I was up all night writing this and it's now ten to six in the morning. It's not as good as I wanted it to be but because my laptop is broken, I have no idea when the next time I'll have a working laptop with word is. So I'm very sorry if I don't post a new chapter for a while. I wonder if anyone can spot the huge amount of canon in this chapter? It's not going to be hard to spot, trust me. R&R and enjoy! I hope to see you all again soon!
~Bethany

Hermione ran through the drafty corridors of the school, accidentally bumping in to people as she went, ignoring their shouts to be more careful, or to watch where she was going. Eventually she arrived at the place she was headed and pushed open the heavy white double doors. The room smelled sterile and had an uneasy atmosphere about it. It might have been the second year boy crying in one of the beds and saying 'I'm going to die' over and over again, or it might have been the way Fred, Ron and Ginny were crowded around one of the beds.

'I got here as fast as I could. What happened?' She said breathlessly, standing by the bedside looking down at George with a bandage wrapped around his head. Hermione's hair was more bushy than usual from all the running.

'George accidentally blew something up in his face.' Ginny sighed grabbing his older brother's hand. 'Gave us all quite a shock.'

Hermione looked at them all with confusion etched on her face.
'What do you mean blew something up?' She asked, looking over at Fred specifically, knowing that he would probably have the answers that she wanted.

He smiled and stroked George's head comfortingly as he laid still.
'You know how George and I want to open a joke shop? Well, he tested one of the products on his own and it backfired. His ear was badly damaged.'

Ron looked up at Hermione, his hands clasped tightly together with his body hunched over the bed as he sat next to George in one of the dirty hospital wing chairs.
'He'll be okay though.' Ron said calmly.

Fred licked his lips and took a deep breath.
'But his ear was badly damaged, like I said.' He paused. 'Actually, it was more...blown off. He's lost an ear. I was lost for words when I first saw him. There was quite a bit of blood.'

Hermione raised her voice to a high squeak.
'Lost an ear? I keep telling you that some of those products are dangerous!'

Hermione was going to start a full blown lecture about the health hazards of the Weasley's Wheezes products but George had started to wake up.

'How do you feel, Georgie?' Fred whispered.

George tried to sit up in the bed with the scratchy and uncomfortable blankets falling off the side and on to the floor.
'Saint-like,' he murmured.

'Was your mind affected as well?' Fred asked.

'Saint-like.' George repeated looking up at his brother. 'You see...I'm holy. Holey, Fred, geddit?'

Colour flooded Fred's pale face.

'Pathetic,' He told George. 'Pathetic! With the whole wide world of ear-related humour before you, you go for holey?'

'Ah well,' said George grinning. 'At least mum will be able to tell us apart now.'

'At least you're alright, you know, besides the crap jokes.' Ron laughed, getting up out of his chair.

'Where are you rushing off to? You're not going to stay by me whilst I'm in my sickbed?' George asked him, watching him as he straightened out his clothes.

Ginny hit George's leg gently and made a tutting noise with her tongue.
'You'll be out of the hospital wing before you know it. You look fine.'

'I've only got one ear, Gin. How can I look fine if I've only got one ear?'

'You know that's not what I meant.' Ginny said.

Ron raised his eyebrow and sighed.
'Well, I've got homework so I'd better be off. I'll come and check on you later.' He moved his chair back to its original position next to one of the empty beds and left through the same double doors that Hermione had entered through earlier.

xx

'I thought you were going to stay with George in the hospital wing?' Hermione asked, going through her school books and marking pages with little sticky notes that she said she would need to reference for homework.

'He was given some painkillers, got drowsy and fell asleep. I'd be bored to death watching him sleep. Not to mention that it's a bit creepy.'

Hermione gave a little laugh as she stuck a small pink sticky note to the top of a page so that it stuck out.
'Somehow, I don't think I'd be very good company either.'

'You're always good company.'

'I'm sorting out homework, Freddie. Haven't you got some to do as well?'

Fred paused and then started to laugh.
'Did you just call me Freddie?'

Hermione stopped and looked up at him with wide eyes.
'Oh gosh. I did, didn't I?' Her cheeks flushed pink and she tried to hide herself behind her book. 'Slip of the tongue, I won't call you that again, I promise.'

He smiled to himself and prised the book out of her hands and held it by his side. She immediately turned away and pretended that she was doing something else. There was a feeling of crippling embarrassment washing over her, like she was stuck in high tide. She didn't know why she felt embarrassed, it's only Fred. It's also not like she did anything stupidly embarrassing; she only called him by the nickname that his mother uses sometimes.

'You're adorable.' He smiled and tapped his fingers against the hardcover, tattered text book. 'You can call me Freddie any time you want. Only three of the most important people in my life can call me that. Mum, George and you.'

'What about your other brothers? Your dad? Ginny? They're important too,' Hermione asked, whipping the book out of Fred's hand and setting it down with her other books.

Fred rolled his eyes and grinned.
'Yes, I know they are. However, they're not as likely to call me Freddie as the others are.'

'I've called you it once.'

'Well let's say that I've given you special permission to.' He softly grabbed her hand and pulled her in to a hug. 'You're wearing my necklace.' Fred whispered as he noticed the silver chain beneath her shirt collar.

Hermione subconsciously touched the chain with one of her hands which she had moved from around Fred's waist.

'Of course I am. It's beautiful. I mean, I don't wear it during class but as soon as school's finished, I'll come back to the common room and put it on. There's something comforting about having it on whilst I sleep.' Hermione put her arm back around Fred's waist. 'That didn't sound odd, did it?'

Fred broke the hug and sat on the arm of one of the common room chairs.
'Nope. I think you wear it because it's the closest thing you've got to me at night. You want to hold me and kiss me. You miss me when you sleep.' He directed a wink at her and laughed.

She rolled her eyes and pushed him off the arm of the chair so he fall backwards.
'You're ridiculous.'

'You're ridiculously beautiful.'

Hermione sat down to begin doing her homework.
'You're going to be ridiculously annoying as I work, aren't you?'

He shrugged and sat up in the chair, his hair tousled and his clothes had become scruffy.
'As ridiculous as it sounds, maybe.'

Fred moved and sat next to Hermione, looking over at what she was scribbling on the piece of paper that was in front of her.

'The Nitrogen Cycle. Exciting.'

Hermione pretended that he wasn't there and concentrated solely on her essay. Well, as solely as she could with Fred giving his little comments and questions every now and then.

'What does that mean?'

'You're really pretty when you're trying to concentrate.'

'Am I distracting you?'

'This looks like such a boring subject. How are you managing to cope with it?'

Eventually Hermione just put down her pen and smiled sweetly at him. Perhaps, a little too sweetly. It looked like she was just about ready to kill.

'Fred, I know you're bored but I really want to get this done. We'll do something after I've finished, okay? Please just keep quiet for a little while.'

He nodded and pretended to zip his lips shut. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked around the common room. He couldn't help but smile at the empty gap on the fireplace where the ugly vase that he and George broke on Halloween used to reside.

Fred and George had broken many vases in their lifetime. Sometimes it was for practical jokes, like Halloween, or just through accidents when playing games. Sometimes, they got bored and knocked things on the floor to see if they would break or not. George had often gotten cut by broken pieces of vase when they were younger; it was typical that he would be the one who would accidentally blow his ear off. Fred would take George off to the bathroom to clean away the blood and console him if the cut was particularly painful and made George cry. Obviously, when Fred needed to be comforted after some form of pain, George would be the first one there. Not much has changed since then, back when they were just small boys playing together. They still protect each other and care for each other and they are still as mischievous as they were back then. That would probably never change.

When Fred saw George after his accident that cost him his ear, he wanted to just cuddle his brother close to him and look after him. It was always the way, a cuddle could cure any pain they were experiencing and, on occasion, it still could.

'Fred? Did you hear me? I said that I was done with my homework.'

'Oh right, sorry. I was in a world of my own.'

'Did you want to go and see if George is awake yet?'

'I don't see why not.'

They got up and exited the common room, their hands had found each other at some point, and Fred and Hermione had no idea when. That sort of thing just sort of happens without them even thinking about it now.

When they arrived at the hospital wing, George was awake and he wasn't alone. Harry was sat by him and they were laughing.

'I'm surprised that you haven't landed yourself in the hospital wing yet this year, Potter. Isn't this a new record for you?' George laughed loudly.

Harry agreed.
'You're probably not wrong there.'

'I knew you'd come crawling back to me.' George smiled as Fred and Hermione walked towards his bed.

'I can turn around and go if you want?' Fred said, pointing towards the doors.

George laughed and sat up a bit more in bed.

'You wouldn't leave me.'

Fred sat next to George on the bed as Hermione sat next to Harry in one of the hospital wing chairs.

'No, I guess I wouldn't leave you. Ever.' Fred ruffled George's hair.

George leaned closer and cupped his ear.

'Sorry, could you say that again? I couldn't quite hear you.'

xx

'George is doing well. I think he'll be out of the hospital wing tomorrow morning.' Hermione said, running a hand through Fred's hair.

Fred sighed heavily and rest his chin in his hand.
'Yeah, that's good. It's just going to be really quiet in the dorm tonight without George to talk to.'

'You'll get through, sweetie. It's only one night.'

'Yeah, I know.' Fred sighed again.

Hermione let her hands fall into her lap. She bit her lip and then let go of it just as quickly as a small idea popped in to her head.

'Do you think we could go and convince Luna to talk to George in the Hospital wing? He'd probably enjoy that. It might make him feel a bit better.'

'It might do actually. You're so smart, Hermione.' Fred sighed one more time, but this time it was more of a sigh of awe than sorrow.

'I only made a suggestion.'

Fred cupped Hermione's face in his hand.
'But you still are very smart.'

He leaned back in and kissed her. It felt as good and exhilarating as it did the first time they had kissed, which happened accidentally, and yet, it was different in so many ways.

'Get a room you two.' Came a voice from across them. They broke apart and turned to see Seamus and Dean stood by.

Fred laughed and stretched his arms behind his back.

'We are in a room. You just happen to be in it.' He replied with smug look on his face. He was fairly proud of that one.

Dean ignored Seamus' comment and Fred's response and went straight on to talk about George.

'I heard all about it. I hope he's alright, tell him I told him to get well soon, won't you?'

'He's got one ear, he's not sick. But yeah, I'll tell him.'

xx

'What makes you think that I could make George feel better?' Luna asked with her head tilted slightly to the left, a bunch of magazines clutched to her chest and her long blonde hair cascading over her shoulder.

Fred and Hermione quickly exchanged glances and Fred opened his mouth to speak but Hermione stopped him, sensing that something stupid was about to come out of it.

'You have such an infectious personality; we thought that it might be able to cheer him up a bit.'

Luna seemed to consider the request for a very long time until she agreed to it and began bounding away down the corridor rather quickly, her radish earrings swinging as she went. The two of them quietly ran after her but when they got to the doors of the hospital wing, they stopped.

The doors had windows in them and Fred and Hermione peered through them to find Luna and George laughing together. Luna was probably talking about some insane theory or mythical creature that she believed to be real.

'Let's leave them alone. They look like they'll be fine on their own.' Hermione said, pulling Fred away from the door. He stumbled and regained his balance quickly.

Fred stopped her from pulling him away from the door.

'I wish you could sleep with me tonight.' He whispered. 'Truth be told, I hate sleeping alone. I've rarely had to do it because George has always been there.' Fred murmured to Hermione.

Hermione's heart seemed to melt in her chest. She grabbed him and held him tightly against her with her head in his chest.

'You'll be okay, I promise. One night on your own won't hurt you because I won't let it. All you have to do is lie in bed and think about how after this one night of sleeping alone is over, George will be back.' Fred nodded and pulled away from Hermione and held her hand instead.

'Come on,' she said quietly. 'Let's go back to the common room.'

They walked back in silence; the only sounds were their shoes on the hard floor echoing around the corridors.
Once they got back Fred leaned towards Hermione's ear.
'You won't tell anyone, will you?' he asked her in a whisper so that anyone who might have heard him say it wouldn't ask questions.

She bit her lip and let go of his hand.
'Wait right here.'

Hermione walked quickly up the stairs to her dormitory and about a minute later she walked back down holding one of her jumpers. She handed it over to him and smiled gently.

'Here. If you get lonely tonight, you can just hug this close to you and you'll know that I'm there with you, maybe not physically but emotionally and spiritually. Perhaps it's not as great as something George might own but I want to help in any way I can.'

Fred held the jumper tightly in his hands, he wanted to smile but for some reason, his body wouldn't let him.

'Thank you, Hermione. You really are the best girlfriend anyone could ask for.'