"You stupid fucking arsehole!" Hermione yelled at the top of her lungs, throwing a random tiara at Fred. The two were currently back in the room of requirements where Hermione had to suppress every urge of pulling her wand against him. "I can't believe I actually believed you were a decent person! I can't believe what an idiot I am."
"What the bloody hell are you talking about 'Mione?!" he asked in a panic, dodging the small pieces of nothing she was throwing at him. "What's going on?!"
"You! You and your stupid face!" Hermione snapped. "Neville saw you and Angelina last night at the ball! You couldn't of even waited a day before playing me a fool, could you?! You're such a sod, look at you, you can't even say anything back to me?"
Fred looked at Hermione in utter shock, the colour in his face disappearing completely as he walked towards her calmly. "Are you an idiot, Hermione?" he asked quietly, cocking his head in wonder. "I have an identical twin, wth the same face as me, who is dating Angelina, and took her to the ball last night!" he replied. "I don't even like Angelina, she's an arsehole!"
"Thats rude considering your tongue was down her throat last night!" Hermione retorted, no longer throwing things at Fred but still very much so full of anger. be
"That wasn't me! Think about it, Hermione!" he shouted back, hiding both his amusement and hurt. "Are you really going to take Nevilles word?"
"Well I'm certainly not taking yours at the moment," she huffed, crossing her arms and turning her head. She couldn't see, but Fred was currently mimicking her words to the back of her head childishly.
"Fine then, lets go talk to Angelina and George, right now." he replied, grabbing her arm and walking the reluctant girl out of the room. It was currently ten minutes to dinner but Fred was certain his brother and friends would already be at the hall waiting in anticipation for food and while Fred felt hungry himself, he knew sorting this out was his top priority. As they exited the room, Hermione snatched herself out of Freds hold and walked by his side to the hall in a cold silence. By the time the two made it inside, just about all of the schools were gathered and ready to eat, and George and Angelinaa were easily spotted, contrasting each other between his light pasty skin and her darker complexion. Fred walked quickly towards the two, Hermione right behind his heels, turning the heads of every Gryffindoor between the sheer anger of Hermione and the frustration of Fred.
"Dear brother, how may I be of service?" George smiled, soon dropping once he saw the shared upset between the two in front of him.
"Ang," Fred started, turning to face him. "Did we snog last night or, for that matter, any other time in the six years we've been friends?"
"Fuck no," Angelina Johnson retorted, furrowing her eyebrows as if the sheer idea was disgusting. "I actually have taste!"
"See?! She said it herself, she has no taste!" Fred replied as he turned to a now blank faced Hermione. Hermiones expression went slowly from angry, to confused, to empty and then finally her eyebrows raised and a wave of embarrassment crashed through her body making her blush violently.
"I…" she started, trying to think of how to turn this around with no luck, now wanting to disappear into the walls.
"See?! I told you I wasn't lying, Neville just cant tell the difference between good looks and bad," Fred laughed, patting the girls head sweetly as he sat down with his friends, pulling her in to join them. "Now let me introduce you to my less attractive yet somewhat identical twin brother, George, and his girlfriend who I have no intention of being with, Angelina Johnson. You may know her as the current Gryffindoor Chaser and all round good sport-"
"I got the point, Fred," Hermione replied as she buried her face in her arms, hiding the blush on her face completely. The embarrassment she was feeling was unbearable and yet, Hermione smiled. She felt so stupid for instantly taking the word of a boy who once let a top secret password get into the hands of an alleged mass murderer. As she kept her face hidden, she felt a comforting hand brush over her back, soothing her. Hermione usually wouldn't be so fond of the clear display of affection- it went against the only rule of their relationship, and yet it was the exact reassurance she needed in that moment.
Fred smiled down at the mess of brown hair that was buried away into the table and smiled. He couldn't help but think she was the biggest moron on the planet, and yet he felt at ease. He liked that she cared enough to scream at him, as much as the accusation itself hurt, and he found a great amount of entertainment out of the ordeal.
"So what was all that about?" George asked his brother as he shovelled food into his mouth.
"Not all too much, just the rumour mill," Fred smiled, 'Just wait till they start spotting you getting with Hermione, then you'll understand the wrath I've been through.' Fred thought. With Hermione still dug into her arms, Fred took it upon himself to set a plate for both him and her. He didn't know what Hermione liked to eat, so he simply just looked across the table to what was on Angelina and Katies plates and copied it before slipping it onto her lap from under the bench.
Hermione watched as two hands placed a meal onto her lap. The plate was massive, full of carbs and meat, and Hermione had to wonder how in the world she was supposed to eat all of it. Nevertheless, she smiled sweetly and began to eat, bringing her meal to the table once she fully regained confidence and joining the rest of her peers. As she silently ate amongst everyone else, she looked across the table to Katie and Angelina who were busy talking to each other, and noted that Fred had mimicked their meals.
The girl tapped on his shoulder, him mindlessly leaning in to hear her. "You know theres a difference between athletes and non athletes, right?" she smiled, looking up at him for a moment before looking away.
Fred leaned in again once more to reply, getting far closer to her than she had so he was right by her ear. "Think of it like Hansel and Gretel with the witch, I'm just fattening you up to eat later."
Hermione blushed brightly and went back to her meal, trying not to replay that statement in her head under any circumstance and, of course, failing to do so.
As dinner continued and eventually the crowds began to slowly disperse from the hall, Hermione felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to find her date from the previous night standing in the aisle.
"May we talk for a moment?" he smiled, eyes still cold and confusing as ever.
"Of course!" Hermione replied, bidding a quick farewell to her partner and peers. As the two walked out of the hall together, Hermione looked up at the boy to get a read of him with no luck. "Thank you again for last night, you Durmstrang guys are a lot of fun."
"Thank you. You were a very good date, too, I believe," Viktor replied. "When I left later I saw you walking with the reporter lady in a jar, you are very quick."
Hermione managed a thanks and cocked her head, wondering what this could all be about.
"You should let her go soon and don't tell anyone else about her. She is annoying, yes, but the lady could get into danger if you keep her in that jar," he spoke slowly, choosing his words carefully. Viktor then leaned into Hermione more, making her nervous, and opened his mouth to speak. "Tell her you know about her and the place known as Nock-Turnelly." Hermione figured he must have meant Nocturnalley and nodded to herself as she processed it. "Thank you again for your company last night, I hope we can remain friends." and with that he bowed and walked away towards the exit of the castle.
"Of course we're friends, Viktor, goodnight!" she smiled after him, walking to the entrance of the hall. She first caught sight of Fred, who was already facing the entrance with his eyebrows raised, prompting Hermione to wave him the OK over the situation. Following this she glanced at Harry and Ron, who were getting up from their seats, passing Fred and walking towards Hermione.
The two joined her with a quick 'Hello, where were you', Hermione explaining that she just sat the first place she found space since she was late to dinner from 'studying'. The two accepted this as they walked together towards the common room.
"Krum spoke to me," she said out of nowhere. "I'm going to free Skeeter tonight, from what he said I think someone may want to hurt her."
"Well what did he say exactly?" Ron asked. Hermione reiterated what she just heard from the quidditch player and theorised that it might have to do with his headmaster, since he seemed to be the one who knew about her in the first place. Both her friends agreed with this, not entirely sure what to make of the entire situation, but trusting in Hermiones plan to free the unbearable journalist from her cage. "
"What if she's dead? She's been in that jar for a whole day now." Harry stated as Hermione murmured the password for the fat lady.
"If she's in her beetle form, she can go days without food or water," Hermione replied with clarity. Her friends waited for her at the main area of the common room as she retrieved the jar, a once resting beetle now angrily bumping at the jar as Hermione handled it. Upon meeting the two downstairs, she was quick to lead them back out the common room, silently walking to the grounds.
As the three travelled back along the castle, careful to avoid the teachers and prefects, they eventually found themselves out a side entrance in the small courtyard that overlooked Hagrids home. Carefully surrounding the jar and all looking around side to side to see if anyone was watching them, Harry and Ron stood their ground as their friend kneeled over to look at the animagus.
"I know you're an unregistered animagus," Hermione started, the beetle settling down as if listening intently. "I also know about you and your happenings in Nocturnalley" silently, she hoped she was right on that, but took from the beetles reaction that she got it spot on. "I'll keep these things to myself if you promise not to write any more articles about Harry, the Weasely family, me or anyone else involved with Hogwarts- Dumbledore included, got it?" the beetle somehow managed to nod, quite slowly at that, and Hermione decided to finally open the jar.
Standing up nicely, the three stood around and watched as the beetle flew out of the jar and around a large rock, walking back around now as a slender, blonde woman.
"I'll agree to your terms," she spoke politely, clearly intimidated by the young girl. "And if you don't mind, I'll be going now. Don't expect me around the castle much more, between you and that… Horrible man… Its clear I'm not welcome."
"You aren't that bad," Harry replied with a smile. "Aside from the terrible articles, you're an upstanding citizen."
Rita scowled at Ron as she walked away, ready to transform but stopping to turn as if debating whether or not to tell the three something. Against her better instinct, the witch walked off as she slowly transformed back into a bug, flying away. Hermione squinted at the small beetle as it moved along, wondering what she was holding back from them. It was clear that between Viktors strange knowledge of Rita, and the unsettling feeling she had towards everything that had been happening in and out of the tournament, that something was most definitely wrong. As they walked back to the castle and their common room, Hermione put her worries aside to talk to the boys about less worrying things.
"So turns out Neville was wrong," Hermione stated as they strolled along. "Turns out Angelina and George are actually dating, and hes just got a terrible eye for telling people apart."
"Sounds plausible, thought if I'd of known those two were an item I wouldn't of believed Neville." Ron started. "But if I know my brothers, theres nobody in the world they're more loyal to than each other, so I don't believe Fred would snog Georges dame."
Harry agreed as the three managed their way to the common room, where the couple in question sat next to each other quite casually, not seeming much like a couple.
"So word on the street is you two are a little more than team mates," Harry smiled. Angelina rolled her eyes and looked at Hermione, managing a smile through her annoyance as her eyes landed back onto Harry
"And last I checked you're still my junior, and I'm a prefect so I'd watch that mouth," Angelina retorted with a smirk, turning back to her book.
"And I'm the guy who protects you from bludgers if that counts for something," George added with more of a smile. Hermione grumbled internally at her outburst at Fred earlier, noting that he wasn't anywhere to be seen.
Laughing the couple off, both Ron and Harry decided to go sit at the chess board to play a game, leaving Hermione be like they often did for their dear chess games. Taking this as an opportunity to study, Hermione quickly retrieved her books and settled onto an old couch in the far corner of the common room, settling in for an easy night of reading.
It was nearly 5 minutes until the final curfew when Hermione was pulled out of her deep trance of study. Looking up, she found the sweet smile of a wet haired ginger boy standing before her, his clothes nearly damp. Looking behind him, she observed that nobody was paying them much mind. George and Angelina were still sitting, but Harry and Ron were gone, instead a pair of third years were sat playing while the rest of the common room was filled with other random students.
"How was your swim?" Hermione asked.
"Quite nice, would of been better if my favourite training buddy were with me," Fred smirked.
"At a certain point can you even call it training? I feel as though you're really just using it to relax." Hermione stated
"Well you're not wrong there," Fred replied, stretching his arms out. "Gimme a minute to have a shower and change, I'm not trying to catch a cold."
"I don't have anywhere else to be," she smiled, returning back to her book as the boy walked to the dorms. As he walked up the stairs, Hermione watched closely, appreciating the details in his face sweetly, eager to spend the rest of the night talking to him.
—
Two updates in one day! I really appreciate all the feedback I've been getting. Lowkey I wanted to kill Rita Skeeter, just for the lols, but I realised that'd be a bit of a dick move. I'm so grateful for all the positive affirmations I've gotten while writing this, but that being said I still appreciate negative ones too. This was my first fic, so I'm so glad with the responses I've had thus far. I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter!