12 October 1996
"Let's go to the Three Broomstick's," Harry said as they left Honeyduke's. "It'll at least be warm."
Ron made a sound of agreement, muffled by his scarf, but Hermione dithered and fell a few steps behind them.
"You know, I'll meet you there. I need to stop over at Gladrag's."
"What for?" Harry asked, confused.
Between Scrivenshaft's and Honeyduke's, this seemed to be the best opportunity for her to sneak away.
"It's the strangest thing," she explained, "but I keep sending socks down to wash and then not getting them back. I think maybe the elves are still trying to get back at me for SPEW."
"Serves you right," Ron muttered, to which she glared.
"Anyway, I'm going to go buy a few new pairs. Order me a drink!"
She darted toward Gladrag's, head bent low against the wind while the boys hastened in the opposite direction. Once they were out of sight, she ducked down the alley before the clothing shop and started to make her way toward the Shrieking Shack.
It was completely deserted, the usual spectators warded off by the dismal weather. Hermione stepped behind a tree, disillusioned herself, and then strode up the path, using her wand to blow the snow behind her and conceal her footprints. It only took a second to get the door open.
The instant that she stepped in and shut it behind her, warm, familiar arms grabbed her about the waist and spun her around.
Fred made to kiss her but, still being disillusioned, he missed and landed on her frigid nose. Giggling she dropped her concealment charm and then locked and silenced the door behind her before pocketing her wand.
"Well hello to you too," Hermione laughed, leaning forward onto her toes and snogging him properly. She drew back and saw his hair was a big shaggier, and he was clad in a dark jumper with a heavy wool coat overtop. It was an exceptionally fetching combination.
"You look fantastic," Fred said, removing his mouth from hers for the briefest of seconds before putting it back.
"I don't have long," she explained mournfully as their kisses grew markedly more heated, lips parting and tongues tangling together in a rapid dance.
He groaned against her lips. "Bleeding hell, why do you taste like sugar quills?"
She laughed breathlessly, twining her arms around his neck.
Hermione decided that she'd kept him up to date enough in their letters and that she was perfectly content with this visit being more physical in nature than verbal, seeing as that was the novelty for them just then. She quickly undid the buttons on his coat and shucked it off his shoulders while he did the same with hers.
Glancing around while he dipped his head to her throat, newly liberated from beneath her scarf, she saw he'd straightened up the dreary room a bit. There were clearly a number of warming charms placed on the space as well as several candles lit and positioned sporadically, warding off the dull grey tones seeping in from outside.
"Godric, I missed you," she whispered as he unbuttoned her jeans and shoved them down her thighs, toward the ground. She stepped out of them, kicking her boots off in the process. "Thank you so much for the birthday gifts."
"I missed you too," Fred replied genuinely, tracing his thumb lightly across her jaw and brushing his lips over her forehead. Then he pulled back and a wolfish grin split his face. "And I'm glad you liked your presents, truly. Now turn around."
"Wha —?"
Hermione cut off abruptly when he placed his hands on her hips and, none-too-gently, spun her away from him. She reached out and pressed her hands into the wall beside the door to keep from stumbling, inhaling sharply and feeling the coarse wood grain beneath her fingertips.
Fred stepped close behind her, newly bare chest at her back. The hand on the left side of her waist slipped up beneath her blouse, the only article of clothing that she was still wearing save for her bra and knickers. He roughly shoved the cup of said bra up, palming her breast beneath and giving her nipple a firm pinch between his thumb and forefinger.
She gasped at this just as his other hand slid from her right hip, skimming across her stomach before plunging under the elastic waistband of her underwear.
He pressed forward against her and she felt his erection through the thick fabric of his jeans, hard and warm along the swell of her ass. A finger dipped into her and then drew upward, circling her clit.
She tried to speak but it came out as more of an incoherent whimper.
"Hermione?" Fred asked, voice a labored pant beside her ear.
"Yes?" She managed in reply, trying to drown herself in the sensation of him this close to her again. Amorentia didn't hold a candle to this.
"I love you, and I respect you more than anything. You know that, yeah?"
"'Course," she mumbled, letting her head tip back against his shoulder while his fingers continued to work over her, dipping languidly into her center and then drawing back up to her clit in a maddeningly perfect pattern.
He chuckled, lips unbelievably warm right beside her ear, and breathed softly, "Good. Because I'm about to fuck you like I don't."
Hermione gathered her scattered wits one last time before giving in to the pleasure building in her chest, taking over her brain, and managed to whimper out a single word: "Please."
Fred had never been rough with her before, not like this, but it made her heart stutter and her legs go weak. There was something borderline primal about it. The urgency, the undeniable need to have him touching her, feel him inside of her, after weeks of being separated.
They'd spent time apart before and, while she'd missed him dearly, it hadn't been like this, frantic and frenzied. It was as if they'd broken some sort of seal, having sex over the summer as they had. Now she was like an addict, and one long overdue for a hit.
His right hand pulled out of her knickers, which extracted a groan of frustration from her, but his left continued to play over her breasts beneath her jumper. He must have drawn his wand because he muttered the contraception charm, and she felt a familiar tingle in her abdomen. A second later she heard a zipper, then he reached back between her bare thighs, dragging and coating his cock with her. The blunt head pressed firm against her clit and she gasped.
"Bend over, feet apart and ass up," he directed, a hint of something desperate edging his voice. She spread her legs wider and bowed at the waist, bracing her hands more firmly on the wall in front of her, mostly focused on trying not to faint by that point. Fred made a satisfied sound in his throat and ran a hand lightly up her outer thigh before giving her bottom a firm squeeze. "Just like that. Good girl."
Whatever the intended effect, that had her rocking her hips mindlessly back toward him in search of relief and, interestingly enough, Hermione didn't give a damn how pathetically desperate she was for it. Eager and begging for him to fuck her was far from the worst state Fred had seen her in.
He lowered himself a little, pinning her knickers fully to the side and running the warm, slick length of his cock along her entrance again before finally, blessedly, pushing inside of her in one measured thrust.
Hermione cried out, turning her head toward her shoulder and squeezing her eyes shut for a second. Her fingers curled, nails digging into the wood at the same time that Fred's tightened their grip almost painfully on her hips. She'd likely have bruises and she didn't find that she was wholly opposed to that idea either.
He took his hand away from her chest and placed it on the other side of her waist, drawing backward until he was almost out of her and then shoving forward again, hard and with a pornographic slapping sound that she might giggle at under different circumstances.
"You feel so good," she moaned, grinding her hips a little, tightening around him and reveling in the way his body responded to her. The headiness of knowing how he would respond to her, and the lack of inhibition that came with it. "I think about you every night. In my bed, with the curtains drawn and silenced."
"Oh, bloody hell," he groaned breathlessly, rocking into her in a steady rhythm.
She grinned and, encouraged, continued, toeing the edges of her comfort zone. "When I slide my fingers under my knickers, between my thighs. Dip them inside my hot, w-wet cunt and rub them back and forth over my clit. All the while thinking about how you feel. How you smell. How you taste."
"Hermione –" Fred leaned forward over her, planting a hand above hers on the wall while the other stayed on her hip. A shudder rolled through him and she could see his bicep flexed and tight in her periphery. "I need you to touch yourself now. Can you do that for me, love?"
There was an urgency to his voice that implied he was nearing his own release.
She nodded, already painfully close as she brought her hand back between her legs and flicked her fingertips in a flurried, familiar back and forth motion while he fucked her from behind.
They were both breathing hard, sweat slicked along her lower back, dampening the curls at the nape of her neck.
"Hermione," Fred begged, a frantic sharpness to his voice, but she was already gone. Her knees buckled but the hand on her hip quickly disappeared, arm looping securely under her waist and supporting her while she trembled and clenched tightly around him, a veritable scream ringing through the room.
She was still in the throes when Fred ceased his movement as well, pressed flush against her ass and buried in her. He tipped forward, chest rising and falling against her back, hissing and groaning between his teeth in a manner not entirely dignified, but far sexier than anything she'd dreamed up alone in her bed. A few seconds passed as they both came back down, breathing labored.
"So," Fred huffed, leaning a bit more to the right and gently pushing her hair back over her shoulder to see her better. A lazy, satisfied smile stretched his face. "How's the rest of your week going, darling?"
Hermione grinned back and, still trying to catch her breath, leaned forward to give him a quick kiss.
"Better now."
He carefully pulled out of her, and they took a moment to clean up and redress.
"How long do you have?" he asked, conjuring their sofa and sinking onto it, pulling her into his lap.
"Just a few more minutes. Your sister very helpfully pointed out that Harry and Ron have pretty much managed to ignore every birthday I've had since knowing them, so they've taken it upon themselves to make it up to me in one particularly dreary Hogsmeade visit."
Fred laughed and wrapped his arms around her tightly as she nuzzled into his shoulder. "I love that she becomes 'my sister' rather than 'your friend' when she's done something wrong."
"Hush, those are the rules," Hermione said matter-of-factly, closing her eyes and pretending they had all day. "Everything alright with work? George and Angie?"
"Going swimmingly," he assured her, thumb circling beneath her jumper along her hip bone. "Surely you've seen evidence of our success throughout those hallowed halls that you so dutifully patrol?"
"Don't remind me," she huffed in exasperation. "If I have to vanish one more puddle of vomit, I'm going to fly to London and smother the both of you in your sleep."
They chatted for a little longer about nothing and everything until she spotted the edge of his watch, sticking out beneath the sleeve of his jumper and grabbed his wrist, examining it with a sigh.
"Time to go?" he asked with a gloomy expression, tightening his hold on her for a split-second like he might not let her go.
She nodded and sighed, climbing off his lap to put her shoes back on.
He walked her to the door and then placed one hand on either side of her head, bending to kiss her softly, fingers woven in the loose curls at the nape of her neck. It was such a stark contrast to the rough way he'd handled her earlier, and she positively loved that.
"'How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard?'" She recited, leaning back to look in his eyes, a perfect reflection of her own melancholy gleaming back at her.
"I'd venture to say you're pretty damn lucky," he grinned, tweaking her nose. Then they pulled apart and, with one last longing look backward, she walked through the door and back into the cold.
oOoOoOo
"Shall we call it a day and go back to school, then?" Harry proposed, his butterbeer now all but empty. Apparently Hermione's absence had been overshadowed by him and Ron running into Mundungus and Tonks, which they'd just animatedly filled her in on.
She and Ron nodded, draining the dredges from their own glasses before cocooning once more in coats and scarves. All things considered it had been a rather dismal visit outside of her clandestine rendezvous, which they obviously didn't know about, and her new quill from Harry. The shop owner at Scrivenshaft's said that it was from a Nicobar Pigeon, and it looked almost iridescent in the light.
Hermione spotted Katie ahead of them on the path as they left the village. She, much like Hermione, had been left behind when Alicia graduated, and Hermione had felt a sort of subsequent kinship with the girl, despite not knowing each other very well. So, when she heard her start to shout in a callous, hollow approximation of her usually kind voice, Hermione's metaphorical hackles immediately raised.
In a blink, Katie dropped whatever she'd been carrying, rising perhaps ten feet into the air like a spector and releasing an eerie, bone-chilling scream that would echo in Hermione's mind for nights to follow. The boys were completely frozen, but she didn't hesitate, pulling her wand and wrenching the sleeve of her coat up to reveal a bracelet with a little silver plate.
"Get to the path between Hogsmeade and the school, now," she hissed urgently, hearing the blood rushing in her ears nearly as loudly as the screaming.
Perhaps three seconds passed, Katie still suspended in the air, before there was a loud crack about 15 feet behind them and Fred slid to a halt in the sleet between Ron and her, eyes wide as he took in the scene. He must not have gone straight home after their assignation because he was still clad in outerwear.
"Get her down, now!" Fred yelled over the pandemonium, rushing forward with Leann, who Katie had been walking with, as well as the trio. Ron and Harry didn't even have the presence of mind to question his being there. Not yet, anyway.
Just as they made to tug on Katie's legs, she went limp and dropped, landing more or less in Fred's arms and sending both him and Harry sprawling backward into the snow.
"What the hell happened?!" Fred shouted over Katie's continued screaming. She started to jerk and seize in his arms, eyes rolling back so they looked solid white.
"I don't know, she was carrying – " Hermione started frantically, cutting off as her gaze focused in. She'd knelt beside him and started to crawl toward the discarded brown paper package, now sopping with melted snow.
"Don't touch it!" She cried at Ron, also crouched near the thing. There was an ornate silver and opal necklace peeking out beneath the wrapping. Harry was back on his feet beside Leann, who had descended fully into hysterics.
"We need to get her to the school," Fred directed with an authoritative tone. He shifted Katie carefully off his lap and Hermione cast mobilicorpus, suspending her twitching frame several inches off the ground as he got to his feet.
They shared a weighted look and a nod before he turned away. She only dithered for a second as he started to hasten up the path with Katie floating beside him, hearing Harry mention Malfoy's name as he tried to speak to a distraught Leann.
"Knock it off with the half-baked theories about Malfoy and get that thing to Dumbledore or McGonagall, now!" She snapped coarsely, gesturing at the necklace. Her socks were damp, she was terrified, and more than anything in that moment she was beyond frustrated with his juvenile theorising. Harry made to protest but she didn't listen, turning and following Fred and Katie up the path at a sprint.
"Are you alright?" he huffed curtly as they jogged together toward the school, leaving the other three behind and hearing traces of Hagrid's booming voice as he arrived on the scene.
"Fine," she replied just as brusquely, beads of condensation hanging in the frigid air as they spoke like a cloud. It was a lie and they both knew it, but it was one that would have to be addressed later. They proceeded in silence, save for Katie's whimpering and their heavy breathing, right through the doors to the castle and up the stairs. A few people remarked on Fred's presence as well as Katie's state as they passed, but they both completely ignored it.
They arrived in the hospital wing a second later and descended upon an unsuspecting Madam Pomfrey, who'd just finished administering a Pepper-Up Potion to a young student with a red nose and chapped lips. The child went wide-eyed upon seeing Katie and took off from the room like a shot, white as a ghost and without even a glance back. Poor thing was going to have nightmares.
"What on earth —?" Madam Pomfrey started, nearly dropping the glass she was holding.
"She was cursed," Hermione gasped, breathing hard and pressing a hand tight against the stitch stabbing between her ribs. "Necklace. Don't know what was on it. Harry and Ron are bringing it up to the school."
"How long has she been like this?" The matron asked, suddenly all business as she levitated Katie onto the nearest bed. She immediately began casting diagnostics, examining the various readings and colors suspended over the body that meant very little to someone not trained to understand them.
"Not long," Fred said, shaking his head. "She was floating when Hermione called for me. Then she fell, and it was only a few seconds before we made to bring her here."
"Did she hit her head?"
"No, I caught her."
Madam Pomfrey nodded and then began to work, summoning potions and supplies from nearby cupboards, all the while muttering under her breath and moving her hand and wand together in synchronicity.
Adrenaline fading, Hermione's hands began to shake and she stumbled backward to a chair just in time for her knees to give out. Fred took one last look at Katie before turning to crouch in front of her.
"Breathe, love," he instructed calmly, though his own voice was strained and his face ashen. He pulled his glove off and laid a warm hand against her flushed, frozen cheek.
"She – she was arguing with Leann before it happened, but she didn't sound like herself."
"Imperious curse?" Fred asked, brow furrowing.
"I – I don't – " Hermione felt tears breech her eyelids as she shook her head. She tried to swallow around the lump in her throat, thinking back and attempting to recall the details of the girl's behavior right before everything went to hell. "M-Maybe. Probably."
"Okay, alright, don't worry about it right now." He removed his other glove, throwing it callously aside and cupping her face, thumbing the tears on her cheeks away with tender, practiced movements. Dark blue eyes searched her face. "Just breathe. Look at me, focus on me, and breathe."
"There's calming draught in that cabinet," Madam Pomfrey said quickly but gently, glancing over her shoulder at the two of them while she continued to work. She motioned across the room and then turned back to the bed. It struck Hermione in a detached sort of way that she didn't seem remotely surprised by Fred's intimacy with her.
Fred got up and opened the door to the cupboard, extracting a purple phial labeled in neat writing and returning to Hermione. He conjured a small glass and decanted a bit into it, handing it to her before bringing the flask to his own lips and taking a swig directly from it. Hermione drained what she was given, the shaking in her hands ceasing almost immediately, heart rate slowing as well.
"How is she, Poppy?" Professor McGonagall had arrived, sweeping in with Professors Dumbledore and Snape close behind her. The necklace, now fully exposed from its wrapping, was levitating beside them, encased in a light blue shield charm roughly the size of a quaffle.
"I have her stable enough to move, but she'll need to get to Saint Mungo's immediately," Madam Pomfrey said, lowering her wand and not looking at all satisfied with her patient's state. Katie had stopped twitching and quieted, laid prone and unmoving on the cot, but she was paler than Sir Nicholas and sweat beaded over her cheeks and along her hairline.
"Severus?" Dumbledore entreated, and Snape wordlessly nodded. Madam Pomfrey readied the girl for travel, shrouding her in a heavy blanket, and then the two of them levitated her off the bed and toward the door to Madam Pomfrey's quarters, which presumably housed a fireplace and floo.
"Mr. Weasley, your brother mentioned that you were the one to happen upon them when the incident occurred," McGonagall said, turning to Fred, who was standing beside the chair Hermione was still occupying. His hand was on her shoulder, but he didn't make any move to pull it away. In fact, she thought he might have gripped her a little tighter.
"Yes," Fred confirmed, not bothering to clarify that it was a bit more than happenstance. "I got there just before she fell. Is that the thing she touched?"
He tipped his head, examining the necklace through the shield charm encasing it.
"Yes, Mr. Potter wrapped it in a scarf and carried it up to the school. He told me he'd seen it before, at –"
"Borgin and Burke's," Hermione cut in, setting her glass on the table and looking at the necklace more closely, realising then that she too recognised it. Her throat was still tight, but she felt far more composed than she had when they'd arrived. She reached up to give Fred's hand a quick squeeze as she got to her feet. "We saw it at Borgin and Burke's over the summer."
"What were you doing in Knockturn Alley?" Fred asked sharply, looking at her sideways with surprised, troubled eyes.
"Remember when George said Malfoy was acting dodgy? When we were out on the balcony? We followed him after, and that's where he went. I didn't think to mentioned it to you because nothing really came of it."
Dumbledore, who'd remained silent, looked curiously between them for a second.
"Mr. Potter mentioned as much," Professor McGonagall said, seeming to brush aside any personal inquisitiveness in regard to their more than friendly dynamic. "Did you see Mr. Malfoy actually leave the shop with the necklace?"
"No," Hermione shook her head. "But he said something to Borgin about holding it for him."
"I see…" she trailed off. "Mr. Potter seemed to think –"
"That Malfoy is the root of all evil?" Hermione finished tiredly, arching a brow with the barest hint of a cynical smile tugging at her cheeks. "I know. But hundreds of people come and go from Knockturn Alley every week, and Malfoy wasn't at the pub today."
"No, he wasn't. In fact, he was serving detention with me until a few moments ago."
They lapsed into a pensive silence before Professor Dumbledore spoke. "Mr. Weasley, could you please inform the other Order members of this incident? Miss Spinnet as well; I'm to understand she and Miss Bell are involved, no?"
"Yes, I'll tell everyone," Fred said, nodding and squaring his shoulders a bit. Hermione was briefly struck by how very adult he seemed, then.
"I'm going to have Fillius take a look at this and then get it to Saint Mungo's," McGonagall said. "Perhaps they can use it to counteract whatever happened to the girl." She took her leave without further comment, crossing the wing at a clip.
"Very good. Miss Granger, I trust you can accompany Mr. Weasley down to the gates? Seeing as he is technically a guest at our school."
"Yes, of course, sir," Hermione said, her cheeks heating a little. She was unnerved by the knowing twinkle in his eye.
All three of them departed the hospital wing, Dumbledore heading in the direction of his office and Hermione and Fred back out onto the grounds.
"Well, that wasn't quite as pleasant an afternoon as I'd hoped it would be," Fred said grimly. "I was just about to pick up lunch when I got your message." He paused for a moment before adding thoughtfully. "Do you think Dumbledore uses a charm for the eye-sparkle thing?"
Hermione huffed a laugh at his weak attempt at humor and nodded tiredly, leaning heavily into his side a little as they walked into the cold wind. She didn't much care who saw them at that point, and there were certainly a couple curious looks.
The trip was mostly silent, Fred's arm wrapped securely about her shoulders while they trekked through the snow.
"I'll write and tell you how Katie is as soon as I know more," Fred promised when they reached the edge of the wards. He offered a proud, if melancholy smile. "For what it's worth, you did really well today."
"Mmm. If only there were a NEWT for life and death situations, I'd be a shoo-in for an O." Fred snorted quietly, gripping her hand like he didn't ever want to let it go. They stayed like that for a long moment and Hermione blinked back tears, the rollercoaster of emotions they'd gone through in the past two hours finally catching up with her.
"Okay, get a move on," she finally sniffled, swatting him lightly toward the gate. "I need to go deal with Harry and your brother."
"Trying to get rid of me?"
She smiled but shook her head, throat tight. "No. In fact I'd keep you here forever if I could. But… if I were Alicia, I'd want to know what happened sooner than later."
He nodded grimly, swallowing hard and dropping his forehead to rest against hers. Neither of them said it, neither of them needed to, but they both thought it.
Not long ago he had been Alicia.
"I love you," he said softly.
"I love you too," she replied, screwing her eyes shut. "Please be careful."
Hermione took a moment to herself after he left, casting a charm to reduce the puffiness around her eyes, and then headed back to the common room. Harry and Ron were camped on the sofa in front of the fireplace with Neville and Ginny, motioning her over.
She moved to join them, slowing as she passed the bulletin board and heaving a defeated sigh when she saw its newest posting, front and center.
In the interest of keeping Hogwarts' staff and students safe, as well as its grounds secure, the remaining Hogsmeade visits for the 1996-1997 school year have been cancelled.