The untold story of Fred and Hermione.
Hermione sat in the leaky cauldron, nursing the same butter beer that been in her grasp for the last two hours, trying in vain to ignore the chatter around her from the Weasleys. She was sat beside Harry, who kept subtly glancing over at her every now and then to engage in conversation, to which she politely nodded or slightly smiled.
She felt numb. The faded scar left on her forearm tingled nauseatingly as the family continued to talk about the battle. That battle in which so many lives were lost. Hermione always hated this time of year. The anniversary of the battle of Hogwarts. Hard to believe that it was over four years ago now.
"Hermione, dear? Would you like another drink?" Mrs Weasleys soft voice shattered through Hermione's painful memories that were starting to surface. She looked up to the woman that was practically her second mother and could see the pity resting on her caring face. Hermione couldn't handle this. Not now. Not today.
"No. No, I'm fine, Molly. Thank you. Actually, I think I might go home now. I have work to finish for tomorrow." She lied quickly. Mrs Weasley opened her mouth to argue but was gently pulled back down to her seat by her husband, Arthur Weasley, who was sadly shaking his head at his wife. Harry removed his hand from Ginny's to give her a hug and a kiss on the forehead.
"If you need me, you know where to find me okay?" He whispered to her.
Hermione nodded and pulled back from him. Ron walked around from the other side of the table and enfolded Hermione in a tight hug. She looked over his shoulder to see his new fiancé, Luna Lovegood, smiling softly at her. Ginny, impatiently waiting for Ron to leave, grabbed Hermione by the shoulders and looked dead into her eyes.
"You can fool everyone else but you cannot fool me, Hermione Granger." Ginny said flatly.
"I'm not-"
"Save it, Mione. You're going to see him aren't you?"
Hermione weakly nodded her head.
"Please make sure George is okay." Ginny's voice hitched towards the end and Hermione struggled to control the tears that were threatening to spill.
"Of course. Now, off you go. You need to rest. We don't want that baby coming early." Hermione smiled slightly, placing her hand on her best friends massive stomach. Ginny grinned, squeezing Hermione's hand before she sat back down next to Harry.
Hermione didn't look back at the family as she left the pub.
-F&H-
Hermione landed unsteadily on her feet, the dark green winter coat she was wearing twisting uncomfortably around her as she tried to get her bearings from apparating. She looked around her, the feeling of a weight crushing her lungs hitting her hard and fast. Hermione grabbed onto the nearest tree to try and regain her breath. Four years. It had been four years and it still felt like she was being hit by a truck whenever she set foot in this place.
"Mione?" Hermione shouldn't have been surprised to find him here, but she still jumped a little at the sound of his soft voice in the darkness. She removed her hand from the tree, feeling her breath coming back to her a little better as she moved closer to him. His red hair stood out in the darkness as he leaned against a tree a little away from her. She noticed that he was wearing his Weasley sweater from two Christmases ago, they day that they finally confined in each other. As she reached him, she noticed that he had chopped his hair short and he was fidgeting with the maroon scarf around his neck. Hermione examined his handsome face, noticing that the stress of the past four years had changed the man that stood before her. He wasn't the same prankster that everyone knew and loved.
"George. I'm sorry, I thought you would have gone back home by now." Hermione finally spoke.
"I thought that too." Said George.
"Do you want to come with me? I could really do with your company." Hermione admitted. She hated admitting that she needed George but she did, and at times like this, she needed him more than ever.
George nodded his head and the two began walking. The sound of their footsteps on the leaves sounded deafening in the quiet night. George remained quiet next to Hermione, and even though she had expected him to be that way, it still hurt that she couldn't keep her promise to him.
After a brief walk, they both slowed to a stop. Hermione could feel her breaths begin to come out in short gasps. Just as she felt like she was about to have a full blown panic attack, she felt a soft touch on her lower back. She snapped her head up to see that George had brought himself right by her side, with his hand on her lower back. The touch felt so similar to his that Hermione instantly melted against him. George pulled Hermione closer, holding her tightly around the waist.
"You can do this, Mione." George whispered in her ear. "I'm right here beside you and I'm not going anywhere."
Hermione weakly nodded and turned to the white tombstone that faced her. She walked slowly towards it, reminding herself to take deep breaths. She looked back over her shoulder to see that George was still behind her. His entire focus was on the tombstone in front of them. When she approached, Hermione ran her hand over the top, feeling the cool marble and removing stray leaves. She took a deep breath and ran her hand over the inscription.
Frederick Gideon Weasley
01.04.1978- 02.05.1998
Son, Brother, Friend and Soulmate.
"Do not cry over my death. Cry at the fact that I am going to haunt you until you join me."
Hermione smiled as the tears rolled down her cheeks as she ran her finger along the last line. Only Fred.
"I'm sorry it took so long to come and see you, Fred." Hermione began, aware that George was listening behind her. "This year has been quite hard for me without you. Everyone seems to be moving on with their lives now. Harry and Ginny will be parents within a few weeks, can you believe that?"
Hermione knew she wasn't going to get an answer but she still paused anyway.
"Ron finally grew a pair and purposed to Luna. Charlie and Percy both owe me twenty galleons. They were sure he was going to wimp out. You're mum and dad are doing well, excited to become grandparents for a second time I'm sure. I always joke with Ginny that her twins might end up like you and George." She turned around to look over at him. He smiled softly at her, watching her with admiration as she spoke to his dead twin.
"I still remember the first time I met you. Well properly met you anyway…"
Flashback
August 1992
Hermione proudly walked over to the Gryffindor table as the sorting hat continued to shout out houses. The table erupted into applause as she sat down next to Ron, who smiled at her with a mouth full of pumpkin juice.
Before she could correct his horrendous manners, two lanky red headed boys plopped themselves down across from her.
"Welcome to the best house in Hogwarts-"
"-Hermione Granger." They both finished in unison and Hermione raised her eyebrows at them. They were twins and Hermione instantly recognised their Weasley red hair and freckles trademarks.
"Allow us to introduce ourselves-" One spoke up.
"I'm Fred." The boy on the right said, grinning widely at her.
"And I'm George." The other one said, winking.
Beside her, Ron scoffed. Hermione turned to look at him with a questioning glance.
"Don't fall for that. He's George-" Ron said pointing to Fred. "And he's Fred." He finished pointing at George.
The twins looked horrified at Ron when Hermione turned back to them looking less than impressed.
"Do you two pull that prank a lot?" Hermione asked.
Both the boys looked at each other with overly dramatic hurt faces and Hermione raised her eyebrow at them. She looked over at Ron, who was just smirking and shaking his head at his older brothers.
"How you wound us, Granger." Fred said, holding his hand over his heart and smirking at the glaring first year.
"What would make you think such a low opinion of us?" George added.
"Trying to imply that myself and Forge are pranksters!" said Fred.
"Despicable-"
"Outrageous-"
"Horrendous-"
"Alright! I get it!" Hermione interrupted, glaring at the twins.
"You know you look kinda cute when you get angry." Fred winked at her, making Hermione flush with anger and embarrassment. Ron choked on his pumpkin juice and Seamus thumped his back until he started coughing.
George was about to open is mouth when the sorting hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" With the twins attention elsewhere, Hermione grumbled to herself. She was going to have a long year with those two, she was sure of it…
Present
Hermione laughed at the memory as she wiped away tears from her cheeks. She continued to caress the inscription on Fred's tombstone as she sat on the cold grass.
"I just knew that you and George were going to make my life difficult from the start." Hermione spoke, looking over her shoulder to see George, who was leaning against the fence of the cemetery watching her with glazed eyes. She locked eyes with his and tried to ignore how identical his blue eyes were to Fred's. She noticed that George had a vacant expression on his face as he looked at her share her memories with him. Memories that George had never heard her talk about before.
"And I was right, wasn't I, Freddie?"
"When were you ever wrong, Mione?" George spoke up. Hermione turned her head to see that George had approached her. His face so alike to his almost suffocated her. George sat down next to Hermione on the ground, his thigh touching hers. A rush of heat spread up through her body. Hermione shook her head, her face beginning to flush in the darkness.
"I've been wrong before. Believe it or not." Hermione teased, nudging George gently with her shoulder. He grinned down at her and Hermione couldn't help but smile back. It was the first time that she had seen him truly smile in a while and it was so infectious.
"Hermione Granger wrong? I don't believe that sentence makes sense." George said, grinning down at her.
"I was wrong about you two. Although it took me a while to figure it out."
"Yeah, Fred had a lot of fun teasing you."
"Oh, like you didn't either!" Hermione laughed. George smirked at her, raising his hands in defence.
"I never said that, Granger."
Hermione laughed softly at George. The tears were falling steadily down her face now as memory after memory came flooding back to her. She had tried so hard to keep the memories shut away.
"I remember the first time I actually had a conversation with Fred…"
October 1992
The Gryffindor common room was buzzing with excited first years as they were about to experience their first Hogwarts Gryffindor party. Harry and Ron were sitting by the fire playing a very loud game of exploding snap, Seamus' voice was bouncing off the walls as he ran around the room from Peeves who was throwing cursed apples off his head and a group of gossipy first year girls had crowded around Fred and George, giggling away as played music and winked.
Hermione rolled her eyes and pulled herself in deeper to the chair she was occupying right at the edge of the common room away from the party. Just as she had settled in a comfortable position, a red head threw them self-down on the edge of the seat, practically sitting on top of Hermione.
"I'm not in the mood for your stupidity tonight, Ronald." Hermione snapped not bothering to look up from her charms book.
"Well, it's a good thing I'm not ickle Ronnikins then." Oh, she knew that voice. How she knew that troublesome voice that had gave her nothing but bother all year.
"What do you want, Fred?" Hermione amended, glancing up to see him watching her with wide eyes. "What?"
"How did you know it was me?"
"Pardon?"
"How did you know that I was Fred and not George without looking up?" he asked, nudging himself further onto the chair, causing Hermione to shove herself right up to the side. She turned to glare at him but he completely dismissed her.
"Why do you seem so surprised that I can tell the difference?"
"Because no one can. Even our mother sometimes still gets us muddled up, so spill, Granger. What's the secret?"
"You just both look different to me." Hermione shrugged her shoulders while Fred stared at her like she had grown an extra head. "Will you stop staring at me like that!"
"I'm sorry. I'm just so surprised that you can tell us apart when you've hardly had a conversation with either of us."
"I don't need to have a conversation with either of you to know the difference between you." Hermione snapped at him. She was trying to get some studying done. She didn't want or need to be talking to Fred Weasley right now, nor did she understand why he was talking to her instead of flirting with the third year girls like George was currently doing.
"Care to explain?"
Hermione sighed and threw her book down on the table, a little over dramatically she had to admit, and turned to face Fred, who had a wide grin on his face.
"Did I ever mention how cute you look when you get angry?" He winked.
Hermione glared at him and shoved him against the arm of the chair as hard as she could.
"Ow! What was that for?" Fred cried out, rubbing his shoulder has it made impact with the wooden rim around the side of the chair.
"Stop trying to make me flustered, Fred Weasley!"
"Oh, so I make you flustered now? What is it? My handsome face? Or my irresistible personality? Or my toned bo-"
"I will hex you!" Hermione hissed at him, grabbing for her wand to emphasis her point. Fred flung his arm out to stop her, his hand tightening around her wrist.
"Okay, I'm sorry Granger!" He smirked at her. "Will you please tell me the differences you can see between myself and my brother?"
"You have a darker shade of red than George does. You also have more freckles smattered across your nose. George has some blonde highlights through his hair that you don't have. You are just a little bit taller and your eyes are a brighter shade of blue." Hermione was waiting for a witty comment but she was momentarily stunned when Fred remained silent.
When Fred did open his mouth, Hermione was left speechless.
"Well. You must be one special girl to notice all that in such a short space of time. I'll keep an eye out for you, Granger."