Catching Her Heart Pt. 2

Chapter 61

Despite the danger and adrenaline rush the night had brought, Hermione found herself beginning to yawn as they walked back down Stoatshead Hill. To keep herself awake, she increased her pace to keep up with the twins.

"Did you have any trouble getting back to the portkey?"she asked when she caught up with them.

"No," George said. "Not a bit."

"Your directions were great," Fred said, "Though it took a while for Lee to catch up."

"Catch up?" Hermione asked, blinking.

"Yeah," George said.

"He didn't follow us right away," Fred added.

"Well, no one was there when we went back," Hermione said.

"You went back?" the twins asked in unison.

"What for?"George asked.

"Ron," Hermione whispered to them. "He was too scared to take a chance with the fires and the Death Eaters."

The twins rolled their eyes and then glared toward where their brother was walking with Ginny and Harry up by their dad.

"Little coward," Fred murmured. "Thinking to save his own skin when Harry was in danger and could have been caught or killed."

Hermione bit her lip but didn't say anything. She remembered him being perfectly heroic when he thought it was all fun and games in their first year. The second year, Harry put his own life on the line to rescue Ginny, and then last year, when everyone was on the look out for Sirius Black, he'd been afraid of a dog... granted, she thought, it did turn out to be Sirius in disguise, but still... she couldn't fault the twins for thinking their brother was a coward when it was Harry who seemed to be putting his life on the line every year.

"So what happened with Lee?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Oh, his parents were there with the portkeys when we got there, so he went home," George said.

"Though they did stay with us until Cedric and his dad arrived," Fred added.

"Well, that's good," Hermione said before falling quiet.

"What happened with Ollie?" the twins asked.

"I - I don't know," Hermione said worriedly. "That's part of why Ron had us go back... Oliver left us when he noticed the fires were close to his camp."

"Don't worry, Hermione," Fred said.

"Yeah, I'm sure he's okay," George said.

"Maybe mum will let us check on him a little later using the floo," Fred suggested.

"That reminds me, I need to contact my parents later today, too," Hermione said. "She okayed my going to the Woods house, but getting this years shopping was a concern, so I told her I would talk to them about it and then contact her again. I told Oliver about it after I talked to her, but that was even before the finals."

"You could probably still go," Fred said.

"If everything's okay," George added.

Hermione took a deep, shuddering breath as her fears jumped to the forefront of her mind.

"Good going," Fred said, and elbowed his twin.

The twins changed places, walking with Hermione in the middle and each wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"Sorry Hermione," George said. "I didn't mean that anything was really wrong. Don't mind me, I'm always eating my foot."

Hermione couldn't help it when a smile crept through her fear, and soon she was laughing out right as she imagined George gnawing on his foot like a dog chewed on a bone.