Author's Note

Happy day eight of Merry Almost Christmas!

Love,

Wishin' Girl x x x

...

"You'll get cold if you're out here much longer" a sweet voice called over the wind.

Fred was sat on a rock on the edge of a particularly tall cliff, swinging his legs back and forth watching the sailing boats in the distance when he heard her. Putting it down to wishful thinking and his mind playing tricks on him he ignored it at first.

"Come on Freddie, your mum's serving up dinner and your twin sent me to fetch you before anyone else notices you're missing." Hermione's voice was closer now and her warm hands came to rest on his shoulders "Please."

Fred had been thinking of that voice and the women who it belonged to since beginning his walk, it wasn't a surprise really as she was usually on his mind and this path, this rock in particular, had been one of their favourite places to go together when they had both been recovering from the physical and mental scars left by the war. The string around his left wrist which he was still playing with matched the friendship bracelet around her own. They had made them for each other over six months earlier when they spent most days together, healing from the after effects of the war and growing closer day by day until they were more themselves with each other than even when they were alone.

So it turned out that Charlie had been secretly dating Oliver Wood, Fred's ex-Gryffindor quidditch Captain, for three years. Oliver would stay at Charlie's cabin on the reserve during the off season, practising his flying and helping out with the dragons by tracking them through the surrounding forests and logging any signs of poachers, then Charlie would visit him in Britain for as many of his Puddlemere United games that Charlie could get off work. The international portkeys cost a fortune but as a first string keeper for a major quidditch team and a dragon keeper who was paid more each year than most wizards and witches would earn in a lifetime, it wasn't such a deal breaker as it could have been otherwise.

Charlie however, was already in the process of setting up a hatchling reserve closer to home so that he and Oliver wouldn't have to travel so far and so that he could see his family more often without the truth about his relationship slipping out. The dragon was out of the bag now though and the whole family was elated to hear that Charlie's plans to set up the reserve would come to fruition within the next month or so. He already had reserves around the world housing eggs they had rescued from poachers and from empty nests once the mothers were slaughtered for their body parts, all grateful to Charlie and his hand selected team for offering to take them until they grew to toddlers and then return them to their own climates to learn how to hunt from their own kind, once they would be old enough to fend for themselves.

He had already purchased a large portion of land on the Isle of Wight just off the south coats of England, most of the land mass of the island really, and hidden it from muggle knowledge so that the muggles believed the island to be less than a quarter of the size it really was. A small team of experts Charlie had worked with and identified around the world would be arriving in three weeks time with the first generation of eggs ready to raise and Oliver would be moving in with Charlie as it was just a short hop across the bay to Dorset where Puddlemere United trained and played their home matches.

Fred had a much better night than he had anticipated thanks to his elation for his second eldest brother's news but he was forcefully reminded of his new marriage requirements when he picked up the letter on his way out at the end of the night. So on his way home alone to the flat he 'shared' with George, who actually spent the vast majority of his time and nights at Angelina's place instead, Fred stopped at the little shop on the corner of Diagon and Knockturn Alleys which was open all the time to refill his stock of Ogden's finest whiskey and to grab several bottles of cheap Phoenix tears rum so that he didn't drink himself bankrupt before he even found out his what ministry appointed wife's name would be.

It was a Wednesday morning three weeks after the letters had arrived and Fred was on his day off. He had slept in late, dreaming of the other side of the bed being filled with Hermione's warm body and then trying to imagine someone else lying there instead. He hated that idea. So he dragged himself out of bed, showered, dressed in shorts and a t-shirt and went in search of breakfast.

"This'll do." He said to himself as he filled a large coffee mug with cheap, burning rum in place of his first meal of the day and wandered back through the open plan living area to the armchair he had set up in the bay window overlooking Diagon Alley.

He sat and watched the handful of midweek shoppers meander up and down the cobblestone lane purchasing their potions ingredients from Pristine Potion Parts, protective enchantments from Araminta's Amulets, beauty products from Madam Primpernelle's and their books from Flourish and Blotts. His eyes lingered on the doorway to the bookshop for hours as he summoned and topped up his drink again and again, hoping and wishing that that familiar head of brown curls would appear just so that he could catch a glimpse of her even from a distance.

Fred had avoided all family dinners since the day the letters arrived and kept the flat's floo closed so hadn't seen her or his family in a while. George had offered some excuse every time for him about a mild injury from product testing gone wrong, that the shop desperately needing something doing or pretending Fred was coming down with an unspecified sickness that was bad enough for him to miss the meal but not so bad that Molly would need to go and care for her son. Everyone saw straight through the excuses though as they all knew he would be the only one forced into a ministry match following the implementation of the Love Law.

Percy had spent every spare second he had at work searching through tomes and files in the vain hope of finding a loophole for his brother. Similarly Arthur spent much of his non-working time at the ministry talking to colleagues from all departments to see if there was a way to get one of his children exempt but neither one had had any level of success.

So intent on watching the entrance to his crush's favourite shop was Fred that he missed the swish of long, fire red hair entering the shop below.

"So what are we going to do?" Ginny demanded, settling herself on the till's counter cross legged and staring expectantly at George.

"Why aren't you at school right now Gin Gin?" He asked with a hypocritical disapproving raise of his eyebrows.

"I have a double free." She shrugged and pursued her topic of conversation ignoring the fact that she should still be on the school grounds. "What are we going to do about Fred?"

Sensing that it would be a losing battle to comment further on his little sister sneaking out of school midweek just before her NEWT exams George sighed and relented.

"I don't know Gin. He's not in a good way, he throws himself into the shop work and creation but whenever he's not at work he drinks alone in the middle of the day staring off into space for hours on end." George flopped down onto the floor and leaned back against the shelves opposite the tills.

"Is it the not knowing who it'll be or the having to marry a stranger or the having to get married at all?" Ginny pursued.

"I know of one person he would love to marry" George scoffed under his breath, slightly louder than he had intended.

"Who!?" Ginny leapt in excitement, she knew her brother hadn't meant to say it loud enough for her to hear but if she could find a match the other twin would be happy with then she would definitely take this advantage.

"Urgh" George sighed and dropped his face into his hands "he says she doesn't feel the same and everything but I've seen the way she notices when he's not around and the way she lights up at his jokes. It might only be the tiniest of changes in her demeanour but it's still something and I know she would say yes if he asked her to save him."

"WHO!?" Ginny demanded even more loudly.

"Hermione Granger."