So, it's been a while, but I haven't forgotten.
"Go, now." Hissed George angrily in the darkness.
"It's only been-" He squinted at his watch in the poor light, "-Thirty-six minutes."
"If you don't go now, I'm going to protrificus totalus you for the rest of the night." George was dead serious so Fred slipped out of bed and made his way up the stairs to Hermione's room.
He liked her room- it smelt like her and everything about it fascinated him as the embodiment of her personality. It was more organised than is own, pretty but not girly or infantile... and enough books to kill a blast-ended screwt.
"Where are you going?" Ron's harsh whisper made Fred nearly jump out of his skin.
"Sleep walking." He said, giving Ron a forced grin.
"No you're not." Ron replied, seriously.
"Well spotted Ronnie, there's no fooling you." Fred sarcastically praised, making his way back towards the stairs.
"Hang on, hang on." Ron grabbed his arm in the darkness. "You were going into Hermione's room."
There was a long pause where the two brothers looked at each other, one in suspicion, the other in guilt.
"Well this is awkward." Grimaced Fred.
"You're lucky I'm not a snitch." Hissed Ron, "I have half a mind to wake her up and tell her you were here- Just what were you planning to do?"
Fred opened and closed him mouth twice.
"What?" He asked finally.
"Don't play dumb Fred," Ron gripped his forearm tightly, "She's had a fucking hard time of it- we all have. The last thing any of us needs is to be woken up in the middle of the night because of one of your stupid pranks."
Fred frowned at his brother.
"You're right." He said flatly, feeling deflated.
"Damn right I am." Ron let him go, turning back to his own room and clipping the door shut behind him.
Fred made his way back into his own room, careful not to wake George.
Hermione had listened, ear pressed to the door, and heard the whole conversation. For some time she had felt sure that the thumping of her heart would alert them to her eavesdropping.
Once Fred had left, she crawled back into bed, sheepishly pulling off her pink underwear and diving under the covers naked.
She felt too much to think, so she curled up and slept.
In the morning, Fred found her in the vegetable garden. Her feet were bare and she was wearing only a long, mustard-yellow t-shirt over her underwear. Before living with the Weasley's she never would have worn such an outfit outside of her room, but everything was so relaxed here she felt at ease, confortable.
Fred thought she looked beautiful, her long dark hair shifting in the uneven wind. It pulled lightly at her top, showing him the tops of her creamy thighs.
"I'm sorry about last night." He said, smiling tiredly at her.
"Ron." She said, shaking her head. "He always thinks he's helping."
She looked so young for a second, her little face squinting up at him in the sunlight, that he felt terribly old. Any reasonable person would have said at this point that He was not even two years older than her and she would soon be eighteen but... his close encounter with death had shaken Fred to his very core. While no one may have realised yet, Fred was feeling that the things that had once tethered him so tightly to reality had been shaken loose, leaving him floating in limbo.
Hermione was the wises, kindest and most shewd person Fred had ever known. She made him feel seen and understood, something undecipherable about her attached him back to their post-war world.
And yet that was so much to ask of a person, and he knew it.
"Term starts in a few weeks." He said, trying to keep his voice light.
Hermione didn't look at him. She surveyed the garden, catching sight of a particularly small gnome poke its head out from behind a bush a few meters away.
"Hermione?"
"Yes?"
"Have you got all your robes and everything?" He knew she had heard him before. If he repeated himself, she would realise the weight her leaving carried with him. Neither of them were ready for that.
"I've been ready for weeks." Hermione sighed and sat down on the grass. Fred followed suit.
"What happ-"
"I don't know." She replied gently.
"You didn't hear my question." Fred was more than a little worried.
"I don't need to know your question. Whatever you were going to ask, chances are I don't know the answer."
They sat in silence. The sun warmed their backs pleasantly. On the other side of the garden they could just make out Mrs Weasley putting washing out to dry. White sheets flapped slowly in the warm haze.
"I wish we could just stay here forever." Sighed Fred, lying down on the warm grass.
"But we can't." Hermione replied sleepily, lying down next to him.
"The end of the war doesn't mean the end of our lives," She huffed, amused, "That was the whole point."
Fred winced. Unable to see him, it went unnoticed to Hermione.
"It's good to be alive." He said, finally.
"But also difficult."
"Yes."
Her hand found his.
"I have to go back to school. It'll give me structure. I need that."
"I know."
"I'm not very good at living in the now. It's something I've always failed at." They both smiled at the idea of her failing. "And you need Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. You need that creative freedom."
"You're right." He said, regretfully. "But maybe I can help you."
"How?" She sat up a bit, leaning on her elbows and looking down at his handsome, freckled face.
"You need to learn to live in the now." He said simply, cupping her face and pulling her down into a passionate kiss.
From behind the bush, the gnome giggled.