Just then, Hermione pulled away and swam to the other side of the lake. "Try and catch me." She said, laughing.
"What if I don't want to catch you? I don't like you." I said, still dying because the girl was so evil.
"We all know you want me. Don't deny it." Hermione began to come closer.
"No. Get back. I can't take it any longer. You're such a tease. I don't know why you insist on torturing me." I backed away with my hand held out in front of me, fully prepared to dive under the water and swim if she came any closer.
"Oh give it up, Freddie boy!" Bill yelled from the side, Fleur under his arm.
"No! She tortured me and I know if she comes any closer she'll do it again, but worse than that, I'll get in trouble for it if I rip off her bikini and bang her right here, right now. Besides, I don't want my whole family to see. That's just awkward."
"He has a point Hermione. You should leave this be. Also, I think it would be a good idea if you dried off and talked to Ron. He's very upset about this." Harry said, sounding way more reasonable than necessary.
"You're probably right. He did look like he was about to cry. I had forgotten all about our little fling. I didn't even think he could actually be upset about it." Hermione reasoned with herself and Harry, and then got out of the water and wrapped herself in a towel.
I followed her up to the side of the lake, and as soon as she was wrapped up in her towel, I grabbed her and kissed her. "Ha! I win! You're the defenseless one now!" I laughed as I pulled her into another kiss, this time letting her arms break free of the towel so she could have some control over the kiss.
"Now let me dry off so I can go talk to Ronald. It might take me a while, and please, whatever you do, don't come with me. It'll just be worse if he sees you." Hermione grabbed her towel, kissed me on the nose, and walked back inside.
"Harry, do you think he'll calm down? I'd hate to break up their friendship because of something as small as my relationship with her." I asked walking toward my sister and her man.
"Of course he'll get over it Fred. He's always gotten over any little fight they've had. It'll be ok. I promise." Harry reassured me.
I began walking back into the Burrow so I could go tell my love I was going back to the flat, but Ginny stopped me. "Fred, I don't think going and giving her a kiss goodbye in the middle of her argument with Ron about dating you is the greatest idea. I'll tell her you left. Just go home, please. I love you Freddie. I don't need a war between my brothers again over a girl."
"Oh alright. Thanks Gin. I guess I'll be going then. Goodbye guys." I walked over and gave mum a hug goodbye, and aparated back to the flat.
When I got back to the flat, George was sitting on the couch waiting for me.
"When did you leave the Burrow? I thought you were talking to Ron." I asked, George sitting calmly on the couch.
"I was, but when Hermione came inside, he asked me to leave and I knew you would be following her, or at least trying to and would end up here so I figured I'd come home and talk to you. How are you holding up?"
"Well, I wish I knew how Ron was feeling about this whole thing, and I wanted to say goodbye to Mione, but other than that, I'm ok."
"Well, I can tell you, Ron isn't in a great mood right now. He didn't exactly want to talk to me, said I looked too much like you, but I forced him to talk to me and he yelled at me forgetting I wasn't you, which I think made him feel a bit better."
"What did he say, George?" I asked, joining him on the couch.
"Well, he called me, well you, a traitor and said that you had no respect for him or his feelings. He told me about your discussion with him and then said that you betrayed him and went right ahead, bestially having sex with her right in front of him. He told me he couldn't take it anymore and every time he looks at Hermione her sees her with you and it hurts him."
"Harry says he'll forgive her. Do you think he'll forgive me?" I asked, quietly fighting back tears. I couldn't handle the fact that not only had I broken up one of the strongest friendships this world has ever seen, but also hurt my brother immensely.
"Don't worry Fred. He'll forgive you. I know he will." George pulled me tight into a close hug. He then told me I needed some movie therapy and played me Ferris Bueller's Day Off on the television.
Multiple hours had passed, George and I were making things for our shop and watching movies, just like old times, and I had almost forgotten about Ron, when Ginny came over.
"Hermione requests that you come back to the Burrow, Fred. Says she's awfully cold without you." Ginny said, giggling.
"Why can't she come here? I don't want to piss off Ron more than I already have." I said looking at my sister hoping that she'd understand and bring Hermione over here.
"She wants to talk to you, and maybe go to the lake with you under the stars when nobody is going to bother you. Unless you have a lake here, I suggest you come back with me." Ginny blushed, then looked at me seriously as though waiting for me to jump at the thought of Hermione and I in a lake, alone.
"You know," I started. "I have a bath and can bewitch my ceiling to look like stars. That's the same thing, right?" I asked, laughing.
"Give it up Freddie boy. Just go to the Burrow. Ron could even be over it by now." George said winking at me.
"Oh alright, but you can't be mad at me if I slap Ronald for making a big deal over the fact that she chose me. He needs to grow the fuck up, okay?" I said, getting a lot angrier about this than I expected.
"Calm down, Fred. You're both more wound up than you need to be, okay?" Ginny said.
I got up and stood next to my baby sister. "He's the one being a huge prat over nothing," I started, but then decided I was going to do more harm than good. "Nevermind, I'm overreacting. I'm better than he is, I need to be the bigger person."
"Thank you Fred. Now let's go. Your girl is waiting." I smiled at the fact that Ginny just called her best friend my girl, and we aparated out of the room.
"Finally. I didn't think it would take much convincing for you to come back here." Hermione ran over to me and hugged me tighter than ever as though she could tell that I was worried about Ron and her.
"Yeah, I didn't really want to come over because of Ron. Half of me is avoiding him because I'm mad at him for being mad at us, and half of me is scared I'm not going to ever have him back as a brother. I mean, yeah he's a duck sometimes, but that doesn't mean I don't love him too. He's my baby brother."
"He's a duck?" Hermione giggled. "But I understand. You don't want to ruin your family and it's all going to be okay. Ron's going to have to get over it and I told him that. I told him I can't live without you but I can't live without him either and I certainly don't want to make your relationship any worse than it already is. He said he'll work on it. Harry volunteered to help. Ron might have to leave the room sometimes, and we're going to have to accept that for a while. I apologized and told him I didn't know that you told him that you would keep the PDA to a minimum. He's not mad at you, Fred. He's just a little heartbroken. How would you have felt if I chose him?"
"You're right Hermione. Thank you. Now, I was promised an isolated lake. How about that?" I looked at Hermione, grinning evilly. She knew what was going through my head and I had a feeling it wasn't going to happen.
"Yes, we can go to the lake, and I promise not to mess with you. I'll explain more later. First, I want you to go talk to your brother. He's more upset than you know that you didn't say goodbye." Hermione said. "I can come with if you would like."
"Yes please. Just don't hang on my arm. Let's not hurt him more than we need to." I kissed her cheek and we walked out of the room.
I walked up to Ron's door and tried to open it. It was locked. I knocked lightly. "Ron, can I please talk to you?" I asked through the door.
"Alohomora," he whispered. "I was hoping I could talk to you. Come in."
I opened the door and walked in to see my baby brother looking at me with big, red eyes. "How are you holding up, Ron?" I asked, walking over to his bed and sitting down next to him. Hermione stood in the doorway.
"Well, not exactly great," Ron started. "I keep trying to stay calm and not get jealous about you and Mione, but I can't get it out of my head and I just get so mad. You know, I almost told her she had to choose? I almost told her if she chose you I wouldn't talk to her ever again, and if she chose me she wasn't allowed to talk to you. I feel like such an ass."
"Well first, it's normal to feel jealous but you should NEVER make a girl choose between her best friend and her boyfriend, but second of all, I wanted to tell you I'm sorry. I should've told her when she was torturing me that I had told you I would try to keep it to a minimum." I looked over at Hermione and then back to my brother. "I hope you know I wouldn't have even let her go after me if I wasn't in love with her."
"Thanks Freddie. That means a lot. No go have fun with Hermione," Ron turned to look at Hermione and laughed. "Just not too much fun."
SUPER SUPER SORRY!!! I meant to have this up 2 weeks ago and then life hit me like a truck. I want to shout out to my best friend and stepandahalf0804 for continuously telling me I need to write. I will try to be more consistent with the writing. I'm also trying to reread the series for the 10000000000000000th time. Let me know if there's something you'd like to see happen.