A/N: Yes, you can trust your eyes. It's true. This IS a new chapter! I finally killed my writer's block and I also cleared my mind from school stuff (for I finished my last exams for now!). So, yeah, finally I'm able to update -sighes- Alright, I know this is a rather short chapter, but it has to be because it's leading to some more action and climax and the solving of problems and stuff. So, look forward to it! xDD
Now, have fun with my lucky number (chapter) thirteen:
Chapter 13: Fighting Demons
The following night, Hermione lay awake in her bed in Ginny's bedroom, ever and ever recalling what happened the day before. Her head was spinning, drumming against her skull. And her thoughts kept swirling back and forth. She recalled standing in the bathroom, smashing the mirror, seeing those terrible red eyes, seeing the shadows strangle Fred – and the next moment, she felt Fred kissing her – and then again, there were the shadows she had seen in the mirror before, strangling Fred … again. But that time, it wasn't just her imagination. It had been real.
She sat up in bed and pushed the bed sheets away, feeling terribly hot and feverish. She stood up and walked over to the room's window. Opening it, she breathed in the cool night air. The darkness was calming her down a bit. She closed her eyes and recalled once more what happened after kissing Fred – which she suddenly felt more important than seeing things that weren't actually there.
After being strangled by a shadow that had emerged from Hermione's mouth, Fred had stared at her as she had turned into a Basilisk. She could understand his horror and yet she felt rejected. She wanted him to – yeah, what? She couldn't expect him to ignore what happened. She couldn't expect him to not ask questions, to not stare at her as if she had gone insane. She just didn't know what to expect from him at all. She wanted to explain to him what happened, why this thing formed from her breath and attacked him – but she couldn't.
She didn't know anything. She didn't know why these things happened to her. Was someone plotting them? Or was it all her fault? Did she create all this?
Suddenly a thought struck her like lightening and she turned around to throw a look through Ginny's bedroom. She found what she was looking for and knelt down next to the bed where her trunk stood with its lid open. She crammed through her clothes and found the books she'd carried from home. She got hold of a rather large one and pulled it out of the trunk. Flipping through the pages she found what came to her mind.
Eagerly reading through the passage again and again, confusion changed places with comprehension. Hermione then stood up, banging the book shut and left the bedroom, running barefoot through the corridors of the Burrow, trying to share her wisdom.
She ran up the stairs towards the twins' bedroom, her mind racing, blocking out any sense of tact. Would she have been not out of her mind, would she have been not totally eager to share what she found out, would she have been reading between the lines and would she have been not that keen on the pure facts, she wouldn't have stormed right into the twin's bedroom, disturbing their sleep, being a complete fool.
But she did.
She burst open the bedroom door, the book in her hands, her eyes scanning the dark room, looking for someone who might want to share her wisdom. But when she looked through the room, she could only see one bed occupied, its resident sitting up sleepily, red hair standing up in all directions.
"Hermione?", a sleepy voice asked within a couple of yawns. "What are you doing here?"
She recognized the voice as George's and suddenly her mind shut down and she realized what she was doing, she realized what a complete fool she had been. Backing up as quickly as she had stormed into the room, she lowered her gaze, mumbling inaudible things, almost losing the book she was carrying. When she turned around she almost let out a shriek.
"Hermione?", Fred whispered, staring at her.
She, on the other hand, stared back at him, finding him only wearing pyjama bottoms. She swallowed and just wanted to run from this awkward situation.
"What's going on? What are you doing here?", Fred asked, his expression unreadable in the dark.
She continued staring at him, feeling her heart sink. Unable to say anything, she merely pushed past him and lost the book in the attempt. It fell to the ground with a noisy sound whilst Hermione ran down the stairs, feeling terribly ashamed.
Fred watched her leave, confusion spread across his face. He bent down to pick up the book, staring puzzled at the page that flipped open by falling to the ground. It read "How to fight your own demons". His forehead furrowed and, walking into his bedroom, he wondered why Hermione carried this book with her, visiting him in the middle of the night.
Hermione felt so stupid. How could she burst into the twin's bedroom, eagerly to tell Fred what she found out – when, on the other hand, she knew how stupid she would look after all the facts would sink in? How could she be that stupid to think that, if she told Fred what she read in that book, anyone would understand? She didn't even understand it herself, but now, knowing more or less the truth about the things that happened to her, she felt as if it would be a grave mistake to tell anyone what she found out.
When she reached Ginny's bedroom, however, she realized that she did loose the book and now felt even more ashamed. Stupid! How could she have been so stupid… Banging the door shut she merely fell onto the bed and covered her racing head with all pillows she could find – unable to sleep and yet unable to get up again.
"Nox", Fred muttered, switching off the light spot at the top of his wand and shut the book that was lying on his lap. He threw a look through the room, hearing his twin snore eagerly. Sighing noiselessly, he put the book on his nightstand and leant his head against the wall behind him.
He felt weird. Not necessarily due to the events that he witnessed the last days, but merely because of what he had read in the book Hermione had left behind. This somehow loosened the knots of confusion inside his head. He reconsidered what he had read and yet he didn't quite understand how it could be possible.
How to fight your own demons. Of course he had heard this phrase before – yet he'd never thought that those demons were actually… well, what were they? In Hermione's case those said demons were creations of very strong emotions. He had read that when a strong emotion, a feeling of utter power, is suppressed, the mind has to find another way of expressing it. That means if there is something inside, it has to find its way outside. And outside means to get out of your body. Fred never thought of this literally. But actually this was possible. He'd seen and felt it.
And he would never forget those red eyes within the shadow that emerged from Hermione's mouth.
He also read that said demons can – in very few cases – go astray and build up their own livings, being more than shadows or expressed feelings, but real demons that can twist the mind and confuse the senses, even controlling the body that they once called their home. So all those incidents that happened before were actually caused by… Hermione's demons.
Fred sat up again, staring at the book.
And now she thought it was all her fault. That it was her after all, her who cut herself, who attacked Angelina, who got into so much trouble.
He quickly got up from bed and grabbed the book, leaving his twin snoring in his bed. Almost running downstairs, he soon after reached Ginny's bedroom, knocking carefully against the door. No sound could be heard from within, so he just opened the door and entered the room – finding nothing but darkness and an open window. Somehow shocked by what he saw, he stormed into the room and headed straight to the window, looking out of it into the dark garden, searching for a sign of Hermione.
When he, however, heard an almost silent cough from his right, he spun around – to see Hermione lying on the bed, her head covered in pillows.
"Hermione", he whispered gently and sat down slowly on the edge of the bed.
She didn't react to his words but seemingly tightened her muscles.
"I read the book", he merely stated, trying to get a reaction out of her.
She slowly moved under the pillows and instants later, Fred could see inches of her face coming into view beneath the pillows.
"And", he continued talking to her left eye and parts of her nose (for those parts where all he could see of her face). "And I think, now that we know why all this is happening, we don't have to worry about it anymore, do we?"
"But", he heard her whisper. "But that doesn't solve it!"
"But now we know what to fight, don't we?"
"How?"
"Well, the how's another thing", he admitted, grinning at her. "Don't worry, alright? No one will be mad at you or something… this is… well, normal is something else, but come on, Hermione, no one blames you for having such… -"
"Beastly habits?"
"Strong emotions", he corrected, reaching out one hand to get one of the pillows out of her face.
She looked up at him, her cheeks turning a deep shade of crimson when he threw her a smile.
"It's alright, okay?", he whispered, tilting his head.
She tried to nod, even though one couldn't tell from the position she was laying on the bed and her head being covered by pillows and bushy brown hair.
"So", Fred said, watching her. "For now we'll try to sleep and tomorrow morning, we'll handle your little…"
"Problem", she finished the sentence, whispering.
He nodded, smiling down at her.
"Try to forget this, okay? Don't worry", he said. "You know, I never expected a Hermione Granger hiding away from something. You are a tough girl, you can handle this. Don't you hide from those demons of yours; that is exactly what they want, mind you? So, go to sleep now and kick their ass tomorrow, shall we?"
A grin came across his face that soon jumped onto her face as well.
"I know I shouldn't be saying that but I really have to th–"
"Don't", he said with a smile and before she could go on thanking him again, he bent down and kissed her on the cheek, making her blush even more."Good night, now", he said after leaning back and getting to his feet again.
"Good night", she whispered and watched him leave the room again.
She didn't know yet that another feeling swept inside her, keen on getting out.
A/N: That was chapter 13! I hope you liked it! I also hope to finish this story soon... because (don't get me wrong, I love this ship and would love to write on forever but) there is not much to come from now on. We almost reached the top of the hill xDD I don't know how many chapter there'll be, but not too many... something between two and five or so xDD like I said: I don't know!
Anyways, please tell me what you think of this story thus far and I'm also open to any kind of suggestions!
And now let me thank all of you guys out there reading this story! I'm so grateful! Almost 6000 hits... amazing... thank you everyone!
Keep reading! -waves-