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Sorry sorry sorry it's been so long! :( I really wanted to update sooner but well I wasn't getting very many reviews so I just gave up for a bit, I suppose… And I have loads of exams and stuff -_- but I'll try and update regularly now!

LOVE YOU ALL

Chapter Nine!

Hermione's POV:

After the night before with Fred, my head was spinning; I was beginning to like him much more than I'd originally planned. Did he feel the same? I doubted it. It was probably just a crush for him; I never got any male attention… Not that it bothered me at all.

'Why were you in the common room so late last night?' a voice asked. It was Lavender; she was sat at the desk beside her bed, dragging a purple brush through her long blonde hair.

'What do you mean?' I asked, trying to keep it casual. How did she know I was up in the common room? She'd gone to bed long before I went down…

'I heard you come back up. That cat of yours caught a mouse or something; I could hear the poor thing squealing for ages. So, are you going to answer my question?' she demanded.

'Oh, I er… I was seeing my um… Fred.' I breathed in sharply and pretended to be deeply interested in a book.

'Fred Weasley?' she squealed. 'Are you… Are you together?'

I smiled without knowing. 'Yeah…' I mumbled.

Lavender let out another squeal of happiness. 'No wonder you're not interested in Ron! Ah of course… His brother… Wow, Hermione. That's amazing…'

I blushed slightly.

'Is it a secret though?' she asked.

'No, why?' I answered.

'Oh… Well, you didn't tell me anything last night. I just thought maybe you weren't telling anyone.'

I laughed quietly. 'Oh, I wasn't sure if we were telling people, so I kept my mouth shut… I'm sorry,' I added awkwardly.

'It's fine!' she said busily, as she grabbed some dark eye pencil and started putting it on.

'I'll… See you later,' I mumbled, before hurrying down to breakfast. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, Fred and George were there waiting.

'Hello, love,' Fred said, kissing me on the forehead.

'If you don't mind,' said George. 'I won't kiss you… But good morning.' He smiled broadly.

'Good morning, boys,' I said calmly, smiling at each one of them in turn.

They each grabbed one of my arms. 'Let's go down to breakfast,' said George.

I smiled again, and allowed them to take me to the Great Hall, where many jealous-looking girls scanned their darkened eyes over me and the twins.

'Fred,' I whispered, trying to go slyly on my tip-toes so I could reach his ear. 'People are staring…'

Fred laughed. 'Let them stare!' he whispered back. 'It's better than them picking fights with you, anyway,' he winked.

'Very funny,' I said dryly.

We took a seat towards the middle of the table; Fred and I on one side, and George on the other. Harry and Ron soon joined us; Ron looking rather sour. As he sat, we had a few seconds eye-contact, and I gave him a warm smile. He didn't return it.

'Remember to tell everybody about meeting in the Room of Requirement, Harry,' I reminded him.

'Of course,' he said. 'I told Ginny to tell the people in her year; and Luna to tell all the Ravenclaws. It should get around easily enough.'

'Brilliant,' I said, smiling.

I looked up at Fred sitting next to me. He rubbed his roughened hands (probably due to years of Quidditch) over my soft ones. Our eyes met and I saw him blush slightly, which made me giggle.

'Do you mind? I don't want to choke on my breakfast,' said Ron with a huge glare on his face. He was directing it at Fred.

'You don't exactly have to look, mate,' Fred retaliated.

'It's bloody difficult when you're right in front of me!' Ron yelled. 'It's disgusting, seeing you looking at each other with that bloody look on your faces.' He stood up, grabbed his bag and another piece of toast and stormed out of the hall. Fred was breathing heavily and I put my hand on his arm, as if to say, 'It's okay, he'll get over it'.

Of course, neither of us knew that for sure. Ron could be quite persistent sometimes, and if he wanted to be mad at us, then he would be. Simple as that. Unfortunately, Fred was his brother, which I suppose made him even more infuriated.

But it wasn't exactly my fault! He'd never shown any interest in me before, apart from when I was the only one left for the Yule Ball. He didn't even realise I was a girl till then. Was I really that bad? A wave of sadness rushed over me as I thought about how the others in my year must see me. Just a swotty, manly git, I suppose.

Soon, it was time for first lesson. Fred grumbled and walked me to potions, holding my hand tightly, as if I would just fall out of his grasp. I smiled at him and he placed a soft kiss on my forehead before saying 'I'll see you later, love,' and walking away.

I could tell he was angry at Ron, and was unsure about how to act around me because Ron was supposed to be my 'friend'. This didn't bother me too much, though, because somehow I knew that Harry would figure out a way to get Ron to leave us be.

Fred's POV:

Lessons that day dragged by slowly. I practically lived for when I would see Hermione's fresh, smiling face. Her eyes, somehow, seemed to just make me happy, and her touch sent tingles through my nerves. She just made me so happy, and now Ron had to go and ruin even that. He's my brother! He should be happy for me, not go round telling me that we were disgusting. It made me so fucking angry.

If I was with her, and he saw us together, all Ron would do is shoot us a look that could probably kill us, and storm off with Harry. But Harry didn't care that we were going out, and he was as good as my brother.

'Fred,' said Hermione that evening, as we sat down beside the warm fire in the common room. 'What if Ron really doesn't forgive me? I didn't mean to hurt him…' she mumbled.

'Sweetheart,' I whispered, leaning slightly closer to her worried face. 'Everything will be okay. I'll even get Harry to talk to him, if it makes you feel better.'

'But we tried, Fred! Ron's just so stubborn!' she practically yelled, although luckily no one else was paying any attention to us. 'Harry couldn't get him to just drop it, because he's just stupid, and arrogant, and…' Her voice trailed off and tears filled up her chocolate eyes.

Shit! 'Don't cry, love…' I sighed. 'He's not worth it. You've got me, and I'll make sure he doesn't do anything too bad to you.' I winked; to lighten the mood but Hermione didn't look at me.

'He was one of my best friends…' she sobbed. I shuffled her onto my lap and she cried into my chest. I didn't say anything, and soon we were both drifting off into dreams…

Hermione's POV:

The first thing that I felt when I awoke was a strange body heat coming from my pillow. What? My eyes managed to flutter open and I found myself curled up on my boyfriend's lap. I couldn't help but laugh at the situation; imagining how funny we must have looked to our friends. I tried to move off of his lap but Fred's grip around me was tight. I shoved him lightly to wake him up.

'Fred,' I whispered. 'Time to get up…'

With a sharp intake of breath, Fred's eyes shot open.

'What did I miss?' he asked lazily, smiling broadly.

'You're holding me a bit too… tight,' I said, trying to wriggle free from his grasp.

'Oops! Sorry, love!' Fred immediately took his arms off from around me and I looked around the common room. No one was there. Were we late for lessons? The sun was low in the sky outside the window and a few birds were flying past, but seeing Hagrid's hut still with its curtains drawn, I assumed that I'd just woken up early.

'Sleep well?' Fred asked, yawning, and then winking.

'Of course,' I said sarcastically.

Fred just grinned and practically leaped towards me, closing the distance between our lips that were so desperately trying to meet. I had to stretch right on my tip-toes so he didn't lean over too much.

Wow, I thought. I could get used to this.

Thanks for reading!

Sorry again that I haven't updated for a while. I'll get started on the next chapter tomorrow evening (as I must go and revise now, for a biology exam -_-) please review, etc

Love you all xxx