Somewhere on a Beach
Chapter Three
Hermione walks behind Fred, following him up the stairs to the roof of the hotel and waiting as he punches in the numbers for the security door. A light on the door blinks green, indicating that it is unlocked, allowing Fred to push it open and gesture for Hermione to step out onto the roof ahead of him.
The roof of the hotel– or, at least this section of it– is a flat block of cement surrounded by half-walls of similar stone. Attached to the cement half-walls are tall, wooden poles with small fairy lights strung between them and spread out on the floor is a plush-looking blanket with a handful of pillows.
If Hermione has to guess, she would say that Linda likely set up that makeshift bed on the roof sometime this morning after giving Fred the security code. It would get damaged if it were to rain, so Hermione knows that it couldn't be something which stays set up all of the time.
"Wow," Hermione breathes. "This is really beautiful."
Hermione vaguely registers the sound of the door closing behind her, but she's more focused on walking up to the half-wall which overlooks the part of the beach where the fireworks are being set off.
Hermione leans her forearms on the half-wall, admiring the view of the bursts of light exploding in the sky before her.
"I'm glad you like it," Fred states, coming to stand beside Hermione, leaning against the wall with her.
Hermione turns her head, looking up at the tall redhead beside her.
"Did you know that I always think of you when I see fireworks?" Hermione chuckles, smiling up at her friend. "You and George, I mean."
Fred returns her smile, bumping her shoulder with his arm.
"Yes, well, we've certainly set off our fair share of them."
Hermione shakes her head at Fred's understatement.
"And after tonight, I really won't be able to watch fireworks without thinking of you– or was that your plan all along?" Hermione says conspiratorially, winking at her fake-husband.
Fred rolls his eyes, though his smile still remains.
"You caught me," Fred smirks. "I had to give you something to remember me by."
"As if I could ever forget you, Fred Weasley."
After what is probably about half an hour– though it feels like longer– Hermione decides to lie down on the blanket behind where she and Fred had been standing to watch the fireworks.
"Is it alright if I join you?" Fred asks after a moment, tucking his hands into his trouser pockets as he looks down at her.
Hermione pretends to think for a moment before responding.
"Well, you are my husband for the week, after all," Hermione replies with a laugh. "I suppose I can share my space with you."
Fred lies down beside Hermione, not close enough to touch her, but close enough. The blanket which Linda presumably laid out for them isn't quite the size of a queen-sized mattress, so Hermione can easily feel Fred's presence beside her, whether he's touching her or not.
"How kind of you."
Out of the corner of her eye, Hermione notices how the glow of the fireworks illuminates Fred's face– an effect which Hermione notes makes her friend's face seem a bit more youthful, almost as if he is still the teenaged Fred Weasley who dropped out of Hogwarts in a blaze of glory.
Hermione rolls onto her side, facing Fred as a question occurs to her.
"Fred?" Hermione asks, hoping to draw his attention away from the fireworks for a moment.
Fred turns to face Hermione, laying on his side opposite her and raising an eyebrow in a silent indication that he heard her and is awaiting her question.
"Why did you agree to come with me on this trip?"
The thought had occurred to her before, but she had been so pleased that she could still take this trip without Ginny that she hadn't really questioned it. It's not as if Fred doesn't have his own life– his own business, even– so she hadn't expected that he would be able to just pack up and leave for a week on such short notice.
Fred's eyebrows scrunch together in confusion.
"Why wouldn't I have?" Fred asks in return, propping his head up on his hand but maintaining eye-contact with Hermione.
Hermione shrugs– as much as she can while lying down.
"Because you have a life?" Hermione replies, briefly mesmerized by the flash of blue light which blooms over Fred's cheek as a result of the firework show still going on around them.
Fred, for his part, still seems confused.
"There is literally nothing that I can think of that's more important than a beach vacation with one of the most important people in my life," Fred states, his face still contorted as if he's missing something. "Especially when that person is also going through a terrible break-up with someone I am directly related to. More than anything, I wanted you to know that us Weasleys don't claim him right now."
The corner of Hermione's lips twitches up in an unexpected smile.
"Let me be perfectly clear, Hermione– if this wasn't already obvious by the fact that I'm here with you right now. I am firmly on your side here. Apart from George, you are my best friend. The minute that you asked me to come on this trip, I didn't hesitate."
Hermione reaches forward tentatively, placing her hand on Fred's forearm.
"You're one of my best friends, too," Hermione states, ignoring the flash of yellow light coming from above her in favor of holding her contact with Fred's soft blue eyes. "I'm really glad that you came."
Hermione's eyes blink open slowly. As is her habit upon waking, she stretches her legs and snuggles back underneath her comforter for an extra moment before she would typically heave herself out of her bed. Today, as she stretches, Hermione comes to the startling realization that she is not, in fact, sleeping in her bed in her hotel suite.
Hermione sits up abruptly, clutching her comforter to her chest and scanning her surroundings for answers. She finds them rather quickly.
Within a handful of moments, Hermione comes to the conclusion that she must have fallen asleep at some point during the firework show due to the fact that up until a moment ago, she was still laying in the same place she had been the last time she remembers. What she hadn't had at that time, though, was the blanket which now covers her.
To Hermione's right, she finds the clearly-still-asleep form of Fred Weasley beneath his own, separate blanket, his shaggy, copper hair nearly completely covering his eyes. The slow rise and fall of his chest confirms Hermione's suspicion that he is actually still asleep.
Hermione debates for a moment if she should wake Fred or if she should let him sleep. Eventually, she decides that it's a beautiful night and that she might as well let him sleep, deciding to do the same herself.
The next time that Hermione wakes up, she notices immediately that the air around her is warmer– that she feels comfortable, cozy and safe despite knowing that she inadvertently slept outside last night.
The second thing which Hermione realizes is that there is a distinct human-shaped wall pressed against her back. She can't actually feel Fred between the two blankets still covering them both, but she knows that he's there. The knowledge of that fact brings a level of peace and comfort to her that almost surprises her– almost.
Hermione slowly, carefully rolls onto her back. Within a moment, Fred also seems to stir, his eyes fluttering open lazily. The side of Fred's face is squished against his pillow, but Hermione can still make out the sleepy smile tugging at her friend's lips.
"Morning," Fred breathes, making no effort to move away from where he is still nearly on top of Hermione.
Hermione laughs lightly, raising an eyebrow at Fred's lack of explanation as to how the two of them ended up sleeping on the roof of their hotel last night.
"Care to enlighten me as to why sleeping up here was preferable to going back to our room after the show?" Hermione wonders, deciding that she isn't going to psychoanalyze why she also hasn't moved from her close proximity to the wizard beside her.
Hermione could swear that she notices a bit of pink tint Fred's cheeks, though it could also be the bit of sunburn that he got yesterday.
"You fell asleep. I was planning on carrying you back down to our room, but I didn't want to risk waking you. So, instead, I cast a cushioning charm on the blanket that Linda set out and conjured two more in case you got cold," Fred states, shrugging his shoulders as if he hadn't just gone into detail about how he had thoughtfully considered his options and made exactly the decision which Hermione herself would've made if the situation had been reversed. "Don't worry, there's also a notice-me-not and a handful of Muggle-repellant, Impervious and muffling charms that should still be up. We're safe."
Hermione decides not to dwell on the fact that safety hadn't even been a concern of hers. Somewhere deep inside, she had known that she was safe simply because Fred was with her.
"I trust you," Hermione says, her voice quiet, but sure. "You could've woken me, though. You didn't have to sleep outside just because I fell asleep."
Fred shrugs, rolling onto his back and stretching his arms up above his head. Hermione's vision is suddenly blocked by a bicep in her face, though she actually doesn't mind that as much as she thinks she ought to. She supposes that as far as arms go, Fred has fairly nice ones.
"Well, it was sort of nice, wasn't it?" Fred smiles a half-smile, bringing his arms back down to rest at his sides.
Hermione nods in agreement. Yes, she supposes that sleeping under the stars with one of her best friends is quite a nice way to spend an evening.
"It was. I think I slept better last night than I have in ages."
Hermione and Fred spend the rest of the day– after they've dragged themselves out of their makeshift bed– laying on the beach, chatting aimlessly about nothing and enjoying the sun.
Over the course of her three-ish days so far with Fred, Hermione has found herself feeling immensely grateful for this friendship and this wizard. If someone had told twelve year-old Hermione that one of her closest friends into adulthood would be Ron's prankster older brother, she would never have believed them.
If Hermione is being honest with herself, Fred and George had always sort of annoyed her with their carelessness. Their pranks were never intentionally harmful, but Hermione had always thought that if they could make themselves laugh, that they didn't really care how anyone else felt. The War changed them– and everyone.
Fred had almost died in the War after a massive wall had collapsed. Fortunately, a handful of friendlies had seen the collapse and had jumped in and levitated the rubble away before it did too much damage. Fred had taken a few hits, ending up with a broken clavicle, a broken ulna and three broken ribs. His entire chest had been bruised and battered for weeks, regardless of how much bruise paste he had applied.
Almost before the dust had settled after the War, George had both proposed to and married Angelina Johnson. Hermione's favorite photo from George's wedding is the one of the altar as George and Angelina are saying their vows. It's such a beautiful picture and despite being in an arm sling, Fred, acting as best man, still looked so happy for his twin.
After the wedding, Hermione had moved into the Burrow, where Fred was still living in the wake of his injury. Ron was also, technically, a resident of his childhood home, though he spent more time at Grimmauld with Harry than he did at the Burrow. With the complications of her relationship with her parents. Hermione had craved that parental support that Molly Weasley always seemed to exude, and of course, the Weasley matriarch had been more than happy to allow Hermione to move into Ginny's recently-vacated bedroom.
Hermione's friendship with Fred had been borne mostly of proximity, though she does, admittedly, enjoy the redheaded man's company more than she ever intended to. Hermione had been the one to help Fred into his suit jacket for George's wedding, maneuvering carefully around his broken bones and Fred had been the one to stay up with Hermione on more than one night when her nightmares would keep her awake.
The first couple of years of Hermione's ill-fated relationship with Ronald had been mostly smooth-sailing. In hindsight, Hermione thinks that a part of her had possibly always known that that relationship was bound to end in pain, though she had never anticipated his cheating. She had, at least, always thought that he would break up with her if the thought of cheating ever occurred to him– evidently not.
Their first of many breakups had come two years into the relationship and Hermione should've known then that the relationship was doomed, but instead, she held on. When Ron proposed, Hermione thought that she had just known that marrying him had been the expectation for her since she was young, so she had overlooked the fact that she knew that it wasn't right.
In a way, Hermione is grateful for Ron's inability to keep his trousers zipped. She knows that had Ron not cheated on her, she would've married him. She would've spent a lifetime trying to make it work with someone who clearly wasn't meant for her and– if nothing else– now, she doesn't have to force a marriage. Rather, she can wait until she meets the right man for her– one who won't cheat on her with a woman eight years her junior– and marry him instead.
Hi, friends! Happy Friday. I know, I know. It's almost not Friday anymore, at least, for me. I'm sorry. Got super distracted today, but we're here! (:
First and foremost, in case you don't read the other fic that I'm currently uploading weekly installments of- Snippets- you might've missed it, but I'm having surgery next week, so there will not be any uploads next week, and likely not the week after, either. Thank you for your understanding and patience. (:
Also, I might have started writing another Fremione. Lol. Well, first, I wrote two companion pieces to this fic and an (obviously) unrelated Dramione, and then I wrote another multi-chapter Fremione. Apparently I have a problem, lol. But all that means is that there's still plenty of work coming, despite my break for the next couple of weeks to recover from surgery.
As always, thank you all so much for spending a bit of your time here with me this week. I am so, so grateful for your continued support. If you feel so inclined, leave a review. I love reading your thoughts, especially as this fic is just getting started. (:
See you all again soon.
