ron asked shovelling a full fork of meat into his mouth
"Nothing I couldn't handle, but I swear he gets worse every year," Hermione said, ending that portion of the conversation.
"Well if he bothers you again make sure to tell us," Harry replied. "Anyways, hows about this Tri-Wizard tournament. Seems like we'll finally be getting a break from the usual trouble we get in." And with that, the three were back to their normal friendly selves, Hermione glad that Ron apologised. Still, she silently worried about the spell and the twins.
Joining Seamus and Dean, who had made themselves well comfortable on a couch together, the trio, Neville and Ginny formed a group about the fireplace and began discussing everything they possibly could. There was lots for them to catch up on with everything that had happened just within the last week, they barely even covered what everyone got up to- though Seamus did have time to share his own experience of the Quidditch Finals, "I was scared to absolute shite they'd take me half-blooded arse to Merlin knows where, but at least the homeland won." The group laughed and managed to share their own experience of being split up, Harry, Ron and Ginny sharing their own story about nearly being attacked by the Ministry because someone stole Harrys wand.
"They used your wand to send the dark mark?!" Neville asked in a silent shout.
"Thats what the ministry said, but knowing my luck it wouldn't be a surprise," Harry replied.
"Knowing you, it probably was intentional in all honesty," Dean said, to which the group agreed, before a prefect came to warn then they had only 10 minutes before lights off. The reality was that they'd only had five, but after Percys departure from Hogwarts, the common room seemed far more lenient to its students.
"What happened to you and Ron, by the way?" Ginny asked Hermione, the two sat next to each other on the floor, facing away from the rest of the boys. "I overheard your little forgiveness speech, and you seemed pretty upset on the train to Hogwarts. Where did you even go? You walked past our cabin sobbing and then walked back looking happy as all hell… Sorry I'm asking so much."
"No its fine, Gin. Ron was just being his usual clueless self, left furious, but Draco was blocking my way to the toilets so I turned around and entered the next tram. Bumped into Luna Lovegood and she managed to cheer me up," Hermione lied smoothly.
"Well that can't be right, Luna was with Neville and I the whole trip…" Hermiones face went red with fluster, suddenly not aware of what to say. She didn't want to say Fred and George, but she had now had no idea what in the world to say.
"Oh- I'm so sorry Hermione," Ginny whispered, smacking her forehead. "I get it! You were upset and its okay to cry, you know. But I'm sorry for picking at it. It's nothing to be embarrassed about, Rons made me cry plenty times as you know." She spoke quickly and quietly, and put a hand on Hermiones shoulder in reassurance. Hermione smiled awkwardly, her face now falling from red with relief that Ginny managed to somehow lie to herself for Hermione.
"It- It's fine and you're right I shouldn't be embarassed- but you know me," Hermione grinned awkwardly before managing a soft chuckle. "Thank you for your worry though, I'm glad I can rely on you to be a good friend."
"Don't worry about it. Anyways- I'll be off to bed now," Ginny said as she rose. "Night all."
A chime of goodnights followed from the rest of the group before the conversation continued, slowly dying out as Neville, Ron and Harry all slowly went to bed.
"Unlike you to be up this late, Mione," Seamus said as she took a seat in the armchair across from the two, his face riddled with an odd discomfort.
"I napped on the train so I'm not very tired, besides I might ask the prefects if I can stay up to study. Wasn't much of a problem last year so I doubt I'll have any trouble this time," she replied. The conversation fell into an uncomfortable silence as Seamus and Dean went from looking at each other to Hermione, both equally squeamish. "Are you guys okay?"
"Yeah we're fine- I'm fine," Dean said before standing up. "I'm going to get a cup of water, would either of you like one?" after a reply of 'no's', he walked out of sight from the two.
"What just happened?" Hermione asked. "Did I say something wrong?"
"No, not at all it's just…" Seamus said before looking at Hermione with a riddled look. By this point Dean had come back and returned to his seat. "I mean really, Hermione would be our best bet to tell." Seamus said to Dean.
"I guess you are right," Dean said, now turning to Hermione. "You can keep a secret right?"
Hermione was taken aback. Yes, she could keep a secret, but she already had a secret going on with the twins that she was worrying about that she didn't know if she could handle another. Regardless, she replied "Yes."
"Okay, you can't tell Harry or Ron… Or anyone. But…" Dean began, before going completely silent.
"Merlins bloody beard! Dean and I are dating. And you can't ask us any questions about it, you can't even talk about it because it's weird enough to be telling you, let alone talking about it." Seamus blurted. Now Hermione was fully shocked, but ultimately happy for her friends.
"Well thats nice. I mean Ron and Harry have always silently thought you were in love, I always assumed they were just bored and making things up for themselves, but I see it now," Hermione said with a gentle smile. "I'm glad you guys trust me."
As if a massive weight was taken off their shoulders, the two boys instantly relaxed and smiled at their friend. "You're the only one who knows so if this gets out, I'll 'ave your head on a steak," Seamus said, now deciding to stand up. "I was gonna stay up to talk some more, but talking feelings really takes a toll, I'm headed off."
"Me too," Dean said, standing. "Thanks Mione, see you in Arithmatics." And with that, the two boys were off.
After watching the two walk up the stairs together closely, Hermione sighed in relief that that was the big secret, before getting up to talk to a prefect about staying up to study. The good thing about Hermione and her reputation was that the prefects trusted her fully- and so with their blessing, she sat herself by the desk and began to read up on the topics she would be covering from the start of tomorrow.
A short few hours had passed of intense studying before Hermione looked up and realised it was almost half past eleven. The common room was still somewhat lit, but completely empty and she wondered if the twins had already left early. As if on queue, she caught a glimpse of two figures very quietly stalking down the stairs from the boys dormitory. Taking a gulp, Hermione felt her hands go clammy as she watched the two approach her in silence. With one, two cauldron filled with what must have been ingredients, and with the other, various pieces of parchment and two wands. Once gathered at the table Hermione sat at, one put down a piece of parchment which Hermione recognised as the Marauders Map.
"It's good to see you," one spoke, which Hermione assumed was Fred from the especially sly grin. "Thought you'd of chickened."
"Who say's I'm coming with you?" Hermione said.
"Well you haven't even changed out of your robes and you're holding onto your wand. I mean if you're going on a stroll that's fine excuse me for assuming." he replied. Hermione stopped to think about this, before shrugging it off as her nerves making her hold it subconsciously.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," George whispered as he held his wand to the parchment. The three watched it light up with life before slowly revealing their location, as well as that of everyone else. She observed that there were far more teachers on patrol than usual, and took note of who were walking through the nearby hallways- the closest one being Professor Flitwick, who was far enough for them to leave unnoticed- not that she was going to. "From the looks of it, we may need to take a passageway towards the library and use one of the rooms on that end, but Snape isn't too far off, by the time we get there who knows where he might be."
Hermione looked more intently at the map where all the known empty rooms and teachers were and began to estimate all the places they could go and the risk of which, before finally coming to a familiar conclusion. "Moaning Myrtles bathroom has a fairly empty route. The only one near that route is Professor Binns," she told them quietly, smiling at the familiarity of making potions in that bathroom.
"But isn't she a noisy old thing?" Fred asked.
"Well, yes, but I've heard she actually roams other bathrooms at night time," Hermione replied, still taking it into consideration.
"Sounds good, let's go," George declared, picking the map up before turning to the door. "No point acting you don't want to be a part of the cool kids, Granger." Hermione chuckled and shoved him a bit as she quietly followed the two out the common room.
The journey to the bathrooms was far easier with the map on them, Hermione telling them on the way how much harder it was in their first and second years to get about even during the day without being caught, to which the twins joked about the secret rebel Hermione was. Hermione wasn't a rebel, and she knew that- but she'd be lying if she said she didn't love adventure, because thats really what her life was at Hogwarts. Finally they came to the bathroom, closing the door behind them before setting a light. Unlike Ron and Harry, Hermione had been here since the incident in their second year- though now thinking about it, it was funny that the twins were so fine going to the place their sister was taken and nearly killed. Shrugging it off as the past, Hermione took a seat with the other two as they set up the cauldrons and put aside the ingredients needed, as well as the map.
"Keep an eye, will you?" George said, indicating to the map. Alternating between looking at the map and watching them create a potion, Hermione found herself at ease listening to the two banter about the potion. It was just as George was about to land a punchline about a house elf joke that they heard a sound from the hallway.
"You there!" a gruff voice shouted from not too far, before hearing footsteps quickly walk past the room. The three stayed incredibly still and silent for a moment before finally breathing some air. The three looked to find that it was the new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, but when they tried to find the name of the culprit, there were footprints with no title.
"I'm gonna go check that out, wonder who it could be," George said, coming to his feet. "I'll be five minutes."
"Are you sure that's safe?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah that potion takes 10 minutes to brew anyways, I'm just curious is all," he said before picking up the map and slipping out the door.
"You guys are absolutely mad," the witch said.
"No, just fun," Fred replied, looking up to smile at her. Hermiones breath hitched as she came to the realisation that they were truly alone and squirmed in her seat. "You okay?"
"Yeah I am, do you need a hand?" she asked, changing the subject. A polite 'no thanks' later and Hermione was watching as Fred quite professionally stirred and added to the two cauldrons at the exact same time. "I didn't think you were so good at this." she eventually said.
"Potions is easy, and I'm really not a moron," he said. "I get that you may think that, but George and I are clever at the things that matter."
"I don't think that, you know. I know you guys are smart, and its interesting to me because its a very different smart to the one I am." Hermione looked up to find the wizard looking back at her. He looked down and stirred at the pots, before taking out the ladle and letting them brew on the flame.
"10 minutes," Fred said as he stood up. He extended his hand to Hermione, which she took hesitantly as she followed him towards the sinks "You know I really wanted you to come, right?"
"Um.. I didn't, but thanks for the invite, its been interesting," Hermione said blushing awkwardly. She was facing the sink but knew he was facing her, but wasn't game enough to turn.
"I figured since everything about this is going to be forgotten, it'd be a good time to tell you that I fancy you quite a bit," Fred said, and now Hermione turned. Both the teens were bright red but managed to make eye contact. "I'm just not very good at this stuff and I'd rather not be humiliated if you turned me down and we were to both remember it."
"I get where you're coming from, but I wouldn't turn you down," she eventually said. Fred was taken aback, clearly, but smiled.
"Well then aren't I the idiot for picking now to make a move," he smirked. Hermione didn't feel anxious anymore, and didn't stop to think about it, because if she wasn't going to remember any of this then it suddenly seemed okay to her. Fred leaned in and she returned the movement, and soon enough the two found each other, Hermione suddenly filled with a new found comfort with the boy. Eventually coming to part, Fred kissed Hermiones forehead gently before hugging her. "I'm a real idiot, Granger."
"You are," Hermione said, embracing the dream of the moment, trying to smell as much of him as possible before the two fell apart. "Now lets sit, even though we're going to forget this all, I'd rather not get bullied by George."
"Agreed," Fred replied, taking their previous places with a minute to spare before the other twin returned.
"Bloody Hell," he gasped, before joining them on the floor. "Someone's put Harrys name in the Goblet of Fire."
"What?!" Hermione replied as quietly as she could.
"We've barely got a minute before we need to drink this, brother, what happened?"
"I dunno, but the feet without a name is the Durmstrang head master, and he was talking to Moody about seeing someone earlier talking to themselves before saying something about Harry going to die," George said quickly, trying to spoon the potion into a jug for himself.
"Let me," Hermione said, mindlessly pouring them both large glasses while listening.
"Then he put a parchment into the Goblet. But get this, the headmaster said that the man who did this was a ghost! Whatever that bloody means," the two quickly chugged the glasses without a second thought before George continued. "Frankly I think the headmaster is guilty, but I still dunno what to think - SHIT!"
"What?!" both Fred and Hermione said in unison, before realising slowly what had happened.
"Oh Merlin this is bad! Why did we just do that?" Fred asked himself, looking at the empty glass, and realising all this information would soon be forgotten by the three of them.
"Cant we write a note? Harry's life is in danger!" Hermione said quickly looking around.
"It doesn't matter, anything written by us from now until tomorrow will disappear, same goes with telling him. This is very bad," Fred said, guilt all over his face. "I wasn't even thinking."
"It'll be okay," Hermione said, knowing it wouldn't be, but deciding to take the lead. "What we need to do now is pack up and go to the common room to think this through safely. Rinse out the cups and couldrons and leave them in the stall, I'll get them tomorrow." she rose to her feet and gathered the parchments, reading the ingredient list for the potion they had just created hoping it could somehow have an answer, but knowing that they were all in a tricky situation.
The walk back to the common room was incredibly fast and silent as the three all experienced their own feelings of dread. Not only was Harrys life in danger and someone was conspiring against him, there was no way to warn him that something was going to happen. The three entered the common room and found it still lightly lit. Giving out a sigh of relief, they gathered around the fireplace.
Far too much was going through Hermiones head, between Harry, the potion, Fred and the tournament, she felt overwhelmed by it all- and the most damning thing was that all of these worries would be gone by tomorrow, and that was the biggest concern of all.
"What are our options?" Fred asked his brother.
"Not much. Its a chain potion, its going to work from us onto everyone we know in order to work, and in doing so also make everyone we speak to forget and manipulate certain memories. It could actually be worse if we told him, he might end up forgetting something else thats going on and who knows what that would be."
"So we just let him get his name drawn?" Hermione asked.
"Well whose to say he will, I mean so many people are putting their names in- what are the odds?" Fred said, which eased Hermiones mind. "Georgies right, we just have to let it be. I mean really if we'd of never gone out tonight we wouldn't of known in the first place."
"I suppose you're right," Hermione looked at the clock, which read nearly 1am. They hadn't been gone very long at all. "So what do you boys do now?"
"Sleep, wake up and move on with life," George said with an empty grin. "Which is exactly what I need right now, it's been too long a day. So night, you two, don't miss me too much."
It was once again Fred and Hermione alone, though now she was far too worried to think about him like that.
"He'll be okay, you know," Fred said, taking a seat in the armchair across from Hermione. "Regardless of what happens, he'll be good- just like me and Georgie."
"I know that, but I still feel horrible that I can't even warn him." she replied.
"I do too," Fred said, allowing the conversation to fall into silence. A few moments passed before he looked up and tapped her knee to get her attention. "Whats your favourite colour?"
Hermione smiled and looked up at him. "Blue, and yours?"
"Yeah same, actually. Like the ocean, though, not like the sky," he replied
"Thats a very pretty choice."
"I have incredibly good taste," he smirked at her with a goofy look, to which she burst out into laughter.
"You're ridiculous," she cackled, to which he stood up and pulled her to her feet.
"But I do," he smiled sheepishly as he looked into her eyes.
"You're being far too comfortable, don't you think?" she smiled, looking back at him.
"Oh but my precious Hermione, we only have one night," Fred kissed her sweetly on the lips, as if scared to go any further, and then stared her in her eyes while holding her waist. "I don't know how you did it, but I could get very used to this."
"I could say the same for you, but I fear it may just be the oncoming memory loss talking," she grinned.
"Was that a joke?! I swear the closer we get the more I like you, Granger." he smiled brightly at her, swaying as he did so.
"You are far too rehearsed to be serious, Fred," she rolled her eyes and kissed him one last time. "And while I could stay here a lot longer, I have class in the early morning." Hermione began to walk off before a hand grabbed hers and Fred approached her once more.
"I wish I didn't drink that potion, because I really do like you," he said quietly to her.
"If you hadn't, then would we of ended up doing what we did?" she asked, not waiting for his response as she fled up the stairs to bed.