Three days passed where Hermione didn't hear from Fred. She was starting to worry that he had only come back to fix his bad conscience and then leave as soon as he had gotten the apology out of the way.
On Friday afternoon, however, she came home to an owl impatiently tapping her window with its beak. She opened the window, letting in the freezing owl who immediately tried to shake off the note it was carrying around its leg.
Are you free tonight?
George, Lee, and I are at The Old Pub.
Would love if you could come.
/F
Hermione looked over the note. It was scribbled in such a manner that Hermione wondered if Fred was already drunk at 8 p.m. She smiled to herself. Despite his age he still often behaved as if he was just above the legal drinking-age of seventeen. Without hesitation, Hermione wrote a quick reply saying that she would love to come and that she would be at the pub within the hour. She changed out of her working clothes, applied a bit of make-up, did an attempt to tame her hair, and was soon out the door, heading for The Old Pub in the other end of Diagon Alley. She walked briskly, enjoying the atmosphere of Diagon Alley in the dark.
When she opened the door to the pub, she was immediately met by music and laughter coming from the inside. She scanned the room for Fred, George, and Lee and found them in a booth in the far back. Lee was laughing at something that George had said but Fred's eyes had already found Hermione's. His face lit up in a huge grin as he strode over to her and hugged her tightly.
"Hi Love," he whispered against her ear, "so glad you could make it."
Hermione held him tight too, "thanks for the invitation. I wouldn't want to miss it for the world."
Fred took a step back, allowing Hermione to study his face. His cheeks were slightly flushed and he was having a hard time focusing on her.
"Are you drunk?" She laughed at him.
"Yep!" Fred said with a goofy smile, "sorry - we had dinner at Lee's parents place and his dad brought out the firewhisky and the rum."
"Sounds like fun," Hermione smiled up at him.
Fred put his arm around her shoulders and led her to the table were George and Lee were sitting.
"Oh thank Merlin, Hermione!" Lee shouted when he saw her, "so happy you're here, aren't we George?"
George nodded eagerly, "Maybe you can make Fred join in on the conversation."
"Yeah," Lee chimed in, "he's been staring at the door for ages, looking for you."
Fred was glaring at Lee and George, but shot Hermione an innocent shrug when she turned to look at him. "Come sit, come sit," he put a hand on the small of her back and pushed her slightly towards the bench opposite George and Lee. He sat down next to her - much closer than he needed to - and poured her a firewhisky from the bottle on the table.
"You bought the entire bottle?" She laughed as she accepted the glass from him.
"We thought it would be better," Fred leaned in close and whispered, "if we go by the glass, Lee will get way too drunk trying to keep up. If we have an entire bottle on the table in front of us, George and I can easily sneak an extra glass without him noticing," he winked at her.
Being much smaller build than Fred and George, Hermione knew that Lee had always had a tough time keeping up with the twins when they went out for drinks.
"Won't you get way too drunk then?" Hermione laughed at Fred.
Fred shot her an amused smile, "love, look who you're talking to. George is the embarrassing one. I always keep my composure when I drink."
"That's a lie if I ever heard one," Hermione laughed, thinking of all the times Fred had gotten horribly drunk and had made a fool of himself.
"Yeah, well," he sent her a shrug and leaned just a tiny bit closer. Hermione suddenly noticed that she had the full attention of both twins. Fred was smiling lopsidedly at her, his body pressed firmly against hers while George was eyeing them both with great interest, clearly studying their body language and facial expressions. Lee, on the other hand had no idea what what was going on in front of him as he had started hiccoughing uncontrollably, slightly slumping over the table.
Hermione cleared her throat, making Fred turn his attention towards his firewhisky with a small smile. George, however, raised an eyebrow and asked her, "why are you just nibbling at your firewhiskey? Don't you like it?"
"Not really my cup of tea to be honest," Hermione smiled, "I actually think I'll go get a drink instead."
"Oi! Let me get one for you," Fred jumped to his feet, stumbling slightly over his own two feet.
"Maybe you should sit down," Hermione laughed at him, "I'm perfectly able to get my own drink."
"Well... Bring me one too!" Fred bellowed after her as she made her way to the bar, "a lobe blaster please!"
Hermione easily caught the attention of one of the bartenders and placed an order for a sugar plum schnapps for herself, a lobe blaster for Fred, and some water for the table.
As she was waiting for her drinks, a girl next to her tapped her on the shoulder, "Hi! You're Hermione Granger, aren't you?"
"Yes," Hermione nodded while studying the girl. She had never seen her before but was immediately taken aback by her stunning beauty, "I'm sorry for being blunt but do I know you?
"No," the beautiful girl smiled, "but I saw you accept the medal of honour a few years back. I was there with my dad."
"Oh," Hermione said. She had no idea what else to say to her.
"I just wanted to let you know that you've been such a huge inspiration to us girls at Hogwarts," the girl said, "I had my first year at Hogwarts the year after the battle and I remember everybody talking about you all the time. We all wanted so badly to be you," she laughed.
Hermione smiled at the girl, "That's very sweet of you to say."
"Hey, can I ask you something completely unrelated?" the girl said, "those guys over there - aren't they those Weasley twins?" she pointed to Fred and George.
"Uhm... yeah," Hermione nodded, "Fred is the one with the slightly longer hair and George has his back towards us."
"You look like you know them very well," the girl said and took a sip of her drink, "more than just because you went traveling with their brother."
"Yes, the twins and I spend a lot of time together," Hermione smiled at the girl, "we're very good friends."
"Oh, so you're friends?" the girl said happily, "I thought you might be dating."
"George is married," Hermione said, "and Fred and I are just friends."
"Well, do you know if he - I mean if Fred - is seeing anybody? Do you think you could introduce me?" The girl said and pointed towards Fred who was laughing wholeheartedly at something that his twin was saying. His Adam's apple was bouncing up and down and his broad smile revealed a row of straight teeth with the right incisor being just a little crooked. Hermione felt a lump form in her throat as she was looking at him laughing like that. His hair was pushed out of his face and the rolled up sleeves on his shirt revealed a bunch of prominent veins on his left arm. As he was done laughing, his eyes met Hermione's across the room, ane just before he turned his attention towards George and Lee again, he shot her a small wink.
Hermione suddenly noticed that her breathing had become ragged while she had been staring at Fred. "Yeah, he's seeing some quidditch player in Romania," she eventually managed to croak. Exactly why she lied to the girl, Hermione didn't know - she only knew that she didn't want the girl to go over there and talk to Fred. She looked like one of those girls that every guy would easily fall for.
"Shame," the girl sighed before she picked up her drink and went back to her friends who were all clearly talking about Fred and George.
For the duration of the night, Hermione was having a hard time concentrating on much apart from the fact that she had lied to the girl at the bar. Why had she lied? She didn't understand it.
That night, Hermione had to endure several girls trying to chat up the twins. George merely held up his left hand with the gold wedding band before he directed all the girls to his 'much less handsome but much more desperate twin brother'. The girls brought their A-game but apart from being polite, Hermione could tell that Fred's flirting didn't mean anything to him. Every time a girl came up to him, his eyes darted towards Hermione, and with every glance from him, a weird feeling grew larger and larger in her stomach. A feeling she had never experienced before.
At 2.30 in the morning, the bartender rang the old-fashioned bell behind the bar while calling out, "Last call! We'll be closing down in a bit!"
People were groaning but emptied their glasses little by little and the bar was soon close to empty.
"We should probably get going too," Hermione said to the boys. Fred and George were emptying the last drops of their firewhisky while Lee was now completely flopped over the table, groaning loudly.
"Yeah, you're right," George said, his voice swimming with alcohol.
"Let me just run to the loo real quick, okay?" Hermione said.
"Mind if we go out and get some fresh air, love?" Fred smiled at her, "you can meet us outside afterwards, yeah?"
Hermione nodded and went to the restroom.
When she returned, the bar was completely empty apart from Lee who was still slumped over the table.
"Hey Lee - are you alright? Do you want me to fix you a glass of water?" she asked him as she put a reassuring palm between his shoulder blades
"Yes, please," Lee muttered almost incoherently.
As Hermione turned around to fix him a glass of water from the bartender, Lee lifted his head, looked at her and said, "Hermione? Is that you?"
Hermione chuckled at him, "Yes, it's me."
He groaned and then continued, "I don't understand why you can't make it work!"
"What are you talking about?" Hermione laughed.
"You and Fred. You clearly like each other. You always have."
"Yes, we have. We've been friends for ages," she said and placed a glass in front of him.
"That's not what I mean," he said.
Hermione stiffened, "well what do you mean then?"
Lee, however, was far too busy emptying the entire glass in one big gulp to answer Hermione's question.
"Oi! What is taking you two so long?" George popped his head in before Hermione could repeat her question to Lee, "- we're freezing our bollocks off out here!"
Lee got up - though a little unsteady - and walked across the floor and towards the exit. Hermione followed him slowly, a million questions running through her mind. They were accompanied by the growing unfamiliar gnawing feeling in her stomach.