I UPDATED! :)

I know I shouldn't be that happy as I have kept you guys waiting for so long but I bring good news- I finally know where this story is going and how to end my last chapters. Not to be a giant geek but to quote 'Supernatural', "Endings are hard. Any chapped-ass monkey with a keyboard can poop out a beginning, but endings are impossible." And you have no idea how much I have agreed with this over the last few months.

I would also like to give two quick thank you's. The first goes to you guys who have been following, favouriting and reviewing during my absence. I read absolutely everything that you guys write or send and some of them have really made me smile. It's been so infuriating not being able to repay you guys recently, so thanks.

And my second thanks goes to Chloe. This annoying sonofabitch found my username recently and is the first of my friends to find any of my stories. She's helped me and (kind of forcefully) motivated me to update. So if any of you guys are even the tiniest bit glad that I've updated then you have Chloe to thank.

RECAP OF CHAPTER 28-

"I gwot a new bwook, look mwione!" Nate giggled as he held up a large book entitled 'How to Rule the World and Kill everyone who stands in your way'.

"Wow, that looks like quite a read Nate," Hermione laughed as she took in the interesting title. Nate was a lot like Hermione when it came to books, his reading age was well above everyone else his age and he was starting to venture into larger, more challenging reads. Hermione was so proud.

"Alright Nate make sure you put it down before you actually kill someone, that thing is huge," Shanna chuckled as she ruffled his hair.

Nate swung his arm to try and lower the book into his bag under the table. Unfortunately the book was a little too big and ended up slipping out of his hands.

It knocked straight into a glass of wine, sending the drink skidding across the table until the entire content spilled into Fred's lap.

He sprung up as quickly as he could, red wine rolling off of his clothes in waves.

'Oh bloody hell! Can't we have just one normal meal?' Hermione thought bitterly as she offered to help clean him up.

The next few days rolled by in a wave of snowball fights and movies, much to Fred's amusement. It was finally Christmas Eve and the entire Granger household was buzzing as a result. Even Hermione's father seemed to be getting into the 'Christmas spirit'; well at least he was, until the Twins forced him into wearing a flashing Christmas jumper.

"We always make our dad wear one and since he's not here, we thought you'd appreciate it just as much," Fred grinned as he handed the badly rapped parcel over to Robert.

Hermione's father accepted with suspicion before tearing apprehensively into the package. Hermione and her mother stood to the side with matching grimaces- a gift from both the Twins before Christmas was never good.

Robert pulled out the jumper and turned to Hermione. He smiled but his eyes were clearly screaming, 'they-can't-actually-be-serious-right?' He had just assumed this was what the Twins had been wanting; either that or they seriously had no fashion sense.

"It really brings out the colour of your eyes!" George gushed as Hermione's dad tried his best not to gawp at the interesting choice of clothing.

"Yes hunny, it will be nice to see you in festive gear for a change! Fred and George did a wonderful job of choosing," Hermione's mum smiled as she tugged at the hideous sweater.

The jumper was red with a large florescent green tree on the front. The decorations on the tree flashed several different colours; each one seemed to just ignite Robert's concern further.

"It's uh, lovely boys, thank you...I think."

Hermione, as much as she was trying to stifle her laughter, was actually quite impressed. She had expected her dad to refuse the gift or at least throw them some lie about being highly allergic to small LED lights but instead he had accepted to jumper rather politely. He almost looked amused.

'Maybe they're actually starting to grow on him,' Hermione thought as Fred explained how to work the jumper without becoming a walking fire hazard.

"Oh god, Mione. Your dad can't seriously make me wear these, right?"

After the Twins had given Robert the early Christmas present, the dress code for tomorrows Christmas meal had been brought to attention. It was decided that everyone needed to look presentable, with the exception of Robert's jumper, because Christmas was a 'time of celebration' and you "wouldn't wear jeans to a wedding, so you can't wear them at Christmas!" or so he was told.

After the miniature speech, Fred didn't feel it was necessary to mention the fact he had once worn jeans to a wedding and instead hurried to Hermione for a plan.

"We have some of Dad's old suit trousers in the cupboard if you need something," she nodded as she glanced down at the grey joggers Fred was currently wearing with a pointed stare.

"Suit fitting sound good, ma'lady?" he asked as he hooked his arm through hers.

"Sounds mildly entertaining, I may have to take you up on that offer," Hermione teased as she led them up the stars to a large cupboard in her parent's room.

Fred had never really had to dress 'nicely' before, let alone for a meal at home, so he was finding this 'dress code' a little hard to handle.

"They're nice!" Hermione smiled as Fred held up the trousers.

"No, they're hideous! I mean, no offence to your dad but, seriously Mione- look at them!"

They had taken at least seven pairs of trousers back to Hermione's room to try on. The first were too baggy, the second were miles too short and the third were "a little too tight around the 'you-know-what'" apparently.

"Fine, they're not brilliant but you need to choose one pair! My parents will have a fit if you turn up to the meal in these," she picked up the sweatpants from the bed and tossed them at Fred. They landed with a thud against his chest.

"What about those? They don't look too bad from here." Fred pointed to a folded pair of black suit trousers on the bed. "They will probably look scaring up close but I suppose I can overlook that for now,"

"You are such a drama queen, do you know that?" Hermione laughed as she threw back the fourth pair of trousers.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"Are you nearly done with those Fred? I'm kind of worrying that you've had some kind of zipper injury."

Hermione was hovering outside of the bathroom door as she waited for Fred to come out clad in the next pair of trousers.

"Just- one more..." a few clangs and crashes came from behind the door before it was swung open. "How do I look?" Fred smirked as he shuffled over to the mirror in the bathroom.

This pair of trousers was better than the last. They were actually quite slim and unlike most of the other pairs, they actually had some sort of shape. The only problem with them was the length. The hem of the trousers covered nearly half of Fred foot and Hermione found herself wondering how her father could own so many vastly different trouser types.

"These are definitely the best, just let me fix the bottoms for you," Hermione crouched down onto her knees so she could roll up the ends of his trousers.

"Well, this could be seen as misleading," Fred chuckled as Hermione glared at him from her current position on the floor. She now realised what he was talking about.

From behind, the position would definitely look controversial to say the least.

"How much would you hate me if I groaned?" Fred asked through his giggles.

"Shut up before I pull these bloody trousers down!" Hermione fumed as she prayed Fred's voice wouldn't travel down the stairs.

"Woah Mione! I mean I was joking but if you really want to pull my trousers down then go ahead, I definitely won't complain," Fred was in a fit of laughter now and Hermione was quickly becoming flushed at his teasing.

"That is not what I mea-"

Hermione was stopped in her tracks by the sound of a gasp from behind Fred.

"HERMIONE JEAN GRANGER! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!"

Hermione had never jumped to her feet so quickly in her life.

Her mum was standing in the doorway flushed from head to toe- whether it was from anger or embarrassment, Hermione couldn't tell.

"Oh Merlin, Mum that was so not what it looked like!"

"And what exactly did that look like, young lady?!" Her mum replied tight lipped and stern.

Hermione could feel herself falling into hole, so before she could dig herself any further she decided to start with the entire story first. Unfortunately, Fred beat her to it.

"We were trying on trousers!"

"What!" Hermione and her mother spat at the same time.

Fred was so not helping right now. For someone who is supposed to be a great prankster, he was not handling the pressure very well at all.

"What he means is," Hermione sent a small glare to Fred before turning back to her horrified mother. "We were trying to find a pair of trousers for Fred to wear at the meal tomorrow and he was joking around when I bent down to roll up the legs."

Hermione's mum did not look convinced. She folded her arms tightly against her chest and huffed.

"I promise we were just messing, see look-" Fred lifted his leg, awkwardly showing Jean the half rolled up trousers.

"Fine, I believe you but you better thank god that I like you Fred. Or we could have had some serious issues here." Jean breathed out nervously as she unfolded her arms.

"Well that's a relief; I wouldn't want my girlfriend's mum hating me after all," Fred joked half-heartedly.

"Girlfriend?!" Jean screeched again.

"Oh bloody hell Fred, please stop talking!" Hermione snapped as she brought a hand to cover her glowing face.

"Well, umm, surprise?" Fred added in meekly as an awkward silence settled over the bathroom.

"So when were you planning on telling us Hermione?"

After the bathroom incident, which on reflection Hermione thought it seemed like they had a hell of a lot of those, her mum had taken her into the bedroom so they could "talk out a few things."

"Well, we were going to do it soon. We just thought you might be a little, suspicious, if we told you we were dating while Fred was still staying here," Hermione replied tentatively.

Jean didn't seem to be angry, which Hermione was taking as an extremely good sign. If her mum was in any way annoyed with the couple she would have at least said something by now.

"I'm glad you had thought about telling me but you have to know that I wouldn't have cared that Fred was staying here Mione. I trust you and I, well...occasionally trust him so it makes no difference to me," Jean gave Hermione a small squeeze on the shoulder as if to prove her sincerity. "If I'm telling the truth, Shanna and I had been hoping you'd get together- you make a lovely, if not slightly odd, couple!"

Hermione didn't know whether to laugh or cry with relief. When her mum had found out about them she was sure her dad was going to overhear some sort of screaming match- but her mum had actually been so reasonable that it was almost insane.

"Uhh, thank you...I think," Hermione laughed with a bemused look on her face. "Just one more thing mum, you're not going to tell dad, are you?"

"No dear, I think I will leave that up to you and Fred. Besides, he will be a lot more understanding if it comes for you guys rather than me,"

"He's not going to hate us for not telling him?"

Jean just smiled as she gave her only daughter a half hug. "You didn't tell me and I don't hate you, I'm sure your father will be the same. Now, do I need to go give that boyfriend of yours a talking to about the whole bathroom thing, or are you going to be fine?"

Hermione barked out a laugh before shaking her head firmly. "Please don't, I will tell him to behave,"

"Good. I don't think that poor boy can ever look me in the eye again."

Several hours later, after the mix up had been sorted, Fred found Hermione curled up on the sofa in the living room. It was nearing eleven o'clock so the rest of the house had retreated to their respective rooms.

George had headed up to Fred's room and as Shanna had spent the entire day complaining of a bad back, Hermione had gracefully offered her and Nate her own bedroom for the night. Christmas was a time of giving after all.

"I bring a peace offering," Fred whispered from the doorway to the living room. Hermione turned to see him standing in his pyjamas with a cup of hot chocolate in each hand.

"They even have cream and everything," Fred grinned as Hermione finally dropped her glare. She smiled softly before moving over on the sofa to let Fred sit down.

"Since when did the great Fred Weasley become such a hopeless romantic? Hot chocolate on Christmas Eve in front of the fire?" she smirked as she poked his side with her fluffy sock covered foot.

"Hey, don't forget the snow. The snow definitely adds to the whole chick-flick ambiance,"

Hermione looked to him in shock. "You said chick-flick! A month ago you didn't even know what a movie is and know you're using film related phrases! I'm so proud!"

Fred rolled his eyes but smiled anyway. "Yeah well, I had a good teacher I suppose. Little bratty and annoying at times but a still a good teacher,"

"Excuse me! I am not bratty! Or annoying!" Hermione whined as Fred scooped up a small bit of cream and plonked it straight onto the end of her nose.

"Yeah, yeah whatever you say love."

"Merlin, I hate you Fred Weasley." She growled as she wiped the cream from her face.

"And a happy Christmas Eve to you too Mione." He replied before kissing her quickly on the lips.

:)

So, I finally finished a chapter. *dances dorkily in chair*

God it's been too long guys- I am so, so sorry for the long arse updates.

I hope you can find it in your beautiful hearts to forgive me and maybe even drop me a little review to tell me how much you hate me for never updating?

Seriously, anything will do, just please review ;)

And one final note to Chlo- You have made this entire experience more cringe worthy than I can ever explain but I owe you a lot for this :')

Love always,

SophieSolemnlySwears.