Chapter 6: Take Cover!

Fred ran up to the boy's dormitory slamming the door behind him and locking it. He looked around to see if he was alone. The room was quiet and empty. He threw himself face down onto his bed burying his head in his pillow before shouting out obscenities that came out as muffles. After a good five minutes he rolled over on his back side putting his hands over his face, a feeling of utter misery and regret running through him.

"Damn it." He muttered, rubbing his hands hard against his eyes. "Damn it. Damn it! What the hell is wrong with me?"

Fred groaned and sighed loudly before uncovering his eyes and staring at the ceiling. "I'm in deep shit."

"Well she won't be forgetting that very soon." Fred chuckled softly realizing the danger he was in.

He had kissed Hermione. Not just a soft peck on the lips. No, it had to be long and hard. Fred's mind raced. What was Hermione thinking right now? She has to be completely confused. After Fred had kissed her, he realized he had done something he could not easily take back. Not knowing what else to do, he apologized and ran from the classroom while Hermione was still in a daze. He was happy to see she wasn't chasing him as he ran up to the boy's dormitory. But how long would she stay completely disconcerted? She'd want answers and when she did, she'd go to…

"George." Fred sat up quickly. He couldn't lay here thinking, he had to find George.

Fred ran at the door, grabbed the door knob but did not turn it.

"What would I say?" Fred said quietly to himself. He lowered his hand. "No matter what I say George will hate me. If I don't say anything Hermione will hate me and George for playing with her like this, even though it's not George's fault."

Fred let out another sad chuckle. "I can't do anything. But I can't let Hermione hate George for this, I have to tell him." Fred opened the door and ran out. He wasn't sure where George was but the Great Hall was a good place to start.

George wasn't in the Great Hall. Fred tried the quidditch pitch, the kitchen, all their secret hide outs and even the library and still George was nowhere to be found.

Maybe he went to Hogsmeade. Fred thought as he made his way back to the Gryffindor common room. If that was the case he would just wait for him to come back. That was all he could really do after all. As he turned the corner his legs suddenly locked, his palms got sweaty and his eyes widened.

There standing ten feet away stood Hermione talking to Parvati Patil. She had not yet noticed him. He could make a run for it. Just as the thought entered his head Hermione waved her goodbye at Parvati and headed in his direction before locking eyes with him and coming to a halt.

They remained perfectly still staring at each other. Fred wasn't sure how long but it felt like ages. A thought suddenly dawned on him. Why is she staring at me? Does she think I'm George? Or does she know I'm Fred? She seemed to always know I was me outside the classroom. If she does know I'm Fred she doesn't have a reason to be upset with me…yet. Unless…could she know? Fred tried to unmask secrets hidden behind her eyes but he couldn't tell anything.

Oh, please. Fred begged in his head. Let a meteor hit me to stop this agonizing silence. At that moment and hand smacked Fred on the back of the head, taking him and Hermione by surprise.

"There you are, I've been looking everywhere for you."

Fred turned his head to see George standing right next to him, looking perfectly pleased with himself.

Get out of here Georgey! Fred screamed with his eyes. Or you'll never look this happy again!

"Where have you been?" Fred finally spat out.

"Out near the edge of the forbidden forest with Dean and Lee, we're racing blast-ended skrewts. Come on." George grabbed Fred by the arm to pull him away but Fred held his ground looking back at Hermione who was staring wide eyed at them.

"What's wrong?" George followed Fred's gaze and finally noticed Hermione standing a mere eight feet away. George's cheeks gave off a red glow. "Oh. H-hey Hermione."

Fred wanted to duck for cover from this large bomb that was about to be dropped. There was no time to warn George, there was no time to explain things to Hermione. There was just no time!

"How you been?" George said with a small grin.

Fred glanced sideways in horror at his brother. Oh, no George, don't ask her that.

Hermione's eyes narrowed onto George. "Good." She muscled out through pierced lips.

George smiled and nodded not noticing the tension filling the hallway and nearly suffocating Fred.

"That's good." He continued to nod. "Well, me and Freddie got stuff to do so I'll see you around I guess." George gave her a warm smile which she gawked open mouthed at, before he pulled Fred by the arm dragging him away from Hermione's glaring eyes.

Nooooo! Fred shouted in his head. Bad thing to do George. Very bad thing. He looked back to see if Hermione was about to curse them but she had turned the opposite direction and was now walking away, a stiffness in her back as her shoulders were arched up.

When they were a good distance out of harm's way, almost nearing the forbidden forest Fred grabbed his brother's arm turning him towards him. Now was as good a time to tell him as any.

"Look George, about what happened back there. You should know –"

"Yeah, I know." George interrupted taking Fred by surprise. "I never have anything to say right? I come off as an idiot." He shrugged and kept walking. "I can't help it mate, she has that effect on me."

"No, George. You don't understand, I –"

"Hey Fred you're here! Wait till you see the skrewt we picked out for ya!" Lee waved up at them.

"Don't understand what?" George looked sideways at his twin who was now staring at Lee.

"Ah, never mind." Fred wasn't about to confess his wrong doing in front of their friends. He would talk to George later.

Later took a lot longer than Fred expected as he sat in the Great Hall for dinner with George, Lee and Dean.

"George I really need to talk to you." Fred whispered, as George shoveled down another helping of mashed potatoes.

"Alright, mate. Alright, right after this." George nodded continuing to eat.

Fred sighed and looked up just in time to see the golden trio taking seats opposite them. Hermione chose to sit a little further away, but not far enough. Fred thought.

She plopped a giant book onto the table, opened it up and began reading not making eye contact with him or George. She was going to ignore them. Fred felt a little relieved by this.

"Guy's don't forget quidditch practice starts on Monday at –"

"6 o'clock sharp. Yes, Harry. We know, we know." All the boys said together making Harry scowl.

Fred gave a small chuckle before a new thought entered his head. He leaned into his twin whispering as low as he could.

"You have tutoring that day. Or rather I do." Fred reminded him.

"Tutoring?" George said, not keeping his voice down at all. "Blimey I forgot I was still doing that."

Fred glanced over at Hermione who continued to read her book, as she drank some pumpkin juice.

"You're taking extra lessons George?" Ron asked stuffing his mouth with a biscuit.

"Yeah, no worries. I'll just ask my lovely tutor if we can skip a day. I mean I don't really need the classes anymore anyway. Do I Fred?" George looked hopefully at his twin to reassure him.

"Uh…" Fred was distracted watching Hermione lift her glass to drink the last bit of pumpkin juice but set it back down on the table before it touched her lips.

"Maybe…you should finish the lessons, Georgey." Fred turned back to his doomed twin.

"What? Why? My tutor has to have seen some improvement by now." Again he said this in a hopeful manner to Fred.

"Who's your tutor?" Harry asked and Fred wanted to punch him in the face to shut him up.

"Eh, a nice bloke. Classes are fine but not more fun than quidditch practice." George chuckled going off of the small information Fred had told him.

Fred felt a dark ora filling the Great Hall. He watched Hermione as she sat calmly staring at her book. Not moving her eyes from a single spot on the page. She slowly closed her book, got up still holding her glass of unfinished pumpkin juice in her hand and walked over to where they were sitting stopping in front of George, who looked up with red patches on his face.

"You don't have to make it so obvious." She said in a quivering voice.

George looked from side to side then back at Hermione with a look complete bewilderment.

"Umm...what?" He said in a sort of whisper.

Fred remained frozen. Not wanting to make eye contact with Hermione he leaned his head down glancing sideways at his twin.

"If you don't want to go to lessons anymore, just say so!" Hermione spat and George's eyes widened. Everyone in the Great Hall was looking at Hermione now.

"You felt sorry for me, is that it? Just wanted me to stop crying?" Hermione referred to his kiss. "If you want to forget it, that's fine by me! But don't act like nothing happened without talking to me at all and completely avoiding me!" Hermione's eyes began to water as she glared with hatred at the wrong twin. "You're a prat George Weasley, a low life, misbehaving, trouble making, and stubborn, immature git! And I don't care if I ever see to you again!" And with that she threw the remainder of her pumpkin juice in his face, slamming the now empty glass down on the table and walking off out of the Great Hall with hoots and "oooh" s following her from every table.

If Fred had been anyone else but him right now he would of busted out laughing at the expression on George's face.

"Hermione was your tutor?" Ron asked stupidly breaking the silence. "Blimey why on earth would you call her a "bloke" and say she's "not as fun as quidditch" when she's sitting right there." Ron gestured to the spot she had sat.

George remained blank faced staring with eyes still larger than normal at the spot Hermione had stood, pumpkin juice dripping from his hair. Slowly he turned his head to Fred, his expression unchanged.

Fred stared hard at his plate before looking at George and flashing a sideways grin.

"Heh, girls." Was all he could say.

George's surprised expression slowly faded away. "Fred, would you kindly help me clean this stuff off me."

Fred nodded not daring to make a joke. They walked quickly out of the Great Hall as George received ugly looks from Gryffindor girls and laughs from the full Slytherin table. They walked up to the boy's dormitory in silence. Fred contemplated what he would tell George or what George was planning to do to him.

When they entered the boy's dorm, they found Neville sprawled out on his bed reading a comic book.

"Hey guys." He said happily at them.

"Get out." George held the door open for him to exit.

"What?"

"Get out!" The twins said in unison. Neville jumped up from his bed and walked out quickly not wanting to be in the middle of whatever was going on.

George slammed the door, glaring at Fred with murderous intent.

"Alright." Fred started first. "You're probably really confused about what happened."

"You've been being tutored by Hermione for MY extra classes. You did something to make her hate you while you were pretending to be me. And you never told me anything about it!" George roared.

Fred stood shocked staring at George. "Oh, guess you're not very confused."

George continued to stare angrily at him. "Fred, before I kill you, please explain to me WHAT THE BLOODY HELL YOU WERE THINKING!"

George shoved Fred making him fall over onto one of the beds. Fred held up his hand, for George to stop.

"Wait, wait, wait. Let me explain. My intentions were pure honest." Fred assured his brother who was towering over him.

"What intentions?" George glowered at him.

"I meant to tell you in the beginning, but think of how you are around the girl, mate. You stutter, you act dumb, asking stupid questions…"

"Are you trying to get me to kill you faster?" George looked annoyed at him.

Fred held his hand up. "Wait let me finish. My point is, you don't act like you, you need to be more confident. Hermione could never fall for you the way you act. So I did what I thought was best."

George continued to glare at Fred.

"I pretended to be you so she could see your good qualities." Fred smiled hopefully up at his brother. "And it worked mate, she likes you. Her yelling at you just now proves it."

"How? Why was she upset at me then?" George's expression softened a little but he still had anger in his eyes.

"Because…" Fred took a deep breathe. "I kissed her."

"You what?" George leapt at his twin, reaching for his neck as Fred struggled to keep him hands away.

Fred tried to explain about the image he had made and how it had upset her. How he had just wanted to comfort her. A little white lie won't hurt. He thought, but this just made George madder.

"She was mad because she thought you wanted to forget it happened. Don't you see?" George's hands were now around Fred's neck but he did not squeeze. He looked down at his brother intently. "She likes you. She didn't want you to forget your first kiss." He smiled.

George glared down at him and punched him hard on the shoulder. "You mean your first kiss. She doesn't want me, it's you she likes now." George got off his twin and sat on the bed next to him.

"No." Fred said rubbing his shoulder. "I was acting like you. Everything she likes is pure Georgeish. She doesn't even know it was me. And she never has to know." Fred looked seriously at his twin.

George glanced up at him. "So we just tricked her then?"

"It's not tricked, if you kept your right mind when you were around her, she would have fallen for you ages ago. I just needed to help it along. I'm really sorry Georgey, I didn't mean for it to end up like this."

George stared at his brother, before giving him another punch in the arm.

"Ouch! Come on…" Fred whinned.

"That's for kissing her, and everything else." George got up and walked around the room. "Now that it's ended up like this, what do we do?"

Fred stood up. "I'll take care of everything, George. I'll tell her it was me, and you had nothing to do with it."

George's eyes wondered around the room. "No."

Fred looked surprised at him.

"No, you made the mess, now I'll clean it." George said making his way out the door.

"That's not how the saying goes!" Fred shouted after him but George was already out of site. Fred fell back on the bed, he let out a great sigh of relief. It was over. Or was it? What did George mean he was going to clean it? And why was he just lying here relieved when George had just left the room saying he was going to clean his mess?

"Crap." Fred said silently to himself before running out the dormitory after George.

As he neared the end of the stairs he heard familiar voices coming from the common room. He sat at the bottom of the stairs, peeking around the pillar to see George talking with Hermione.

"I'm really sorry." Fred heard George say.

"Just forget it." Hermione waved him away trying to make her escape but George got in her way.

"Hermione, please will you just listen?" George begged.

"I really don't care what you have to say George." Hermione tried to make her way around him but he wouldn't let her. Fred felt bad for the situation he had put his twin in.

"But you don't understand –"

"I understand enough George, so if you don't mind –"

"I like you!" George blurted out, and Hermione and Fred's eyes widened in surprise.

"I've liked you for some time…I don't know how to act around you. I get nervous, I do stupid things. I'm not used to feeling like this. I've never felt like this. I'm sorry." George's face was now a complete cherry.

Hermione struggled to find her voice. "W-why did you say all that in the Great Hall then, and avoid me after we…"

"Kissed." George finished. "Come on Hermione, what was I supposed to do? I didn't know if you liked me or not, or how you felt about it. Hearing your answer scared the crap out of me. Your one of the greatest people I've ever met. You're smart, fun, cool, and cute. I like how you get upset if you mess up on your homework, or tuck your hair behind your ear when you're nervous. I like the way you only open your books half way to not break the spine. I like everything about you. I don't know what I'd do if I knew how you really felt about me."

Hermione blushed at those words. Fred felt a pinch of jealousy as George had noticed everything Fred had.

"I don't expect you to forgive me. I just want you to understand me. I didn't mean to hurt you. That's the last thing I'd ever want to do. I was happy just to spend time with you." George stared seriously at her. "I went too far, I shouldn't have kissed you but it wasn't just to comfort you. I just wanted you to think of me differently, not as the brother to one of your best friends, but as someone who might really like you. Even though I don't expect you to say yes if I asked you to go out with me." George stared at the floor.

Hermione stared at George for a long time, a mixed expression on her face. Fred eyed both of them curiously. For some reason he didn't like how calm Hermione was being when George confessed all this.

She walked up to him slowly stopping a foot away, looking up at him. "So…you were never going to ask me out then?"

Fred's heart sank at her words. What? He mouthed out.

George's eyes locked with hers. She gave a small smile which George returned with an awkward grin. "Would you…I mean…Do you…Do you really want to?" He could barely say the words.

Hermione laughed softly, nodded, leaned up and kissed him on the cheek.

Fred's eyes could hardly remain in their sockets, his stomach felt hollow and twisted. Had Hermione just agreed to be George's girlfriend?