The next morning Hermione woke up and quickly sped up to Fred's dorm to get him to go with her to the Hospital Wing, she was far more scared of treatment than she had let on. They arrived shortly afterwards and found the three members of staff waiting for them. Madame Pomfrey directed her to the same bed that she had been in the day before and passed over to Professor Snape.

"Miss Granger I have concocted the cleansing potion. I must warn you that you may feel particularly nauseous during the cleansing period. It will take effect shortly after consumption and should take no more than twenty four hours for the process to complete."

"Tomorrow evening we will begin extracting the dark magic. We will bind the wound overnight with a purity ointment and a spell that will expel the dark magic from your body. I am sorry to inform you that it will be extremely painful – dark magic that has been cast upon a person does not like to be removed, which is why it is more difficult to treat than a normal wound." Professor Dumbledore told her.

His words stuck with her for the rest of the day as she felt so sick that she couldn't keep any food down. The boys were worried about her even though she had repeatedly told them that it was just the potion making her sick. Fred watched from afar, too scared of Ron's protective wrath if he interfered, but managed to catch her for a quiet moment in the early hours of the evening when she was on her way to drop her things off before dinner.

"How you feeling?" he asked her.

"Like hell." She said with a small laugh.

"Are you going to be ok tomorrow night? I can come with you if you want, I don't want you to think that you have to do any of this on your own. I know Harry and Ron are there too but my little brother isn't always the most…tactful when he's trying to be supportive."

"Fred I'd love it if you would come with me," she smiled.

"I'll meet you down there tomorrow night, stay safe love!"

"Thanks Freddie!"

"Freddie? Are we onto nicknames now Granger?" he winked at her.

"How about you tell me? A little birdie told me that you were holding my hand all the time in St Mungo's," she grinned at him and left as quickly as she could before he could retaliate.

She loved winding Fred up and she loved spending time with him even more. She had always secretly admired the Twins' brilliance, although she would never have admitted it otherwise they would have never let her forget it, but she always had hope that they would be successful, they certainly put in the effort. Sometimes when she had given them into trouble she would see the familiar sparkle of defiance in Fred's eye where she could practically see his braining frantically trying to think of an alternative for them to work with. But little did anyone know that she was their go to girl for their bigger problems, mainly the ones which could land them in serious trouble. She had thwarted their more ridiculous plans, turning one of the Slytherin boys invisible for a day was her personal favourite, and turned them into slightly less terrifying ideas. You could say that she had always had a special, and mostly unseen, relationship with the Twins.

But now that Fred had begun to become an integral part of her recovery – had she really just admitted to that!? – she had to face some truth at the same time: a (not so) small part of her was practically longing for Fred Weasley.

By the time that she had reached the Great Hall for dinner her mind was racing once again. It didn't help that she blushed a furious shade of fuchsia when Fred caught her eye and gave her a wink across the table or when Harry nudged her afterwards and asked her how things were going on "the Fred front".

"There's nothing to that Harry!" she scolded him, much to his amusement.

"Hermione, you can keep telling yourself that but I know as well as you do that there's something between you and Fred."

She wouldn't listen to anymore of Harry's ridiculous assumptions. Yes, Hermione had a little bit of a crush on Fred but he was just helping her out through her treatment, he treated her like a little sister, much like he would with Ginny, and yet there was some part of her was left wondering what if. She would have continued her train of thought in regards to Fred if her stomach hadn't lurched and forced her to run to the nearest girls' bathroom.

The following evening she made her way down to the Hospital Wing, absolutely terrified at the prospect of her treatment. Dumbledore had promised a lot of pain and she knew that she would probably be up all night because of it but then she remembered that Fred would be there with her and the night ahead of her seemed almost bearable.

She found Fred leaning against the wall outside of the Hospital Wing and waved when he looked up in her direction. Instead of the usual quick, witty greeting he pulled her into a hug.

"I know all of this is probably going to send you to hell and back so I came prepared." He told her as he pulled a large bar of Honeydukes' chocolate and grinned at her.

"Let's get this over with shall we?" she sighed and pushed open the door.

Again, Professor Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey were waiting for them.

"Miss Granger, shall we proceed?" he asked her once she was settled on the bed in the gown that Madame Pomfrey had provided for her.

She nodded and tried to brace herself for the pain that she knew was coming. The ointment was soaked into the bandages and they were they wrapped around the infected wound on her arm, which left her with a strange cold, tingling sensation where they touched her skin. A final layer of dry bandage was wrapped over the top to hold it in place and then Professor Dumbledore stepped forwards and began to murmur the incantation very quietly.

She felt as if the bandages were tightening around her arm and suddenly there was white hot pain all across the areas that the bandages covered. She screamed out in pain and gritted her teeth; it was an almost unbearable sensation that had tears forming in her eyes. She reached out for Fred's hand and gripped onto it as if it was her only lifeline and was instantly comforted when she felt him squeeze back.

Dumbledore finished the incantation and then bid her a goodnight before promptly leaving her to her pain and misery. She very quickly got used to the pain and after a couple of hours she had stopped screaming and Fred had moved to sit on her bed next to her to try and keep her calm.

Madame Pomfrey returned around 1am with a sleeping draught to "drown out the din and give us all some peace and quiet!" before huffing back to her own quarters for the night.

"Fred? Can you stay with me? Please?" she whispered into the darkness.

"I'll be here as long as you need me love." He kissed the top of her head and listened to her whimper in pain before the sleeping draught took hold of her.

They continued like that for the next two weeks. They would attend of their classes and social activities as normal and then at 10pm every night they separately made their ways to the Hospital Wing where Hermione would endure another night or torturous pain and Fred would do his best to soothe her. Sometimes she would take a book with her to try and distract herself but the pain would be too much and Fred would take over, reading to her whilst she curled up and tried to listen, and other times they would sit and talk for hours until the pain was dull enough for her to get to sleep. Neither of them realised it but their routine trip to the Hospital Wing had drawn them far closer together than either of them had intended.

Fred had wanted to fix her, to repair the damage that he felt he could have stopped happening in the first place, but he'd grown to care for her more than he could imagine. There were moments when she would wince in pain and all he would want to do was to pull her close and tell her that everything was going to be ok. Instead he would hold her hand and give it a reassuring squeeze whilst she tried her best not to scream. By the time that she was reaching the end of her treatment Fred knew that it meant the end of their private evenings and it made him far sadder than he thought it would. It was at that moment that he could practically see the light bulb appear above his head as he realised that Hermione Granger was no longer just his friend, he actually liked her.

Hermione, meanwhile, was glad to see the end of her long nights in the hospital wing. For her it meant that she didn't have to endure the pain anymore and that she would finally be able to move on from her attack, despite the scarring it had left and the fact that her attackers were still out there. Dumbledore had assured her that he had eyes on those suspected as Death Eaters and that whilst at Hogwarts she was very safe. His words put her at ease and she allowed herself to fell at home at Hogwarts once again.

"How do you feel?" Fred asked on the morning that the treatment ended.

"I feel…better" she said, a little wearily.

"What's wrong?"

"I just- it's nothing actually. I'm just worried about Harry and the Triwizard Tournament. Everyone, Ron included, seems to have it out for him after his name got pulled out the other night and I just want him to be safe, that's all." She smiled a little as he helped her out of the Hospital Wing.

"He'll be alright, he's Harry Potter," Fred grinned at her and she felt her stomach flutter a little with butterflies.

"I hope so." She added.

They stood in an awkward silence for a few minutes before Fred made his excuses and headed for breakfast. Hermione could have hit herself for thinking that what she had with Fred was anything more than a friendship. He treated her like a sister for goodness sake! She made her own way to breakfast and found Harry sitting alone at Gryffindor table.

"I'm finally finished treatment!" she said excitedly as she sat down.

"That's great Hermione!" Harry replied, a little half-heartedly.

"What's up?"

"It's not personal, it just seems like everyone hates me. Not to mention Ron's adamant that I didn't tell him how to get around the age line – as if I wanted to be in this at all!" he said, frustrated.

"Ron's a bit of an idiot sometimes, we both know that. It'll be ok Harry." She smiled at him.

The rest of her day passed without any complaint. She was the barrier between Harry and Ron, with the latter refusing to even acknowledge the other's presence and neither of them wanting to say a nice word to the other. Instead most of her day was spent in silence and it gave her time to clear her head.

By the time she went back to the Great Hall for dinner at the end of the day she was almost exhausted. Fred and George came and sat either side of her, their mischievous grins plastered across their faces.

"Hey Granger-" George started.

"-Want to see something exciting?" Fred asked.

"I don't know, what is it?"

"We can't give away the surprise!"

"But meet us at Hagrid's hut at 9-"

"-and bring Harry, I have a feeling he'll want to see this!"

And before she could tell them that she didn't want to know, they had already gone and left her with no choice but to turn up with Harry in tow.