Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot line. :D
Chapter Six
Hermione's POV:
As I walked back to the hospital wing, I couldn't stop the smile that was spreading across my windswept face. What did this mean? Did Fred like me? Wait… Did I like Fred?
I found that George had woken up and presumably gone back to the common room, where I wished I could be. Instead, I had to wait for Madam Pomfrey to wake me up in a few hours to send me back. I sighed. Did Fred like me? Well, there was no way to tell really; he may have just wanted to allow me to take my mind off what happened at Malfoy Manor.
But there was still a part of me that was thinking, no. Maybe he did really have feelings for me. But, if he did, then he would tell me, right? I was so confused, but tired too, surprisingly; I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow. I dreamt about the night that Fred and I had shared together; about flying high over the highest towers in Hogwarts, and low so that my face was being sprayed with icy water from the lake below. I found that I was incredibly relaxed whenever I thought of him, and even when Madam Pomfrey rudely awoke me the following morning, I wasn't aggravated at all.
It was a Monday, but I'd been woken up at 10:00AM, and so Madam Pomfrey gave me permission to go up to my dormitory and freshen up before re-joining my lessons after lunch.
I hurried up to the common room and after finding (not to my surprise) that it was empty, I climbed the spiralled stairs to my dormitory before grabbing a towel and taking a long, hot shower. It seemed to clear my head a little, and I felt incredibly refreshed once I stepped out. I suddenly realised how terrible I must have looked last night when I saw Fred… After all, I had just had the Cruciatus Curse used on me. Oh, God. But he wouldn't care, would he? He'd known me for years as the girl with busy hair and buck teeth; so even after that he still cared about me. Wait, no. I didn't know for sure that he did. But he might? Oh, I don't know.
Fred's POV:
After double transfiguration with McGonagall, I headed for lunch. Finally! I was starving. Because I'd been up so late with Hermione, I missed breakfast; as did George. We both grabbed our bags off the table and practically ran to the Great Hall to find decent seats.
'Fred, George!' Ron called, and so we went to join Harry, Ginny and him.
'Hello Lads,' I said.
'And Lass,' George added for Ginny's sake.
'We've just had Defence Against the Dark Arts with Umbridge,' Harry sighed sadly. 'We need to do something about her.'
'We've already got something, mate,' George said.
'But you're just not exactly co-operating very well…' I added.
'I'm not teaching anybody, no way,' said Harry.
'Please, Harry?' begged Ron.
Harry began to protest, but Ginny cut him off. 'Look, Harry,' she said. 'You're the best hope we've got. You've been through all this stuff and you can be as modest as you like, but no one else has been through what you have. So, you can either agree to help and teach us, or you can fail your OWLs and Fred and George can fail their NEWTs, and when You-Know-Who attacks we'll just stand by and watch. Does that sound like a good plan to you?'
Luckily, just at that moment, Hermione strode over, so harry didn't have to continue. Wow, I thought. Ginny really could be harsh when she wanted to be.
Hermione smiled at each one of us in turn, then sat next to me; a bit closer than you would expect her to do so. Harry, Ron, Ginny and George however, didn't seem to notice, and were still bickering about what to do about Umbridge.
'Harry,' Hermione said clearly. She looked at him with those big brown eyes that twinkled under the afternoon sun. 'You don't have to do this. You know you don't; but there's a bit of you that wants to, right? You don't want Vol… Voldemort to come and easily defeat us, without us putting up a fight, right? So let's do this! It would be great!'
'I don't know…' Harry begun.
'You don't need to know. Not right now, anyway. You can have a few days to think; but not too many, mind you; I need something to occupy my time with.'
I looked at her in amazement. How she'd changed over the past few years! Before, she was practically like a little sister that I never really hung out with. Sure, she had that bushy hair and quite large teeth, but I never really noticed. I never really noticed her change, either, until that night of the Yule Ball last year, when she walked down the stairs and looked completely gorgeous in every way. I looked at her now; she had her hair back in a messy bun and her lips were pinker, but still looked natural and pretty. Her skin was the same naturally clear, but her cheeks had a little bit more natural colour. What a beautiful human being.
'Fred?'
Oh, it was Ron.
'Yes, small brother of mine?'
'I said; would you be up to meet us in the Hogs Head next Saturday?' asked Ron.
'What? Oh, yeah. That's fine. Right, George?'
'Right,' George agreed.
A sudden thought struck me. I had to talk to Hermione. Alone. I swiftly took out a spare bit of parchment and scribbled a note on it, before passing it to Hermione, hoping that no one saw me. I watched as she opened it between her petite fingers and her face lit up.
'Okay,' she mouthed.
Hermione's POV:
Hermione, meet me in the common room at 12:30 tonight.
That's what the note from Fred read. And to be honest, I was buzzing with excitement. After lunch I had double Potions, Arithmacy and Herbology. After that, I could start to fret about what he would say to me when I met him.
Potions was boring, (and that's saying something, coming from me) because all Harry and Ron did was talk about what bits of magic that Harry should teach us when the time came.
Arithmacy was just brilliant, as usual, with no gossiping boys in my class, although I already knew everything that Professor Vector was saying, and so I just made lots more notes.
By the time Herbology came around, it really didn't feel like the end of the day. Professor Sprout had us learning how to handle Fanged Geranium without it biting us.
And so, by the end of my lessons, I was actually tired of learning, for once, and extremely excited that I'd be talking to Fred later on. God, what was he doing to me? I needed to concentrate for my OWLs, and I knew that; I just really really liked spending time with Fred.
Harry, Ron and I walked back up to the castle and away from the greenhouses; towards Gryffindor Tower. By this time I just wanted the evening to be done with, but of course that couldn't happen.
'What are you so happy about?' Ron asked, grinning.
'Oh, just… Er – About finding a way round Umbridge's terrible teaching,' I lied.
'Same!' exclaimed Ron, before going into a full script of what he would say to those people in the Hogs Head the upcoming Saturday.
Fred's POV:
That evening went slower than any other evening I'd ever lived. George, who I'd finally confronted about my feelings for Hermione, and I were playing wizard's chess and exploding snap until the common room began to slowly empty. We went up to our own dormitory to find Lee Jordan writing a letter to his parents.
I kept an eye on the old battered watch on my left wrist. It seemed as though the minutes hand was going 1 mile per hour. Finally, it was midnight. The rest of my dormitory were asleep, so I got out of my four-poster bed and grabbed a clean shirt and jeans out of my draw and went into the bathroom to change. I must have spent ages cleaning my teeth (just in case) because when I next looked at my watch, it was 12:27. I took a deep breath and tiptoed down the spiralling stairs into the common room. Hermione wasn't there yet, and the fire was off so the room felt cold and miserable. I got my wand and set the fire back on, to make a more homely effect, before sitting on one of the large sofas; the one facing the girls dormitories.
I sat there for just a few minutes, until I saw her walking down the stairs; her hair up the same messy bun as earlier, wearing skinny jeans and a baggy rose-pink crop top.
And believe me, she looked beautiful.
AN: thanks for reading guys! I'm going to leave the common room scene for the next chapter (of course) and don't worry, it won't be long until they get together ;)