K: Yes, I realize I'm a terrible person for not updating in three, almost four months. I'll try to make it up to you. Also a HUGE thank you to EverchangingWords and luzhasswag for their reviews!

They appeared with a thump, two sets of bare feet materializing on to the soft moss covered floor of a dense forest. Hermione shot off through the trees without preamble, only to completely vanish before the Weasley mothers eyes. Wards. Of course. Hermione was, after all, the brightest witch of her age. Molly followed into the invisible barrier moments before Hermione reach a small black tent. Flipping the tent entrance open, the girl narrowly avoided a bright light shot her way.

"Fred Weasley! I bring back help and you try to hex me? In front of your mother no less." The young witch scolded lightly. Molly could hear the relieved sigh come from inside the dwelling. Hermione turned and took the older woman's hand in her own, lightly tugging her in.

The tent was similar to the one Arthur had taken when he and the children attended the Quidditch World Cup. It was bigger on the inside. Clothing and books were scattered carelessly around. If nothing else, that would have been her first clue that something was off. Hermione would never treat her books in such a way if under better circumstances. A small table held an assortment of potion vials and ingredients and near the middle, on a cot that his feet dangled off the end of, laid her son. Fred's hair was unruly, sticking in odd directions and there was thick stubble on his cheeks. Layers of once white, now pink gauze wrapped around his middle. He was pale and sickly looking but grinned up at his mother.

"Long time no see, Mum." He whispered voice hoarse and cracked. Hermione rushed forward, hand fluttering over his being, grabbing potions and clean gauze. Molly stood frozen. Her son was alive. Alive. Hermione was alive. Two missing parts of her family were alive and safe and frightfully thin. She stood frozen as she watched the small witch fret over the young man, untucking and carefully removing the cloth obscuring his midsection. Three long thin gashes sliced his chest and wept crimson headily. The ginger man lay stark still; his face ashy and contorted in a grimace as Hermione worked over him. Fred's pained groan snapped Molly out of her shock. Her son was hurt. He needed her, just as Hermione has said. The mother Weasley rushed forward, close enough to hear the murmured spells and soothing words the other woman whispered.

"What happened?" Molly finally spoke, adding her wand and every healing spell she knew to the incantations swirling around Fred's injuries. The magic did little but slow the bleeding.

"Death Eater hit him with a slicing hex. It won't heal. I've tried everything, Molly. I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry." Tears leaked down the girls smooth cheeks. To the mother's surprise, a pale had reach up and gently cupped the girl's face, his thumb brushing away the wetness. It was an intimate gesture, one that she would not have pictured between her son and Hermione.

"We've been over this, Hermione. This is not your fault. I don't want to hear that apology again. Understood?" Despite the hard tone in his voice, Fred's bright eyes were soft. Molly was slightly shocked when the stubborn young Gryffindor merely nodded once and straightened herself.

"We need potions. He isn't strong enough to apperated yet." Both witches smiled softly at the put out look the prankster shot at her suggestion that he was anything but the strongest man in the world.

"I'll pop back." Was all Molly offered. Hermione assumed that she was still in a state of awe, considering that her supposedly dead son lay not inches away from her trembling form. He was hot with fever and weak and bleeding, but he was alive. They both were. Mrs. Weasley reach out and flattened a strand of Fred's hair and with a crack she was gone. Fred sighed.

"You did it, you spectacular witch. You did it. You got us back to them. Merlin, Hermione, I don't know how I'll ever be able to thank you enough." The witch beside him blushed under his steady gaze.

"No need to thank me. It seems as if my 'help' has come at a bit of a price." She frowned at her feet.

"We made it this far, Hermione. I don't think that there is anything that we can't face."

K: Good, bad, ugly? It can't be too ugly, it has a cute ginger trickster in it.