8th November: Beauty is a powerful thing.
Don't get me wrong. Believe me, Hermione's happy with her relationship with Fred. I don't believe she's ever felt so comfortable with anyone in her life, unless you count Harry, of course. But what would look like to an outsider as one of the most stable relationships in the Wizarding World isn't necessarily what it really is.
Oh, Merlin. I've worded that terribly, haven't I? Don't worry. Fred wouldn't cheat on Hermione and it certainly wouldn't happen the other way around. I reckon they're a bit too scared of one another to do that, to be honest.
My point is that Hermione and Fred are all spick, span and shiny now. As the best friend and younger sister, I would know. The thing that most people seem to overlook though is how much effort, sweat and pain Hermione went through to get my daft git brother to open his eyes and pluck up the courage to ask her out.
Now I wouldn't say that Fred is one of those blokes that only goes for blonde bimbos, but I'll tell you this much - back in the day, it would've been given you a lot of bonus points.
Being the good friend that I am, I kindly informed Hermione of this. You see, what I didn't expect her to do was to actually take my advice and dedicate a small part of her overly large brain to the fashion industry. And I sure as hell didn't think that the next time I invited her to a family dinner that she would be dressed in skin-tight jeans, dead straight hair and a top that was actually somewhat flattering.
Well, you can imagine that Fred's heart (and jaw, might I add) dropped about ten thousand feet and after stammering some incoherent sentences about the revelation that Hermione Granger had breasts, he actually managed to ask her out.
I'm not sure whether it was the jeans or the breasts that compelled Fred to ask her out. But you know what? She stills wear them - the jeans, I mean. And I'm pretty sure she never threw out that top.
Their relationship is wonderful, but I've said that already, haven't I? I suppose I'm just curious. She's already got the bloke. She already pulled out the mascara and blusher to win him over. So why's she still bothering with it? I know she doesn't care for the stuff.
Is she insecure? Or is beauty really that important? Does she need to be fake to keep the boy? Or is beauty natural as well? And if it can be... why hasn't my brother seen it in her yet?