Title: If We Kissed
Author: drcjsnider
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 447
A/N(optional): Winner of the fwhg_ldws challenge based on the song prompt: If We Kissed, by Fiona Apple.

It just wasn't done. She knew that. An upstanding widow would not date the brother of her dead husband. Even if said brother was good looking, funny, intelligent, and ridiculously successful. It would cause a scandal. The children would be embarrassed. Harry would shake his head in disapproval and Ginny would probably burst a blood vessel or two.

Hermione looked down at her wedding ring. Although Ron had been killed in an Auror accident almost two years ago, at times she still felt married to him. Thinking about dating anyone, least of all Fred Weasley, left her feeling guilty – as if she were breaking her marriage vows.

"Do you really think he'd have wanted you to be alone forever?" Fred asked her quietly.

Hermione bit her lip. In her more uncharitable moments she suspected that Ron was happy in the afterlife knowing that no one would ever fill his spot in her heart. Recently, however, she'd begun to wonder if he might be disappointed in her – ashamed at how cowardly she'd become romantically. "I'm not sure," she admitted.

"What would happen if we kissed? Do you think the entire wizarding world would collapse? Perhaps, you worry that Sirius and Dumbledore would return from beyond the veil and denounce you as a scarlet woman? No offense, luv, but I doubt that anyone besides me really gives a shite where you put your tongue."

"But how will it look? What will people say? I want to, but I'm not sure it's the right thing to do."

Fred shook his head. "You don't think I'm scared too? You leave me defenseless. I can't even make sense of this. All I know is that I don't want to pass up something wonderful based solely on fears about what others might think. I've been patient, Hermione. But now you have 30 seconds left to run away before I grab you, kiss you, and do everything in my power to make you spontaneously combust with desire."

"Maybe we could try—" Hermione began, before Fred cut off her words by pulling her into his arms and covering her lips with his. As she sank into the kiss, Hermione wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed herself as tightly against him as possible. It felt so right and so amazing that it surely couldn't be a mistake. When Fred finally pulled back, she blinked several times to regain her equilibrium and then glared at him. "That wasn't thirty seconds."

He grinned and tightened his hands around her waist. "You speak, but I don't hear a word except 'kiss me again, Fred.'"

And when Hermione opened her mouth to protest, he did just that.