Glitter and Cake
"This dress is too tight." Hermione grumbled as she tugged at her V neck. The tugging allowed Fred a glimpse of her cleavage and he grit his teeth. This was not going as he had planned. Hermione had been easy enough to convince to come along with him but he had clearly not thought this through.
She was smashed and a drunk Hermione had no inhibitions.
She had groped his ass twice.
His cheeks were still flaming as he told himself sternly that this was his little brother's best friend.
He should have just taken her to her own apartment, but, he looked down at the girl tucked under his arm, she had been so miserable. He looked away as his chest did that funny thing it did whenever he was around Hermione lately. Sadness didn't suit her.
Neither, apparently, did drinking.
She was sitting on the ground now, legs tucked beneath her, twirling her wand, making glitter swirl around her and laughing. He wondered if he should point out that getting glitter out of her skin would be a very difficult task but she looked so utterly pleased with herself that he just found himself smiling.
What the heck.
As he made his own arrangements, a flash of black caught his eye. He whirled around and froze.
She had taken off her dress.
Clad in black undergarments, she was now drinking straight from a bottle of gin, her cheeks getting flushed, lost in her own world.
"Um, Granger?"
She didn't look at him.
"Hermione?"
Happy dazed brown eyes looked at him and he had to force himself to keep his eyes on her face, not her glittering body.
He coughed, "Your clothes."
"It's hot." Hermione stated, simply.
Had she been that hurt that she had drunk herself into this stupor? Fred wondered at that and growled at himself when his gaze started wandering.
He sighed when she started shooting glitter at his furniture. Time for a sobering spell. But first. Hermione would kill him if she came to her senses and realized she was naked and he had done nothing about it. So he did what any gentleman would do in this sort of situation. He took away her wand to prevent her from attacking him, tossed a blanket over her and cast a sobering spell.
And then he waited.
He didn't have to wait long.
A short scream made him blink and he grinned.
As he waved his wand to complete the rest of his plan, the blanket shuffled and a head popped out.
Hermione opened her mouth to say something, her cheeks red with embarrassment when her eyes fell on the cake and decorations and she froze.
She opened her mouth again. Closed it. Her throat tightened and her vision grew blurry.
"Happy Birthday, Granger," Fred grinned and shot off miniature fireworks in the room.
She sniffled and that grin slid off his face to be replaced by alarm. "What did I do? What's wrong?"
She couldn't get the words out of her mouth and she wailed, "I'm naked!"
Fred stared at her and then burst out into laughter.
"This is not funny, Fred!"
He roared as she got to her feet and looked around, "Where's my wand?"
He shook his head, smirking, "I am anything but stupid, Granger. You'll hex me."
"No, I won't."
"You're lying." He snorted.
She stared at him and he could see the wheels in her head turning as she tried to come up with a way to hurt him.
"I didn't make you take off your dress." He pointed out.
"You did nothing to stop it."
He leaned against the kitchen door jamb, arms crossed against his chest, a lazy smile on his lips, "Now why would I do that, Hermione?" For no reason other than to provoke her, he ran his eyes down her frame covered in the blanket and delighted in the blush that covered her face.
"Where's my dress?"
He discreetly flicked his wand and vanished the tiny slip of cloth that she was calling a dress. Looking amused as she stood up, dragging the blanket with her, looking for her dress.
As she shot him a furious look he called out when she moved into the direction of the bedroom, "You could wear one of my shirts, Granger." He waggled his eyebrows at her as he followed her into his bedroom, "You'd look real nice in it."
She blushed again.
He found that he liked this new game of making Hermione Granger blush.
One hand keeping the blanket in place, the other rifled through his wardrobe as she muttered under her breath.
"Wear that black one, Granger."
She didn't want to wear it just because he had told her to wear it. But as she inspected the hirt he had suggested, she realized it was a button down and long enough to cover her legs, well, most of them anyway.
"Get out." She snapped.
Fred shrugged, a small smile playing on his lips, "Nothing I haven't seen bef- OOomph!"
He dodged the next shoe and rushed out of the room.
She exited his room seconds later, wearing his shirt, her hair rumpled, looking like she had just gotten out of bed. He stared at her in his shirt, feeling a bit strange. A fierce emotion hit him in the chest as he saw that the sleeves were too long. He got up and walked towards her, watching as her eyes widened in apprehension and wariness. She looked positively tiny in his shirt.
His voice was uncharacteristically low as he stood in front of her and rolled up her sleeve, one by one, his words teasing and yet so very intimate, "My shirts are too big on you. Let me help." She didn't say anything her eyes fixated on his hands as they gently adjusted her clothing. When he was done, he didn't move.
Neither did she.
"I -"
"Your cake." Fred's voice was rough, "Let's cut your cake. Before the clock strikes twelve."
She nodded and he sat a little closer to her than usual and she didn't comment. As she sliced the cake and he cheered, she blushed and turned to feed him a slice as was custom. His hand, clasped over hers gently as he guided it to his lips and his eyes met hers as he ate the cake.
She froze.
Those blue eyes didn't leave hers, no mischief in them, just a strange sort of awareness.
He leaned forward, "Hermi-"
The door banged open and George rushed in, "Fred, what the -"
He paused, his eyes taking in the scene. A glittering Hermione, her hand, held by Fred's, holding cake to Fred's lips. Their intimate position, with Fred's hand on her thigh and her lack of appropriate clothing.
"Oh-ho ho ho. So Mum was right!"
"This isn't what it - I mean - Fred tell him!"
Fred just looked shocked. What had he been about to do? This was his brother's best friend! And yet, she looked right. It felt right.
He stood up and ignored his brother's amused look, and stuffed his hands into his pockets, defensively, "We were celebrating Hermione's birthday."
"Do you need me to leave so that you two can continue 'celebrating'?"
Hermione glared at George, "Give me my wand, Fred. Let me hex him."
"Now now, Granger. Is that really necessary?"
George's taunting tone made her see red, "Forget the wand."
She tackled George who was laughing as he tried to fend off the one hundred and ten pounds of female.
Fred thought about intervening and then decided his twin probably deserved it and sat down to polish off the cake.
A.N: Late, I know.