Hermione was terrified, she was tied to a cursed broom, her shoelaces magically wrapped tightly around the many aerodynamically chosen tail twigs, her jumper and blouse had suddenly stretch past her hands and were wrapping tightly around her like a boa constrictor, while her bushy hair was knotted around the top of the broom handle. She had never been good at flying, not on a broom or a hippogriff, but she wouldn't even classify this experience as flying, more like gravity-defying-panic-stricken-payback.

Fred jumped on the Firebolt and felt it spring off into the air after Hermione like a cannon ball, he still only had one t-shirt sleeve actually on, the other sitting on his shoulder occasionally smacked him in the face from the wind speed as he shot after her.

Harry and Ron were trying every spell they knew to blast away Hermione's protective charm so that they could follow Fred and help save their best friend. George and Alicia were doing the same. Angelina pulled on her sports bra and jeans then pulled out her wand from her pocket, flicked it in a tricky sort of way and the spells lifted. She tore after Fred and grabbed a broom. Her shirt had been on the other side of the charms and she was so determined to help that she had no time to grab it. Ron pulled on a shirt and in his boxes tore after Harry, George Katie and Alicia - who had her shirt on backwards. They were short a broom as Hermione was strapped to Fred's, so Alicia ran off to the store room to get a spare. They all had someone else broom, but there was no time to swap.

They all ran out onto the Quidditch pitch and kicked off, Alicia following only a minute later on a Cleansweep. Harry looked around panicked, he couldn't see either of them, he knew Fred was an excellent flyer, but Hermione wasn't, and he had a feeling she wasn't going to be able to control the broom even if she had been a chaser for the Holyhead Harpies.

'There!' Katie yelled and pointed to two tiny dots on the image of the moon

'How the bloody hell…' Ron started, as they all shot off after them.

0-0-0

Fred was gaining on the cursed broom and cursing Hermione, she was swearing violently with fear and angry at being caught in such a situation.

'Go away Fred' She yelled at him

'You have GOT to be kidding! Hermione I know I hurt you but seriously? You're going to be so stubborn as to not let yourself be rescued from a cursed broom?'

'It's your broom' she bit at him.

'This isn't mine! I didn't do this Hermione' Fred gapped.

'What?'

'I'm not pychopathic'

'You made fun of me!' She snapped. He was flying beside her, but every time he tried to grab her or the broom it swerved away, like it had in Harry's first ever Quidditch match.

'You made fun of me too!' He snapped back, lunging again but missing.

'Yes, but not like you did…'

'Do you like me Hermione?' He said cutting to the chase, having to make a sharp left as her broom dodged him again.

'Excuse me' she blushed and stammered

'Do you like me?' He asked, lunging at her, the lights of Hogwarts so small below them that they knew they were over a few thousand feet in the air.

Contact!

He wrapped his arm around her waist and the broom not letting her go, panting at the strain to keep hold of his own broomstick as well.

'I…I…'

'Because I LIKE you Hermione' He said, utter truth in every syllable 'and I will get you out of this, hold on!'

He kept a firm hold of her as he pulled her fastened ankles up to reachable distance and start to try to pull off her shoes that had her legs trapped to the brooms tail.

Hermione was a mixture of emotions, but when in a crisis, she was normally very calm. Now that she knew this wasn't a Fred prank, and her life was actually in danger, she was focused. She could enjoy the other revelations when she was safely on the ground.

'Hermione!' she heard Harry and Katie yelling.

'Help us!' Fred yelled back 'she is literally tied to the stupid broom…'

'God I HATE Malfoy!' George said as he flew up beside Hermione and Fred 'How's it going?' he asked in a casual voice.

'Oh lovely, you should try it sometime' Hermione said through gritted teeth.

'What can we do?' Ron asked as he circled slightly below them with Angelina, Fred now was using both his hands to try and untie the shoes, his broom gripped tightly between his thighs.

'You stay there, keep circling so if she falls…' Fred said

'What!' Hermione gasped in alarm.

'Don't worry I won't let that happen' he said stroking her leg a few times as he tried to untie her shoes.

'Harry look out!' Katie screamed, he had grabbed the tip of the cursed broom to try and steady it. But at his touch, a small flap on the handle that had never been there before it was cursed, opened and a shower of angry black beaked birds shot out of it. They started to attack Hermione and Harry.

'George!' Fred yelled

'Got it' He gripped his beaters bat and began hitting the angry crows away

'Where did Malfoy learn this stuff?' Harry growled.

'I doubt this is all Malfoy's idea' Hermione said with a shriek as a bird pecked her cheek, cutting it open.

'Katie, Alicia, help George' Angelina ordered as she hit a bird angrily with her bare hand and it fell away with an bitter caw.

'My wand!' Hermione said 'I can help, just…' she struggled to pull her arms out of the elongated sleeves that held her tight to the broom.

'We got this' Fred said

'No you don't' Hermione answered honestly.

'No…but we will…HA!' she felt him finally pull one of her feet free and her leg fell from the pull of gravity, she gasped, but she don't fall.

'We need to head back towards the castle' Alicia said as she aimed a kick at a crow. Fred had just managed to pull Hermione's second stocking clad foot out of her shoe.

'Hermione, can you steer at all?' Ron called, a crow peaking his head.

'What do you think Ron!' she almost wanted to swear at him, but restrained herself, he was trying to help.

'Ok, Fred you keep hold of her, Harry, you push on her left and I'll pull from the right' they crashed into to her, both trying to turn her and the broom like a compass needle, thousands of feet in the dark night air.

'Not working!' Harry said through gritted teeth.

'I think you have to actually use the broom like a broom, not push it around, no broom responds to that well' Angelina said knowledgeably.

'Right' someone said, Harry and Ron broke away.

Fred who had a tight grip on the waist band of her skirt, pulled her down so that she was level with him, the wind would have been whipping her hair around her face if it hadn't been tied around the broom handle.

'Wrap your legs around me' Fred said

'What!' she looked confused and a little embarrassed

'Like you did in the room of requirement' he winked at her. Honestly, at a time like this he was giving her cheek!

'Wrap your legs around me that way we won't drift apart and I can steer us'

'Fine' always being one for logic, she threw modesty aside and laced her legs around him and his broom locking her feet behind his waist. They were face to face with him broom sandwiched between them, and hers still strapped to her back.

'Bet you wanted a different piece of wood between your legs Hermione' George laughed

'George!' Fred tried to hit his brother as Hermione and he both blushed profusely.

'Just trying to ease the tension' he sang with a laugh, deftly beating an angry cursed bird in the beak.

'Harry help me with her hair' Fred said, hands grabbing at her curls, but his eyes looking into hers every few seconds to check that she was ok.

'But it's just one big knot!' Harry said as he flew beside Hermione, trying to stay level with her

'Incoming Harry' Ron called, Harry hit the crow away and it burst into ash.

'Cool' George said and smashed his attacking bird too.

'Harry, Fred, you free Hermione, we'll take the birds' Ron said

'But who will catch me?' Hermione panicked

'I got you, you're not going anywhere' Fred said confidently in her ear, their chests where pressed together with his broom digging into both of them, his arms wrapped around her as he tried to gently pull her hair out of its cursed knot (as gently as you can at a few thousand feet while cursed birds attack you)

'Just cut it!' Hermione yelled over the rushing wind, she'd of done it herself if she could get her hands free.

'Serious?' Fred looked at her 'Aren't girls super attached to their hair?' he remembered the huge lecture his mother had given him when he had chopped off most of Ginny's when they were little.

'I'm more attached to my life!'

'Fair enough'

'Here!' Harry pulled a pocket knife out of his back pocket and pressed it into Fred's palm

'Where the hel...'

'Sirius'

'Ahh' Fred said and he began to cut her knot of hair. In a few moments her head was free from the broomstick handle. She could feel her short, just above her shoulder length hair whipping around her face.

Smash.

'What the bloody hell was that!' Ron yelped as the whole Gryffindor quidditch team and Hermione where torn apart.

'One of those horses that pull the carriages' Harry said 'Looks lost' he deftly regained control of his broom.

'Nothing pulls the carriages Harry' Ron said worried, reseating himself on his own broom, having almost been thrown from it in the collision.

'That wasn't nothing!' Alicia said in fear, looking around.

'Help!' Hermione screamed, she was alone again, now hanging under the cursed broom, her school jumper the only thing holding her to it. She could make out the lights of Hogwarts, if she fell, surely she would be impaled on one of the statues that adorned the castles roof.

'It's gone now' Harry said distracted.

'Fred!' she screamed. He was already flying back to her, having been thrown far in the air by the rogue invisible monster. He almost crashed into her in desperation. He wrapped his arms around her

'I've got you!' she was white from the fear of such a height, and how painful a death it would be. But if she thrashed around trying to free her arms and wand, she might just plunge herself to the ground.

'God it's cold' Angelina stammered.

'That's what happens when you don't wear a shirt' George quipped, not that he was complaining...

'There was no time, my team mate needed my help' she snapped

'I'm your team mate and you never forget your shirt for me' he said in a mock sad voice

'Shut up George' Katie said while Angelina threw him a look that told him he was in trouble for saying that (and it was the trouble that they both liked)

'Can you wriggle your arms free?' Fred asked Hermione, his hands were clamped on her waist.

'I can try, just don't let me fall'

'Never' he replied.

She wrested against her fabric restraints. The others all flying beside or below.

'Uh...you don't think it's strange how suddenly you don't have to steer?' George asked as he circled and hit away the last of the attacking birds

'You don't think…' Fred said

'Think what?' Hermione asked sharply.

'Nothing. Fred hurry up!' George said quickly

'What?' Ron, Harry and Angelina asked

'It's just…the broom might have a target…' George said cautiously

'And?' Alicia asked swooping around them all, shirt still backwards

'The target could maybe be a wall…a stone wall…' George said, knowing as everyone did that the entire castle that they were all flying straight towards was made of very solid, very painful-if-hit stone walls.

'Fred!' Hermione began wrestling against her straight jacket school jumper. His unused T-shirt sleeve smacked him in the face for what felt like the two hundredth time.

'You'll be ok, promise'

'Never promise things you can't' she said through gritted, scared teeth.

'You'll be ok, promise' he repeated

He began to pull at her jumper sleeves with one hand, the other in a vice grip on her skirt waist band. Sounds of seams breaking under force and strain, soon she was able to wriggle her arms down out of the sleeves.

'Hurry up guys!' Ron said as the full outline of the solid castle came into view

'Hurrying' Fred said in a panic.

Hermione pulled her arms down and out of the strangling jumper, she wrapped her arms tightly around Fred as he pulled it over her head, the individual shapes of the windows now illuminated.

'Hold on' Fred yelled and Hermione, in her school shirt, skirt and stockings held onto him for dear life as he kicked Harry's Firebolt up, as Harry and Angelina pulled the cursed broom down - ripped the rest of the binding spell off Hermione. As soon as she was free, they let the broom go uncase it latched them to it instead. And not a moment too soon. The rest of the quidditch team swerved and dived as the cursed broom shot forward and in mere moment's shattered against the stone wall next to professor McGonagall's office window.

'That was too bloody close' Ron moaned as they all slowly flew towards the ground and the change rooms.

'Tell me about it' George looked ashen.

They landed on the ground, all shivering and shaking as they stood, adrenaline still pumping through their system and in the cases of those not fully dressed also the cold.

'Hermione you alright?' Harry asked looking at her closely, her eyes still wide with fear.

'Yeah' she nodded 'Thanks for saving me…all of you' she looked at them all, Fred was standing right next to her, ready to catch her if she fainted or collapsed.

'Of course'

'Anytime'

'Always will'

They said

'Oh and sorry for…for being so angry and causing this huge mess…' she looked at her feet, her shorter hair falling around her face.

'Don't worry about it' some of them chimed as they all started to walk back to the change rooms, some of them shivering 'this was actually Malfoy's fault'

'And we love Fred getting yelled at'

Fred and Hermione stood on the edge of the quidditch pitch as the others walked into the change room, next to each other, awkward and unsure how to proceed.

'Thanks' she finally said

'All in a normal day's quidditch training, Angelina probably engineered the entire thing actually' he joked.

'That's not funny'

'Kinda is'

'But seriously...' she stepped forward so that she was right in front of him. 'Thank you'

'You're welcome...I really like you Hermione' he said laying it all out on the line.

She took a breath and smiled, closing the distance between them, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulling her closer to him. She cupped his face in her hands and pulled him down into a kiss.

'Turns out, I really like you too" she said, her forehead pressed against his.

0-0-0

'That was our most intensive training session yet! And that includes the time Wood used seven bludgers to try and teach us the message that they hurt when they hit' George laughed

'Angelina will probably think in a few days what a great training exercise this all was and start hexing us all to our brooms!' Harry moaned as they walked back up to the castle

'Don't tempt me Potter' She grinned, walking past the two tired boys.

.

.

Apples and Beckett.

Hey Sorry for the wait, was away exploring the world a bit. What do you guys think? Shall I end this fanfic here?