. Just one chance
Just one breath
"I cannot believe they made us stay!" Hermione fumed while pacing the living room.
"Maybe they thought we'd get in the way?" Ginny suggested. Hermione turned to her and groaned.
"It's just so annoying! We could have helped! Just because we're girls we have to stay and 'fend for the houses.' Honestly!" Hermione dropped herself into an armchair and let out a sigh.
"Chess?" Ginny asked after a few minutes. Hermione shrugged – she wasn't particularly fond of the game, but maybe it would get her mind off the attack.
Four hours and five games later, Hermione lay on the floor, staring at her pieces in deep concentration.
"Hermione, you aren't going to win," Ginny giggled. "I mean honestly, it usually takes more than an hour to play one game, where as we're done in only half an hour." Hermione glared at Ginny.
"I will win this one."
"Sure you will. It doesn't help that your pieces don't trust you at all," Ginny said, looking at the board. She almost cracked up when the bishop yelled at Hermione to hurry up because it wouldn't matter where they went – they'd loose anyway.
"Shut it, Mr. Bishop. I have hope, when you are a bunch of baboons who know nothing!" Hermione cried and told her knight to move to E5.
"Bad move, Hermione. Queen to E5 … checkmate," Ginny grinned.
"That's it, I give up!" Hermione howled.
"And good thinking, too," someone said from behind them. Hermione whirled around with her wand held high.
"Ron!" she cried and jumped into his arms. "Where is everyone?" she asked, noticing nobody else was with him.
"Fred got sent to St Mungo's 'cause he got cursed pretty badly. I was sent to get you two," he replied soberly.
"Oh gosh, that's horrible! You're okay though, right?" He nodded.
"Just a few scratches," he muttered blushing. "No one else got seriously injured; at least, nothing the medic-witches couldn't fix in a few minutes. Fred, on the other hand … I don't know how long he'll be out for."
"Well, lets go. Here's the floo powder."
Hermione grabbed it and shouted, "St. Mungo's!" She flew out of site and landed with a humph. She looked around, and saw white walls and the reception desk. She walked up to it.
"Which floor is Fred Weasley on?" she asked.
"Fourth Floor: Spell Damage, room 506," the nurse replied, looking in a folder.
Hermione smiled and thanked the witch before turning toward the elevators.
"Hey Hermione, wait up," she heard someone call after her. She turned around to see Ginny and Ron chasing her.
"Oh, sorry." She blushed and waited for them.
"How's he doing?" Ginny asked once they had reached his room.
"The Healers say he'll live," Mr. Weasley said from his spot beside the bed. "They just aren't sure how long it'll take for him to recuperate, or … or when he gets his memory back." Arthur choked, and a few stray tears fell down his old cheeks. Ginny sidled up to her father and put her arm around him.
"He'll make it, dad. He's a Weasley twin for Merlin's sake, of course he'll be back to normal."
"We can only hope," Harry said, staring at Fred's almost lifeless body.
"What hit him anyway?" Hermione asked.
"No one knows yet, some kind of weird new curse," George said bitterly. Hermione whipped around, and for the first time noticed George in the room. He was slumped in the corner with a grim frown on his face. Never had she seen him look so down, not even when he found out his mum was dead.
She bit her lower lip and turned away and felt someone grab her arm. She needn't look; she could feel Ron's course hand wrap around her own. She frowned slightly –she had always imagined holding hands with Ron to be different, like getting shocks every time he touched her. But that hadn't happened yet.
I suppose I'm just foolish in believing all those love stories my mum used to read to me, she thought, because this is definitely not like that at all … it's kind of weird and awkward and sort of embarrassing at the same time.
"What's wrong?" he asked her, his breath tickling her ear. No shivers, she noticed.
"Nothing." She smiled brightly at him and squeezed his hand.
"Visiting hours are over." Hermione turned to see the same medic-witch as the one that Fred had told off before. She looked quite timid standing in the doorway, waiting for some sort of response.
"Alright, we'll be back later." The group filled out. George was the last to leave and he walked a little apart from everyone else, his head down, and for once his gleaming eyes were dull. Hermione looked back and sighed.
"I'm worried about George," she whispered to Ron. He turned around to look at his brother.
"Ah, he'll get over it, he's just worried he'll loose his twin. Don't worry about him," Ron dismissed. Hermione looked back one more time before listening to what Ron was talking about … Quidditch. She rolled her eyes.
The Weasleys, Harry, Hermione, Tonks, and a few other Order members sat around the table at the burrow, looking quite sober.
"Why would they attack? You'd think they'd lie low or try and come back to the light, considering You-Know-Who is dead," Mr. Weasley stated.
"They are probably trying to make a statement or something," Tonks replied.
"One would have to think that maybe they are under orders from a new Dark Lord," Snape muttered.
"Oh, come now, Severus, you don't actually believe that a new Dark Lord is already in the making, do you?"
"I wouldn't know I got thrown out of the inner circle for a quirky little mistake I made. I should not have shot down Goyle's father," Snape grumbled.
"Don't be too hard on yourself, it was either that or let that poor first year die."
"We probably will never know why they chose to attack. But we must be on our toes and make sure the public knows that this won't happen again, just so that they can still have that figment of being safe," Shacklebolt said. "But I must be off, lots of business to attend to." The meeting adjourned and the Order members started leaving.
"Thanks for letting us use you house, Arthur, since the Order headquarters are out of use at the moment," Tonks said as she grabbed her jacket. The hook caught on the arm of the jacket, bringing it slamming to the ground. "Oh sorry," she muttered and went to pick it up.
"Oh, don't worry about it, I'll have one of my boys pick it up," Mr. Weasley said in a hurry.
"I don't mind," Tonks said, and picked up the jacket hanger and put it right. She waved her hand, and with a pop she was gone.
"We probably should owl Charlie and Bill and tell them what happened," Ginny said from behind her father.
"Yeah, that would be a good idea," Mr. Weasley sighed. "But they needn't come, nothing serious happened. Diagon Alley is still standing, and there were only injuries that happened, no deaths, fortunately."
"They still might want to know that their brother is in the hospital though," Ginny said and left the room.
"Hey Ginny!" someone called from the living room as she waked by it. "Our letters came." Hermione handed Ginny her letter.
"I wonder when we'll be able to go to Diagon Alley to get our supplies," Ginny mused, looking at her list of stuff. When she heard no response from Hermione she looked over at her friend. Hermione was staring at the letter her eyes looked slightly glazed over in disbelief. In her hand there was a small glittering object. "What is it?" Ginny asked coming up to Hermione.
"I got Head Girl!" Hermione squealed suddenly, "I can't believe they gave it to me!" The noise brought Harry and Ron in from the kitchen. They gave Ginny a questioning look.
"Surprisingly Hermione got Head Girl, such a shocker that one." Ginny said sarcastically rolling her eyes. Hermione immediately frowned.
"There is plenty girls that are more qualified for this responsibility. "Take Morag for instance, she has had a clean record to boot," Hermione said seriously. "I was convinced they would give it to her." The other three teenagers looked at Hermione with raised eyebrows.
"Who's Morag?" Ron finally asked stupidly. Hermione let out a huff.
"Oh honestly Ron, she's that tall Ravenclaw girl, you and Harry always point that out." A look of dawning crossed his face.
"So that's who she is!" Hermione rolled her eyes and turned to her letter once again to reread it to see if it was real. After a few minuets of silence as the foursome read their letters Hermione looked up.
"Where's George?" Hermione asked suddenly her voice was laced with worry.
"I think he went back to his and Fred's flat after the meeting was over," Ginny responded without looking up from her letter. Hermione nodded slightly, she hoped he was okay.
"Exploding Snap, anyone?" Ron asked. Hermione and Ginny groaned.
"Sure," Harry said. The two boys crowded around the table and set up the game, while Hermione grabbed her book to read. The group stayed like that well into the night before Mr. Weasley came and demanded that they go to bed.
"Here dad," Ginny said, handing him a note. "Its for Charlie and Bill." The two girls climbed up the stairs to Ginny's room.
"Hermione?" Ginny asked once they were lying in bed.
"Yeah?"
"Does Harry every talk about me?" Ginny turned to face Hermione her eyes curious.
"Not really, why?"
"I don't know, just curious," Ginny said disappointedly.
"You fancy Harry!" Hermione squeaked.
"Yes, but keep it down or they'll hear you." Hermione gave Ginny the look that clearly said they were four floors above the girls, and that they aren't going to hear. Ginny sighed. "He'll never think of me more than his best mate's little sister, will he?"
"You never know, Gin, he doesn't talk about that stuff to me, and I doubt he would talk about it to Ron either … actually, he definitely wouldn't tell Ron, he might just punch him," Hermione giggled.
"Well, goodnight, Hermione."
"'Night."
Hermione opened her eyes and ran her hand through her messy mat of hair. Today was the day they were heading into Diagon Alley to collect their supplies. It had been a week since the attack and everyone thought it would be fine to go. Hermione glanced over at Ginny to see her wrapped up in her blankets, still snoring away. Hermione laughed quietly before getting up and going to the towel closet to grab one. She looked in and grabbed her favourite one, a big fluffy purple towel. She made her way to the bathroom and opened the door.
"Whoa … Hermione!"
"Um … I'm sorry, George," Hermione stuttered, blushing to the roots of her hair. She hadn't expected to see her best friends brother barely clad in a towel. "I'll leave." She turned and was closing the door when George snickered.
"I knew you wanted to see me with my shirt off, Granger, I just didn't know you wanted it that bad." If possible, Hermione blushed harder and quickly shut the door behind her.
"Why?" she mumbled to herself, as she leaned against the wall outside the bathroom waiting for her turn. A few minuets later George opened the door, the towel securely wrapped around his waist. He grinned at Hermione.
"'Tis all yours, love," he said, waggling his eyebrows at her. She blushed even more.
"How's Fred?" she asked, trying to look anywhere but at his chest.
"They say he's doing better. Melissa (that's that blonde medic-witch Fred told off when Harry was in the hospital) said he should be coming out of his coma soon. And they are very hopeful that his memory is still in tact," George said, a smile appearing on his face, a real one, not one which screamed 'I-just-played-a-prank-and-now-you're-in-for-it.' Hermione nodded, happy that George wouldn't be looking so glum anymore. It didn't suit him.
"So, if you don't mind me asking, why are you here? Don't you have like-" Hermione blushed. "Well, one at your flat you could use instead?"
George smirked; he did that a lot, Hermione noted. He smirked a lot, where as Fred grinned devilishly. Not that there is much of a difference-nor was she noticing such things about him either.
"Why, my dear young lass, I'm astonished that you care. For some reason something told me in a dream last night that the place I must take a shower is here. I didn't know why then, but now it's looking pretty clear why." George said with an air of mystery to him. Hermione sighed in exasperation. "It's destiny Hermione, that you and me are meant to be. Seeing you this morning has finally made that clear to me," George said offhandedly, grinning like a schoolboy. Hermione rubbed her eyes, "or maybe it was because Fred and I forgot to pay some bills this month," George muttered thoughtfully rubbing his chin appearing to be deep in thought.
"Sure George, whatever you say," Hermione said with a ghost of a smile playing on her lips. She then entered the bathroom.
"I'm right here if you need some company!" George yelled in after her as he heard the door lock.
"Come on everyone, grab some floo powder," Mr. Weasley called. "Ginny, you first."
Ginny grabbed hers and shot up the chimney.
Soon, everyone was gone but Arthur himself. "Now it's our turn Mol –" He stopped. "No," he muttered, "Molly isn't here anymore."
He stepped alone into the fireplace and called out, "Diagon Alley!" He fell from the fireplace into the Leaky Cauldron. "Right. Everyone here?" he asked, counting the heads. "Right then, lets go, Gringotts is the first stop."
The rest of the day consisted of getting everyone's supplies and ogling the new flying broom.
"Oh Hermione, look, you got a letter," Ginny said. "It's from your parents."
Hermione smiled and opened the envelope. After a few minutes, she looked up.
"I have to go home for the last week of holidays, my parents want to spend time with me and tell me how their trip was."
"Aw, that means you have to leave today!" Ginny whined. "I'll be stuck with my brothers the whole time!" Hermione smiled apologetically and took out her wand and tapped the bricks to get back into the Leaky Cauldron.
Authors Note: Thank you all for you wonderful support and encouragment. It really means a lot to me. Here is the newest edition. I truly hope it is to your liking.
Even he, to whom most things that most people would think were pretty smart were pretty dumb, thought it was pretty smart.
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