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CHAPTER SIX
b l u s h i n g  r e d
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A SUDDEN JOLT from the train made Edmund's head bounce off his arms and onto the hard surface of the table he was previous sleeping on. A sluggish groan escaped his lips as he propped up his head with his hand, the other one rubbing his slightly throbbing forehead. Tomen looked away from the window he was staring at and snorted.

"Nice," he commented at his brother's misfortune before looking back at the landscape.

After Edmund set his head back down to doze off once more, Will spoke up, obviously drowsy as well, "You've been asleep the entire ride. How are you still tired?"

"Honestly," Selena added, yawning, "You look like you haven't been getting much sleep."

Selena motioned to his eyes and other parts of his face. Edmund tried to change the subject by lying, "I look like this naturally but it's nice to know I always look tired. Thank you, Selena, for pointing that out. How close are we to the school?"

"Close enough where you should be dressed already," Tomen said, making Edmund realize they all were in their robes already. He assumes Will helped Tomen get changed. "But none of us wanted to disturb your beauty sleep, princess."

Edmund let out a sarcastic, pronounced laugh, but dropped it quickly because he was too tired to make faces at the moment. Grabbing his trunk from the overhead cubby, he made his way to the bathrooms once more. Before he reached the door, a group of five female first years ran into the bathroom ahead of him with their trunks in tow, all of them not yet dressed, and assumably going to take forever. Edmund's eyes wondered over to the door separating his car from the Gryffindor car, and thought about using their bathroom again. Maybe he would see Hermione again. He was too out of it to really think himself out of the decision and he thought to hell with anyone who didn't like him being there. They could kiss his arse, he had to put his cloak on.

As he walked over and was about to turn the knob, the door slid open from the other side, making his hand yank back in surprise. He was surprisingly face to face with Hermione. She took a step back and jumped ever so slightly at the sudden person behind the door, gasping, but she was quick to square her shoulders and raise her chin to his level.

"Hermione," he said quietly not wanting to wake anyone around them up, a hint of a smile subconsciously on his lips.

"Carmichael."

Ouch, that stung. The smile he somewhat had vanished at the use of his last name, and he knew she saw it by the way her eyes flickered to his mouth. She looked almost mad, mostly red, blushing like she always did, but mad nevertheless.

"Are you okay?"

She seemed surprised with the question, "I am exceptional. Why do you ask?"

He almost laughed at her insinuating tone, like she was trying to catch him judging her. "You look flustered."

"Flustered?" Her voice became higher for a moment, her eyebrows raising, before she realized she couldn't be loud. "I am not flustered at all. Are you flustered? You look flustered."

"I look flustered?"

Hermione looked like she was running out of things about him to get mad at, "Uh, yes. Your, uh...cheek! Yes, your cheek looks red. Are you upset at something? Because I'm not upset with anything. Why does everyone keep asking if I'm upset? I'm not upset."

He paused, thankful his drowsiness was making him relaxed. He has never had Hermione talk this openly towards him before, "My cheek is red because I was sleeping a few minutes ago, I was laying on my arms."

"Oh, of course," she commented, her anger wearing off, "That's good. No one is upset, cool."

Edmund sounded casual, trying to be calm so she didn't yell, but he was extremely curious about what she was upset about. "Why were you coming into the Slytherin car?"

She had crossed her arms as she answered simply, "The bathroom in mine was full. I wanted to wash my face. Why were you going into the Gryffindor car?"

He pointed to the occupied bathroom, "Five first year girls. They won't be coming out any time soon."

She nodded and shifted her weight, hugging her arms tighter as she kept her chin up and her lips pressed together.  They stood in silence for a few moments, realizing they didn't have a lot of places to go now that they were both waiting. Neither wanted to stay in the other's car so they remained each on their own side, talking through the open door in the moonlight shining through the windows. Hermione looked up at the flickering, dim light bulb above them, clearly aggravated with it. So, Edmund reached up there with his long arm and screw in the bulb more, making it stop flashing.

"Thank you," she sounded reluctant to say it.

He couldn't stand in silence any longer. Maybe it was the extra confidence the night gave him or the privacy, but he felt like he could talk to her easier now. "Out with it."

She looked over, acting like he didn't know what she was talking about, "What are you talking about?"

"I know you are angry about something. What is it?"

She turned her head away slightly, ignoring the question. She wanted to tell someone, he knew that she did deep down, "Who am I gonna tell?"

He said that but he had so many people he could tell her secret to in his house that would bully her for it — whatever she was upset about. But he would never do that, obviously. But then her face relaxed a bit, and he noticed she looked more troubled than angry. More sad. Suddenly, a pang of hurt sounded in his chest as he saw her face and he instantly wanted to make the pain go away. He had an idea of how to get her to confide in him, but it was silly. However, the more he looked at her eyes that stared puzzling at the wall, he didn't care if he looked ridiculous. He held out his pinky.

Hermione's eyes shot down, she eyed his gloved hand for a moment until she looked back up, "Seriously?"

"I'm as serious as Sirius Black."

The slang that had been floating around school since the Azkaban escapee tried to kill multiple students caught her attention. She paused for a moment, before sighing. She lifted hers up, but she had a few requests, "You won't tell anyone?

"Not a soul. I never ever break pinky promises."

She breathed out, thinking of how silly this gesture was, but couldn't resist. Their pinkies interlocked as she gave in, her finger felt strange wrapped around his gloved one, foreign. This was the first time they purposely touched. It felt almost too intimate for just a childish tradition, it felt so awkward to simply let go and let their hands drop to their sides once more.

"Okay," she sighed. She looked like she was thinking of what to say, "I was at the Quidditch World Cup when all of it happened."

He knew what she was referring to. What Lottie's husband mentioned to him earlier that week, the dark mark. His mark put in the sky while muggles were terrorized. After his mother stormed out, he did some research of his own to figure out everything that happened. He forgot people from his school might have actually been there.

Not knowing what to say after that, he muttered a simple, "Oh."

"Yeah," she nodded, fiddling with her hands, "And I am okay. I wasn't hurt at all, just frightened for a moment when I got separated from my friends. But...I overheard some people laughing earlier about what happened to the landowners."

The muggles that were humiliated and terrorized for deatheater's entertainment. But, no one was allowed to say they were 'deatheaters' because their identities weren't officially confirmed by the ministry. But he had heard the rumors. The realization that her parents were muggles popped into his head, he had forgotten for a moment her status.

"Laughing," she chuckled in disbelief and disappointment as she picked at her nails, "Like they weren't terrified for their life. Like they weren't people...They must've not been there because I can assure them it wasn't funny at all when you see it in person."

Words left him, he couldn't think of anything that would help soothe her. He was disheartened with the question he was going to ask, but more disappointed with the answer he already knew was true, "Slytherins, right?"

It was dead silent as Hermione hesitates to answer. With the gentle rocking of the train, the only sound was the occasional distant sounding cough or the window shutters softly tapping the glass. After a few seconds, she nodded, she seemed embarrassed about talking badly about his house — genuinely uncomfortable about bashing Slytherins.

"Was it Malfoy?"

Her silence told him he was correct. Edmund never knew how to be a great distraction-maker, he had no idea how to change a subject really well when it was awkward. Usually when there was a fight at home, Tomen was the one to break the silence and take everyone's mind off of it. So, in the dim lights of the train, he thought about what Tomen would say in a moment like this. Breathing out hard through his nose and biting the inside of his cheek, Edmund slipped his hands in his pockets as he finally formulated his response.

"What a git."

Her eyes flickered up, it seemed like she hasn't heard anyone from Slytherin really judge Draco for his actions. He had a sly, closed-lipped smirk on his cheeks, and at the sight of his expression, a small smile formed on her cheeks. That caused a wide grin to break out across his face and a laugh, the sight of her smile made his heart beat speed up. After a few awkward beats, she laughed quietly, too. Making the two teens standing in the dark lowly giggling to themselves about a joke that was only funny to the two of them. As they stood with smiles on their faces, that gave him time to look at her. The bulbs above casted large, dark shadows on her cheeks and eyes — she looked tired, but the only thing Edmund could think about was how pretty she looked in the moonlight.

The door to the Slytherin bathroom opened suddenly, causing them to both step away from each other out of instinct and turn their heads in that direction. The five girls stepped out, giggling loudly, making almost half of the people in train car to either groan from being woken up or curse at them for being so loud. The chain reaction had already started and more and more people were starting to get up. Hermione was the one to step up first, "You better go get changed before someone takes it."

"No, you go ahead," he immediately rejected, "I can wait a little bit."

Her head turned to look back at the Gryffindor bathroom, the person who was hogging the bathroom had just left and it was now unoccupied.

"That's okay," she pointed behind her, awkwardness starting to take affect now that there were more people around, "That one is open now."

He nodded and smiled, now he had ran out of things to say. As he turned to leave, he resorted to something casual, "See you around, Hermione."

"See you around—," she responded as she left as well, "—Edmund."

The bathroom door slid closed behind him and he leaned again it, feeling the train rock him slightly. A smile overtook his face, and he could stop it. She had said his first name. And he had said hers. Just the thought of that first step and the memory of her saying it out made loud his heart flutter in his chest. The thought kept repeated in his head. She said his name.

She said his name.

———— • ————

Now that he had his wrinkle-free uniform and cloak on and his hair was fixed, he stepped off the train. He was thankful for the invisible umbrella that Professor Flitwick charmed over his and Tomen's head that followed over them so they were not soaked by the pouring down rain with the heavy wheelchair in tow. As Edmund helped Tomen down a ramp that the Hogwarts Keeper of Keys, known as Rubius Hagrid, had set out for him, he was careful to have firm footing as he went down. Once he arrived at the bottom, Edmund thanked Hagrid for bringing it all way down there (Hagrid was not allow to perform magic anymore so he did not have any 'assistance'). But Hagrid was delighted to help, his love to care for the younger students always made Edmund appreciate the man, and he always went out of his way to help Tomen in any way he could. And that is something Edmund would never forget.

"I made it myself, that ole ramp righ' there," Hagrid grinning humbly at the ramp, Edmund could now see that it was made of uneven piles of wood and nails with carpet sewn on the top. "It may not 'ook 'ery pretty, but its function'l, to say the least!"

Edmund was uneasy about the ramp at first, but it was the best way to get Tomen down. To his surprise, it worked perfectly, just a little bumpy. "It's great, Hagrid," Edmund commented with a smile as he looked up at the giant man, his hands on the wheelchair's handles, "Thank you so much for keeping my family in your thoughts."

"Its no problem, really, it's called takin' care of a friend," Hagrid smiled and then continued to have a small conversation with Tomen about how his summer went. Teachers always either loved or hated his brother, hit or miss. Most of the time they loved him, but for the meaner teachers, he made their jobs so much harder. He always reciprocated the respect and maturity level of the teacher so they would know how it felt to be their students.

Hearing arguing, Edmund turned around to see Will and Selena, each holding one of the Carmichaels' trunks along with their own, bickering about something he didn't catch the reasoning behind. But once they arrived beside him, Edmund interrupted them by thanking them for helping carry their stuff since he couldn't. As they walked towards the coach-less carriages, Hagrid again helped the brothers by carrying the ramp from the train to the carriages so Tomen could easily roll up and be able to sit down without hassle. The other students that were wet from the rain glared at the brothers since they didn't have anything keeping them dry at they got into the carriages — their teeth chattered as they hugged their arms tightly. Edmund offered to dry them off with a spell but no one accepted. A female student, before the carriage left, transfigured the ramp into a smaller version so they could take it with them, earning a genuine thank you from Edmund. During their ride she introduced herself as Angelina Johnson, and the two of them talked all the way up to the castle. He found out she was a part of the Quidditch team, and by the red and gold emblem on her chest, he figured she played for the Gryffindor team.

He could tell she was uncomfortable talking to him, he had seen her associating with the Weasley family before, but her want to help Tomen overcame her reluctance to talk to Slytherins, to talk to him, more specifically. As they stepped out of the carriage, she bid them goodbye and went off to find her friends hurriedly to get out of the storm. Now that the charm Professor Flitwick has now worn off, the brothers didn't have protection from the rain, so Edmund made the ramp up to regular size and ran with Tomen's wheelchair in front of him until he was safely inside the castle walls, minimal soaking. Reluctantly, he ran back outside and made the ramp small again so he could take it with him wherever he went and retreated back.

As soon as Edmund entered the threshold of the castle walls, a familiar, comforting warmth hit his cheeks — tinting them and his nose red. He could feel the color pooling into his cheeks once more, like he wasn't truly alive until he was inside the castle. A considerable amount of weight that he didn't even know existed until that moment lifted off of his chest, and even the corners of his mouth seemed to be lighter. Finally, a place where he could relax and not worry too much about his image. As he made his way towards the great hall, he saw large puddles of water on the ground — which he was expecting — but he also saw broken, deflated multicolor balloons scattered along the tiles. Tomen said that a student a few moments ago told him that Peeves the Poltergeist, one of the many ghosts that haunt Hogwarts' halls, was dropping water balloons on all the students' heads as they entered the castle until Professor McGonagall threatened to call Dumbledore, which made him throw all of his balloons at once and disappear. Edmund was glad they were late.

As soon as the two entered the great hall, the sounds of hundreds of people talking amongst themselves hit their ears all at once. Edmund scanned the room to see all the teachers facing the students with multiple missing seats. He saw not all the teachers were present yet, so him and Tomen weren't too too late. Headmaster Dumbledore sat at the center of the table, his chin resting on his interlocked hands with his elbows on the table; Edmund could've swore he was looking at his for a split second, but upon closer inspection, he was simply looking over his crescent moon glasses at the stormy enchanted ceiling.

The brothers took a seat at the Slytherin table, next to Will and Selena, near a spot where they always sat every year. They always in the middle, closer to the staff table so they could poke fun at teachers and the strange food they age and the strange ways they would eat it. After Tomen was settled down, Edmund finally took his seat and took a breath. With a soft smile on his cheeks he looked around at all the students chattering, up at the floating candles. It felt good to be back for his sixth year, even though he was slightly damp from the rain, but it felt even better that he would be turning seventeen in only two weeks — meaning he would be able to do magic outside of school after this year. Sensing motion beside him, he saw a boy around Tomen's age sit next to his brother, a shy smile on his face.

"Hi," he mumbled quietly, trying to distract himself by picking at his fingernails.

Tomen looked over, a little surprised, and said with a voice significantly louder and more confident sounding especially next to the boy's tone, "Hi there."

The blush that settled on the boys cheeks as he continued to speak made Edmund smirk knowingly.

"I was just, uh, wondering if we could walk to the com— the common room together after the feast?"

"Why?" Tomen responded slowly, obliviousness clouding his head as he looked confused. Edmund elbowed his back, causing a sharp gasp and a few curse words to slip up. When he turned to his brother, he gave him a look, the one he would give him when Hermione was around. Then it clicked. As he turned his head, now knowing exactly what was going on, his cheeks matched the boy in front of him and his tone dropped lower a few notches. "Oh."

The boy looked very embarrassed, he looked like he wanted to run as fast as he could out of the situation. He squeezed his eyes closed as he cringed, opening them slightly when he spoke, "You don't to if you don't want to—"

"No!" Tomen exlaimed suddenly, cutting the boy off, "I want to! I do, I just don't know if my brother will be fine by himself?"

The look Tomen gave him looked more like a threat than him asking if he wanted him to stay. It was almost like him saying, 'you better not screw this up for me.' So he didn't.

"No, you go ahead," he said nonchalantly, "I have somethings I need to take care of before I head off to bed anyways."

The boy smiled widely, "Okay...cool! I'll meet you after the feast."

"Or you can eat with me?"

The request made the boy smile even wider, but made him a little more shy as well. As the boy made himself comfortable, he introduced himself as Tai Templeson, a kind boy with a middle class family name that Edmund had never heard of with long, fluffy golden hair. The two started chatting with one another and Edmund felt like he was imposing on a conversation that he shouldn't be listening to, so he stood and said he had to go say hello to someone. He made his way towards some second years he met the previous year right after they were sorted  — Edmund usually meets the new first years and helps them around the castle. It was such a big help to Tomen, so he thought he should continue doing that to help as many people he could.

A couple of them saw him approaching and said hello, excited that an older student was attempting to be their friend. A couple of the girls giggled every time he said something, even if it wasn't funny. He asked about their summers and how their families were, cheering them up if they had bad news or weren't feeling so great or were anxious; something he wished someone did with him when he was younger. When he was in his first couple of years, he was so unhappy at home, he was unable to see the light in the darkness. Of course he was happy when he spent time with his brother, but he always resorted to a frown once they weren't together. That was until Tomen got older, when he started to get sick. Edmund wouldn't let Tomen fall into that hole that he was in for so long, so he started to look at the world differently, looking for good. He feared what would happen once he had passed, but he pushed the thought from his mind when a girl from the table spoke up.

"Are you single?"

The question made Edmund almost choke on his own saliva. "Uh, what?"

The second year's friends giggled as their faces turned red. The girl, however, did not look frightened in the slightest bit. "You aren't dating anyone, right?"

He shallow the lump in his throat and thought about a proper way to respond to that question without being weird. "Um, yes. I mean no! I mean I am not in a relationship at the moment. Yes as in you are right is what I meant."

Across a few tables, three Gryffindors were chatting quietly about their summers and the mistakes the government were making, as they usually did. But one, however, had a trick up his sleeve. With a smirk on his face, as he glanced from across the room to right next to him, Ron Weasley knocked his elbow sharply against Hermione's arm, who was staring absentmindedly at a certain curly haired Slytherin. This motion made her turn instantly and see what was the deal was. In a high pitched voice, "Ow, Ron! What's the matter with you? Would simply tapping me on the shoulder or calling my name not suffice?"

He leaned back mockingly, "Sounds like I just interrupted something."

"Interrupted?" She interjected, "What did you supposedly interrupt?"

"Looks like you were daydreaming about your Slytherin boyfriend."

A shocked look overtook her face as her jaw dropped, embarrassment filling her features. She looked over at Harry to see his opinion, but he simply stared blankly, confused, "What are we talking about?"

"We are talking about how Hermione and Carmichael are courting each other."

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed, then resorting to whispering so only they could hear, "We have only spoken three times. We don't even know other!"

"Oh, yeah, sure," Fred and George then suddenly took a seat on either side of her, "That's why you two were on a first name basis, because you don't know each other."

"Blimey! I didn't know you two were close," Ginny teased from her spot a couple seats down.

Hermione suddenly felt like she was being backed into a corner, she didn't know who to argue with so she resorted to sighing, almost growing, aggravated and put her head in her hands, her voice muffled behind her fingers, "I don't like him like that!"

"Good," Ron said, "Then you won't mind if he was talking to other girls, right?"

That sentence made her look up to see what he was talking about only to spot Edmund speaking to a group of second year girls. The snickering of her friends made her turn towards them angrily with a glare, which made some back off. Ron chuckled, "I was only joking. Like you two would ever get together. Could you imagine that?"

"I know, right," she said dismissively. Everyone resumed talking and stopped looking at her as her eyes drifted back to the scene of the boy laughing with the group of children, his smile almost making the edges of her mouth seem lighter. Her voice softened as she spoke, "Imagine that."