Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Semper Vigilans ❯ Chapter 8 ( Chapter 8 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Semper Vigilans
- Chapter 8 -


The Twins' Shop - Saturday Morning

Hermione stormed her way through the shop, completely intent on leaving. To go where, she really didn't know, but as long as it was far, far away from Ronald Weasley, she'd be happy. Her hand had just settled on the handle to the entrance door to the shop when something through the window caught her attention from the corner of her eye. Had that just been two suspicious figures ducking into the alleyway beside the shop?

   Backing up a few steps, she sat down at one of the counters, praying she was merely being paranoid, after all, her altercation with the Malfoy heir and his trusty gun could have easily caused her to have some sort of traumatic stress disorder and she was merely hallucinating lurking henchmen coming to get her... right?

   The sound of her name being called snapped Hermione out of her bout of worry and she turned to see Fred racing down the stairs. He came up short when he saw she hadn't fled from the shop and was instead sitting at the counter.

    "Hermione..." he breathed a sigh of relief and approached her slowly, as if he were afraid he would frighten her off. "I'm sorry about that, you know how the King of the Gits can be. We honestly didn't know he'd be by this morning."

   Hermione slumped in her seat as she felt the anger that always seemed to course through her body whenever being in the same space as Ronald Weasley seep away. "I know, Fred, it just seems like he can push my buttons like no other. Always has, ever since we were in school."

   Finally reaching her side, Fred slid an arm around Hermione's shoulders and tugged her into a comforting hug. "I know. We were there for the majority of it, remember?" he smiled at her gently, and when the petite young woman glanced up at him, he winked at her playfully.

   Hermione couldn't help but laugh, this side of the twins always cheered her up. Despite any of the utter rubbish Ronald always seemed to be spewing in her general direction when he was around, Fred and George were always there with a wink, or an occasional hug to make the sting go away. Comforted, she leaned into Fred's warm embrace, her arms slipping around his trim waist as she buried her face in his chest. She inhaled his scent, and sighed.

   Silently she thanked every deity known to man that her hangover was quickly fading, which was another factor in her earlier outburst of anger towards the younger Weasley sibling. Of all of the twins' brothers, of which there were many, Ron was her least favorite, mainly due to his rude attitude and outright disregard for her, or her feelings. For whatever reason he felt the way he did towards her, she could never fathom. She hadn't ever bothered to ask in the past, nor was she compelled to do so now. It was just a simple fact that they did not get along, and that would probably never change.

    Honestly, it didn't even matter to her anymore. She had her twins, and the three older Weasley brothers, as well as their baby sister, Ginny, were all somewhat cordial towards her, and she was satisfied with that. Gone were her days of loneliness, when she would have even treasured the volatile friendship of someone like Ronald Weasley.

Hermione was enjoying her time sitting wrapped up in Fred's arms for a few precious moments, when the flickering nudge to mention what she thought she had seen reflected in the shop's window passed through her mind, but before she could even raise her head from Freddie's chest to address her concern, the sound of the shop's door being opened snapped their attention to the door.

"You know it's dangerous leaving your door unlocked like that? Any unsavory characters could come waltzing in here." Lee Jordan smiled widely, as he entered the shop.

Fred smirked at his childhood friend. "Too late..."  he teased, before releasing Hermione from his protective hold and moved to grab Lee's hand in the special way the three friends had developed in school. Once their routine was done, Fred used his grip on the other man's hand to pull him into a friendly half-hug. "How's it going, Jordan?" he asked once the two friends had released each other.

"Same old, same old." the dark-skinned man shrugged, his dreadlocks bouncing over his shoulders and back, his eyes trailing to Hermione. "It's nice to see you, little Mimi." he grinned cheekily at her, pulling her into a bear-hug. "Have Gred and Forge been behaving themselves?"

The brunette woman was bubbling with laughter at Jordan's little quips. Even though she had never been as close with Lee, as she was with the twins, hanging around with the mischievous duo had resulted in a casual friendship with him and they enjoyed the seldom conversation about completely random things.

"Hey there, Jory." she replied with a warm smile. "The boys have been great." she confided in him, a certain fondness that she only had for the two of them, shone through her voice.

"I'll bet," Lee wiggled his eyebrows at her, then laughed when she rolled her eyes at his insinuation. "Just kidding, Mimi." he raised his hands in mock defense when she took a playful swipe at him.

Fred chuckled, "So, Lee what brings you by? I'm sensing that gracing us with your annoying, yet somewhat addictive, presence wasn't the only reason."

Lee cocked an eyebrow in Fred's direction. "Insightful as always Weasley, I actually stopped by to tell you I'll have Mimi's car ready to go about noon this Tuesday."

"Really? That's great!" Hermione's eyes lit up at the thought of getting her vehicle back. She'd honestly thought it would take longer to fix and had been beginning to worry how she was going to get to work this week. Imposing on the twins was beginning to weigh on her conscience.

"Yep, just waiting on a few more parts we had to order to come in on Monday and we'll have you back on the road in no time, my dear lady." he bowed dramatically, though his theatrics was interrupted by the sound of loud shouting coming from the direction of the stairs leading up to the apartment. A moment later, Ron Weasley came storming down said stairs, followed by a rather pissed off George.

The elder twin pulled up short when he caught sight of Lee with Fred and Hermione, but Ron continued to storm past them on his way to the door. He stopped once he reached it, however, and turned to give a parting shot Hermione's way. "This is all your fault, you daft bint. Why you have to worm your way into my family, I don't know, but stay the hell away from me and go back to screwing these idiots."

Before Hermione or the twins could say anything the irate red head exited the shop, slamming the door behind him as he went. Lee turned towards George with a questioning look on his face, to which George simply replied, "Don't ask. It's just Ron being Ron."

Lee seemed to take that as answer enough as he got an "Ahh, I see." look on his face.

George looked over at Hermione. The young woman had an upset look on her face again due to Ron's parting words. Why, oh why did she let the stupid git upset her like this? His twin had pulled her back to him in a form of comfort, her back against his front, as he rested his chin on her shoulder and was whispering softly in her ear. George moved closer, he reached up so that he could smooth her hair back from her face. Cupping his hand at the base of her head, he urge her to look at him. Hermione's eyes met his and she gave him a smile in an attempt to show him she was alright despite Ronald's hateful words.

"You brother is a bloody git, you know that?" she said, causing both twins to chuckle.

"It's always drama with you three, isn't it?” Lee spoke, drawing George's attention back to him. "First a late night call to pick up a crashed car and now Sir Git the Great himself making an appearance."
George grinned at his long-time friend, "Well, what do you expect from us Weasleys? Such drama queens, we are." he batted his lashes, earning himself a playful swat to his arm from Hermione.

Lee sighed dramatically at Hermione's antics. "Come on, little Mimi, can't a guy flirt with another guy in peace? You know that Georgie here wants me, those long eyelashes say so without words..." he winked at her.

Lee's teasing brought Hermione's spirits up even more. She bit her lip to keep from laughing, and nodded seriously. "Well, my dear Jory, do you promise to take good care of Georgie here? I cannot let you in good conscience date him, if you break his heart..."

Fred was biting on his knuckles to keep from laughing, while his twin was looking wide-eyed between the two who were making him the arse of their joke. "B-but Hermione," he played along. "Why do I need your permission to date such a strapping young lad?" he wriggled his eyebrows.

Hermione smirked at him. "That's because it's the best friend's - namely moi - prerogative to warn off unsuitable suitors."

Fred cuddled Hermione closer to him. “Oh, come on, love, you know Georgie's a big boy. Let him make his own decisions." He said, then shot his twin a devious smirk as he added. "I'm sure him and Lee would work out brilliantly. That'll just mean I'll have you all to myself."

Hermione chuckled at that, her back firm against Freddie's chest, as he wrapped his hands around her stomach. "Are you sure Lee could handle Georgie, or that you could handle me, for that matter?" she teased.

Lee grinned at Hermione with mischief sparking in his hazel eyes. "Are you sure one twin is enough for you, baby girl?"

"Oi!" the other three laughed at George protest, which eventually lead to George laughing as well.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Lee exclaimed as he dug into his back pocket. "I brought this for you. I found it in the floorboard of the car. I also have your bag in my truck as you seemed to have left it as well. I wasn't sure you would be here - stupid of me, I know - so I didn't bring it in with me. Give me a mo' and I'll run and get it." he said as he handed over a small object which turned out to be Hermione's cell phone.

"Thank you, I totally forgot about it during the--" she broke off, unsure of how to continue. "Er, thanks Lee."

She noticed that Lee didn't seem suspicious and wondered how much he knew about what had happened Thursday night.

"No problem," Lee replied smoothly as he stepped backward a couple steps, "Lemme just run and get that for you." he added, turning on his heel and jogging out of the shop.

Hermione glanced at the twins, who seemed to be busy teasing one another over her head, before looking down at the phone in her hand. Pressing the screen, she found that she had numerous missed calls as well as a few texts. She looked through them, noticing one was from someone she hadn't heard from in a while.

"Luna called," she informed the twins, as she extricated herself from between them.

She moved to the other side of the counter and clicking on the "Return Missed Call" button, placed the cell to her ear. After a couple of rings, a light, airy voice answered.

"Mims, it's high time you called, I've been worried sick. I got a spirit visitor, who told me you had a tough couple of days and that you had an accident of sorts. Are you okay?"
Hermione was touched by the worried tone in Luna's otherworldly voice. "I'm fine, Lu. I'm with the twins at their place now." she assured her eccentric friend.
From the moment she had met the blonde haired girl her second year at Hogwarts, she had known there was something special about her. She claimed she was a medium and that could sense spirits, and though Hermione didn't believe in that sort of nonsense (she was far too logical for that) they had quickly become friends. Much like her twins, their friendship had survived past graduation, although she wasn't as close to Luna as she was to Fred and George.

This was actually the first Hermione had talked to her in a couple weeks. Maybe it was due to guilt because of this that prompted her to say what she said next.

"You wouldn't be up for some company tonight, by any chance?" she could tell her question caught the twins' attention, but she would deal with them in a moment.

"Of course you can stay for the night, Hermione." came Luna's reply. "Fred and George have a lot to do tonight, so I'm sure they won't protest too much."

Hermione paused at hearing Luna's reply, wondering what she meant by they had lots to do. She shook off the urge to ask, and instead directed a question to Lee. "Hey, Jory, would you mind giving me a lift to Luna's place?"

"Wait-"

"-what?"

Fred and George had distinctive matching pouts on their lips as they listened to Hermione's conversation with their friend.

"Sure, Mimi, anything for you sweets." Lee winked at her before shooting the twins a grin as he noticed thier expressions.

Hermione rolled her eyes at the three before turning her back on them to finish up on the phone. "Thanks, Lu, I'll get Lee to drop me off in a bit, see you soon. Bye."

As soon as she disconnected the call and turned around, she was immediately surrounded by a pair of disappointed-looking red heads.

"You're not leaving-" Fred began.

"-because of Ron, are you?" George continued as they slipped into their Twin-Speak, in light of Hermione's talk of leaving.

"Because we can promise-"

"-he won't be back by here-"

"-if we have anything to say about it."

Hermione held up her hands, placing one on each of the twins' chest. "That's not it at all," she said soothingly. "I just feel like I've imposed on you enough the last couple of nights. Besides, I haven't seen or talked to Luna for at least a week. It would be nice to visit and have someone to talk to."

"You can talk to us," Fred reasoned, but caught his brother's look even as he spoke.

'Maybe it is a good idea, Gred. We do need to step up on this research.' George's voice echoed and Fred sighed internally.

"Girl talk, Fred." Hermione pointed out. "I think it would do me some good."

"Fine," Fred conceded to both Hermione's request as well as his brother's mental urging.

"But you have to promise to come back tomorrow and stay so we can take you to the book store on Monday. Can't have our Kit walking to work, now can we?" George gave her a cheeky grin and a wink.

Hermione gave an exasperated sigh, though inside she was happy with the knowledge that they didn't seemed to be growing tired of her constant presence.

"I promise."

"You ready to go, Mims?" Lee asked from near the door, and Hermione nodded.

"I'll see you both tomorrow." she smiled; then, rising up on tiptoes, she placed a kiss on each brother's cheek, before hugging them both.

Drawing back, she moved towards Lee. Looking over her shoulder one final time at the twins, she gave them a small wave, which they returned, before walking out the door.

~*~*~*~*~

Author's Note: I want to thank everyone who takes time out of their busy schedule to review this story of mine. I'm really to make this the best that it can be and hearing your opinions on what you like and don't like help me to do that.

Thanks to my good friend Amarylle for all she does to help me with this story. Without her, I would not be as far ahead or as organized with the storyline as I am!