Chapter 2
Fred blinked, shaking his head to clear it. No, that wouldn't do. Too far back. He closed his eyes and remembered the time he first realised he fancied her. Yes, that was more interesting.
ooo
It was a few months, or something, after seeing Hermione in the joke shop. It was the summer holidays for Hermione, and she was staying at the Burrow for a week. She was already starting on her course work for seventh year, which bugged Fred to no end. She didn't seem to know how to relax and have a good time.
"Well, if it isn't the lovely Miss Granger," he said as he sat next to her at the kitchen table.
"If I said it isn't will you leave me alone?" she asked, her fingers twitching spasmodically around her quill. Fred shook his head.
"No, because I can't keep this to myself any longer," he said, looking toward the ceiling. It had a funny pink stain on it, he noticed. He wondered why he hadn't seen it before, and went on to wonder where it came from. Maybe from that one experiment, with the…yes, that was it. Why hadn't that worked again? Too much hair of pepperfink? Something of the sort, surely. He should dig it up again, see if it still worked…
Hermione coughed, and Fred looked back down. She looked at him pointedly.
"Ah, right. Like I was saying, I can't keep this to myself any longer. Hermione Granger, you are-" he paused. Hermione looked at him with a guarded expression. The pause drew out longer, and longer. Hermione coughed again. "-I forgot," Fred finished anti-climactically. "I had a great line, but I lost it. I think it had something to do with your hair. See, it has this little curl in it kind of by your ear."
That was the moment. When he forgot what he was going to say and he noticed that little curl. Her hair was more bushy and wavy, but every once in awhile a piece would do a twist. He reached out, pulled it, and let it go. It sprang back in to place.
"Fred Weasley, stop playing with my hair!" Hermione said, looking like she was either amused or annoyed. It was hard to tell sometimes. She muttered something and shook her head.
Her head full of that hair. It wasn't gorgeous hair, stylish hair, or even manageable hair, but it had a certain quality. Kind of…fluffy. Yes, certainly fluffy, like you could stuff a pillow with it. Not that he wanted a Hermione hair pillow; that would be disturbing and slightly gross.
Fred jerked back to the present realising that he hadn't heard a word she just said. He decided that it probably wasn't particularly important; she would have made sure she had his attention if it was. He decided to be as straightforward with his newfound feelings as possible about it.
"Hermione dunno-what-your-middle-name-is Granger, you have fluffy hair with a little curl in it, you're intelligent, and you're funny when you get mad, so would you like to go on a date?"
She looked at him. It wasn't a stare, or even a gape, more of an appraising look.
"Hm," she said.
ooo
Hermione stood up and started walking towards the village. She was still in shock that Fred had asked her to marry him. Did she really mean that much to him? Had she ever? As she walked she thought back to the time when he first made his feelings known.
ooo
It was two months after seeing Fred at that shop of his, and two months since Ron had got his comeuppance. He had apologised awfully quickly after he realised who kept tampering with his food.
Now Hermione was sitting at her favourite chair in the Burrow's kitchen, -it was painted bright blue with a comfort charm placed on it-, working on her homework for next year. It was never too early to start working, and this particular chapter in her Charms book fascinated her.
Normally Charms wasn't her favourite subject, she preferred the more difficult magics like Transfiguration, but this was positively captivating. Her fingers itched to try out the spell, but she wouldn't be of legal age for another two months or so. She contented herself with practicing the wrist movements under the table and muttering the incantations.
As she jotted down some notes someone sat next to her. She looked up, annoyed that someone would dare interrupt her work. Most Weasleys had learned better than that.
"Well, if it isn't the lovely Miss Granger." Oh. Fred. She picked up her quill again, hoping that he would take the hint and leave. He wasn't very good with these hints; subtlety obviously wasn't his strong point.
"If I said it isn't will you leave me alone?" she asked, gripping the quill more tightly to try and make the hint more obvious. He shook his head. No, of course he wouldn't leave. That would be too easy. Maybe a nice hex…curses, still not of age. Stupid wizarding laws.
"No, because I can't keep this to myself any longer," he said. Then he looked up. And kept looking up. Hermione glanced upwards too, but didn't notice anything unusual. There was a bit of a stain, but that wasn't particularly out of the ordinary in the Burrow; it was covered with the remnants of spells that went awry.
She coughed, hoping that that was a good enough hint. The sudden noise seemed to jerk him out of his train of thought. That is, of course, if he had been thinking. She had a sinking suspicion that the Weasley twins shared a brain, and only one could think at a time…no, she didn't think that at all, that was just her annoyance at getting interrupted talking. The twins were actually quite intelligent. She shook her head to clear it slightly, and looked at him pointedly.
"Ah, right. Like I was saying, I can't keep this to myself any longer. Hermione Granger, you are-" he paused. Hermione took a deep breath. She braced herself, thinking that this was probably going to be one of those 'know-it-all bookworm' comments. They didn't bug her as much as they used to, but she thought they were dreadfully unoriginal.
As she sat there, the pause drawing out longer and longer, Hermione absentmindedly admired Fred. A girl was surely allowed to admire the scenery, after all. He was slightly muscled, -the remnants of his Quidditch days, she supposed-, but had gotten slightly paler and more lean after he left Hogwarts. He probably didn't play as much Quidditch now that he was working full time. At least he wasn't too dratted thin, like those Seekers. She couldn't imagine one of them being overly muscled, Diggory having been an exception; the only work out they got on the field was holding on to their brooms and snatching at the air.
Hermione coughed again, as much to focus herself as it was for Fred. She wanted to hear what he had to say. "-I forgot," Fred finished. Oh. Well, no surprises there. "I had a great line, but I lost it. I think it had something to do with your hair. See, it has this little curl in it kind of by your ear."
Hermione fought the urge to smile; there was something infectious about Fred's attitude. It was nice to know that someone in this hectic world would stop and notice the little things, even if those little things happened to be curly bits of hair. Of course, she had always known thatthe twins had that quality, but there was something nice about being reminded of it. Then he reached out, pulled the piece of hair back, and let it go.
"Fred Weasley, stop playing with my hair!" she said, still amused. He did, looking at her with a sort of hazy expression. She continued.
"Well, I don't particularly mind, but it might get even more unmanageable. You see, my hair can't decide whether it's wavy or curly, so it just puffs out a bit. Terribly annoying; I wish it would just pick something and go with it. It's worse when it curls more, everything frizzes out more then; it does that especially after a light rain." Hermione realised that she was babbling, but Fred didn't seem to mind. He almost looked interested. She opened her mouth, about to tell him something else about her hair (she hadn't decided what yet) when he spoke.
"Hermione dunno-what-your-middle-name-is Granger, you have fluffy hair with a little curl in it, you're intelligent, and you're funny when you get mad, so would you like to go on a date?"
Hermione looked at him. She was surprised; she hadn't expected that at all. It certainly hadn't been on her list of things to think about. Then again, she wasn't completely averse to the idea.
"Hm," she said. "Alright then."
A/N: Again, I won't bother with excuses. I don't think this was my best work, but I wanted to crank something out before I left for the other side of the country, which I'mdoing in about an hour.When I get back I'll have a few days before I leave again, and I'll try and catch up all the chapters of Glitternewts. I'll alsowork at getting more chapters done. Well, review please?
