A Way Back to Her

It was well past dinner when Hermione arrived back at the Burrow and George's heart had nearly beat out of his chest as he heard her making her way upstairs. He thought that surely she would come to him and they would talk it out. It had been eight hours since they had last spoken after all. Instead, however, she slipped into the room that she had shared with Ginny. He waited outside her door until she opened it, clothes in hand and ready to take a shower.

"Give me a bit more time," she said pleadingly as she moved past him. George was left staring after her, wondering what to do to prove his love. He returned to his room as the sound of water spraying was heard from the bathroom.

He wanted to sleep until she would come and find him, but of course sleep wouldn't come. George cursed himself repeatedly as he paced around his bed, stripped to his boxers and wishing that something would happen to change Hermione's mind about hating him. He threw himself on the bed after a while, nearly breaking the old frame. The screeching sound could most likely be heard from downstairs, he realized, but he didn't care.

Seconds went by seeming like minutes and minutes like hours. George counted and recounted the tiles on his ceiling waiting for Hermione to want to talk to him, but to no avail. She returned to her room shortly after the water cut off and he was left wondering if things would ever be the same.

George fell asleep sometime after midnight, tormented beyond reason about whether or not she even cared about him. He awakened to laughter floating up the stairs from the kitchen and the smell of pancakes. As he roused himself, he remembered the last kiss he had given Hermione and wondered if it would mean anything to her now. He pulled and old t-shirt and a pair of trousers and headed toward the bathroom to empty his bladder.

"Who's in there?" a familiar voice asked from outside a few seconds after he locked himself into the loo.

"I'll be out in a few!" he called back, not at all in the mood to be bothered by his brothers.

"Oi! Don't get pissy with me!" came the reply.

George grumbled for a bit about his privacy and finished up. He threw open the door and stormed past his own image back to his bedroom. He threw himself back onto the bed, wondering what would happen and when his bloody girlfriend would decide to talk to him without even processing what he had just experienced. A knock on the door once again interrupted his thinking and he roared, "What do you want!?!?" loudly at whomever had dared to disturb him.

"I live here too, you know!" the response came.

"Give me a bit of peace, Fred! I'm trying to think!" he yelled out, only realizing what he had said and who was talking to him after the words had spilled out of his mouth. He leapt from the rickety bed and threw open the door to see his twin standing in front of him. George's eyes were as large as saucers as he gazed at his fallen brother. "Fred?" he whispered.

"Yeah, it's me. Who'd you expect?" Fred replied smirking at him.

George launched himself into his brother's arms and sobbed into his shoulder as the weight of the situation washed over him. "It's really you!"

"Yeah, yeah!" Fred replied, embracing him in return. "You want some bangers? Mum fried up the lot!" George finally let go of his twin and followed him downstairs to find his entire family and Harry around the table.

"Isn't this a miracle?" his mum kept saying over and over again. The celebrations continued well past noon and it was then that George realized who was missing.

"Where's Hermione?" he asked the crowd.

"At your shop," Ginny said scathingly. "Someone had to run it for the day. Verity is there with her."

"Why didn't she wake me?" he wondered out loud.

"Probably because you're a bloody git!" Ginny replied.

"What happened?" his mum wanted to know, but he ignored her, grabbing Fred's arm and hauling him away from the table. They disappeared upstairs, leaving the rest of their family wondering what was happening.

"How did you come back?" George asked Fred once they were in their old room once again. Fred smiled slyly at him.

"Hermione's a genius!" he replied. "Time turner."

George swallowed hard. "I've been having these dreams…" he started.

"I know. I was there…sort of. You have to go find Hermione. She really is your perfect girl, mate!"

"I fucked up, big, Freddie."

"I know. Just go talk to her. I'll be here when you get back."

"Do you promise?" George asked, desperation in his eyes.

"Yeah. We'll only ever leave together," he replied with a twinkle lighting up his features. George somehow believed him and hurried off to find the girl who had made his life complete in more ways than one.