It was quite late when Hermione and Harry got back home. The time had gotten awayfrom them and they had talked with Ginny and Ron for a while after the long chess game. Ron had obviously won the chess game. He was, after all, the best at chess. Harry had played Ginny and then Ginny had played Hermione. The game was short and Ginny had won since Hermione couldn’t play chess at all.

When they had realised what time it was they said their goodbyes to Ginny, Ron, Mr and Mrs. Weasley. Hermione noticed that Fred was leaning against the doorway in the kitchen while she hugged Ron goodbye. Maybe it was the lighting in the kitchen or the sleepiness that made her think the next thought but she had thought how handsome Fred had looked. His eyes seemed to know what she was thinking as he smirked at her and she blushed before hugging Ginny goodbye.

‘I hope you’ll come back soon,’ Mrs Weasley said to Hermione and Harry.

Hermione replied that she would love to come back. She would miss them and the food was great. After all the goodbyes, Harry and Hermione walked out of the door and into the long and unruly weeds. Hermione looked up at the shining stars which stare down at them, winking like they had a secret that she didn’t know about. Hermione smiled and took Harry’s hand. They apparated home and Hermione unlocked the front door and let Harry into the house. She made sure to lock the door and when she turned, she saw that Harry was staring at her.

‘What?’ asked Hermione uncomfortably as the green eyes scrutinised her like she had done something wrong.

‘Hermione, I know I have no right to say this but...’ Harry paused for a second and Hermione waited.

She looked calm enough. Her hands were crossed over her chest and she smoothed the frown off of her face but inside she felt like screaming. He knows! He knows about her and Fred and he’ll think that she was cheating on Ron. But she wasn’t cheating since she only liked Fred as a friend... that isn’t cheating. Ron had told her to stay away from Fred and she hadn’t... He knows...

‘But... um... I found this in your jeans pocket when you put it out for washing,’ Harry showed her a piece of parchment and at first she was confused then she understood it was from Viktor, ‘I know I shouldn’t have read it but I did because I don’t want you to get hurt and so... I read it and... I don’t think you should meet him.’

‘Harry, I-’ Hermione walked forward but he stopped her.

‘Listen, I don’t want you to meet him because he is really famous. I don’t want your face in the Daily Prophet because you know they’ll make a story out of anything. They’ll say that you are dating him and... you know what I mean, Hermione. So please don’t meet him. You don’t need you relationship with Ron to be even more confusing,’ Harry shrugged and handed her the paper, ‘We don’t need people following us about like dogs. It’s a wonder how they don’t know where we are staying...’

‘I understand, Harry, I’ll invite him over here if he wants to come,’ said Hermione, at ease now, ‘It’s late so I’m going to sleep. See you tomorrow.’

‘Bye,’ said Harry.

Hermione went into her room and quickly scrawled a letter,

‘Dear Viktor,

                        I’m sorry I can not meet you at Diagon Alley but if you want, you can come over to my house? Please send me another if you are able to come.

Love, Hermione’

She paused, holding the letter in her hands while George the owl hooted to her. Hermione absentmindedly stroked George’s head and the owl leaned into her hand. She noticed the way the orange in the owl’s feathers stood out. Almost the same as the Weasley’s hair colour. The owl hooted again and nipped her hand. She bent down to George’s level and the owl stared into her eyes.

‘George?’ she whispered and as soon as she said it, she realised how crazy it looked.

Hermione Granger was on her knees in front of an owl that coincidentally looked like her boyfriends brother... and she was talking to it. But she couldn’t help it. The owl reminded her so much of George. It was possible that he had come back as an owl but she knew that was crazy. Hermione didn’t believe in reincarnation. She thought the idea was ludicrous. Dead is dead. Gone is gone. Hermione stood up and she turned her attention to the letter in her hands. Without another thought she scrapped the letter and wrote a new one:

‘Dear Viktor,

                        I’m so sorry I can’t meet you. I won’t be able to make it as I have work to go to. Maybe another time?

love Hermione’

Hermione didn’t like lying but something in her heart made her write the letter. She didn’t want to meet Viktor. She couldn’t meet him. If Ron found out that she had met him and shared a drink with him... well, she couldn’t see it going down too well. She quickly tied the letter to George who stared up at her as she told him where to go. George hooted once and nipped her hand affectionately and he soared off into the sky, his wings spread out around him as though he was going to shade the world. Hermione quickly got changed into her nightclothes and then she left some water out for George and also left the window open for when he got back. She climbed into bed and her thoughts went to Fred.

She knew Ron hated that she even talked to Fred. She also knew that she had told Ron that she wouldn’t talk to Fred. But she couldn’t help it! She had to help Fred and she felt as though no one else could help Fred except her. She knew Fred would act like everything is fine and that the sun is shining inside his head but that was lies. He wasn’t afraid to open up to Hermione but he was afraid to tell anyone else how he felt. Hermione turned around in her bed and sighed loudly. Fred needed her help and she would help him as best as she could even if it meant lying to Ron. Hermione closed her eyes and soon sleep over took her into it’s horrid rock bottom of nightmares.

---

*Harry’s POV*

Harry was waking her up by shaking her violently but Hermione screamed loudly again and again as though she was being murdered. Harry shook her yet again and tried to avoid her flailing hands that were so close to hitting his face. George the owl was screeching loud as he watched Hermione squirm in bed. The owl flew up to the scene and hooted indignantly as he sat on Hermione’s bed side table.

‘HERMIONE WAKE UP!’ shouted Harry, making George hoot again as though he was trying to tell Harry that shouting wouldn’t help.

Harry was breathing heavily and he took out his wand as Hermione’s scream escalated into a full blown high pitch shriek.

‘Augumenti,’ he muttered and water sprayed out of his wand and splashed onto Hermione’s face.

She jerked as the water went onto her face and the owl flew to sit right beside her. Hermione sat up straight and stared at Harry. Harry, on the other hand, was looking exhausted as he lay side ways on her bed. Hermione calmed the owl down as it flew onto her lap.

‘What the bloody hell just happened?’ asked Harry, sitting up and looking at Hermione furiously, ‘What were you dreaming about?!’

‘I as having a nightmare... about the war,’ said Hermione and then tears split from her eyes as she buried her face in her hands.

Harry looked to the owl, in shock and the owl looked to Harry. Not for the first time Harry thought the owl was ordering him to do something. He could tell as the owl hooted again and spread it’s wings. He ripped his eyes away from the owl and patted Hermione’s back.

‘Listen to me, Hermione, I wont let anyone hurt you anymore. The war is over thankfully and he’s not coming back,’ Harry rubbed her back soothingly until Hermione stopped crying, ‘Listen, it’ll be fine. I’ll make breakfast while you have a shower. Take your time.’

Hermione nodded and Harry left to go downstairs. He was relieved as he heard the bathroom door shut. Harry put some bread in the toaster and fried some eggs. He also decided to make pancakes. Harry was reminded of the time in the Dursley house where he had to cook breakfast and had to try not to burn it. His cooking skills had improved greatly since that time, he thought with a grin. He didn’t like to think of the Dursely’s often but he did want them to be safe and have a good life. Dudley had expressed that he thought Harry was not a waste of space. Harry had been shocked to hear that. He could still remember the expression on Mr Dursely’s face. He had been so—

‘Thank you for making breakfast, Harry but you didn’t have to... I would have-’ Hermione had walked into the kitchen and was looking at the plate of food on the table.

‘Nonsense, Hermione. It was my pleasure,’ said Harry and gestured for her to sit.

Hermione took a seat and Harry sat opposite her. He dished out breakfast and they began eating. Hermione looked down at her food thoughtfully and Harry felt like asking about her nightmare but thought against it. She wouldn’t want him to know and anyway everything was fine now. She looked happy enough.

‘So Hermione,’ said Harry, cutting some pancakes.

‘So Harry,’ replied Hermione and looked up to see him smiling.

‘What are you doing today?’ he asked.

Hermione shrugged and Harry thought that she needed to get out of the house but before he could say anything Hermione spoke.

‘I just want to be alone today... you know, have a lazy day,’ se said and looked down.

‘Sure,’ said Harry.

He wasn’t sure that he wanted to leave Hermione home alone. Then he mentally slapped himself. She could take care of herself and probably would not appreciate it if he was looking over her shoulder every day. She needed alone time? She would get it.

---

*Hermione’s POV*

Hermione cleaned her dishes silently as Harry passed her the plates. She wanted to lie in bed and try not to think or move or do anything but of course she couldn’t do that. Harry would get worried and then she would have to explain why she felt this way. The nightmare had drained her whole energy.

‘I'm going to the ministry,’ said Harry as he dried the plates with a dish towel. Hermione looked at him, confused as to why he would want to go to the ministry, ‘I got a job offered to me. An Auror job...’

‘That’s great, Harry! You should definitely take it,’ said Hermione genuinely happy for him.

‘Yeah... what about you?’ asked Harry as he hung the dish towel up and washed his hands, ‘Where are you going to work?’

‘I’ll figure that out later, Harry,’ muttered Hermione.

‘Sure,’ said Harry and silence fell upon them, ‘Well, I'm going. I’ll see you later.’

‘Bye and good luck,’ said Hermione as Harry left.

He disapparated and Hermione went into the living room. She turned the TV on and sat on the sofa. She was staring at the TV but not paying attention. Hermione felt her mind drift off to the nightmare again but the doorbell rang. She jumped at the sound and then laughed as her heart beat accelerated and then calmed down. She got up and unlocked the door.

‘MIA!’ yelled Fred and hugged her.                 

‘Fred, what are you doing here?’ asked Hermione as she pulled back to look at him.

His shirt was crumpled at the front like it hadn’t been ironed but he looked great. His eyes were shining and his hair was casually mussed up. He went into the living room and Hermione quickly closed the door and followed him. She took a seat on the sofa, opposite him.

‘I wanted to ask you something...’ he started and leaned forward so his elbows rested on his knees.

‘What?’ asked Hermione, interested now. Then she thought that she had better ask him for coffee since it was rude not to, ‘Would you like anything to drink? Coffee?’

‘Sure that’d be great,’ said Fred.

Hermione got up and went into the kitchen. She expected Fred to stay in the living room but she wasn’t surprised when he followed her. She started to make the coffee and was aware that Fred was watching her movements. As the water boiled she turned to Fred.

‘You look good today,’ she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

‘You say that as though I don’t look good every day,’ joked Fred and Hermione laughed, ‘but you look good too.’

‘Thank you,’ chuckled Hermione wondering why it seemed like only Fred could make her mood better in a couple of sentences. Her chuckle stopped and she turned to fill the coffee cups, ‘Ron better not catch you here.’

‘He wont. Ronnie kins is busy,’ said Fred and laughed non humorously. Before Hermione could ask what he meant, Fred spoke, ‘so I wanted to ask you something...’

‘Shoot,’ said Hermione and handed him the coffee.

Fred took a sip and made a noise and pointed to the coffee.

‘You make good coffee,’ he said an Hermione thanked him, ‘Anyway, I wanted to know if you are available this evening?’

‘That depends on why you would want to know?’ asked Hermione. She meant to say it in a humorous sort of way but it came out quite defensive as though she was making it clear that she had a boyfriend. The sentence caused a bit of silence but soon Fred laughed it off. It wasn’t a comfortable laugh. It was more force.

‘I'm not asking you out on  date or anything, so don’t worry,’ he laughed a fake laugh, ‘I need someone to help me with some work that I need doing and I noticed that you still do not have a job.’

‘I don’t know, Fred,’ she said uneasily, ‘If Ron found out or if he saw me working there...’

‘Oh no, you wont be working in the store. I have people for that,’ said Fred, sipping his coffee.

‘Then what do I do?’ asked Hermione, looking at him confused.

‘I need to go up to Scotland to get some stuff for the store and it’s a long ride so I need you to come with me,’ said Fred shrugging, ‘Just to help me out, give me some company, you know? To be honest, I’d rather go with you and not with Eric who works in the store. He isn’t the best to have a conversation.’

‘Why can’t you just apparate?’ asked Hermione and Fred shook his head.

‘I can’t apparate since we’ll need to pile the boxes into a van. It’s just easier to drive rather than apparate a million times,’ said Fred and he shrugged, ‘You don’t have to go but I thought it’d be fun and I’d pay you.’

‘Sure, what time?’ asked Hermione, glancing at the clock. It was 11:25am.

‘Well... it’ll take us some time to get there. We will leave at one,’ said Fred.

‘That’s fine,’ said Hermione and she smiled.

‘It’s a date,’ said Fred and winked.

Hermione laughed a little since she didn’t want to upset him too much and make it awkward like before. They talked for some while and Hermione thought to tell him about her nightmare but she couldn’t. She didn’t k now what to say and it would probably upset him. So she just smiled and they discussed if she knew how to drive and other things until their coffee ran out.