"Expelliarmus!"
Harry ducked is as his own wand flew out of hand and into Neville's grasp. Neville was so surprised, that he promptly dropped his own wand. Harry grinned broadly and gave him a thumbs up from across the room as a small cluster of Gryffindors circled around Neville, patting him on the pack and congratulating him. Harry hadn't expected students to want to continue their D.A. meeting during their exams, but he was pleasantly surprised when Luna cornered him and told him that all the students wanted to keep practicing. He looked around the Room of Requirement and felt a swell of pride. This group of people was virtually unrecognizable from their first day together. They had improved so much in such a short period of time. Hermione, who was already brilliant, picked up things so quickly to scared Harry a bit. From time to time, he had asked her to help him out with the other students. He found that splitting up the responsibilities made life much easier, especially during exams week.
"Expecto Patronum!" cried Cho, a graceful swan erupting out of wand and soaring around the room. Harry glanced over at her and felt his stomach swoop. Swallowing hard, he refocused his energies on the other students, who had their Patronuses gamboling around the room, infusing it with light and joy.
"Seamus, put it out," Came Dean's exasperated voice, who was trying to stomp out the flames that Seamus had accidentally set to his own robes.
"Aguamenti," Hermione intervened calmly, sending a jet of water and extinguishing the flames.
"Brilliant," Came a Weasley's voice. Harry turned and saw Fred walking over to Hermione and grinning. Harry shook his head, knowing that Fred could produce an equally good Aguamenti charm and he was probably taking a leaf out of Twelve Fail-Safe Ways To Charm Witches.
"Thanks," Hermione replied a little confused, but smiling nonetheless. Harry was sure the same thought had crossed her mind about Fred.
"Say, Seamus," Fred leaned around Hermione, "If you want to make a quick Galleon, Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes could use some of your pyrotechnical services."
"Yeah, definitely!" Seamus replied, grinning broadly. He lifted a soot-covered hand to shake with Fred. Making sure to walk a few feet from Fred and Hermione, Seamus and Dean continued to practice their Shield Charms.
"You won't regret it," Fred assured him, shaking his hand. Harry looked at Hermione and saw a familiar pinched expression, but no reprimand came from her lips. Fred seemed to realize this too. "What, no 'It's bad enough that you and George are sneaking around that castle without involving other students in your nefarious ways'?" Fred teased. He put his arms against the wall, which Hermione was resting against, leaning down to see her face better. Harry knew that stance. It was something that could be played off as friendly, but Harry suspected something a bit more as he watched Fred. Harry felt a surge of protectiveness towards Hermione, but quickly fought it down. He knew that Hermione was more than capable of taking care of herself. Harry quickly scanned the room from any immediate appearances of Ron, who was immersed in practicing a Stunning Spell on a dummy. Suddenly, Harry felt a jinx go right behind his neck. Spinning around, he caught Ginny with an apologetic look on her face.
"Sorry, Harry. I was aiming for George," She confided, jerking her head to the right. George was in an identical stance as Fred, leaning over Katie Bell, who didn't seem too miffed that he was there, judging from the blush now covering her face. Did final exams somehow charge the air with sexual tension? Harry shook his head and laughed.
"Well, it's to be expected, I suppose," Harry said. "Those two have been skirting around each other for years."
"You mean, like you and Cho?" Ginny asked astutely, a cat-like grin gracing her features.
"How-how do you -?"
"Oh, come on, Harry. Everyone knows," Ginny replied, rolling her eyes. Ginny turned from him and sent another covert jinx at the back of George's head, missing by inches. "I'm just trying to make a fat, nasty zit appear on the back of his neck, is that too much to ask for?" Ginny growled at her wand, trying again. George paused momentarily from his conversation. Apparently, he had felt the jinx whizz by.
"Oi! Cut it out," He shouted at Ginny. She smirked and gracefully walked away, pairing herself off with Luna. The two girls took turns Summoning things around the room to fly at them.
"Harry?"
Harry turned and came face to face with Cho. Swallowing thickly, he replied, "Yes?"
"Do you think you could help me? I can't seem to get the hang of this Stunning Spell."
Harry was sure his face was red, but he prayed that Cho wouldn't notice. "Sure, of course. It's quite simple, really…" Harry lead her to the dummies, guiding her by pressing his palm against her back. "You just have to really concentrate on a specific point," He added, dropping his hand to his side. He demonstrated once for her. The dummy fell to the floor. "Why don't you try?" He offered kindly.
Cho took a deep breath before shouting, "Stupefy!" A jet of red light bounced of a light bulb and flew by Ron's ear.
"Watch it!" Ron shouted, still practicing on his dummy. On his final try, the dummy thudded to the ground. "Yes!" He cried, punching the air with his fist. He did a little victory dance and joined Ginny and Luna. Harry looked up and saw Fred stop talking to Hermione for a moment, looking at his younger brother and clearly thinking of ways to mock his dance. Shaking with laughter, Fred turned back to Hermione. The expression on her face made it clear she knew exactly what he was thinking.
"Oh, stop it," She sighed, smacking the side of his arm. Wriggling away from, Fred, Hermione joined Ron and the others. Harry looked back at Fred, who shot an irritated glance at Ron.
"Harry?" Cho's voice brought him back to the present. "Are you all right?" She followed his gaze, which landed on Hermione. Cho narrowed her eyes.
"I'm fine," Harry insisted. "Let's keep practicing."
oOoOoOo
"…in your nefarious ways'?" Fred's eyes were twinkling.
Hermione sniffed at his imitation of her. "I do not sound like that." Fred laughed and Hermione stiffened for a second, not realizing how close he was to her. She scoped out the room for Ron. Thankfully he was practicing Stunning a dummy, otherwise she knew she wouldn't have heard the end of this.
"You do, it's ok. It's endearing once you've heard it a hundred it times."
"If you're recruiting more students to make another Umbridge-eating firecracker, I wouldn't call it 'nefarious' at all," Hermione replied defiantly. "She's vile."
"I'm pretty sure the entire student body would agree," Fred paused. "Maybe not the Slytherins."
Hermione nodded her head. "You've heard about the Inquisatorial Squad?"
Fred grimaced. "One of the other reasons George and I are thankful to be out of here."
Hermione frowned. "Don't you miss it?"
"Miss being in school with that old witch? Not a chance."
"I meant Hogwarts." Hermione thought she caught a flicker of sadness in Fred's expression, but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared.
"I wouldn't be coming back if I didn't miss it, would I?" He asked quietly. Hermione's eyes filled with compassion and Fred had the overwhelming urge to tuck away a few stray curls from her face. He unconsciously moved closer to her. Hermione raised her eyebrows, watching his eyes darken for reasons unknown to her. Catching her expression, Fred moved back to his original position and coughed.
"I would miss it too," She admitted. "I don't know what it would be like if I couldn't come back."
"It's not so bad," Fred replied. "Living with Mum is driving us a bit crazy, so George and I are looking for a flat somewhere in Diagon Alley."
"That sounds nice."
"It's not," Fred grimaced. "It's a good thing George and I have such keen powers of deduction or we would have been taken for a ride a few times."
Hermione laughed. "I wouldn't give all the credit to your powers of deduction. The seller could have been a troll."
"You wound me," Fred replied mock solemnly. "How could you doubt my reasoning abilities?"
"Maybe because I happen to be much better at it and I'm two years younger than you," Hermione replied sweetly, crossing her arms.
"But my extra two years have made me much wiser," Fred put on an impression of an old warlock. Hermione laughed so hard she snorted. Breaking his impression and grinning, Fred added, "I'd like to see you try to get a flat without George and me."
"I'll do it and I'll get a better flat." Hermione smirked at him.
"Fine, keep deluding yourself," Fred shook his head, pretending to be resigned. "You have no hope."
"Speaking of George, where is he?" Hermione asked, leaning around Fred to get a better view of the room.
"Am I not good enough for you?" Fred asked, looking down and feigning sadness.
"You know you are," Hermione replied, surprisingly serious. Fred slowly looked up at her, trying to hide the hope he felt from his face. Hermione blushed and awkwardly added, "I meant, you've been a good friend." She paused, gauging his reaction. He didn't seem to completely believe her and she kicked herself mentally. "I was just curious if George came."
"Yeah, I think he's chatting up Katie," Fred replied after a pause. Hermione and Fred turned to look and saw George leaning over a giggling Kate Bell. "About damn time, if you ask me." Fred's gaze flickered back to Hermione, feeling as if he had said too much. Hermione met his enigmatic gaze with a smile, which faltered slightly as she recognized his expression from earlier in their conversation. Consciously this time, he brought his face closer to Hermione. Hermione felt her heart thud in her ribcage as she felt his breath on her face.
"So, George and Katie then?" Hermione asked huskily, intensely aware of Fred's proximity.
"Yeah," Fred replied absently, inching closer.
"Watch it!" Ron's voice echoed over the din. Hermione and Fred jumped apart and saw a Stunning Spell fly past Ron's ear. Fred grimaced dramatically.
"Close one," He commented, clearing his throat. Ron finally succeeded in Stunning his dummy. Fred watched, amused, as Ron punched the air and did his victory dance. "I am never going to let him live that dance down," Fred said, shaking with laughter. He turned back to Hermione who had a familiar exasperated look on her face.
"Oh, stop it," She sighed, smacking him on the arm. "I'm going to go practice Summoning spells with him," She added, wriggling away from him and towards Ginny, Luna, and Ron. Fred leaned against the wall, wishing Ron could have held in his exclamation for ten seconds longer.