Chapter Text
"Oh, George, that's wonderful! Just wonderful!" Mom exclaims, jumping to her feet and starting to smile broadly. Dad, sitting on the couch next to her, raises his eyebrows, looking, however, not surprised, but rather pleased.
Fred grins, folding his arms over his chest and watching his brother. It's worth admitting: his twin has definitely changed lately, and one particular girl has had a hand in it. Now she is sitting next to him, squeezing his hand with a simple ring on her finger and looking a little uncertainly at the members of the crazy red-haired family gathered in the living room. George is also frozen in expectation, focusing only on Fred, and he hurries to nod approvingly.
"I guess there's one less bachelor in the family now," he chuckles. "How so, I certainly didn't expect such betrayal from you, George!"
"Angelina, honey, don't listen to him!" mom frowns, waving off her son. "We are very happy that George has finally decided to propose to you and that there will now be one more wonderful person in our family".
Fred snorts.
"And who said that I'm not happy?" he responds with mock indignation. "Of course, I'm glad that Forge will finally stop sighing for Angelina instead of work".
Actually, Fred is lying. It is worth admitting that Angelina managed to do the incredible and breathed life into George again. After the Battle of Hogwarts, they all were... they were quite depressed, and if it wasn't for her, perhaps it would have lasted much longer for the twins.
And to be completely honest... Fred is even a little jealous of him. In a good way, of course.
"It's actually time for you to find a good girl and finally get married," Molly shakes her head reproachfully, and Fred rolls his eyes.
Now that George is about to get married, these conversations will haunt him much more often, and he will have to fight them off alone. At twenty-eight, he is unlucky to remain the only bachelor in the Weasley family, which makes his wonderful mother very nervous, which she likes to remind him of at every opportunity.
Of course, there is also Charlie, who married his work and is not planning a family life, at least in the near future, but he turned out to be smarter than Fred, having left for another country, so only Fred and George had to stoically endure mom's remarks. And now it's just Fred.
"Why does it have to be a girl, Mom?" he asks slyly and grins, looking at how mom freezes for a moment, and then frowns, but does not say anything.
"And when is the wedding?" father breaks into the conversation, hurrying to change the subject in another direction.
"Well, we thought to plan it for the summer, and then go somewhere," George rubs the back of his head and squints at Fred, who raises an eyebrow, already knowing in advance what this might mean. It seems that at least a couple of weeks, or even a whole month, he will have to work alone in the store. And it would actually be possible to cope with this, if summer holidays weren't almost the most profitable season.
"Great idea," Fred blurts out.
"Are you sure?" George frowns. "We can change dates and..."
"I think you definitely deserve to spend an unforgettable honeymoon with your fiancee when you want it," Fred smiles. "Besides, Ronnie has started to come to us often, so I can ask him for help. And we also have Lee... In general, we will definitely not be lost".
George nods, still seemingly unconvinced, but Angelina's light touch makes him visibly calm down. The wrinkles on his forehead are smoothed out and he even allows himself a slight smile.
Fred claps his hands. "No matter how much I would like to sit and talk to you, the store will not open itself. Mom, Dad, I'll drop by tomorrow!"
He waves his hand and goes to the fireplace, when suddenly his wrist is squeezed tightly, a little harder even than it should be. George looks at him with a vague expression on his face and pulls him away from unnecessary ears.
"Fred, I wanted to say..."
"What is it?" Fred squints at his brother. He looks suddenly tense again, bites his lips, looks around furtively, as if if someone hears them, something bad will happen. And Fred feels like he's gradually starting to get angry from how long the minutes are dragging on. There is an unpleasant feeling inside, and Fred is actually not sure that he wants to hear what George is going to say.
"I talked to Harry yesterday," he says softly and pauses for a couple more moments before quickly continuing: "He said Hermione was coming back".
Fred does not hold back a shocked exhalation. Something turns over inside, and an unpleasant lump comes to his throat. All this lasts only a fraction of a second, until Fred finally manages to pull himself together.
He speaks in a completely calm, even voice:
"And what?"
"I thought you might like to know about it," George says in a half-whisper.
"Why on earth?" Fred frowns, trying hard not to betray the excitement and rage inside. Of all the things he could hear now, this is the last thing he would want to know. It was much calmer and more pleasant to live without thinking about Granger.
Now he's pretty sure he hates her. And it's strange, because she didn't do anything for it. She was honest, did not cheat, did not lead anyone by the nose, doing everything as quickly as possible.
However, it's hard not to get angry.
Because it was so damn cruel of her. Not in relation to Fred, of course, he had nothing to do with it at all, but to Ron, his younger brother, whom Hermione decided to leave just like that, leaving without even saying goodbye, without explaining, despite everything that connected them.
Mom was almost sure that sooner or later Granger would enter their family. They were all confident, thinking only about how soon it would happen and how long it would take the slow Ron to propose to her. After all, the way these two looked at each other was noticeable to the naked eye almost from their first year.
Hermione acted meanly. Fred is almost sure that she acted meanly. She could at least explain herself to Ron, who deserved not to be left alone with a broken heart. Because he really loved Granger, everyone around saw it.
But it didn't seem to be mutual.
"Well, I was thinking," George begins hesitantly, but Fred hurries to cut him off with a strained smile:
"You're thinking too much, Forge, but you're not thinking about what you need to think about. Better think about new products before Angelina drags you into preparing for the wedding".
George squints, staring intently for a while, as if trying to find something in his face, and then nods with a sigh:
"Okay. Now we'll drop by Angelina's parents, and then to the store. Can you manage without me for now?"
"If I didn't know you, I'd think you doubted my skills," Fred responds with mock indignation, slapping his brother on the shoulder. "See you later".
Before George can say anything else, he quickly goes to the fireplace, scoops up a handful of Floo powder and gives the address. And then a familiar feeling appears in his stomach, moments later he finds himself in the store.
The news that Hermione was coming back left some unpleasant oppressive feeling in his chest, settled in his head, throbbing painfully in his temples, and he can't fully explain to himself what exactly is oppressing him.
He shouldn't be experiencing anything like this, it's weird.
He can't say exactly when everything went to hell. Moreover, he does not even remember what exactly was the reason for Hermione to leave, to run away, without contacting anyone for many years. Of course, she mentioned problems in her relationship with Ron, but Fred is not at all sure that this would have forced her to make such a radical decision. Even the war did not affect her decisions. So what made her forget about all her desires, leave the Ministry and go to an unknown destination?
There must have been a good reason for all this, which Fred has not yet been able to understand.
It can't be said that Fred thought about it very much. And it can't be said that he still thinks about it. To be honest, he would even like to say that he had completely forgotten about it, but that would not be true.
Ron started moving on two years after Hermione left. Everyone else took even less time. But Fred kept coming back to his thoughts about the reasons for such an act over and over again. Not because it hurt him, of course. Because he didn't understand how the rational, reasonable and restrained Hermione decided to do something like this. It wasn't her style at all.
Although how would he know what was in her style? At Hogwarts, they didn't communicate much, after that everyone was too immersed in the fight with Voldemort, and then they just didn't get a convenient opportunity. They didn't even begin to communicate in a friendly way until the nineteenth of September, ninety-ninth, at Hermione's birthday. Fred couldn't even remember why it happened.
***
When Hermione suddenly disappeared, Fred seemed to be the only one who noticed. At least, it didn't bother anyone for sure, everyone continued to communicate as if nothing had happened. And Fred should have done the same, because Ron's girlfriend was definitely not his problem...
But something made him go in search of Granger, who, it seems, decided that it was not necessary to attend her own birthday party.
Fred had heard from Ron that Hermione hadn't really planned to celebrate it, but she was simply left with no choice: their mother was very persistent when it came to holidays, and it was she who decided that it was simply necessary to do something grandiose. After all, a twenty-year anniversary happens only once in a lifetime.
But Granger didn't look very pleased with what was happening. Of course, she was smiling, thanking everyone, and it sounded almost sincere, but Fred could see that something was wrong.
And it seemed only he saw it.
Hermione appeared to sit on the shore of a small pond. Fred didn't see her right away: at first he made out something vaguely similar to sobs, then someone sniffed loudly, and then a hunched figure clearly loomed in the dark under a spreading tree.
Fred hesitated. He just hated tears and was always lost when faced with crying people. And if it was easier with children, he always knew how to distract and calm them, then it was much more difficult with adults - you couldn't just play a game with them or surprise them with some kind of trick.
Maybe he should have called Ron. This was his girlfriend, he knew better how to calm her down.
"Hey, are you okay" Fred blurted out before he could think.
Another sob stopped abruptly, Hermione shuddered and turned around. Even in the dark, Fred could see how her eyes were shining with tears.
"George? What's the matter?" she asked hoarsely, wiping her cheeks. "Why aren't you with everyone?"
Fred grinned.
"Well, actually, I'm much prettier," he replied, coming a little closer and sitting down next to her, however, leaving a small distance between them.
"I'm sorry, Fred," she said softly, lowering her head.
"What happened?"
Hermione let out a sort of laugh and shook her head, sniffling, and Fred began to seriously worry. What could have so exasperated Hermione, a staunch, self-confident girl who cried in front of him, Fred, only once, when his brother Ron behaved like a real jerk.
"If Ron said something to you, just give me a sign and I'll turn something into a spider," he tried to joke, but quickly fell silent when Hermione suddenly froze for a moment, looked at him with big eyes, as if she was afraid of something. And Fred couldn't understand what he said. And only somewhere deep inside him unpleasant suspicions began to appear.
"It's okay, really," Hermione finally said. "I'm just a little tired".
"Well," Fred continued to smile, moving a little closer. "I think it's time to get some rest".
He nodded towards the Burrow, well lit and noisy as always, not hoping, however, that Hermione would follow him. And Granger predictably shook her head.
"I think... I'll sit here for a while," she spoke softly, as if carefully thinking over every word, and then added with a smile a little louder. "But you go, or you'll miss all the fun".
"George will tell me about it later," Fred shrugged. "I don't think that our wonderful mother has prepared something fundamentally different from all other birthdays. No offense to you, of course, Mom just takes traditions very seriously".
Hermione grinned and nodded.
"But it's great in its own way".
"Well, now you're smiling," Fred said, gently poking Hermione in the shoulder. "A smile definitely suits you much more than tears".
Even months later, Fred could not explain to himself what happened at that moment. They sat there, under the tree, for some time in complete silence, only occasionally broken by particularly loud exclamations from the Burrow and Hermione's sniffling. And for some reason Fred just couldn't bring himself to leave.
And it was from that day that everything began to change rapidly.