That night at the feast Fred thought it passed by in a dull blur. Angelina Johnson had happily come over to him and said "You'll never believe what happened this summer! I got the badge to become Gryffindor Quidditch captain!" Fred wasn't feeling like his usual jolly self and he let George cry the celebratory cheer.
He went to bed that night early and woke up in the same mood. His optimism from the day before at thought of apologizing to her had faded into another feeling- nerves. How was he supposed to apologize to her? He had never apologized to someone by himself (George always was in the same situation) and without his brother there it would be ten times harder.
He closed his eyes and thought back to what Lee had said. Fred didn't want to lose a girl due to a stupid prank like his friend did. The red haired boy got out of bed with a new determination. He got ready for the day and got his twin and Lee up. "Get up now!"
"What are you being cheerful about?" George asked groggily. Lee stuffed his head under his pillow to block out there loud voices.
Fred grinned and said "Today is the day Fred Weasley will get on Hermione Granger's good list."
"And why is this that?" George asked in a somewhat more awake tone.
"Because I am going to apologize to her." Fred simply answered as he walked out the door.
He walked down to the common room, hoping her could find her there. He scowled when she was nowhere to be seen. He walked out of the fat lady and almost ran to the Great Hall to look for her there. He swore loudly when he couldn't find her there either.
He was walking out of the Great Hall to check the library when he felt a tap on his shoulder. "Mr. Weasley. I will be passing out schedules soon so I suggest to you stay in here."
Fred groaned as he walked to the table and sat next to Angelina Johnson. "Hey Ang!" he said.
She turned around slowly to him and said "Oh, so now you've decided to talk to me?"
"Sorry, I wasn't in the most cheerful mod yesterday." He said with a sigh.
Angelina's cold look toward him died out as she put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "It must be something pretty sad to make you out of spirits." He nodded glumly and she asked "Do you want to talk about it?"
Fred shook his head but instead smiled at Angelina. "No thanks, but let me hear your plans for making the Gryffindor team smash Slytherin."
Angelina grinned and told Fred all about her plans. Fred found himself smiling and laughing, and for the moment forgetting about Hermione.
When breakfast was over Fred and George walked to class together. Their first class was DADA with the toad of a teacher Dolores Umbridge. This woman made the twins respect Professor McGonagall on a whole new level, not that they would ever tell her that.
When the woman told them all to read in their textbooks Fred instead thought about how he was going to apologize to Hermione. Fred was stumped. He was typically a very charismatic guy, even more so than George, and yet when it came to one bushy haired fifth year he was speechless.
At lunch that day Fred didn't see Hermione. Now he was getting frustrated. He needed to apologize soon, or he would never have a chance with her. For the rest of his lessons he paid no attention to his teacher and when Snape had asked him a question, Fred 'accidentally' called the potions master 'A bat cowering in his dungeon." Earning himself a detention.
Dinner time came around and Hermione was still not bloody present and now he couldn't look for her because he had a detention with a certain bat. He arrived and waited for Snape to enter. When the git strut into the room he said in a boring monotone voice "Mr. Weasley, for your disrespect towards me you will be cleaning cauldrons."
"Lovely." Fred muttered under his breath.
Snape growled at him and lead him over to the revolting dirty cauldrons. "Have fun." The teacher sneered before stalking out of the room. Fred pulled out his wand to begin magically cleaning. Snape came back in and a malicious smile appeared on his face when he saw what Fred was going to do. "No magic." He said before once again walking out of the room.
Fred looked down at the rags he was supposed to you and a fantasy of him strangling Snape with them occupied his mind while he began to clean.
He had more important things to do. He could be apologizing to Hermione right now and instead he had to clean stupid cauldrons.
Three hours later he was angrily stalking out of the dungeon, leaving behind a smirking Snape. While he grudgingly cleaned the stupid cauldrons he had realized he would have to wait until tomorrow to apologize to Hermione. All he could do was hope that one day wouldn't change anything.
He reached the fat lady and stepped in. He almost fell over when he saw Hermione sitting in one of the arm chairs. She had a book in her hand and was writing something down. Only Hermione Granger would be up late doing homework on the first day back at school.
"Hey!" Fred said.
Hermione looked up and her face hardened when she saw who it was. "What do you want? Use me to try out a new product again?" she said.
Fred came closer to her and sat down across from her. "I didn't mean to give it to you!" he said pleadingly.
Hermione crossed her arms and scowled. "Sure you didn't."
"I didn't!" he said in a loud voice. "It was meant for Ron."
Hermione's look of defiance faltered but she quickly tried to put it back up. "How do I know that?"
Fred felt like hitting the girl upside the head. "Hermione, I wouldn't eve do something like that to you." He threw his hands in the air. "I wanted to humiliate Ron. Hermione, I really, really li-" he cut himself off, realizing what he was about to say.
He blushed slightly and stood up. He walked towards the staircase leading to his dormitory. As he was about to ascend the stairs he turned around and looked deeply into Hermione's brown eyes. "Look. I didn't mean for you to get the cookie. I'm sorry."
Then he walked up to his room and lay down in his bed. George and Lee were already asleep and Fred was thankful for that.
He turned on his side and the last thing he saw was Hermione's smiling face.
Luckily Fred didn't notice Lee smiling slightly in his bed with an extendable ear laying next to him.
Well there it is. Please review, it makes me very happy :)