Every Step of the Way

Ch 6: It's Gonna Be Ok

"Don't look now, but the know-it-all is about ten seconds away from exploding all over you, Georgie," Fred warned his twin less than thirty seconds after he and Mary took their places at the Gryffindor table. George glanced up just in time to see Hermione stand up and turn toward him.

"This isn't going to be good," he muttered taking a large bite of a kipper and steeling himself for the anger she would likely pour out over him.

"Morning, Fred. George."

"Hullo," they greeted simultaneously, both giving her sickly sweet grins.

"How was your night?" she asked the latter, eyeing Mary briefly.

"Fine. And yours? Did Ickle Ronniekins give you any trouble?"

She flushed, knowing George was referring to the inebriated state his brother had been in the previous night when he had tried to cop a feel of Hermione's arse. "No…he was quite placid after you retired for the evening."

"Ah…good chap."

"Fred here conveniently stopped me to ask about a potion before I could congratulate you on a good game," she told George, throwing his doppelganger a look that suggested he had asked questions to keep her away from something larger.

"Well thanks. Didn't know you were a great fan of Quidditch," George said pleasantly. He speared another kipper. "Did you come over here to boost my ego or would you like to say something else? I'm just getting some food and I've got to be off."

"Well there was something else," she said, casting Mary another displeased look. "I noticed that you left the party early last night…I hope you weren't sick."

"I just escorted my girlfriend up to her dormitory for the evening," George replied, winking at Mary who, like Fred, was watching the scene unfold with some degree of amusement.

"You were going to the boys dormitories, George, and you should be ashamed of yourself. You're lucky I don't owl your mum!"

"Are you the shagging police, Hermione?" Fred asked with a grin.

"No," she replied annoyed. "But any young lady who would agree to that kind of thing before she'd been properly married obviously needs a lesson in propriety and I would have thought that you would have been a bit more discrete in your indiscretions, George!"

George, Fred, Mary and several other students sitting around them were properly shocked that Hermione had come out and said something quite so rude. For a moment there was silence, and then Mary stood and cleared her throat. "I'm sure you mean well, Hermione, but you should get all of the facts before you go off declaring someone a 'scarlet woman,'" she told the younger girl calmly. "If you had a problem with me I would have preferred you come to me privately about it, but obviously you can't be bothered with such 'indiscretions.'" Before Hermione could reply to that remark, Mary turned on her heel and walked away, not about to let anyone see her break down.

"Bugger off!" George advised his brother's friend before following Mary out of the Great Hall. Hermione looked affronted, but didn't get a chance to reply to that either as Fred stood as well.

"I would have thought you of all people would be a bit more understanding of girls with male friends or that keep male company, proper or no, Hermione," he told her. "After all it's not like you've not been in Harry and Ron's rooms since starting Hogwarts."

"That's different. There's never any question about my intentions, they clearly had less than proper ideas in mind and I thought that perhaps they should think about the consequences of their actions a bit more," she protested.

"Yes well, we can't all be as proper as you, now can we," Fred asked. "And it's not really fitting for a swat like yourself to tell older women how to behave." When Hermione couldn't find a reply suitable for that remark Fred continued. "It looks like Ron's tact is rubbing off on you," he told her, then left the hall in search of his twin.

George didn't catch up with Mary until she was getting ready to enter the Gryffindor common room. "Oi, wait for me!" he called and she paused a bit, scrubbing at the tearstains on her cheeks before facing him. He followed her into the common room and they took a seat in front of the fire. "No one else thinks you're in any way like Hermione suggested," he told her. "Least of all me. What we choose to do is none of anyone else's concern."

"Yes, well I'm sure that's a lovely notion, but once the idea like that is in your head it sticks."

"I love you and the rest of the world can go to hell." George took her into his arms and let her cry a bit into his shoulder until she fell asleep in his lap. Fred found him stroking her hair half an hour later.

"I didn't think she would be quite so bitchy," Fred told his brother.

"Yes, well she's going to apologize and not to me," George replied darkly. Fred nodded his agreement.