"Need help?" A familiar voice asked above me as I attempted to slide some eggs onto a piece of toast. This usually mindless task became infuriating and almost impossible when one of my arms was in a sling.
"No, if I get help it wins." I said glaring at my eggs.
"What wins? The egg?" Fred asked sitting down next to me.
I nodded still staring intently at my eggs. I finally succeeded in pushing a small mound of eggs onto my piece of toast. I dropped my fork and picked up the toast and shoved it into my mouth in one bite. The way in which I was eating was anything but ladylike, but I was more focused on proving my dominance over the scrambled eggs.
"You alright?" Fred asked looking at me as though I had grown another head.
"Fantastic." I muttered picking up my fork. I began to chase the little yellow buggers around my plate some more again trying to pile them onto another piece of toast.
Fred seemed to decide that it was better to ignore my craziness than address it and started piling some porridge into a bowl.
"Other than your sudden insanity, how are you?" He asked digging into his breakfast like he hadn't eaten in days. He reminded me a lot of Ron in the way he ate except for the fact that I didn't get splattered with food when I was with Fred.
"I'm exhausted." I said and Fred nodded seeming to realize why I was acting so out of character. "I couldn't sleep wearing this stupid sling."
"Does it hurt a lot?"
"Truthfully? It hurts like hell, but not as bad as last night." I said sipping some more coffee. I needed the caffeine if I wasn't going to sleep through every one of my classes.
"Why don't you just spend the day in the Hospital Wing? Pomfrey wouldn't mind after what happened."
"Fred it's my fifth year! I have my O.W.L.s in eight months! I can't afford to miss class just because of a little injury."
"Little?" He asked but he dropped the subject. I wasn't called the brightest witch of my age for nothing. And I wouldn't maintain that title if I skived off class.
Once breakfast was over Fred walked me to my first class which happened to be potions. He carefully placed my bag on my left shoulder.
"Be careful today, 'Mione. If you want to get rid of that sling you have to take care of your arm."
"I will, believe me I can't wait to get this thing off of me."
"Oi, Granger, who did that to your arm? I'll send them flowers!" I heard Malfoy call as he came closer to the Potion's room.
"Say one more word, Malfoy, and you'll be a lot worse off than her." Fred growled. I knew Fred to be the fun-loving jokester, but at that moment he was positively menacing.
Malfoy decided not to test Fred's patience and resorted to muttering to Crabbe and Goyle as he joined the line waiting for Snape to open the door to the Potion's room.
"You don't have to wait up, Fred, I can handle myself." I said as he continued to glare at Malfoy.
"Believe me I'm fully aware you can take care of yourself, but it would make me feel better if Harry and Ron were here before I left." He said carefully pulling me into his arms and kissing my forehead.
His wish was granted a few moments later when Harry and Ron finally joined us, both out of breath.
"Sorry, woke up late." Harry gasped.
"Well I better go or McGonagall will put me in detention." Fred said before lightly pecking me on the lips. "I'll see you later."
Just as he hurried away, Snape opened the doors and we all hurried into the room.
There was a complicated potion on the board and I worriedly glanced at my arm. I knew Snape wouldn't allow me any excuse for a mediocre potion even if I only had the use of one arm.
"You have the length of the period to prepare the potion on the board." He said as he swooped down to his desk in the front of the room. "I will take no excuse if it is not finished correctly." His eyes lingered on me as he said the words.
I hastily set up my cauldron and lit the fire beneath it, then made my way to the front of the room to gather the ingredients I would need. It took me two trips to collect everything, but I didn't let that deter me.
Halfway through the class, my potion was coming along well. I was closest to the light emerald colour the book described than anyone in the whole class. I began to cut up the root that was going to be needed next. It was a little tough with only one hand and I was reminded of this morning with my eggs.
"Need help, 'Mione?" Harry asked looking over at me. His own potion was an ugly brown colour. I shook my head.
I finally finished chopping up my root and tipped it into the cauldron. The potion boiled and changed to a dark red colour. I was still on track. All that was left to do was add a sprig of mint and then I'd be finished. I dropped the little piece of greenery into the cauldron and a wave of sweet smelling vapour flew into the air. The book described this as the perfect ending point. I scooped two vials of the potion from the cauldron and labelled them.
I had learned from Harry that this was the best idea, since it was always good to have a backup. Especially when Malfoy has been so keen on making my life Hell as of late. I traipsed up to Snape's desk with my vial.
"Here you go, Professor." He accepted the vial. Halfway back to my cauldron I heard a splintering of glass. Malfoy was smirking from the front of the room; he had knocked over the tray holding my sample. I glared but went back to my cauldron to grab the extra.
"So sorry, Granger, I thought you were finished." Pansy Parkinson sneered from behind my cauldron. She had dumped the contents down the drain next to my station.
"That's fine, Parkinson, I was." I said with a smile. I stooped down and grabbed the extra vial from my bag. The smile slipped off her face as she stared at the vial in my hand. I found Malfoy across the room also looking like I had stepped on his most favourite pet. I decided to wait until the very end of class to turn in my vial. Soon enough the bell rang signalling the end of class. I handed Snape my vial and left the classroom. I had Charms until lunch, luckily with the Hufflepuffs.
"He is such a git." Ron fumed as we walked down the corridor.
"Who?"
"Malfoy, trying to fail you for the day." He said his ears a deep scarlet.
"Luckily I learned a thing or two from Harry." I said smiling over at him.
"Glad to be of service."
Charms went by quickly, we were only taking notes. I was right handed, but simply charmed my quill to take down the notes for me. Usually this wasn't allowed or no one would ever pay attention, but Flitwick let me under the circumstances. Lunch couldn't have arrived soon enough. As soon as Charms ended I sprinted all the way to the Hospital Wing. To say I was eager to get out of the sling was an understatement.
"Ah, Miss Granger, I'm glad you remembered to come."
"Of course Madam Pomfrey."
She signalled for me to sit down and then she removed the sling, then the bandages. I noticed they didn't have too much red on them.
"On a scale of one to ten how much pain have you been in?"
"About a seven." I said, noticing that my arm felt better when it wasn't bound by a bandage.
"I'm just going to let the wound get some air, and give you a potion for pain. It's healing well. Try to move it." I obliged and moved my arm in a circular motion. I hurt, but not unbearably.
"Try some magic as well." I grabbed my wand from my robes and tried a simple Lumos. My wand lit up brightly.
"Very good, drink this then you're free to go." I drank the potion, and then went down to lunch.
"She's alive!" The twins yelled as I approached the Gryffindor table. I smiled as I sat down next to Fred. Ginny was sitting across the table next to Harry. She opened her mouth to say something, but I cut her off.
"Ginny if you apologize one more time, I'll tell the twins everything you told me last summer." I said. I knew this was pretty much the only threat I could think of that she'd actually be afraid of. She had spent almost the whole summer gushing about how good Harry looked with his shirt off, after seeing him cleaning without one.
"Fine." She said digging into her dinner. Of course my words only caused an uproar with Fred and George. They pestered me the whole way through dinner, which I finally silenced when I threatened to write their mother about how they were still testing their products. Later on in the common room, Fred and I curled up on the couch.
"I guess you're never going to tell me what Ginny said last summer."
"Nope." I said popping the last syllable. He sighed heavily.
(F-H)
It had been a little over a week since the last D.A. meeting. My arm was completely healed and back to normal. I had a thin scar on my upper arm, but you could hardly see it.
"Okay tonight we are going to be learning nonverbal spells. If you already know how to do them, then please helps others try to understand. And if you are just learning, I guess practice." Fred and George had taught Harry the basics of nonverbal spells. It wasn't too hard; the hardest thing about them was not accidentally saying the spell out loud. That was my biggest issue anyway, I would focus so hard on trying to do the spell I'd end up whispering it.
"How about I cast a silencing spell on you?" Fred asked. "That way you don't have to worry about whispering it."
"Actually, that sounds like a good idea. Go for it."
Fred grinned at me and cast the spell. Immediately I felt a tingle as the magic settled over me. I attempted to say something and was greeted with silence.
I was starting easy with the nonverbal spells. My first goal was to cast a Lumos.
I clenched my wand in my hand and focused on the spell. I followed Fred's directions; to feel the spell, let the idea of executing the spell become your focus, and then cast it. I envisioned the tip of my wand lighting up and focused on the incantation. At first I got nothing, but on about the third time of trying to cast it, my wand lit up.
I opened my mouth and yelled in celebration. Of course nothing came out, so I was just hopping up and down with my wand a glow.
"Good job, 'Mione!" Fred said sweeping me into a hug. He set me down and I focused on extinguishing my wand. I focused on the word 'Nox'. It still took a few tries, but my wand extinguished faster than it took to light it.
"Okay, 'Mione, try something a little harder. Stun me." Fred said bracing himself in front of me.
I shook my head frantically, I didn't want to stun Fred.
"Oh come on, I'll be fine. Here." He said and conjured some pillows for him to fall back onto.
I still didn't want to stun Fred, but I knew he wouldn't take no for an answer; or rather a frantic shake of the head.
Fred smiled at me as I pointed my wand at him and envisioned him falling back onto the pillows, stunned. I clearly focused on the incantation.
Stupefy! I thought and pointed my wand. To my utter surprise a red bolt flew from my wand and hit Fred square in the chest. He fell backward onto the pillows unconscious. I ran over to him and knelt next to him. I quickly realised that I was still under his 'silencio'. Everyone around us was preoccupied and didn't even spare a glance at Fred's unconscious form. Being stunned was nothing out of the ordinary in the D.A. I knew I was the only one that was going to reenverate Fred. I just hoped my nonverbal ability was good enough.
I laid the tip of my wand onto Fred's chest and envisioned him waking up.
Reenverate! It took a few seconds, but slowly Fred came to.
"Brilliant, Hermione!" He said pulling me into another hug. He stared at me wondering why I wasn't responding. "Oh, shit, sorry!" He pointed his want at me and I felt another tingle.
"Thanks!" I said.
"I'm so proud of you! You just performed four nonverbal spells, and you're only a fifth year. Promise me you'll put your abilities to good use in Defence. I wish I could see the Toad's face if you set her desk on fire. She'd never think any fifth year was capable of nonverbals."
I smiled at his words, but looked around the room. I seemed to be the only fifth year that had yet to manage the spell. Across the room Ron was purple in the face in an attempt to not say the words out loud.
"Harry!" I called out after realising almost anyone attempting a nonverbal was purple in the face trying to prevent themselves from speaking.
"Yea, 'Mione?"
"Try casting a silencing spell on anyone that's trying. It's loads easier."
"Good idea!" He called back and immediately made the announcement. I turned my attention back to Fred.
"How about you try a nonverbal when you aren't under a Silencing spell?"
"Yea, I guess I should try that."
I pointed my wand at a wooden dummy in the middle of room.
Reducto! To my delight the dummy burst into a million pieces and collapsed to the floor.
"Amazing job, 'Mione!" Harry yelled and I grinned. I practiced nonverbal spells with Fred for the rest of the D.A. meeting. I was the only one that had gotten the hang of it, but plenty others had accomplished a spell or two while silenced. Only Luna was able to cast a nonverbal spell while not silenced, and more than a couple of times.
"Great job everyone, see you next time!" Harry called out and began the ritual of sending people back to their dorms in small groups with the aid of the Marauder's Map. Fred and I were one of the last groups to exit. We made our way back to the common room as quickly, but silently as possible. This feat was made easier by the fact that Fred knew every shortcut the castle had to offer. We were almost back when I heard voices close by. I quickly cast a nonverbal silencing spell on Fred and me, not pausing to be excited about the fact that they were becoming almost easy for me.
I grabbed Fred's hand pulling him back towards me, preventing him from ducking through the tapestry ahead. I put a finger to my lips then pointed to my ear then the tapestry. Fred and I being quiet wasn't really necessary since I had cast the spell, but regardless we tiptoed back towards the tapestry and put our ears to it.
"I'm telling you Potter is up to something." Filch wheezed.
"I'm aware of this, Argus, but to find out what that is we need to be patient. Potter will slip up soon enough, and then I can get him out of this school. Get rid of his lies."
"How are we going to catch him?"
"Leave that to me, I have a special group of students out there waiting to catch Potter whenever the opportunity arises. If I'm lucky I can get rid of that bushy haired bookworm along with him. The other one, the ginger, is nothing without those two. Yes, if I can get rid of them, this school is trouble free." Umbridge said seeming utterly pleased with herself with coming up with this plan.
"What about the Weasley twins?"
I found it as no surprise that Filch knew their names, even though he only knew a handful of the student's names. Fred and George had been giving him Hell since first year.
"Ah, I had almost forgotten about them. The same deal goes with those two. I have information from a trusted student that one of them attacked him, for utterly no reason. Of course I couldn't get them in trouble for that; Dumbledore would have sided with the Gryffindor's over a Slytherin for sure. In time those two will slip up as well. If they mess up bad enough, I could maybe talk to Cornelius about sending them to Azkaban. He owes me a favour." I looked up at Fred, stunned at the Toad's words.
His ears were a deep scarlet and he looked like he wanted to strangle Umbridge.
"Come along, Argus, we have children to find out past curfew." We waited to hear their footsteps retreat completely down the corridor before we emerged from behind the tapestry and I lifted the silencing spell.
"Azkaban? I'll kill her before I go there, Filch and Malfoy as well." Fred fumed. "And your hair is not bushy, it looks nice."
I smirked at his words. "Thanks, Fred. Don't worry you'll go to Azkaban over my dead body."
My words seemed to comfort him for some reason and by the time we had made it back to the common room his ears were back to normal.
"What happened to you two?" Ron asked as we entered the common room.
"We got caught up with the Toad." I said sitting down. "And over heard some interesting things as well." I launched into telling Harry, Ron, Ginny, and George about what had happened, Fred added things every so often.
"I can't believe her!" Ginny and George burst.
"We have to be careful." I said looking at the group. "We can't let her get what she wants."
"Hermione if you think Fred and I are just going to lay low and not do pranks, you don't know us at all." George said with a smirk. A smirk I currently wanted to slap off his face.
"You guys have to! She could get you expelled or if she really puts her mind to it, Azkaban." I turned desperately to Fred. "Please, Fred!"
"He's right 'Mione, we can't just let her reign over the school without making it Hell for her."
I could feel tears pricking at my eyes, and I searched Fred's face hoping he was just lying in front of his twin. I felt a traitorous tear slip down my face as I launched to my feet.
"Write me then will you? Or actually don't bother!" I yelled running as fast as I could towards the dormitories.
"'Mione come back!" Fred said trying to catch up to me before I made it to the stairs. Unfortunately for me he caught my arm just as I hit the first step.
"'Mione." He pleaded. I wrenched my arm from his grasp.
"Don't touch me!" I said refusing to look at him and running up the steps to my dorm.
I made it up to my dorm which was deserted and collapsed onto my bed, crying in earnest. I had seen Fred near a Dementor before, at a Quidditch match in third year. It was one of the worst things I had ever seen in my life. Fred almost always had a smile on his face, but when the Dementors came around it was the opposite. The day of the match he had almost fallen out of the sky much like Harry had. George had been close and had helped him back onto his broom. Everyone else was too focused on Harry falling from the sky to notice Fred; I was probably the only one that knew how much he was affected by them except George.
I fell asleep with images of Fred being under the Dementor's chilling influence playing over and over again in my head.
I hadn't been asleep for long when I sat bolt upright in bed gasping. I had finally fought my way out of a nightmare of Fred being subjected to the Dementor's Kiss. His soulless body slumped up against a wall next to George's equally soulless body. Never to laugh or joke again. I was hit by a fresh wave of tears and I cast a silencing spell on my drapes so I wouldn't wake any of my roommates up.
A.N.
I hope everyone liked this chapter, it's my longest yet. Kind of a reward for waiting a few extra days for it. I hope everyone noticed the image I have been using for this fic. I have to thank and give credit to akaforbidden on deviantArt for the amazing image. A kind reviewer also gave me a guide in writing in British speak which I found very informative. The only thing I came across on the guide that irked me was the author's criticisms of using 'Mione as a nickname for Hermione saying not in any of the books was it ever written and how annoying it is when writers use it. Well personally, I think Hermione is a mouthful and if she were my friend I would have thought of a nickname as soon as I met her. So whether the name is canon or not anyone with a problem can find the nearest batch of Bertie Bott's and eat all the vomit and bogey flavoured ones. Thanks for reading. (P.S. reviews are amazing!)
Love, Alexis