Chapter 24

September 19th 1999

Almost

Fred was expecting Hermione at any moment. He'd told George his plans weeks ago, even enlisting his brother's help in order to carry them out and everything culminated tonight. They had eaten dinner as usual on Friday while he bit his tongue and fought to pretend that he had no idea her birthday was coming up and her not even mentioning it. He had asked her what she was planning to do with her weekend and she had given him the same answer that she always did, that she was going to do some reading and relax at home before work the next week. He'd found it odd that her 20th birthday wasn't even something she threw into that, but also accepted that perhaps she just wasn't expecting anything and didn't even realise that he knew. But he did know and he had planned it all in order to surprise her. He glanced around, smiling as he awarded himself a gold star for his efforts.

His usually already cluttered flat looked like a bomb had gone off in a stationary shop. The ceiling was littered with balloons that he had charmed to stay up in the air, the walls were adorned with banners that wished her a happy birthday and he had charmed the air itself to smell like vanilla. He'd even gone as far as to transfigure his coffee table and sofa set up into a cosy little dining table and chairs, the former of which held a truly enormous cake with her name iced onto it. There were flowers, each of which he had picked specifically for their meaning, gathered into a bouquet next to the cake and her gifts, one from him and one from George, lay underneath. George's gift was considerably smaller than his own, but he knew what his brother had done for the witch and he knew she would be incredibly grateful for the thought. He sighed, dusting imaginary dust from the front of his shirt as he glanced at the clock and seeing that it was time. Pulling his wand from his belt loop, he focused his thoughts and conjured his patronus before he spoke to it.

"Hermione, I need your help, could you floo through please?" he recited and the Magpie seemed to nod before it flew out of his window and disappeared.

He waited, shuffling his feet nervously for a few minutes until the floo roared and she stumbled out, catching herself and looking at him with panic written all over her face.

"I came as soon as I… Could…"

He watched, smiling softly as the panic dropped from her face and was quickly replaced with shock. She stood stock still, eyes wide and bright as they roamed around the room and took everything in. While she did, he took a moment to look her over and his heart faltered in his chest. Over the last few weeks, she had regained some of the weight she had lost over her time in solitude and it showed mostly on her face. Her lips were no longer dry and cracked, but full, plump and soft. Her curves, now so much more evident, were shown off by the dress she wore; a dark purple cotton one which hung to her knees and wrapped around her waist, accentuating her hourglass figure. When she finally turned her gaze back to him, his heart began to race at the sight of her eyes, shining with so much emotion as she brought both hands up to cover her open mouth.

"Fred," she croaked quietly and he gulped, stepping forwards to meet her, "how did you…"

"Happy birthday," he said just as quietly, reaching his hand forward and pushing an errant curl from her face as she leaned towards his hand and he smirked, "you couldn't possibly have thought I wouldn't know?"

"I…" she gasped, her face falling into a frown, her hands dropping before she put them on her hips, "so you don't need my help? And why aren't you at the Burrow for dinner?"

"Because it's your birthday!" Fred laughed, shaking his head in amazement, "and I'm not going to let it pass by unnoticed. Duh."

"You know you didn't have to do all of this," she muttered, though he noticed a small smile played on her lips and it caused a warmth that coiled in his gut, "I would have been perfectly happy w-"

"You would have been perfectly happy to not do anything," he pointed out and she sighed, rolling her eyes as he smirked, "I, on the other hand, think you deserve better than that."

"You're too nice to me," she mumbled as he stepped aside and gestured towards the table, her eyes widening when she took in the cake that he had previously been hiding with his body, "Oh my god, that cake is huge! We'll be eating cake for weeks!"

"True, now blow out the candles before the wax drips onto the icing." he snorted, gently placing his hand on the small of her back and pushing her forwards.

She stumbled slightly, glaring at him playfully over her shoulder before stepping forwards and bending a little in order to get closer to the candles. Fred's eyes couldn't help but stare at her bottom as she bent over, his face filling with colour as he shifted his feet slightly, hoping to discreetly rearrange a part of him that fought to awaken at the sight of her glorious curves. He cleared his throat, ignoring the surge of hormones as he walked around her and watched as she closed her eyes and blew a gentle gust of air from her pursed lips, the candles flickering out one by one until she opened her eyes and looked up at him. The light in the room danced in her happy eyes and he found it near impossible to not get lost in them as she brought herself back up to full height and smiled at him. Merlin, this witch was beautiful and he was absolutely helpless in his fight to suppress his ever growing feelings. Shaking himself, he pulled out the chair for her and waited until she sat down before pulling his wand from his belt loop and sending the cake into the kitchen before sitting himself.

"Thank you," she said softly, reaching out and placing her hand in his, which only made his heart stutter again, "for this, for the cake, for everything. I… I appreciate you."

"You don't have to thank me, Hermione," he said, smiling back at her across the table while he squeezed her hand, so small and soft in his own, "besides, you haven't had your presents yet."

"You got me a present?" she asked, her eyes widening in surprise and he nodded happily, releasing her hand and leaning down under the table to collect her two wrapped gifts, "you didn't have t-"

"Hermione," he chuckled, rolling his eyes at her when she glared at him for interrupting her, "I know I didn't have to, but I wanted to. So did George."

"George got me a present too?!" she asked loudly and he laughed as he nodded, placing the large box from him and George's smaller one on the table, making her eyebrows furrow, "what did you get me?"

"How about you just open them and find out?" he chuckled and she sighed, picking up the smaller box, "that one is from George."

He watched, focusing on her fingers as she slowly and very carefully began to unwrap the small gift that his brother had worked on for her. He had been talking to his brother a couple of weeks ago about the amount of stress Hermione had been under prior to Kingsley's trip to Germany, telling him about the time they'd spent together translating her speeches into German. George's eyes had lit up and he'd run from the room without further word. The next day, George had come into work carrying the box that Hermione now held in her hands, handing it over to Fred with a grin as he explained what he had done. Fred had to admit, even he was impressed with the complexity of his brother's charm work and he knew that Hermione would be too. She looked up at him when she had unwrapped the box, eyebrow raised in question as she opened it and pulled out…

"A pen?" she asked amusedly and Fred snorted, reaching over the table and smoothing out some of the wrapping paper.

"Here, try writing something," he told her and she frowned, but did as she was told and watched as the words she wrote disappeared momentarily before the French translation appeared, "it's self translating, whatever language you need. Just think of the language and it will translate perfectly into that. For some reason, it defaults to French if you don't have a specific language in mind."

"That's amazing," Hermione gasped, looking up at him with a grin and he nodded happily, making a mental note to forward her praise to George, "honestly, it's really impressive spellwork."

"He did look very pleased with himself," Fred snorted, shaking his head at the memory of his brother's smug grin before pushing his own, much bigger gift towards her, "here, this one is from me."

He moved his hands down to his lap so that he could nervously pick at a hangnail while she opened his gift with as much care as she had given George's gift. She turned her gaze to him every so often while she worked through his sticking charms, growling once when she began to grow frustrated and he chuckled, though made no offers to help. When the sides were loose, she pulled them open and he ducked down, looking at her through the clear box that sat inside, grinning as she furrowed her eyebrows. She looked confused and he didn't blame her, but all would become clear when she was finished with her unwrapping and he could hand her the second half of his gift. As soon as she had it fully unwrapped, the paper falling against the table and she leaned back, looking entirely perplexed.

"It's… It's a box," she said bluntly and he snorted, nodding, "thank you for my box?"

"Ok, admittedly this alone is not a very good gift, but," he started with a smirk, using his wand to float in the shoe box he had hidden in the kitchen, placing it down next to the transparent box and she gasped, obviously recognising the logo on the lid, "I figured you cou-"

"You went to New York?!" she squealed, hands flying up to cover her mouth as her eyes flew open much wider than they had been, "you went to New York to buy me shoes?!"

"I went twice, actually-"

"You went to New York TWICE?!" she shrieked even more loudly and he nodded, pushing the box further towards her with the end of his wand, "what on earth-"

"Just open the box!" he laughed and she sighed, tilting her head to one side as she reached out and flipped the lid open.

He watched as she pulled out the pair of shoes, looked down at her own old pair of shoes and then back at the new identical pair she now held in her hands. He could see the questions flying through her mind and hear the cogs turning, but he remained silent as he waited for her to process what was in front of her. After a while, she put the shoes back in the box and turned to him with a frown.

"Let me get this straight," she sighed, leaning her elbows against the table and resting her chin on her hands, "you went to New York, twice, to buy me shoes that are exactly the same as the ones I already have?"

"Yes."

"Okay…" she mumbled, eyeing the shoes and then turning her gaze to the box, "what's with the box?"

"It's for your old shoes," he told her and she frowned as she looked down at the shoes on her feet, a sadness clouding her eyes, "I know they're special, and I completely understand why you wouldn't want to replace them, but I think you deserve a pair of shoes that doesn't hurt your feet and I figured the box would be a good place to display them and preser-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence and was almost sent flying to the floor when Hermione leapt from her chair and dived around the table, throwing her arms around his neck. He felt her body shaking, obviously fighting back the nerves she felt with this sudden and unanticipated closeness and knew that his own body was doing the same, but he didn't comment and simply wrapped his arms around her slender body, holding her against him as she sniffled in his ear. They stayed like this for some time, though he would never be certain how long, until she pulled back slightly to look him in the eye.

"Thank you." she whispered, their faces barely three inches apart and he gulped as he felt his eyes flick to her lips.

They were so close, far closer than they had ever been and he could very easily have closed the distance between them and pressed his lips to hers. He could have done, he really could, but he was very aware of how drastically that could possibly change things for them and was uncertain as to how she would receive such a move on his part. She had only just worked up the courage to hug him, he couldn't push her boundaries further and plant a kiss on her that he wasn't entirely certain she would welcome. If he took that risk, if he kissed her, he could ruin all of the progress she had made and force her back into her isolation. Oh, how he desperately wanted to though. He sighed and tilted his head forwards, resting his forehead against hers and lightly touching her nose with his instead and he heard her whimper almost silently.

"You're welcome," he whispered, almost inaudibly, "there's one more thing."

Reluctantly and with much effort on his part, he moved his hands to her waist and pushed her gently off of him, settling her squarely on her feet before he lifted his wand and placed it on his temple. She gasped, watching as he closed his eyes and concentrated on a specific memory he had, before he slowly pulled his wand away. An almost liquid strand followed, iridescent and sparkling with the reflection of the light in the room and he opened his eyes, dragging the globule of memory away from his head and towards the box, where he tapped the tip of his wand. Suddenly, the smiling faces of Hermione's parents could be seen on the back panel and he heard a sob escape her lips. Turning to her, he saw a tear roll down her cheek and he reached for her hand, taking it in his own and squeezing it in reassurance.

"How…" she choked out, not able to take her eyes off of her parents, so clear and real in the moving image and he smiled, standing up and slipping one arm around her shoulders.

"Remember when they came with us to Diagon Alley in your second year?" he asked and she nodded, finally turning her tear filled eyes to look at him, her face filled with awe, "that's my memory of them while they watched you, I thought you might like it."

"I love it." she whispered, before turning into him and crying silently into his chest as he held her.