A/N: Oh my, over 50 follows and 25 favourites, WOW, thank you all so much for your love and support. Thank you to everyone who reviews, I am happy to hear you are not only enjoying my tale but can see how much effort I have put in to making sure the characters are as true to the original. Now the chapter we have all been waiting, Fred and Hermione's first date!

Disclaimer: I own nothing; all characters are property of the lovely J. K. Rowling.

Chapter 7 The First Date

I held the note in my hand, my smile widened, merlin he is amazing. I lay back onto my pillow, staring at the ceiling, well today's the day, our first date. I giggled lightly to myself in attempts to not wake Ginny up.

I had no plans for the day until the date. Which was not a good idea for two reasons, firstly I was likely to have a panic attack if I didn't keep myself busy and the more terrifying reason was second, Ginny would now spend the whole day using me as her own dress up doll for tonight. Fred had told me to trust her but my instincts told me this could go badly. Ginny had always been a girly girl, don't get me wrong, she was tough; growing up with all those brothers meant she had to be. But she was always beautiful, always flawless, something I just could never seem to achieve.

"Mione? You awake?" I contemplated ignoring her and feigning sleep but I knew it was pointless, she would only wake me.

"Yeah Gin, what's up?"

"Do you know where Harry is?" Her voice sounded worrisome.

"He left this morning when Fred was carrying me in, why?" I pushed myself up onto my elbows to look at her.

Tears pooling in her eyes she looked over at me, "Harry and I slept together last night."

"I know Gin, I sent him over here?"

"No, Hermione, we slept together."

"Ohhhhh, why do you look upset then? Was it bad? Did it hurt terribly?" Gin loved Harry, why was this an issue?

"No, no it was all fantastic, at least I thought so, till he snuck out this morning." She was sobbing now; I got off my bed and went to sit on hers.

"Gin, I'm sure everything is fine, he probably just didn't want you guys getting caught, which he almost did, like I said him and Fred ran into each other, granted Fred knew Harry was in here, but Harry didn't know that. Harry loves you Ginny, don't over think this."

"You're right Hermione, I'm being silly aren't i?" I nodded, "now, more important things. Getting you ready for this date!" the trademark Weasley smirk spread across her face and I knew she would be okay.

"Merlin, help me." Ginny began giggling at me.

What felt like an eternity later I was caught up on every last detail of Harry and Ginny's rendezvous and was showered and standing in front of Ginny in nothing but a dressing gown and underwear as she cast charms upon my hair. The first being one to allow it to be unaffected by the humidity, another to dry and finally one to make it straight. I would never get used to straight hair. I was so accustomed to my bushy hair, even if it had softened over the years. When she wasn't looking I quickly cast a concealment charm on my scar.

Ginny began on my makeup, she kept it very simple, and to my surprise was doing it the muggle way before putting a setting charm on it to make sure it didn't smear. Three outfits lay on my bed. I couldn't understand why. Did I need all three?

"Now Fred told you to trust me, however I'm going to extend some trust to you. In front of you are three outfits, one of them is the correct choice for your date. Pick."

Was she kidding me? "Ginny, can't you just tell me which one?"

"Nope" her mouth popped on the p.

I looked at three outfits carefully, they were all so different, and how was I meant to know which one? He hadn't told me where we were going. The first was a pair of skinny jeans with a silk sleeveless gold top; it was high neck and was tied around the top. The second was a long evening gown; it had sleeves of lace and was the most beautiful shade of red. The third was a cocktail dress, form fitting with a dip in the centre to show just the right amount of cleavage, which was a deep shade of blue.

Right. Where to begin. All outfits where gorgeous, Ginny had out done herself. I looked into the mirror, hoping that my hair and makeup would be able to give me an indication of how formal this date was to be. It didn't, the one time I would have loved to look a little over done to be able to tell, Ginny had decided to merely enhance my features, this would look good with any outfit.

"Can I have a hint?" I looked at her with pleading eyes.

"One, and I mean it Granger, you get one hint." I nodded thankfully. "He put a lot of thought into this date, to make it special to you."

"That's it! That's my hint!"

She winked playfully "yep, now pick missy."

I looked back at the outfits. Bollocks. I had better not mess this up. I finally decided "the gown."

Ginny squealed, "That's my girl. Now get your gorgeous butt in it." The same as she had done at the dinner she tapped me on the bottom and sent me to the dress.

Upon putting on the dress I had realised that it was backless and I mean backless, once my arms wear in the sleeves I noticed that the material stopped not even covering my shoulder blades, gliding down the sides of my body until my hip line where the material spanned across. The neckline hugged along my collar bone. I hadn't realised how form fitting it was, but felt as it clung to my hips. Next to where it had been on the bed was a thin gold belt. It fit like a glove, like it was made just for me, that's when I realised I did not own this dress. It was far too bold to belong in my wardrobe.

"Ginny. This isn't my dress? How did you manage to get one in less than twenty four hours?"

"Well, okay don't be mad but, you were already going on this date before the marriage law." My jaw dropped but she continued. "Don't tell Fred I told you though! He had been planning this for months and he will murder me Mione."

I couldn't believe it, had Fred really liked me that long.

Blushing deeply I slipped into the shoes Ginny had picked for me, placing charms to prevent me from falling and for comfort. She handed me a small gold purse and a matching shawl to keep me warm. I moved in front of the full length mirror. I looked beautiful, more beautiful than I would have thought possible.

"Oh Mione, you look stunning!"

Though I would have never picked this for myself I had to agree with Ginny. It was perfect. I looked perfect. Ginny had slipped out of the room to see if Fred was here yet. There was a knock on the door and Ginny stuck her head in.

"Hermione. He's here."

Well here goes nothing.

Walking down the stairs I could feel my heartbeat in my head. Why was I so nervous? Better yet, this was Fred Weasley, why on earth was I so dressed up? Had he lied to Ginny about where he was taking me? Is he pranking me by making me look so fancy then taking me to get fast food? Oh Godric help me.

My worries stopped instantly when I got to the foot of the stairs and standing before me was my date for this evening in a beautiful muggle tux. Fred looked so handsome, a crisp white shirt, black vest, suit jacket and slacks, and a red tie matching my dress. Merlin I just want to tear his clothes off. Wait what, where had that come from. I shook my head to get the thoughts from my mind. That was when he spotted me, his eyes wide and dark, filled with what I assume to be lust, he just looked absolutely gob smacked and I loved it.

"Mia, you look breathtaking" he exclaimed whilst moving towards me.

"Well you clean up alright too Mr Weasley" I felt a blush creep up to my cheeks as he kissed my hand.

"Shall we, Miss Granger?" I nodded, not trusting my voice and slipped my arm in his.

We walked in silence till the apparition point, Fred wrapped his arms tight around me and I felt the familiar pull in my navel and the sound of a pop when we had arrived.

I looked around, we were in muggle London. We began walking and Fred held the door open to a beautiful Italian restaurant.

"Reservation for Weasley."

"Of course right this way sir."

We were led to a private table in an undercover area; the room was dancing with fairy lights, intertwined with vines that went across white lattices. The table lit with a candle and a single red rose in a thin vase.

"I will be back shortly to take your order." Fred nodded to the man and slipped him an unknown amount of money, "Why thank you sir."

Fred move to me now, gesturing to my seat, he was ever the gentleman pulling it out and waiting for me to be seated before pushing it in and taking his own across from me. This was truly marvellous.

"So, how am I doing?" Fred giggled nervously.

"This is incredible Freddie, you organised all this in just a few days?" I hoped he would take the bait, and that I hadn't outed what Ginny had told me.

His face turned that Weasley shade of red and he coughed lightly, "actually, I have had this planned since a month after the war." He looked nervously around the room.

"Oh." I blushed deeply, "well I love it." I grabbed his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

I then realised we were no longer alone "Sir, Madam, are we ready to order?"

Fred looked over to me, "Trust me?" I nodded. "Yes can we please get a bottle of the finest wine on your menu, a garlic bread to start, for me the porterhouse, medium to well with seafood sauce and for the lady, the ravioli." The waiter nodded and went to retrieve the wine.

"Did I do okay?"

"Perfect Freddie."

He poured us each a glass and we began chatting away. I had never seen this side of Fred before, he wasn't his usual confident self, and there was an air of insecurity about him tonight. Our food arrived and we ate slowly, he had done a phenomenal job at ordering because my dinner was divine.

"That was spectacular Freddie, thank you for dinner." I looked lovingly into his eyes and he beamed back at me.

"We aren't done yet my precious Mia." He kissed my hand softly. "Can we get the check please?"

Once we had paid, and Fred had given a very generous tip, we were off. Walking around muggle London reminded me of my parents. I missed them so much, Kingsley and I had tried to find them in Australia only to find out they had been in a car accident. I tried to push the thought from my mind, and I realised we had stopped walking. We were standing in front of a beautiful theatre. I read the marquee and turned to face Fred.

"You didn't!" I beamed.

"I did, look again in your purse." He looked very pleased with himself.

True to his word, in my purse were two tickets to see Shakespeare's 'A Winter's Tale'.

"Freddie how did you know!"

"Back in your fourth year you told us how you were named after a character from Shakespeare, it took a bit of digging around, but I found out which one and since that year I have been waiting for it to be on and of course the right time to ask you." I pulled him in for a deep kiss.

No one had ever done anything so thoughtful for me in my entire life. He deepened the kiss momentarily before taking my hand and leading me into the theatre. This was the best first date any girl could have dreamed of.