"Wake up Freddie!" I giggled out, excitement swelling up within me. I had woken up early this morning and realized we only had nine more miles until we reached Diagon Alley, nine miles until we were home free!
"Huh?" He murmured, rolling over on his side, still fast asleep. A smile lifted my lips and I decided to try a new method of waking him up. I leaned forward and placed a quick kiss on his cheek before running my fingers through his hair. I scooted closer to him and started to kiss my way down his jaw line.
"Hermione?" He questioned, moaning as I moved to his neck. A bigger grin lifted my lips and I kissed my way back up before claiming his lips with mine again. He kissed me back, bringing his arm up around me and tugging my hips down on top of his. I deepened the kiss and moved one of my hands to his shirt, fisting it tightly. He moaned again, moving his hand up and down my back and sending shivers through me. Merlin I loved this man.
I did, I really did love him. I couldn't even bring myself to worry about that fact as I kissed him hard. I'd already dived into that decision, there was no turning back. Come whatever, I had fallen in love with Fred Weasley, and every minute was bringing us closer to splitting up. I gave myself a mental shake and pulled back from his wonderful lips regretfully.
"We have to get going, we're only nine miles out!" I exclaimed excitedly, pushing myself up from his chest. His lips were swollen and darker from our intense snogging and his eyes were wide and dark. My breath caught in my throat as I looked at him and I wanted nothing more than to reclaim his lips with mine. Walking, we had to get walking.
I found myself leaning back towards him, but then my eyes fell on the cut across his neck. I froze as I looked at it before pushing myself up and pulling him with me. I was getting him back to the others, back to magic so we could heal him.
"Nine miles?" he asked, his voice slightly gruff from sleep.
"I know!" I exclaimed, bending down and scooping up all our blankets. I shoved them in our bag and turned back to him. "Come on, let's get going."
"Eager, aren't we." He said, raising his eyebrow at me as he stretched.
"I want to be healed, and I really, really want to shower." I said, winking at him.
"Sure, you just want to get back to your books. I know the truth." He said, a smile lifting his lips.
"Ooh, I forgot, I can read again!" I exclaimed, smiling even wider.
"Don't forget your hot chocolate as well." He said, grabbing the bag and throwing it over his shoulder. "Let's go, I want that ice cream."
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We walked for about a mile, chatting excitedly and holding hands. The woods had disappeared so we were having to walk along the road.
"What do you think they'll do when they see us again?" Fred asked out of the blue.
"Well," I said slowly, trying not to think about the fact that everything would change between us. I was excited to get back in the city and back to my friends, but I didn't want to lose my closeness with Fred. I had really fallen hard for him. "I think they'll freak." I finished honestly.
"We'll probably have to be debriefed by Harry." He said casually. He looked behind us for a moment before looking back at the front. "I wonder if they even have a clue about what happened."
"That's right, I wonder if they even know we're still alive." I mused, considering that possibility for the first time. Fred glanced behind us again with a worried frown.
"What?" I questioned anxiously, glancing behind us as well.
"I heard something."
"What?"
"It sounded like someone was driving towards us."
"No one is there though."
"I can see that, but someone was." He replied, frowning even more. I was about to ask if he wanted to go walk in the ditch when I heard the distinct rumble of a car coming our way. I turned my head towards Fred and looked at him in horror. His eyes had grown wide and he was standing beside me rigidly.
A distinct, white, yellow, and blue car pulled up the hill behind us, and my mouth dropped open in shock. It was a police car, and they had spotted us. I grabbed Fred's hand in my own before taking a deep breath and pulling him towards the ditch. We both turned and raced for the houses that lined the road, praying that we could lose ourselves in there cover. The police car raced down the road after us, it sirens turning on. We raced behind a house, stumbling in the shrubbery surrounding it before breaking free and running through the back yard. The house next to this one had a laundry line out with a broom leaning against it. a wild, crazy, risky idea occurred to me and I pulled to a stop next to it. Fred, still holding my hand, was pulled to a stop next to me and turned towards me with wide eyes.
"What?" he whispered as I grabbed the broom.
"Concentrate on making this fly." I whispered back, holding the broom in my hand and praying that this would work. If we both concentrated really hard we might be able to make it work with wandless magic. Neither of us could do it by ourselves, but we could still control magic. Even without our wands, we were capable of magic. Wands just allowed us to focus and control the magic better. If we could concentrate hard enough we might be able to make it work.
"What? Okay." He said, grabbing hold of the broom and closing his eyes. I did the same, focusing on the magic I knew I possessed, and the item in my hands. I willed it to fly, thinking of the levitating spell brooms needed in my head.
"Hermione!" Fred exclaimed next to me. I opened my eyes and looked down, the broom was floating on its own. I let out an excited squeal before I felt Fred grab hold of me and pull me up onto the broom. My body tensed up and panic started to fill me.
What had I been thinking? I hated flying. I hated it with a serious passion.
Fred climbed on behind me, gripping me firmly around the waist before kicking up off the ground. We flew up into the air, hundreds of meters up, and I began to feel light headed as I saw the ground disappear beneath me. My arms locked into place on the broom and I started hyperventilating.
"Calm down Hermione, you're okay." Fred said in my ear, holding me tight with his broken arm and steering the broom with his good arm. "I won't let you fall. Unlike Harry or Ron, I've never fallen from a broom." A faint grin threatened to lift my lips, despite how scared I was.
"Tell me the five exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration." Fred said, giving me a gentle push in the back. I answered automatically, my years of answering questions coming back full force. It took my mind off the fact that we were so high up for a moment and I found myself relaxing an infinitesimal amount.
The moment I finished speaking Fred fired off another question. "What's the difference between the following potions: a brew, a concoction, a draught, an elixir, a philter, a poison, and a tincture?" I answered that, and before I had a chance to panic again Fred fired off another question. He kept questioning me until I forgot that I was flying, thinking only of the questions and his gentle hold on me.
"Hermione!" He exclaimed suddenly, his voice high and excited. I stopped my dissertation on the Goblin war of 415 and turned towards him.
"What?"
"Look down, it's Diagon Alley!"
"What!" I exclaimed, feeling light headed and excited suddenly. I didn't even notice how high up we were.
"I'm landing by the cauldron. We can floo to the Burrow from there." He yelled, trying to be heard over the wind rushing around us. I nodded my head, tightening my grip on the broom. He brought it down slowly, landing in the alley that led to Diagon Alley. We hopped off the broom eagerly, tossing it aside before running into the cauldron, not even thinking about how awful we probably looked. We both ran towards the fireplace in the corner of the room, and I grabbed the Galleon I had been carrying around with me for the last two months. There was a jar sitting on the mantle of the fireplace and I set my galleon on top of it. the gold shimmered for a moment and then disappeared. The lid on the jar opened up and I reached my hand into the pot, grabbing out a large fistful of floo powder. I handed half to Fred before stepping into the fireplace with him. It wasn't the best idea to floo more than one person at a time, but I wasn't letting Fred out of my sight.
"The Burrow!" We both exclaimed before dropping the powder. Green flames rose up around us and I grasped Fred's hand as we disappeared.
We reappeared in the Burrows fireplace, dizzy and out of breath, but excited beyond belief.
"Mum?" Fred called, stepping forward and into the Burrows kitchen. A scream sounded to the left of the room, followed by a loud crash of shattering glass. We both turned towards the noise and only had time to take in the sight of flaming red hair before strong arms enveloped up and pulled us into a soft chest.
"Freddie! Hermione!" Mrs. Weasley sobbed, holding us close and burying her head in her son's chest. "You're alive!" Her tears had soaked through our ripped and dirty clothes, joined by our tears as we hugged her back. My ribs were throbbing as she pressed against them, and I'm sure poor Fred's arm was on fire, but we couldn't stop our smiles.
"You've been hurt!" She gulped, pushing back and holding us at arms length. "Sit down, I've got to get the others. Oh Fred, my baby." She bawled again, kissing him on the cheek as I lowered myself on shaky legs into a kitchen table chair. Fred joined me a moment later as Mrs. Weasley started bustling around the kitchen. She grabbed some book off the shelf, one on healing if my memory served me, and sent several lights out of her wand. She came back to us, laying the book on the table.
"What happened?" She asked as she flipped the pages. "Where have you been? How did you get hurt?"
"We were kidnapped mum, what all do you know?" Fred asked, closing his eyes and leaning back into his chair. Mrs. Weasley took his broken arm into her hand, gently turning it over before running her wand along it. He let out a loud hiss of pain before a look of profound relief came across his face.
"Mione's broke at least two ribs." Fred said quickly, opening his eyes again. Before anyone could say anything else, several loud Cracks sounded around us.
"FRED! HERMIONE!" Several wonderfully familiar voices called out. George, Harry, Ron, Mr. Weasley, Ginny, Bill, Charlie, and Percy all came running towards us, and we were surrounded by red-heads and one raven.