Fred hurt.

He really hurt. His whole body ached more than it ever had before, every muscle felt as heavy as lead refusing to even twitch despite his best efforts. Scorching pain seared through his body emanating from his head which throbbed angrily in an almost overwhelming, it felt like knives of ice and fire were scraping along his bones with each painful throb of his head.

However Fred Weasley didn't mind as much as you would expected him to because he only got a few moments like this at a time and each time it happened he regained at least some of his senses, his vision was a different shade of red or orange than the drowning abyss and he relished in the snippets of voices he heard around him. Between these torturous moments there was only a wasteland of numbness, emptiness and loneliness. He found it hard to follow what the voices were saying but today, for the first time in what felt like an eternity, he could pick out at least a few words.

"Lavender… Forget-me-nots… Beautiful…" he heard the one voice he was most desperate to hear again, it spoke softly from one side for a fleeting moment before he was once again claimed by the all consuming darkness.

This was the first time he had heard her voice since this cycle of pain and emptiness had begun and as he wandered aimlessly through the desolate wasteland it triggered his mind to replay a memory for him so vividly that it felt like he was watching it back in a pensieve.

"Gryffindor!" the sorting hat had exclaimed from atop a bushy head of brown hair.

The young girl whose hair it was leapt up in a bundle of hope, nerves and excitement, darted over to the Gryffindor table and sat down beside him.

"I'm Hermione Granger" she introduced herself to all those within reach, shaking each of their hands in turn as quickly as possible before the next name was called at the front of the hall.

Fred had been enchanted by her no-nonsense attitude and the excited glitter of her eyes, so he spent the rest of the welcome feast messing around in the hopes of catching her attention.

"What was that all about?" George demanded, pulling Fred into a secret passageway when they made their way up to Gryffindor tower following the end of the feast.

"What was what?" Fred was utterly useless at lying to his twin but it didn't stop him trying to avoid the question.

"You were acting like a five year old with a crush!" George snapped "We have a reputation to uphold, we're the kings of this school now Charlie's graduated and you better start acting like it!"

From then on Fred tried to avoid the bushy haired first year, he really did but after returning to the common room well after curfew at the end of the first week to find her curled up in front of the fire in tears he and George both knew he wouldn't be able to keep it up.

"Hey Hermione, what's wrong?" Fred wrapped a long arm around her as he slumped down next to the tearful girl on the floor and lent back against the scarlet sofa.

"It's alright, you can tell us anything" his twin added with a kindness shining through his voice that was rare to hear from either prankster.

Hermione sniffed and shook her head so the pair just sat quietly beside her, watching the dying embers of the fire until she was ready to talk.

"I just… I just don't think I belong here" she whispered a while later.

"What makes you say that love?" Fred asked with a squeeze of her shoulders.

"No one will be friends with me" she sniffed as more tears escaped down her cheeks.

"We'll be your friends Hermione" George said quickly as he snuggled up to her other side so she was sandwiched between the identical redheads.

Fred smiled gratefully at his twin over her bowed head.

"You don't have to say that" Hermione said, ducking her head to hide the hope in her small smile.

"Of course we don't have to, but we want to" Fred soothed "besides we heard that you're by far the cleverest first year and there's a lot of cleverness that goes into our pranks. I think we'll get along brilliantly!"

The memory faded into nothingness and Fred was once again left alone.

...

"I'm really confused Fred" Hermione's voice reached him as the pain seeped back into his body but he barely registered it when focusing on the tearful cracking of the familiar voice "the war's over why don't I feel better yet…"

"It's not going to work" Hermione's singing voice cut through the loud chatter in the hall and immediately caught Fred's attention

"Oh yeah?" he smirked at his favourite witch currently sat on a bench trying to read, why was she always reading and why did he find it so sexy when she was?

"And why is that Granger?" George asked jumping to her other side, he had long ago taken up the mantle of helping his twin to not embarrass himself in front of his long term crush.

"You see this? This is an Age Line. Dumbledore drew it himself." Hermione waved her hand at the glowing line encircling the goblet of fire to illustrate her point.

"So?" Fred asked deliberately infuriatingly, he loved to get a rise out of her and maybe she would even tell him off or put her hands so perfectly on her hips.

"So…" She slammed her book closed and Fred grinned at his success "a genius like Dumbledore couldn't possibly be fooled by a dodge as pathetically dimwitted as an Ageing Potion."

"But that's why it's so brilliant" Fred stated happily.

"Because it's so pathetically dimwitted." His twin finished "Ready, Fred?"

"Ready, George." Fred clinked his potion with George's.

"Bottoms up" they announced together downing the potions barely a second before leaping over the age line.

All of the room's occupants, except for Hermione, cheered loudly as the twins threw their names into the goblet but she just went back to reading as though there were no-one else there at all. She didn't even react much more than rolling her eyes when the twins grew long grey beards, were thrown across the room and started wrestling over the failure of their plan.

Fred was desperate for her attention. So from that point on he made sure that she was always the one to catch him going against the rules so that he could draw a scolding from her and maybe even draw the very sexy signature hands-on-hips pose that would later be used in her prefect role. He continued to be the one to wrap her up in a blanket when she got distracted reading late into the summer evenings at the burrow, eliciting a quiet thank you from her every time. He would join her at her favourite table hidden deep in the library and quietly study how to make the next product idea beside her, just to be rewarded with small smiles that were only for him in their secluded corner of the library.

...

When the pain returned, Fred had no idea how long it had been between his periods of awareness but he heard his twins voice seeping through the orange glow

"Sweets that make you levitate… great idea, thanks Mione…"

His twins words were followed by her soft laughter and his mind slipped away again into another memory as he imagined the smile she would be wearing as she laughed.

Fred felt George elbow him hard in the ribs and turned to see him nod towards the doors of the great hall. The joke he had been telling Katie and Angelina died in his throat as he saw the triwizard champions and their dates enter the room.

Hermione was gliding along in a soft periwinkle blue dress that floated from her waist to the floor in delicate layers, her hair was sleek and curled up with a few strands framing her face that was lit up with a wide smile. Fred felt like the world had stopped as his jaw hung loosely and his eyes repeatedly raked across her figure, eager to take in everything about the way she looked just then. Although her dress and hair looked breathtaking, it was the beaming smile and glittering eyes that really had him hooked.

He had already fallen for his youngest brother's best friend on her first day at Hogwarts and there was nothing he could do about it but fall more and more in love with her.

He wondered what it would be like to be here with her tonight. He imagined twirling her as they danced together just to see her smile, or telling her jokes as they ate together just to hear her laugh, or holding her in his arms just to see the glitter in her eyes close up. George's cough from next to him and another elbow to the ribs made him pick his jaw up and collect himself.

Hermione was here, dancing with someone else and not just anyone else. Her date was a triwizard champion and an international quidditch seeker who had caught the snitch in the world cup final earlier that year. He steeled himself for a night dancing with George's date Katie (who couldn't tell the twins apart) while George danced with the girl he hadn't had the courage to ask out himself. Fred had never thought he would be good enough for Hermione but seeing her enter on the arm of Viktor Krum that night cemented this thought in Fred's head.

The next time the pain arrived he didn't hear any voices, just the soft snoring of his twin coming from somewhere close by. Even though she wasn't here his mind still filled with a memory of her as the pain and sounds of reality slipped away again.

He was lying in his four poster bed in the dark Gryffindor boys seventh year dorms late one night, the sounds of his twin and friends' snores filled the air. The twins had decided that they would soon be leaving Hogwarts and had spent the evening planning Umbridge's farewell gifts in preparation. Hermione had even helped with the complex magic behind some of them.

'She's actually pretty naughty when she's decided to be defiant' Fred thought to himself before groaning internally at his choice of words. 'No.' he told his body firmly even though it didn't listen. 'That's not ok, she's worth way more than that.'

His mind, without his consent, wandered back to a few hours earlier in the library. He loved how studious and intelligent Hermione was and often joined her at her favourite library table while she studied and he planned pranks or researched new product ideas.

The table was deep in the dusty stacks of the library, much deeper than most people ventured so she could work here undisturbed and he could research without ruining his reputation. The table was even more well hidden as it was in a small alcove, flanked by bookshelves on either side so tightly that it had benches along those edges rather than movable chairs, you had to squeeze through a narrow gap two more bookcases to get into the alcove and a tall window sat at the other end with a window seat overlooking the lake and quidditch pitch.

Even though the view from the window was lovely it was the sight of the beautiful witch opposite him that distracted him from his work. Her brown curls glowed golden in the early evening sun and her rosy lips twitched as she wrote out notes in preparation for her upcoming OWL exams. Her nose twitched in concentration, causing the freckles across her nose to smush together in a way that Fred just couldn't keep his eyes off.

"Pass me that cushion please Fred" Hermione requested, breaking Fred from his reverie "thanks."

Fred rearranged his own seating and attempted to clear his now very dry throat as she moved the collection of throw cushions from her bench and hopped up onto the window seat placing her feet up on the desk and resting her books against her thighs. Fred lowered his eyes to his books and used every ounce of his will power to keep them there for the remainder of their study session. He knew she was wearing her skirt and from his current vantage point he didn't know what he might be able to see.

He already found it difficult to keep his mind off her as it was, looking at her sat up by the window, framed by the sun's golden rays would not help him stay in control at all. He tried not to think about what he would do if she were his girlfriend, how secluded they were at this table and how much he dreamed of cuddling her in that window seat. How much he wished he could snog her soundly in the privacy of their alcove table.

How he could take her delicate hand in his rough one and lead her to the nearby deserted stacks where he would press her between the shelves of books and his own body. Then he would take her wrists in one of his large hands and raise them above her head while his other hand roamed the curves of her body before lifting her leg up to rest around his hip. The way he would use that free hand to make her moan and melt into him until she was begging for him to take her. How we would lift the other leg to wrap around his waist and hook her feet together behind his lower back before rocking his pelvis into her eliciting mewls of pleasure and begs for more between her heavy breaths.

He had to stop these thoughts. She didn't know how he felt about her and even if she did he doubted she would ever want to be with him. He was a stupid nobody, a poor man who wasn't even going to leave school with any NEWTs. No man could ever match her intelligence but he told himself she wouldn't even consider the silly prankster he was, he could never even dream of changing the world like she would.

She was way out of his league but that wouldn't stop him loving her forever and making sure that whoever she chose to be with up would always treat her right.

"Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank," Hermione read aloud "and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures'"

Fred was overwhelmed, the pain was here and the orange glow but he could hear many more words than usual when this part of the cycle arrived. He focused on her voice, using it as an anchor, and listened to her read the entire first chapter of Alice in Wonderland before he heard George's voice.

"What colour would you like next?" His twin's question was followed by a rattling sound.

Fred furrowed his brow, this didn't make much sense; he had never got to spend this much time in reality before.

"Fred?" a choked voice said and he felt something gentle and soft against his cheek.

"Fred?" an equally choked but much more gruff voice followed immediately and he felt something rough grab his hand and squeeze it tight.

He tried to open his eyes, to squeeze his hand in reply, to speak or cough. He willed his lungs to do anything other than their monotonous barely there breaths but he could do nothing. He wanted to cry out for his love and for his twin. He wished he could scream out in frustration or let angry tears fall. His body however did nothing and it was with heavy sorrow that his mind faded away again.

...

Author's Note

Thank you to everyone reading this story but special thanks goes to the fabulous Neekah, convalla91, Melfoy4193 and ihavaslighttvaddiction who have all been amazing and left reviews! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I hope you all enjoy this chapter and please leave a review either way :)

Wishin' Girl x x x