THE LEAVES – CHAPTER SEVEN
She didn't spot him for a while, not until they had ruined the diadem. Harry was doing well, she had been fighting by his side all evening because if not she was afraid he would enter the forest and fight Voldemort himself. Ron was doing well too: he had been fighting for his life and hadn't stopped for a minute. She had seen many of the Order as well as some of her fellow Hogwarts students and had fought alongside many wizards and witches she had come to know throughout her years in the Wizarding World. The one witch she had not come face-to-face with yet was Bellatrix but she knew that after the pain that witch had inflicted upon Hermione, none of the Weasleys would let her disappear without a fight.
She thought she had caught a glimpse of ginger hair multiple times but on no accounts had it been Fred. She had seen Arthur, Molly, Percy and Ginny but none of them had made her heart swell like seeing Fred. To say she was worried about him was a complete understatement: she was terrified.
Hermione ran up the corridor of the fourth floor with Ron and Harry in tow following a couple of death eaters and dodging the wildly shot spells. Ron had already stunned two of them and Harry had managed to blast one out of their path. As they rounded a corner, Hermione saw two flashes of red Weasley hair running backwards down the corridor.
Percy and Fred were fighting- side by side for once – against two Death Eaters, the former Minister of Magic, Pius Thicknesse and Augustus Rookwood. Fred and Percy were clearly enjoying themselves as Percy shouted out his resignation to the now-Imperiused Minister. Hermione laughed at them as she went passed and that was when she caught Fred's eye. He grinned and winked at her mid-duel and she giggled in return but as Fred took his eyes from Augustus for one second, Augustus made the wall cave in.
Hermione gasped and felt her eyes fill with tears but she swallowed them down. Harry and Ron caught up with her and for a second, it appeared that the battle had gone silent. Hermione raised her wand immediately and pushed the rubble aside revealing a very bruised Fred and a very alive Percy with a slight graze on his head. Percy levitated the lifeless form that Fred had taken and carried him down the stairs and into the Great Hall where he searched for Madam Pomfrey.
Hermione's ears were ringing and her face was damp with tears. She vaguely felt Ron wrap his arm around her and she buried her face into his shirt. He rubbed her back and then as if by a personality change, Hermione wiped her face, retrieved her wand from her pocket and set off after the Death Eaters again with Ron and Harry following behind her.
She knew she had to stay strong and finish this war with or without Fred. This wasn't just about them; it was for the oppression of the entire Wizarding community. She ran passed the window and in the light of all the spells being cast, she spotted the Whomping Willow: the leaves were all back and greener than ever. She could win this war, for Fred.