All Bets Are Off

Chapter 16

"Yeah...well..." George stuck his tongue out at them, then busied himself with opening up a pizza box.

Hermione smirked and turned her attention back to Fred. "It's only for one night. Gin's a bit beside herself at the moment and I don't want her to be alone tonight."

"You don't want her to be alone any night," Fred corrected, running his fingers through her hair.

"Well, no, of course not, but--"

"I know," Fred said quickly, placing a finger on her lips. "And you're right, she shouldn't be alone tonight." Hermione smiled and gently snagged his fingertip between her teeth. He pulled it away and replaced it with his lips. She momentarily melted as his tongue tangoed with hers. After a few blissful moments, he attempted to break away, but Hermione threaded her fingers through his hair and held him in place. He chuckled against her mouth and made her smile, finally breaking the kiss. "You want to nip home quick?" he whispered against her lips.

"Yes," she breathed, "but I will have to rain check you. I need to get going." With a heavy sigh, she let her head thud against his chest and assured, "Tomorrow night, I'm all yours."

Fred propped his chin atop her head and let out a little groan. "Give Gin our love and a big hug from us." He gave her one last, tight squeeze and whispered, "Love you," in her ear, before brushing a kiss just under her lobe.

"You're a wicked man," she laughed, and he nodded in agreement. With one last kiss and a, "Love you, too", Hermione headed for the floo and set off for Ginny's.

It was the one year anniversary of Harry and Ron's leaving, and from the tone of Molly's owl that morning, Ginny was not handling the day well. She and James had spent it with her mother in an attempt to take her mind off things, and Molly wrote that for the most part it went well. There were many random moments, though, when Ginny would just break down, weeping until she had given herself hiccoughs and a headache.

Hermione's heart broke for her friend. She, too, had been feeling the boys' absence pretty profoundly the last few days, so during her lunch break Hermione sent an owl to Ginny insisting they were in need of a girls' night. As she stepped out of the fireplace at Ginny's, two bottles of wine clinked against a few of her photo albums and tissue boxes that she had brought for a proper evening of reminiscing.

When she stepped into the living room, she saw Ginny had already gotten a head start on the evening. She was sitting in Harry's big leather chair, balancing a gurgling James and a thick photo album on her lap.

"That's Uncle Ron at the Yule Ball," Ginny was saying, as James' little fists flailed against the pages. "I will be forever grateful to your Auntie Min for taking this picture."

"He was not happy that I did," Hermione laughed. "Not that it mattered. He wasn't happy about a lot of things I did that night." Hermione set her bag down and walked behind the chair to peek over GInny's shoulder. "Aww, look at you and Neville! Wow, it feels like a lifetime ago that we were that young."

"I was thinking of sending this picture, of Fred and Angelina, to George," Ginny said, flipping back a page and pointing to a photo of the two dancing.

"You're such a windup merchant," Hermione scolded, with a giggle, as she watched sixth-year Fred spin Angelina around so many times she got dizzy, stumbled, and swatted his shoulder. She remembered that year so well. It was the start of her crush on Fred and she had fallen pretty hard into it. There were many lingering gazes at him, from across the common room, and several times she swore he had caught her staring before she had a chance to look away quickly. Attempting to get her mind off him had been one of the main reasons she spent so much time in the library that year. Of course, that had ended up leading to a different distraction...