The Inevitable Fight

Chapter Two

The light of flickering candles cast dancing shadows across her face. Gingerly gliding his fingers over her ribs, moving upwards over her arms, he seized them at the wrists, pressing them back against the pillows. Trailing kisses across her clavicle, her neck, her shoulders...

Out of the corner of his eye he glimpsed it, illuminated just enough to stand out against her skin. Hesitating, his eyes lingered too long, drawing his attention away, and eventually hers.

"Fred," she would whisper. "Look at me."

The madness was already swirling in the depths of his blue eyes. Breaking from his grasp, she rolled out of his embrace to reach for her tank top.

"Hermione..." he sighed, but she ignored his pleading.

Murmuring the spell to extinguish the candles, she slid into a seated position, moving to lean her back against the headboard, and flip on the bedside light.

"You are never going to let this go, are you?" She asked, pulling her knees to her chest, concealing the scar by hugging her legs tight.

"Could you, if it was the other way around?" He sat up, redirecting his anger at her rather than phantom Deatheaters. "Every time we have this conversation, you conveniently forget how paranoid you were the year after I nearly died. You even told me that the minute you saw him raise the wand, you knew it would be the end of me. If you hadn't been wearing your Time Turner—"

"—I wouldn't be sitting here with you. Fred, trust me when I say I am perfectly aware of what I almost lost," she spat bitterly, as if she needed the reminder.

oOoOoOoOo

The acrid scent of Fiendfyre still burned in her nostrils as Hermione gained her bearings. The Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw had just disintegrated in Harry's hands, a black residue spilling from it like some primordial ooze. As it secreted, a fierce, high pitch shriek rent the air, and she knew.

"Don't you realize? This means if we can just get the snake—"

The echo of a familiar, comforting laugh hit her ears—a laugh she missed dreadfully, seldom heard over the last year, transported only by radio wave.

"Fred?" she whispered almost inaudibly, barely able to find her voice or her breath.

Frantic feet brought her closer to the voice she needed so desperately to hear, the face she needed to see, the hand she needed to hold, and the lips she needed to kiss. Two ginger haired brothers came backing into the corridor, slinging jinxes and hexes at the approaching Deatheaters who had apparently breached the castle.

Just feet away, after a long, turbulent year apart. There had never been a heartfelt goodbye or romantic, grandiose last kiss—just a narrow escape by the skin of her teeth that was just the beginning of a year of narrow escapes and near death experiences.

Joining the fray, Hermione sent a slew of defensive spells at the Deatheaters. Her last jinx missed as her target deflected it, responding by raising his wand toward the ceiling above Fred and Percy's heads, unbeknownst to the ginger wizards.

"No!" she gasp, fear and rage coalescing in her chest.

"Hello, Minister! Did I mention I'm resigning?"

"You're joking, Perce! You're actually are joking... I don't think I've heard you joke since you were –"

"Protego Duo!" echoed through the hall cast by a familiar, yet disembodied voice.

The air exploded, casting bodies asunder through the clouding air, but even through the reverberating deafness that rang in the wake of the explosion, she was sure she had heard her own voice just before the blast. Lifting her head, Hermione blinked her smoke stung eyes, drawing it up in dread, panicked and searching for Fred who she thought surely had been crushed in the collapse.

To her astonishment, Hermione saw herself thrown over Fred's prone body, wand thrust into the air holding the shield charm as the remaining rubble cascaded down.

"Her-Hermione?" Fred stuttered barely above a whisper, then snapped a double take at the second Hermione fast-approaching. "Hermiones!?" He broke into an incredulous laugh. "It's a month late, but it looks like I got my birthday wish after all." To which, he winked seductively, flashing that rogue's grin that made her positively melt.

"Quick," her duplicate announced, tugging at her own Time Turner dangling from her neck, "a quarterturn ought to do it."

The duplicate threw her head back in the direction of the dark hall from which she had just emerged, indicating for Hermione to take her place and wait. Nodding her understanding, Hermione broke towards the dark corridor, escaping being seen by the others just as they began to rise.

Rounding the corner, she slid, losing her footing and skidding across the floor on gravelly rubble from a fallen archway. Crashing against the wall, fighting to not collapse from the pain of the impact coupled with her mounting exhaustion, she gripped her wand fiercely searching for the strength to continue.

But, in her heart, as well as her racing mind, she knew there was only one reason she would risk coming back to the past. Fred will die, she whispered, giving herself the needed strength to endure. A slight turn to the Time Turner sent the world reversing around her nearly fifteen minutes.

The pounding in her ears was drowning out the screams and concussions rebounding around her. Flashes of green and blue across the decorative stone blinded her in bursts, leaving their temporary negative imprints on her vision. Through the ruins of the archway, she saw the sole purpose for her trip: Fred was charging backwards down the hall crossing the corridor, pursued along with Percy by the Deatheaters.

The minute she heard Percy mocking Pius Thickneese she pushed off the wall, using it to gain the momentum she might not have otherwise conjured. As she heard the cracking of the stone above her, she sprinted from the darkness, catching Fred's eyes a split second before the ceiling came crashing down.

"Protego Duo!" she bellowed as she dove, thrusting her wand towards the free falling debris, closing her arms around Fred in a death grip embrace.

Through the settling dust, she locked eyes with her next doppleganger while Fred made lewd suggestions about what he might do with two Hermiones. Twins, honestly, she huffed, rolling her eyes as the next Hermione dashed towards the dark corridor to keep the cycle of time circling, ensuring Fred survived the explosion.

As she watched herself slip into the darkness, she felt his palm reach up and brush her cheek. Her eyes darted from her retreating figure to a set of blue ones, swimming with love and relief.

"I knew I would see you again. The only lesson you could never learn was when to give up."

"Fred? Hermione? Are you alright?" Harry shouted as he and Percy came scrambling from where they had been thrown.

"Never better, Potter!" Fred exclaimed as a giant smile split his lips, drawing himself up and helping Hermione to her feet, taking her hand in his. "But, you lot have stunning heroics to do. Go. End this for us."

Hermione squeezed his hand, closing her eyes, not ready to depart so quickly after just being reunited, after saving his life. But, she knew he was right.

"Potter might be the Chosen One, but he's rubbish without the Brightest Witch of Her Age," Fred added, forcing her to smile. Chucking her on the jaw, he added, "That's my girl. Now go..." Fred took Hermione's face into his dusted hands, bringing her lips to meet his. "But, not without a proper goodbye this time."

"Be more careful next time," she smirked. "I've more pressing matters to attend to than saving your reckless arse."

He winked, and bopped her nose before grabbing Percy by the arm, and dashing away to slay more death eaters.

Turning to face Harry and Ron, she was met with shocked expressions. That's when she remembered that, save for George, no one knew about her and Fred.

Ron just stood there looking horrified.

"Explain?" Harry asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"No time," she huffed, grabbing them by their sleeves to get them moving, "We have to find the snake."