Author's Note
It's the last day (Day twelve) of Merry Almost Christmas! I hope you all enjoyed the updates to all my stories and that you have a wonderful festive time!
Love,
Wishin' Girl x x x
p.s. I really do love hearing from you so please do leave a review/comment/message to say hi and that you're still reading to make my day...
...
George and Ginny set out their plans to get the pair together, after George had spent at least half an hour detailing quite how deeply Fred was in love with Hermione, even though Fred called it a 'little crush'. Ginny had noticed the way her fiance's best friend acted differently around Fred too and she was sure that if Fred really did love Hermione as much as George said he did then they would work wonderfully as a married couple regardless of the law. Plus, with the law in place, neither pf them could bear to see Fred bonded to another woman when it would pain both Hermione and him so much.
Since Ginny had to get back to Hogwarts before her absence was noticed, she leapt into the floo back to Honeydukes while George left the shop in Lee's capable hands and went upstairs to talk to his twin.
"Oh hello daydreamer" he greeted noisily as he barged through his twin's locking charms on the flat's door "what are we thinking about, hey?"
Fred simply grunted and topped up his mug of rum again, his eyes never leaving the door to Flourish and Blotts as George settled himself on the arm of the chair and followed his line of sight.
"We thinking of a bookworm are we?" George's tone was teasing but his eyes held a depth of sadness that his brother didn't see "why don't you just go see her? Talk to her. Tell her how you feel."
A long silence followed, broken only by the hoot of an owl passing by on its way to the post office.
"Ask her to marry you." George finally said.
"No." That got Fred's attention. "No way. She should say no because she doesn't feel about me like that, but she wouldn't because she so damn kind that she'd say yes just to save me from having to marry some stranger."
"So what's wrong with that? You'd be happy and you'd look after her damn well and - " George pointed out but was interrupted by the smashing of Fred's mug as it hit the opposite wall, spraying alcohol and broken pieces of ceramics all around the impact point.
"No." Came Fred's firm but simple reply and he stood up and left.
…
George didn't know where Fred had gone but he camped out in his old room of the flat until Fred came crawling home at midnight. His twin wouldn't speak to him that night though, nor would he talk to him during their time at the shop in the following days at work or any other time George tried for a whole week.
So, with Ginny's help the following Wednesday, which also just so happened to be the day before Fred would find out his ministry allocated wife's details, George created some unstoppable dungbombs. He had been working on these for a long while and finally come up with a product that even Hermione couldn't counter the effects of.
Handing a bagful to Ginny and taking a bagful himself George crept up to the flat's doorway and waited patiently until he heard the thudding of Fred's footsteps leaving his place in the window and heading into the bathroom. When the small click of the bathroom door locking sounded George quickly cast the necessary unlocking charms and snuck into the flat, he cast a bubble body charm on himself to prevent the smell attaching itself to his skin, hair or clothes and began depositing and setting off the dungbombs all over the place before disillusioning them and darting back out the door just as Fred reentered the living area.
The bellowed swearing could be heard all the way down on the shop's ground floor as George crackled with laughter.
…
"Mum!" Fred's voice called out as he stormed into the kitchen at the burrow where Molly was making a casserole for her and Arthur's dinner "Can I stay here tonight please? George dungbombed the flat."
"Of course dear, you're always welcome at home." Molly beamed at her son and enveloped him in an iron strong hug "I've missed you."
Fred hadn't seen his parents for a month, since the day the marriage law letters had arrived, and they had both been thoroughly worried about their only unattached son in the wake of the news.
"How can I help with dinner?" Fred asked kindly after hugging his mother back warmly, he already felt a little better from the love it gave him.
"Well I'll need some more vegetables for this casserole if there's another mouth to feed" Molly said, bustling back into her usual confident self "pull up a few more carrots and another onion then gather some tomatoes, one aubergine and few courgettes please. I'll make extra so you can take a batch home with you tomorrow too."
It was a very good thing that she had decided to make extra, Molly thought, as while Fred was outside getting muddy from harvesting an armful of fresh home grown veg the floo flared and in came a fuming Hermione.
"Molly," Hermione called out as she barrelled into the kitchen, her hair crackling wildly "please may I sleep here tonight? Someone's dungbombed my apartment."
Stifling a laugh at the coincidence, and heavily suspecting some meddling from one or more of her supposedly grown up children, Molly nodded and ushered Hermione upstairs to shower and wash off the dungbomb smell. Hermione was highly intelligent but she hadn't grown up as a Weasley twin and therefore hadn't noticed the distinct hints that dungbombs were about in time to cast a bubble body charm to protect herself like Fred had.
Dumping her work clothes into the magical smell proof laundry basket in the burrow's main bathroom Hermione layed out the spare clothes she always carried with her, a hangover from being on the run in the war, and jumped into the steaming hot shower. It felt delightful to have the almost scalding streams from the rainfall shower washing off the stresses and worries of her day as the homemade coconut soap cut through the stench of dungbombs like a blade through melted butter. Ten minutes later she was climbing back out of the shower and wandering over to grab her fluffy blue towel hanging on the back of the bathroom door.
Fred brought in the vegetables feeling a lot less sullen than he had felt that morning, the combination of his mother's hug, the warm summer sunshine and a little exertion from working the ground around the whole veg patch while he was out collecting the few requested ingredients had lifted his spirits. So, now thoroughly muddy from the extra work he had done in the garden Fred dropped the vegetables into the kitchen sink and dashed upstairs to shower while his mother was distracted making dumplings.
Unaware that Hermione had also turned up Fred took the wooden stairs two at a time, pulling off his dirty t-shirt as he went, eager to get under a cool shower.
He reached the bathroom door and wrenched it open without even considering the possibility that someone could be inside unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, Hermione hadn't opted to lock the bathroom, being out of the habit of doing so from living on her own and thinking that it was only Molly in the house. Which all resulted in a topless, muddy Fred colliding with a wet, naked Hermione as she reached for her towel on the back of the now open bathroom door.
