Hermione awoke, quiet late on Wednesday morning. She'd been up all night long, re-reading some of her old textbooks that she hadn't had the heart to leave at home. Hermione wanted to revise what she had learnt, and hopefully get a leg up on some of the things she was yet too. Hermione let out a yelp as she looked at the watch on her wrist, quickly grabbing a what was on the top in her trunk she dashed for the bathroom to have a shower.
Never in her life did Hermione sleep late, and she did not want to make an awful habit of it. Hermione walked down the many uneven stairs of the burrow into the kitchen were almost everyone, besides Mr Weasley and Charlie were sitting down to what appeared to be lunch. Mrs Weasley gave Hermione a big grin, ushering her to a seat in the middle of Bill and Harry.
Putting a number of triangular cut sandwiches in front of her and a glass of what she guess was pumpkin juice, Mrs Weasley couldn't help but noticed Hermione looked different. "You look very nice dear. A very pretty dress in deed." Molly said, sitting down at the head of the table.
Hermione hadn't really noticed what she was wearing herself as she was in such a rush. Looking down, she was wear and pure white dress, which was tight at the waist, then flowed out, a reaching a higher than her knees in length. Seeing as she had only just got out of the shower, Hermione threw a plain blue hand band in her hair, keeping it out of her face.
"Oh, Thank you." She said, blushing as the table had suddenly turned their attention towards her.
Hermione's eyes shifted towards one end of the table, Fred was sitting there staring off into space. They hadn't really spoken since he apologised in the book store and Hermione was feeling guilty as ever. All he wanted to do was make amends, but Hermione put up her guard once more and didn't want anything to do with him. Truly, Hermione wanted Fred to become aware that she didn't want him to apologise because she didn't feel he needed too. But, words came out very wrong, causing Fred to receive the wrong impression.
Before Hermione realised she was staring at the youngest Weasley twin, he looked back at her. A wave of excitement mixed between nervousness washed through her stomach, giving her butterflies. She'd never felt giddy like this before in her life. They stared at each other for what seemed like hours, before reluctantly getting pulled out of their daze.
The rest of the day was really quiet, Harry, Ron and Ginny went out on the outskirts of the farm yet again. Hermione declined the offer, as she was still very tired and wanted nothing more than to sit outside in the back yard with a good book. After helping Mrs Weasley out with a few basic jobs around the house, Hermione sat on a lounge chair in the back yard and began reading one of her new books, 'Transfiguration Through the Ages'. Occasionally, Hermione would hear a very loud bang, followed by masses of smoke coming out of the twins bedroom, until she saw one of them walk out the back down towards her.
Fred sat down on the seat next to her, running his fingers through his long hair. Hermione sat still for a few minutes, pretending she was still reading and hadn't noticed he was sitting centimetres away from her. She figured it would become a very awkward and uncomfortable conversation seeing as the last one resulted in Fred storming out of the store, pulling George in toe.
"I know you're not really reading." Fred said in a irritated tone of voice.
Hermione didn't look up from her book, she rolled her eyes and continued reading. She had no intention on talking to him if he was going to speak to her like that. Minutes later, Hermione realised Fred was correct, she wasn't really reading, she was merely skimming through the book not paying any kind of attention to text that was right in front of her nose.
Fred groaned, "For Merlin's sake would you stop pretending to bloody read. It's driving me mad."
Hermione turned to look at Fred for the first time since he sat down, he looked nothing short of frustrated. She slammed her book shut and rested it in her lap. They sat in silence yet again for a few minutes, but this time Hermione was the one to crack.
"What are you and George doing? I keep hearing explosions coming from your bedroom." She asked, changing the subject.
Fred shifted in his seat, "Where working on a few treats to get you out of the classes you hate. It isn't working out so swell."
"That is extremely dangerous and immature. You should not being so little as contemplating trying to get out of class, especially with NEWTS and O.W.L'S."
Fred chuckled, "Hermione, Hermione. Do you think either my less attractive twin or I really care about studying for NEWTS?"
Hermione rolled her eyes, she'd heard this exact same conversation between both twins and their parents. She really didn't understand how they could be so reckless and irresponsible when it came to their future. Both Weasley twins were very smart, they could tackle any problem you gave them, and they'd give you the solution within minutes.
"You both are very intelligent." Hermione stated, looking down at the spine of her book.
The youngest Weasley twin grinned. "Thank you Hermione." He said in a sing song tone, not taking any of it seriously.
"Jesus, I wish you'd grow a spec of maturity. This is your future, what on earth are the two of you going to do without a proper education?" She asked, with an angry tone.
"What the bloody hell do you call Hogwarts?"
Hermione sighed, "Nobody in the wizarding world is going to either one of you just because you went to Hogwarts! They will look at your O.W.L's and your NEWTS, and seeing as you both are not taking it seriously they wont give either of you a second look."
"Please, don't feel the need to hold back." Fred said in a blunt tone.
"I'm just pre warning you, you both may want to rethink your choices. If you need help studying, I'd be more than happy to help."
Fred never answered her, he just stared off into space at the fields in front of them. Nearly every conversation Fred would have with Hermione turned into some kind of small argument which left them both feeling frustrated. He hadn't a clue as too why this was happening, a few short weeks ago Hermione was just Fred's younger brothers friend whom he'd never thought he'd have a one on one talk too.
Frederick Weasley! I told you hours ago to get cleaned up! Bill and Fleur will be here in a few short minutes and I'll be damned if you cause a bad impression. Bill is already sick to his stomach about this already" Mrs. Weasley screamed at her son from the back door of the kitchen.
"And I told you hours ago that I'm already cleaned up!" Fred screamed back, mimicking his mother's gesture with his hands on his hips.
Mrs Weasley tired her very hardest to keep a straight face at her son, "Hermione dear, I have much to do in the kitchen. Can you please make sure that Frederick gets all that gunk off of his face? I can see it from here." She asked nicely before shutting the back door, making her way back into the kitchen.
Hermione looked at Fred, she hadn't noticed all the black smoke which was all over his face, neck and hands. She laughed at the sight of him, "Come on, we should get you cleaned up."
Hermione grabbed her book and walked back into the Burrow with Fred not far off her tale. They passed Mrs Weasley in the kitchen, who through Hermione a rag to get the mess of Fred's face. Walking up the extremely un even stairs, they walked into the bathroom on the top floor which was the only on free. Fred sat on the edge of the bath tub, watching Hermione wet the rag with soapy water.
Hermione walked over and bent down in front of Fred, she slowly started rubbing the rag on his arms, trying to get whatever it was stuck on his arms to come off. "Ow! That bloody hurt" He exclaimed, pulling his arm back to himself.
"Sorry" She said gently, pulling his arm back out and washing it a lot more gently. "What on earth is this stuff. It will not come off" She said frustrated.
Fred shrugged, "A couple of different things actually, we've been messing around with a few different potions and what not." After a couple of minutes, Hermione had finally managed to get the stubborn substance off Fred's hands and arms. She stood up slowly, put more soapy water on the rag and began to slowly rub his forehead.
"This would be over already if you just let me use a spell." Fred stated.
Hermione stopped, walked over to the sink to ring the towel out and put a lot more soap on it. "I like doing things the muggle way." She said, walking back over to him, trying even harder to get the black smug off his forehead. "And I highly doubt that you would take time to master a cleaning spell."
"Okay, okay, a little gentler." He said, gasping a hold of the side of her waist wit his left hand. "I'm beginning to think you don't like my skin with the way your trying to scrap it off."
Hermione laughed lightly, "It's almost gone." She said quietly. "Oh sorry!" She said as water starting slowly running down his face, Hermione quickly wiped off the water with her thumb before it could get in his eye. She knew from experience that it hurt more than anything when you got soap or hair wash in your eyes.
Fred looked up at Hermione as she ran her thumb over his temple, stopping the water getting near his eyes. Little did either of them know, Fred's hand was still very much resting on the side of her waist. She smiled slightly down at him as she started wiping his hair out of his eyes.
"Your hair is getting to long." She said, in almost a whisper.
Fred didn't respond, she just kept looking deep into her big brown eyes. He kept his left hand on her waist and used his free right hand to pull her knee's down so she was sitting on his right knee. Fred removed the towel from her hand and threw it on the floor, not breaking eye contact. With his right hand, Fred pushed Hermione's hair out of her eyes and leaned in slightly. He never broke eye contact as he made the space between Hermione and himself even short than it already was. The two were millimetres away from each other's faces when a loud crash coming from down stairs made them both jump, causing Hermione to stand up and rush to get the towel from the floor.
"Jeeze Hermione, stopping coming on to me, I'm feeling extremely uncomfortable." Fred said, pushing her out of the way so he could walk towards the bathroom door.
Hermione gasped, "Oh!" She threw the wet rug at his back as he walked out the door, his laugh travelling through the hallway.
Ginny slammed the door shut as she walked into her room, flinging herself onto her bed. She screamed loudly into her pillow, and muffled words that Hermione assumed would get her thrown out of the house if Mrs Weasley were too hear them.
Hermione sighed, pulling her sheets back in her bed. "Are you alright?"
Ginny lifted her head up from her pillow, "Are you mad? My brother is marrying a lunatic! Even Mum can't stand her. You should have heard what Mum was saying when Fleur went to the bathroom, I thought she was going to disown Bill." Ginny stood up, put her hands on her hips and began to talk in a very convincing Mrs Weasley tone, "You are far too young to be thinking about marriage! You've only known each other for less than a year! You both have no business getting married!"
Hermione sat up in her bed, "What did Bill say?"
Ginny sat on the end of Hermione's bed with her back against the wall, "He was trying to convince us all of how much he fancied her, and he kept saying rubbish like, 'She's the one'." She let out a huff, "But that wasn't the weird thing, Fred sat still and silent the whole entire time. Fred was ADD, he never ever sits still."
"Fred does not have ADD." Hermione pointed out.
"He bloody may as well have." Ginny exclaimed, "I wonder what has gotten into him though."
Hermione sat still, re-thinking the day's events. Every since the almost kiss, she'd been trying to avoid Fred at all costs, she was so embarrassed. Hermione was sure Fred thought of it all as some big joke, the way he brushed it off and couldn't stop laughing the entire trip down the hall way into his bedroom. Hermione couldn't look at him all night long, which was a challenge seeing as he sat directly opposite her at dinner. Even then he seemed to be completely at ease with everything, mind you he'd had a lot more experience with these types of situations then Hermione had. The only person she'd snogged was Viktor Krum. She was sure that Fred had snogged, if not possibly shagged a hell of a lot more girls then just one. Hermione thought she was being stupid, of course it hadn't meant anything. It was just a spare of the moment type of thing, no feelings were involved at all. She mentally kicked herself for thinking too much into it, 'the almost kiss' was nothing. It wasn't going to happen again, she was certain he didn't want it to happen again.
Even though a big part of her, wanted it too.