Fred looked at his wife's retreating form with a sigh. Somehow he had had the illusion in mind that this first kiss would escalate into a wild snogging session on the sofa, maybe followed by some wild love-making in one of their beds. But now he suddenly remembered whom the Ministry had forced to marry him: this was Hermione Granger. And even though she was officially a Weasley now and she did not seem to fancy ickle Ronnekins, she also did not fancy him . Which meant that they would probably spend their wedding night in separate rooms. Fuck.
True, Hermione did not seem overly averse to kissing him and for a moment he could have even sworn she was enjoying herself. But then she had pulled away, shyly smiled at him and retreated into her room to freshen up , whatever girl's meant when they were saying that. Had she just said that to get away from him?
Fred did not know, which was beyond frustrating. He'd just kissed her for Merlin's sake and usually the girls tended to like that. Or at least he should have had an idea if they liked it. If he was honest with himself he had hoped his wife would have enjoyed kissing him, too. His wife... Merlin, they would probably spend the rest of their lives being married to each other and after having grown up at the Burrow, a loveless marriage was simply not on the plate for him. His mum and dad had always been very affectionate with each other, no matter how hard the times had sometimes been. He had seen them holding hands when he was brought into the Great Hall after that fucking wall had crumbled and fallen on him. They had clung to each other like the other one was their lifeline and Fred realized that it was probably the case. He knew that the both of them loved each other wholeheartedly and Fred could not help but want the same amount of love for himself. And it could happen, right? He just needed to make Hermione fall in love with him and to love her in return. The latter would not be too difficult, as he could already see her intelligence, bravery, loyalty, and yes... beauty. The girl was a fucking war hero and if half of what he had heard about her was true, she would soon have her very own chocolate frog card. He was sure there were plenty of wizards out there who had fantasized about being paired off with her and still he had been the lucky bastard to get her in the end. Fred Weasley, who had long ago learned to share, finally had something, or better, someone who was just his own. And he would be damned if he lost her once this stupid Marriage law was repealed, because it was only a matter of time before hell broke loose in the ministry. No, Fred Weasley very much intended to keep Hermione in his life and in his bed, once the time came for that particular experience. But for that, he needed to make her fall in love with him which meant he first had to get to know her better. Once he managed that, he would start wooing her, properly. Even though the fucking Ministry had set a deadline for bedding her, he would not let it keep him from making her his... properly. No, Fred Weasley would charm the girl's socks off... and probably her knickers too. She would not know what had hit her when it happened.
Ssssssss
As soon as Hermione reached her new room, she hastily closed the door behind her and leaned against the wall next to it. She could still feel her heart hammering excitedly in her chest, which was enough to hide her face in her hands in embarrassment. Kissing Fred had been ... nice, more than nice actually. It left her all flustered and eager to do it again and again until they ended up doing nothing else today. But Hermione didn't want Fred to think she was one of those girls, throwing herself into a boy's arms without much restraint and eager for the next shag. No, she wasn't like that but today she for the first time wanted to be. Kissing him had felt brilliant, exciting and comforting - all at the same time.
Well, she guessed that at least answered her question if she would like to kiss him again. She definitely did - very much so. But now that she had removed herself from the situation, she would have to wait until tomorrow to get a chance to do it again. It wasn't like she could just storm back into the living room and pull him back into her arms. That would definitely leave the wrong impression with him. But Merlin, she definitely wanted to. Did that mean she fancied him?
