Although Christmas at the Weasley household was not known for being quiet and relaxing, this year had turned out to be particularly taxing on Hermione. She had opted not to go home for the Holidays to spend time with Harry and Ron, and Mrs. Weasley had opened her home to Hermione without a second thought. Mrs. Weasley jumped at every opportunity to have "girl time", so while Hermione had planned on spending time studying and relaxing, she had spent more time with Mrs. Weasley. Today, she, Ginny, and Mrs. Weasley had gone out for some shopping. New clothes for Mrs. Weasley, new Quidditch gear for Ginny, and for Hermione, books she had been meaning to get for sometime. Despite the fact that Hogwarts had proven to have every book she had ever wanted, she got them in hopes of being able to read them over break. As they made their way around Diagon Alley, Hermione took interest in the hustle around her, watching magical folk complete their Christmas shopping. Around the same time that Hagrid put up the school's trees, the shop owners of Diagon Alley put up their decorations. Lights sparkled and floated gracefully in the air, not dangling from wire like Hermione saw at home. It looked like all colors of fireflies had coordinated, lazily hanging in the air with hundreds of others. Diagon Alley, which was normally quite dreary for Hermione's taste, was given this whole new cheery demeanor. The girls walked on for some time, visiting store after store, mostly just to look around. It wasn't until they stopped at a small cafe that Mrs. Weasley realized she had forgotten a bag back at a previous store, which gave Hermione and Ginny a chance to verbalize their exasperation.
"How're you holding up?" Ginny asked. She knew Hermione's pain. Her mother meant well, but could sometimes be a little overbearing, and poor Hermione, who had never seen it coming.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It helps that I know these books will be brilliant." Hermione gave a smile, but then sighed. "I haven't studied at all. I feel so... unprepared." She sipped an unfamiliar brew from the cafe and instantly the warmth ran through her.
Sympathetically, Ginny nodded. "Well when we get back, I'm going to see if everyone wants to play some Quidditch. With all this new gear I'm sure I can catch the snitch before Harry." She smiled wide, patting the bags next to her. This season, Ginny had made it her mission to beat the boys in Quidditch, though Hermione suspected that Ginny possibly wanted to impress one boy in particular. She smiled to herself, but before she could respond, Mrs. Weasley had returned with her bags.
"Well girls, our stomachs are full and I'm not sure how much more I can carry." Molly motioned towards her several bags. She had gotten clothes for herself and, of course, more Christmas presents for everyone. "How about we head back?"
"Actually," Ginny spoke up. "I was hoping to stop by the twins' shop." The twins hadn't been home for the Holidays yet, as they were still having Christmas sales. It was planned that today would be their last day for the season, and would be coming home tonight. "I want to pick up some things to bring back to school." Mrs. Weasley loved the idea, of course, and they started to make their way to the shop, with a slightly exasperated Hermione trailing just a bit behind.
Weasely's Wizard Wheezes was no exception to the decoration of Diagon Alley, but where others' decorations minimal and classic, the Weasley store was every bit as eccentric and chaotic as the inside of the store. Built into the entrance of the store was the same giant man as before, but instead of being in the likeness of Fred and George, he looked more like Albus Dumbledore. From the large man's chin, a long beard flowed down, just barely landing an inch above the ground. The only way to determine that the statue was not, in fact, Dumbledore, was by the Father Christmas hat, resting on his head. Hermione laughed at the sight, and followed Mrs. Weasley and Ginny into the store. All around her things were moving and popping and whizzing and cooing. The girls separated, Molly to find the twins, Ginny to find some prank items, and Hermione to kill time. It was as she was looking at the nose biting tea-cups that Fred Weasley gave her a scare. "Should I be on the lookout for the cheapskate I call my little brother?" His voice had boomed, so loud that Hermione jumped, hit one of the tea cups, and got her finger bitten. "Oh blimey, sorry!" Fred removed a small item from his lapel, and placed it into his pocket. "It's a prototype. It projects voices towards the closest person, but for some reason it just yells. How's your finger?"
"Oh it's fine. It just stung." Hermione smiled up at Fred. "Ron isn't here, just me, Ginny and your mom. 'Girl time'." The last words she had said with a sigh. It really wasn't that she didn't like spending time with them, she just needed some time to sit down and relax.
"You got roped into that, eh? No worries, Granger. Tonight, George and I will be back to keeping our mother on her toes." He winked, and Hermione laughed.
"What time are you two coming tonight?"
"Actually, we were thinking about closing up now. Let me go find George, try not to get bit again, huh?" Fred walked away with that undeniably trademark smirk, and as he finally turned a corner out of sight, Hermione surprised herself by relaxing. For some reason she had tensed up while talking to Fred. Had she always done that? Getting her thoughts in order, she was so preoccupied she never even heard a voice yell for her to duck.
There was a cartoonishly loud 'BANG' and then a pain in her arm. A display in front of her toppled over, sending its contents to the ground, and in the middle, flopping around, was a small Aviatomobile, a small flying car. "That'll be 3 sickles and 11 knuts you bloody idiot! That's not even counting that display! Let's hope you didn't break anything, you sodding git!" George yelled, and while he went to handle the customer, Fred went to Hermione.
"I leave you alone for one minute!" He said, and grabbed Hermione's arm. It was nothing too bad, just some blood and potential bruising.
"Do you have any bandages, and that bruise cream? What even happened?" As she spoke, Fred was beginning to lead her towards the back of the store.
"Looks like he tried to cast something on the aviatomobile. How many times do we have to tell people not to try to cast anything on our products? Especially that thing!" As Fred spoke, his annoyance took the place of his normal mischief. "That git better have the money..."
Shortly, they reached the backroom. "Stay here in the office while I find something to help. This time, really, try not to get hurt." Hermione smiled, and took in her surroundings. It was a green room, and looked much like The Burrow in decoration. She was sat on one particularly orange couch, and directly across from her was a large wooden desk, buried in items from the store and paper. On the walls were what seemed like hundreds of pictures. The Weasley family giggled on the wall, from Egypt or the Americas. Everything else in the room just looked like clutter ranging from broken broomsticks small statues of sickly looking cats. When Fred returned after some time, his smirk returned. "I suppose that this time I can give you these things free of charge."
"Oh, thank you so much for the exception." She cooed sarcastically back. Noticing the store had gone quiet since Fred had returned, she looked towards the door. "Where is everyone?" She asked. Mostly she was surprised that Mrs. Weasley hadn't found her yet, to look over her arm's wound.
"We closed up shop and I told 'em to head home. It's not going to take too long to put you back together and Ginny said she wanted to play some Quidditch. I reckon you'll have to thank Ginny when we get back." Hermione let out another last sigh, and was relieved. "Anyway, we better fix you up." He said, and began to unwind the bandages. As Hermione removed her jumper, Fred froze, for just a split second, before regaining composure.
Hermione hadn't noticed, and held her arm out. "I thought you two only sold prank items." She said. "Bandages and bruise cream seem a little out of your jurisdiction."
Fred began to mend her. "You'd think that, but even the two greatest minds of their generation have to follow Ministry guidelines. They told us we'd have to also provide remedies for most of our products, otherwise we wouldn't be able to sell to school age kids."
Hermione nodded. "At least the Ministry is right about something." Her tone was bittersweet, and Fred sighed in agreement.
"George and I were surprised they managed to recognize our store, considering everything must look like arse after their heads being misplaced for so long." The two smiled, and Fred began to wrap her arm.
"Alright we're done!" He put a final knot in the bandage and stood up. "Let me make sure everything is good with the store and then let's head back." After setting the display back up and closing the shop, Fred gave a farewell wave to the Albus Dumbledore statue, and they went on their way.
"That room back there," Hermione started. "It looked familiar."
"It should. It's an exact replica of a part of the Burrow." He smiled, and they crossed the road, Fred unthinkingly and lightly grabbing Hermione's arm. "What made you want to spend time with us for Christmas?" Fred asked.
"Well, my parents said they'd be spending time with some extended family this year, but that would have involved a lot of traveling and whatnot. I thought it would be more relaxing for me to stay and study, but-" Hermione was cut off.
"But little did you know." Fred said, laughing. "Yeah, mum enjoys to spend time with other girls when she's got it. I suppose you could blame me and George for that, for giving her so much trouble." The twins' mischievous behaviour did not end at the Weasley doorway. Their poor mother, who put in so much effort trying to reel them in.
Hermione laughed. "I could blame you but, you know, Ron's not much better. Not even Percy-" She stopped. How stupid of her to forget. She looked up at Fred's face, which had switched from smirking to gritting his teeth. "Sorry, I didn't mean..." Percy disowning the family had been hard on everyone, especially Molly, and still very much a sore subject.
"It's okay. If that git wants to choose the Ministry over us, that's okay." Fred went back to his smirk. "Though, try not to mention it around mum. Anyway, we're here." When the two of them apparated into the Weasley fireplace, George was waiting for them.
"It's about time you two! Everyone's gone outside for some Quidditch, and Harry said something about football. Do you know anything about this Hermione?" George and Fred exchanged subtle looks, but Hermione didn't notice.
"I haven't ever played, but I was planning on studying anyway. Let everyone know I'm okay!" Hermione gave a small smile and a nod towards Fred.
"Suit yourself." George said, and went to stand by his twin. As soon as Hermione was gone, Fred got an elbow in the ribs. "What was that all about?" Fred sighed and shrugged, but after a few seconds of George waiting for a reply, he shrugged again.
Ginny's room was small and every inch of wall decorated with pictures of Quidditch players and bands. Hermione was sharing a room with her, and had been given a small bed and a space for her trunk. She opened the trunk and searched for her school books and began to work on homework. This task proved to be more difficult than usual while her thoughts focused more on Fred Weasley than school. She went over their conversations in her head, smiling in recollection. Her face began to burn as she thought about him, appreciating how nice he had been. Feeling like this about Fred was a new occurrence, having spent most of her time around him in the company of at least Harry and Ron. She sighed, laid her quill down, and flopped onto her back. She had never gotten these feelings for anyone, not even Viktor Krum.
The knock at the door came quite unexpectedly. Hermione jolted straight up on her bed. "Yes?" She expected Molly Weasley, checking on her. Instead, the voice on the other side of the door made her stomach to back flips.
"You decent?" Fred said. Hermione scrambled to smooth her hair and look presentable.
"Yeah, come in!" She yelled back. Shocked by her lack of ability to control the volume of her voice, she sighed.
He opened the door with a laugh. "Hey there Granger. Wanted to check in on you and make sure you were doing okay. That bruise cream should be kicking in soon." The tall, handsome ginger stood in the doorway, leaning against it casually.
"I'm fine." She said, acutely aware of controlling her voice. "Why aren't you outside playing? You'd love football, I'd bet."
"Nah, I wasn't too interested." He made his way towards the bed. "Muggle games sounds more like my dad's cup of tea. I told George to keep his eye out for anything we might be able to sell." He was sitting on the bed, close to Hermione, and winked. Fred saw Hermione blush, something she had never done before today. She could feel how close he was, and his warmth. She wanted to say something clever but her mind was caught up in the electricity that was shooting between them. "So how is your arm?" The silence that hung in the air was cut down by his voice, and Hermione tried to pinpoint what was so new about the same Fred Weasley.
"It feels okay." It didn't feel like anything, she couldn't feel anything about her body except for how much it was burning up. "It's fine." She reiterated. Fred moved closer to her. Fred raised his hand, and brushed a fallen piece of hair behind her ear, and lingered. Hermione had never felt a touch as intense as this, and froze in the moment.
They could hear the roaring of people as the front door to the house flew open. She could make out Ron and Harry in particular yelling "Weasley is our King!" and Ginny ran into her room, covered in mud. Fred had already jolted up. "Football!" Ginny yelled. "How are you supposed to play football!? I was ready to seek and then we're all chasing the same ball?" She yelled, annoyed. Ginny paid little attention to how alone Hermione and Fred had been.
"Little sister, did you get beat by the king himself?" Fred tried to replicate his normally sarcastic demeanor, but Hermione was the only one who noticed. Ginny yelled at him to get out immediately, and went right for Hermione to learn some game tips. As Fred left, he caught Hermione's eye and he saw her eyes flash, seemingly with disappointment.
Dinner came and went, with the normal chaos that the twins bring. They had brought home a few items from the shop as presents, as well as some things that they needed to work on. "Here you go, little brother." George said, as he handed Ron a tin of Magical Moustache Miracle Stubble Grow.
"We heard you were having trouble." Fred added, facetiously. Ron blushed, and gave a retort, but placed the tin in his pocket, much to the uproarious laughter from the twins. After that, they all slowly resigned to bed. Fred stayed, hoping Hermione would turn in late, but soon after Molly and Arthur Weasley left, she told the group she was going to work on schoolwork, and sleepily headed off towards bed. By the time he and George left, just Harry and Ginny were left alone. Fred laughed, turned toward his twin, and whispered, "Smartass." before heading off to their room.
A/N: A couple things: I feel like I've gotta talk about some things. I don't have a very deep knowledge of Harry Potter or the Harry Potter Universe, but I micromanage like I do. Basically what this means is that chapters will probably be slow coming because it's really hard for me to think of places to take this without totally clashing with the rest of the HP Universe. That said, I'm putting a lot of effort into making sure this isn't Harry Potter and the Things His Friends Do in their Off Time so there will be little to no mention of Harry or Voldemort to any pivotal extent.
Something I'm mulling around currently is the idea to start writing about Hermione and Fred at Hogwarts, starting with Hermione as a first year. What I love about pre-DH is the wizardy, high schooly, petty drama of it, and I want to write about Fremione in that setting. That being said, I'm not sure how to go about it. If you've got any suggestions, feel free to send me a message.
Anywho I hope you liked this first chapter, and forgive this long Author's Note!