Fred
“Merlin, woman, get your tongue outta his ear!” George called from the entryway the Leaky.
That was signal enough then.
“Alright, they’re almost here. Everyone ready?” Fred called to the waiting group assembled in the main dining room. What had started as a congratulatory pint for Lee Jordan had quickly become a school reunion.
“Sorry mate,” Lee’s voice carried through the open door. “I’m afraid something’s come up, I can’t make it tonight.”
“Get your arse in here Jordan, there’ll be plenty of time for all that later,” George said with a laugh as the couple entered the doorway. Then to Verity he added, “I asked Gin to come in and open in the morning when I heard the news. You don’t come in till noon.”
“We can stay an hour or two, I reckon.” Fred heard Verity say as they moved closer to the main dining room.
“To WWN’s newest and best radio talk host!” Oliver Wood shouted as Lee, Verity, and George rounded the corner and shots of firewhisky were handed out liberally.
“Merlin, how’d you get everyone here?” Lee asked, coming up beside Fred.
“We’re your mates, I think half these people needed to see it for themselves.” Fred said slinging an arm around Lee’s shoulders.
“See what?” Verity asked from Lee’s other side.
“See if this numpty finally got off his arse and got himself a proper job,” Katie Bell said, handing both Lee and Verity glasses filled with amber liquid.
“Oh, sod off!” Lee shouted, then downed his drink.
A few hours later, after most of the guests had left, a more subdued group sat around the big table. They had, as usual, began to share drunken retelling of old school stories.
“And Granger puts an Impervious on Potter’s glasses. She was what second? Third year?” Oliver said, his arm across Percy’s shoulders comfortably.
“Third,” Fred said, a thoughtful smile on his face.
“Of course Fred knows,” Alicia snorted before taking another sip of her drink.
“What do you mean by that?” Fred asked, his smile slipping. He didn’t like the direction this conversation was heading.
“Bloody hell, mate, you’ve been the foremost expert on Hermione Granger since she showed up on the train first year,” Lee said, rolling his eyes.
“Bollocks,” Fred muttered.
“You’re really going to try to deny it?” Katie asked. “To us? Honestly, you couldn’t have been any more obvious. I think the only one who didn’t know was Granger. And probably Wood. He was always too busy being a wanker about winning every game, oh and snogging Percy’s face off.”
“Well, that’s just… Really?” Fred said, confusion all over his face.
“You have any idea how much money I’ve lost over the years, waiting for you to man up and just tell her?” Lee asked.
“Well, shite.”
He would have said something to her if she had shown any interest, but she had set clear boundaries. Fred respected boundaries, at least when it came to a witch's romantic choices. Sure, they shared the occasional cuddle, but that was no different than when Gin was feeling especially sentimental. Hell even Charlie was known to sit a bit closer than usual when he was knackered or upset about something. It was how siblings, at least his siblings, acted around one another. Human contact. That didn’t make it romantic.
“Let’s not pretend it was just Fred though,” Angelina piped up. “I know he’d caught Granger’s eye as well. She let me and George have it at the Yule Ball when she caught us snogging in a corridor. On and on about how wonderful Freddie boy was and how he didn’t deserve to be treated like that.”
“Took twenty minutes of me explaining why Fred asked her in the first place to calm her down,” George added, sipping his beer.
“She was probably still upset over Ron’s thickheadedness,” Fred said quietly.
“She may have been upset with Ron, mate, but she was livid with us,” Angelina said.
Bollocks, Hermione didn’t have siblings. Maybe her putting her head on his shoulder wasn’t the same as when Ginny did. Fred thought hard, had she done that with anyone else? Not that he could remember, not even Harry. Maybe there was something more to it.