Chapter 2

Disclaimer: JKR owns everything and I don't make any money with this story. The idea of the Marriage Law originated at wiktt, I believe. I'm just borrowing...

a/n: This story is AU since DH.

Chapter 2

The others had left only a few minutes ago. Hermione had sat in the Burrow's living room, nose buried deep into a book, though not reading a single word, waiting. Waiting for everyone to go in order to have a hike in the woods surrounding Ottery St. Catchpole.

It was Boxing Day, and she had joined the Weasleys a few hours earlier after spending Christmas with her parents.

The hike had been Harry's idea of a way to get everyone out of the house. So two days ago he had started to tell everyone who would listen how much he liked the snow, and the woods, and the nature surrounding Ottery St. Catchpole and that 'the Dursleys never took me on a family hike.' He neglected to mention that the Dursleys had never gone on a family hike. Dudley point blank refused to walk further than to the fridge and back to his room (though most of the time even that was too far, and he made Aunt Petunia bring him his food instead).

Harry's acting skills weren't exactly great, but it was enough to convince the Weasleys, who had no reason to suspect him of lying and who all knew about his unhappy childhood. Therefore, a hike was planned.

"Are you sure you don't want to come?" Ginny had asked Hermione one final time before leaving while tying her scarf securely around her neck.

"Yes, Ginny, I need to finish reading this book. It's bound to be relevant for our N.E.W.T.s," Hermione had answered, lifting up the book to emphasize her point and to partially hide her face. She was a bad liar. Far worse than Harry.

Ginny had relented and joined Harry, Ron, Charlie, and George outside. Bill had been out with Fleur, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were gone on Order business. Molly Weasley had not left without imparting on them the importance of keeping within the wards. As Harry had opted to stay at the Burrow rather than Grimmauld Place for Christmas, the Weasleys' home, including a three mile perimeter, had become severely guarded, and every person coming and going was monitored. The hike was to go in an elaborated circle around the house, 'not stepping one toe out of bounds,' as Mrs. Weasley had repeated several times.

Hermione had listened to the door closing and to the chatter dying away as the members of her surrogate family left the Burrow. When she was sure that they were gone, she threw the book aside but remained sitting on the couch. She was alone.

Except for Fred, of course.

He was somewhere upstairs. As for which reason he had given for not joining the hiking party, she wasn't sure, but not particularly concerned. Fred actually was good at hiding things – a necessary ability for a troublemaker – and she was sure he had had no problems convincing his siblings of his need to stay behind.

Hermione took a couple of deep breaths, exhaling slowly, trying to summon some of the courage that a Gryffindor such as herself supposedly possessed. It didn't seem to come. Maybe she should have been sorted into Hufflepuff. She was in the middle of deliberating whether it would be any use to wave her wand and scream, "Accio courage!" when Fred came pounding down the stairs.

"Are they finally gone?" he asked.

Hermione only nodded as the lump in her throat was rendering her speechless.

"You nervous?" Fred asked, coming to stand in front of the couch and gazing down at her with a concerned face.

"Which would be understandable, you know," he continued when it became apparent that Hermione was going to stay mute. "After all, you are about to embark on an adventure many witches would kill to experience. I don't want to have to scare you, but I should probably inform you that there is a line – a long one – to..."

Hermione's laughter interrupted his monolog, and Fred was relieved to see her finally getting up from the couch.

"It's good to know you are staying modest despite all the attention."

"One does his best."

They laughed together. But eventually the laughter died down again, and they stood in front of each other, uncertain about the next step.

"How long did Harry say he would keep them away?" Fred asked.

"Not sure. He said he would fake an injury about half an hour into the hike."

"We should probably go upstairs then and get set up."

Hermione nodded her head, her nervousness returning full force. She followed Fred upstairs into the twins' old room. Fred and George had, after a lot of badgering from their mother, agreed to stay at the Burrow during the Holidays. Charlie, Bill and Fleur stayed too, since Molly was adamant to have her family around in such dangerous times, and nobody had wanted her to be unnecessarily worried on Christmas. Only Percy stayed away, still avoiding his family.

The boxes that had been in the room the summer before Harry, Ron and Hermione's sixth year were still prominent in the room. Also, there were two bags lying around, clearly containing the twins' overnight things and their changes of clothes, since half of the contents were thrown about the room.

"George was looking for his gloves," Fred said by way of explaining once he noticed Hermione surveying the mess. He waved his wand and everything piled up onto one of the unmade beds.

"I take it that's George's bed then," Hermione said, grinning.

"Yup. He always was the messier one of the two of us."

"I'm sure."

Again they stood in front of each other. Nervous.

Fred looked down on his watch and announced that the others had been gone for half an hour. They needed to get a move on. Hermione contemplated the Summoning Charm for her courage again. In the end, however, she decided that what she was about to do was not a matter of bravery. She simply had no choice. Not really. Between a Death Eater and Fred she would certainly chose the troublemaking prankster. And if a make-out session with Fred was the way to keep her safe from a marriage with one of Voldemort's cruel followers, then she would do that.

For that was their plan: Hermione and Fred would make out and the others would, led by Harry, come upon them. Surely nobody would believe that Hermione would get involved with anyone lightly, let alone with someone like Fred, who wasn't exactly known to keep steady girlfriends. After finding them, the others had to believe that Hermione and Fred had liked each other for some time already.

Taking one final breath, Hermione looked up to Fred.

"So, what do you think we should do?"

Fred cleared his throat before answering. "We should probably take off our clothes... partially I mean. It has to look real." Hermione blushed but nodded.

So Fred took off his sweater and the t-shirt he was wearing, and tossed them aside. Hermione slowly unbuttoned the blue cardigan she wore and let it drop to the floor. The tank top she wore underneath followed, leaving her in a black bra and pants. She looked back up at Fred, her nervousness having reached a new high. Standing this close to a half naked Fred and her mind on the things they were about to do, she felt like all the oxygen had left the room, leaving her breathless.

Fred had to swallow. He could honestly say that up until very recently he had never seen Hermione Granger as anything else but his younger brother's brainy friend. It just never occurred to him to see her as a girl. A quite attractive girl.

When he had discovered that Hermione would be the one he would spend the rest of his life with, he had been too preoccupied to think about his family's reaction and the steps they would have to take to ensure that their little scam would be convincing and remain undetected. Therefore, he had never even gotten around to think about how being intimate with Hermione would be like.

Now that she was standing in front of him wearing only a bra, her chest heaving as her breath slightly quickened, Fred's mind was assaulted by a bunch of images featuring him and Hermione quite close. Why hadn't he thought about her that way before? And when did Ron's bookworm of a friend grow up to look like this?

Deciding that he would think about that later, Fred took a step towards her. He tried to think of something to say that would make them both relax and feel more at ease, but his mind was blank. He absently took another look at his watch and realised that Harry and his siblings had been gone for almost 45 minutes now. They would be back soon. Fred loosened his watch and tossed it onto the pile of clothes on the floor.

If words fail you, let your actions speak for you. With that thought in mind, Fred closed the remaining space to a waiting Hermione. His right hand lightly touched her face underneath her chin and gently dipped her head upwards. For a brief moment they looked into each other's eyes, and he gave her a small, reassuring smile. Then Fred's gaze wandered lower to Hermione's lips. He bent down towards her and brushed her lips with his. His eyes fell shut.

Slowly the kiss became more demanding, and Fred's tongue came out to seek entrance to Hermione's mouth. She met him halfway, and the kiss turned heated. Hermione brought her hands up to rest on his shoulders, and Fred let his hands roam along her uncovered back.

Taking a few steps forward, Fred pushed Hermione towards the second bed, the one where he hadn't dumped all the junk on. His bed.

As her legs hit the frame, her knees gave in, and Hermione let herself glide down on the mattress. Never breaking their kiss, Fred followed, coming to lie on top of her. He pushed one of his legs between hers, parting them slightly. Supporting his weight on one arm, the other was free to skim along Hermione's body. When he grazed the side of her breasts through the thin material of her bra, Hermione moaned into his mouth.

Hermione felt on fire. The nervous lump in her throat had been swapped with a swarm of fluttering butterflies in her stomach, and her heart was beating unbelievably fast. She let her own hands wander around Fred's back, feeling the muscles twitch.

Only when the need to breathe became too strong to resist did they break the kiss. For a few seconds they looked into each other's eyes again, both too surprised by the passion between them to utter a single word. Then Fred dipped his head to trail a path of wet open mouthed kisses along Hermione's neck towards her collarbone, and Hermione let her eyes fall shut to enjoy the sensation.

All rational thought had left Fred as he sucked at Hermione's neck. All he could feel was her body writhing beneath his and her foot that skimmed around his calf. All he could hear were the soft moans he wasn't even sure she was aware of making. When one of her hands travelled lower on his back and she let her fingers wander underneath the waistband of his jeans – albeit just a mere inch – he let out a moan himself.

His mouth came up to meet Hermione's, engaging her in another heated kiss as his right hand massaged her breast. Hermione arched herself into him and her own hand was retrieved from underneath Fred's jeans to cup his left buttock, mimicking his treatment of her right breast.

Fred broke their kiss in favour of licking Hermione's ear. She tilted her head to the side to give him more access, all the while encouraging him with her soft moans. Her hand found the back pocket of his jeans, diving in, pushing him towards her.

Fred ground his growing erection into Hermione and groaned. Leaning in for their third kiss, his previously absent mind came to a startling realisation: he wanted Hermione, and he was about to lose what little control he had left.

*********************

Five minutes into the hike, Harry had come to the conclusion that he didn't like hiking that much after all. Especially since it was snowing and he was decidedly cold. The Weasleys accompanying him seemed to enjoy it though. They were engaged in an apparently quite funny conversation about Hogwarts and all the pranks that had been played there (mostly courtesy of Fred and George, though the rest of the siblings were no saints either).

But Harry wasn't able to concentrate on them much, his mind being back at the Burrow with Hermione and Fred. Hermione was like a little sister to him (though technically she was older and would in all likelihood resent being called little). Nevertheless, Harry didn't like the thought of Hermione making out with anyone. Especially under these circumstances. But be that as it may, he had been unable to come up with a better plan, and he quite agreed with Fred when he said that no one would just believe them if they went and said, "Oops, have we forgotten to mention that we are completely smitten with each other?"

This plan, if it succeeded, was most likely to convince everyone and had the added bonus of giving a few extra months to their established and hopefully soon to be Ministry approved relationship. For Hermione and Fred planned to say that they had been with each other since late last summer when Hermione came to stay with Harry and the Weasleys at Headquarters.

The reason for keeping their relationship a secret was easily explained. They didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, which in essence meant Ron's. Harry gritted his teeth when he thought about his best friend and the blow he was about to receive. Harry knew that even though his two best friends had decided against pursuing a relationship in light of the war and the danger they were all in, Ron's feelings towards Hermione hadn't changed. He simply loved her, and seeing her with one of his brothers was going to break his heart.

Harry desperately wished he could at least explain the circumstances to Ron, though he doubted it would make much of a difference to Ron's feelings. But Headmistress McGonagall had insisted he refrain. The more people who knew, the bigger was the danger of someone discovering that Hermione and Fred's relationship wasn't real. Additionally, the credibility of the couple depended on Ron's reaction the most. As cruel as it sounded, Ron's hurt feelings, which Harry was sure would be clearly visible for anyone, were instrumental for the convincing of those people who would not be present to see Fred and Hermione's impromptu make-out session. After all, which pupil at Hogwarts would neglect to believe Hermione was with Fred, if Ron was heartbroken?

Hermione's safety came with a heavy price: Ron's happiness.

With these less than happy thoughts, Harry kept on trudging next to the others, gnashing his teeth in frustration pretending to laugh along with them when the tale of a particularly funny prank was told and every so often checking his watch to see whether the half hour was up yet.

When he confirmed that enough time had passed, Harry directed his gaze towards the ground they were walking on. He had early on discarded the idea of faking an injury, certain that he could not fool the people that knew him the best. So his only option was getting injured, only slightly of course, for real.

The opportunity presented itself in form of a root sticking out of the snow covered ground. Making sure that no one was looking, Harry nonverbally cast a spell when he walked by, injuring his own foot and simultaneously letting himself fall to the ground.

"Harry, are you okay?" Ron asked, bending down and trying to help his friend up. The others had stopped as well and came to stand around Harry, looking worried.

"I just tripped over this stupid root," Harry explained, trying to stand up but unable to put any weight on his injured foot. He grimaced as the pain shot up his leg, feeling quite unenthusiastic about his obviously efficient spell work. Damn, it hurt.

Charlie took off Harry's shoe, inadvertently adding to the pain, to examine the injury.

"It doesn't look broken, but I'm no Healer," he announced. "We better get you back to the Burrow."

"Sorry, guys," Harry apologized, doing his best to appear sorry about having spoiled the hike.

"Don't be daft," Ron replied, taking one of Harry's arms around his shoulder. Charlie took the other and together they helped Harry back to the Burrow. George offered to use 'Wingardium Leviosa' to get Harry back more efficiently, but Harry hastily declined. For one, he wanted to make sure they didn't arrive at the Burrow before Hermione and Fred were ready, and secondly, he really wasn't stupid enough to agree to let one of the infamous Weasley twins levitate him around. He would probably end up doing loops and pirouettes in the air all the way back to the Burrow.

A little over an hour after their departure, the hiking party arrived back home. Harry was put down on the sofa where Hermione's abandoned book still lay, although nobody took notice. Ginny helped Harry out of his coat, and George put Harry's injured foot up on some cushions.

"Guys, it's probably just strained," Harry protested, but to no avail. His insides were churning violently at the thought of what was about to happen, giving his face a quite sickly pallor. The Weasleys attributed this to his injury and were convinced he was in a great deal of pain.

"I have some cooling potion upstairs for Quidditch injuries," Ron announced. "That should help against the pain."

Harry desperately wanted to keep his friend from going upstairs, but he kept his mouth shut. He had to.

Ron, oblivious to Harry's concern, ran upstairs to get the potions. He got to his room, grabbed the tube with Conrad's Cooling Crème and turned around. However, on his way down he became aware of the sounds coming out of the twins' bedroom. Moaning. There was undeniably someone moaning in there.

Ron went closer to the door. Then he heard a second person, definitely female, and moaning just as passionately as his brother.

For a few seconds Ron grinned the way a boy would grin when finding out another one got lucky. Then he realised that currently there were only two females at the Burrow. And one of them was their sister. Ron stopped grinning.

Dropping Conrad's Cooling Crème to the floor, Ron's hand grabbed the handle of the door to Fred and George's room and hurled the door open. He was greeted by the sight of his half-naked older brother atop of his best friend and long time love interest, who was in an equal state of undress. Their hands were all over each other as they kissed passionately.

Ron let out an anguished scream.

tbc