A return to the world of writing fanfiction, I have come back to my first love of Harry Potter. I love the pairing of Hermione and Fred, it's a fantasy ship I'll sail in my heart forever. This has also been cross-posted on AO3.

If you enjoy it, leave a review, or don't because I'm not pushy. But also, do.

Fred was smiling at her. Hermione was very suspicious because Fred rarely smiled at her. Smirked, grinned, and on one memorable occasion, glared fairly menacingly. For all of that, the smile was almost scarier than any other look he had thrown her. She raised her eyebrows, inviting him to say something. He just kept smiling. She looked away, confused. She was sitting in the common room, in her favourite chair, with her favourite book – Hogwarts, A History – and was free of homework for the night. Harry and Ron were in the library finishing up another essay that they had left last minute, which no doubt meant that she would be proof reading for them once they were done. May as well get her reading in before they came begging. But damn Fred Weasley was sitting across the room smiling at her.

She snuck a look over the top of her book to see if he was still watching, and his smile got wider as he saw her looking. She scowled at him and went back to her book. She sat reading for a while, blocking out the noise of her classmates, and held in a groan as a shadow fell across her.

"Alright there, Granger?" Fred smiled down at her.

Looking up, Hermione glanced over to see George and Lee Jordan with their heads together poring over a piece of paper. Oh, she thought, this is a Wheezes thing. Fred was distracting her while the other two schemed away on some stupid plot.

"Just fine, Fred," she said quietly, going back to her book. "And yourself?"

He flopped down on the chair across from her, legs spread akimbo and head tilted to one side, examining her. "Where are your shadows?"

"Hmm?" Hermione was distracted. "Oh, Harry and Ron? In the library I think. There's a Charms essay that they need done by tomorrow."

"And you're not with them?"

"I finished mine last week," Hermione said, looking up from her book. "Just taking advantage of the quiet for a bit."

It feel quiet between them, Hermione going back to her book, and Fred going back to his smiling. It was very off putting. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore.

"What did you need Fred?" she asked, putting her book down and to the side.

"Who? Me?" Now there was Fred's smirk. It lifted one corner of his mouth and was joined by a gleam in his eye. "I'm not quite sure what you mean."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "When was the last time we chatted Fred?"

"Exactly!" he exclaimed. "You basically live at my house during breaks Granger and we never just sit and chat. You're usually off saving the world or something. I need to take my chances."

"Hmm, so you say."

"Well, I'll see you around, Granger," he was smiling again. He stood up and nodded his head in goodbye before heading back to George and Lee.

Hermione shook her head in bemusement and went back to her book. This had been a really weird night.

The next time it happened was even stranger. She was once again enjoying some alone time while Harry and Ron finished some work. She was out by the lake, stretched out under a beech tree by the water, relaxing in a rare day of sun. Bathing in the warmth, she was startled when a body thumped down beside her.

"Alright there, Granger?" His voice threw her back to that night in the common room weeks ago, and she gingerly opened her eyes and was not surprised to see him smiling again.

"Just fine Fred," she replied. "You out here enjoying the sun too?"

He leaned back and lay down next to her, his face level with hers. They turned to look at each other. She had never been this close to him before. He had very long eyelashes, and she thought she could count every freckle on his nose. Truthfully, apart from the red hair, he didn't look very much like Ron at all.

"I find that it's always good company."

Hermione felt her face heat up at his gaze. God, what was wrong with her? She didn't blush because a boy was flirting with her.

"How are you finding Defence?" he went on, looking at her carefully.

She frowned at the thought of her now least favourite class and its insufferable teacher. "Umbridge is a toad," she said. "She doesn't know anything about teaching. It's ridiculous that she's here."

Fred laughed at her. A loud laugh, a big laugh, a thoroughly amused laugh. "I appreciate your honesty Granger. Can't say I'm not a little surprised to hear you blaspheming a teacher."

"That woman is no teacher," she scowled. "She's a mean spirited and cruel piece of work who has no business being anywhere near impressionable children."

Fred smiled, and suddenly he had moved closer and she could see the little gold flecks in his eyes and the tangle of his eyelashes. She breathed in slowly, in apprehension or anticipation, she wasn't sure. And he was looking at her with something unrecognisable in his eyes, a look she had only really seen in the muggle movies she went to with her mother on school breaks.

"Oi, Hermione!" she was startled out of the moment by the loud bellowing of Ron. Sitting up quickly, she looked over and saw her two best friends meandering over. Harry looked amused, while Ron just looked confused and a little angry. "What are you doing here?" he asked Fred as he reached them. His older brother sat up and grinned at him lazily.

"Relaxing," he said simply, shrugging his shoulders. "Granger had staked out the best spot."

Ron still looked unsure, and Hermione didn't know what to say. In all honesty, she wasn't entirely sure what had just happened. Harry was watching her carefully, but she avoided the questions clear in his eyes.

Fred stood up gracefully, his long legs stretching out. He turned to her and nodded. "Thanks for the company, Granger, we'll do this again some time."

She smiled and waved goodbye, and watched him go as Harry and Ron sat down, one on either side of her.

"That's a little weird, isn't it?" Ron was still staring after his brother strangely. "It's a little weird, right Harry?"

"I don't know," Harry said, shrugging his shoulders, "maybe he just wanted some quiet time away from George and Lee."

Ron scoffed. "Unlikely."

Hermione felt the heat spread from her toes to her fingers. Unrestrained anger bubbled up inside her. "What?" she said angrily. "Am I not enjoyable company?"

Ron looked taken aback, and even Harry seemed a little scared. "No – Mione, that's not – I mean, no I didn't mean that."

She stood up and grabbed her bag from the floor, and swung it over her shoulder. She rolled her eyes at the two boys and frowned at them. "The both of you can be so obtuse," she spat as she stormed away.

She held back a scream of frustration as she heard a bewildered Ron turn to Harry and ask in a quiet voice, "What in the name of Merlin is obtuse?"

It continued like this for weeks. Any spare moment that Hermione had when she wasn't with Harry or Ron, she would find herself joined by a quiet and smiling Fred Weasley. And for some strange reason, it didn't bother her at all. They spoke about anything and everything. Books they had read – he still couldn't understand her fondness for Hogwarts, A History; movies they had seen – it seemed that he had evidently spent a lot of time in the Ottery St. Catchpole movie theatre; and the classes they were taking. For all the joking that he did, for all the pranks he pulled, and for all that he seemed to slack on his assignments and in class, Fred was very intelligent. George too, but George didn't sit with her as she picked his brain about charms and potions, but Fred did. He did it with a smile and quiet answer. And in return she let him ask her questions about transfiguration and astronomy, and did she think that this ingredient would offset the other, and even though she knew it was for some potentially unstable product she ignored it in fear that she would miss the relationship that they had so strangely developed.

Dumbledore's Army was her greatest idea. Greater than any essay she had ever written and greater than any battle she had ever fought in the name of Harry Potter. And it was because of the meaning behind it that made her so proud. Students, disadvantaged students, at mercy to men and women who thought themselves to know more and understand more, at the cost of their safety and education, these students stood up and they took it back.

Hermione, with friends by her side, and comrades in arms, they took back their magic and they took back their right to an education.

And if she got to see Fred Weasley smiling at her from across the room at every meeting, well that was just icing on the cake.

Umbridge had been handing out detentions like candy at a Muggle Halloween party and there was a somber air to the castle. Dumbledore was gone and a megalomaniac was in charge, and it all felt so hopeless. Despite the consequences, she couldn't bring herself to regret the DA, all the good it had done, and all the hope that had flourished.

She sat with Fred in an empty corridor, shoulder to shoulder, leg pressed against leg, as she examined his hand. Detention with Umbridge, again.

I will not talk back.

"Alright there, Granger?" he smiled.

She smiled back weakly. "I'm fine," she ran a finger across the words and frowned as he shivered. "Alright there, Weasley?"

"Just fine," he said.

"I'll get you some Murtlap when we're in the common room, it should ease the pain, reduce some of the inflammation."

"Thanks Nurse Granger," Fred laughed, shifting himself to lean in closer. "You been using that for yourself? Or Harry? You're probably a popular girl at the moment."

She rested her head against his shoulder. "Harry, mostly. She's never liked him. Me and Ron are enemies by association. Seamus doesn't know how to shut his mouth, and Lavender and Parvati have had a problem with her since the Trelawney incident," she sighed, "so yes, a popular girl."

"Hey," he said, stroking her hair. "It's not forever, Granger, and George and I, we've got plans."

"Please don't do anything stupid Fred. You've got a few months left of the year, and then you're done. The whole world at your feet."

"I'm never stupid, Granger. Brilliant and reckless, always. But never stupid."

They sat there for a while longer, not talking, just leaning on each other in the only way left to them. It was certainly a turn she hadn't expected her fifth year to take. Friends, or something, with Fred Weasley.

George found them like that, huddled close, and merely gifted his twin with a raised eyebrow, which Fred returned with a frown. He stood up, and gave Hermione a hand to get to her feet before the three set off on their way. Hermione to the library, the twins towards the tower. She heard them arguing in low tones as they went, but tried not to think on it. It wasn't really her business.

In the library, she tried to concentrate on her work, she really did, but something was niggling at the back of her mind. It was Fred Weasley and it was throwing her off. His smile, his laugh, the freckles on his nose, the feeling of his hands on her skin, the way he hugged her tight to his chest and enveloped her in his warmth. It was strange, she knew that, and unexpected. She wasn't oblivious to the way everyone seemed to think that Ron would be the Weasley she chose. But Fred had worked his way into her life, and she needed him and she wanted to need him. He had the emotional range of an endless sea.

Frustrated, she closed her book heavily and propped her head up on her arms. Merlin's beard, she thought, what was she going to do. She liked him. She liked Fred Weasley, and she thought he might like her too. She could be wrong though, it wasn't like she had a lot of experience, Viktor being her only foray into the romantic world sphere. But the smiles, the lingering looks, the excuses he found to touch her in the hallways, at dinner and in the common room.

"Should I say something?" she whispered to herself. "It would be so stupid to say something," she groaned.

"It's not stupid if it's true," a dreamy voice came from behind her. Startled, Hermione whipped around and was surprised to see Luna looking at her rather intently. "My mum always used to say that the truth is ours to share."

"Oh," Hermione said bewildered, "thanks Luna."

The blonde girl nodded and smiled dreamily. "You're welcome, Hermione. I'm sure I'll see you around," she turned on her heel and walked away, out of the library, leaving a thoughtful Hermione watching her.

It had happened so fast. Harry had been having a crisis which had led to a distraction from Fred and George which had led to the two of them taking off through a broken window and away from Hermione. She hadn't even been able to say goodbye. She'd just come to terms with the fact that she liked him, and now he was gone and she couldn't even focus on it because Harry needed her. He was falling apart without Quidditch, with his lessons from Snape, and Umbridge breathing down his neck and he needed her.

She sat under the beech tree, alone, and remembered the last time she had been here. Face to face with Fred under the sun. Closing her eyes she called his face to her mind and smiled at the memory. She could have, should have, kissed him then. He might have pushed her away, he might never have spoken to her again but at least she would have taken action. Careful, thoughtful Hermione Granger would have gone after something she wanted with no thought for the consequences.

And then the year was over and she had gone off on another of Harry's missions. Sirius was dead. Voldemort was alive and out in the world. Ron was scarred for the rest of his laugh, and Hermione couldn't walk ten feet without a sharp pain spreading from her toes to her fingers. And Harry, Harry was broken. He had lost someone else, someone he loved, and he blamed himself. So she would watch him and she would love him, and she would do her best to glue him back together.

In the dark times to come, she was sure she would rely on the happy, the calm, the safe moments she had savoured with a handsome red-haired boy.