champagne problems ~ d.m.

III

The morning light wakes me up almost instantly. Rubbing my eyes and then looking around at an empty domorty, then over at my clock. Eight-thirty. When did I even fall asleep? The last thing I remember was staring at the ceiling, I have no recollection of falling asleep. Breakfast will be over soon, so I get up and rush around my room to try and get ready for the day. I throw my hair up into a messy bun, put my uniform on and rush down to the Great Hall to catch the end of breakfast, not that I would be missing much. But I know that if I wasn't there Harry and Ron would start to worry.

As I make my way through the Great Hall and towards the Gryffindor table I am quickly stopped and greeted by two tall redheads seeking up behind me. "Good morning, 'Minoe" I can feel Fred's breath linger behind me as he drags out the e in my name, "Have a nice sleep?" his brother follows his sentence and then walks along to the table.

"Yes, very funny you two." I give Fred a look of amusement.

He looks at me smiling and says, "There's no possible way you were up all night doing homework, classes haven't even started yet." As he finishes the sentence he gives me this look, this one specific look that he has been giving me all summer. And he knows what he is doing, we both know what he wants.

Flashback

Since there is not much room at Grimmauld Place we all have our own sleeping arrangements. Ron and the twins are in Sirius' brothers old room, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley is in Sirius' parents room, much to Kreacher's distaste, Sirius gets to keep his bedroom to himself and Ginny and I in our own guest room. People come and go, so sometimes Tonks will stay with Ginny and I, or Remus will spend the night in the other guest room. But tonight there were no guests, everyone was in their assigned rooms. Since there was so much going on Mrs. Weasley would send us all to be around ten oclock and wouldn't want to see us out of our rooms past then.

Ginny has been knocked out for hours at this point but I stay awake, just staring at the ceiling and just as I am about to fall asleep I hear a faint knock at the door. I tiptoe towards the door and open it just a crack to see a tall young man with bright red hair. He grabs my wrist and says, "Follow me" in hushed tones. I oblige and follow him.

Once we reach the second guest bedroom he takes out his wand and casts the muffliato charm. Then lowering his wand he takes my hand again and leads me towards the bed, I interrupt him saying, "Fred, what is this? What is going on?" I look into his soft eyes waiting for a response.

"Hermione, just listen to me please. I'm just asking you to hear me out." He says, looking me up and down slowly. I can feel him scanning every part of me, looking at every crack and crevice. He puts his hand on my cheek and pulls me towards him, slowly, intimately. Before I have any time to think his lips are on mine, and I am enjoying it. After a few moments I pull away, looking him deeply in the eyes.

I start, "Fred you know I can't-" he cuts me off as he tries to pull me back in for another kiss, but I pull away.

"Why Hermione? We both know how you feel about me, and how I feel about you. Just let it happen." And let it happen was what I did. I wish I could say that this was the last time, but I couldn't help letting it become a pass time. After that first night a few nights a week I met with Fred in that room, if there was no one staying there. We both knew that nothing would come of this, that we were both just looking for someone to hold us. We didn't care.

Fred pulls me aside, away from the morning breakfast rush and leans down to my ear and says, "Common room, one in the morning, don't be late." He then looks down at me and gives me a sort of brotherly kiss on the head and makes his way out of the Great Hall. I stood there for a few moments and processed what he had just said. The first time we had done this was the night he had kissed me, and ever since I have just felt like I have gone behind Ron's back. Not that that was all that important to me, Ron would never really know how to treat a woman.

"'Mione" immediately breaks me from my train of thought. I look over and see Ginny waving me over. I collect myself and make my way towards the group of mostly redheads and one quiet brunette in glasses. Before I had even had the chance to sit down Ginny began telling me about there being some sort of dance. I stop her mid sentence, "Ginny, please, slow down."

"Ron told me this morning. There's going to be some sort of dance, or formal, or something of the sorts. But it is only for prefects and head boys and girls." she finally gets out in one breath. There are six prefects per house, making that twenty-four prefects. Plus the head boy and girl making it around thirty-two people who would be attending. She continues, "And everyone is allowed to bring a date, they don't have to be some stupid prefect." Ron shoots her a hard glare, "Sorry!" Ginny says, realizing her mistake.

"Well, that sounds awfully fun, but after the yule last year I'm not too sure I want another situation like that." I say picking up a piece of fruit from off the table.

Ginny gives me her death stare that she had been working on all summer, "It's fine, there's going to be three of them anyway. So you'll at least have to go to one." She finishes her sentence as the clock hits nine. After that everyone gets up and makes their way to the first class of the day.