Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, however much I wish I did.

A/N: First fanfic! Be nice and R&R! Not beta'd. Edited some mistakes as of 24/09/11

Always and Forever

"Come on, mate! It's been what, fifteen years?" George said to his brother the morning after yet another disastrous attempt to set him up with one of his wife's friends.

"I know, I know… but every time I go out, every time I try, I just can't help but compare them to her. She was," he paused, as if trying to search for the right word. "Perfect." He finished with a sigh.

Fred Weasley flopped back onto his bed on his flat above Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, the joke shop he co-owned with his twin brother, George. He closed his eyes and let his thoughts wander to the witch who still held his heart, even after fifteen years.

He had walked up to her from behind, the moonlight reflecting off her honey-colored locks, her robe hanging loose around her. He had put his arms around her waist and brought one of his hands, the one holding a small velvet box, up to her eyes. He had felt her tense slightly against him when he opened it to reveal a beautiful diamond surrounded by two tear-shaped rubies on a platinum band.

"Marry me, Hermione. Be mine." He had said, his lips brushing her ear.

She had turned around in his embrace to look him in the eyes and smiled. "Always and forever," she had promised.

"Maybe it's time for you to move on, Fred."

"Maybe. It's just…" he trailed off, not wanting to finish, knowing his brother knew what he was trying to say.

"You can't. Yeah, I know. Come on, bro. We'll be late for Sunday brunch."

"It's just… I feel like she's still out there, you know. They never found the body and…" He closed his eyes again for a second before standing up and making his way to the fireplace in the other room. Just before he left for the Burrow, George heard him say softly "and I just can't give up hope."

Sunday brunch at the Burrow was the mandatory event in which all the Weasley children and their significant others and the Potters got together. Bill with his wife Fleur and their three children Victoire, Dominique and Louis. Charlie with Amanda, the pretty Spanish dragon tamer who had tamed his heart and their two kids, Alison and Christopher. Percy and Audrey with their twins Lucy and Molly. George and Angelina (with twins on the way) who had finally married after a long on and off relationship and an even longer engagement and their daughter Roxanne. Ron and Lavender, and their son Matthew and finally Ginny and Harry and their three children, James, Albus and Lily.

The only one who remained unmarried was Fred. He had tried moving on, really, he had, but any and all witches anyone tried to introduce him to had seemed lacking in his mind, so he remained single, while his brothers and sister had their own families. He didn't mind that much, really. Only one witch had ever been able to make him happy and that had been Hermione.

When after the Final Battle at Hogwarts there had been no trace of her, he had been devastated. He had refused to believe she was dead (still did, for that matter). After a few weeks with no news of her while other missing people turned up, he had sunk into a bleak depression. He barely ate and hardly slept. When exhaustion came crushing down on him, he slept in her bed, holding her pillow like a lifeline until it no longer smelled of her.

The years passed and even though his heart never healed completely and he still had the hope that she was out there somewhere he began to live again. He went out with his friends, and tried dating, though he never had more than one date with anyone. He cheered when his brothers and sister got married and when their children were born.

He had a good life, it was just missing Hermione.

After lunch, Charlie, Percy, Ron and their families left and all the remaining Weasley kids (that is to say Molly's grandkids) were either asleep for their afternoon nap or outside playing in the yard or flying, while the adults enjoyed the brief respite in the chaos that usually accompanied their weekly meeting.

"So, how did your date go, Fred?" asked Ginny, one of the most vehement in seeing him back in the dating world. Hermione had been a dear friend to her, but Fred was her brother and it broke her heart to see him alone.

His voice was uninterested, like every time anyone asked about his attempts at dating. "Good, it was good. Jenny was alright."

"Her name is Penny, you prat!" Said Angelina between chuckles. "I guess this means you won't be seeing her again?"

"Err… no offense to your friend but I don't think so."

Fleur started slowly, as if trying to sense how her suggestion would be received. "Well, I 'ave a cousin 'oo will be visiting from France next month, maybe you will like 'er?"

"Fleur, guys it's nice what you're trying to do, but really, I don't…" Whatever he was going to say was lost as the doorbell rang interrupting his tirade. Mrs. Weasley, who was closest to the door, stood up to open it. They could hear a quiet conversation taking place between Molly and whoever was at the door and then she came back, a teenager following close behind. She had long, red hair and bright, deep, blue eyes. She smiled at the lot of them and her small nose wrinkled in amusement.

"So which one of you is Frederick Weasley?" She said with a smirk before Molly could introduce her.

Fred looked up from where he had been staring at the floor and stood up, offering her his hand. "That would be me. Who…" He started to ask for her name but she cut across him.

"Well, hello there, Father."

The reaction this statement had on the family was instantaneous. Shouts of "What the—" "Excuse me?" and "Come again?" could be heard all around amidst the numerous coughs from the number of people who had been drinking something and had choked. The only one who was silent through all of this was Fred, who was shocked staring into the girl's eyes. 'My eyes' He thought.

After a minute or two of this, Molly took charge and roared her children and their spouses into silence. Sensing that Fred was still out, she offered the girl a seat while she went to the kitchen to get her something to drink. Bill summoned some more glasses and Arthur brought out his firewhiskey. Whatever the girl had to say, he felt it would be needed.

"There you go, dear," said Molly, handing her a glass of pumpkin juice. "Now if you could please explain?" She finished uncertainly.

"Of course. My name is Isabelle Marie Hall born New Year's Eve, and will turn fifteen next year. My mother, who goes by the name of Elizabeth Hall, raised me as a single mother until a few months ago when a curse hit her on the job and she fell into a deep coma. The healers at St. Claire's, that's the hospital in Salem, Massachusetts where we live, told me that it was the," She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, since she had rushed all the above information. "The Sleeping Beauty Curse, also known as…"

"The True Love Curse." Ginny, who was a healer herself, finished for her when her voice started to break. "That still does not explain why you think my brother here is your father."

"Well, yes, it does. You see, my mother doesn't remember anything before she had me. She awoke in St. Claire's where she was told she had been in a coma for the duration of the pregnancy as a safeguard because of the sheer amount of injuries she had when she'd been found. She wasn't very far a long when she was found, only a few weeks or so. A true miracle that I survived, really. The healers said that my mother's body shut down in order to redirect all of its magical power to protect me and heal her, so when she had me, she woke up. Problem is, her memory was gone and all she had from her old life was a locket with a picture."

At this, Fred looked up sharply. It took him three tries to find his voice before he could speak. "A… a locket?"

"Yes. A locket with a picture inside. At first she was too sick, and then she had to take care of me and then find a job, so she never really looked for the man in the picture, but every time she looked at it she'd smile. She'd tell me that she could remember strong arms around her and feeling loved so much. Then, I turned eleven and got my letter for the Salem Witch Institute of America and she could pursue a career as a healer and she never did have any time. She never found anyone else and now…" She trailed off, not knowing how else to explain.

Ginny spoke again. "And now your mother is in a cursed coma, from which she can only wake with a kiss from her one true love. So you set out to discover who the man in the locket, your father, was in hopes of being able to get your mother to wake."

The girl nodded. "To wake, and maybe, to remember. You see, whenever she held that locket she said she could almost remember, so maybe if she was reunited with her past she could regain all she lost. She remembers things, sometimes. Flashes. Images. Names. Feelings." She looked at Fred directly now before she continued speaking. "I understand if you have another life now, a wife, kids or whatever. I don't really need anything else from you than a kiss for my mother so I can have her back. Anything you can do for us, it's okay." She trailed off, not wanting to ask for more than what he could give.

"Do you have it?"

"Huh?" Isabelle shook her head as if to dispel whatever thought had distracted her.

"The locket. Do you have it with you? I need to see… need to know."

"Oh, yeah. Of course. Gimme a sec." She fished under her shirt and took out an oval silver locket, with a rose branded on the front. Even though everyone in the room was pretty sure who Isabelle's mother was (not only because of the story, but also because of the uncanny likeness she had to Hermione) the intake of breath when they saw it was loud enough to be heard upstairs.

"May I?" Fred asked, pointing to the locket. Isabelle took it off and gave it to him. While he studied the locket—his eyes shining with unshed tears—she studied him. She could see herself in him. The same eyes. The same hair. She suspected her smirk belonged to him too, because it was certainly nothing like her mother's.

She watched him open the locket to stare at the tiny, moving picture inside. It was her mother and him, he was holding her from behind and they were looking adoringly into each other's eyes. Every once in a while, he would smile at her and dip in to steal a kiss. "Hermione," he sighed. A single tear ran down his cheek as he looked at the other side of the locket and saw the inscription he had magicked there so long ago: "Always and Forever, Fred."

"So?" She asked hesitantly. "Will you do it? Kiss my mother and see if she… if she wakes up?"

"Y-yes, of course." He paused, struggling with what he wanted to ask. "I need to know, I'll do it regardless, of course, but… do you think she'd take me back? Let me be a part of her, and your, life?"

She looked into his eyes, trying to see the truth of his question and all she saw was hope. Pain and hope. She came to a startling realization. "You waited? All this time, you never found someone?"

He motioned for her to come closer and pointed out the inscription. "I promised her 'Always and Forever', Isabelle. There could never be anyone else."

She threw her arms around him and broke down in tears, the emotion of the reunion and the stress of the last months finally catching up to her. He held her tight and ran a soothing hand on her hair. He looked up to see that everyone had tears in their eyes, Harry holding on to a heavily sobbing Ginny close to him while trying to fight his own tears. Bill and Fleur, who had become very fond of Hermione in the months leading up to the battle were embracing so strongly that Fred thought for a moment that one of them would faint from lack of air. George, who was looking at him with such joy in his eyes because he finally knew that his twin would be complete once again.

An hour later when everyone had calmed down a bit and Charlie, Ron and Percy had been called back to the Burrow, Fred found himself watching his daughter who was asleep in the couch from the doorway. She had cried herself to sleep and no one really wanted to disturb her. He heard someone step up behind him, but didn't need to turn to know who it was. He felt his hand on his shoulder and raised his own to squeeze it.

"Think she'll have me back, Gred?"

"If she doesn't realize I'm the better looking twin, then yeah, sure." He said, with a hint of a smile. "Come on, Forge. Let your kid sleep. She must be exhausted."

"Yeah." Then he smiled. "That's my kid, Gred. Right there, that's mine and Hermione's daughter."

"Yeah, she is. Now come on before you wake her. If she's anything like her mother she won't like being woken up while resting."

Two days later and only because Arthur worked at the ministry and had pulled strings to secure an international portkey to Salem, Massachusetts in such short notice, Fred was with his daughter on his way to Hermione. With them went George, Harry, Ginny, Ron and Molly. The rest of the family, though they all wanted to come, stayed home because it would be too crowded with all of them hovering around her sickbed. George went to be with his twin, Harry, Ginny and Ron because it was Hermione and they were her best friends and Molly because, well, no one had the guts to even challenge her decision.

From the International Portkey Arrival Point, they flooed to 'Hall Witches' Home', the floo address to Hermione's place in Salem. It was a single story flat with two bedrooms, a kitchen and a small living area. Isabelle told them that it was in the muggle part of Salem, and near the entrance to the hospital, where her mother worked.

"You know, you never told us how she got hit with this curse," Ginny asked while they walked down the street to the office building that housed St. Claire's Hospital of Magical Ailments. She, Isabelle and Molly walked in the lead, with Fred, George, Harry and Ron a few steps behind them.

"It was during her shift five months ago. She takes the emergency shift couple of weeks each month. Being a single mother and everything, we've never had much money, so she works the emergency shift… Anyways, a few months ago, a critical patient came in. He was dying, attacked by a Manticore he had been trying to steal from the research facilities. Nothing they could do. The wife, crazy woman, cursed Mom when she went out to tell her he had died. She was subdued, of course, but it was too late. She was then arrested and convicted, though, much good as that did."

George and Harry could see Fred getting angrier by the second, and feared he'd do something stupid, like going after the woman who had cursed Hermione. In an attempt to lighten his mood, Harry changed the subject.

"How did you find Fred so quickly, anyways? I mean, five months is not really that much time to look for someone when all you have is a picture and a first name. Especially since we lived in another country."

She turned around and started walking backwards, trusting Ginny and Molly to stop her when she came to a street to cross. "Well, that's because I'd been looking for longer. You see, since Mom didn't remember her birthday, she took to celebrating it with mine. Last year I caught her looking at the locket at midnight, so I thought that for this year, I'd find him, you know, the man in the picture. See if he, well you," she said, pointing at Fred. "Wanted to meet her. As a gift, see? At school I researched ways to magically locate someone, but without knowing you or having something that belonged to you, I couldn't do it. So, a month after Mom got attacked, after I had exhausted any and all spells I could find on the locket and the ring, I got into contact with a magical detective agency. They tracked you down. Probably would have taken longer if you guys weren't famous in Britain. Right, we're here. Through this door and then to the right."

"Ring?" Molly asked.

"Yeah. Beautiful thing, diamond and rubies. We guessed it was an engagement ring. Always uses it, or carries it in a chain around her neck when she's working. Trace spells couldn't find the manufacturer."

Fred gave a short laugh. "Wouldn't have worked. It's goblin made. I had it made for her. Bill hooked me up with the craftgoblin." Everyone looked at him with wide eyes. They hadn't known this.

Isabelle couldn't hide her astonishment. "Goblin-made, huh? Wow. Well, to continue my story. The detective agency in Salem let me work afternoons and weekends as secretary/receptionist in order to pay for their services. Got special dispensation from school to be able to leave every day, but being at the top of the class, they really didn't put up much of a fight, as long as I kept up my grades and schoolwork. Right through here is the front desk. Then a week ago they contacted me with your name and address. No idea how they found you, though. I got special permission from the school to go find you, and well… you know the rest."

"Isabelle! How are you, child! Who are all… these… people…?" The healer who had just stepped out of a room in front of them trailed off as her eyes fell on Fred and George, recognizing one of them as the man from the locket. "You found him? Bells, that's amazing!" She ran forward to hug the girl who was like a daughter to her.

"Guys this is Emma Delphi, Mom's co-worker and best friend. Emma this is… well my family, I guess." She looked uncertainly between Molly and Fred.

"Oh! Of course, child! No need to sound so doubtful. Molly Weasley." Molly said, by way of introduction.

"Well, this is Ginny and Harry Potter—yes, that Harry Potter—and these are Ron and George, my uncles, and this is Fred, my father." She introduced them, smiling brightly.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're here." She said, shaking their hands in turn. When she got to Fred she gave him an extra hug and whispered "Do right by them, will ya? They've been waiting a long time for this." All he could do was nod. "Follow me. I'll take you to her room." She called to another Healer to let them know she was taking an hour off—and tell them why she was taking it off—and set off to the elevator at the end of the hall. "News will be around the hospital in less than an hour. Everyone loves Lizzie. We all know her story, you see. Some of the Healers here were the ones who took care of her when she was first found and when she gave birth to Bells, here."

"Don't call me Bells!" Isabella huffed in annoyance. It was as if now that she was near her Mom, or back in her comfort zone, she could be more the teenager and less the young woman who had showed up a couple of days ago at the Burrow.

"Some of you guys may want to wait outside. Not crowd her when she wakes up and everything. So I'll allow Fred here, Isabelle and someone else. You guys sort it out, I'll check on her while you decide." In the end, it was decided Ginny would be the third person, because everyone else had backed down from her and Molly's scary witch stare. In the end, Ginny pulled her I'm-a-Healer-so-I-should-be-there-just-in-case-card and overruled her mother.

Isabelle and Ginny rushed into the room as soon as Emma gave them the okay, and Fred followed at a slower pace. His first impression of her was that she looked beautiful asleep, just as she had fifteen years ago. It could be as if those years hadn't been there at all. He sat on the side of her bed, Isabelle and Ginny giving him some space, one knowing how much he had waited for this, the other wanting her mother back. He took her hand in one of his, noting that they still fit perfectly together. With the other he delicately brushed a stray curl back from her face, trailing his fingers down her cheek, coming to rest under her chin.

"Hermione," he breathed, his lips an inch away from hers. "Come back to me, please." With that, he brought his lips gently down on hers, putting fifteen years' worth of love and hope on the single kiss that could bring her back. What felt like hours, but was no more than thirty seconds later he raised his lips and rested his forehead against hers.

"Why isn't she waking up?" He could hear Isabelle ask Ginny in the background.

"Shh! All we can do now is wait." She answered. Just as she finished speaking, a golden light started glowing where his lips had touched hers. Like a spark that falls on dry paper, it rested there a few seconds before expanding in waves through her body. Fred still held her hand as the golden light expanded, giving life back to the comatose body. Her muscles tensed and her back arched as if shocked with electricity before slumping back on the bed and slowly opening her vibrant chocolate eyes.

Isabelle stepped forward to catch her attention and ran to her as soon as she opened her eyes to embrace her.

"Mom! Oh my god, Mom! It's been so hard without you! Don't you ever, ever do this again, hear me?"

"Isabelle! What happened?" She was still unaware that she had company apart from her daughter.

"You were cursed, Mom. Sleeping Beauty Curse. But I found him, the man in the locket." She pointed to the other side of the bed and Hermione turned around. She blinked a couple of times before focusing her eyes on Fred, who was smiling at her lovingly. She held his gaze for a moment before her eyes widened in recognition and everything came rushing back to her. Her parents, Hogwarts, Voldemort, the War, and… "Fred." She threw his arms around him just as she had done around her daughter.

"Yes, love?"

"You're here."

"Always and forever, love. Always and forever."

One year later…

After the celebrated morning in which Hermione awoke from her curse-induced coma to find her true love sitting on her bedside everything had changed. It was as if those fifteen years of separation had never been. Fred went back to being the incorrigible prankster he had been before Hermione went missing, and Hermione had recovered the spark in her eyes that her daughter had always known was missing. One year to the day that Isabelle had turned up on the Weasley's doorstep wanting to see her father, Hermione and Fred were preparing themselves for a very overdue wedding.

She had moved back to England and transferred her daughter to Hogwarts for her final two years of schooling. Isabelle hadn't had much trouble with it because despite being a prankster at heart, just like her father, she had the bookwormish attitude of her mother and that tended to attract few friends.

Fred waited by the altar George, his best man, behind him and then Lee Jordan, Harry and Ron, the groomsmen. Opposite to them, Isabelle, the maid of honor, waited by Fleur, Ginny and Emma, the bridesmaids. Hermione hadn't been able to decide between Emma and Ginny as her matron of honor, so she had chucked tradition out the window and stuck her daughter in that place.

Fred's breath caught in his throat when Hermione, escorted by his brother Bill, appeared at the end of the aisle. She was a vision of perfection in a strapless, ivory white dress that reached just over her knees on the front but was long and had a train on the back as she walked down the aisle. Her smile made his heart beat faster and he could swear she was positively glowing.

The ceremony was short and sweet, and when he heard the minister give his blessing and shower them with stars, he couldn't help smiling as he kissed his bride.

It wasn't until after the reception that she told him exactly why she was glowing, and, even though he had thought it to be impossible, he couldn't have been happier.

A/N Thanks for reading, hope you liked it! 'One year later...' is some sort of mini epilogue since I felt It was kind of incomplete before. First fic ever, so review please, that way I can know what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong! Virtual cookies to all reviewers!

Love, C.

As of Edit: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, it really is food for the soul. I'm now working on a prequel, a kind of 'How they fell in love' for this story.

Once again,

Love, C.