Twin Fall ↠ A Fred Weasley story

28. Arrival

"There you are! Where have you been?" Hermione was hurrying down the corridor towards Harry, Ron and Jess, who were stood outside the Gryffindor Common Room. Her bushy hair was billowing behind her and robes were nipping at her feet. "There's been the most ridiculous rumours - someone even said you got expelled for crashing a flying car."

The three of them looked at each other nervously, knowing they were about to be on the receiving end of a very disappointed Hermione. She would make her disapproval extremely clear.

"We weren't expelled," Jess said, reassuringly.

"Well that's good to know - wait," she said with a frown etching itself into her face. "'You weren't expelled?' Does that mean... you're not telling me you did fly here!"

She sounded like she was on the verge of a rage, and quite frankly, the three of them had been through enough of an emotional journey in the last couple of hours to last a lifetime.

"Skip the lecture," Ron said, impatiently. "What's the new password?"

"Wattlebird," she snapped. "What do you mean skip the lecture, flying a car is serio-"

However her words were cut short as the Fat Lady portrait opened up to reveal a full common room cheering their arrival.

Harry and Ron were at the front and got dragged in, but Jess hung back with Hermione.

"I didn't want to, you know?" Jess grimaced. "There was no stopping them. When they walked off to the car, I stopped at the barrier for ages, but Mr and Mrs Weasley never came back through. Then I wondered if they even could get through."

"Why didn't you send a note to McGonagall?" She had her hands on her hips, but her face was softer.

"Harry had Hedwig."

"Well, I'm just glad you're okay. I was worrying so much," she admitted, walking towards the entrance. "And Fred was going out of his mind about you."

Jess halted, "what?"

"Honestly, he was going around asking people to borrow owls, questioned the whole train near enough. He even sat with me for half an hour to distract himself."

"Oh."

It was Hermione's turn to look sheepish, "he told me you'd fallen out."

"I haven't fallen out with him, he's fallen out with me."

"I don't think he has," she said, honestly. "He was quite down when he was telling me. Told me it was him acting stupid. You've not spoke to each other all week, have you?"

"I didn't want to get in his way," Jess mumbled, peering inside the common room. "It'll be easier here. Less chance of bumping in to each other."

"I don't think he wants that."

Jess raised her eyebrows at Hermione, who gave her a small smile for the first time since she'd seen her.

"Seriously Jess," she said. "He blamed himself for you disappearing, like he was the reason behind it."

"YOU'RE HIDING!" Lee Jordan's head poked out the hole wearing a grin. "Get in here, Potter!"

Hermione scowled in disapproval as Jess was dragged into the common room and another round of cheers lifted. She could see Harry and Ron being accosted in the corner by some older students she didn't know.

"Just been saying to your brother - that was absolutely inspired, Jess!" Lee's eyes were wide with excitement, so much so that Jess couldn't help but smile.