Chapter Sixteen

A few days later Fred found himself being escorted towards the room that he would forever think of as Dumbledore's office. He had sent an apology by owl to Professor McGonagall and in it had also requested a meeting to determine how to handle similar incidents regarding Hermione in the future.

He knocked on the partially open door. "Professor?"

"Yes, Mr. Weasley. Come in. Have a seat."

Fred walked slowly into the room, taking in the familiar surroundings and the memories associated with them.

Professor McGonagall was standing behind her desk. "I was surprised to receive your note, Mr. Weasley. While I am aware that you have grown quite fond of Miss Granger..."

Fred cut her off. "No."

McGonagall looked confused. "I beg your pardon?"

Fred stood behind one of the chairs he had been offered. "I said, no. I have not "grown quite fond" of Miss Granger."

"But I thought..."

Fred cleared his throat. "I have not "grown quite fond" of Hermione. She has not "risen in my esteem." I have not "begun to care for her." He stared directly into the Professor's eyes. "I am in love with Miss Granger, Professor. Completely and utterly. I need for you to understand that up front. There can be no question on this point."

The professor opened her mouth to speak but Fred continued, "What I have 'grown quite tired' of, however, are the people that I love getting hurt or dying and me not being able to do a damn thing about it."

"Mr. Weasley..."

"I will be there for Hermione whenever she needs me, Professor. I don't care what the rules and regulations say."

"Mr. Weasley..."

"You need to realize..."

"Mr. Weasley!"

Fred jumped at her tone and years of muscle memory caused him to stand at attention.

"Have a seat, Mr. Weasley!" snapped McGonagall.

Fred obediently sat. The Professor sighed, her expression softening. She pushed a silver tea tray across the desk towards him.

"Have a biscuit, Weasley."

Fred seemed at a loss as how to respond. McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "They aren't enchanted. No canary creams. It will just be easier for me to tell you that there are many points on which you and I agree if you have something in your mouth keeping you from interrupting me."

Fred remained frozen for a moment and then took a biscuit. McGonagall reached for some papers in front of her. "Thank you. Now, as I was saying, I first became aware that there was a relationship between you and Miss Granger just before start of term when she came to me and had her records changed to list you as her emergency contact as well as the person authorized to make decisions about her medical care should she be incapable of doing so herself."

Fred almost choked on the biscuit. Before the start of term? That was before he had told her that he loved her. His heart swelled when he realized that before she ever knew how he felt that she had, quite literally, decided to place her life in his hands.

McGonagall looked up. "It was for this reason and not the..ahem...rather violent insistence of your sister that I brought you to the hospital ward the other day." She glanced back down at her files. "Now, I understand your desire to be there for Miss Granger and I am also aware that the feeling is reciprocal. In my meeting with her this morning I believe the phrase she used was that, were the situation reversed, she was willing to 'quote' "blast apart every stone from the castle wall as well as anyone foolish enough to stand in front of it" 'end quote'."

She looked past Fred. "Did I get that correct, Miss Granger?"

Fred turned to see Hermione standing in the doorway beside Professor Flitwick. Hermione summoned all the composure she could muster and walked towards the chair next to Fred.

"I'm sorry, Headmistress. In the heat of the discussion I failed to note my exact wording but that does seem to cover the gist of the statement I was trying to make." She sat down and folded her hands primly in her lap, allowing herself a brief glance at Fred, who looked as though he was about to burst with pride.

Hearing this information helped him regain some of his footing and with a large grin he proffered her the tea tray and asked, "Biscuit?"

Hermione was forced to bite the inside of her mouth to keep from bursting into laughter at his cheek. She managed to get out, "No, thank you. I was, uh...offered one earlier."

"Ah." Fred nodded and returned the tray to the desk.

They both turned back and realized that McGonagall was staring at them with a strange expression on her face. They waited a moment before Fred ventured, "Professor?"

McGonagall shook her head. "Sorry. You both quite reminded me of..." She glanced at Flitwick who seemed to be very amused by all that was happening. "Never mind."

She took a deep breath and continued. "Well, as I was saying, while I understand the arguments you are making you must realize what an unusual situation we find ourselves in at this point in time. We do, in fact, have a good number of students here for their N.E.W.T.'s that are older than customary due to the circumstances of the prior two years. Most of these students, like Miss Granger, have provided extraordinary services not just to this school but to the wizarding world at large and are used to having a higher degree of autonomy than we would normally allow."

She continued. "However, because of the events of the last year and particularly in light of the most recent incident, Hogwarts is under intense pressure to tighten, not loosen, our security protocols. This means, among other things, that all 'unauthorized' entrances and exits to the school have been identified and shut down."

She gave a pointed look at Fred, who started to protest. Professor McGonagall raised a hand. "Steady on, Mr. Weasley. This morning Miss Granger mentioned that the two of you may have found a solution to one part of this particular conundrum."

Fred glanced at Hermione who nodded at him. "Well, it was Hermione's doing really. Brilliant actually..."

Hermione cut him off. "It was Fred that had the real breakthrough. It was genius..."

Fred interrupted her. "I only had a theory. You were the one bright enough to.."

McGonagall coughed loudly. "Perhaps this month's gathering of the Mutual Admiration Society could hold its meeting at a more convenient time and someone could just explain what your idea is?"

Hermione blushed and Fred leaned towards the desk. "Well, you're familiar with the amazing job Hermione did on the original DA coins and the enhancements she made for the Aurors so they could signal for help. So we started to talk about how we could further improve them and one of the areas of opportunity we saw was the fact that you had to have your wand to activate the coin."

Hermione spoke up. "But we all know that it's possible for even the best witch or wizard to get ambushed or overwhelmed and disarmed and then you're stuck. That's when Fred mentioned something he and George had been working on before they had to go on underground."

Fred nodded. "We had been talking about a system to alert someone even if you had been incapacitated. George and I were just never able to figure out the mechanics - then Hermione came along."

He reached out and took her hand before looking back at the two professors. "She pointed out that we had been carrying our DA coins on us for a long time - through the most stressful periods of our lives. She theorized that they had picked up on our bodies responses to trauma and we could use that to "program" them to send out an alert if it detected that we were in danger, even if we were unconscious or wandless."

Hermione leaned towards him. "It was when Fred started talking about working on it with George that it occurred to me. What if we "twinned" our two galleons?"

Fred smiled at her. "Hermione realized that what we needed was a variation of a protean charm. That way if our coins sense that we are in danger it will immediately alert the other person. Of course, it doesn't do any good to alert someone if they can't get to you."

Hermione jumped in. "That's when Fred came up with a fabulous idea. Personal portkeys."

This caught the attention of the two Professors. "Come again?" said Professor Flitwick.

Hermione continued. "Fred had the idea of making the twinned galleons into personal portkeys. That way no matter where the other person was - even a place you had never been - you would still be able to get to them."

Fred interrupted. "Of course, Hermione had to go one better and point out that appearing right next to the person may not always be the safest option. If I go and fall off a cliff I don't want her appearing right by my side in midair. So she came up with a spell that triangulates the nearest safe spot to the person in trouble and deposits you there instead. Genius!"

Professor Flitwick hopped up and scurried around the desk. "Fascinating! May I see one of them, please?"

Fred reached under his shirt and pulled out the necklace, slipping it over his head and handing it to the diminutive Professor. Flitwick turned it over carefully in his hands, inspecting it closely. "Remarkable!"

He handed it over to McGonagall who appeared equally impressed. Flitwick turned back to Fred and Hermione. "And you came up with all of this in just the four days since Miss Granger was released from the hospital wing?"

"Three actually," started Fred. "The first day after we mainly..." Hermione gripped his hand tightly. "...slept." They gave each other a look. Fred winked and Hermione struggled to keep a straight face.

"Amazing! You do make quite the team, don't you?" Professor Flitwick beamed.

Professor McGonagall handed Fred's galleon back to him. "I do have to agree with Filius on that point. You seem to have an uncanny ability of solving complex problems together. So perhaps you could assist me in how I am supposed to explain allowing a student to be in possession of an illegal portkey. I am assuming that the Ministry is yet unaware of this?"

Fred cleared his throat. "Illegal is a very strong word, Professor. We prefer 'not yet fully authorized.'"

It was now McGonagall's turn to suppress a smile. "I see. Then how about this for a compromise, Mr. Weasley? You and Miss Granger take your creation to the Ministry and become "fully authorized." At that point I would have no problem with your implementation of this solution in regards to any further emergencies. Agreed?"

Fred and Hermione nodded enthusiastically. "Agreed."

Professor McGonagall picked up another piece of paper. "Now as to Miss Granger's other request." Fred glanced over. He was unaware of another request. Hermione blushed slightly.

"I am afraid, Miss Granger, that allowing you completely unrestricted access to transport between school grounds and a certain address on Diagon Alley for the remainder of the school year is out of the question."

Fred turned to Hermione and raised an eyebrow. She shrugged. It had been worth a shot.

"However," McGonagall continued, "Seeing as how I believe the Ministry will be quite interested in whatever new ideas that you and Mr. Weasley can develop, I see no problem with allowing you the time after completion of classes each Friday afternoon and start of classes each Monday morning to spend wherever you wish."

The Professor peered over her glasses. "My only stipulation would be that you inform either myself, Miss Weasley or Miss Lovegood of your whereabouts whenever you leave school grounds so we don't have any miscommunication or concerns about your being missing. Agreed?"

Hermione sat up very straight. "Agreed."

Professor McGonagall stood. "Very well. Miss Granger, I believe you are capable of escorting Mr. Weasley to the front gate."

Hermione beamed. "Yes. Thank you, Headmistress."

The two professors watched as the couple hastily exited the room. A few seconds later they heard a joyous whoop followed by soft whispers and laughter echoing down the hallway.

Without turning, Professor Flitwick said, "James and Lily."

Professor McGonagall sat and sighed. "You saw it too?"

Flitwick nodded. "It could be a slippery slope, giving them that much freedom to see each other."

McGonagall poured a cup of tea. "These are extraordinary times, Filius. Exceptions can be made. Anyway, if I said no they would have just found a way around us." She glanced at the door and then back to her colleague. "Besides, would you want to be the one standing between them if either one truly thought the other was in imminent danger?"

Without hesitation, Flitwick replied, "I'd rather face the dark lord himself...alone and without my wand."

"Exactly," McGonagall responded and helped herself to a biscuit.