Title: First Date
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 730
A/N(optional): Sometimes things are not as they seem. Set in the freds_not_dead universe. Winner of the fwhg_ldws challenge – prompt: first date.

Hermione massaged the back of her neck with her hand. She was exhausted. She'd come straight over to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes from her office at the Ministry after Fred's Floo call. He and George had been having trouble figuring out the proper ratio of flobberworm mucus to hellebore in a new potion they were developing for the shop. She'd offered to help, but hadn't made much progress.

After she and Fred had been working in the lab for three hours, George poked his head in. "Oi! I'm locking up and then going upstairs to get ready for my date with Angelina. Do you need anything before I go?"

Fred glanced at Hermione, who shook her head. "No, we'll be fine. Go. Have fun. Don't do anything that Hermione wouldn't do."

Both George and Hermione rolled their eyes at him.

Once George was gone, Fred sat on his stool and looked frustrated. "I don't feel any closer to a solution now than when we started," he muttered. "Let's call it a night and nip over to The Leaky Cauldron for dinner."

Hermione looked down at her robes. They were covered with slime and little bits of flobberworm. She doubted that even the strongest Scourgify could clean it. "I'll have to pass," she sighed. "I just want to go home and take a shower."

"Hey, you can't leave without eating," Fred protested. "You wash up and I'll Apparate to the pub to pick us up a kidney pie and a couple of butterbeers."

Hermione smiled as he popped out of the room. Lately, she and Fred had been spending a lot of time together in his lab. She'd begun to develop a crush on him, which wasn't that surprising given he was cute, funny, smart, and charming. Of course, he was also her ex-boyfriend's brother and had never demonstrated the least bit of interest in her. Therefore, Hermione was carefully trying not to reveal her developing feelings for the eldest Weasley twin.

As she turned to clean up at the sink, Hermione knocked Fred's file of notes to the floor. "Bugger," she hissed, bending down to pick them up. As she placed the scrolls back into the folder, however, she came across a memo that specified the exact quantity of mucus to hellebore needed for the Wheezes' new potion. She stared at it in confusion.

The silence in the room was broken by Fred's return. "I hope you're hungry, because I picked up some chips to go with the pie," he told her.

Hermione turned toward him and held up the memo she'd found. "What's this?" she asked, sounding annoyed.

"Ur… it's the formula for the potion we've been working on."

"Why in the hell did you have me trying to figure this out all evening if you already had the solution?" she questioned, heatedly.

Fred looked sheepish. "I was hoping that if you discovered the answer by yourself, you'd throw your arms around my neck and kiss me in excitement."

"Could you please be serious!" Hermione demanded, stomping her foot.

"I am being serious," he protested. "I thought it would be the perfect ending to our first date."

"Our what?"

"Our date. Surely you are familiar with the concept; it is when two people who are interested in each other romantically do something fun together," he explained.

"This wasn't a date!" Hermione objected. "You didn't even ask me out."

"That would have ruined my entire plot to get you to kiss me," he grinned.

Hermione placed her hands on her cheeks and shook her head slowly. "If you thought I was interested in you romantically, why even bother with a plot? Why not just ask me out like a normal person?"

Fred blushed slightly and mumbled his reply.

"What?"

"I was worried you might not be the kind of girl to snog at the end of a first date," he told her, red still staining his cheeks. "But if happened on accident, it wouldn't be so awkward."

Hermione dropped her hands and took a step forward, grabbing him by his robes. "You were right," she whispered. "I'm not the kind of girl who kisses on a first date."

Before Fred could reply, Hermione had pulled him down and pressed her lips against his. "But if you can insist that this is our first date, I can claim that our time in the lab last week was our first date and that this is our second."