Title: Our Mug

Character: Hermione Granger & Fred Weasley

Pairing: Hermione x Fred

Prompt: A family mug, the Burrow & "All we wanna know is where the stars come from, but do we ever stop to watch them shine? Or are we staring with ungrateful eyes?" – Ungrateful Eyes, Jon Bellion.

AN: Can be read as a prequel to I Promise. Written for the "Who's My Soulmate Season 2 (Prompt Challenge)" held by TheOnlyUrk. Also, there's minor Snape bashing… but very minor.

Word Count: 1, 646

Faith. Soulmates. Destiny. Those words can be defined in many different ways. Neither of those various definitions could be said to be more true or false in comparison to each other. But regardless of definition one could say that these three words were all based upon the basic idea that some things were just meant to be. Events could be destined to happened. Couples could be meant to meet.

Hermione Granger didn't believe in faith, destiny or soulmates. She believed in what she could see, read and prove. She didn't believe that any other force then her own could determine what would happen in her life.

Hermione didn't know where the mug came from. She found it during one late night at the Burrow when she came down to make herself a cup of tea. She still had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard at something Ginny had said when she grabbed the first mug she saw. It stood on the kitchen table and looked neither new nor worn-out. It was white with a few scratches here and there. She laughed a few times and hurried up the stairs; she took two steps at the time, eager to hear the rest of the story. Ginny laid on her back in the bed when Hermione walked in. The redhead frowned at the sight and made Hermione wonder if she had forgotten something.

"That mug is broken Hermione." She stated and moved her head to see better. "It looks like the upper half is missing."

Hermione held the mug in front of her. Ginny had been right. Half of the mug was indeed missing. She shrugged and sat down on the chair in the middle of the room while sipping her tea. "You were going to tell me what happened after Luna asked Snape to dye the potion into a funnier colour…"

Fred Weasley didn't know what he believed. He never gave it much thought but felt that in the end it truly didn't matter. Things were going to happen regardless and there were better things to do on this ride called life than question why these things happened to you out of all people.

Fred was entirely sure that the mug had been a joke. He was never one for waking up early and it was a running joke that if you were ever to prank him that you needed to do it early in the morning before he had woken up.

Fred could barely hold his eyes open when he walked into the kitchen. Having grown up in that house came with the benefit of knowing where everything was so Fred managed to make tea without any accidents. He glanced around for a mug and took the first one he found.

He began pouring the hot water into the mug but stopped seconds later. "Holy Merlin, what the…" he put the hot water away.

The cursing began when he looked at the mug and continued up the stairs and into his room where George was still heavily asleep. He managed to wake George up and ask why what the point with this mug was. George sat up in his bed and glanced at it.

"I didn't make it." He muttered and laid down on the bed.

"What do you mean, you didn't make it?" Fred asked as he opened a cabinet where their stash of remedies for different kind of injuries laid somewhat untouched. "It's obviously meant to be some kind of prank and that just so happens to be our area of expertise. But I didn't make it so it had to be you."

George's eyes were closed and the red hair stuck out in all various directions that was possible. He pouted as he laid on his stomach and glanced at Fred with one barely open eye. "That's a bad prank. Someone could get seriously hurt. I didn't make it."

"Yeah," Fred said. "You are bloody right someone could get hurt. Someone actually did get hurt. Someone decided to pour hot water on his feet and now they're starting to look like something that could have taken residents in Snape's hair. Wake up George, I need someone to take me to Saint Mungo's or something. These burns bloody hurt."

Time passed. As it had a habit of doing. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and months turned into a full year. Before they knew it, summer was back; and that meant late nights talking, playing games, lazy mornings because people slept for as long as they wanted and then spent the days as they saw fit. When they were done with their chores that, most of the time, meant doing nothing.

Hermione found the mug again that summer in a situation very similar to the first time it happened. She walked in from the garden with Fred not far behind her. Tears were running down her cheeks as she laughed at his comments on the many expressions of anger that Severus Snape had. She had offered to make everyone tea but only Fred had taken her up on the offer. Hermione tried to keep her smile from growing too much and she made an effort to keep the blush from taking over her face. She didn't know if she succeeded or not but Fred didn't say anything about it.

"Look at this!" she said and held the mug in front of Fred. "I found this last year. Doesn't it look funny?"

Fred's smile turned into a frown. "Wait here."

He rushed out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Hermione scoffed. She waited for a few minutes but didn't hear the same sound of feet against the steps and eventually began moving around the kitchen in search of teabags and the almost rusty boiler that needed to be replaced sooner rather than later. She looked up when she heard the familiar steps nearing the kitchen and saw Fred walking in with a mug, or a piece from a mug, firmly held towards her.

"You found the missing half." Hermione said with a smile and reached for her half of the mug.

Fred hummed as he glared at it. "Yeah, at some point last summer I found it, thought it was whole and managed to burn my feet by pouring hot water on them." Hermione chuckled. "That bloody hurt Hermione, that wasn't funny."

That made Hermione laugh and Fred couldn't help but do the same.

"So, are we going to fix it?" Hermione asked. Fred nodded and offered her his half. "We don't have any glue though. We could just see if it fits together first and then we could ask…"

Hermione became quiet. She had gently put the pieces of the mug on top of each other and as she spoke they fused together. "Oh no, was that underage magic?" she looked towards the window as if expecting an owl from the ministry. "Am I going to lose my wand?"

Fred scoffed. "No, of course not." He shook his head. "That was not underage magic. It was magic for sure but it wasn't you. It was something completely else."

"But you don't know what?"

Fred shook his head. "Not the faintest idea, no." he laughed. "But I'm assuming that you'll go look for answers in the library when we get back to school in a few weeks. Assuming you can stay away from researching for that long."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Are you mocking me, Fred Weasley?"

"I would never mock you, Hermione Granger." That familiar smile that Hermione had seen more times than she could count during the years appeared on his face and she felt herself involuntarily mimic his expression.

At this point she, Hermione, had never been in love. She didn't know what it felt like. But she assumed that it felt something like that. Even if they were only smiling at each other the action felt intimate in a way that a simple smile had never done before. His hair stood up in all different directions and Hermione felt the need to simply reach out her hand to flatten it down.

Fred looked at Hermione as if this was the first time he ever laid eyes on her. This wasn't the first time he did look at her like that but it was the first time that she was ever so close that she could notice. Fred Weasley, the man who rarely looked shocked or amazed gazed at her as if it was physically impossible to look away. Hermione in turn looked at Fred as if he held the solution to the mystery of life and if she were only attentive enough she would find it in his eyes.

Neither knew where the cup came from and neither knew where this feeling of amazement came from. The feelings that swam inside their chests and made their hearts beat just a little bit faster hadn't appeared just over night. But the sudden appreciation had. Because all of the sudden Hermione saw the freckles on Fred's skin and thought them more beautiful than ever. She looked at all the things she had seen so many times before and realised just how beautiful every detail was. It made her wonder how she didn't notice before and Hermione was reminded of a passage in a book: all we wanna know is where the stars come from, but do we ever stop to watch them shine? Or are we staring with ungrateful eyes?

The door screeched as it was suddenly pushed open and awoke the two from their slightly hazy state and George stuck his head inside. "Oi, what are you two doing?"

Fred tore his eyes away from Hermione's now blushing face. He pointed at the mug in her hand and gave George a one-sided smile. "We fixed our mug."

The end