A/N: This is a one shot that I wrote for the challenge 24 Hour Romance.

I would like to thank Stephanie O for betaing this for me.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.


Mission Accomplished

Bill Weasley walked around the pond at the Burrow, lost in thought. It was a somewhat hot summer's day. The sky was bright blue with nary a cloud in sight.

It was his second day home with his family for two weeks, before he was to head back to Egypt. None of that was on his mind at this time, though.

What was on his mind was one Hermione Granger. She had grown to be quite the lovely young woman. She also happened to be staying at the Burrow. She was staying with them for a short while before she headed off to tour the world and study other cultures, all the while publishing her own books. She was already a successful author with several published books, despite the fact that she had only just finished her schooling at Hogwarts two years ago. Many of those books were rather popular and well known.

She was set to leave on her trip in five days' time, and that presented him with a problem. He wanted to ask her out, but he only had five days to do so and no way of knowing when he would next see her.

Sighing deeply he picked up a rock and skipped it across the pond.

He had first noticed how much she had changed and grown around a year and a half ago at the Weasley family annual Christmas party. When he first saw her he hadn't even recognized her...


Bill was sitting next to Harry and Ginny. They were comparing Curse Breaking to being an Auror. Apparently both jobs had a fairly similar training regime. Harry and Bill were doing most of the talking, while Ginny was listening, occasionally putting in her two knuts.

"That was one of the first spells I learned," Bill was saying. "I found it to be quite helpful in many of my digs."

Harry nodded, "I know it's amazing how such a simple spell could help so much with our jobs, when the average wizard hardly ever even thinks of it."

Bill opened his mouth to reply, but he got distracted by the person who had just walked in the room. His eyes locked with her chocolaty brown, and they just stared at each other for a few minutes.

"'Ill..Bill..." said Ginny waving her hand front of his face. "BILL!"

Bill jumped, "Wha'?" he asked, disoriented. He turned to his companions to find a silently laughing Harry and a smirking Ginny.

"Quit staring at Hermione," said Ginny, Harry was laughing too hard to speak. "And ask her out already."

"That's Hermione?" he asked, too shocked and still somewhat disoriented to process the second part of what she said.

"Yes," said Ginny, slowly as if she was talking to a child.

Bill looked at her indignantly, until the second part of what she said finally processed. He jumped up to his feet in shock, "No, she is dating Ron!" he exclaimed.

That just caused Ginny to burst into laughter. Harry shook his head calming down somewhat, enough to talk. "No, she's not actually. They broke up just over a month ago, deciding that they were better off just as friends," he said, before his laughter repealed.

Bill looked at the two of them affronted, "I can't ask her out, because..." he desperately tried to come up with a reason. When he couldn't find one he said, "I just can't," feebly. He spent the rest of night casting glances at Hermione.


Sighing again, Bill dusted off his hands. He resolved to ask her out the next time he saw her no matter what, before heading into the house.


Hermione sat on the window seat in Ginny's bedroom, looking out across the grounds. Her eyes were focused on the red head circling the lake. There was a sad frown on her face, as she watched him. Laying abandoned on her lap was a stack of parchment, that she had previously been writing on, before she saw Bill out the window. Ink had dripped onto it from the quill she had in her hand hovering over the stack, having not been moved for several minutes.

Her thoughts were so focused on Bill that she didn't notice the door open and someone come into the room until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She jumped, causing her parchments to fly off her lap and scatter all around the room.

"Bloody hell!" exclaimed Hermione, hurrying to pick up all of her parchments. "Don't do that, Ginny."

Ginny shook her head, holding in her laughter. She decided to ignore the comment and said instead, "Just go and talk to him." She bent down to help pick up all the parchments.

Hermione shook her head furiously. Hair from her ponytail, that she had pulled her hair into to keep it semi-tamed and out of her face, sprang free. "And say what? That I've been crushing on him for the past year?"

"That could work," said Ginny, in amusement. She handed Hermione the stack of parchments and sat on the edge of her bed.

Hermione looked at her in horror. "And have him laugh at me. Or turn me away. Or who knows what else," her voice was panicked. "I dated Ron, he'll think I'm trying to go through all the Weasley boys. Or he'll think that I'm using him, because I'm going to be leaving so soon. He might even..."

Ginny, getting exasperated from all of her excuses interrupted her. "He is not going to think or do anything of the sort, and you know it. So stop making excuses - lame excuses at that - and just go and talk to him. You don't have to talk about your feelings for him."

Hermione sighed, placing the stack of parchments on the desk. "You're right." She turned to look out the window. She noticed that Bill was no longer by the lake. Stealing up her nerves before heading out of the room, she straightened up, nodded, and stated, "I'll go talk to him."

Ginny watched her go with a smile on her face. "Mission accomplished," she told the empty room.

Bill entered the kitchen and headed to the cupboard to pull out a glass, which he then filled with water. He turned around when he heard someone else entering the kitchen, and spotted Hermione. A smile spread across his face. "Oi."

"Hi," replied Hermione, with an answering smile. She walked over to grab herself a glass, and tripped over a pail that someone had left in the middle of the walkway.

Bill dropped his glass and caught her, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Thanks," she said, looking up at him.

He realized how close their faces were. He stared into her eyes, unable to look away. With out realizing it he leaned closer to her. He was startled to find his lips touching hers. It was a simple kiss, but he enjoyed it immensely. He couldn't stop the huge grin that spread across his face when he pulled back from it.

Hermione smiled widely, "I'm going to be in Egypt in two weeks' time."

"I'm looking forward to it," said Bill, before kissing her again.


Unnoticed by the happy couple were Fred and George hidden just out of sight behind the door. They head butted each other, huge grins spreading across their faces. "Mission accomplished," they said in unison.

The End