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Hermione rubbed her middle and forefinger between her eyebrows as she tried to fight off the headache that had been threatening to take hold of her for the last few hours. She needed to pull herself together so that she could talk to one or both of the twins. She had briefly entertained the thought of talking to them at the same time, but she had quickly decided that was a stupid idea. The problem now was who did she talk to first? And how did she talk to one without the other getting suspicious and/or overhearing? It seemed impossible, so it wasn't at all surprising that she had a headache.
"Mione?" Fred's voice snapped her out of her spiralling thoughts and forced her to look up at the man. While he was exactly who she needed to talk to, she still didn't think that she was ready to. "You alright?"
Hermione stared at him for what was probably far too long to be considered normal as her brain tried to convince her mouth that words needed to be coming out of it. At least, she thought, she had their kiss to hide behind while she collected her thoughts.
"I… Can we talk?" She asked quietly as she glanced behind him to check that they were actually alone and that she wasn't about to put her foot in her mouth.
Fred nodded slowly, his face paling ever so slightly as he no doubt considered the worst - though Hermione couldn't imagine that he would ever have guessed that the worst would have included his own twin. "We can go outside?" He suggested, knowing full well that if they remained inside the Burrow then it was more than likely that someone would listen in. That was one of the downsides of having such a large family.
The two of them headed out into the cool air of the night and Hermione glanced up at the moon which was currently their only source of light. She toyed with the idea of pulling out her wand, but decided that required far more effort than she could be bothered with just then. All her focus had to be on getting through this conversation.
She took a breath - which she almost immediately regretted because she caught a whiff of him in that moment. He smelled of toffee apples in a sickeningly sweet way that made her stomach churn. It wasn't an unpleasant smell, it just wasn't at all what she had been expecting and so she had to practically hold her breath as she turned to face him.
Fred spoke before she had a chance to talk first. "If what happened last night was too much, I can make sure that it never happens again."
Hermione let out a small noise that resembled a yelp. "No!" She said quickly, possibly too quickly to be considered normal, but she couldn't help it. "That's not - no. I mean, when I'm finished telling you what I need to tell you then you may never want to speak to me again, let alone kiss me, but I want to kiss you again. In fact I want to do a lot more than kiss you, but first I need to be completely honest with you." She swallowed thickly, knowing that she was rambling but unable to stop the word vomit from tumbling out. "I.. I spoke to Ginny this morning and she helped me to see this all the more clearly."
"Let me guess, you're still in love with Ron." Fred said, a defeated sigh escaping him. "I mean, that's fine and thanks for telling me, but I don't think I can kiss you again under those circumstances…"
Hermione was shaking her head violently as he spoke. "No. I most certainly am not still in love with Ron." She still cared about him but he had broken her heart so badly that it had turned into sand. "This is nothing to do with Ron." She shoves her hands into her pockets as she walked. "But I do need you to know that I have feelings for more than just you. I don't know if you can even believe that it's possible, and if you can't then that's fine, but it's the reality of the situation. I like you, a lot, but I also like someone else."
A crease formed between Fred's eyebrows as he walked along beside her. "You - what?"
"I feel like I'm back in school…" Hermione muttered, mainly to herself. She looked back at the moon for a moment, almost begging it to give her the strength to continue with this conversation that felt like it wanted to stop before it had begun. "I like two people. You, and someone else."
Fred gave a short nod, though Hermione had no idea whether or not her words had made any sense to him or if he was going to remain confused for the time being. This was not helped at all when he stopped talking practically altogether.
Hermione let out a sigh but did her best to push the rest of her insecurities to the back of her mind. He hadn't told her she was losing her mind so she was going to call that a good thing for now and just let herself enjoy his company. There was a chance that he wouldn't want to spend any time with her again after this so she was determined to take whatever she could get now.
Eventually Fred decided to close the gap between them and his arm found its way around her waist, pulling her close to him. "The kiss last night.. it was something special, at least to me. I get it, that you don't want to have to choose just now.. and I've spent far too much time watching you be with the wrong person instead of me, so I guess…" He trailed off, pausing for a moment before he started again. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want to at least see if there's anything between us - between me and you. I'm not going to ask you to tell me who the other person you may have feelings for is, because that's not really any of my business, but I want to take you out on a date. So, will you? Go on a date with me? Say… this Friday?"
Hermione blinked rapidly. She'd honestly expected Fred to laugh in her face when she'd confessed that there was someone else that she had her eye on, but it seemed that he was prepared to do the exact opposite. Whether that would all change once he learned that the other person was his own twin would remain to be seen.
"Sure." Hermione smiled as she remembered that he couldn't actually read her mind and that a verbal answer was in fact required if she wanted him to know that she wanted to go. "I'd like that."
She felt his lips against her cheek before she was even aware of what was happening and her skin practically burned against where his lips had been.
"Then it's a date."
Hermione turned her head slightly so that she could see him and that smile that was only illuminated by the moon. He was perfect and even though she was still so confused by all the emotions that were running through her, she leaned up and kissed him softly, her arms wrapping around his neck as his arms looped around her waist and pulled her close.