Chapter 12: Fred Weasley, Boyfriend
Somehow they had both fallen asleep, and Fred woke up at 2 a.m. in the morning feeling really pleased until he noticed what time it was. He quickly woke up Hermione and together they rushed back to the common room. As the Fat Lady swung to the side to let them in, they were panting.
They both had too much adrenaline to go back to sleep just yet, so they instead sat down by the still-going fire to calm themselves down. Fred had his arm around Hermione and she put her head on is shoulder. None of them spoke for a while, they just enjoyed the other's presence.
As Hermione sighed happily, Fred thought to himself that this had to be the right moment to ask her another question that he had been dreading for the past days: "Hermione, I know we've only known each other this way for a week, and I know it's soon to ask you this, but I think I might be falling in love with you and I'd love to call you my girlfriend – you know, officially."
She sat up and looked at him with a serious expression. He didn't dare look at her, but instead fixed his eyes upon his hands that were resting in his lap. 'Shit. I just ruined everything' Fred thought just before she started speaking:
"Fred. I don't know. I'm really crazy about you and every moment we spend together is like being in heaven, but…I'm just not ready to go official yet. I don't want people to look at me that way. I hope you understand."
Fred counted to three, put on a big smile and said; "Of course I do!" in a convincing tone, even though he couldn't understand why she didn't want to go public.
Fred and George had always been very attention seeking and were used to being popular. Fred had always gotten what he wanted and was really upset about the fact that Hermione was turning him down time after time. However, he held his head up high whenever Hermione was around him, but still tried to figure out exactly why she didn't want the whole world to know that he, Fred Weasley, was her boyfriend.