Author's note
Hey there everyone! I hope you're safe and well wherever you are.
Here's the second chapter of the day! I hope you enjoy reading it and please do say hi in the comments/leave me a review if you can - I dearly love to hear from you.
With love,
Wishin' Girl x x x
...
Fred returned to his flat after finishing setting up Hermione's bookshelves on Wednesday evening even more full of self loathing than he had been that morning, and considering how much he had despised himself earlier on, that was quite some achievement. He had been too close to kissing her and almost ruined their friendship forever. He still might have ruined it anyway but he dearly hoped that it was at least partially salvageable. He couldn't bear not having her in his life. He had left flowers and wine in the hope it would help but, being honest with himself, he would have left those anyway because she loved them and he loved to make her happy.
The next day however he came home from work to find her owl perched on his windowsill. His heart slammed against his ribcage in a mixture of delight and fear as he rushed across the room to retrieve the note.
Fred,
Of course we're still friends. Just please don't do that again, you're marrying someone else.
Thank you for the shelves, I love them. You really are very talented.
Your Mione x
From the second he had read that message in her delicately messy handwriting he had wallowed hard, to the extent that, a week and a half later, George had to send him home from an exceptionally busy and packed shop because his twin was so forlorn that he was damaging business. News of this depressed Fred, of course, made its way back through the Weasley gossip vine to the family matriarch by the end of the family's Sunday dinner, from which Fred was yet again missing, the following day.
"Frederick Weasley!" Molly shouted as she stormed into the flat above number ninety three Diagon Alley.
"Shit." Fred muttered darkly under his breath from his duvet nest.
"Get out of bed, get yourself up and stop moping." She instructed fiercely. "I do not know why you are being so dramatic and haven't been coming to family dinners but tomorrow is the summer solstice and I expect full attendance. That includes you Fred. No excuses whatsoever."
Molly turned and swanned out again, waving her wand to set cleaning and laundry going as she left.
"Oh and Fred dear, do dress up nice for it won't you." She added a moment before slamming the front door behind her.
…
Fred was feeling grouchy.
It was Monday 21st June, the day of the Summer Solstice, he had had a long day at the shop and now he was getting ready for the party at his parents' home with all of his family, except Ginny who had another week of exams left at school, and numerous family friends from the order or his family members various work places. He had showered for as long as he could get away with to postpone his arrival at the burrow and now slipped on a freshly ironed pastel blue button up shirt and let it hang loose above his smart grey shorts. After fiddling with his hair yet again in the mirror to make sure it looked deliberately messy rather than simply unkempt, he finally left the security of his flat and walked out to the nearest apparition point in Diagon Alley.
The sounds of noisy chatter and music blaring from Lee Jordan's magical speakers filled his ears the instant he landed on the edge of the wards and it was these sounds that he followed through the leafy orchard and around the teetering house to be met with the sight of a proper Weasley celebration.
A dancefloor larger than the footprint of the ground floor of the whole house was laid out with hundreds of glittering candles floating around it. To one side of the dance floor Lee's vast collection of magically altered muggle speakers were set up and on the other was an elongated table heavily laden with every kind of party food and pudding imaginable. Crates were piled at each end filled to overflowing with bottles of butterbeer, elf made wine and even a few bottles of Phoenix Tears and Ogden's finest. Even more drinks were being added by the minute as guests brought their offerings of both magical and muggle beverages and Fred thought he might just get through tonight after all.
The thing that made it a real Weasley party though was the sheer volume of people attending. Well over a hundred wizards and witches mingled around, eagerly helping themselves to Molly's fine cooking, chatting away amicably and dancing merrily to the music of the Weird Sisters whose songs were currently billowing out across the lawn.
"Freddie you came!" Angelina squealed in delight as she leapt as her fiance's twin, her new engagement ring glinting prettily in the summer sun.
The evening soon turned to night as the party got well underway and Fred had spent most of his time wistfully watching Hermione from a distance as she partied with her own friends. The way she danced so freely with her school friends, her hands twisting delicately in the air and her laughter escaping her rosy lips stirred Fred's heart and soul that he became intoxicated with her and wondered if he would ever be able to drag his eyes from the beautiful vision even if he tried. Brushing off yet another encouragement from his twin to just go ask her to dance he went to find himself another drink when he bumped into Ron doing the same.
"Good night?" Ron asked his brother while gathering another round of butter beers in his arms.
"Mhmm, you?" Came Fred's non committal reply as he emptied a bottle of rum into his glass.
"Oh great idea! Spin the bottle truth or dare, I'll grab the others and we'll join you lot over by the fire pit in a mo." Ron beamed excitedly and hurried off before Fred could even begin to say that wasn't what he had planned.
So by the time the light was becoming dim enough for a few silvery stars to slowly peek out of the indigo blanket above, Fred found that himself, George, Angelina, Lee, Alicia (who was now platonically engaged to Lee), Katie and Verity had been joined by Hermione, Harry, Ron, Neville, Hannah (Neville's now fiancee and girlfriend of almost a year), Dean and Seamus around the crackling fire pit. Hermione set the empty bottle floating high enough above the flames to be safe and Ron set it spinning with a carefree flick. It was clear to anyone that the pair of best friends were still so effortlessly in tune with one another. No wonder so many people had expected them to couple up.
"Katie" the youngest Weasley brother announced when it slowly stopped spinning pointing at her "truth or dare?"
The game soon drew out some hilarious stories of the twins standing on each other shoulders as children pretending to be their dad in order to buy fireworks at the muggle village shop and dares which saw Dean licking the entire length of Verity's leg as he deemed her to be 'the person around the fire with the best legs'. Laughter rolled freely and Fred forgot completely about drinking and how incredibly sober he was gradually becoming until, well after dawn had risen, a much less sober George spun the bottle and it landed on him.
"Dare." Fred decided without even needing to be asked, knowing full well that of anyone around the table George could destroy him with a single truth question.
"I dare you" he began with a smug grin as wide as the Cheshire cat's "to snog the person you actually want to marry."
A beat of tense silence followed as the twin's stared into each other's eyes, George's gaze triumphant while Fred's looked simply murderous.
"I can't." Fred finally declared, left his still full glass where it had been abandoned on the grass and legged it back to the edge of the wards, calling his thanks to his parents as he passed them and apparating back to Diagon Alley ready to open the shop a few hours later.
…
Later that morning Hermione secretly cried herself to sleep having already booked the day off work to recover from the solstice party. She had misunderstood Fred's response and taken it to mean that he did actually want to marry Gloria, that the almost kiss between them really had been a silly drunken mistake by an engaged man.
