Between Him and Her

"I could have sworn I saw him," George told Hermione as he finished recounting the tale of his late night encounter with his dead brother for the fourth time that morning.

"I know, George. I'm just not sure you were thinking correctly. We were rather drunk," she pointed out.

"Yes, I know, but he said he'd be back!"

She kissed him, sadness filling her dark eyes. "I love you," she murmured.

George took a deep breath and decided to enlighten her on his theory. He wanted to tell her about how his dreams had been real about her and perhaps convince her that they could be right about Fred as well. "I saw you in my dreams," he began.

She raised one eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yes. Before we…got together. I used to dream about you all the time. I saw you in my bed. I only knew it was you because of your eyes. That's how I got caught up in the situation with Verity…"

She was looking at him strangely and he wasn't sure what was going on in her mind. "So you had sex dreams about me?" she asked after a few moments.

"Well…yes."

"And we're together because you thought I'd be a good shag?" Her face betrayed her pain though she tried to keep an even voice.

"No!" He rushed forward to envelop her in a hug, but she held up her hands. "I just…well my dreams led me to believe that you could be the key to helping me…come to terms with Fred…to get him back or something like that."

"Oh…" Hermione was quiet for a while and George's whole body tensed as he waited for her to continue. She brushed away a stray tear and he wanted to kill himself for hurting her. "I'm sorry, George. I think I should be going…"

"Wait!" he called out, but she was gone with a loud crack and he sorely hoped that she hadn't splinched herself. He whacked himself in the forehead for being stupid enough to tell her about those dreams. He didn't really even know what they meant. He grabbed a coat and decided to try and find her. He wanted to make things right.

The Burrow was the first place George looked for Hermione, but she was nowhere to be found. His mum wanted to know if he had hurt her and threatened his bollocks were he to do anything that would cause Hermione pain so he quickly escaped to The Leaky Cauldron. He searched Grimmauld Place, his flat again, and all the pubs in Hogsmeade before going to Hogwarts.

"What did you do?" Ginny demanded angrily when he entered the Gryffindor common room, hell bent on tracking her down after Hagrid had admitted to seeing her on the lawns. His younger sister poked the tip of her wand into his chest and he held up his hands in surrender, not fancying the idea of leaving without Hermione in a bout of pain.

"I need to talk to her, Gin…"

"You've talked enough, you git!" she screeched. "Hermione's been crying for ages and won't tell me what's going on. You'd better bet Mum will kill you if you somehow get away from me!"

"Calm the bloody hell down!" he advised, brushing past her to try and mount the stairs to the girls' dormitories. He was of course thrown back down.

"You prat, don't tell me you've forgotten that you can't enter," Ginny chastised from behind him.

"Just let me up, Ginny!" he said, thoroughly annoyed. "I need to talk to her."

"Have you thought that I don't want to talk to you?" Hermione asked from the top of the stairs.

George looked up, his heart lifting a bit. "Hermione, I…"

But she cut him off sharply. "Leave me alone for a while, George. If I want to chat I'll come and find you."

"But…" She turned around, ignoring him. "I LOVE YOU, HERMIONE!!!!" he called before she could get away.

"I'll meet you at the Burrow later," she told him. "Please just give me a bit of peace."

George left Hogwarts feeling like shite. He was worried that Hermione would break things off…and rightly so. He had completely bollocked things up. He arrived at the Burrow amidst a bit of chaos. His mother was yelling at him for being an arse as she had gotten a letter from Ginny and the rest of the people at home kept bothering him about the reasons for the dissention. He shut himself away in the room that he had shared with his brother and waited for Hermione to come to him.