Sinners and Saints

Part 21

Hermione's p.o.v.

The yell of 'DINNER' came up the stairs and disrupted Ginny and Hermione's chat. They had moved on to talking about school and Ginny had just been about to tell her something when they were rudely interrupted.

"Come on we'd better head down before Mum sends us a howler." Ginny giggled cheekily.

The two girls got up and headed down the stairs, when they reached the bottom George was there patiently waiting for something or someone.

"Mione, I don't think Fred heard me, can you go and get him please?" He asked with a sly grin on his face.

"I have no idea how that's possible unless he's deaf," she paused, "but I don't hear him coming down so I'll go and check."

"I thank you Miss Granger, wholeheartedly." He bowed gracefully.

"Yeah yeah alright Georgie relax." Hermione let out a chuckled at his antics and headed back upstairs.

"What was that about?" Ginny asked.

"All in good time sister, all in good time." responded George as he ushered her into the kitchen.

Hermione, slightly confused by her encounter with George, stood outside the room she was sharing with Fred, George and Angelina, she could hear someone shuffling around inside, so Fred really mustn't have heard George's loud bellow. So she knocked, despite having slept in the room for the past week and a half.

The door swung open and on the other side was a hysterical Angelina and a clueless Fred. Fred had discovered Hermione's magically adapted walkman and was dancing around the room to god knows what and Angelina, who must have been there a while, was in fits of tears, laughing at the scene before the two girls.

Angelina put her fingers to her lips and urged Hermione to come in and shut the door, clearly wanting to enjoy this for as long as possible. Although this amused Hermione greatly, she was very hungry and had a mission to bring these two down for dinner, she knew she'd have to spoil the fun despite really not wanting to at all.

After a good five minutes of watching Fred dance carelessly, Hermione told Angelina about dinner and with some persuading she went down to dinner so that Hermione could carefully pull Fred out of his trance without hurting anyone.

The thought made her giggle again, she approached Fred from the side and gave him a small tap on the shoulder, which despite it being incredibly gentle, made him jump a foot in the air.

"Good God Mia! Give a man some warning next time please." Fred exclaimed, holding his chest.

"I've been in here watching you for about five minutes, you had every opportunity to open your eyes and see me, and Ange was in here for God knows how long before me in fits of laughter. You also had every chance to open your eyes and see her." Hermione grinned as a slightly red tinge made its way across Fred's cheeks.

"I was just caught up in the music, it was a good song, are you sure they're a muggle band?" He asked.

"Everything on there is muggle music, so yes, anyway George sent me up, dinner's ready."

"Well why didn't you say sooner, I'm famished!" He grabbed her hand and dragged her out the room and down the stairs.

When they reached the doorway entering the kitchen, however, the two of them froze. Something wouldn't budge. They were well and truly stuck.

"What on earth is going on?" Hermione asked.

Having had a hand in it's making, Fred looked up just to be sure. His suspicions were correct, someone, he was thinking his equally mischievous twin, had hung some binding mistletoe in the doorway. Fred looked into the kitchen at the rest of his family, shook his head and chuckled. This caught Hermione's attention, who was still confused about what was happening but you could see the cogs in her brain turning trying to figure out a way to release them from this spell they had been obviously trapped in.

Fred turned his gaze from his amused siblings to Hermione. She noticed this motion and met his gaze fiercely still trying to figure out what had them trapped. She watched as Fred nodded upward, drawing her attention to the enchanted mistletoe that was hanging above them. Fred could see the realisation dawning on her face. Hermione rolled her eyes, she smiled and her eyes flicked between the audience of people in the kitchen and Fred.

Fred leaned down and whispered in her ear.

"The only way to break the enchantment is a kiss Mia."

"I know." She responded casually, almost offended that he thought she hadn't worked that out.

"Well then." He grinned down at her once more before bringing his lips firmly down upon hers.

Hermione smiled into the kiss, before pulling away, being very aware of the rest of their family in the kitchen watching their encounter.

She and Fred made their way to the remaining seats around the table.

"Let's eat!" cried Ron, although having enjoyed the confusion on Hermione's face, was rather hungry.

.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.

Hermione begrudgingly was packing her suitcase for her return to Hogwarts, although she loved it there and was always pleased to go back, this time was different. She was in a bad mood and wished she didn't have to leave. Having spent a wonderful Christmas and New Years with the people she loved most in this world, leaving them felt wrong and upsetting, despite how much her education meant to her.

Fred knocked on the door and came in.

"You don't have to knock," She said with a sad smile, "this is your room too."

"I know but I was being polite. It's what a gentleman does darling." He said.

"Hmm." acknowledging what he said but not really looking away from her trunk.

"This isn't like you Hermione, usually you make a sassy comment about how I'm not really a gentleman, then I'd fake offence so I could get a loving kiss out of you to make it up to me. I can't do that on my own now can I?" Fred joked, trying to improve the mood he could tell she was in.

"I'm sorry love, I really just don't want to leave you and go back to Hogwarts. I always miss you but this time it just feels worse, more painful, it feels like I haven't had enough time with you and now I have to go away again and I hate it." she responded.

"I know, I feel it too, but I'll come and visit and I'm sure with a bit of persuasion from her old favourite students, Minnie will let you out to see me once in a while." He smiled down at her then pulled her into an embrace.

Hermione immediately felt better, but her mood didn't completely change. 

 .·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.

The station was packed, as per usual. Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione made their way to one of the carriages. The others said their goodbyes to Molly, Arthur and Fred and made their way onto the train, finding themselves a compartment.

Hermione turned to Fred, one last goodbye. The interaction was purely spoken through the eyes, nothing more needed to be said. With one last kiss and hug, they parted ways. Anything more and Hermione really wouldn't have been able to get on the train. She was the brightest witch of her age, a war heroine and had survived torture and yet Fred Weasley really made her melt.