A/N: My good friend Evie's birthday is today! I hurried to do this chapter for her. This first part is dedicated to her. She told me what she wanted: Shower scene. Then gave me certain words I had to use: Lution(her pets name), starkers, peeping tom, "No pun intended".
As you can tell, she wanted to force me to move their relationship along faster than I wanted to move it…but I found a way around that ;) Happy Birthday Evie!
It was actually harder than I thought it would be to use prompts so kudos to all of you who can do it and do it well.
Also, I see Ginny as a pretty confident person, so I went ahead and nipped the jealousy part in the bud in this chapter.
Lastly, I want to thank all of you that reviewed, followed, and favorited. You're the best!
Guest Reviewer: I agree that Hermione and Fred could have had many moments together. We have to remember that the books are Harry's POV and she was with the Weasley's more than he was in the summers. She could have had a lot of interaction with the twins while he wasn't around.
Hermione woke up that Wednesday morning with Mrs. Weasley's voice screaming up the stairs.
"HERMIONE JEAN! YOU BETTER GET YOUR TAIL DOWN HERE SOON OR WE'RE LEAVING WITHOUT YOU!"
Hermione bolted out of bed. Mrs. Weasley had sent Ginny up twice to wake Hermione for breakfast and both times she waived her off. She's witnessed the matriarch's wrath too many times to know better than to ignore her when she uses your middle name.
Hermione headed out the door and down the stairs with her eyes half closed when she heard Mrs. Weasley again.
"AND GO UP AND TELL GINNY TO HURRY WITH HER SHOWER!"
She turned on her heel and headed up to the bathroom.
She knocked and opened the door. "Ginny! You better hurry! She's already called me by my middle name and we haven't even had breakfast yet."
There was no answer. She pulled open the curtain, her hand on her hip. "Ginny? What is wrong with you?!" Her eyes fell on someone else. "OH!"
He gave her an amused smile and raised his eyebrow. Realizing she had been staring, she turned and covered her eyes as she hurried to the door.
"I am so sorry! I Thought you were…argh! That woman!…I swear to Godric…"
She continued to mutter things under her breath as she shut the door and ran down the stairs, her hands covering her cheeks. She was met by Mrs. Weasley in the kitchen.
"Hermione…what's wrong?"
Hermione pointed toward the stairs. "That was NOT Ginny!" she pressed her palms against her eyelids and sat down at the table.
She heard Ginny laugh. "I always knew that seeing him naked would have this affect on people. See…she's trying to claw her eyes out!"
"GINEVRA!"
Hermione dropped her hands to make a smart comment on how she couldn't possibly know who it was, when she noticed Percy, George, and Harry all sitting there staring at her.
Her face went crimson and she hid her face in her folded arms that were on the table.
"Hermione, dear. It was just an accident. I'm sure there is no reason to be embarrassed. It's my fault. I thought Ginny was still in there…I didn't know you'd have a peek!"
Hermione lifted her head. "I didn't peek! I am not a peeping tom for goodness sake!"
"So then…how did you…" Harry asked.
Hermione furrowed her eyebrow. "I sort of…yanked the curtain open…" She made the motion with her arm and let her head hit the table.
She heard George snicker. Her head shot back up.
"I thought it was Ginny! I was going to yell at her for not answering!" She whimpered. "Why does this stuff only happen to me? And WHY did it have to be Fred?"
Ginny's eyebrow shot up. "Who would you rather it be?"
"YOU! Anyone else actually…"
"I'm glad it wasn't me!"
"Me either…"
Hermione went to the counter to get a pastry and ice it. She needed to do something…anything to get away from that table.
Ginny looked at Harry, waiting for him to reply. He looked at Ginny.
"Well, of course I wouldn't want it to be me Ginny!"
Ginny raised her eyebrow.
Hermione stood there, staring at them. Was this really happening? "Ginny…since when did you become so jealous? You never have been before!"
"Before, you had Ron!"
Hermione nodded, understanding. "I see. Ginny, my feelings for Harry have not changed. I feel for him like you feel for Percy or George. I have no romantic feelings and never had. You need to trust Harry and me. This is getting ridiculous!"
Ginny looked at her for a moment before her eyes darted to the stairs and suddenly looked at her plate. Fred came barreling down the stairs and Hermione turned back to her pastry as Mrs. Weasley served the eggs.
Hermione heard Percy mention something about the Daily Prophet. Chattering broke out and she sighed, relieved that the conversation ended before Fred made his way down.
Fred came up behind her and tucked her hair behind her ear.
He leaned in and whispered, "So, what did you think?" She felt her cheeks grow hot and ignored his comment.
"It's no fun to tease you when you don't answer." He whispered.
She quietly cleared her throat. "Well…I now know why you're so cocky."
He chuckled. "No pun intended?" Her eyes widened into saucers. She didn't know if she should be offended by his dirty joke or not. Up until then, their flirting had been PG rated.
"Too far?"
She nodded.
He set his hand on the small of her back. "Sorry love. Obviously, what happened was an accident. You weren't calling me Ginny just for fun."
"Why didn't you answer me?" Hermione asked as she iced her pastry. She licked the icing off of her pointer finger.
When he didn't answer she turned her head to him to see him staring down at her finger in her mouth. She pulled her finger out and set her jaw.
"I'm sorry…what?" He said, making eye contact.
"Why didn't you answer me when I called for Ginny."
"Oh…I just thought you'd call for her and leave. I was trying to save you the embarrassment of realizing it was me. I didn't expect you to look."
She sighed and bit into her pastry. She gave him a bite.
"Well, you seemed pretty happy with yourself when I opened that curtain."
"Well, I'm pretty confident about all this…" he waived his finger around his body. "If a pretty girl wants to look, then that's fine with me."
"It's not that I wanted to look!"
"Oh?"
"I mean I didn't do it on purpose!"
The right corner of his mouth lifted into a half smirk. "So, you did like it."
Her brow furrowed as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "What are you on about letting any girl see you anyway? You might as well go around starkers with the type of mindset!"
"Don't ignore my question."
"IT WASN'T SAID IN A FORM OF A QUESTION!" She whispered, growling at him.
His smirk turned into a full grin. "Mione…"
She sighed and threw her pastry down. "Ugh! Yes! Happy?" She asked, crossing her arms.
He kissed her temple. "Yes."
She shook her head, blowing her hair out of her face, frustrated. "How is it that you always get me to say things that I don't want to tell you?"
"It's a gift…but see? Now its not awkward anymore."
"No! Now I'm just annoyed!"
She grabbed her pastry and sat at the table.
"Hermione…have you made a list of what you need in Diagon Alley today?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"Yes. It's upstairs." She sighed, trying to relieve some of her frustration.
"You are coming to Diagon Alley today?" Fred asked.
"Yes, we need to get their supplies for school and the girls are getting new swimming suits for the party this Sunday." Mrs. Weasley answered him as she took a sip of her tea.
"Swimming suits? Are we swimming?" George asked.
"Oh dear. I forgot to tell you. Yesterday, Charlie owled and said he would be coming. We decided since it's the girls last weekend and we'll miss Hermione's nineteenth birthday, that we'd have a party."
George whooped. "My insufferable self can finally get revenge on the social conformist!"
Hermione raised an eyebrow. "You think so?"
"Yes, my little Herms. I do."
"I thought we hashed that out when I turned your hair blue." Fred cocked an eyebrow.
"Pfft. Let the girl fend for herself for once!"
Hermione laughed. "You're on."
At that moment, a hawk came flying into the open window and stopped in front of Mrs. Weasley, dropping a letter from its beak.
Hermione's mouth dropped open. "Is that…?"
Mrs. Weasley smiled at her. "Is it what, sweetheart?" She opened the letter to read it.
"That looks like Lution." Hermione answered.
"Who's Lution?" Ginny asked.
"It's Viktor's hawk." Hermione answered.
The hawk turned and nibbled on Hermione's pastry. She bent her head a bit to look at the bird better. "It is Lution!"
The hawk raised his head to Hermione and squawked. She used one finger to stroke his head.
She chewed on her lip as she watched the bird. Viktor hadn't bothered to write her since Bill's wedding. She wondered why he was suddenly writing Mrs. Weasley.
Mrs. Weasley smiled as she scribbled something on a piece of parchment and stuffed it back in the envelope, crossing out her name and writing Viktor's.
"Why would you be writing Viktor?" Ginny asked.
Fred looked at Hermione who seemed a little confused…and actually looked a bit hurt.
As the hawk flew back out, Mrs. Weasley stood up. "Well…that's not really important. We need to get moving. Boys…you're going to be late!"
XxXxXxXx
Hermione, Ginny, and Mrs. Weasley walked down Diagon Alley towards Madam Malkin's. During the summer months the store had a corner dedicated to swimming wear.
Ginny bounced along excitedly when she saw a few suits she liked in the window.
Hermione's eyebrows furrowed. By the looks of those suits, it might have been more modest just to wear underwear.
As they headed toward the racks with swimming suits, she noticed Ginny pulling out suit after suit to try on.
She found herself wishing she had Ginny's frame. Ginny was tall and thin, her hips much slimmer than Hermione's. She could wear anything and her parts wouldn't be spilling out in weird places like Hermione's tried to do.
Ginny held up an orange string bikini. "What do you think of this one Hermione?"
"Er…that color doesn't go well with your hair…"
Ginny laughed. "I mean for you!"
"For me?! Why? What if one of those ties came loose?"
"Fred would like it..."
"I don't think he would look very good in that color either." Hermione said smiling.
Ginny rolled her eyes, putting the suit back.
Hermione went through the racks and found a tankini she was willing to try.
She tried it on and decided it would work. The top was black with a white bust that had black polka dots. The fabric stopped about an inch and a half above her belly button. The bust gave her a little cleavage, but she felt like it was secure enough not to fall out.
The bottoms were black except for a white band with black polka dots around the top. It rode a little low on her hips, but it covered her bum completely and that's what she was worried about.
"Hermione! Come on out! Let me see!" Mrs. Weasley called.
Hermione stepped out to show her and saw Ginny standing there in a neon green bikini.
"What do you think?" Ginny asked her.
"Well…you sure are bright!" Ginny's body looked great in it. The color, on the other hand, was ghastly.
"See, Ginny. Why can't you take a page from Hermione's book and find one like hers?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"Hermione's boring when it comes to clothes."
Hermione scoffed. "I don't think what you have on could be considered clothes!"
"She's right dear…I don't think your brothers would be very happy seeing you in that."
Hermione stuck her tongue out at Ginny while Mrs. Weasley was turned.
Once she was out of her suit, the girls spent another hour in the store waiting on Ginny.
Finally, Ginny settled on a dark purple two piece that she and Mrs. Weasley compromised on.
They spent the rest of the morning school supply shopping while Hermione slipped into the second hand bookshop and got lost.
When Mrs. Weasley finally sent in Ginny to find her, she emerged from the depths of the dark shelves with eight books.
"This should last me until Christmas break." She told Ginny as she stepped up to pay for them.
Ginny gave her a ridiculous look. "I take it you don't plan on enjoying your last year?"
"This IS my enjoyment!" Hermione answered as they left the store.
"Mum's at the joke shop. We're supposed to meet her." Ginny mentioned as they made their way down the cobblestone street.
They found Mrs. Weasley standing at the counter with George and Fred.
Fred hurried over and stood in front of Hermione, looking down at her. "Hey." He said as he placed her hair behind her ear.
She giggled. "Hey."
"We better?" He asked, sliding his thumb from her ear to her cheek and searching her eyes.
"Yes." Her stomach flipped as his hand rested against her neck on her shoulder.
"What'd you get?" His eyes darted down to her bag before looking back up into her dark brown eyes.
"Books." She said, suddenly a little breathless.
"Mmm." He answered, nodding.
"Oh gross! You two are giving me a tooth ache!" Ginny complained.
"Oh stop it Ginny! They're in love!" Mrs. Weasley commented.
Hermione squeezed her eyes shut and bowed her head, her cheeks burning.
Fred stepped back rubbing the back of his neck and disappeared to help a customer.
George leaned down to whisper in Hermione's ear. "What are you waiting for? He isn't going to hurt you."
Hermione looked up at George. She knew that eventually she had to take the plunge and she wanted to, but she was scared.
Had it been enough time? What would Ron think? Bill obviously wasn't happy about it…what would the rest of the family think?
She wasn't sure she was ready to let go of the past yet. She wasn't sure if she wanted to. The memories with Ron were becoming foggier the deeper she went with Fred. She wasn't sure if time had caused it or if it was because she was moving on. She didn't want those memories to go anywhere. What if she forgot?
Ginny pulled out her swimming suit to show George.
He wrinkled his nose. "Where is the rest of it?"
Hermione started to laugh. "And what are you wearing?" He turned and asked her.
She held up the paper bag. "I hate to tell you this Herms, but paper falls apart when wet…on the other hand, I know a brother who would be perfectly happy with that…"
"Oh hush! It's IN the bag and you can wait to see it."
"See what?" Fred asked, heading back over.
"Hermione's suit. Evidently she's wearing a paper bag." George answered.
Hermione tutted when she saw Fred raise his eyebrows.
"What color is it?" Fred asked, pulling the bag open with his finger and peering in.
She yanked it away from him. "Keep your mitts off!"
"But I'm Fred!" He said, pointing to his left ear.
"You can see it Sunday. It's black."
"BORING!" George yelled.
"I'm sure for you it is. What are you wearing?"
"Orange!" Exclaimed George
"Fuchsia!" Yelled Fred.
"Lovely." Hermione said, frowning. She was starting to think the neon green bikini would have been a good choice for Ginny.
"Rethinking the color little Herms? Want me to change it for you? Perhaps canary yellow is more your color?" George asked, pulling his wand out.
Hermione clung to her bag. "You'll do no such thing!"
He frowned, putting away his wand. "Aw, come on Hermione. You need some fun in your life."
"I don't find walking around looking like a canary fun!"
George's smile returned. "Ah…but our customers say differently."
She rolled her eyes and turned to look for Mrs. Weasley, who had wandered off. "Are we done here Mrs. Weasley? I'd like to get my suit back home while it's still black."