A/N: IIIIIIIII DDDDDDOOOOOOOOONNNNNNN"""""""TTTTTTTTT OOOOOOOOWWWWWNNNNNNNN HHHHAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYY PPPPPOOOOOOOOTTTTTEEEEEERRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was fun.

Gwen Potter: Thank you for the title idea. I might use it.

And for Alexandra:

Mantra: and incantation or payer… something repeated numerous times

:*: 4 – Hermione's Confession :*:

I liked Hermione.

Oh, how Ron was going to kill me.

Now, I know that earlier I mentioned something about Ron still liking Hermione. Hermione thought I was joking, but I never responded. Do you remember that?

I would bet my life on the fact that Ron still liked Hermione.

He had told her last school year around Christmas, and Hermione admitted to him that she liked him back and there was one of those cute little first romance ever kind of things, but it only lasted for a little over three weeks.

They drove each other up the wall. All the normal spats they had escalated into more hurtful fights, so they broke it off. Hermione, I don't think, doesn't feel that way towards Ron anymore, but like I said, Ron does.

And he would kill me if he knew I fancied her, too.

You see, as you undoubtedly know, my brother Ron is a little hot-tempered. He gets mad very easily and he also gets jealous really easily. Which, given his placement in the family, is understandable.

He's got five older brother's, so  he's bound to feel a bit insignificant at times. I mean, you know the past of my brothers and I. We were, to be unable to put it any other way, hot shit.

And then there's Ron, who could be exactly like us, except his best friend is the Famous Harry Potter. Ron feels, and he's told me, that the only things that set him out among all of us is the fact that he's got his friends who are HIS. Not anyone else's and Ron likes it that way.

So imagine, his older brother who spent his entire existence overshadowing him someway or another, technically steals one of the only things he feels is his.

Whoa. I just realized that that whole ramble is entirely presumptuous. I had no idea that Hermione would even date me so all of that means nothing.

At this moment. I was hoping all of that would eventually change.

:*: :*: :*: :*: :*: :*: :*: :*: :*: :*:

It had been nearly a week since I made my "I like Hermione" revelation… And I had done diddly-squat about it. Needless to say, I was scared out of my wits. Imagine that! Fred Weasley, afraid. I was never afraid of anything. Take all the jokes I've ever pulled. Never once was I worried about the results of those. I was nervous, yes, but never afraid.

But I was scared sh!t less about the prospect of getting shot down by Hermione so I acted as if nothing was amiss and just secretly pined away for her from across the breakfast table.

"Fred!" the aforementioned Hermione screeched at me one morning.

"What?" I said groggily. She had woken me up.

"Fred!" Hermione repeated. "You 'Zonko's' interview is in twenty minutes!"

I popped out of bed in an uncanny impression of a Prairie Dog.

"Fif – fifteen minutes?!" I asked.

"Get up!" she said. "Get up, get dressed, and get to Zonko's!"

I quickly threw on my "Interview Outfit:" khakis and a blue plaid button down. I looked pretty nice if I do say so myself.

I realized as I was trying to find my button down that I had just changed in front of Hermione and was currently shirtless in front of crimson-faced Hermione.

"S-s-s-sorry," I stuttered, finally finding my shirt and throwing it on.

Hermione nodded and was looking at the floor.

"Are you going to wait for me in the 'Three Broomsticks?'" I asked, breaking the awkward silence.

"Of course," she responded. I noticed every time she looked at me, her eyes quickly snuck a look at my chest (which of course was now covered) before resettling at my eyes. It was quite amusing actually.

"Where's everyone else?" I asked, realizing that the house was empty.

"Oh," Hermione said, fixing some toast. "Ron forgot a few things he needed at Diagon Alley, so your mother took him, Harry and Ginny to get them. And Charlie had to go back to Romania and George is working."

I nodded and Hermione placed the toast in front of me.

"Thanks," I said, surprised.

"Your welcome," Hermione said, smiling at me and sitting down. "Now eat quickly. We have ten minutes!"
I quickly scarfed down my toast and glass of orange juice and we proceeded to the fire. We were traveling by Floo Powder.

"Floo?" Hermione said apprehensively.

"Yeah," I replied. "Is that a problem?"

"Well, it's just I've never traveled byfloopowderbefore," Hermione said quickly.

"What?" I asked, smiling. I knew what she said, but I was just having fun.

"I've never," she paused, "traveled by Floo before."

"It's not hard," I replied, "You just take a bit of powder and – "

"I know the idea of Floo Powder. I've just never done it before."

"Are you scared?" I asked, teasing.

Hermione was silent and looked away.

"You are scared," I said, trying not laugh. It's not nice to laugh at girls you want to become your girlfriend.

"Look," I said, "it's fine. Take my hand, we'll do it together."

I put out my hand and she grasped it tightly.

"Hold on," I said.

I threw in Floo Powder and called out "Hogsmeade!" and we were traveling quickly through the Floo Network and in less than five seconds, we stumbled out of the Floo Transport Stop in Hogsmeade.

I got out and kept holding Hermione's hand as she took a shaky step out of the fireplace. She stumbled and fell into my arms. I liked that feeling.

"Sorry," she apologized quickly.

I shrugged and smiled at her. She looked at her watch.

"Quickly! Go!" she yelled.

I reluctantly released her and turned and sprinted to Zonko's.

"Hello!" said a cheery register worker.

"Hello," I said, placing my hand out to shake hers, "I'm Fred Weasley. I have an interview for a job opening?"

"Ah," said the women, consulting a paper. "Yes. Right then. Right that way," she said, pointing to a back room door.

"Ah!" said a middle-aged witch. "Welcome. My name is Celia Zonko. You must be Fred Weasley?"

"Yes, how are you?"
"Quite good," Celia replied. "School is starting up so students are coming in to stock up."

"That's what I used to do," I said with a laugh. Oops. I was supposed to be formal.

"Really? You use our products?"

"Uh… yeah… Quite a lot, actually," I said, embarrassed.

"So you must know a lot about our product line, then?" Celia asked.

"Yes, actually," I answered.

"Good. You know how to work most of our products?"

"Yes."

"Very good. How about how to make them?" Celia obviously thought that was a hard question.

"Actually, yes. My brother George and I have been inventing products since our sixth year."

"Quite interesting…" Celia said, writing a few things down on a piece of paper and then examining my Application Parchment.

She read everything and kept rereading things for what seemed like hours. It was actually only about five minutes, but I was nervous, so time seemed to go a lot slower.

"Well," Celia said finally. I felt my heart pound faster.

"I've read over you application and I've decided that – " I held my breath. "You would be a perfect acquisition to the 'Zonko's Joke Shop' team. Welcome aboard, Fred."

I was stunned.

"Wh-what? Just like that?" I asked, shocked. "I'm hired? I have a job!?"

"Yes," Celia said, smiling.

"Thank you!" I said happily, shaking her hand exuberantly.

"You're very welcome. Expect an owl later this week holding your work hours, uniform, and a few parchments for you to sign."

"Thank you!" was all I could say.

She showed me out of the store and I practically skipped to the "Three Broomsticks" to meet up with Hermione.

"Fred!" Hermione said happily, seeing my big smile.

"I did it! I am the newest 'acquisition to the 'Zonko's Joke Shop' team!'" I said excitedly.

"Fred, that's wonderful!" Hermione said as she stood up and hugged me.

We did that excited hugging/hopping things you see when people are very happy and excited.

"Congratulations," Hermione said as we sat down and ordered some Butter beer.

"Thanks," I responded. "Not just for the congratulations, but for helping me get through this whole ordeal."

"It was nothing. That's what friends are for." Hermione smiled.

We're friends! I thought happily. Yes! She liked me. Yeah, not the exact way I wanted her to, but it was a start.

We sat in the "Three Broomsticks" for about an hour, just talking about everything, but focusing mainly on the impending school year Hermione was facing.

"You want to know something extremely serious, Fred?" Hermione said.

"Why not?"

"I don't want to go back to Hogwarts," she stated.

"What?" I said, shocked. "Why?"

"Well… never mind," Hermione said. "It's stupid."

"Nothing you say could be stupid," I said seriously.

Hermione looked t me and smiled that wonderful smile of hers that made my heart beat so fast I'm sure she could hear it.

"Well," Hermione finally said, "I'm scared to."

"Why?"

"Because of, well, you know…"

I shook my head, confused.

"You-Know-Who," she whispered.

"Oh," was my intelligent response.

"Every year, he's tried to hurt Harry and everyone around him. The wizarding world in general. Yes, I know he's failed every time," she added, seeing as I was about to say just that. "But I'm scared that his bad luck is going to run out."

"The Good side is working day-in, day-out to prevent that from happening," I said, placing a comforting arm around her shoulder. "You'll be fine."

"I really want to think that," she said, fear in her voice. "But I've thought that every year and every year something terrible has happened."

I really didn't know how to respond to that because, well, it was true.

"Hermione," I said, "Yes, every year He's tried to do something horrible, but every year, he's been thwarted. You'll be perfectly safe at Hogwarts."

I hoped that that was comforting enough because it's hard to comfort someone about something you fear as well.

"And," I added, "If you're ever so scared that you need someone to talk to, I'll be here. Even though you have Harry and Ron."

"Thank you," Hermione said sincerely.

I should mention at this point that we spent another good ten minutes just sitting in silence… WITH MY ARM AROUND HER! It's not that I was thinking, Oh yeah, I'm a stud. I've got my arm around her… Well, not at first…

Anyways, I just didn't notice that I still had my arm around her because it felt so… as clichéd as it's going to sound… it felt right. And nice. I liked having Hermione in my arms.

"Oh," Hermione said suddenly. I whipped my arm away.

"What?"

"Look at the time," she said. "Your mum wanted us home around three."

"Well, we better get going," I replied.

"You ready for the impending party?" Hermione asked as we walked to Floo Transport Spot.

"Knowing my luck as the 'Other Son,'" I said, "there will be no party. Or something will happen that it will overshadow it all."

"Don't say things like that."

"Hey, it's true," I answered.

I realized how right I was when we stumbled out the fireplace a matter of seconds later.

George was pacing through the kitchen, a horrified look on his face.

"George?" I asked, worried. "What's wrong, why aren't you at work?"

George looked at me with red eyes. He's been crying, I thought.

"Mum and them went to Diagon Alley and…" George stopped.

"What?" Hermione asked fearfully.

"They… they got into Diagon Alley somehow… No one can figure it out yet… and… it's horrible…"

"Wait," I said, confused and scared. "Who got into Diagon Alley? Ron and them?"

George looked at me again and said in a hollow, dead sort of voice:

"Death Eaters."

A/N: Ooh, cliffhanger. But I'm not evil and I'll post the next chapter at the same time. I've gotten a sudden brainstorm and… yeah.