Dedicated to my amazing soulmate Ash
The world needs more fluff, that's why we started the Fluffy Revolution
"Always fluffy, never dark"
Caution: Will give you cavities. For more proof: contact Ash.
A mishap at the supermarket
Hermione thought that her week couldn't become worse than already was: she lost her keys, meaning that she had to contract a locksmith to make a new one, which means that her landlord will probably have a tantrum (but in reality, didn't take much for Mr. Fudge lost his temper); her shower broke while she still had shampoo in her hair and she had to finish her shower at Harry's place (Draco will never her live that down), and her roommate decided that this was the best time to go to live with her boyfriend, right before the landlord raise their rent (why she agreed to share a place with Parvati on first place, was something that she couldn't understand until today).
Of course that when she was in the worst of moods and the worst weeks of all, she will run into her ex. Hermione hadn't seen Viktor since their nasty breakup three months ago, so to say that she was freaking out was a euphemism. He was exactly the same, compose and handsome in a way that won't work with anyone else; on the other hand, she wasn't looking the best after eight hours working at the bookstore, her hair was bushier than ever with some dust into it, she was certain about this.
That's the reason why she was hiding at the candy aisle because she knows that Viktor will never visit this aisle since he was so focused on maintaining his good shape. It hurts that she still remember these things even after they were broken up, so if she was clutching the bag of marshmallows to her chest while sitting on the floor was only comprehensive, right?
"Excuse me miss, are you alright?" a voice from above her asked, a male voice, and Hermione started to panic until she realized that the voice didn't belong to Viktor, so she relaxed a little.
"Uhn, yes I'm alright. I just need a moment, but if you need some marshmallows, you can take them," Hermione said with the panic barely disguised in her voice.
"I don't need marshmallows but..." the stranger paused mid-sentence which catches Hermione's attention.
"But what? Never saw a woman hugging a bag of marshmallows?" Hermione wasn't so aggressive toward strangers, but today was an exception. If she wants to hug a bag of marshmallows, she was going to do this and nobody was going to say anything to her.
"Well, I saw my sister hug a bag of gummy bears once, but she was three and didn't want to share but I don't think this is what you were suggesting." Hermione could hear the smile on his voice, but she wasn't going to talk with him, not with Viktor at the same place as her.
"I bet that your sister will know why I'm in this position now, so I should hope that she was here instead of you," Hermione gritted the last part hoping that the stranger didn't listen to her. She didn't want to fight with a stranger, not today of all days.
"She probably would know how to deal with what you're dealing better than me, that's for sure; but since she didn't want to come here today, I guess I'm all you have," the stranger then proceeds to sit by her side, startling her. What kind of person sits on the floor of the candy aisle besides a stranger hugging a bag of marshmallows?
Hermione couldn't say anything just stare dumbfoundedly to him, and it was in that moment that she looked — really looked at him — and realized that this stranger was, well, hot. His hair was like a darker auburn that made his blue eyes pop in his face, surrounded by freckles; he wasn't smiling right now, but she could see that he had a twinkle in his eyes that scream mischief to her.
"Why are sitting on the floor? You don't have to finish your shopping?" Hermione asked bringing the marshmallow bags closer to her. She won't admit to anyone, but marshmallows always made her feel safe.
"I was just looking for some gummy bears and chocolate, and I can't leave a lady sit by herself on the floor. My mum educated better than this." He was so smug that made Hermione relax a little, just a little. "You want to tell me why you are on the floor?"
"I run into my ex and didn't exactly fancy seeing him, and he will never come to this aisle," she mumbled, realizing how odd her state must be to him.
"Sounds like he is an ass," the stranger said abruptly which made Hermione snorts because he wasn't wrong. "I'm sorry, I'm not so blunt about people that I don't know, but how can anyone not visit the candy aisle while at the supermarket?"
"He is a soccer player and he follows a rigid diet," Hermione said without much thought. She could understand why she and Viktor didn't work but still hurts to know that he had chosen his career over her.
"Huh, I can see this… but even when I played at school, I still eat all the chocolate that my heart wanted." The stranger was talking without needing encouragement, which made Hermione smile a little; she always felt like she needs to take an answer out of Viktor when they talked. "But I guess that he has more rigid coaches than I had."
"He plays professional, and try to maintain his good shape even when he is off-season," Hermione replied. Then she realized that she was opening up for a stranger at a supermarket and stopped talking. The stranger seemed to know what she is thinking and only stayed by her side, letting the silence become insufferable.
"So..." he started without looking at her direction. "I realized that I know why are hugging a bag of marshmallows, but don't know your name."
"Oh, I'm Hermione Granger and you are?"
"Fred Weasley, nice to meet you, Hermione." Fred extended his hand and Hermione, reluctant, drop the bag on the floor and shake it his hand. "Are you planning to hide here all day or you pretend to do something?"
"What do you mean?" Hermione was lost in the conversation. "I'm not hiding."
"Of course you aren't, but while you are here with your best friend marshmallow," at this Hermione scoffed because she wasn't a five-year-old. "I guess your ex is doing his shopping… So what you are going to do?"
Hermione stopped and tried to think about what to do. She could continue to hide in the candy aisle, could leave the market, and do her grocery shop another day or… she looked at Fred, that was throwing a smirk in her direction.
"Can you pretend that you are my boyfriend?" she blurted and as soon as she said, she put her hand on her mouth and her eyes widened at the same time as his. "I'm so sorry, I don't know why I said this."
"Hey, don't be so hard on yourself. I know that I'm good looking," he said cheekily which made Hermione roll her eyes in annoyance.
"You sure think very highly of yourself." She huffed, dismissing what he had said. "I'm really sorry, I don't know what I was thinking. Or rather, I know what I was thinking, but I didn't think that I would say."
"Hey, it isn't every day that a girl throws herself at me while I'm making my grocery shop," Fred said with so much joy in his voice that made Hermione blush harder and hides her face into her hands. "C'mon, don't be like this love."
"Could you please forget that I said something and just continue on your way? I'll figure something." Hermione mumbled to her hands, thinking that she can't go any lower after this, but of course, that Fate loves to laugh on her face.
"Mione?" She knows that voice and even if she hadn't listened for three months she isn't going to forget soon.
"Viktor?" Hermione asked, trying to figure out how she is going to explain that she was going to explain the fact that she was sitting on the floor of the supermarket with a bag of marshmallows. "What a coincidence!"
"Yeah, what a coincidence," Viktor said with a strangled voice and a weird face. "Who are your friend?"
Hermione had forgotten about Fred, that was sitting by her side on the floor, and didn't know exactly how to introduce him to Viktor. "Oh, him? He was just a stranger that was kind enough to make me company while I was hiding from you."
"I'm Fred Weasley," Fred said standing up and extending a hand in Viktor's direction. "I'm Hermione's boyfriend."
It was a good thing that Hermione was sitting already because if she wasn't, it was clear that she will have passed out. When she asked Fred to pretend to be her boyfriend he didn't take her seriously, so why he was doing this for her now? She couldn't deny that the face that Viktor made was priceless and made Hermione feels a little better.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Viktor Krum." Viktor accepted the handshake and looked at her with an odd look. Of course, he was looking at her strangely, she was still on the floor; as soon as she realized this, she stands up quickly but she lost her balance. Luckily for her, Fred had quick reflexes and caught her before she ended up on the floor again.
"I know that you fall for me, love, but I didn't know you mean quite literally." She could hear so much mirth in his voice that she found that was impossible not to smile. "There the smile that I love."
"So, how long are you two dating?" Viktor asked looking at both of them like they forgot that he was there, which they had.
"Not long, we are actually buying some things today to make dinner and introduce Mya to my family," Fred said with a smile, sneaking an arm around her waist. Hermione was so preoccupied with his hand that she missed the look of longing that crossed Viktor's face.
"We can't forget to buy a pack of gummy bears to your sister, I know it's her favorite." Hermione was enjoying this more than she supposes that she will have. "And you, what are you doing in this aisle? I thought that you didn't eat candies."
"I don't… I thought that I saw you and came to see if it was you or if I was dreaming," Viktor said with a small voice, that at other times will make Hermione worry about him, but today only made her realize that he had made his choice and he didn't choose her.
"Well, you weren't dreaming. I'm here," she said with a finality in her voice that surprise even her.
"You could say that I dreamed of you before we met love," Fred said nudging her side, which made her smile affectionately to him. Hermione needs to remember that this is all fake, that they aren't really dating.
"Yeah, you love to say this." Hermione giggled and saw that Viktor raised an eyebrow, seeing that she never giggled when she was with him. "I guess we better come back to our shopping and let Viktor finish his."
"Sure thing; why I don't go grab that wine that you like and you get something for dessert and we meet at the cashier?" Fred asked with a smile; it looks like he never stops smiling.
"Alright and grab a red too, you know how I like red," she said with a small smile of her own.
"Yeah, I do." He replied with a waggle of his eyebrows and surprising her once more kissed her cheek, give a small nod in Viktor's direction, and went to another aisle. Hermione was sad to realize that is probably that she will never see him again.
"He seems like a good guy," Viktor said as soon as Fred was out of their sight.
"He is." Hermione sighed; she wishes that they could have talked more.
"I'm glad that you are happy Hermione, you deserve all the happiness in the world." What Viktor said made Hermione look in his direction and she saw that he was being honest, which made her smile.
"Thank you Viktor, you too deserve to be happy," Hermione said with all honesty. "How are your career? It's the off-season now, right?"
"Yeah, we start practice in two weeks and I'm going to travel to Spain to meet the new coach. I think you would like Spain," Viktor said with something similar to longing on his voice. Hermione didn't know exactly how to respond to what he was saying, so she preferred to say nothing. "But I guess you and Fred could visit sometimes if you want."
"This sounds good, I'll talk with him and we'll see," Hermione replied, even if she knows that she won't be visiting Spain. "I don't want to make you lose your time anymore, I should go back to my shopping."
"Sure. It was good to see you, Hermione," Viktor said reaching for a hug that Hermione complied and realized that this was the closure that they needed.
"It was good to see you too Viktor," she said smiling a little and walking away, leaving her past behind. She wished that she could thank Fred for what he had done for her, even it wasn't so much; sighing, she went to the wine aisle thinking about getting a bottle to forgot all about today.
It wasn't until she was with a basket fill with two bags of marshmallows, a pack of gummy bears (because she will always remember his story about her sister), five bars of chocolate, and two bottles of wine that she meets Fred again. Hermione was startled to see him standing at the beginning of the aisle, looking at her with an amused smile on his face.
"Fancy meeting you here, but I think that you already chose your drink," Fred said looking at her basket with a surprised look, but she could see that he was having fun. "You pretend to drink these two bottles all by yourself?"
"Yes, but not the two at once." Hermione was feeling a little ashamed of the contents of her basket. "I thought that you already had left by now."
"Yeah, I was on my way out but I realized that I forget something." Fred was walking closer to her now and she couldn't take her eyes off him.
"What?" she asked with a small voice. "What did you forget?"
"I forget my beautiful fake girlfriend behind." Fred was closer now, so close that Hermione could count his freckles if she wanted. "And I forget to do this."
Before Hermione could say something more Fred put an arm around her waist, pulled her towards him, and kissed her. She was surprised at first but didn't take long for her to respond by dropping her basket on the floor and wrapping her arms around his neck. The first kiss is always messy, but Hermione was enjoying very much her kiss with Fred; that's until she remembered where they were and broke apart abruptly.
"Sorry, I didn't want to scare you but I couldn't let you walk away without kissing you and you're looking so adorable and..." Fred was saying a word a minute and looking troubled but Hermione only shook her head and smiled. "I suppose that by your smile, you didn't mind much the kiss?"
"I didn't mind the kiss, it's just." Hermione bit her lip and Fred couldn't resist and kissed her again, lightly this time. "For a moment I forgot where we were."
"Oh," Fred said like it was just in that moment that he realized where they were. "You're right, but I couldn't pass the opportunity of kissing you."
Hermione frowned by his sentence, don't liking what he is implying. "And now that you kissed me?"
"I think I want to do this a few more times if you let me," he replied, a little sheepish. Hermione couldn't stop the smile that was forming in her face and kissed him, lingering maybe a little too much, being in a public space.
"Sorry, got a little carried away." She could feel the heat coming from her cheeks, but seeing Fred's smile made everything worth it.
"Now that we both successfully embarrassed each other, how about we pay for our groceries and you allowed me to take you to the cafe down the corner for a cup of hot chocolate?"
"I think this is a date," Hermione laughed about the silliness of their situation."Let me just return this bottles to the shelf and we can go."
"I guess you could keep one of the bottles and I could cook for you on our second date." Fred was beaming, but she could see that he was insecure with his preposition.
"If you can cook as you kiss, I probably make you cook all the time," she said without thinking, but luckily for her, he only laughed at her bluntness. "Let's to the cashier and then we can talk more about this second date since we even hadn't our first date."
"What you talking about? Of course we already have our first date!" Fred was saying with confidence while taking her basket off the floor.
"Fred, we met fifteen minutes ago. I don't count this as a first date." Hermione returned one of the bottles to a shelf and continue walking.
"That's the story that I'm telling our grandkids, so don't contradict me." Fred reached for her hand and she was glad that he couldn't see her face, that was looking like a tomato.
"When the time came I won't contradict you, don't worry." Hermione was amused and a little light-headed with the conversation, but she liked where this is going.
She didn't know that after having a week from hell, Hermione was going to reencounter her ex that broke her heart, but at the same time, she found someone that she was looking forward to knowing more and that made her heart beat faster. Yes, she was glad that she choose that particular day to do her grocery shopping, and who knows, maybe someday she will be doing her grocery shopping with Fred; but this, only time will tell.