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Fred pointed his wand to the sign at the door and it turned around, showing the Alley that they were "Closed." The customers had left the shop a mess: products in all the wrong places, rubber chickens strewn across the floor, and someone had even spilled an entire box of Puking Pastilles. Despite all of that, they had the place cleaned up in a matter of minutes with a few lazy flicks of their wands.
Fred walked into his bedroom minutes later and glanced down at his satchel. He had already packed that morning before heading down to the shop. He changed into black jeans and a grey shirt before he began to pace the length of the room. He didn't know why he had bothered with packing beforehand, knowing full well that George wouldn't do the same — he didn't have anything that he wanted to hurry to at the Burrow.
Finally, there was a shout from the hallway. Fred snatched up his satchel and joined George in the living room. After his twin looked him over and gave him an approving nod, they Apparated. Their feet touched down on soft, moist ground.
The Burrow's garden was teeming with life, and not just because the gnomes they had banished two days previous had returned to the bushes. The long table was back and sinking into the soft earth from the sheer mass of food that was placed upon it. Floating candles filled that air above the table as twilight had taken over and night was rapidly approaching. The frogs in the pond added their chorus to the air, it almost seemed alive with the sound.
The door to the kitchen was wide open and they noticed long blonde hair whip by the opening as if someone were talking very animately just beyond view. Every few whips of the hair was followed by something that sounded like a very deep sigh even from a distance.
Ginny poked her head out of the door and bounded across the yard toward them, throwing herself first at George then Fred. She pulled the twins by their hands toward the house. In a hushed tone, Ginny said, "Too much Phlegm in there. Mum could use some saving."
She dragged them into the kitchen and Mrs. Weasley's face lit up. She sidestepped Fleur, who was prattling on about something 'better' they had in France, and pulled her boys into a bone-crushing hug. Releasing them, she said, "We were just waiting for you two to start."
"Where's everyone else?" Fred asked, scanning the rest of the room, even trying to peer around the corner into the living room. He spotted his father, Remus Lupin, and Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody seated in various chairs near the window, chatting quietly about something as they stared through the glass.
Mrs. Weasley, with her hands on her hips, said in a hushed tone, "She's upstairs with Harry and Ron. Could you fetch them for us?"
With matching devilish grins on their faces, Fred and George Apparated to Ron's bedroom. They appeared with a loud pop, causing their youngest brother to jump with fright.
"Hiya, Harry." The twins said simultaneously. The black haired boy sat on the spare bed in Ron's room, looking very much like they had just interrupted a passionate monologue. George said, "Blimey, Harry, you look like you've taken too much U-No-Poo."
"What's U-No-Poo?" asked Ron, stupidly. Fred and George looked at each other, making sure that the others in the room saw their very dramatic eye rolls. Hermione, sitting on the floor halfway between the two beds, fought a smirk as Fred's eye caught hers.
They looked back to their audience and Fred explained, "One of our new products that causes horrible constipation. Symptoms include redness of the face, looks of confusion, and occasional vomiting. Seems like you've overdosed, mate. Minus the vomiting, or—" Fred checked the floor near Harry's bed. "No, you're good."
Harry opened his mouth to retort, seemingly confused, but George intervened, "Dinner's ready. Mum says the others are hungry, best hurry."
Instead of Apparating to the garden, the twins led the three down the stairs. George went first, followed by Fred, then Hermione. Harry and Ron followed slowly, Ron talking animately about the Chudley Cannons dismal season. George pulled ahead as they passed Bill and Charlie's old room, leaving Hermione and Fred as alone as they could be.
Their conversation was nearly silent, their lips barely moving. They wanted it to appear as though they were simply walking by each other. Hermione asked, "How was work?"
"Do you actually want to talk about work?"
He glanced over at her, a half-smile on her face. She shook her head a fraction of an inch. "No." After a moment, she said, "I'm sorry."
He fought to control his facial expressions, but he was confused to say the least. She had nothing to be sorry for. "Why?"
"Oi, Hermione! When was the earliest use of the broomstick?" Ron shouted down the stairs, his voice echoing in the confined space. Hermione sighed and slowed down, leaving Fred to walk on his own so she could scold Ron for not reading Quidditch Through the Ages.
The kitchen was empty, everyone else was seated at the table. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley sat next to each other on one side of the table, Alastor Moody and Remus Lupin across from them. Much to Molly's dismay, Fleur Delacour had taken the seat next to her rather than her eldest son who sat on his fiancée's other side; Ginny next to Bill.
George led the way to the other side of the table, where only their guests sat. He took the place next to their former Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Fred sat beside his twin. The trio finally came out of the home, bickering about Quidditch — the boys about teams and Hermione about the facts behind it. Harry spotted Ginny and hurried to take the last seat on that side of the table. Ron muttered something to Hermione and she laughed before they walked over, Hermione sitting next to Fred and Ron next to her.
Food was piled on plates and conversation began. After mundane chitchat, Mrs. Weasley asked, "How have you been, Remus?"
Lupin, who looked grayer and shabbier than normal, replied with an insincere, "Fair."
The look on his face said anything but. The entire Weasley clan had been so concerned with Harry's well-being after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries that they had failed to consider the others who had been affected by Sirius' death. Remus Lupin had been one of his best friends and had known him far longer than Harry.
While he hadn't been at the Ministry that day, Fred had been at the Burrow later when Lupin had shown up. His parents were the closest he had to friends left. Mrs. Weasley had sent Fred to fetch Nymphadora Tonks from her home to console Lupin. They all left the two alone and later, as Fred and George prepared to leave, he saw Tonks kiss Lupin's forehead. Instead of the reaction he had thought he would see, Lupin frowned and began to chastise her. Tonks had left crying.
"Bit less than fair, I reckon." Moody said, staring hard at Lupin with his real eye. His bright blue one was rolling around in its socket, staring at the gnomes peeking out of the bushes behind them.
Lupin cleared his throat audibly. He didn't look at anyone in particular as he whispered, "I'm fine." Louder, he said, "You know who isn't though…?"
As the others talked of the grim disappearances that had haunted London — a subject that Fred was frankly sick of, as he lived there and knew full-well what was going on around him — he nudged Hermione. She cast a look toward him before returning her attention to those in conversation. He knew that she was making it look like she was interested in them, which was smart, but he wished that he could have her full attention. Out of the corner of his mouth, he whispered, "Meet me in the orchard tonight?"
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small smile flicker across her face for an instant before it disappeared. The others were talking of an entire family's disappearance and smiling about it wasn't a normal reaction. She whispered back, "11 o'clock."
There was no question in what she had just said, she was telling him. He wasn't about to argue with it. He had been thinking about the next time he would get to be alone with Hermione again. He longed to hold her, to kiss her, but mostly, he just wanted to be able to talk openly with her.
The garden was well lit from the many lights that were still on within the Burrow but the orchard beyond was almost entirely in deep shadows. It was in one of those shadows that Fred leaned against the bark of a tree just inside the orchard. The hedge was next to him and he could hear the gnomes moving within it.
Fred heaved a deep sigh, it was well past 11:30 at this point. He tossed a ball against the tree opposite him and it bounced back to him. It was a simple 'tennis' ball, one he had found in the village down the road not long ago. After waiting for ten minutes, he had begun to do this. It bounced back perfectly and the longer he waited, the harder he threw it.
A crack of a branch behind him alerted him to company. He turned, pulling his wand out of his pocket as he did so. The tennis ball sailed past her head and she barely dodged it, reminding him how non-athletic she was. He stared at it as it bounced into the pitch darkness. Hermione stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at him. He quickly lowered his wand and muttered, "Sorry."
Her features softened slowly before she lowered her arms to her side. She walked over to him and said, "I had to wait for Lupin and your dad to go to bed. Not all of us can Apparate."
"I guess it's good that Ginny knows or we would have had to wait for her to fall asleep too," said Fred, smiling awkwardly. Now that she was actually in front of him, all alone, he felt a rush inside of him. He didn't want to mess this up by saying the wrong thing. He'd never cared about his past relationships before, he'd just been in them to have a good time and enjoy some laughs. Hermione was different, he actually cared about her and could see their relationship — or whatever they had — going somewhere.
Hermione smiled. "She's asleep already but, yes, it's good that she knows. She's very supportive."
"Is she now?" He asked, mildly surprised. Ginny and he had always been very close but he didn't know how she would react to the secrecy behind his and Hermione's relationship.
"She quite enjoys the sneaking around and hiding from Ron. She thinks he deserves this after being mean to me for all of these years."
"He's been mean, sure, but he likes you, Hermione. Maybe we should be honest with him." Fred said, surprising even himself. If he were smart, he would just leave it alone. Maybe she didn't realize how Ron felt. What if she likes him too? What if I'm just alerting her to the fact?
"Yes, I'm aware. I have been for some time. I can read the signs, I'm not stupid." Her eyes narrowed as she grew angry, as if he had even hinted at the fact that she was.
He threw his hands up in surrender. "I never said you were. You're brilliant, of course you knew." Fred sighed. "Are we ever going to tell him?"
"When we get married."
Fred's eyes grew large, his lips pursed in amusement.
Hermione, realizing her mistake, blushed furiously and stammered, "I-if we get mar-married. I meant if we get married."
Fred threw his head back, laughing. He bent over, placing his hands on his knees, shaking with his fit of giggles. He glanced up at her and saw an embarrassed smirk on her face. After several minutes, he straightened and said, "Yes, if."
He pulled her embarrassed self into his arms and kissed her lips, still trying not to laugh. He couldn't help it, he started laughing against her lips. She pushed against his chest and smacked him lightly in the shoulder.
"Stop laughing," said Hermione, forcing herself not to smile.
Fred put on the most serious face he could muster and looked at her, only to erupt into a cackle a few seconds later. Hermione put her hand over his mouth to silence him. She breathed, "Someone could hear you."
He fought to control his breathing, inhaling through his nose and out his mouth as he looked at her. She was dead serious as she glanced back toward the gate leading into the garden. She appeared to be concentrating hard, straining to listen for any sounds coming from the house. But the garden was completely dark by now, all lights in the Burrow had been extinguished, everyone likely asleep or nearly there.
"I think we're in the clear," said Fred, smiling. He was about to pull Hermione into his arms when she got extremely excited about something and began to dig through the pockets of her dressing gown.
"I've been working on these for several days." Hermione pulled out two silver sickles. Fred raised an eyebrow at her and she gave him an exasperated sigh. "Just like the Galleons from last year? In the DA?"
It took a moment, but it dawned on him. "Protean Charm? You've been doing an awful lot of underage magic here, Ms. Granger."
She waved it off. "These ones are different than the DA ones, the serial numbers on both can be changed to dates and times. I figured we could use them to meet over the school year…"
"How would we know where?" She just looked at him, her brow furrowed. "It was easy with the DA, we always knew the 'where.' But with this, we'll only know the when."
She nodded, pursing her lips as she thought. "Maybe I could force them to change color, like Dark Marks do. A different color for a different location we think up beforehand. Colovaria, would do the trick. Or I could…"
She was spouting off different charms she could apply to the coins and different things they could use by means of communication. He let her rant for over five minutes, seeing how much she was enjoying the intellectual challenge. Finally, he stopped her with a quick peck on the lips. "Hermione, you're brilliant, you are, and we'll figure something out. We could send owls with the location for all I care. We can meet in the Shrieking Shack, the Room of Requirement, Zonko's, wherever. I'm just glad that you want to keep meeting over the school year."
Hermione smiled. "Why wouldn't I want to?"
He shrugged. "I wasn't sure."
"Fred Weasley, I'm very committed to this." She kissed him passionately before breaking away abruptly. "Why Zonko's?"
"Hmm?" He asked, dazed.
"You said we could meet in Zonko's."
"There's a hidden passageway to a storeroom in back. Entrance is behind a suit of armor in the second-floor corridor. You tap the fifth stone from the bottom directly behind the suit's left leg and the floor opens, revealing a chute." He grinned. "We never told Harry because Zonko's was George's and mine."
Hermione smiled and placed a lingering kiss on his lips. "We should start thinking of what color we want for each location."
A wicked grin crept across Fred's face.
