Author's Note: No offense to anyone who likes Fred/Hermione, but I have no idea why I wrote this fanfiction. I don't ship them, and I neither understand how their ship began nor why Fred/Hermione seems more popular than George/Hermione. But while I was reading a Fred/Hermione fanfiction, this idea randomly popped into my head, and I just couldn't let it go. Now I've gotten it out, and hopefully I can go back into my little Ron/Hermione shipping world. If you DO like Fred/Hermione, though, I hope you enjoy this!

Disclaimer: I must not tell lies! I'm not J.K. Rowling, and I do not own any part of Harry Potter.

Hermione was sitting in the Gryffindor common room with Harry and Ron, trying to concentrate on her homework. But she was too distracted to focus. Fred and George Weasley, along with Lee Jordan, were apparently doing more experimentation with their joke products. This time, however, the test subjects were first years. They were eating some sort of sweet that Fred, George, and Lee had given them.

"I don't believe those three!" she exclaimed, throwing down her parchment and quill. "Let's go, Ron."

"What do you mean?" Ron asked, bewildered.

"You know perfectly well what I mean," Hermione retorted. "Your brothers and their friend are testing potentially dangerous products on first years, and as prefects, it's our duty to restore order."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Honestly, Hermione, they're not doing anything dangerous!"

"Yes, they are! Look!" Hermione pointed to the group of first years, who were keeling over one by one, unconscious.

Ron shrugged. "I don't see anything wrong. I'm sure they're fine."

"Fine," Hermione snapped. "I guess I'm on my own." She walked away, muttering something about how Ron didn't deserve his title of prefect. Ron looked slightly guilty, but stayed in his seat.

Hermione approached the twins and Lee. "Stop it. Now," she commanded.

"Stop what?" George said innocently, grinning at her.

Hermione threw her arms up in exasperation. "Why is everyone pretending to be so ignorant? You are endangering the first years with these sweets of yours!"

"No we're not," Lee assured her. He put another sweet, this one purple, into one of the first years' mouth. The young student slowly opened his eyes and looked around in confusion. "See?"

"What if something goes wrong?" Hermione argued as Lee began to give the purple sweets to the rest of the first years. "You could get into serious trouble, and so could I for not stopping you! Do you want that to happen?"

"We've tried these ourselves!" George said, looking like he couldn't care less about the trouble they could get into. "We're only –"

"Wait," Fred interrupted him, holding up his hand. He stared straight into Hermione's eyes. She shifted uncomfortably. "We'll stop testing our stuff on other people," Fred continued, "if you kiss me."

The entire common room went dead silent. George's eyes were wide, and Lee turned away from the first years to watch what was happening. "Excuse me?" Hermione shrieked.

Fred smiled mischievously. "You heard me. Kiss me, and we'll stop."

Hermione looked torn between ensuring the first years' well-being and saving herself from public humiliation. Fred waited patiently for her to respond.

Finally, Hermione sighed. "Okay," she agreed reluctantly. She walked over to Fred with a revolted expression as if she'd just been told to kiss a flobberworm. She reached up, took a deep breath, and quickly pecked him on the cheek. "There. Now stop."

Fred shook his head. "That wasn't what I meant," he said. And before Hermione could react, he grabbed her shoulders, leaned down, and kissed her on the lips.

The common room erupted with gasps, squeals, and whistles. Hermione's mind went blank, and her entire body seemed to be tingling. What in the world was going on?

After a few seconds, they broke apart. Hermione looked shocked. Fred seemed horrified.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled before whirling around and running out of the common room. People began to go back to whatever they'd been working on, but Hermione darted after Fred.

"Hermione," Harry began as she went by him and Ron, but she brushed past them without a single word.

Fred wasn't in sight immediately when Hermione climbed out of the portrait hole. Then she saw a flash of red disappear around the corner at the end of the corridor. She dashed down the hallway and finally caught up with Fred halfway down the next corridor.

"What was that all about?" she yelled. "First you kiss me – on the lips, no less – then you run away?" She angrily put her hands on her hips. "Explain yourself!"

"I'm sorry," Fred said again. "It was just –"

"If you say it was just a joke or a dare, I'll hex you," Hermione threatened.

"No! It wasn't anything like that!" Fred said hastily. "I've been wanting to do that for a while, and I needed an excuse to do it. So when you came over telling us to stop what we were doing, well… I saw my opportunity."

"But why?" Hermione said. "Why me?"

"For a long time," Fred began, "I only saw you as my little brother's bookish friend. That's it. I don't really know how it happened, but then I started to see you as something more. I saw you as an intelligent, kind –" Fred hesitated for a second, then continued, "– beautiful girl. And I thought your talents seemed somewhat under-appreciated – it almost seemed like Harry and Ron took you for granted."

Hermione's expression was beginning to soften. "The moment I realized I cared for you, though," Fred went on, "was last year at the Yule Ball. When Ron was mean to you and you had that argument, I wanted to punch him in the face for ruining what was supposed to be a special night for you."

"You know," Hermione said after a few moments of silence. "Until today, I never saw you as more than Ron's brother who had a proclivity for pranks. And I certainly never thought there would be anything even remotely romantic between us. But now…"

She trailed off, at a loss for words. "We're completely opposite people," she said at last. "You like to make people laugh, and I like to study. I care about my grades, and you don't as much. You're a pureblood, and I'm a Muggle-born."

"That doesn't have anything to do with this," Fred said at her last statement.

"I know," Hermione said. "I'm just trying to make a point about how different we are."

"That doesn't mean things couldn't work out between us," Fred said. "What's that Muggle saying? 'Opposites attract'?" He moved toward Hermione until they were right next to each other. "Just give me a chance," he whispered.

Hermione was taken aback. This was a side to Fred she'd neither seen before nor expected to see ever. "I don't know," she said. "Maybe."

"That's good enough for now," Fred said. He gently pressed his lips against Hermione's forehead. "Think about it, though, okay?"

"Okay," Hermione said.

"And until then, no one needs to know about this conversation, right?"

"Right."

"Good." Fred smiled and turned to go back to the common room. "See you around, Hermione."

He walked back down the corridor, leaving a speechless Hermione behind him, both of them wondering what had just happened.