Hot Times
Challenge Nineteen: Bring Out Your Dead!
Title: Hot Times
Author: drcjsnider
Wizard/Witch: Fred/Hermione
Rating/Warnings: G/PG
Genre: Romance/Drama
Word count: Exactly 750
Prompt: 22. Starting Over
Summary: Some unintended consequences of Hermione helping out at the Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes.
Hermione sat on the curb across the street from what had only moments ago been the store front of Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes. Her face was streaked with soot, and a layer of ash covered her hair. She watched with a heavy heart as the Ministry’s Disaster Amelioration team cleaned up the last of the fire’s smoldering embers. She wondered if Fred had heard the news and was now cursing the day he’d allowed her to work in the shop.
She had offered to help at the Wheezes during George’s and Angelina’s honeymoon. Hermione thought it would be a fun and laid back atmosphere. Besides, she’d had a crush on the oldest Weasley twin for months and hoped that showing an interest in Fred’s work might cause him to recognize her as something other than the uptight, former girlfriend of his ickle brother. However, she’d found being his shop assistant miserable. Every suggestion she made, whether it concerned rearranging the shelves or creating new products, he took as a personal insult to his intelligence.
This morning they’d fought after he’d demonstrated a prototype for a Right Course Broom that made it impossible for the rider to get lost. She’d thought the idea was ingenious and suggested adding a bonding charm so the broomstick could bear its owner home no matter what his or her condition. Rather than being appreciative, Fred had gotten irritated. He’d declared that she was still a know-it-all swot who was never satisfied. She’d yelled back that he was a self-righteous prat who shouldn’t ask her opinion if he disliked her contributions. In response, he’d stomped out of the shop and not returned the entire day.
Hermione had considered closing up and going home to pout. Instead, however, she’d burned down his store. To be fair, it wasn’t completely her fault. She’d warned Fred that the fire-breathing dragon miniatures were too close to the Wild-Fire Wizbangs. But she was minding the counter when two young boys knocked a shelf of the miniatures directly on top of the fireworks. Before Hermione knew what was happening, half of the store was in flames. She got all the customers out and rescued the Pygmy Puffs, but everything else had been a loss.
Whatever foolish hope she had retained that Fred might give a romantic relationship with her a shot had now been burned to bits.
“Hermione!”
She looked for who was calling her name, but saw no one through the crowd.
“Hermione!”
And then he was there. “Fred, I’m so-”
Before she could finish, he was kneeling in front of her, pulling her into his arms, pressing kisses against her hair, her eyelids, and her cheeks. “Merlin,” he whispered. “I’ve never been so scared in my life. Thank Circe, you made it out!”
“But the shop,” Hermione cried, overwhelmed to be in his arms. “It’s gone!”
“Forget about the bloody shop,” he ranted. “What matters is that no one was hurt - that you are okay.”
“I was so worried you’d hate me,” she sobbed into his shirt.
“I’ve been a fool,” he admitted, pulling away from her slightly. “I’ve fancied you for ages, Hermione, even before you and Ron started dating. I thought this week would be the ideal opportunity to prove that I’ve grown-up since school. I wanted to impress you with my business sense and inventiveness, but instead I turned into a bad-natured, arrogant tosser.”
“If you’re a fool, then I am one too,” she admitted. “I’ve spent the week trying to prove that I am not the same stick-in-the-mud I was at Hogwarts so you’d consider me potential date material. I thought it was obvious that I’ve always found you magically brilliant.”
“Something is wrong here.” Fred chuckled, wiping the tears off her cheeks. “It goes against reason and the laws of nature for both of us to be fools.”
“It does sound a bit preposterous,” Hermione giggled.
Placing a kiss on her forehead, Fred pulled the girl to her feet. “Let’s get you home and cleaned up. If you are real sweet, I might even let you convince me to sleep on your couch tonight.”
Hermione’s eyes widened as she suddenly recalled that the fire had taken his flat, as well as the shop. “Oh Fred,” she gasped.
“Shush… It’s okay, luv.”
“What are you going tell George?”
Fred shrugged. “He’s so in love, he might not even notice.” Grabbing her hand and the box of Pygmy Puffs, she barely heard him whisper, “Kind of like me.”
Author's Notes: Big thanks to floorcoaster for agreeing to beta this - she is a complete doll. Story set in the freds_not_dead universe.
Proof-reader: somigliana