He walked her slowly to the back door and smiled down at her nervously. "I hope you had a good time tonight!"

"It was the best date I've ever been on. Thank you, Fred," Hermione said, smiling shyly.

Fred leaned down and kissed her gently on her check. "Good night, Hermione," he said, before apparating away, leaving Hermione standing on the doorstep, happy and breathless.

The Difficulties of Falling In Love
Chapter Five
This Kiss

"Good night, Fred," Hermione whispered to herself as he apparated away, a small smile on her face. She stood there for a few more minutes, leaning against the side of the house, going over the events of the night in her mind. It had been absolutely amazing. She had always thought of Fred as the class clown. Always joiking. Though she knew he had a serious side, as she saw during the Second Wizarding War, she had no idea that he could be the least bit romantic.

Eventually, she sneaked inside, thankful no one was awake at this hour. She was too tired to go through the events of the night-in complete detail, mind you-with Ginny. She could just do it in the morning, after a much-needed nights sleep.

When she got into her room, she peeled her dress off, throwing it on what used to be George's bed.

Not wanting to risk waking someone up by going to the bathroom and washing the makeup off her face, she pulled a nightgown over her head and settled into the bed, snuggling deep into her comforter.

She was asleep before she closed her eyes.

The next morning, Hermione was rudely awoken by Ginny, which reminded her of the day the all found out about the marriage law. Just like she expected, Ginny wanted to know everything from the night before, asking questions faster than Hermione could answer. Finally, after about an hour and a half, Ginny allowed Hermione to take a shower and get dressed.

For the rest of the day, Hermione helped clean the Burrow for the weddings in the upcoming weeks. Harry and Ginny were to be married this coming weekend, with Hermione and Fred the week after.

She didn't see Fred that night, which disappointed her more than she thought it would. Going to bed took a long time, Hermione tossing and turning, thinking to the next day when her, Ginny, Luna and Mrs. Weasley would be going dress shopping.

The next day, only four days before Ginny and Harry's wedding, letters arrived on the Weasley's kitchen table from the Ministry of Magic. When Hermione and Ginny came down for breakfast, already dressed for their day out, the Weasley clan-besides Fred, George and Ron-were standing around the table. Fred and George were doing inventory for the day, and they usually had their mail delivered to their flat anyways. Ron was at Lavender's, but his letter was still among the letter's on the Weasley's table. Perhaps the Ministry told the owls to send the letters to the home of address? Still, it was unusual.

Hermione figured that this particular letter couldn't bear any worse news than the marriage law, Hermione reached across the table, grabbing the one addressed to her.

Ripping the parchment envelope open, Hermione pulled the letter out of its sleeve. Looking around, she saw the others doing the same, Ron's letter still sitting on the weathered table.

Without another thought, she unfolded the letter and began to read.

Miss Hermione Granger,
The 72 hours allotted for questions or concerns regarding the arranged engagements made has passed. Now that weddings will be upon us, we thought it would be best to make sure that each party is completely monogamous, a charm, similar to the Trace put on those under 17, has been put on each individual. This specific Trace, if you may, will notify the Ministry, yourself, as well as your fiance/spouse, if you are involved with another individual sexually or romantically. What will notify us can be a kiss or sexual interactions. If you recieve this notice, you and your fiance/spouse will be required to attend marriage counseling within 24 hours. The councellor will be the one to decide whether a hearing is needed. If a hearing is involved, you will be sentenced eather to community service, and in the worse case, sentenced to Azkaban. I do hope you have a nice day.

Sincerely
Lana Tamer

Finished reading, Hermione looked up from the letter, setting it on the table. Within a few seconds, the rest of the party had finished reading their own letters, Ginny had an eyebrow raised. "Well...that's interesting," the red-head supressed a giggle.

Hermione nodded in agreement. "Well anyone dumb enough to cheat should get community service, at least."

"It's understandable though," Charlie chimed in from behind his plate of eggs and bacon. "In those cases where you absolutely detest who you were set to marry, and you were involved with someone before hand, but couldn't prove it exactly. Being able to kiss the one you really love one lats time would be awfully tempting."

Hermione was quiet, thinking over his words. They definitely made sense. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

After breakfast, Hermione, Ginny and Mrs. Weasley flooed to The Leaky Cauldron, where they met Luna.

Madame Malkins was absolutely packed, no doubt because of all the witches and wizards who had less than two months to pick out multiple outfits for the upcoming weddings. "So, Luna," Hermione started, as her and the blond sat, waiting for Ginny to try on a wedding dress. "How do you feel about marrying Percy?"

Luna, who had been staring off into space with a dreamy look on her face, looked over to Hermione. "I don't know, he's not particularly open-minded. He always gets an annoyed look on his face when I tell him that his head is full of wrackspurts." With that, she continued to look at the wall.

Hermione resisted rolling her eyes. Her and Luna had never seen eye to eye. Hermione didn't like to hear Luna talking about her imaginary creatures, since she couldn't prove any of them. The one magical creature Luna talked about that turned out to be real were Thestrals, but those weren't too unbelievable exactly. There had been proof of thestrals for centuries. Crumple horned whatsits and wrackspurts just didn't exist.

For the rest of the day, the brunette tried to avoid talking to Luna, though was still polite.

They all found dresses that day. Ginny was able to find a very nice dress, and with Harry paying for it, there was no problem. Hermione had wanted to use her own money, but Fred insisted he buy the dress. To all of her arguments on the subject, Fred had countered with that he had enough money and she was going to be his wife in a little over a week so what money was his was also her own. He wouldn't hear anymore, so instead he gave a pouch that was directly connected to his vault at Gringotts to his mother so she could pay for Hermione's dress.

With all their shopping done, the girls dropped their clothes and accessories off at Shell Cottage. Ginny apparated to Grimmauld Place, Luna to her house and Hermione and Mrs. Weasley flooed back to The Burrow.

"Dear, go freshen up for dinner. It should be ready within the hour," Mrs. Weasley hugged her soon-to-be daughter-in-law tightly and nudged her towards the stairs. With a small chuckle, she headed up the staircase and into her bedroom.

She walked straight to her dresser, and began pulling out a new set of clothes and shampoo.

"Hermione."

She turned around, reaching for her wand on instinct. Ron was standing in the corner of the bedroom closest to the door. She had walked right by him without even noticing him.

"Oh, so you're talking to me now?" Hermione asked, her voice laced with venom. Her temper flared up at the sight of him, his red hair unruly, hands shoved in his pockets.

At least he had the decency to look guilty at her words.

"I know you're mad at me, and I'm sorry for how I acted. It just...it made me so mad that you were paired with Fred and not me. You should be with me. We were meant for each other and you know that, Hermione." He looked at her, his eyes almost pleading. He was getting closer, inch by inch.

He was five feet away from her.

Hermione chewed on the inside of her lip. She used to think that her and Ron were going to end up with eachother. But that ship sailed right after the battle. They both agreed that they were no good for eachother. Apparently he decided he wanted her only when he couldn't have her anymore, when she was no longer available to him.

"Ron...we were over long before this ever came up, and you know that. We were just better as friends, I thought we agreed on that?"

"I know, but I love you Hermione. I don't want to be with anyone but you. You love me too, you could never love Fred and he could never love you. You don't go together like we do. He doesn't get you like I do."

Four feet.

Hermione was speechless. After a few moments, she noticed he was getting closer to her, inch by inch, so he was only a few feet away. "Ron," she kept her voice steady, though she was now nearly shaking with anger. "What did you ever do?"

He looked confused. "What do you mean?"

Three feet.

"I mean, you never took me on dates. Never showed me at all that you actually cared. To you, I was more of an object than a person. In your eyes, I was always worth less than food. Fred took me on a date, which you probably heard and the reason you came here in the first place. The date was amazing, my dream date, really. It was absolutely perfect. He tried to make it special, which it was. You never did anything like that for me."

Two feet.

Ron's eyes were wide. "I didn't think you liked that. You were always engrossed in your books."

One foot.

"Ronald, it doesn't matter anymore. I'm with Fred now and that's that. I love him. He's good to me, unlike you ever were. Why don't you just leave and go to Lavender, like you always have. She was always who you went to when you didn't get your-"

Ron crossed the last foot between them quickly, crashing his lips against hers.

I know this chapter is long overdue, and I'm sorry. It's been nearly a year since I've updated but I still get new followers on this story every week. You, and my friend at work are the reason I wrote this, and I promise that it wont take me another year to update this. Soon, I'll have a bunch load of free time to write :D Follow, favorite, and review. I hope you like it! Come back soon :D ~~Lindsey