Chapter 4: Second Meeting
With quidditch practice, pranks, homework, detentions, and other stuff to take care of, Fred found the next to days to pass by in a blur.
After having convinced himself that he didn't like Hermione that way, Fred had tried to push her out of his mind. Only when he saw her in the common room laughing with Harry and Ron, did he feel a pinch of jealousy towards his younger brother.
George, being too absorbed with Alicia, his girlfriend, didn't realize how tense Fred was whenever Hermione was around.
Fred dreaded the moment he had to see Hermione under four eyes again, and at 7:55 he found himself walking slowly towards their meeting place; the room of requirement.
She was already there when he entered the room. He had been too absorbed with Hermione's attire at their last meeting that he hadn't noticed how the room of requirement had looked. Now he could see that the room was full of books; new, old, small, big. Books about every plant, animal, insect, and so on, you would ever need in a potions class. In the middle of the room was a loveseat with a small table in front of it. The table in front of the loveseat had parchment, quills, candy and tea on it. Fred was amazed.
And there, on the loveseat, was Hermione. Fred having dreaded the moment he'd have to face Hermione's sexy side again was relieved when he saw that she was in her school uniform and that her hair was its normal bushy self. "Sorry, I didn't have time to change for tonight. I've been so busy with arithmancy that I almost forgot planning this lesson." She beamed at him, and Fred felt the well-known buttlerflies when he looked at her.
'This doesn't make any sense! She doesn't look sexy at all and I still get butterflies in my stomach every time I look at her,' he thought to himself. But the more he looked at her, the more he appreciated her school uniform; she had nicely shaped legs and when she bent to pick up something from her bag, Fred could see the shape of her arse. Suddenly he loved that he was bad at potions.
Hermione had found a blackboard that she scribbled on while she rambled on about fungi and their purposes in different potions whilst Fred wrote it all down. It was much easier to concentrate when she was in her school uniform, but he still got butterflies when he thought about her lips on his.
"Oh my, is it already that late!" She looked at the watch in the room and put her hands over her mouth, "wow, time does really fly when you're having fun," she winked at him. He couldn't move.
In bed that evening, Fred thought about Hermione again. This time he tried to convince himself why he shouldn't go down this Hermione-liking-road.
First of all, she was his little brother's best friend and this little prick had been in love with her for several years without doing anything about it. It was a fact and everybody knew it – Fred was sure that even Hermione knew about Ron's feelings for her.
Secondly, she was nothing like what he normally preferred in a woman. He was normally into the athletic type with long, tanned legs and a good humour. Hermione was anything but athletic. Her legs were short and pale and he didn't know if she even had a sense of humour. However, she still touched his soft spot and as Fred lay there, he decided that maybe trying something new was okay.