Desperate For Company?

Ok, so this is my first and hopefully not last attempt at a Hermione/Fred. I'm sorry for those who were expecting a Charlie fic but I felt that this plot I had in mind was suited more for Fred. Plus I wanted to try something new and different. So here it is. Enjoy[I hope…

Hermione let out a sigh. What was wrong with her? She was at a party for Merlin's sake! A party filled with people she knew and loved and top that up with loud music and champagne and she should have been dancing on the table tops. Yet, here she was sitting a corner just sipping on her drinking and sighing.

The fact that the party was celebrating Ron's engagement to his girlfriend of now 3 years, Luna Lovegood might have something to do with her abysmal mood. Five years after graduating from Hogwarts and being out in the "real" world, she was the only one among all her friends, which was mainly Harry and Ron, who had no significant other. It was not like she was desperate for a man in her life but some company at parties like this, where everyone was basically paired up with their other halves and those who were alone…well remained alone, for some company.

Hermione sighed again. Ok, this self pity party of one had to end right now! She had to find something to do or someone to talk to! She looked around the Burrow's backyard, where the party was being held, looking desperately. Harry was with Ginny and their two year old son James, Ron was with Luna and was surrounded by many of their friends including Seamus, Lavender, Parvati and Dean Thomas. Bill was with Fleur and his mum and dad. Charlie was with his girlfriend from Romania while George was with hisgirlfriend Angelina. So that left her with…Fred.

Great the one person she had left for company was the one probably remembered her being nothing more than his little brother's best friend, a bookworm and someone you used to throw a wet blanket over his pranks. They may have been friendly but…there was still that awkwardness she supposed. Was she desperate enough to approach him for company?

Unfortunately, the decision of approaching the said Weasley was taken out of her hands when she saw him approaching her. She gave him a small, tentative smile when he stopped next to her.

He smiled his normal charming smile at her, "Hey 'Mione" he said using the nickname Ron came up with. Lord, she hated that name…and he knew it! She playfully glared at him when she saw the smirk on his face. And what handsome face it was…

Stop! She commanded her mind, this was Fred was crying out loud! No such thoughts like that should be popping in her mind!

Instead she put up a neutral face and said, "Hey Fred, what brings you this lonely corner of the party?"

Fred grinned at her, "I saw you checking me out from all the way at the other end and decided to grace you with my presence." He grabbed a chair and placed it next to her and sat down.

Hermione however knew better to take the bait,"Really?" she said raising her eyebrow, "I believe you were talking to Snape weren't you? How'd you know I wasn't checking him out?" she asked, trying her hardest to keep any emotion out of her face.

Fred grimaced, "Merlin Hermione, don't even joke about something like that!" he said as his face turned a shade of green she had never seen before.

Hermione grinned inwardly; this was too fun to drop so soon. She smiled slyly at Fred, "For all you know I may be constantly having fantasies…" She whispered. Fred looked like he was about to throw out his dinner at any possible moment. "I have fantasies…of him…and me where I'm-"

"God Hermione stop! I'm begging you!" Fred pleaded.

She ignored him and continued, "Where I'm washing his slimy hair." She finished laughing. There was no humanly way of continuing. Fred's expression was a cross between wanting to throw his guts out and wanting to run screaming. But there was a flicker in his eyes, something she'd never seen before…Anger.

Shaking her head, she grinned at Fred,"What wrong? Can't one half of the king of all things supposedly funny take a joke?"

Fred's face was slowly returning to its normal shade. He turned and raised an eyebrow at her, "Well, well, well…didn't know little Miss Granger had it in her to crack a joke. Let alone one involving Snape. Speaking of which," he paused a glared at her playfully, "Don't ever pull something like that again! It's just…wrong!"

Hermione laughed, "Oh it was without a doubt funny. But," she paused, "What did you mean by saying that I didn't have it in me to crack a joke?"

Fred must have noticed the slight hurt in her voice, "Sorry, I didn't mean anything bad by it. Its just that over the years that I've known you I've never actually seen you make a joke. I've seen you laugh at jokes made by others, so that must mean you had a sense of humor but I've never heard ajoke right from your mouth" he said.

Hermione frowned slightly. "In all honesty Fred, you don't know me well enough to judge me."

Fred held his hands up in surrender, "I wasn't judging I was simply noticing. But…"

She gave him a questioning look, "But what?"

He grinned at her,"Well, how about I work on the getting to know you better part so that I can judge later?"

Hermione raised her eyebrows at him, it wasn't like had anything better to do. "Fine, what do you have in mind?"

He looked at her surprised which surprised her in turn, "What?" she asked, "you didn't think I'd agree?"

Fred shook his head, "Um…actually yeah, kinda."

She rolled her eyes, "Well, I did agree so tell me what you have in mind before I change my mind…"

Fred rolled his eyes back at her, "Fine…here's what we'll do. You tell me one thing about yourself and I'll tell you something about me. OK?"

She shrugged, "Sure, you first."

Fred leaned back in his chair and thought, we'll his face was scrunched up so it looked like he was thinking but Hermione knew that when it came to the Weasleys looks could be very deceiving. After a minute or so he looked at her his eyes twinkling wildly. "George and I may play all our pranks and tricks together but he's the one usually comes up with the basic idea."

Hermione scoffed, "That's your little fact-let?"

Fred grinned at her, "Hey I can say whatever I want so long as it's about me. And it's your turn."

"Fine." She said and thought hard. "When I was younger, before I got accepted into Hogwarts, I hated books and I hated read."

Fred raised his eyebrows at this, "You didn't like to read! That's hard to believe. So what got you hooked?"

Hermione smirked at him, "I believe my turn is over. You've gotta tell me something before I answer that."

Fred laughed, "Well, you're getting into the spirit of the game. Fine, the first of school I pulled down Lee's pants and that's how we became friends. Well, I had to let him pull down mine first but I made him think George was me, it all worked out in the end. Now tell me what got you hooked onto books?"

"Well, when I was seven my mom bought me a book that I loathed and she forced me to sit down and listen to her read one page every night before bed. And soon I realized that the book was actually really interesting and so I took it from her a read it myself." She said smiling thinking of her first 'real' book.

And so they continued with their game. Hermione learnt more about Fred in that hour or so than she had since she met him in her first year. She now knew that he preferred coffee over tea, he liked the winter better than summer, his first kiss was in his third year, he knew how to waltz, he'd had a crush on Fleur Delacour until she opened her mouth in front of him, he may not have shown it publically but he was actually very well read and that he was singleat that very moment.

She didn't know why but the last one seemed to create an effect on her. After that she started noticing things. Things that she normally didn't notice like how blue his eyes were, how those said eyes sparkled when he laughed, how his face lit up when he spoke about his family and how kissable his lips were.

Hermione mentally slapped herself when that thought crossed her mind. Kissing Fred Weasley! That'll be the day! He was Fred for Merlin's sake! Fred who was Ron's older brother, Fred who she tattled on many times in the past, Fred who was…who was asking her something!

She shook her head,"Sorry Fred didn't catch what you said," she admitted.

Fred smirked at her, "I could tell. You were too busy staring at my lips" he said raising his eyebrows suggestively.

Hermione felt her face turn as red as his hair, "I wasn't…I mean I was but…you were-"

He cut her off by leaning over and whispering into her ear, "Relax, I was having trouble keeping my eyes off yours too."

She didn't think it was possible but she turned even redder. She shivered slightly as she felt his breath on her skin when he spoke again, "Thankfully, I apparently have better powers of concentration than you." He whispered and then turned and looked her in the eye, "Do you want to dance?"

Hermione frowned, thinking she heard him wrongly. "Excuse me?" she asked.

"Would you" he pointed at her, "like to dance," he pointed to the dance floor, "with me" he pointed at himself.

"Su-sure" she stammered, still thinking she heard wrongly.

"Great!" he said and grabbed her hand and pulled her to the dance floor just as a slow song started playing. "Even better," he said and pulled her closer to him and swayed to the music.

By now, Hermione was only certain about one thing, she was with Fred. But the question in her mind was why? And what did he mean earlier or was he simply teasing her. As she moved slowly with Fred, her mind still was moving, well not at light speed but definitely fast. Did she really like Fred in that way? She closed her eyes and pictured him in her mind's eye. She could see him exactly as he was, blue eyes and all. She felt a hot sensation in her stomach.

Gods, this was certainly unfamiliar territory for her. In her entire life she's had a grand total of two boyfriends, Viktor and Ron. Sure, she'd been on dates but they all usually ended up being a bust. And furthermore-

Wait, they'd stopped moving. She opened her eyes and saw Fred looking down and grinning at her. "Come one…" he said grabbing her hand once again, only this time he led her out of the backyard and into the garden and brought her to a stop in front of a brick wall. He motioned for her sit atop it.

"In this?" she asked pointing to her knew length, fitted dress.

Fred did say anything in reply; instead he reached over and placed his hands on her waist. "What're you do-Fred!" She exclaimed as he lifted her seated her on the wall. She narrowed her eyes at him as he joined her, "Don't ever do that again!"

He grinned at her, "You know you liked it…"

"What're you? Physic?" she muttered hoping he couldn't see her blush. He was right, she had enjoyed it. It being his arms on her. She wondered what it would have felt like, skin on skin…

She groaned mentally, wrong thoughts! "So why are we here?" she asked Fred, changing the subject.

"Well," he paused studying her for second, "I thought we could talk, among other things,"

God, what was with her face and its reactions whenever he said something like that! She could feel it burning up again.

Fred gave her a smile, "Now, that's a reaction that I like and could get used to…"

"Get used to?" she squeaked nervously.

Fred inched closer to her, "Yeah, get used to." He said softly as he reached for her hand.

"Oh!" she breathed as he took her hand in his. It was as though her hand was on fire, in a good way. She felt the goose bumps on her hand rise as his thumb softly moved up and down her hand. Hermione just started at their two hands as Fred interlocked them together. Then she looked at him as he pulled her closer to him so that they were now nearly face to face.

He used his free hand to cup her face and slowly lowered his lips to her as though to give her a chance to back away but she knew what she wanted now. So instead she did nothing but wait for his lips to claim hers. And when they did it was a whole onslaught of new feeling that emerged from deep in her.

Her other hand curled around Fred neck playing with the strands of hair there. Her lips moved with his, as though they'd been doing this forever. She felt his tongue asking for entrance and she gave it to him. She felt his hand move from her face down her neck, her shoulders and finally rested on her waist leaving a trail of fire on the path it took.

Hermione moaned as he deepened the kiss. She was leaning back as the intensity of the kiss grew. Fred's insatiable lips moved from hers to her neck, her jaw, her earlobes and back again. And then-

"Oof!" she heard Fred grumble as she landed on top of him from falling off the wall. And then-

Hermione giggled, she couldn't help it! Fred looked up at her weirdly, "And what exactly is so funny?" he asked as he tugged lightly on her hair.

"Only you can injure someone when their kissing you," she replied still giggling.

She, however, stopped giggling immediately as Fred flipped them over so that he was on top now. He raised his eyebrows at her, "You wanna say that again?" he whispered as his lips gently tugged on her ear.

When Hermione did nothing more than moan in pleasure he pulled away and looked at her. "Now that's the right answer. I got another question for you." He said. He looked at her seriously, "Will you go out with me? For dinner or something?"

She looked into the sea of blue in front, well on top actually, of her and she could think of nothing more pleasant than spending an evening or even night with him. So Hermione looked into his eyes and said"Yes, I'd love to go out with you Fred Weasley."

The End…

Well? What did you think? Love it? Hate it? Got problems with it? Well, review and let me know. I read this on one of the fics I was reading: Reviews are like crack for the authors.

So true. So please READ AND REVIEW!