The Night the Lights Went Out, Part Three

Cabin Fever

"Fred, what have you done? Where are we?"

Fred looked around. Yes, where were they? They were supposed to be at the dragon reserve where Charlie worked, but instead they were standing on the outskirts of a forest.

"I don't know."

Hermione groaned. "This is just great! Why didn't the Portkey work?"

"I guess we could just Apparate."

"But we don't know where we are, and since we don't know where we are, we can't just Apparate!"

Fred knew that that she had a point. They had to know which country they were in since they would have to go to an Apparition Point before Apparating to another country.

"At least we should try and find somewhere to sleep for the night," he suggested.

He grabbed Hermione's hand and pulled her with him along the edge of the forest. Against better judgement Fred hoped that they would find somewhere to sleep, and suddenly he saw something through the trees that caught his interest.

"Look!"

Hermione looked in the direction in which he was pointing. First she didn't see anything else but trees, but after a few seconds she noticed something white amongst all the green.

"Looks like a cabin or something," Fred continued. "Come on!"

She followed him as he started walking towards it, and she hoped that whoever lived there would let them stay for the night. Anything was better than having to sleep outdoors.

The white thing they had seen turned out to be a small cabin. Hermione stood back as Fred approached it, wand drawn.

"You see anything?"

Fred peered through one of the small windows. "Only furniture," he replied, and tried the door to his left.

"Fred, no!" Hermione hissed. "We can't just break in like that!"

He turned his head and looked at her. "Hermione, do you want to sleep outdoors?"

No, she didn't. Taking one last look around her to make sure that no one was near, she stepped up to him. "All right, but only because we have nowhere else to go."

Fred opened the door. "We can Apparate out of here if someone comes."

Hermione stepped past him, and Fred closed the door behind them. He didn't know what this place was, and he was bothered by the fact that the Portkey hadn't worked. Maybe it was one of George's bad jokes? But no, he couldn't have... Or could he?

He looked around the cabin. It consisted of one smallish room, in which a bed, a kitchen table, a bookshelf and a woodstove crowded the limited space.

Hermione sat down on the bed. "Well, here we are, so we might as well make the best of it."

Fred arched an eyebrow. "And what exactly do you mean by that?"

"Nothing. Why?" she asked a little more defensively than she had intended.

He sat down beside her. "Calm down, there's no need to snap at me."

Hermione glared at him. It was just that the whole situation frustrated her; not knowing where they were, and not being able to go somewhere.

"We should've been at the dragon reserve by now, not here!"

"You survived being stuck with me at the Burrow during that thunderstorm, didn't you?"

"That's not the point! Now we don't even know where we are!"

"I know, but there's nothing we can do about it. We just have to wait and try and find that out tomorrow."

"How can you be so calm? There's no fireplace so we can't set up an emergincy floo link, we don't have an owl with us and we don't know what kind of creatures might be in the forest!"

Fred put his hand under her chin and turned her face towards him.

"I'm worried too, but going on like that won't help."

"But what about the others?" Her worried tone was reflected in her eyes.

"Hopefully they're in Romania. And we'll get there eventually."

They were interrupted by a sort of flapping sound coming from the draperie hanging in front of one of the windows.

"What's that?" Hermione grabbed her wand.

Fred did the same, and slowly made his way over to the curtains. Peeking around it he saw several small creatures covered with black hair. He turned to Hermione.

"Doxys."

"This is just great! We're stuck in a cabin we don't know where, with Doxys! Is there any Doxycide anywhere?"

They went through every cupboard they could find, until Hermione triumphantly held a bottle over her head. Fred found a bucket, and armed with their supplies they went back to the draperies.

Twenty minutes later they had disposed of the Doxys, and Fred, having found a deck of cards on a shelf, challenged Hermione to a game of Exploding Snap. Glad to have something else to think about aside from the situation they were in, she accepted and soon the game was in full swing. Fred won three out of four rounds, and once they had put the cards away Hermione yawned.

"Tired?" Fred asked.

She nodded. "I'm defenitely going to bed."

The clock on the wall told Fred that it was eleven thirty, and he figured that he might as well go to bed too. And then a thought hit him; they would have to share the bed. Not that he particularly minded. The prospect of sleeping in the same bed as Hermione again was all of a sudden quite exciting, actually.

Hermione went over to the bed and slid under the blanket. She quickly undressed, leaving her T-shirt and knickers on, and suddenly she realised that they would have to share the cabin's only bed. She had no time to ponder this, however, because Fred suddenly jumped up.

"I think there's a Doxy left."

He walked back to the curtain, and soon the little creature was hanging in the air.

"I'm just going to levitate this little bugger out."

He had forgotten to open the window, however, so the Doxy hit it with a little crash before sinking down to the floor. Hermione collapsed in a fit of giggles.

"That was not funny," Fred protested as he opened the window and levitated the unconscious creature outside.

"Yes it was!"

"I'm glad someone thought it was funny."

Hermione smiled amusedly. "You should've seen the look on your face."

Fred made his way over to her. "Okay, it was kind of funny. Now, let's get ready for bed."

Hermione nodded, and tried not to look at him as he undressed and joined her under the blanket.

"Should we turn out the lights?"

"Yeah, I guess. Nox!"

She lay on her back, not daring to move. Lying beside Fred was exciting and scary at the same time, and she caught herself wondering what it would be like to cuddle with him again. Only she did not want to give Fred the wrong idea, so she stayed on her back with her hands folded on her stomach. Should she just transfigure something else in the cabin into another bed? It would certainly be easier to sleep. But, she thought, not as nice.

Fred could feel Hermione beside him, and she seemed as tense as he felt. He just lay there, on his back, without really knowing what to do. Should he maybe put an arm around her? He glanced at her, and saw that she too was lying on her back and staring up at the ceiling.

"Goodnight then," he said.

"Goodnight."

There was a moment of rustling as they tried to find a comfortable position to sleep in. There was not much room in the narrow bed, so Hermione found it hard to relax enough to fall asleep. Being so close to Fred again was tantalizing, and she wondered what it would be like to be held by him again.

Fred had almost managed to fall asleep when a thought hit him. He knew that Hermione easily could have transfigured something in the cabin into another bed, so why hadn't she? Not that he particularly minded having her beside him. It reminded him of the last time; a situation he actually had found rather enjoyable.

"We could've had a bed each, you know," he said. "You could've transfigured something into another bed."

Hermione, who thought he had fallen asleep, jumped at the sudden sound of his voice. So he had thought about that too? Shifting closer she turned to face him.

"You know, sometimes you really are quite thick. I like being with you, haven't you noticed that?" Where those words came from she didn't know, but she realized they were the truth.

It was hard to see in the dark, but Fred thought she was blushing. Surprised, he looked at her. Did she just say that she liked spending time with him? He was about to say that he enjoyed her company too, when he noticed that they were closer than before. His stomach did a sort of flip-flop, and his mouth seemed to suddenly go dry. Gathering his courage he slowly leaned towards her.

Curious, Hermione tilted her head up to look into his eyes. Suddenly she found it hard to breathe, and as their foreheads touched she closed her eyes.

"Hermione?"

She opened her eyes, to find Fred's only a couple of inches from her own.

"You know what? I'd like to take you out on a date."

What? "A real date?" Was he serious?

"Yes."

Oh. Apparently he was. "You know what?"

"No."

"I think I have to accept."

Fred smiled, relieved. He had been afraid to make a fool of himself, but now that Hermione had accepted his offer he was glad he had taken the risk. He put his forehead against Hermione's again.

"So, when are we going on this date?"

"Well.. how about we decide that when we, hopefully, get home?"

"Sounds good to me," Fred agreed.

He looked into Hermione's eyes again, and she smiled at him. Somewhere in the back of his mind Fred wondered if he shouldn't kiss her, but he didn't have to think for very long. He wasn't sure of who kissed whom; he was only aware that Hermione's lips suddenly were pressed to his and that a tingling sensation spread down his spine...