Everything was happening a bit fast for Hermione, and she wasn't sure when – or if – she was ever going to catch up with the events of the past few hours.
She watched Fred carefully as they walked hand in hand to the bottom of Kingsley's garden. Realising that the young couple probably needed a bit of time to themselves to take everything in, Kingsley had pointed out a large shady tree and told them to help themselves to the bench it sheltered and take however long they needed to before they decided where to apparate to next.
"I'm going to sit back over here and snooze in the sun," he had said. "Stay as long as you like; you won't bother me. Shout if you need anything, and if not then I'll come over to The Burrow tomorrow at two. That was the time on Molly's solstice party invitation, and I think it's best to stick with the original plan. You decide what time you'd like to have the ceremony and just tell me when I get there. I'll be ready when you are. Although," he paused and raised his eyebrows, "the sooner we get you both wed, the sooner we can drink, dance and make merry for the sun."
Then he seemed to remember himself, and placed one of his large hands on Fred's shoulder while taking Hermione's hand into the other.
"I know this might not be ideal. But I'm sure it's for the best. I'm really sure of that." He squeezed Fred's shoulder before looking at Hermione. "You'll need to get wedding rings and a binding cord. Those are the only things that need to be new. You'll get both from Diagon Alley, of course, but if you'd like a quieter experience then I think you'll find that Edwin Jones at Dervish and Banges has a nice range. The rest is optional, though good luck with getting Molly not to bake the largest cake in wizarding England. Is there anything else I can do?"
Hermione surged forward and threw both her arms around the tall wizard's waist. "Oh Kings," she said. "You've done SO much already. No, we're good, thank you." She looked at Fred, who nodded. "But I think we will sit for a few minutes on your bench and gather our thoughts if that's OK with you."
"Of course," he said. Shaking Fred's hand one final time, he turned, saying, "I'm going to send Tilly over with some more drinks."
Hermione smiled and nodded, but only because Kingsley had reassured her the last time she visited that the little house elf was paid well and given regular holidays. Kingsley had omitted to tell Hermione that Tilly chose to spend her holidays at Hogwarts, with her family, where she loved to muck in with food preparation. He would save that conversation for a less eventful day.
They reached the bench and sat down, very close. "Are you really OK with this?" Hermione whispered. It wasn't often that Fred was lost for words and, although she knew he had a more serious – and, she had recently discovered, tender - side, she had never seen it on him for quite this long before.
"I mean, I'm fine with it all, love, but I have to admit it's a bit fast-paced, even for a master of chaos such as myself…"
"Are you sure?" Hermione looked at him intently as they reached the bench and sat down.
"Sure?" he looked confused.
"Sure you want to do this? To marry me? Tomorrow?" she said quietly. "I mean, it's probably not what you were expecting from your day when you woke up this morning…"
Fred pushed himself off the bench and kneeled at her feet.
"Hermione Granger, in case you have forgotten mine and George's declaration of my love this morning, I am truly crazy about you. If I had grown a pair a bit sooner, we might have been together for months by now. If the crazy marriage law wasn't coming about on Monday then it would only have been a matter of time before Georgie found some devious way to get us together. So as far as I am concerned, we are on the exact journey we are meant to be on. Together. It's just that we're on a faster train than I thought we might take. Which is a bit of a new experience, because usually it's me laughing and spelling something to happen faster."
Hermione laughed at that. "Kind of like accidentally getting on a speeded-up Hogwarts Express when we thought we were going to walk there?"
"Yeah, something like that." He grinned at her analogy, and she was relieved to see the big smile on his face. "But tell me, 'Mione … are YOU sure? This kind of marriage can't be undone. You'll be stuck with me for life."
She reached her hand into his hair and pulled him towards her. "I can't think of anyone else I'd rather do this with, Fred. When that wall fell … I was so scared. I knew in that moment that what I felt wasn't just infatuation because you're good looking and charming, or because your jumper smelled right. I felt this tug in my soul and I was terrified. Wasn't sure how I would carry on if you…"
"Shhh, love, it's OK." Fred leaned in and kissed her lips gently. "I'm OK, I'm here. And we're gonna be together. We just need to figure out how to cope with the speed of it all."
Hermione kissed him once more before whispering, "tea".
"What's that, love?"
"Tea. We're British, Fred. We cope and adapt by drinking cups of tea. House falls down? Have a cup of tea. Mad wizard invading the world? Tea. That's how we do it. And maybe a bit of wine now and again. I'm having wine this evening, just so you know. Maybe prosecco if I can get my hands on some. I reckon George or Bill would help me with that if I asked them nicely. They're the best at muggle shopping." She winked at him.
"I've just fallen in love with you even more now I know you can wink under stress, love. And you're right about the tea. Mum will be well up for that."
"Of course she will. She's gonna love making all this happen overnight. I need more time to adjust before we go back there though. Can you send her a patronus? Don't tell her what's happened but let her know everything's OK and we'll be back soon."
"Oh, good thinking, love." Fred did just that, and sent his silvery hyena off to The Burrow with a reassuring message for its occupants. Then he turned back to Hermione. "OK, so we need to go home and tell Mum, get the troops to spring into action, buy rings and a binding cord … what else?"
"You know," said Hermione. "I think we should talk a bit about what we want. For the wedding, I mean. Or don't want. There's lots I don't want, if I'm honest."
"How's that, love?"
"I just want this to be simple. Nothing fancy. Just a normal Weasley solstice party where we happen to get bound in the middle."
Fred nodded. "I know what you mean."
"In a way, this has a silver lining, you know."
"We're escaping the months of planning?"
"Exactly! Which I don't want any more than you probably do."
"No childhood dreams of a fairytale wedding, love?"
Hermione snorted. "What do you think?"
He grinned. "I think I should take you to Hogsmeade for rings and binding cords and give us another half hour's respite before the madness sets in."
"That sounds like a brilliant idea." Fred held his hand out.
"Shall we?"
Hermione smiled and gave George's usual answer of, "we shall," as she took Fred's hand. She was noticing how a little thrill went through her each time Fred touched her, and had just begun to wonder how it would feel to fully be with him that night when the naval-tugging sensation of apparition took over and zoomed them to Hogsmeade.
As they were picking a binding cord and wedding rings, Fred congratulated himself on his taste in witches for the third or fourth time that day. The whole process had taken only minutes, and Hermione was completely unfussy. They agreed on some fairly simple bands – as Hermione pointed out, he was going to continue making potions regularly, so anything really fancy could be problematic – and picked a lovely purple and gold binding cord. As the shopkeeper started to ring up their purchases, Fred turned to Hermione.
"Would you do me a favour, love?"
"Of course," she looked up at him.
"I feel like we ought to take something with us to The Burrow. Seeing as we're going to make everyone work twice as hard as they thought. Could you pop to Honeydukes and pick up a few boxes of chocolates while I sort out here? If we split up for just a few minutes, we'll get back to The Burrow before Mum starts to worry."
She stood on tiptoes and kissed his chin, which was as far as she could reach without him leaning down. "You are just so much more thoughtful than I ever realised, Fred."
"It's temporary, love. Just while we adjust, I'll be driving you nuts with product testing next week…"
Hermione called over her shoulder, "Oh yes, just you try, Fred Weasley. You might find I've got a trick or two up my sleeve as well".
He laughed. When the madness stopped and life became normal again, this was going to be fun. "Do you need galleons?" he called as she walked away.
Hermione tapped the side of her robes. "I have plenty, thank you. You've paid for quite enough already."
"Well it's no more than you deserve," he said, but she had already gone. Clearly the appeal of a spending spree in Honeydukes was even greater than he had realised. He would tuck that knowledge away for a rainy day.
"Don't ring up the total yet mate," he said, turning back to the shopkeeper. "How quickly can you show me your nicest engagement rings?"