Hey, this is a new story I'm working on. Feedback will decide whether or not I continue it. If feedback dwindles down to nothing during the story process too, then I'll probably stop writing then too. I just don't want to write when nobody likes it, you know? Anyway. Here's the first installment. Let me know what you think!

I don't own Harry Potter nor do I make money off writing about it.

- Hattie

FALLING IN LOVE WITH HERMIONE GRANGER

Fred

I snuck into the library as inconspicuously as I could manage. Being a 6'3" redheaded, freckled male, this was quite a feat on my part. I slipped between the tightly packed bookshelves, trying as hard as I could to figure out the layout of the room. I'd never been in there before, so I was finding it difficult to be swift and get through the students and the floating books to the study tables.

But 'lo and behold, there was my newest target. A particular bushy-haired, brown-eyed and slightly buck-toothed girl bent over a book, her quill scribbling rapidly. I stood there, waiting until Lavender Brown and Padma Patil entered the library like George said they would. They sat a few tables over from Hermione, but still at a relatively useful distance. Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I approached my latest dare.

"Freddie, my boy. I have a new challenge for you." George taunted me, dangling a bag of Honeyduke's candies in front of my face. My mouth watering with my traditional Weasley appetite, I nodded at him.

"Yeah? What's that?"

"I dare you to get Hermione Granger to profess her love for you. Romantically, not some platonic shit."

"Wait, you want me to what?" I stared at him in disbelief. He wanted me to play with a girl's feelings until she expressed her love for me and then to dump her? Well. That's what's happened with all the other girls I've dated. "Fine, mate. You've got a bet."

I did feel a little bad about using Hermione to get a bag of candy, especially since she was so innocent. But I suppose that since she was a girl - and an attractive one at that - it would have come down to this eventually.

Thinking back on it, I never had had a single girlfriend that wasn't the product of a dare of some kind from George or Lee. I played Angelina Johnson until she snogged me for thirty Galleons. I flirted with Lavender Brown until she asked me out in front of the Gryffindor breakfast table for a bag of assorted (expensive) Zonko's pranks. It was only fair to spread my games a little further down the line, I supposed.

Positioning myself across the table from Hermione, I put on a "could-you-please-help-me" smile and sat down. She barely looked up to acknowledge my arrival, however, so I coughed a bit until she finally set her quill down and raised her eyes to mine.

I had never fully registered just how attractive she was until that point. Her brown eyes, which from afar looked dull and rather uninviting, were inspiring and very much like chocolate up close. I looked into them much longer than socially acceptable, only stopping when she raised her eyebrows.

"Yes, Fred?"

"Ah, Hermione, glad you noticed I was here." I winked at her with a small smirk, and she nodded, unfazed.

"Yeah, sorry it took me a minute, I had to finish the paragraph I was writing for Charms."

"Charms! That's exactly the class I could do with a spot of help in. Care to supply?" I sent a heart-stopping grin her way, which seemed to either go over her head or simply not impress her.

"You want a fifth year's help with Charms. You're a seventh year. What makes you think I could help?"

"You're Hermione Granger. You must have heard. Brightest witch of your age and all that?" I winked at her again, and she rolled her eyes.

"Oh, sure. How I love to hear that." She looked down at her Charms essay, already at least three feet long, scribbled a few more words down and then began rolling it up into a need scroll. She left the bottom line uncovered, though, and made an adorable pucker face at it as she blew a bit of air to dry the fresh ink. "All right, Fred. What do you need help with?"

I tugged her textbook over to me, and flipped through the pages to appear as though I were looking for a specific chapter. Reaching one I had mostly forgotten, I turned the book around to face her and stuck my finger on the bold heading.

"This one. We're reviewing in Charms 7 and I can't remember any of it."

"The silencing charm? Really?" I nodded enthusiastically. "Alright. Well. Try it on me." She opened her mouth and let out a slight hum, waiting for me to pull out my wand and silence the sound.

"Silenciendo." I purposely butchered the incantation, pretending to be confused when her sound didn't even waver.

"Oh, that's simple enough. That's completely the wrong word. It's Silencio, not Silenciendo. Try it again." She continued her humming.

"Silencio." I attempted again, laughing when the gentle tune of her humming abruptly stopped.

She nodded, motioning me on with her hand. I raised my eyebrow at her, completely confused as to what she was asking me to do. After several more tries, she finally rolled her eyes and grabbed her quill, scratching down on a spare piece of parchment, 'Countercharm.'

I widened my eyes, legitimately unsure of what the incantation to reverse the silence was. Again, she rolled her eyes, grabbed her own wand and, pointing it at herself, mouthed the incantation. As the last syllable was mouthed, her voice came back.

"Hermione, you can do wordless magic?" I asked her, dumbfounded.

"Yes, of course. You can't?"

"Not in a few seconds like you just did. It takes me up to a minute to get it to work completely." She shrugged and shuffled all her things together before slipping them into her bookbag.

"Well, just work on it and it'll work out. But I have to get back to the common room. Harry is due back from his detention at any minute and I ought to be there to take care of his hand."

She was not going to make dating her easy, what with the mood-killer Umbridge was.