I leaned forward, centimeters from kissing Fred, when I heard the door open behind me. I drew back sharply and looked back down at his legs. I pulled his pants back up and helped him fasten them before turning to face the muggle.
"There's an officer at the door. I'm going to go answer it. There's a suitcase on the bed with a change of clothes and some other things. Take it and go, you have a few minutes before the officer will be back here." My eyes grew wide and I nodded my head, speechless. She closed the door, and I moved. I grabbed Fred's good arm and pulled him up, grabbing the first aid kit and staggering out of the bathroom. I went in the direction she had indicated and stumbled into the bedroom. A single duffle bag sat on the neatly made bed. I took it and draped it over my shoulder, cringing as it started causing my shoulder to ache. This whole injured thing seriously sucked. I couldn't do anything without hurting myself.
"Is this the bedroom ma'am?" A deep voice asked from outside the room. I turned my head towards Fred, my eyes wide. He jerked his head to the left, pointing at an open window. A grin lifted my lips and I stepped forward, helping Fred through. He went through first and then turned towards me, helping me out the window. We raced across the yard, heading for the woods at the back. We kept low, praying that the shadows of the yard would hide us. We reached the trees moments later, breathing out a relieved sigh before continuing. We traveled for another twenty or so minutes before stopping and sinking behind some trees.
We leaned against them, breathing heavily and shaking slightly in the cold night air. It had been early fall when we were captured, we were now well on our way to winter by the feel of it.
"What happened?" Fred asked, closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath.
"We apparently are wanted by the muggle police. That's what the announcer said in the car. She pulled a gun on us, and extremely painful, and lethal muggle weapon. We escaped in a muggle house- that's when you passed out- she let us use her bathroom and first aid kit. The police came to her house, probably tipped off by the muggle in the car. We had to get out or get caught." I explained, tilting my head so I could look at him. He was handsome, beat up, bruised, and sweating, and he was still handsome. Merlin only knew what I looked like.
He tilted his head, looking over at me with a faint smile. "We escaped." He breathed out. "We can barely walk and we escaped not only our crazy captors, but muggle cops as well." He let out a hoarse laugh and smiled even wider. "It's not much, and was mostly luck, but I'm feeling pretty good about ourselves." A smile lifted my own lips as well, I couldn't help it, he made me smile.
"What's in the bag?" He asked after a moment, looking into my eyes and making me fuzzy minded again. I swallowed and licked my lips, forcing my eyes off of him. I took another deep breath and looked down at the bag. I opened it and pulled the first thing out, two changes of clothes, two sweaters and two jeans, one roughly Fred's size and the other mine, a little long but I could make them work. Next were three blankets and two small pillows. Last, two water bottles, a few energy bars, and a map. A grin lifted my lips as I looked at the supplies. I'd have to figure out who she was and send her some money whenever we got back.
"Do you think we're far enough in to turn in for the night?"
"I've no idea," I replied, "but I can't make it any further. This is going to have to do."
"Thank Merlin." He breathed out, coughing slightly. I looked at him worriedly before scooting closer. I put my hand to his forehead and felt it, he was warm, but I wasn't sure if it was from a fever or just running.
I turned back to the bag and laid a blanket down before turning back to him. "Lay down." I ordered, grabbing out the other two blankets. He shook his head.
"No." he coughed, "I need to check on you first."
"I can examine myself." I protested, shaking my head. He stilled me with a hand on my arm.
"I want to make sure you're alright, 'Mione. Please let me take care of you." I bit my lip nervously, staring at his bruised face and swollen neck worriedly. After a moment I nodded my head, unable to resist his puppy dog eyes.
"Thanks!" He exclaimed hoarsely and smiled. He scooted towards me and gently took my arm in his hand, gently turning it over to examine it. I hadn't looked at it clearly since this night had started. It was covered in blood from hundreds of little cuts. It was bruised and swelling some as well. He pried the first aid kit open with one hand, keeping my hand resting on his lap, and pulled out an antiseptic wipe. I hissed slightly as the cloth touched my extremely sensitive skin, but the way he was handling it made me want to hiss in a completely different way. My mind drifted back to what had almost happened a few minutes ago and I fought the urge to suck in a painful breath.
I had almost kiss Fred. Fred Weasley who had become closer to me than I would have ever thought possible. Who, if I were being completely honest, I would have loved to kiss, and be kissed by.
"Take off your shirt." Fred whispered, his eyes locked firmly on the ground. I squirmed uncomfortably for a minute but did as he asked. My ribs were extremely painful, making me want to cry out as my hands brushed them. I looked down at them with a bit of disgust, they were turning black and looked like they were starting to swell.
"'Mione!" was his pained whisper. I grimaced and shrugged noncommittally. He raised a tentative hand and brought it to my broken ribs, his touch feather light and gentle. I shivered against the feel of it, fighting back a hiss of pain, and a moan. His eyes shot back to mine, stealing my breath away with the look of tender care in them. "Hold still, I'll bind them."
'With what?' I almost asked when he pulled out a bed sheet. I wondered momentarily where he had gotten it, but decided against asking. He ripped it into several long strips before he started to wrap them around me, his touch still barely ghosting over me. The pain was bad, but his nearness was helping to distract me from it. I focused solely on the touch of his hand, the blue of his eyes, the way his hair fell against his neck. Details and feelings I had managed to memorize during our long imprisonment but still loved focusing on.
"There," he said after a few moments, his eyes shooting up and catching mine. "How are you legs?"
"Good," I breathed out, still lost in his eyes. "My ankle is hurt, but there's nothing we can do for that right now. I'll just have to get us both decent sized walking sticks." I finished in an airy whisper. I was sitting with my legs stretched out in front of me, supporting my weight on my hands. Fred was sitting at my feet, leaning over me to look into my eyes, somehow balancing his weight on his good arm. He leaned closer to me so that his face was centimeters from my own, making me feel lightheaded and warm.
"You're so beautiful." He whispered, his breath ghosting across my face and making me shiver. I was not beautiful, I was dirty, sweaty, covered in bruises and blood, my hair was tangled and bushy, and I hadn't bathed in a very long time.
"I-I-" I stuttered, unable to make my thoughts coherent. He smiled, his eyes brightening a slight bit as I tried to speak. He titled his head slightly and moved even closer, and then stopped, letting me decide. I didn't even take a second. I leaned forward the last centimeter and tentatively touched his lips with my own. I moved slowly, unsure, while he moved confidently against me. After a moment his tongue swept against my lips, silently asking for entrance which I immediately granted. I raised my arms and locked them around his neck, pressing his face closer to mine as our lips began to move fervently against each other. We broke the kiss a moment later, unable to hold our breaths any longer. He rested his forehead against mine, letting out a satisfied sigh as he gently rubbed his noise against mine.
"I've been wanting to do that for a while." He said quietly, his eyes still closed. "Mione, thank you for everything. We couldn't, I couldn't, have escaped without you." I smiled softly and raised my hand to his face, gently cupping his cheek in it.
"Don't, Fred, it was your plan, I just executed it." I took another breath and pulled back from him reluctantly. "Come on, let's get to bed, we both could use our rest." A wry grin lifted his lips up and he nodded his head. He sat back on his legs and I grabbed the blankets back up. "Here, put this on and then lie down." I instructed him. He nodded his head, pulling the sweater on and laying down. He grinned when I draped the soft woolen blanket over his shoulders. I pulled my shirt back on, and then the sweater on top of it before I laid down next to him, scooting closer and snuggling into his arm before draping the other blanket over us. It was still cold, but much warmer than it had been. I wrapped my arm around his waist, snuggling my head into his shoulder.
"Fred?" I whispered, looking up at him.
"Yes?" He whispered back, leaning his head up and looking down at me.
"What did he do too you? You're covered in knife wounds."
"Oh," He said, leaning his head back down and sighing. "He took me to the cabin you described. It was dark, worse than our dungeon. He told me he was going to ra- hurt you, and I tried to hit him. He came at me with a knife, I couldn't see, but I did manage to hit him. He ended up just using Crucio on me." I pushed myself up and looked him in the eyes, tears filling mine.
"I'm so sorry." I whispered, staring at his swollen eye and cut neck, I traced his cheek gently, my tears falling onto his chest.
"Shh," He whispered, wiping my cheek with his good arm. "Don't cry, it wasn't that bad. I only got attacked once; you had to endure it every other day." He tugged my shoulder, gently pulling me back down onto his chest. "Go to sleep Hermione, we're both safe. We don't have to worry about that bastard anymore." He tightened his grip around my shoulders, gently running his hand up and down my arm. Feeling warmer and secure I closed my eyes, letting myself get lost in my dreams of warm blue eyes and tender kisses.
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"Wake up, Hermione." Fred's voice whispered against my ear, his breath ghosting over my cheek and causing me to shiver delightfully. I opened my eyes and looked up, seeing Fred stare down at me with bright, alert eyes. His ginger hair was falling into his eyes and he flipped it aside with a jerk of his head. His left eye was still painfully swollen, but it didn't look like it was bothering him as much as it had been.
"Morning." I said happily, stretching as I sat up. I turned towards Fred and smiled at him over my shoulder. He was wide awake, and smiling the trademark Weasley Twin smirk. He had a leaf stuck in his hair and I had the urge to brush it out with my finger, so I did. I leaned over, supporting my weight with my arm, and ran my fingers through his hair, grabbing the leaf and freeing it from his ginger locks. I pulled it out and showed it to him, smiling when he shook his head.
"So, what's say I get us some breakfast and then we head out?" I asked, pushing myself up. Fred looked up at me for a moment and then nodded his head. I turned around and headed deeper into the woods, keeping my eyes open for anything edible. I was flashing back to the horcrux hunt with Harry and Ron, hopefully I'd have better luck than I did then. Food was nearly impossible to come by in those woods, and I wasn't terribly hopeful now. At least we had the advantage of being able to see magical plants, maybe I'd come across something of that nature.
I'd no sooner had the thought than I saw a gurdyroot growing up in a tangle of tree roots. I stared at it for a moment slightly disgusted but we didn't really have much choice. We were stranded in the middle of who knew where without much prospective for a real meal. The root would have to do. I snatched the vegetable up and turned around to head back to Fred. I stopped once more along the way and picked up two sturdy sticks, goodness knows we'd need them if we wanted to go anywhere today.
By the time I got back to our little makeshift camp site Fred had already packed up the camp and gotten our water bottles out. He handed me one of the blankets and I handed him half of the Gurdyroot.
"Cheers." I said grinning as I bit the bitter vegetable. Fred took a timid bite, frowned, shrugged, and then took a larger bite.
"Better than I thought it'd be." He said, smiling. I finished up my half and then tied the blanket around my shoulders in a make shift cape. It was the only sort of coat/cloak we had, and we'd need to try and stay warm in this awful weather. It was getting colder by the minute. Fred finished up his root and then slung the duffle bag over his shoulder before picking up his stick and turning towards me.
"Shall we?" He asked, bowing and extending his hand. I smiled and nodded my head before picking up my own stick and heading deeper into the forest with Fred.
A/N: Just a quick reminder, neither of them have wands, so they are going to have to get back to the others the muggle way.