Old Books and Firecrackers: Chapter XIII

A Harry Potter Fanfic

Life Moves On

“Happy Christmas, everyone,” said a voice behind the couch where Fred and George sat.

Fred leaped up to give Hermione a hug. “Hermione! I figured you’d be celebrating with your parents!”

Hermione ran around the room hugging everyone else. “I am! Your mum invited them to come and stay too, but they won’t be here until tomorrow.”

“Why didn’t you mention it?” Ron asked when she got to him.

“It was supposed to be a surprise.”

“You’re staying the whole rest of break?” Ginny asked. “Where’s your stuff? I’ll help you take it upstairs.” Hermione pointed out her trunk and the two girls disappeared upstairs.

Fred was glad Hermione would be staying for Christmas. He hadn’t seen her since he had left her at her parents' house and he had missed her. They had written each other a few times while she was studying at Hogwarts, but it was different to actually see her.

She came back downstairs a little while later and perched on the arm of Ginny’s chair, insisting everyone fill her in on everything going on in their lives.

When the conversation began to die down, George glanced out the window. “It looks nice out. Does anybody want to play quidditch?”

“I can’t,” Hermione said. “I still have a few presents to wrap.”

“I don’t think I will either,” Fred said, earing a smirk from George.

Everyone else wanted to play and they were outside with broomsticks within a few minutes.

“Have you wrapped my present yet?” Fred asked Hermione as she started up the stairs.

She raised her eyebrows. “Why?”

“I was going to ask if I could sit with you while you wrapped them.”

“I haven’t wrapped yours, but I can do it later. I’d love for you to come sit with me. But no trying to peek at your present!”

He grinned and ran upstairs after her. He sat on Ginny’s bed as she pulled paper, tape, and ribbons from her trunk.

“Why not use magic?” he asked.

“I like wrapping presents. Besides, it would probably look terrible if I tried to wrap one with magic.” She dug in her trunk looking for something.

“I doubt that.” She looked up and grinned.

“So where’s my present?” he asked.

“No.”

“I want to know so I know where not to look!” She rolled her eyes and he smiled.

“I’ve missed you,” he said.

“I’ve missed you too.”

He leaned back on his hands. “So tell me about school.”

“What about school?”

“Whatever you want.”

“Hmm. Well, McGonagall has been teaching us this new spell . . .” She spent a while describing the nuances of human transfiguration and how it differed from animal transfiguration. Some of it he already knew, having studied some for his NEWTs before leaving school, but much of it was new information, likely learned from books rather than class.

“What about you? Have you and George been working on anything new?”

“Yes. We’ve been working on these new bombs that will change the color of anything within range for a week. Unfortunately, everything we’ve tested it on has stayed the new color much longer than that.”

Hermione looked up from the ribbon she was tying. “How long does it last?”

“I’ll let you know when they change back,” he said and she laughed.

They spent a while longer talking and laughing before Fred glanced at his watch. “We should probably go back down in a bit. It’s almost supper time.”

“Just let me finish this last ribbon . . . there! I’ve just got yours and Harry’s left and I can do them tomorrow.”

They were halfway down the stairs when Fred stopped. Hermione stopped too and turned to look at him.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I wanted to ask you something before everyone came inside.”

“Yes?”

“We never technically started dating because there was a war going on. Well, there’s not a war going on anymore.”

Hermione bit back a grin. “Nice as that sounds, I can’t yet.”

Fred raised his eyebrows and stepped down to the stair she was on. “Can’t? Or won’t?”

“Why?”

“I’m trying to decide whether or not to argue.”

She grinned and leaned against the wall. “Can’t. I’m going back to school after the holidays, and you have to work. We’ll both be really busy. Now how do you argue with that?”

Fred shrugged and stepped closer. “I can’t, except that I know you, and I know that as soon as you finish school you’re going to get a job, and then you’ll still be too busy.”

She folded her arms. “That’s fair, but do you have a solution?”

“Will you write?”

She looked offended by the question. “Of course.”

“Then I don’t care if we’re both busy,” he said, stepping even closer.

She smiled, dropped her arms, leaned forward, and kissed him.

He pulled away slightly. “Just to make sure we’re on the same page, that’s a yes, right?”

“Yes!” she laughed.

“Good,” he murmured against her lips as she kissed him again, throwing her arms around his neck and making him stumble backwards a bit. He wrapped his arms around her waist, keeping her close and making sure she didn’t fall as he regained his balance.

“Oi!”

They both jumped apart, though Fred kept one hand pressed against her back, and turned to face the voice at the top of the stairs.

“What–what are you doing?” Ron, who was apparently no longer outside, stared at them with a look of mingled disgust and horror.

Fred could feel his face heating up. He forced a laugh. “I should have thought it was obvious.”

Ron gave a strangled sound. “Well . . . yes, but . . . why?”

Fred turned to Hermione, whose face was also pink. “I think Mum is probably finishing up supper–”

“Oh! Yes, I can go help her.” She ran down the rest of the stairs without looking at him or Ron.

“Please don’t give her a hard time,” Fred said when she was gone. “Listen, I really like Hermione, and as I’m fairly confident she likes me too–” another strangled sound, “–we’re going to start dating.”

“You’re dating,” Ron said.

“Yes.”

“You and Hermione.”

“Yes. Are you okay?”

“Not really! I wasn’t expecting to find my brother and best friend snogging on the stairs!”

“In our defense, that wasn’t really, erm, planned.” Ron looked, if possible, even more disgusted. Fred rolled his eyes. “You can’t get mad at me for kissing her when I thought everyone was outside. From what I’ve heard, you were kissing Lavender in front of everyone for months!” Ron’s face grew red.

“Well–well just–be nice to her,” Ron muttered and Fred smiled.

“I will,” he promised. He put his hand on Ron’s shoulder and dragged him down the stairs. “C’mon. Let’s go have supper.”

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