Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
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Chapter 6 something lost, something found
Hermione curled up on her and the twin's bed. It was the only place where she could escape. Not only was she cold, tired and furious. She also wanted to kill Fred. She trusted him with her life, and Hermione's trust was betrayed. It was all a hoax.
How dare he lie to her like that? It was like her feelings didn't even matter to him. Like she was just another one of those girls that couldn't take the heat that he, she paused and stopped to think. That Fred radiated, for lack of better word. Hermione wrapped her feet up in the blankets, for some reason when she wasn't feeling exactly herself her feet began to freeze. Not that she didn't blame her feet at all, all Hermione wanted to do was curl up and forget the coldness of Fred's nonexistent heart.
Draco was in love with her, and he knew what love was. She wasn't afraid of Fred and she was going to stand up for the man she loved back. Fred was just mad he didn't ask her before. Hermione smiled, trying to keep her eyes open. Maybe he should have died instead of Percy, and then she wouldn't have had this upset over him. She laid her head down and pulled the blankets tighter around her, pretending that the covers was Draco's arms. Hermione was out like a light in the matter of seconds.
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When Fred finally found Hermione she was sound asleep, but she was still whimpering. It pained him to listen to it. He couldn't believe that he had made the girl he cared about cry. Had he really sunk down to Ron's level? Did he really make her cry while she was sound asleep? If Fred did, it would make him even worse than Ronald.
"No Fred," she muttered. "Don't hurt him."
He sat on the edge of the bed and listened to her. It only broke his heart more he sat there and listened to her whimper. He finally realized that maybe he did fancy Hermione, but just a little though. And that's it; Fred wouldn't admit it to anyone else that he fancied her. Not even George would find this out.
"'Mione." He reached out to touch her.
"Go away," she whimpered, slightly startled. Her eyes were glossed over yet still, which meant she wasn't full there. It also meant that there were fresh tears in her eyes.
He began to rub her back, trying to get the sobbing to quit. Maybe then it would make the whole heartbreak go away. But the harder she sobbed the more his heart broke. Fred never thought he would fall for a girl this hard.
"Can you stop crying for half a second luv?"
Hermione looked up into Fred's deep blue eyes. Needless to say Fred was able to see the hatred that sat in her brown eyes. He loved her brown eyes, when she was happy they were almost a golden color, but now they were a darker color. He glanced away as she let out a huge sniff. He couldn't take it any more so he snapped.
"Damn it Hermione! Stop it! Can't you see I'm hurting enough?" He yelled.
"What?"
"Never mind. Forget I said anything." He got up from the bed and stormed down the stairs, or so it seemed. He turned into Percy's room. It was off limits. But who cared. It was his private sanctuary. Nobody knew he went there, if not there, then he was always up at Hogwarts (but only when his mother was in there weeping for the loss of her son).
He sat at the end of the bed, thinking about those stupid dreams he had had starting after Percy's death. He hit the edge of it with his fists before letting out a hysterical sob. His brother was gone, and it was all Fred's fault. George took a step into the room and saw his stronger twin reduced to a puddle.
George knew of this, George could only sit there and watched as his twin beat himself time after time. Fred closed his eyes and saw the whole thing replay in his eyes again. It made it hard to sleep at night. George took a deep breath in; he could tell his brother was in a lot of pain. Fred usually hated to recall Percy's death.
Fred dodged a curse that was aim for him. He was glad that Percy was on his side. He wouldn't have had it any other way than fighting with his older brother. It was good that Percy knew how to beg for forgiveness. He gulped down any blood that was coming from his tongue. He had nearly bit a hole through it already. It was very vile taste, but he couldn't spit it out. Not with the curses flying everywhere.
Fred noticed his younger brother and friends come in. Weren't they supposed to be looking for something? Fred blocked another curse and set one at the Death Eater he was battling. He could hear screams in the background; he even heard one of the Golden Trio mention something about Crabbe dying. Good, that prat deserved what was coming to him in the end.
Fred looked up just in time to see a hood slip off of a Death Eater. It only figured that Percy was battling with the Minister, Fred almost rolled his eyes. He nearly gagged on his own blood as he swallowed what seemed like another gallon.
"Hello Minister!" bellowed Percy. "Did I mention I'm resigning?"
"You're joking Perce!" shouted Fred over the roar of the battle. He watched Thicknesse fall to the ground. Fred then turned to Percy with glee.
"You're actually are joking, Perce. . . . I don't think I've heard you joke since you were…"
It was then when Fred saw it. The black figure of the Grim Reaper, Fred couldn't see the eyes of Death, but just what the cloaked figure looked like. He felt the world swirling around him. The air changing from the warmth of the battle and curses flying left and right to cold of a wall crumbling down.
Fred tightly closed his eyes as he felt his soul being ripped from his body slowly, painfully. His life was passing before his closed eyes. Everything that had happened and that should have happened was going in front of him. There was something cold and then a scream.
Fred opened his eyes to see the Grim Reaper, but instead of his soul he saw being ripped from his body, it was Percy's. Percy had thrown his body across Fred's; he saved Fred's life. The silver lining of Percy's soul was being dragged out from the body. Fred gulped trying to register what he was seeing.
It was then when he heard the whispery voice of the Grim Reaper, almost sounding female. "If you don't tell her, I will take your life Fredrick Gideon Weasley." It was then when Fred saw Percy's soul, an exact replica of the boy below, well on top of him. Fred could only nod.
It was then when he heard the scream again and a horrible shrieking. "No—no—no!" he didn't recognize the voice, though everything seemed fuzzy. "No! Fred! Percy!"
Fred heard weeping above him and didn't dare open his eyes. He felt two arms around him, one a more feminine touch, and he was being dragged across the battlefield. There were curses still flying everywhere he could feel them around each other. It wasn't long before they were both shoved into a small alcove and a protective wall was put around them. This made Fred nervous, but he knew he was safer pretending to be dead than actually out there being injured and dead.
Fred let out a choked sob as he clutched his sides, rocking back and forth. It was his brother that he had failed to protect. This shouldn't be the way things were. Fred should have died, but Percy did the whole big brother thing and protected his younger sibling.
Fred sniffed allowing the tears more freely. Fred spent more time in this room than anywhere else. Especially every time he came back for a dinner. Sometimes he had to compete with his mother for privacy. Normally he would lose and have to go up Percy's actual grave, next to Fabian and Gideon.
"Fred?" George questioned, walking into his brother's sanctuary and closer to him. "Are you alright?"
"It's all my fault George." He still was hugging his knees. "I killed Perce."
"You did no such thing."
"I can't even stand to look at Hermione because it breaks my heart every time I talk to her." He seemed to blame himself for the two most important, well, biggest, mistakes in his life.
"Fredrick." George nearly was cooing. "It's alright mate." He walked up to Fred and pulled him into his arms. George began to rub his twin's back gently as his sobbed into George's chest.
"Everything's my fault. I've sunk down to Ron's level." Fred muttered against the fabric. It was muffled but it was a good thing that George could understand twin. "I'm no better than Ronald."
"You are, it's a mistake all guys make. I've made ton with Luna and felt shitty after words. It's going to be alright man." George just knelt there with his twin sobbing over the death of their older brother and the heartbreak of Hermione. It was an upsetting situation all in itself. But George knew when to listen and when to joke. And this was a time that his twin needed him more than anything in the world. So he hung onto him, and allowed Fred to whimper and cry away his pain instead of hiding it from the world and himself.
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Fred couldn't sleep that night; every time he fell asleep he would see the death over and over again. He finally just gave up sleeping and noticed Hermione's computer was on. He opened it to find her journal still open. She never left things on. It was strange, and he knew that it wasn't right to…
He put the computer down when he felt Hermione move next to him. It was weird. She was going to be gone in a few short weeks and here he was trying to find out what was really going on. He looked down at the sleeping witch next to him. She finally stopped sobbing, according to George, shortly before he found Fred.
It was hard to believe that things weren't going as smoothly as possible. He was supposed to be helping Hermione around, and helping her survive before Malfoy came and got her. It would be two weeks before she left to live with Malfoy. And then it would be two months before they got married, and personally Fred wasn't ready to give Hermione up to anyone yet. Except to maybe one of his brothers.
Fred sighed before he heard an explosion and then a scream. He recognized it as Ginny's scream. It wasn't a safety scream either, one of those that she screamed earlier that evening. It was one where she was hurt of something or someone else. Fred mentally prayed that it wasn't the something else.
"George." He poked his brother. "We've got trouble."
"What?"
"Hear it? It's a battle. Ginny, Ron and Harry are outside. I can hear people moving around down stairs too." Fred whispered hurriedly.
"Well, we need to check it out. Luna's out there too."
"I'm more worried about Hermione."
"What do you mean? She's…" George muttered Lumos before looking into his brother's identical face. It was now full of worry and concern towards the people outside. "Who do you think it is?"
"Death Eaters."
Hermione stirred a little bit, rolling over to face Fred. She curled up next to him for warmth. She was wide-awake, but they didn't know that. She was going to keep her peaceful look, so that neither twin knew. She knew what Fred meant by Death Eaters.
"You don't think they're trying to kill off the muggle-borns are you?" George questioned.
"It's a possibility. I don't want to leave Hermione alone." Fred stated. "I'll stay with her, you can go, and you're better at Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"But you're the animagus, the unregistered animagus I might add." George whispered. Hermione almost didn't catch it. "You're a fox, you can sneak across the house quicker and sneakier than I can."
Fred looked around, "but I'm without my wand."
"Put in your pocket." George said. "You said yourself, that anything you took with you before you changed into a fox was still with you when you transformed back into a human."
Fred shook his head and muttered. "I want you then to hold onto Hermione and not let go of her." Hermione couldn't believe her ears. Fred had actually given his twin a command to hold onto Hermione and not let go. She felt George's arms wrap around her and pull her tighter to him. "I don't want Hermione getting into the middle of this okay? I want everything to seem normal, like I've had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night or something." She felt the warmth of the other twin disappear and heard a door open and close.
George was truly a man of his word. That was hard to believe considering it was coming from a prankster. He held her tightly and refused to get go. Hermione decided that it was for the best and tried her hardest to fall back asleep forgetting the conversation she had just barely heard between the two twins.
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When Hermione woke the next morning she found it to be quite bright. The next thing she noticed was Fred and George weren't in bed that morning. It was strange to see the room empty. Personally she enjoyed this moment of relaxation. Her morning, however, was ruined when the twins and Ginny slamming open the door.
"GOOD MORNING HERMIONE!" they chorused.
"Where were you two?!" Hermione demanded to know. "You scared the shit out of me." It was better to start the morning out with her gaining knowledge rather than losing it.
George smirked. "Well, you see we had an early morning Order meeting and we didn't want to wake you."
"So we left you to sleep."
"But we've come back with all the great juicy details."
"We know that you're dying to know!" Ginny finally added to her twin brother's statement. "And we've brought break fast." She held up a tray of eggs, obviously Mrs. Weasley had sent them.
Hermione pulled her legs out from under the covers and sat crossed legged. She was still furious at the twins for leaving her and not waking her up. But she was even madder at Ginny because she went along with the idea.
"Well, are you going to tell me or not?"
One of the twins smirked, her head wasn't working straight right now, and she found herself coming up with another headache. She could barely keep her eyes open and she was ready to throw something at Fred.
"Well, last night there was an attack on the Burrow."
"And you didn't wake me? I could of helped." Now she was really upset about them leaving this morning. She could of used the information from the meeting. "Why didn't you wake me!"
"You needed you're sleep." George calmly stated.
Ginny sighed. "Well, it wasn't that easy."
"Why?"
"Because they were after Muggleborns."
"They?" Hermione questioned through a bite of toast.
"The Death Eaters. George had stayed here with you to make sure everything was going alright. Because we knew that they would be coming after you." This was definitely Fred, she remembered him telling George to stay with her and not let go.
It was then she remembered the rest of the conversation. Hermione raised a shaking finger at Fred. "You're an animagus." She accused. "I remember George reminding you about it."
Fred sighed and shut the door with his magic. He made sure it was silenced and locked before he tried to defend himself. Of course, Ginny and George already knew about this. They were close to each other, and they would watch each other's back. "Honestly Hermione, I would figure that you know how to keep your nose out of other people's business." He said rather rudely. "I came here with breakfast and the news from the meeting, and you yell at me for being an animagus."
"At least you should register as one." Hermione glared at him. "That way you wouldn't have to deal with the law."
"And are you seriously going to turn me in?" He barked. "Ginny and George know, and they think it's the best thing in the world. But what about you Hermione? I was able to protect you last night because of this. Are you seriously going to turn me in?" He looked at George and then demanded. "Tell me what you heard from Hermione last night after I left."
George shook his head, normally he would tell (he had told Ginny earlier) but when the older twin was angry he knew not to touch important subjects about Hermione sleep talking. "I can't Fred."
Fred glared at his twin. The room was silent for a moment as the twins battled it out with their eyes. Hermione need to know what was going on and it was finally her that broke the silence.
"Tell me." Hermione muttered.
George shrugged. "Well, like Fred told me, I didn't let you go. But you were having another nightmare, or a dream or something, but you kept muttering Fred, no, not him how could you? I loved you and you killed him." George shrugged. "You went on like that for all of the Weasleys. It was strange to see you in such a frighten state. Hermione you are stupid to be furious at Fred for telling you what happened. It's the God damn truth."
Ginny nodded. That's all she could do for her best friend. With everything that was going on, she needed to be supportive of her brothers and her friend. Since they were arguing she needed to be the voice of reason.
"I want to know what was going on in the whole meeting."
Ginny sighed. "Well, as you know already we were attacked by Death Eaters last night." Ginny started out. "Sadly we didn't catch them. We did manage to get them out of the Burrow though."
Fred nodded. "We think they were after you."
"What? Why me?" Hermione snapped.
"Do not get snippy, I saved your life." Fred barked. "If I didn't battle one on the stairs you'd be short one twin. You should be thankful."
"And you should shut up." Hermione was now on her feet staring down Fred.
"I'm not afraid of you."
George stepped between the arguing teens. "Okay, guys can we just finished what happened during the meeting?"
Fred and Hermione glared at each other and turned so they weren't looking at each other. "Fine." The muttered.
Ginny smiled and continued on. "Well, after we battled the Death Eaters we obviously went to bed. They thought they could attack us; me, Harry, Ron, and Luna. They had another thing coming. We were able to sleep soundly because of some sort of spell that Luna had put up. So when we heard the racket we were able to send a quick word to the house, like by Harry's stag.
"Anyway, so this morning during our meeting we retold the events of last night. Kingsley was furious that the Death Eaters were starting trouble again, especially since he was so kind enough to let them go off. It was then Harry thought they were another set of Death Eaters, ones that didn't like Muggleborns."
Hermione nodded her head as she fell to the bed with a slight bounce to it. "So are you saying someone trying to resurrect Voldemort?"
"It's a possibility." Ginny shrugged. "But of course Mum and Dad shot down that idea. Draco knew it wasn't him because he stated…"
"Claimed, he was in love with you and would do anything to protect you until your guys' wedding," George continued on. "Needless to say that went over like a ton of bricks…" He chuckled slightly finally realizing what that saying meant before continuing on.
"Well, we demanded that you stay here with us at least until the wedding was done and over with. Which is tomorrow, so Sunday you will go live with your fiancé." George finished.
"We figured it would be best because he can afford the most security." Ginny nodded. "We are hunting back down all Death Eaters right now for suspicious activity. But there's nothing we can do until we find out their true motive."
"I personally think that that old goat is behind it all. First the Marriage Law, then this what's next?" George asked angrily. "I wanna know what everyone's planning, I wanna know the real reason why this marriage law shit started up. I'm tired of not knowing! What's the use of being in the Order of the Phoenix if you do not know!"
Fred put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "We are finding out as much as we can, right now all we can do is wait and follow the law. It's never supposed to be simple, we've found that out with the loss of Percy, Lupin, and Tonks." There was a moment of silence for the people that were just mentioned and many others that weren't. Each of them thinking of their own personal loss.
Dumbledore will understand what was happening. Fred thought looking at the floor. He couldn't believe the old man was truly gone.
"What is our plan of action? Other than getting me out of the Burrow."
"Well, nothing, we are just going to wait." George answered. He looked at Hermione. "There's nothing we can do, sure we have insight in the Ministry, but not even Kingsley knows what's going on. He has to pass things other wise it looks bad for him and the Order."
"Maybe he has a deeper motive for passing the Marriage Law?"
"This is the ninth one 'Mione."
"I know George, but… okay maybe I don't have all the answers."
"That's a surprise." Fred stated.
"What the hell is your problem?"
"You, have you ever thought about that?" Fred snapped.
Hermione pulled out her wand. "I will not hesitate to turn you in. I don't care if you're my best friend's brother, you are breaking the law."
"I dare you to." Fred challenged. "I just dare you to Hermione. But when you do, I will just be able to escape through the bars like Sirius, and go live alone in the States under a false name."
Hermione glared at the twin once again. "Get out." She muttered. "I want you out of here Fredrick."
"This is my bedroom just as much as it is yours." Fred stated with a smug look on his face. "And this is the Weasley house, not the Grangers."
"Drop dead Fredrick."
"I'll bring you with me." He turned away and opened the door. "You don't have the guts to turn me in, 'Mione." He then slammed the door shut. He finally closed his eyes and sunk to the ground, his back still against the door. Fred felt the tears rolling down his face.
He couldn't believe that he was crying like a wimp. Just because Hermione didn't trust him, all because he had heard what she was saying one night! He was worried about the witch, and felt a tad bit of emotion when Hermione's name was mentioned.
Fred sighed again and got up heading down to the kitchen, he made sure that his eyes were dry. He walked in as another Order was getting in another session. His eyes fell onto McGonagall.
"Go get your brother and sister plus Hermione. It's important we get her out of here tonight. Kingsley heard about another plan to kill her." Mrs. Weasley stated. "Hermione is leaving tonight. She needs protection Fred, and we can't have her stay here any more."
Hermione could only stare at George and Ginny. She had heard it, as much as she loved Malfoy she didn't want to leave. Sure she was going to go after the wedding, but she was waiting for another week. She didn't want to leave Ron, Harry, and Ginny. Despite was going on with Fred she wanted to spend more time with Fred.
"Hermione?" Ginny whispered. "Are you alright?"
"I don't want to go," came the whisper. It was almost like a whimper.
George took Hermione by the arm and led her into the kitchen. "Good morning family and guests. I've brought Princess Hermione." He said cheerfully. "She's alive and well."
Hermione looked directly at a brown haired girl. She looked friendly enough, but Hermione was unable to recognize her. "Who is she?"
Ron blushed a little bit. "Oh guys this is my fiancée, Annibelle Thomas." He answered helping her up out of her seat.
Fred's eyes widened. "Bloody hell Ron, how did you managed that one? She's gorgeous."
"Thank you." Annibelle muttered slightly.
"I've helped her out of many situations at Hogwarts while we went together." Ron admitted.
"Really?"
"Yup."
Fred nodded and bowed slightly. "Well, I'm impressed. Didja know that Annibelle is the heiress to the Thomas fortune?"
Hermione shook her head no. "I think I've read about you. Do you have two older sisters?"
"Yes, my uncle, who's taking care of us, disinherited them. Valynn married someone and had Dean Thomas, my nephew. And my other older sister Nikita, she was in Ravenclaw, was disinherited by flirting and then getting engaged to a muggle-born. The only way I couldn't get disinherited was if I would marry a pure-blood, blood traitors or not." She explained.
"I know Nikita actually, she was a sweet girl, and it never occurred to me she was an heiress to the fortune." Hermione stated. "She was almost like the Golden Trio… mind you if Pamela didn't got all Death Eater."
"You know Pamela?" Annibelle questioned cheering up immensely. "I haven't heard from her in years."
"Is she single?"
Hermione glared at Fred. "Yes Fredrick, she's single. She's a half-blood and she wouldn't want to marry…"
"Why are you so rude?" Fred snapped.
"Why are you so stupid?"
Annibelle looked over to Ron. "Are they always like this?"
"Recently, yes, but knowing Hermione, she's heard that she's got to go to Malfoy's tonight and can't come back for the wedding."
"WHAT?!"
"Toldja."
Hermione pulled her wand and pointed it at Fred. "This is your fault." She accused. "If you hadn't told George to protect me last night I wouldn't have to leave, I would of proved to everyone that I can kick butt just as much as the boys."
"You were supposed to be sleeping." Fred shouted. "How the hell did I know you were wide awake?"
Mrs. Weasley stood up and opened her mouth to say something. Both teens turned to her and yelled. "Stay out of this!"
"If you would just understand how much I love Draco and he loves me then this wouldn't be a problem." She finally snapped.
"Why can't you understand that I love you?"
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K15: I'll tell you that this chapter took so long to post was because I wanted to get another two chapters written first, but I have about one more to go.
Fred: She decided that this was ready for posting.
Me; Yeah, guys. I am editing this by myself, so I'm sorry for any of the mistakes. If you would like to beta my work, just drop me a line in a PM or a review. Thanks, don't forget to review. Later. K15