Fremione Fic

Chapter 3

 "Maybe I should give him more time, I don't know if he wants to talk to me!" I said as I was pacing outside the front door of the Burrow. George, Ginny, and Harry had already gone inside while I figured out what to say to Ron. Fred decided to stay with me and help me get my mind straight before I went in to talk with Ron.

"Just go in there and tell him what's on your mind. Tell him how you feel. You can do this ,Hermione, you're the most brilliant, headstrong witch I know besides my mother. That woman is crazy." Fred ended his sentence with a lopsided grin then put an arm around me and squeezed my shoulder, "Just go, I'll be waiting in the den to take you home after you two finish. Good luck!"

"Fred, wait!" he opened the door and shoved me in. Then the little prat ran off to the den and left me alone to go and face Ron. Some help he was. I made my way to the kitchen (Because where else would Ron be) and was greeted by Harry making his way to the door in a hurried pace.

"Harry, what's wrong?"

"Hermione you do not wanna go in there, Ron is furious. George told him you were coming to talk to him and ever since I've been trying to cool him off, but he will not calm down. Maybe today isn't the best day to talk to him." Harry said as he put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a gentle smile.

"That's enough, Harry, I'm going in there and I am going to make myself clear. I don't care how mad he is, he has to hear me out. Thank you for your concern, but I will see you in a bit." I shrugged his hand off of my shoulder and walked into the kitchen. As soon as I made my presence known Ron turned on his heel and made his way towards me.

"Look what the cat dragged in, glad you finally got the bloody courage to come speak to me! What do you plan on telling me now? That it was wrong of me to be mad at you on your birthday? Or do you have another excuse? Speak up, Hermione, I wanna hear all you have to say!" at this point he was shouting in my face, he reeked of alcohol. That explains everything, he's been drinking. I was not about to put up with his nonsense anymore.

"Yes, Ronald, it was wrong of you to embarrass me in front of all my friends on my birthday. It was extremely wrong of you to treat me that way! I won't have any more of it because from this point on, we're through. And maybe, just maybe, once you get your life together we can try to work things out and become friends again. Now would you please get out of my face, I can smell the alcohol on your breath and it's quite disgusting." I heard someone walk in the room and before I could turn to see who it was I felt a sharp pain. My hand rose to my cheek where Ron had just slapped me.

I looked up at his face to see him just as shocked as I was. He put a hand to his mouth and started muttering apologies.

"That's it!" I heard Fred voice and turned my attention to the other side of the room and saw Fred practically running towards Ron with his hands ready to hit anyone who tried to stop him.

"Fred, please don't! It's not worth it." I tried to grab his wrist as he walked by me but he just raised his other hand and hit Ron so hard he fell back. "Fred Weasley! Why on earth did you just hit your brother?" Mrs. Weasley was now in the room and her face was bright red as she made her way over to Ron who was now lying on the floor holding a hand to his jaw.

"Because, mum, he just hit Hermione." His attention went to me and he walked over and pushed a strand of hair behind my ear. "Look at what he did to her." My face went bright red as Fred remained close to me while Mrs. Weasley examined my slight injury.

"Ronald Billius Weasley!" was the last thing I heard before Fred walked me out of the room and to the den. He sat down next to me and we sat in silence until Ginny came down from her room with Harry following close behind.

"I heard mum yelling, what happened?" she said before she could see my face. Fred started to speak and you could hear the anger lining his voice but I cut him off.

"Nothing, everything is fine. The conversation went well." I said quietly and gave a faint smile then avoided making eye contact with Ginny. Fred sat upright and stared at me in disbelief. "Everything is not fine, Ron was yelling at Hermione and hit her. So I gave him what he deserved." He said as he stood up and stormed off up the stairs to his old room. Ginny's attention went to me and her jaw dropped.

"He hit you? He's never acted this way before! What's gotten into him?" she turned on her heels and walked towards the kitchen and joined in on the yelling with Mrs. Weasley. Harry came and sat next to me then pulled me in for a hug.

"He deserved to be punched, he needed to realize he can't act this way and not have any consequences." He spoke quietly as I hugged him tighter. "You're one of my best friends, Hermione, it's always been me you and Ron. But I think all of us need to take a break from Ron to let him get his life together. I'm always here if you need me." He released me from his grip and walked off into the kitchen to see what was going on. It was getting late so I went up to Fred and George's old room and knocked lightly on their door, "I just wanted to say goodnight before I went home, and thanks." I turned around and started to walk off when I heard the door open abruptly and someone grab my hand.

"I'll walk you home, just give me a minute to get my shoes." Fred smiled and let go of my hand as he walked back into his room to retrieve his shoes. I made my way down the stairs and left a short note for Ginny telling her to owl me later.

"Ready to go?" Fred asked as he opened the door for me and I gave him a small nod and walked out. About ten minutes of walking in silence Fred stops mid step and curses under his breath.

"I forgot to feed the Pygmy's! George is gonna kill me, do you mind if we stop by the shop so I can feed them?" he looked desperate so I sighed and agreed. "Good." He grabbed my hand and then without a warning we apparated. As soon as we were at the joke shop I let go of Fred's hand and smacked his chest.

"You should have warned me! That could have ended badly, we could have gotten hurt." I scolded him as he just threw his head back and laughed. Glad to know he thought it was funny. He walked toward the entrance of the shop and the door flew open and all of the lights turned on.

"How did you-" he answered my question before I could finish asking it

"George and I have the whole place rigged up with charms. We aren't completely stupid." He said as he took long strides towards the Pygmy puff cages.

"I never said you were stupid..." I muttered as I walked up to see what he was doing. To my surprise, his large callused hands were rather gentle with the small creatures. He finished feeding them then washed his hands and started up the stairs. "Where are you going?" I asked putting my hands on my hips.

"Come on, you haven't seen the flat yet." He said disappearing up the stairs. Reluctantly I followed and made my way up the flight of stairs and pushed open a brightly colored door. I cautiously walked in looking for Fred or George. "Fred, it's not funny anymore. I can't see!" I felt a hand wrap around my waist and I turned a bit too fast and toppled onto him letting out a faint yelp.

"Just can't keep yourself off of me can ya?" Fred said as a smirk formed on his face and he wiggled his eyebrows. I let out a frustrated groan as I tried to untangle myself from this situation. I heard someone clear their throat and I turned around to see George standing with an eyebrow raised.

"Fred, you've got quite a lot of explaining to do."

"No no no no, it's not what it looks like- I just followed him up here- and he grabbed me- and it was dark." A rapid blush started to cover my face as I stood up and straightened my shirt and pulled my hair behind my ears. "I should go home." I said as I started walking to the door and Fred jumped up from the floor holding back his laughter.

"Want me to take you home?" he said, still smirking.

"I'm good, thank you." I spoke hastily and walked out of that bloody shop as fast as I could.

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