Old Books and Firecrackers: Chapter XIV

A Harry Potter Fanfic

The next day, Fred woke earlier than everyone else and couldn’t go back to sleep, so he went downstairs and picked up the latest issue of The Quibbler. He had finished the first article before he realized there was no need to scan it for familiar names. He kept reading anyway.

It wasn’t long before he heard loud thumps on the stairs and saw Harry running down with Ron close on his heels.

“You’re dating Hermione?” Harry burst out.

Fred dropped the magazine and smirked. “That’s what she said.”

Harry blinked. “Since–since when?”

“Since yesterday.” Harry’s jaw dropped.

“What is all this racket?” Fred’s mum asked, coming into the room in her nightgown.

“Did you know Fred and Hermione were dating, Mrs. Weasley?” Harry asked.

“Of course, but that’s no excuse to go tearing down the stairs and disturbing everyone. You’re lucky I had to be up anyway before everyone gets here.”

“Sorry, Mum,” Ron muttered.

She shook her head and left the room, complaining about noisy children. Fred went back to his magazine, ignoring Harry’s and Ron’s stares.

“Good morning,” Ginny said as she and George came down the stairs a little while later.

“Ginny! Did you know Fred and Hermione were dating?” Ron asked.

“Yes.”

“How did you know?”

“Because some of us have eyes, Ron.”

“It’s true. They’ve fancied each other for ages,” George added. Fred pulled the magazine closer to his face.

Ron and George began arguing over whether or not it had been obvious that Fred liked Hermione with Ginny and Harry interjecting their own arguments every so often. Fred cleared his throat and rustled the pages of his magazine as loudly as possible.

“I didn’t think they were even friends!” Ron protested.

George laughed. “You didn’t notice the owls they’d send back and forth?” Fred rolled his eyes. They didn’t write that often. Besides, he usually sent her owls at night, so Ron wouldn’t have noticed them, and–and that would really not help his case.

“Is something the matter? Who’s arguing?” Hermione asked. Fred dropped the magazine and tried to signal she should leave the room.

Harry shot to his feet. “Hermione! Is this all a joke? Are they pranking us?”

Hermione frowned. “Pranking? What?”

“Are you and Fred really dating?”

Hermione’s face turned pink and she dropped her gaze. “Um, yes. We are. It’s not a prank.”

“I told you,” Ron said. “I told you I found them snogging. Wouldn’t make that up, would I?” George, eyes wide, spun around to look at Fred, who snatched his magazine back up.

“You did what?” Ginny asked. “You found them snogging?” Fred had read everything interesting in the month’s issue of The Quibbler, but he flipped it over and started again.

“Yes! Right in the middle of the stairs!”

He was spared from further embarassment by a knock on the door. He leapt up to answer it.

“I knew they were dating,” George said. “I did not know about the snogging.”

“I–no, we–” Hermione began. “We weren’t–”

“You were snogging,” Ron repeated. Fred opened the door and tried to ignore the conversation.

“Well, yes, but–”

“Charlie’s here, Mum!” Fred called as he hugged his older brother.

“Charlie! Did you know Fred and Hermione are dating?” Ron asked, scrambling up.

“They are? That’s exciting. How are you, Mum?” Charlie made his rounds through the room and Fred settled back on the couch, hoping Charlie’s arrival would continue to distract from the previous conversation.

“Morning, everyone. Hello, Charlie.” Fred’s dad came in the room and hugged Charlie. “Hermione, do you know when your parents will get here? Molly and I have some last minute shopping to do, but we don’t want to miss them arriving.”

“I think they’ll be here late in the afternoon.”

“Oh, are your parents coming?” Charlie asked. “It’ll be nice to meet them.”

Another knock sounded and Fred’s dad went running. “Just a minute!”

“Good morning, everyone,” Bill called as he and Fleur came in.

“Bill!” Ginny squealed as she ran over to give him a hug.

“Hey, Gin. Charlie! Good to see you.”

Ron looked like he was barely holding back his question. Hermione rolled her eyes. “Really, Ron? Do you have to keep going about this?”

“Yes! Bill, did you know Fred and Hermione are dating?”

Bill hugged Fred. “Oh, so you’re together now?”

“Finally!” Fleur said. Hermione blushed and ducked away. Fred could feel his face flame as well. Were his feelings that obvious?

His mum took a few minutes to catch up with Fleur and the two women disappeared into the kitchen. A few minutes later, his mum popped her head out of the kitchen. “I have breakfast all ready, so now we’re just waiting on Percy,” she called.

“Oh, he’s here!” Ginny said, glancing out the window and running to the door.

Ron beat her there, opened the door, and started talking before Percy could knock. “Please tell me you didn’t know Fred and Hermione are dating!”

Percy flinched and slid past Ron into the house. “Er, hi, Mum, Dad.”

“Did you?”

Percy shot Fred a confused look and Fred braced himself for the questions. Then Percy turned to Ron. “That wasn’t common knowledge?”

That’s it. He was going to live in a hole. Forever. Far away from his whole family.

George started laughing and clapped Ron on the shoulder. “Don’t worry too much about it. It’s only been going on for, what, a year and a half?”

“Fred said they just started dating yesterday,” Harry said.

George raised his eyebrows. “I think he and I must have a very different definition of dating.”

Hermione folded her arms. “I’d thank all of you to stop making a big deal out of this. Besides, it’s our business, not yours.”

“It’s also breakfast time,” their mum said, hugging Percy and ushering everyone into the kitchen. “Come on, sit down.”

Everyone had lots to share and the food was gone long before the stories, jokes, and laughter.

“Well,” their mum said finally, standing up and gathering dishes. “I’m sorry to have to leave when you’ve all just gotten here, but your father and I have some shopping we still need to do. We’ll be back this afternoon.”

Fleur stood up as well to help. “May we come along? Bill and I ‘ave a few more presents to buy as well.”

“Oh, of course.” Within a few minutes, breakfast was cleared and the four were gone. Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione ran upstairs to finish wrapping presents and Fred, Charlie, Percy, and George sat in the living room to talk.

“I’ve heard you’ve sold a lot of products to the Ministry,” Percy said. “Do you think you’ll continue?”

George shook his head. “That’s not really our thing.”

“We wanted a joke shop so we could make people laugh. I mean, obviously we’re glad to have helped, but that was an accident and that’s how it’s going to stay,” Fred said.

“Besides, why make boring stuff for the Ministry when we could be developing chocolates that turn you into a frog for an hour?” George asked.

Percy choked on his tea. “But that’s just hypothetical, right? You’re not actually doing that?”

Fred patted Percy’s shoulder. “Of course.”

“Purely hypothetical,” George said.

“I mean, does that really sound like something we’d do?”

“Don’t you know us at all?”

Charlie laughed. “That’s the problem. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat something you offer me again.”

Fred laid his hand over his heart and feigned offense. “Don’t you trust us?”

“Not since you could talk,” Charlie said. Percy snorted.

George stood up. “Want to see the latest thing we’ve been working on?”

Charlie grinned. “Sure.” George started to lead them outside and Percy followed hesitantly.

George frowned at Fred when he didn’t get up. “You coming?”

Fred made a face. “I’m a bit behind on those order forms and I really need to finish them.” George nodded. “Just remember not to use the blue ones!” Fred called after them. For some reason George could never remember which colored bomb let off the smell of sulfur, which had led to a lot of threats from their landlord. And Fred was much more afraid of their mother than their landlord.

“What’s the matter with the blue ones?” he heard Percy ask.

Fred ran upstairs, dug the collection of order forms out of his bag, and grabbed some extra parchment before going back down to work.

He was really behind. He had promised Verity he’d have them done by that evening and he’d barely started. He pulled out the first form and recorded the name, address, order, and payment.

“What are you doing?” He looked up and found Hermione standing in front of him.

“Working.”

She raised her eyebrows. “I didn’t know that was possible.”

He shrugged. “It’s been known to happen on occasion.” He looked back at the parchment and frowned. “But something’s wrong.”

“What is it?” She stepped closer and peered at the parchment upside down.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her down on the couch beside him. “That’s better.”

“You’re impossible.”

He snuck a glance at her. She was smiling. “I try.”

She pulled her hand out of his and stood up. “Let me go get my knitting.”

He had recorded five more forms before she came downstairs, this time with Crookshanks trailing after her.

“That looks familiar,” Fred said when he saw the pale blue jumper she was working on.

She smiled. “I figure your mum should have a Weasley jumper of her own.”

“She’s going to love it.”

Crookshanks hopped up into Fred’s lap, stepping on his parchment. “Crookshanks, no!” he shouted. He picked up the parchment to keep it from being ruined further. The cat took this as an invitation to settle himself firmly on Fred’s legs. “Really? She’s already sitting with me, and I have to work! Why do you have to be so difficult?”

Hermione reached over and scooped Crookshanks into her arms. “Come sit with me.” The cat wasn’t happy about it, but eventually she made him sit and placated him with constant petting.

“What did you mean, I’m already sitting with you?” she asked when she had gotten the cat to settle down.

He looked up. “You never noticed?”

“Never noticed what?”

Fred laughed. “Crookshanks only came to find me when we were both alone so you would come talk to me!” He reached over to scratch Crookshanks’s ears. “The silly cat knew I liked you and I was always afraid you’d figure it out.”

Hermione frowned. “I don’t think he knew you liked me. You probably just imagined it.”

“He’s a smart cat.”

“He’s also liked you for years.”

Fred smirked. “He has.”

She pursed her lips. “He’s liked you ever since I came and stayed at your house the first time.”

Fred only smiled and waited.

Her eyes grew wide. “But–”

“But what?”

“But that was almost five years ago!”

“Are you just stating facts now, or are you trying to make a point?”

She shoved him. “Are you telling me you started liking me in my fourth year?”

“No. I’m telling you that’s when I realized it. Big difference.”

She stared at him. “Really?” He nodded and she went back to her knitting. “When–when did you realize?”

He picked up the next order form. “You don’t want to hear that. You’ll just be mad at me.”

“I won’t be mad.” He wrote another name. “Please tell me.”

He finished recording the form and started another one. “Fine. Beginning of sixth year, George and I started working on the love potions and we needed to figure out how to make them, so we tried brewing a few different kinds, including amortentia.” He could feel her eyes on him, but didn’t look up. “And I smelled old books and your perfume or something in the potion.” He felt her turn away and snuck a glance at her. Her face was pink. “Happy?”

“Yes.”

He picked up another form and began copying it. He nudged her with his elbow. “Now you have to tell me.”

“It took me a lot longer to realize,” she said slowly. “When you and George left Hogwarts, I kept finding myself looking for you to ask you questions or to show you something, or just to see what you were working on. I started to realize how much I took for granted that you would always be around. I didn’t realize how much I liked you or relied on you, though, until I got upset about something one day; I don’t remember what it was, but I only wanted to talk about it with you.”

Oh.

He chuckled. “That’s a much better answer than mine. I pretty much had to be hit over the head to figure it out.”

“So did I! If you were still at Hogwarts, I probably wouldn’t have realized yet.”

“I guess I’m glad I left then.”

She smiled, and he leaned over to kiss her, but Ron’s voice interrupted. “Do you have to do that in here?”

“Hypocrite,” Hermione whispered, and Fred smirked.

He sat back and grabbed an extra sheet of parchment, crumpled it up, and threw it at his brother. “If you don’t like it, you can leave.”

Ron wrinkled his nose and plopped down in a chair. “It’s just weird. I never in a million years would have guessed that you two would start dating.”

Fred flashed a cheesy smile at Hermione, winking so Ron couldn’t see. “Me neither.”

Hermione matched the smile and gave an uncharacteristic giggle. Fred stifled a laugh when Ron groaned.

“If you don’t like it, you can go,” Hermione said.

“I think he just enjoys complaining too much, dearest,” Fred said, landing on the first term of endearment he could think of. He snuck a glance at Ron under the guise of grabbing another form and noticed him gaping at them both.

“Then maybe he needs something to complain about,” Hermione said, without looking up from her knitting.

Fred laughed. “I think you’re probably right.” He leaned over again, as if to kiss her, and Ron shot to his feet.

“I’m leaving, I’m leaving! You two are disgusting!”

As soon as he was gone, Fred and Hermione looked at each other and laughed.

“I suppose we were a bit cruel,” Hermione said.

Fred shrugged. “From what I’ve heard, it’s no more than he deserved.”

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