Dare

By Montley

Fred Weasley was never one to back down from a dare, especially ones that emanate from the wicked mind of his twin brother, George. He did not know where this specific dare had come from in the pits of his brother's brain, but there was no way he would chicken out, even if it did mean that he could ruin maybe one or two relationships he had with people.

George patted him on the back, pushing him towards where Harry, Ron and Hermione were seated in the common room.

Then George warned, "If you don't go through with this, you know what's going to happen to you? I'm going to march you over to the zoo and feed you to the yak."

"That's sounds like tons of fun," Fred retorted as he began walking towards the group of friends. He was distracted as he stared at her laughing with Harry and Ron. He ran his hand along his head, feeling nervous sweat on the back of his neck. Distracted, he accidently stepped on one of the Creevey brother's hand as they were both perched on the floor with their cameras and photographs. He muttered an apology and peaked at their photos. Most of them were of Harry. Fred held back a snicker; the brother's activities were demented and sad, but social.

Unwittingly, Fred trudged on, his heart beating like a drum as he grew closer to the laughing girl. He turned back and looked at George, who encouraged him with a thumbs up and a smile. Of course George knew his secret; George knew everything about him, even if he never mentioned it. He should have imagined that George would make him do this one of these days. Sure, Fred was a Gryffindor, but when it came to talking about his feelings, he preferred to keep them inside.

He stood next to their table, hesitating before he tapped Hermione on her shoulder. She turned and smiled at him with that same smile that he thought was so beautiful and endearing.

"Hello, Fred," she greeted. "Do you need something? And no, I'm not returning the Skiving Snackboxes if that's what you're here about because that's the way it crumbles… cookie wise."

"Whatever, keep them," Fred said. "For what I'm about to do, I'm sorry Hermione."

Hermione's eyebrows creased, and her expression appeared very amused. Then Fred bent down and grabbed her face in his hands,

"W-what are you?" she stuttered out right before Fred planted his lips firmly on hers, remembering George had said it had to last at least thirty seconds. She remained there stunned under his lips. Fred kept his lips on hers, feeling awkward as he counted down the numbers in his head. Hermione did not push him away, but he could feel the rest of the common room's eyes on them as the room had quieted drastically. Slowly, Hermione began returning the kiss, but Fred could tell that she was equally as embarrassed, but he was shocked that she did not immediately push him away.

In his head, he reached thirty seconds, and he parted their lips away from each other. He could hear Ron complaining about Fred's audacity to embarrass Hermione like that, but he tuned him out.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Fred repeated in front of her, throwing his hands in the air when he noticed her indifferent expression. "It's just George dared me to do this probably knowing that I have feelings for you, I'm just really sorry."

"You what?" Hermione asked, completely stunned. "I figured it was some sort of a dare, I mean, who in their right mind would do this if it wasn't. But are you serious?"

"Serious about what?" he questioned, his eyebrows creasing.

"That you have feelings for me," she said carefully, her fingers twiddling together as her cheeks grew scarlet.

"I said that…"

"Yes," she muttered.

"Shit."

Written for:

The Movie Quotes Challenge

HP Potions Competition - Kissing Concoction

All the Pairings Challenge