"You said what?" Hermione asked, incredulous. They were in the Great Hall, and Harry was forcing Ron to recount what had happened in the changing rooms, after she'd made a passing comment on Fred's strange behaviour that day.

"Well, it's not impossible is it? You did change your mind about them pretty quick and it's not like they're against bending the rules." She gaped at him.

"Not for just anything, Ron! They would never force anyone into doing anything they didn't want to do!"

"They tried to make me make an unbreakable vow!"

"When you were children, Ron! And besides, that's different, you're their brother." She dismissed his argument with a wave of his wand.

"Charming. And you don't think it's odd that you're suddenly spending all this time with them?" Hermione huffed, her face going pink.

"I happen to enjoy spending time with them, Ronald," he winced at her use of his full name, "and if you'd asked me about it before throwing your weight around like some territorial ape-"

"-territorial-?"

"Guys! Please!" Harry managed, finally, to get a word in edgeways. "This is pointless. What's done is done. Hermione, Ron was just looking out for you, but Ron, you should have talked to her first if you were worried okay?" There was a pause, and for a moment Harry dreaded that they'd go back to the icy on/off drama of last year. But there seemed to be less of that unspoken tension between them these days, and after a second, Ron sighed.

"Yeah, okay, but you have to admit Fred overreacted - even George thought he might have gone mental - you could see it in his face."

"Well you did just suggest that the only way I would ever spend time with him is if I was being enchanted into it," Hermione pointed out, although her tone was more worried than angry now.

"Yeah, well, I still don't really understand-" Ron began to mutter but was cut off almost as soon as he began.

"I like him, Ron, and I like working with him." It was hissed with a sort of finality that barred all further discussion. Not that Ron could have further discussed it, partly because she'd gotten up and was swiftly leaving the hall, and partly because he was still processing what she'd said. He turned to Harry.

"She didn't mean-" he looked like he might be sick, "like, like?" Harry opened his mouth to dismiss the idea as ridiculous but stopped halfway through. They did seem to get on, and it would explain a lot. The pause had been enough of an answer, and Ron settled into a grim silence which lasted well into the night.

The library, of course, is where Hermione had gone. She didn't even really think about it, her muscle memory taking her up to the warm, well lit room. Her favourite haunt was a quiet, usually empty area with a squashy maroon couch on which she could stretch out and read her latest conquest. As it was, she could see she wouldn't be stretching out there today. Of all people, of course Fred Weasley would be lying in her favourite spot, his hands tucked behind his head like a pillow and his long legs stretched out over the couch, crossed at the ankle. He had his eyes closed, but the frown on his face made her doubt he was asleep.

"Ahem." He almost jumped out of his skin, sitting bolt upright immediately as his eyes opened wide. She grinned at him, waiting for a laugh but was met with a blank expression. He groaned and then leant back in the couch.

"That pleased to see me?" She asked archly, trying not to let any real offence leak into her voice.

"Thought you were Umbridge - thought maybe the Ferret had gone running to her."

"I think he's a little bit too terrified of you and your big club to go running to anyone." At the words 'you and your big club', Fred almost choked on his own tongue, spluttering as she looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Honestly!" She huffed, but he could see she was suppressing a smirk, and he couldn't help but grin back. "Ah! A smile!" She announced happily, "that looks more promising than anything else you've done today." He scanned her face.

"You heard about the changing rooms." It wasn't a question but she nodded anyway.

"Ron's just being stupid-" she began, but he shook his head.

"I'm the last one to deny that Ronnikins is stupid," he said flatly, "but he wasn't just being stupid." She tilted her head in incomprehension and he continued. "I mean, he wasn't just pulling things out of the air, was he? You have suddenly been spending a lot of time with us-"

"-working on the products, that's not a crime-" Even now it was odd to hear her defend WWW like that. And that was kind of the point, wasn't it?

"No but, to him it must look like you changed your mind pretty sharpish - I mean, I was surprised when you said all those things you did in the common room." It was the first time either of them had mentioned that night except in reference to her advice about the labs, and she was reminded of the honesty she'd so greatly appreciated from him that day. Maybe it was time to repay the favour.

"Well, at least you asked my opinion before assuming what I was or wasn't capable of feeling," she said, "Ron shouldn't have confronted you without talking to me first - I could have explained about our work." Our work. She sighed. "Fred-" Maybe she shouldn't… but he had bared his insecurities to her. "The thing is, I think he's feeling jealous." His mouth opened slightly and he stared at her as she went on, blushing furiously.

"I mean, last year - with Krum -" Yeah, that's what he needed, a reminder of her dreamboat ex-boyfriend, "- he spent so much time being aggressive towards him that I sort of figured that he must, at least on some level, like me." He could tell she was horribly embarrassed to be saying this out loud and tried to keep his face calm and inviting. "But I waited for him to make a move and he never did - and I realised I didn't really want him to. I asked Harry to talk to him about calming down then but I don't think he even realises he's doing the same thing again."

Fred tried to understand what she'd just said. Was she- did she-

"You didn't want Ron to make a move?" The question had fallen from his mouth before he had the chance to stop it. She frowned at him.

"Of course not, he's one of my best friends." she paused, "I did think, once… but not any more." She looked at him like this should have been obvious, as he stared dumbly back at her.

"You… don't like Ron?" He asked slowly.

"No…?" She answered, like she was afraid of giving the wrong answer, "I mean of course I like him - he's my friend, I'm not insulting your brother or anything but-"

She broke off as she heard - inexplicably - his laughter, breaking through him like one of the fireworks he'd been working on with his brother.

"Fred?" Hermione's voice was mildly alarmed as she watched him crease up, and he opened his eyes long enough to wave her concern away with a freckled hand, holding it up to signal he needed time.

Once he'd sufficiently recovered, he opened his eyes to see her still staring at him with a look not dissimilar to the one she had when studying a particularly challenging book. He allowed himself to take it in, the small crease between her eyebrows, the unruly lock of hair that fell across her forehead.

"Fred," she said again slowly, and he realised he'd been staring, "why were you hysterically laughing?"

"Ah…" How should he go about this? "I just realized I'm as much of an idiot as my brother."

"Well, I could have told you that." He laughed again and saw her half-smiling half-bemused expression relax just a little bit more. She was waiting for an explanation. When he spoke again it was slow and careful.

"It's like you said, right? About assuming what you're feeling. I've just been taking it as a given for so long that you and Ron…" That oh so familiar frown was back now, and he didn't stop himself from gazing at her rapturously, thinking it wouldn't do to slow down her journey to the inevitable conclusion of the conversation.

"Is that… is that relevant?" She still wasn't there. Brightest witch of her age, my arse, thought Fred affectionately. He licked his lips.

"Do you want it to be?" Three… Two… One… Her eyes widened incrementally and her mouth opened in a silent oh. There it was. He could feel himself smiling besottedly at her and she had the decency to blush a delicious shade of pink, even if she didn't answer.

"Listen," He said quietly, hoping to ease her discomfort, "it doesn't have to be. Relevant, I mean. I mean, I've gone this long without acknowledging it, I can go on for a bit longer… We can just pretend today never happened, and go back to working on Wheezes as friends, yeah? You don't have to worry about hurting my precious feelings or whatever-" She shook her head almost imperceptibly, and he knew she was refusing to play along with his unphasable good humour. It was really no more than he'd expected of her but he'd thought it only polite to give her an exit route if she wanted it. Then she surprised him.

"...Or?"

He started, catching the spark of amusement in her quick brown eyes and breaking into a grin.

"Or… I try to stifle my squeals of joy, which will otherwise soon be turned into cries of pain by one Madam Prince-" He saw Hermione press her lips together in an effort not to smile, "-released as I am from the chains of my previous noble intentions," She snorted but he ploughed on, "I kiss you stupid on this library sofa and then we hold hands all the way back to the common room like - like Percy and Penelope bloody Clearwater - making stupid goo-goo eyes at each other until we lose every one of our friends due to our disgusting behaviour and end up living the rest of our lives as hermits in a cave somewhere in the south of France where we can steal food from a nearby vineyard. Or whatever else you want to do, I'm easy." He grinned at her felt his gaze fix on her bottom lip as she she bit it thoughtfully - an action she did not miss.

"Well," She said, in that Prefect voice of hers, bringing his attention back to her gleaming eyes, "that kissing me stupid part did sound pretty interesting. Although I warn you, with my intelligence levels, it might take a while to get all the way down to stupid-"

"I've been told I'm a very goal-driven man, Granger, I think I might be willing to put in the time-"

They could each feel the others smile as their lips pressed together and for one whole moment, they were as quiet as they had ever been together.

BANG!

"You know, when books mentioned fireworks I didn't think they were being literal, Fred."

"Must have forgotten it was in my pocket-"

"FIREWORKS! IN MY LIBRARY!"

"Look sharp, Granger-"

"Right behind you, Weasley-"

He grabbed her wrist and they bolted. Though not quite as he had described, Fred would point out later that they did indeed hold hands all the way back to the common room.