A/N: Hey guys, thank you for all your great reviews :) I really enjoy reading them. I'm sorry I haven't updated in a bit, things have been sort of hectic around here. I need to go out of town, so if I don't update for a couple of weeks, I'm really sorry. I'll try to upload a new chapter while I'm gone but no promises. Once again, all the thanks in the world to my amazing beta (who by the way, is also my best friend) for reviewing this.
Hermione was on a beach. She was sure it was the Isle of Arran, a small island which her parents had taken her for vacation the summer before she went to Hogwarts. She was sitting on a porch overlooking the ocean, slivers of sunlight reflecting off the cool water. A beam of sunlight glimmered against her ring finger, which was wrapped in a white gold, sapphire encrusted band with a large diamond sitting in the middle, as if it were upon a throne.
"This must be my honeymoon," she whispered curiosly.
Behind her, Ron cleared his throat.
"Oh Ro-" Hermione began, but when she turned to greet him she found it was not Ron, but Fred who stood behind her. His hands were full with two heaping plates of eggs, sausages, toast, and other breakfast delicacies.
"Good afternoon Sunshine," he said with a coy smile playing across hiws lips.
"Erm, hello," she said cautiously as she took the saucer Fred was handing to her, "Where's Ron?" Fred gave her a curious smirk as he sat down beside her.
"At the Burrow, with the rest of the family, hopefully leaving us alone," he whispered as he leaned in for a kiss.
"Oh!" Hermione shrieked as she backed away, willing her lips to retract instead of meeting his own.
"Are you alright?" Fred asked, seeming genuinely concerned.
"Fine! Just...not in the mood right now," she lied, fully knowing that she had never been more 'in the mood' than she was when his lips almost met hers only seconds ago.
"Yeah, well I suppose you would be tired after last night..." he grinned.
"Fred!"
He chortled to himself as she took a long sip of coffee, wondering why she wasn't more put off by her current scenario. As his laughter began to cease he wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her into his lap. On instinct, she leaned her head into his chest and relaxed. He stroked her hair and she tried to remember the last time she and Ron ever had a moment this simple and sweet.
"Aren't you hungry" he asked, observing her untouched plate.
"Not yet, maybe in an hour or so. Thank you for breakfast though," she smiled.
"Well...I can think of better ways to spend our time," Fred said slyly as he scooped her up and headed into the house.
"Fred!" she shrieked as he bounded up the stairs.
He opened the door to a small bedroom that had been decorated entirely in a lotus theme.
"My favorite," she murmured.
Fred grinned as he placed her delicately on the queen sized bed that lay in the middle of the room. He leaned over her, red hair flopping in his eyes as he kissed her forehead.
"Fred," she breathed.
"You keep saying my name like that and I'm not going to believe you're not in the mood," he whispered as he kissed her forehead.
She laughed loudly as she wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned in for a kiss which he returned eagerly.
"Now I really don't belive you," he said with a wink.
She peered up at him from behind her tangled brown tresses and gave him a huge grin. He looked down at her with calculating eyes.
"What?" she asked curiously.
"You're a whore," he said plainly.
"Not funny Fred," she warned, eyes narrowed.
"Ron will never forgive you."
She felt the air become heavy.
"Look how easily you fell for me after you told him you love him. He's my brother, don't you get it?"
Her palms started to sweat.
"I will never love you. You're going to break his heart."
The walls were closing in.
"He has loved you for years, did you ever feel the same way?"
She couldn't breathe.
"I hate you."
The scenery dissolved as she found herself back in her the room at the Burrow staring into Ron's worried green eyes. She screeched and promptly fell off of the bed.
"Mione!" Ron exclaimed as he reached his hand toward her.
"I'm fine!" she said breezily, her world still spinning.
"What happened?" he asked warily.
"Just a bad dream. Need tea. Get some sleep. Don't follow," she said quickly, her eyes trained on the ground as she made a beeline for the door.
For a moment she was afraid she heard Ron gettin up behind her, but when she looked back he had taken over her side of the bed, fast asleep once more. She rushed down stairs in a frenzy as she pulled various cartons of tea off the shelves and slammed the kettle down on the stove. She gripped the counter with a fury, her knuckles turning white.
"Stressed?"
She whipped around to find Fred staring at her clenched fists, cocking an eyebrow. She tried to ignore the way her pulse quickened when she saw him.
"Just excited I guess," she said nonchalantly.
"Makes sense. A lot happened today. Mind if I join you?" he asked as he plopped himself down at the table.
"It would appear you already have," she said pointedly.
"It's easier to ask for forgiveness than to get permission," he pointed out with a wide grin as he grabbed a peach from the center of the table.
"Depends on who you're asking."
"Touche, Mrs. Granger," he said teasingly.
"It's Ms. Granger. It hasn't happened yet," she said cooly, but he could sense that there was an ounce of uneasiness in her voice.
"Right, of course. Would you mind passing me the sugar?"
She glanced around the kitchen for a few moments until her eyes found a small jar of sugar behind a heaping pile of dishes. She tossed it to him and than looked at him curiously as he took a bite out of the peach and then sprinkled sugar over the inside of the fruit.
"What are you doing?" she asked with caution.
"Eating," he said, his face covered in the sticky peach substance.
"Well why'd you put sugar all over it?" she pressed, her nose crinkling as she studied him.
"Makes it sweeter."
"It's sweet enough already! The fruit is naturally sweet!"
"Not sweet enough for my liking."
"Do all Weasley men have a sweet tooth?" she asked, shaking her head.
"Ah, Hermione. Still so young. You have yet to discover that we Weasley's simply use our love of sweets to battle the negativity of day to day life. It's a defense mechanism, you see? It just our way of saying 'hey, the world may be falling to shit around us and we might be dirt poor, but we still have peaches with sugar and chocolate treats to get us through the day," he mused, faking a poetic tone.
"You think you're really clever, don't you?" she laughed.
"Well I have to keep up with you, now don't I?"
"I think your rather brilliant in your own rite," she said softly.
"You do?" he asked cautiously, searching her face for signs of sarcasm.
"Well yeah. It must take a lot of work to think of all the stuff for the joke shop, and it's all really brilliant."
"Thanks, Mione."
He held her gaze for a moment and she found herself thinking about her dream and how good his hands had felt on her before everything went awry and she didn't know why but she leaned in and somehow he was kissing her and she was kissing him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and his hands found a resting place on the small of her back. She took time memorizing the taste of his lips and the way he smelled like spearmint and she was so engrossed in the way his skin felt against her skin that she failed to notice the unmistakable cracking sound of someone apparating behind them.
It was Fred who pulled away. When she looked up to question him, or possibly explain why it could never happen again, she saw that his gaze was trained on something behind her. She turned around to see Ginny and Harry staring at them with wide eyes.
"We were just-" Fred began.
"It's okay. We're just going to go upstairs and we'll see you in the morning," Ginny said, pulling Harry upstairs, but not before she gave Hermione a look that said that they would be discussing this in detail very soon.
"Can we talk about this?" he asked slowly.
"I should get back to bed," she whispered.
"Right. I'll see you in the morning."
"Goodnight Fred."
"Goodnight Hermione."