Who's Trouble?

Looking back, Fred was a goner the second she nicknamed him. Of course, he didn't even realize she HAD nicknamed him for a few weeks. Still, from that moment on he was intrigued by the younger witch - even if he wasn't aware of it.

It had started innocently enough, Fred had been over at the Ministry checking up on an experimental charms request he had submitted for approval. As he was leaving, Hermione was walking up the same, otherwise empty, hallway. She saw him in the hallway and grinned, "Here comes trouble." He had just looked at her quizzically - plenty of people thought the twins caused trouble, but it wasn't like Hermione to say so.

She waved her hand in the air while stating, "It's a Muggle expression. How are you?" Fred and Hermione chatted for a few more moments in the hallway before they both continued on with their business.

Fred had completely forgotten about the encounter until Hermione stopped by the shop in Diagon Alley a few weeks later. Until then, neither of the twins had any clue Hermione could tell them apart. She'd always been nice to them, but never treated them any differently than the rest of Ron or Ginny's close friends. However, on entering the shop that late summer day, Hermione shocked George by greeting him with a quick kiss on the cheek, "Hey George, is your brother at the till?" George nodded, wondering how Hermione knew it was him greeting newcomers to the store. He stared at her back quizzically as she walked up the aisle. George's attention was then distracted as some excited rising fourth years stumbled into the store.

Hermione waited for Fred to finish up with his current customer, and then leaned over the counter. "Hey, trouble," she greeted while kissing his cheek too. "I stopped by the Ministry to check on my paperwork and Gilbert told me your approval was ready too. I hope you don't mind, but I figured I'd just run it by for you." She reached into her bag, pulled out a file and handed it to Fred.

Fred glanced at the parchment inside and looked up grinning, "Hey, thanks, Hermione. That saves me having to leave George alone with the merchandise to go check up on it!"

"No problem, really. I was over there anyway. I'll see you at dinner on Sunday." Fred looked at her quizzically.

"Dinner on Sunday, Fred. You do realize I've been coming to your family dinner every Sunday?" Hermione looked as if she couldn't decide between being annoyed or amused at Fred's confusion.

"Yeah, yes," Fred stumbled. "ok, see you then."

It took a few more times of Hermione stopping into the shop for Fred to realize that she always knew the difference between the two twins and that she always came in to talk to Fred - although in all cases she could have spoken to George about whatever she came in for. It took a few more stops before Fred realized that she always called George by his name, but never failed to call Fred "trouble."

After a few weeks, Hermione happened by one day when it was particularly slow. Fred noted that she didn't really have a good reason to be there this time - she was just stopping in on her way through the Alley. He decided that it was a good time to skip out on work. "How about an ice cream at Fortescue's?" Fred asked Hermione.

"Sure, ice cream sounds great, Fred!" Hermione replied.

After a few more casual outings together, Fred realized he wanted to ask Hermione out on a proper date. He enjoyed his time with her. She really did have a wicked sense of humour once she didn't need to worry about her grades! And she had come in handy solving more than one product testing "emergency" - those disasters were all George's fault, of course.

Which led directly to Fred's current revelation; Fred was sitting in The Leaky Cauldron sharing a butterbeer with Ron. He was currently explaining to Ron that he was planning on asking Hermione out on a real date and was pretty positive she would accept (because in fact she already had accepted). As he glanced across the table at Ron's reddening face and recognized he was about to get punched by his younger brother, Fred realized that Hermione was wrong. It wasn't Fred that was trouble, no, no. Most definitely it was Hermione that was trouble.