Ravenclaw HoH, Short 1, prompt: "I never did get around to saying thank you, did I?", WC: 694

Fred wakes up, saved by Hermione in the War. But something is wrong. AU.

Flashbacks in italics.

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Day one.

Uncomfortable. Hungry. Confused. Mostly hungry. The feeling is only amplified by the warm scent of bacon hanging in the air around me. It must be breakfast. Slowly, my eyes flicker open, gazing over a sunlit room of which I can only see the ceiling. So I'm lying down.

"Fred?" a voice asks.

A shattering of glass, and suddenly the flashback bursts across my vision like an exploding nightmare.

Shouts fill the hallway, calls for help, and screams of agony. I whip around quickly, tracing the black cloak of the Death Eater and punctuating a breath with a curse. He deflects. Damn. I send another in his direction, getting him in the back. Percy is laughing, for the first time in a long time and, strangely, I can hear it perfectly above the cacophonous -

"You're awake." George stops the vision from continuing, bringing me almost jarringly back to the present. I find myself nodding, sitting up, not wanting to sink back into a sleep that's clearly not going to be restful for some time. "How are you feeling, Freddie?"

"Fine," I murmur. "What happened, George?"

"You were hurt in the battle. You've been out of it ever since," he tells me, repairing the mug he broke seconds ago. "Hey, no, don't get up, you need to rest!"

"I'll rest when I'm dead," I laugh.

Except, at my attempting to stand, things go sideways and I'm suddenly lying on the floor again, a pounding forehead furiously trying to take me away from reality.

Day six.

A strong force slams into me, all frizzy hair and dark brown eyes that catch in the light of the curse sailing over our heads. I can't hear whether she's saying anything, but that doesn't matter. She's saving my life. All around us, bricks break away from a castle wall, and tumble down like rain. I could have died. I would have died.

"Hermione…"

I wake to my own words falling from my lips. I'd been dreaming about Hermione, only I'm sure it wasn't a dream at all. It was another memory, leaving me sweaty and heart racing. A flashback, drawing me right back into the throes of the battle.

For a second I believe I'm in the hospital bed, but quickly remember that George and I are back in the flat as of yesterday. Thank Merlin for that.

With barely a moment of hesitation, I'm flipping back the duvet covers and throwing on jeans and a t-shirt. George shouts after me, but I'm already running to the door and apparating home to the Burrow.

"Fred, everything alright, mate?" Bill asks, completely nonchalant at the sink, clearly washing away breakfast.

"Hermione," is the single word I can manage, panting. Anxiety and determination has me out of breath.

Bill frowns. Something is wrong.

"Oh man, I'm guessing no one thought to tell you." My older brother wipes a hand over his face. "Just a lack of time - Fred, I'm really sorry, but she died."

Day twenty-five.

I stare out at the scene before me. Our little memorial for her, before the one later on for the rest of the Wizarding World. She's a war hero, regardless of the fact that she didn't survive it.

She's not smiling at me, concentrated on parrying the falling stone. I'm smiling at her, though, not caring whether she sees it or not.

The flashbacks - or attacks, as George calls them - haven't stopped. I'm not sure that they ever will, and I'm not sure that I want them to. They're a bittersweet reminder of her, Hermione Granger, who saved my life at the cost to her own. Of course, I know my survival and her death aren't directly linked but… Still.

My thought was that, in seeing her, I would get some closure, and the memories would stop attacking me.

Here we are, though.

It's George I turn to, when we all start to head inside out of the too-bright sunshine;

"I never did get around to saying thank you, did I?"

This thought having finally been spoken out loud, I sigh, and prepare to live with the unsettling knowledge that she isn't here too.

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Thanks for reading!