- Three days later -

They had shagged so much over the last couple of days, that he was getting to know her body in a way that he had never experienced a woman's body before. Now he knew exactly what to do if he wanted her to pant. And what to do if he wanted her to moan or say his name repeatedly; the sweetest sound he had ever heard.

For days they had shagged every morning and every evening - and even several times during the day - but not once had they spent the night together, although Fred found the loneliness afterwards more and more painful for each day. He grew more and more frustrated with himself and his own inadequacy to just ask her to stay the night.

He hadn't said a word to anyone about his recent realisation about his feelings for Hermione and he intended to keep it that way. If she ever found out that he had started seeing their friendship as more than just the agreement they had made, she would run away screaming. And he wasn't ready for their daily rendezvous to end just yet.

However, when they weren't shagging, they still spent almost every minute of the day in each other's company as well. Several times a day, Fred found himself staring at Hermione. She looked cute when she was filling her plate with food, when she went for swims in the lake, when she pretended to care about quidditch, when she was doing the dishes - even when she beat him in exploding snap - but especially when she was naked in front of him.

In the past few days, Fred had noticed that Hermione seemed more relaxed than she had for years. In fact, he wondered if he had ever seen her this carefree before. She didn't talk about work, she didn't feel the urge to constantly research everything, and she barely read her book. Instead, she spent the entirety of her holiday in the company of Fred. The two of them were doing everything together; they played acrobat in the water, they told each other jokes, they helped his mum clean out all the old cupboards - one afternoon, he had even brought her by the shop to help out. She had done brilliantly.

Fred found that him and Hermione had become such good friends that he almost ranked her just as highly as he did George. It was like having a smarter and more sexy George around - minus the pranks of course.

Fred was starting to dread the end of the summer holidays where they would both go back to each of their lives. How much would they be seeing each other? Would she forget about him as soon as they didn't see each other all the time? Would she start seeing the bloke she fancied instead? Fred wanted to make her forget about the other guy. He wanted to make her fancy him.

So he did whatever he could to make Hermione notice him; he made her coffee in the morning, he complimented her spellwork, he took the seat next to her at supper. He wanted to make himself indispensable to her. Therefore, it was with a bit of triumph he one evening heard Hermione say sadly, "by the way, I have to go to work tomorrow..."

They were alone in the living room, sitting on the floor playing gobstones while everyone else had either gone to bed or had gone skinny dipping in the lake.

Fred looked up and eyed her carefully, "all day?"

Hermione nodded, "I don't want to."

Fred let out a groan, "I don't want you to either. It's going to be so boring here tomorrow!"

Hermione laughed at him, "can't you just force George to stay?"

"And make him miss out on quality time with his girlfriend? He would have my head!"

Hermione laughed. Still one of the sweetest sounds in the world. "Well, good thing for you that I won't be gone for long. I'll come back in the afternoon."

Fred sighed, "I'm still going to miss you, Granger!"

"Yeah, me too," Hermione smiled at him, "I would much rather spend my day with you..."

Fred could tell that Hermione was studying his every move; his reaction to her words.

His eyes ran over her face and he could tell that she was blushing. He studied her freckled nose; he had always hated the fact that his own face, chest, and arms were full of small light brown speckles of melanin, but he loved hers. They looked immensely cute next to her fluffy hair.

His attention was turned towards her lips as she smiled broadly. She had definitely noticed him staring at her. He felt the heat rise in his chest. His eyes found hers and they both chuckled, the tension between them was as thick as custard. Fred felt the urge to touch her. To hold her close.

Eventually, Fred pried his eyes away from her and focused on the gobstones in front of him instead. He cleared his throat, "I think it's your turn.."

"Oh! Yes, of course," Hermione said and turned her gaze towards the game as well. Her face was still flushed as she pretended to calculate her next move with the gobstones.

After a minute or so, she finally looked up at him again, "do you want to take a break from the game? I could really use a cup of tea."

"Yeah, sure," Fred nodded and got up from the floor and went to the sofa table to pour each of them a cup of tea.

In the meantime, Hermione had sat herself down in the small velvet loveseat. Fred handed her one of the cups of steaming hot tea and sat down next to her. Immediately, she snuggled up against his chest, "This is nice," she beamed up at him.

"Yes, it is," he said and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer.

She did a content sigh and sipped her tea slowly while Fred rand his fingers through her fluffy curls. With every brush of his fingers through her hair, her smell hit his nostrils; sweet vanilla and lemon meringue. It reminded him of his childhood when his mum would serve pudding every night.

They sat like that for a while before Fred realised that Hermione had dozed off. She was breathing steadily against his chest and Fred almost couldn't bring himself to wake her, but eventually, he retracted his arm from around her shoulders and softly called her name.

Her eyes fluttered open. She even looked cute when she was sleepy.

"Sorry," she mumbled, "I guess I'm more tired than I thought."

Fred sent her a smile and said, "you should probably go to bed. I bet the others will be back soon too."

"Yeah, you're right," she picked up her teacup but stayed in the seat next to Fred. She couldn't stop looking at him, "Goodnight then..."

"Goodnight, love," Fred smiled at her.

Hermione leaned in a gave him a tight hug, "I'm going to miss you tomorrow," she whispered against his ear.

The hug was too short for Fred's liking and when she pulled away from him, he felt the sudden urge to kiss her.

"Hermione?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah?" She whispered, never breaking eye contact.

"Would I be dishonouring our agreement if I kissed you right now?"

Hermione's lips parted as if surprised. For a split second Fred was scared that he had messed up, but then she finally smiled softly at him "I could look past it.."

Slowly, Fred leant forwards while putting his hand on the back of her neck. They had shagged several times, but Fred still found that he was nervous about kissing her while they were fully dressed, sitting in his parents living-room.

Hermione closed her eyes and inched her face closer to his. She let out a quiet whimper when he didn't close the distance immediately. Instead, he brushed a stray curl away from her face "you look amazing," he whispered before he softly pressed his lips against hers.

Hermione made a small whimpering noise while Fred's lips moved against hers. Raw emotion was spilling into the kiss and Fred was afraid that his heart was going to pound his ribcage open. He could taste his mum's dessert, the lemon meringue, on her lips and could suddenly only focus on how soft she felt against him. Her small hand was caressing his forearm, tracing the scarring just below the elbow. He didn't mind her touching the scar but was aware that she was the only one who was allowed to.

He kissed her softly before she parted her lips slightly, making way for Fred's tongue. His tongue found hers and he slowly caressed it with soft movements.

Hermione tangled her fingers in his flaming hair and she pulled slightly. Her invasion of all his senses felt weird but welcoming.

They kissed sweetly for a while before they heard the door to the kitchen open with a loud bang. They quickly sprang away from each other, and looked guiltily towards the door were Ginny and Harry had emerged. Ginny was giggling lovingly at Harry who pulled her closer and started squeezing her feminine forms. They obviously didn't realise that they had an audience.

Fred cleared his throat and the couple sprang away from each other, looking guiltily at Fred and Hermione.

"We-we thought you'd gone to bed!" Ginny stammered.

Fred didn't answer her, he was staring straight at Harry. He loved the fact that him and his sister had shackled up, but he also loved torturing Harry about it.

"How was skinny dipping?" Hermione asked, her voice almost completely unaffected by what her and Fred had just been doing. Her face, however, was beet-red.

"It was lovely! You really should try it someday!" Ginny smiled, apparently too infatuated with Harry to see what was going on right under her nose.

"Well, we just wanted to say goodnight before we turn in," Harry said, painfully aware that Ginny's older brother was staring at him, "come on, Ginny," he whispered to his girlfriend.

Ginny made a girlish giggle that almost made Fred throw up a bit, "yes, well good night!" she said.

"Five minutes and I'll be up too, okay?" Hermione called after them.

Ginny gave her a small wave before she followed Harry up the stairs.

"Thanks for a lovely evening," Hermione smiled at Fred when they were finally alone.

"Yeah," he smiled lopsidedly at her, "it was great!"

"I'll see you tomorrow afternoon, okay?"

"Have fun at work," Fred chuckled at her.

Hermione let out a groan, "try not to have too much fun without me, okay?"

"I'll do my best," he winked at her.

She reached up and kissed his cheek before left the sofa and disappeared out the door.

Fred sat alone in the living room, looking after her even long after she had disappeared out of sight.

Her lips were still burning on his cheek and he reached up and touched the wet mark just below his eye.

"Fuck," he whispered to himself as he realised exactly how hard tomorrow was going to be without her around.