Chapter 7
Hermione owled Fred and George expressing her disappointment in them. When they received the letter, they were shocked it was not a Howler. The news had spread to Mr. And Mrs. Weasley. They also owled the twins telling them to come for dinner.
At dinner, the table was mostly silent. The twins sat uncomfortably looking at their plates as the rest
of the table glared at them.
“So, do you have an antidote?” Mrs. Weasley asked them, breaking the silence.
“Um, kind of. We’re not sure if it’ll work. But, this is the only way to test it,” George explained.
“Give it to the poor dears,” she said as if it was an antidote to get rid of an ugly deformation.
Fred reached into his pocket and pulled out three small vials. Mrs. Weasley cleared the table with a wave of her wand. With a second wave, glasses of pumpkin juice appeared in front of the trio. Fred poured the contents of each vial into each glass.
After taking a last look at Harry and Ron while she loved them, Hermione drank her pumpkin juice. She felt strange for a moment; like her heart and head were bubbling. She closed her eyes until the feeling stopped. When she opened her eyes, she looked at her two best friends. She was back to normal; there was no awkward love feeling anymore. Harry and Ron were both staring at her with love in her eyes. That just made her feel slightly disturbed.
“Drink up! It worked! I don’t love you anymore, no offense,” Hermione laughed to the boys.
They drank their pumpkin juice. And after a couple of seconds, they looked at Hermione. “Hey, it did work!” Harry exclaimed. “Great work Fred, George.”
“No, it’s more like ‘you’re lucky it worked. I would have hurt you,’” Ron said.
“Now that that’s settled, who’s up for dessert?” Mrs. Weasley offered.
******
Hermione and Ginny had gone upstairs to do some summer homework. Harry, Ron, and the twins hung out in Ron’s room. Fred and George had made another batch of their new candy. Harry and Ron were eager to try it.
“What are you calling them?” Ron asked as he examined one of the red candies.
“We’re not sure yet. Do you have any ideas?” George replied.
Before anyone could say more, the door opened and Hermione and Ginny walked in.
“Finished with your homework?” Ron asked as they plopped down next to him on his bed.
“Yup. Well, with Potions at least. I wanted to get that over with first,” Ginny rolled her eyes.
“Good idea,” Harry agreed.
“Ooo, candy!” Hermione giggled as she picked up a piece and unwrapped it. Ginny did the same. All four boys were not sure whether to tell them or not. Harry opened his mouth to tell them, but stopped.
“They work,” Fred mouthed to Harry and Ron. The twins were wearing mischievous grins.
Hermione raised a suspicious eyebrow at Harry, who was now shifting uncomfortably in his seat on the floor. She put the candy in her mouth. “Did you do your home-“ Hermione started to ask Harry, but stopped. Her eyes got big; she blinked and they were back to normal. She began to cough on the candy.
Ginny put her candy into her mouth. “Are you choking, or does it taste ba-“ Ginny did the same. The girls exchanged glances before they spit the candy into their hands.
“What was that?” Hermione screamed at the twins. The boys laughed.
“It was an or-“ George started.
“We know what it was,” Ginny interrupted impatiently. “But, what the bloody hell is THIS?” she shoved the sticky candy at George.
“It’s candy. Duh, Ginny,” Harry said sarcastically.
“Yours, I suppose?” Hermione glared at the twins.
“Actually, mine and Harry’s. we were supposed to test them,” Ron said, grinning.
“Apparently they weren’t good. You two didn’t have much of a reaction,” Fred chuckled.
Hermione rolled her eyes.
“Was it strong?” George asked with a laugh.
The girls gave the twins another dirty look before they stormed from the room. As soon as the door slammed shut, the boys laughed hysterically.
“Did you see their faces?” Ron asked through tears of laughter.
“That was awesome,” Fred laughed.
“I’m surprised they knew what it was,” Harry realized.
The four guys stopped laughing to think about that.
“Nah, lucky guess,” George said.
“They read too much,” Ron added.
They sat in silence for a couple of seconds before Harry cleared his throat and spoke. “So, can we try
them now?”
“Yeah, sure,” Fred said, handing Harry and Ron candies.
******
The next morning the people around the breakfast table were much more happy than at the dinner table the night before. The teens were planning a day down at the lake. And, Fleur, Bill, and Mrs. Weasley were making wedding plans.
“We can ‘ave it in ze garden,” Fleur suggested.
“The garden?” Mrs. Weasley questioned.
“Ze fower garden,” Fleur explained.
“That would be pretty, wouldn’t it Bill?” Mrs. Weasley asked.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, I love it,” Bill gave his automatic reply.
“You know this is YOUR wedding. I should not be making YOUR decisions. If you don’t put in any ideas, I’ll make you wear a hot pink tux,” Mrs. Weasley threatened. Fleur smiled at Bill over her shoulder.
“How about asking Charlie to bring a dragon from Romania?” Bill asked excitedly.
“No, no, I ‘ave ‘ad too much dragons,” Fleur said.
Harry smiled remembering the Triwizard Tournament.
“Do you know who’s going to be your best man? Maid of honor?” Mrs. Weasley asked, ignoring Bill’s ridiculous idea.
“Our best man is Charlie,” Bill said.
“Our Maid of Honor, will be Ginny, and ze Flower girl will be my little sister,” Fleur added.
“Bridesmaids and ushers?” Mrs. Weasley pressed.
“ ‘Mione, would you like to be a bridesmaid?” Fleur asked after a moment.
“Um, sure,” Hermione replied.
“ ‘Arry and Ron are already ushers. You can pick ‘ooever you want to go with,” Fleur said.
Hermione looked at the boys. They both made faces at her; she laughed. “Who are the other choices?”
“Fred and George are. And, three of Fleur’s school friends are the other bridesmaids,” Bill replied. Harry
and Ron high-fived.
“Oh, go outside,” Mrs. Weasley rolled her eyes with a smile.
Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione went down to the lake after getting their broomsticks. Hermione and Ron were first to play Lake Sparring. “So, who are you going to the wedding with?” Ron asked as they mounted their brooms.
“Whoever asks me first, I guess,” Hermione shrugged.
“We have to ask you?” Ron asked, his eyes wide.
“Yeah, that’s normally how wedding dates normally work. Not that this is a date or anything," she stammered as they flew ten feet and out a bit.
“Right,” Ron grinned.
Hermione felt butterflies in her stomach. “Great, the antidote didn’t work. I’ll have to owl Fred and George later,” she thought.
“You know what? I don’t think the antidote is working anymore. I have feelings for you still,” Ron said.
“Same here,” Hermione said.
“Are you going to play or not?” Harry yelled from the ground.
“1-2-3,” Ron laughed as he and Hermione laced their hands together.
Ron almost instantly knocked Hermione into the water. When they got back to shore, Harry challenged Ron to a game. So, both boys mounted their brooms and took off.
“Ron and I still like each other. Something went wrong with the antidote,” Hermione told Ginny.
“Well, Harry doesn’t like you anymore. I asked him,” Ginny said thinking it over.
“You know what? I’m going to go and owl Fred and George now. That makes me so angry,” Hermione said moodily before she stomped off towards the Burrow.
Ginny giggled at her friend’s comical distress and said “Bye!”
Harry and a sopping wet Ron returned to
where Ginny stood.
“What’s wrong with ‘Mione?” Ron asked as he watched Hermione stomp off.
“She’s upset with the results of the antidote. So, she’s owling the twins,” Ginny explained.
“Oh,” Ron looked hurt.
“Go talk to her if your hurt,” Ginny rolled her eyes at her brother. Ron jogged to catch up to Hermione. “He’s so strange,” she laughed to Harry.
“Hey, he’s in your gene pool, not mine,” Harry laughed.
“Not by choice,” she smiled.
Harry took her broom as they walked back to the Burrow, also.
“Thanks,” she said. He held her hand in response.
When Ron caught up to Hermione, he slowed down to walk next to her. “Why are you owling the twins?” he asked her.
“Their antidote didn’t work,” she stated simply.
“Call me crazy, but I think it did work,” he said and blushed.
Hermione looked at him strangely; she didn’t understand what he was suggesting. “Whatever, Crazy.”
“I mean, I think that we actually love each other. I don’t think it’s the potion,” Ron blushed deeper.
“That’s what we said before we knew about the potion,” she shook her head.
“Right after you took the antidote you said you didn’t feel anything for me and Harry. When did the feelings come back?” he questioned.
“Um, me and Ginny were talking about how crazy I was when I had the potion,” Hermione tried to remember. “We talked about you and Harry. And, how I was going to chose you over Harry. When I had the potion, I mean.”
“Maybe that brought up real feelings,” Ron suggested hopefully.
Hermione thought about it. “How am I supposed to know that without a revised antidote?”
They were near the back door, but Ron stopped walking. He pulled her to him, she gasped in surprise. Ron kissed the tip of her nose, her cheek, her chin, and her forehead.
“Stop it,” she breathed, with her eyes closed.
“You want me to kiss you,” he whispered in her ear, grinning.
“Yes,” she whispered. She turned her head, lightly brushing her lips across his face until she reached his lips. He cupped her face in his hands and she wrapped her arms around his neck. She ran one hand through his still wet hair. They deepened the kiss, ignoring the fact that Harry and Ginny had just walked by. Hermione and Ron never wanted to stop kissing; they both felt right and at peace.
In that first moment that Ron’s lips touched Hermione’s, they both were 100% positive that this was not potion induced. Hermione’s stomach was full of butterflies and did somersaults, her knees felt like jell-o, and every inch of her body was warm and vibrating with excitement. They finally broke apart, and all they could do was laugh. Real love! No potion necessary!
“We should send the twins a ‘Thank you’ card,” Ron joked.
“Alright. But, what would it say? ‘Thank you for deceiving us and then lying to us. It helped us see how we actually loved each other,” Hermione laughed.
“Sounds good to me,” he smiled.
“I love you,” Hermione said with no hesitation.
“I love you, too,” Ron replied. They kissed once more before heading into the Burrow.
Cupid's Liquid Arrows by moonbeamfairy16
Chapter Notes: sorry about the extremely delayed update. I had forgotten that i didn't finish posting it here. *rolls eyes* but this is the last chapter. yay!