The Morning After the Night Before
Fred jumped at the sound of his name. Well, at least he thought he had, but there was no one there. Wherever there was… He was actually finding it really difficult to remember where he was. Slowly he opened his eyes; fearful of the sun he was very aware at this crucial time in the morning, to see that he was Hermione's room, in bed with a very naked Hermione also noticing how very naked he was.
That's when the drunken veil began to fall off of his memory, and he remembered everything from last night, all of it.
He rolled over, facing the bushy haired beauty beside him. She was lying on her front, using her right hand as a pillow and her left arm falling off of the bed, and the duvet was only just covering the small of he back. For the first time in months she looked calm and Fred found an unusual pit in his stomach just looking at her.
He watched his hand as it reached out and followed the trail of her spine up to her neck and before he could stop himself, he was slowly stroking her soft cheek. Hermione looked serene and with this serenity came even more beauty. God, he was thinking like some crazy mature lovey-dovey adult. What sort of weird hang over is this?
Suddenly, Hermione stirred and Fred whipped his hand back.
"Mornin'" Hermione grumbled.
"Mornin'. How'd you sleep?" Fred asked, moving back a safe distance as Hermione grabbed some more duvet to cover herself.
"Fabulous! Alcohol has a fantastic affect on the mind," She said stretching, "No dreams whatsoever."
"Well, I never expected that to happen." Fred shrugged, after a few moments of silence.
"Nope." Hermione said, rolling over to face him. "How much do you remember?"
"A lot actually; you were pretty memorable." He said calmly. "You've done that before."
She looked back with a smile and blushed slightly. "You were pretty amazing yourself." She replied, ignoring the subtle question.
Smirking, Fred sat up and rubbed his eyes. He would have to be up soon, mum would start shouting and screaming, complaining about the toast and then she would go in his room and – "Bullocks!"
"What?" Hermione jumped, gracefully holding the duvet to her chest the entire time.
"Mother. We need to be in the kitchen before anyone else gets up or we are screwed!" Fred said, reaching to his left and grabbed his clothes, throwing them on as quickly as possible.
Hermione, taking the duvet with her, waddled over to her suitcase and, still with a surprising amount of grace, put some clothes on swiftly. "What if everyone's already downstairs?"
"They can't be, it's way too early… I'm sure." He was reaching around on the floor looking for his other sock and Hermione couldn't help giggling. "Well, I can't go down with one sock, how weird would that be?"
"Not as weird as if you didn't go down at all." Hermione said, beginning to rush now. "Besides, no one would be surprised if you went down with only one sock, you're a bit forgetful sometimes and only your mum would mention it."
Fred shrugged and stood up. Hermione silently opened her door and peered outside, then signalled to Fred to follow her down the stairs. Still going as quietly as they could, the pair skipped down both flights, trying to hold in the giggles. Finally they made it to the hall way in front of the kitchen, Fred facing Hermione who was on the bottom step.
"Well, time to face the music." She sighed; part of her didn't want it to end. She just wanted one final kiss, to help make it through the day. But before she made it to his lips, Molly opened the door to the kitchen.
"Fred?" She looked confused.
Luckily, Hermione hadn't reached the danger boundary and Fred took it upon himself to save the moment. "Alright mum, just celebrating because I beat Hermione to the bottom! You may worship me now." He bowed to both of the women in the hall, then strutted into the kitchen and took an empty seat.
"Well, in all fairness, you did have a head start." Hermione retorted, taking the seat next him and smirking at him as Molly glared at the pair from across the room.
"Here you go." She said, placing two pieces of cheese on toast before the two of them. Hermione picked hers up to find it was cold. "It was ready half an hour ago, when I began calling the pair of you. Fred?"
"Yes mum." He said, munching his cold toast.
"Why on earth are you in yesterday's clothes?" Molly put her hands on her hips and everyone jumped. Lupin grabbed a newspaper and hid behind it, George dropped a spoon and went under the table, where he then stayed, Mr Weasley jumped up and left the room claiming he heard his name, Hermione went over to the fridge and Fred just sat there like a rabbit caught in headlights.
It was too late to run, so he had to think. "I figured that since there's a war on, there'd be rationing of detergent or something."
"Fred Weasley, as long as the Muggles are alive there will be detergent! Now, for the love of Merlin, put on some new clothes!" She was red in the face, so red her face and hair seemingly merged and to make matters worse Fred just looked blank. She fumed as she watched him slowly stand up, nod to her, then walk calmly out of the door.
Hermione took her face from out of the fridge and smiled at Mrs Weasley. "I'm going to go and brush my teeth." She backed out of the kitchen, while the others all thought of excuses to leave. Everyone wished they'd had Arthur's idea and left as soon as it turned ugly. Molly just huffed around, getting more and more volatile.
Once she had made it up the stairs, Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. She was out of the belly of the beast.
"Hey, Hermione." She turned to the whisper to see Fred's head peeking out of his bedroom door. She walked over, only to get pulled into his room by the arm. "She's gone nuts, hasn't she?"
Hermione couldn't talk. She was too busy admiring the topless Fred that was standing before her. When did he develop a six pack? It was only then that Hermione realised just how little time they had spent on the before and after, for her to have missed that.
"Hermione." He sang, waving in front of her face. "Mum, was she pissed?"
"Yeah…" she said, then shook her head. "Yes. I escaped pretty quickly, I guess I'm lucky. George is hung over and still down there. If there was anyone I'd hate to be right now…"
"Yeah. Some people just can't hold their entire bottle of whiskey, then deal with an evil mother." Hermione just stared blankly at him. "Are you ok?"
"Fred, what happened last night… Would it be weird if I wanted it to happen again?" She was looking at her feet now, practically awaiting the rejection.
"Not really, it was incredible." He scratched his head, looking rather dopey yet proud.
"I'm not talking about that, not say that part wasn't great, because it was. It was amazing, fantastic, fireworks even. I meant the before bit. The bit where you called me sweetie, the bit where you comforted me and told me I did my best. It sounds cheesy but to me that was the best part. God, you must think I'm a sap, an immature teenager like yourself."
"Would it be weird – No, sorry, that's too cheesy. Let's just say, I'm not as immature as you think I am." Fred bent down to draw her attention. "That bit was pretty fantastic too. I think that you're more fantastic then you're going to give yourself credit for. That's why last night was incredible, not because of the alcohol, the mood, the desire or the sex. It was being with you and god I just said all of that, didn't I?"
Hermione nodded and the two smiled at each other. He felt the urge to kiss her, but hesitated for a second. The longer he waited for her taste, it seemed to him the better it would be. So he waited, just for a second, then kissed her.
And she tasted fantastic.
I do make Hermione get around a far bit, but that's more from a different story.
So, what did you think of my fairytale ending?