Hermione was not exactly used to being included in things. It was a hold over from a lonely childhood in the muggle primary school system. So despite the fact that she had been attending Hogwarts for several years where she had befriended Harry and Ron, she still just wasn't quite used to that feeling. Particularly if it was someone other than Harry or Ron including her in something. That was why she was surprised when Fred approached her.

"I need you to make a distraction?" he whispered to her, pulling her attention away from the old spell book she had found on a previously unsearched library shelf.

"What?" she said, placing her bookmark next to a spell for folding socks and closing the book so she could focus on him.

"I," he said with far too much emphasis in his voice as he pointed to himself. "Need you, to make a distraction for me."

There was a round of gesticulating between him and her as if she wouldn't understand the words he was using before he offered her a winning smile that transitioned right into a wink when she stared at him with a question written on her face. She set the book aside and crossed her arms before offering him her most prefect-ly annoyed face.

"And why on earth would I do something like that?" she asked.

"Because I'm about to prank 'ittle Ronnekins, and you're definitely going to enjoy the show," he told her with a smirk. "But step number one is you making a distraction."

"And how do you suggest I do that?" she asked, suddenly interested in participating when she thought about how rude Ron had been to her since he started dating Lavender."

"Well, in just a few minutes George and Angelina are going to start making out and you'll go over to break them up, but you'll make quite the scene out of it," Fred explained. "And in order for it to really work you'll need to mention Ron somehow, so he's really paying attention to all of that. So I can sneak up to his dorm without drawing any attention to myself."

"Fine," she sighed, hoping that her hurt feelings didn't show on her face. "Tonight I shall be playing to part of Prudish Shrew to a full audience."

Fred laughed quietly and looked around the crowded common room before making meaningful eye contact with George. This was obviously the sign before George took that moment to start doing an impersonation of a Hoover vacuum trying to remove Angelina's face. After the initial shock had passed Hermione huffed and rose from the chair before stomping over to the amorous couple.

"Who exactly raised you George Weasley," she shouted as she reached out and smacked his arm, jolting him away from Angelina. "Between your behavior and Ron's your poor Mum must be losing her mind. It's despicable."

"Hey, leave my mother out of this," George snapped, and the irritation on his face was so believable she was almost upset until she saw the little glimmer in his eye.

"Oy, leave me out of it as well!" Ron interjected as he stood up from where he had been canoodling Lavender by the fire.

"Oh do shut up Ronald," Hermione said, turning to look at him and noting that he was focused on her and not on Fred quietly slipping into the stairwell that led to the boys dorm. "I was speaking about you not too you, and frankly not even about you. You on the other hand, are being deplorable!"

She was facing George once more, and this time she had to force herself to furrow her brow in frustration because the comical look of bewilderment on his face was honestly hysterical. She threw her hands up in exasperation as a strange mirror of him raising his own as if to ask her what she meant.

"You know quite well that the newest educational decree mandates that male and female students not come within 8 inches of one another. I sincerely doubt there are eight millimeters between the two of you at the moment," she said shrilly. "It's a disgusting show of public affection and I wont tolerate it. If you separate now I won't take points or report you."

"I didn't realize you were now a part of the Inquisitorial Squad," Angelina said quietly, and Hermione knew it was part of the distraction but it felt a little like a slap.

"I don't care what you are or are not aware of unless it is the school rules," Hermione said icily before she crossed her arms and started tapping her foot. "Are you really going to make me take points or are you going to put an appropriate amount of distance between yourselves."

"Alright, alright," George said, putting his hands up in supplication as he untangled himself from Angelina and stood from the couch. "I was going to go find my copy of Quidditch Through the Ages anyway, I guess I'll do that now."

And with that he was headed off toward the dorm and Hermione was left with everyone in the common room staring at her, though the only angry face was Ron's. Everyone else seemed to either be confused, slightly irritated, or appeared to think that this was every day behavior. As if there was nothing strange about Hermione being the PDA police. She wasn't sure if that pissed her off or just severely injured her pride. Either way she really wasn't interested in being in the room any more. So despite the fact that it was only an hour until curfew, she grabbed her previously abandoned library book and flounced out of the room.

"Of course they expect nothing less," she muttered angrily to herself as she stormed her way through the castle. "Hermione hates fun, Hermione hates affection, Hermione wants to ruin our lives. Whatever."

She fell silent when she spotted Mrs. Norris coming around the corner ahead. That meant Filch was nearby and she didn't want him to think she was crazy, or any other random observer to draw correlations between her and the caretaker who also tended to talk to himself. So instead, she silently made her way to the library. She plucked her bookmark from the book and handed it over to a pinched mouthed Madam Pince who pointedly glanced at her watch.

She held in her sigh and decided to find another book. It was a boring and prudish girl that would be reading a book about household charms, and she was quite shot of being thought of like that. What sort of books did exciting girls read she wondered? Well, she supposed, they probably didn't read books, but she wasn't feeling quite that revolutionary. Giving up reading was absurd. She decided that if Lavender was picking out a book it would probably be to learn appearance-altering charms and that was probably a good start. Maybe she'd even find something to make her hair at least feel more lightweight, if not actually look that way.

A few minutes later she was so fully immersed in her search of the shelves that she was yet again startled by the appearance of Fred Weasley. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she pulled a book out from the shelf and in the gap she found his face smiling cheekily at her.

"Merlin's pants Fred," she whisper yelled at him. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," she said with a smirk before he disappeared from the gap.

She had half a second to be confused before he jogged around the end of the aisle and appeared at her side with a lazy grin on his face before snatching the book from her hand.

"Bewitching Beauty Charms?" he read out loud. "Why are you reading this drivel?"

"How's that any of your business?" she groused as she snapped the book back, giving it a longing look before she replaced it on the shelf and folded her arms over again.

"I just wondered what exactly it is you think you need to change," he said with a shrug.

"You're hilarious," she snapped. "Would you like the comprehensive list with a detailed bibliography as to which source pointed it out, or just the cliff notes version."

"I'm not even sure what cliff notes are to be honest," he said with a smile. "But I don't want the list at all because I doubt it will be very funny, and I think you could use a good laugh."

"I'm doing just fine," she said, turning around to storm away from him.

"I doubt that," he said, grabbing the sleeve of her sweater to keep her from going.

Hermione jerked her arm away from him but she stopped walking away.

"I went to the trouble to create this great prank on Ron to make you laugh, and you didn't even stay to see the results." He pouted.

"Don't pretend that was for me.," she said with a sardonic laugh. "And it isn't as if the result was going to be instant, it won't happen until he goes to bed. Even then we may not see the results until morning if we see them at all."

"Oh you'll certainly notice the effects," he said with a laugh. "You might be right that it won't be until morning, but I know you'll notice it because I picked it specifically to make you laugh."

"Why would you care if I laugh or not Fred?" Hermione asked. "You've never cared much before about whether or not I find humor in something."

"Well that's not true at all. I care about everyone having humor in their life," he pointed out. "But I really wanted you to have it today."

"And what was your plan?" she asked, slightly curious.

"Well, you see, humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it," Fred pointed out. "So I thought I ought to make you laugh heartily at Ron so you can stop being upset over his relationship with that bimbo."

"Lavender isn't a bimbo," she said automatically before her brain caught up with her mouth. "Wait, how in the world do you know a Langston Hughes quote? Are you interested in American Poets?"

"Not at all," he laughed. "But this summer I was interested in pranking you, so I stole your book one morning when you were in the kitchen with Mum. I was going to charm it from where you'd been reading to tell you dirty jokes and that line happened to be on the page. I was interested in it. Somehow my prank turned into me stealing your book and reading it instead."

"I looked for that book for ages Fred Weasley!" she said, smacking his arm. "What did you even do with it?"

"I still have it actually…" he said, kicking the bookshelf softly with the toe of his trainer. "It's in my trunk at the moment."

"Well, I'd like it back please," she demanded, her voice softening slightly at the end. "I already owe a significant fine at the muggle library for not returning it yet. I also want to know what you did to Ron."

"Oh that," he said, his slightly bashful look going away with his laughter. "I short sheeted him."

"Isn't that a bit beneath you?" she asked with a quirked brow. "That's an elementary school prank. I'm sure Harry has already done it to him."

"Oh not like this he hasn't," Fred laughed. "It's a product George and I have been working on. It mirrors that look of the fitted sheet on the bed, so you can use it on anyone and it will always match, but over the course of the night, it shortens the person sleeping in the bed."

"Oh that's actually pretty funny," Hermione laughed.

"It gets better," he said, his eyes lighting up with mischief. "It is a progressive charm. So tomorrow morning he'll be about two inches shorter. He probably won't notice because he's obtuse, but you will. The next night it will be four inches, so he'll notice but he won't understand. You ought to encourage him to go to Madam Pomfrey because we unbelievably were able to convince her to help us, and she's got an infirmary bed set up for him already with a short sheet on it and she'll have him stay overnight for observation where he will shrink another four to six inches before she declares there is nothing medically wrong with him, he's just regressing to a shorter height for some reason and release him from the wing. He won't stop shrinking until he apologizes to you for how petty he's been."

"That's some very specific charm work," she said, half impressed and half confused. "But won't all of you other customers just keep shrinking then? They won't have anything to apologize to me for."

"The sheet it programmable," he explained. "When you open the package they will come in you put a hair of the person of the person who ought to be apologized to on the sheet and the rest takes care of itself."

"That's actually very impressive Fred," she pointed out, offering him a smile. "But how did you get some of my hair? And why on earth did you bother with any of this?"

Fred reached out toward her and she had to fight the urge to flinch away from him expecting him to tweak her nose or something. Instead he tucked her hair behind her ear and then presented her with a single strand of it and a smile on his face. It was strange to have him do something that seemed so affectionate. She wracked her brain and realized that she and Fred had never actually touched other than her slapping his arm when he was doing something silly. She didn't know what to think about the fact that patches of gooseflesh popped up on her arms beneath her sweater at the thought of his fingers brushing the lobe of her ear.

"It isn't as if your hair is very hard to come by?" he explained, pulling her away from her wool gathering. "And why wouldn't I bother with it? Ron is being a prat to you, and he was raised better than that."

"But why do you care?" she pressed.

"I know I shouldn't," he said with a slight frown as he dropped her hair and tucked his hands into his pockets. "I know that you've got a crush on him, and I shouldn't be paying you any mind because despite this idiocy right now I'm fairly sure he's got one on you as well, and yet here we are, with me caring."

Hermione felt overwhelmed as she met his gaze full on. His stare was so earnest and sincere. There was not a hint of a wink about him and she felt the realization crash around her shoulders. Fred Weasley had feelings for her. He had these feelings despite somehow knowing that she'd had a crush on Ron for several years. Had being the operative word though. He'd well and truly ended that for her with his antics with Lavender. Sure, she'd had a good cry when she first saw them together, but she was over it now. She wasn't jealous of Lavender because she had Ron. She was jealous because someone found her desirable.

"I think you're confused." Hermione said softly.

Something seemed to ripple across Fred's face before it settled into a calm façade once more. He took a hand out of his pocket and played with the cuff of her sweater for a moment, his eyes watching his fingers rather than her face, but he refrained from speaking for a bit. She watched his face instead. He seemed pensive. For half a second he seemed to chew his lip before a look of determination over took his features and he slid his hand down, twining his fingers with hers.

"I am not confused," he said firmly, locking his bright blue eyes with hers. "I've been sure for a couple years now, just unwilling to put myself out there when I thought Ron was interested. But since he's being a ponce it's his lost. I'm going after what I want."

"You misunderstand me," she said, squeezing his fingers a bit before relaxing her hand, but allowing him to keep a hold of it. "You're confused about my feelings toward Ron. My silly crush ended when he started up this very public courtship with Lavender Brown."

"Oh I doubt it's a sincere courting," he scoffed before his mouth twisted into a smirk. "But you aren't interested in 'ittle Ronnekins?"

"No, I am not," she assured him.

"Are you interested in me?" he asked, almost succeeding in hiding all insecurity from his voice.

"I am not uninterested in you," she said softly. "But to be honest I haven't ever given it any thought. I've not thought much about guys other than Ron except to assume that they also have no interest in a bookish prude."

"I really don't like it when you say things like that about yourself," he frowned, his fingers tightening around hers for a moment before releasing them so he could tuck back the hair that had fallen in front of her face when she looked down. "You don't really believe that do you?"

"I am bookish," Hermione pointed out. "You did find me in the library after all. I'm not ashamed of being labeled that. It's true. I suppose to an extent I am a prude as well, because I haven't really done any of those things… Well I mean I've been kissed, but I haven't done very many things. So I probably am prudish. It's just that word sounds so… I don't know… judgmental?"

"I don't think that being somewhat inexperienced makes you prudish," he pointed out before a look that she suspected may actually be jealousy crossed his face. "But who have you kissed? I didn't think that you and Ron had done anything like that…"

"Oh no, of course not!" she laughed. "Though I wanted that quite a lot in our third year. But I may have kissed a bit with Viktor at the Yule Ball. It wasn't a full on snog or anything. "

"You're first kiss was with an international Qudditch star?" Fred asked. "Hardly prudish Hermione."

"Oh that wasn't my first kiss," she laughed.

"Oh, I sense a story," he said, leaning a bit closer to her with a smile on his face that seemed to make her breath catch a bit. "Won't you tell me?"

Why was this making her cheeks heat up like that? And why did Fred seem so interested? Was he using this to flirt with her? Did she want him to be? What was that cologne he was wearing anyway?

"It was a muggle boy, the summer before third year," she heard herself explaining while a separate part of her brain was breaking down the different scents she could smell now that her nose seemed to be so close to his chest. "It wasn't planned at all, but French boys aren't nearly as supercilious about frizzy hair and buck teeth. I met him when we were on vacation and we ended up on an impromptu quasi date at a bakery that also served cheese and he kissed me goodbye when I had to meet back up with my parents to go see the Eiffel Tower."

"And what was this debonair Frenchman's name?" Fred asked.

"Reginald," Hermione said, slightly embarrassed that her voice sounded a little breathy. "Does your cologne have mint in it?"

"It does, but you're getting off track," he said as his fingers found their way under her chin and tilted her head up so she was fully meeting his gaze, a gaze that was much closer than she remembered from a moment ago. "You do seem partial to boys with multi-syllable names, and two out of the three start with R. Should I be concerned about my chances with my one measly syllable and aggressive letter F?"

"What?" Hermione asked, seeming to lose the train of the conversation as she watched his pale pink lips moving while he asked the question at an estimated distance of eight inches from her mouth.

"I asked if you take issue with my name, but I can see that is of little priority to you, so I've come up with a different question," he said with a smirk that went all the way to his sparkling eyes.

"What is that?" she whispered.

"Would you mind very much if I kissed you now?" he asked, his voice seeming to drop a bit and roll straight down her spine with a delightful tingle.

"Yes please," was her response, which pulled a deep laugh from his chest.

"That's not quite the proper response Miss Granger but I think I can decipher you meaning," Fred said before he closed the remaining distance between them and pressed his lips to hers.

Hermione certainly wasn't used to kissing. She did so little of it up to this point in her life. It was all her mind could think about now. She found herself cataloging that his lips were soft. They weren't chapped like Viktor's had been and they weren't slicked with balm like Reginald's were. They were soft and had just the right level of moisture for her to appreciate. When he body seemed to respond on it's own and she parted her lips he followed suit she discovered that either he'd just had candy or he used cinnamon flavored tooth paste. She liked that. Her mind made a list of facts, such as the fact that his sweater was soft from being worn often, but it felt nice against her palms. His cologne was stronger when she was this close but she liked the fresh clean scent of it. His hands felt strong when they found themselves on her hips holding her just close enough to kiss her with ease, but to maintain a respectful distance between their chests. She found that kissing Fred was like breathing and she wasn't exactly inclined to stop.

She did however manage to keep from whimpering in disappointment when he broke away from her. She felt her mouth pull into a moue of disappointment but she was met with a beaming smile from Fred. She was relieved to see that he at least seemed to be breathing a little heavier just as she was. He released her left hip to adjust her hair once more before brushing his thumb over her now quiet moist lower lip.

"I don't know about you, but I liked that very much," he told her in a voice that was deeper than the one he'd been using earlier.

She responded by kissing the pad of his thumb before he pulled his hand away.

"No one would dare call you prudish," he said with a husky laugh before he hastily put his hands in his pockets.

Hermione was confused until she heard the click of heals on the stone floor behind her. She turned to face the approaching person, hoping her face wasn't too flushed. She wasn't surprised to see that Madam Pince looked irritated as she approached them.

"I'm not sure what the two of you think you're up to in here," she said. "But the library is closing, and its five minutes to curfew so you had best get back to your dorm. Separate dorms I think I ought to specify."

"Of course Madam Pince," Hermione said quickly before grabbing up the book once more. "We were just debating the merit of this book, but I think I really do want to check it out. Would that be alright to do very quickly before we hurry back to Gryffindor?"

"You can stay to check it out before leaving," she sniffed. "But you had best head back right now Mr. Weasley."

"Yes Ma'am," he said while tipping an invisible hat to her before he scurried out of the library.

Hermione was barely paying attention as she checked the book out and was shooed from the library by an irritated librarian. She felt like she was floating down the corridor rather than walking as she hurriedly made he was back to Gryffindor. She was somehow detached from her life at the moment, and that is perhaps the only reason she didn't scream when Fred popped out from behind a suit of armor to take hold of her hand again.

"Why are you checking out that book?" he asked as they walked at a fast clip back to the tower. "You're beautiful already."

Hermione couldn't help but laugh at that.

"Maybe you think so," she said when she'd stopped laughing. "But this book might be able to help me control this nest."

"Please don't get rid of your curls," he said with a pout as they rounded the corner that brought them near the Fat Lady's Portrait.

"Of course not," she said with a shake of her head. "But it would be nice if they didn't feel like they weighed a ton or frizzy out to three times this size during poitions class."

"Fair enough," he said, pulling them to a stop directing in front of the portrait. "This feels far too soon to be asking this question without sounding needy, but what is our approach here? Are you still going to hold my hand when we go inside? Am I supposed to pretend I didn't just kiss you in the library? Pretend I don't want to do it again right now?"

"How about one last kiss before we go inside, but then you're only allowed to hold my hand in front of other people," she suggested.

"But more kissing is allowed if there aren't other people around?" he asked, his eyes brightening with his smile.

"Oh I think I like that idea quite a bit," she said with a breathy laugh.

"Well alright then," he said with a laugh of his own before he started to kiss her once more.

There was a chance their kiss might have gotten out of control because of how much she liked it if it weren't for the fact that they were standing in front of a portrait that really liked to talk to the students. Or to chide them when she felt they were misbehaving.

"Shall I go and get Professor McGonagall or do you two intended to get inside and stop with the corridor romance?" the Fat Lady asked.

"Alright then, we're going," Fred told her with a half hearted frown. "Fizzing Wizzbies."

The portrait swung open and Fred pulled her in with him before closing it behind them. He walked with her hand in hand into the common room where a few students were still lingering though it appeared the majority of the tower had made their way to the dormitories. Fred smirked as he looked at George before clearing his throat.

"Oiy, the lot of you clear out of here so my girlfriend will let me kiss her," he said, causing Hermione to flush scarlet with mortification as all eyes turned to them.

Whatever look Fred had on his face must have convinced them to listen because everyone bailed out of the room. As soon as they were gone Fred made her pull her face out from where she'd been hiding it against his shoulder and ran his fingers through her hair while tilting her head back. His other hand took the book from her and dropped it onto an armchair before he angled her so she could rest her hip against it and he kissed her more thoroughly than she'd ever been kissed in her relatively short life.