The rain splattered against the window, adding to the atmosphere around Fred’s apartment. The mood was dull, depressing and quite lonely even though Fred and Hermione were in the same room. Fred had taken up going down to the bar or “working late” in the evenings – as he called it – so Hermione had to have dinner alone most nights. She went to bed before he came home drunk and staggering through to the living room. He didn’t sleep next to her though, he usually crashed on the sofa and she would check on him before getting some sleep, leaving a glass of water beside him because she knew how big of a headache he got after drinking. They had stopped talking completely and Hermione became annoyed with him one evening as he was once again getting ready to go out. She had tried to talk him out of drinking but it didn’t go down with him too well. They had a huge fight, more often than usual.

‘Talk to me, Fred!’ Hermione burst out, drumming her hands on the door as she said this. Fred peeked out the window, grimaced at the rain and then let the blue curtains shut, blocking out the spatter of rainwater gathering up at the side of the road. He turned to her, his face looked like a warning to not annoy him. Hermione ploughed on, ‘I need you to talk to me, Fred. I can’t handle being alone like this. The amount of things I do for you... I didn’t go after Ron because you didn’t want me to and now you’re just acting like I don’t exist. All I want is for you to talk to me!’

‘Fine talk,’ Fred raised his eyebrows, watching as she deliberated on what to say. Hermione opened her mouth, feeling pressure build on her just by the way Fred was staring at her like he was angry. That furious expression seemed to stay on his face permanently and she couldn’t think of what to say to get him to ease up. Hermione closed her mouth and just crossed her arms over her chest, ‘well, nice chatting with you. Don’t wait up on me.’

‘Don’t you have a shop to run, Fred? You can’t keep going out to who knows where and doing who knows what and spending who knows how much money!’ Hermione said shrilly, grabbing his arm as he walked past her. He stared at her furiously again which made Hermione drop her hand as though she had been electrocuted by his gaze. She gulped and carried on, ‘you’re going to be a father now. Take some responsibility, Fred!’

‘I’m trying to find another shop to set up in because it seems like I have to do everything I can just to keep you from running off to find my brother just because you’re tired with me!’ Fred yelled, his tall and lean body towered over Hermione, pressing her against the door, ‘I’m trying to make some money and you’re not the least bit supportive of me.’

‘Make some money?’ Hermione scoffed as she felt her own anger build up. Hermione frowned at him, remembering last night when he staggered through the house, nearly breaking the glass table and collapsing onto the sofa, ‘you came home drunk. How is spending money on drink going to make us gain more money?’

‘Forget it. You can never be pleased,’ Fred shrugged and gave her a filthy look before he disapparated and left Hermione leaning against the door, feeling more alone than ever even though she knew a child was inside her. Hermione slid to the ground and buried her face in her eyes.

She didn’t cry. She had been through this before and she would get through it again.

---

*Hermione’s POV*

A week later Hermione sat in the kitchen, watching the rain splatter against the windows as though they wanted to break through the double glazed glass and flood the kitchen. Her fork was roaming around her peas on the plate and she didn’t want to eat anything since Fred wasn’t here. He had been beyond stressed out this past week. Hermione knew they had hardly any money, she had checked the finance sheet. They were making nothing now. She wanted to confront him about it but the only answer that she knew she would get was ‘I’m working on it!’ in his snappy tone.

So she was surprised when he walked in with a smile on his face. Fred took his shoes off as Hermione got over her shock of seeing him in the kitchen for once. She grabbed a plate of food and heated it up for him as Fred sat down, inspecting a sheet. Hermione put the plate in front of him and sat in her own seat, waiting for him to say something. He only glanced at her, thanked her and then looked back to his sheet. Hermione’s face fell, he still wasn’t talking to her. She looked down at her untouched peas scurrying around one side of her plate and her full and delicious looking chicken.

‘You should eat. It’ll get cold,’ Fred muttered after a while, putting the file down and looking at her. She nodded slightly and forced herself to take a bite. Fred sighed, dropping his fork onto the plate and she looked up, ‘I found another place to open up a shop! In Hogsmeade where kids will want to buy my stuff.’

‘Seriously?’ Hermione asked shocked. Fred wore a huge grin on his face and he nodded, ‘that’s great! I hope we – um... you make profits out of the new shop.’

‘I hope so too,’ Fred said and he paused. He ate a piece of chicken and nodded, muttering his appreciation and then he continued, ‘but... um... I had to hand over the deed of this apartment to... the guy who gave me the shop. I had to pay him somehow and he wanted the house so I handed it over. The good news is that he’s letting us stay here for some rent.’

‘I guess it’s okay if you think it’s a good idea,’ Hermione said and shrugged, she was just happy that they were talking. Fred looked happier now than he had two weeks ago. Hermione just smiled at him when she saw that he was smiling too. If he was happy then she was happy, even though that sounded corny, Hermione chuckled slightly.

 ‘I went to the hospital today,’ Hermione stated. Fred looked up from under his eyelashes and made a questioning “hmm” noise. Hermione chuckled slightly before saying, ‘yeah, good news. I’m not having twins.’

‘Great,’ Fred said, taking the last bite of his dinner. He had only ate half of his dinner and Hermione assumed he wasn’t hungry. Maybe he was just excited about the new shop? Fred stood up and her heart clenched as she heard the same words he said everyday, ‘I’m going out. Don’t wait up.’

The routine line he always said before leaving. Hermione had stopped asking him where he went out to because he would never answer her properly but now she got annoyed. She wanted them not to keep any secrets between them but Fred made that impossible. Hermione even thought, one night when she was alone in bed and listening to him come into the house and crash onto the sofa, that he was seeing another girl but she pushed that thought out of her brain. He wouldn’t do that but he obviously had something to hide from her, why else would he be going out and not telling her?

‘Out where?’ Hermione asked, following him into the hall where he was putting on his shoes. Fred glanced up at her and then shrugged before looking down. Of course he wouldn’t tell her, ‘why don’t you stay in tonight? I miss you.’

‘I’ll be back later, it’s not like I’m leaving you,’ Fred rolled his eyes at her. At least he didn’t snap at her like usual. Hermione shrugged and watched as he tied his shoe laces.

‘It seems like you are,’ Hermione muttered and he stood up straight, looking at her for a moment before tugging on his cloak. Then she got an idea that Fred would not be able to resist. Hermione walked up to him and trailed her fingers across his chest and he frowned at her lightly. She pressed her lips to his neck and looked up with a small smile, ‘I guess you could stay tonight and we could... well, we could go to bed?’

‘It’s too early to sleep. Plus I'm not tired,’ Fred muttered and shivered as her fingers trailed the veins n his neck. Hermione beamed as he coughed slightly, trying to hide his feelings.

‘Who said anything about sleeping?’ Hermione asked in a low whisper. She was trying to be somewhat seducing with her double meaning and light touches but she thought she just looked stupid. She trailed her fingers down his arm and caught his hand in hers, tracing her thumb on his palm. Fred bit his lip, about to crumble against her but then he sighed and dropped her hand, pushing away slightly.

‘You don’t have to... bribe me to stay home,’ Fred said, running a hand through his red hair that was slightly curly now. Hermione shrugged, knowing her attempt was quite useless, ‘I don’t think... we should share a bed right now.’

‘Why not?’ asked Hermione, pouting slightly as she noticed that Fred was slowly moving away from her, ‘I miss sleeping next to you even if you sometimes kick me I your sleep. I miss you, Fred.’

‘Hermione, I have to go,’ Fred said uncomfortably and he nodded at her before disapparating.

Hermione sighed out loud, this was harder and far gone than she thought it would have been. They were fine before going to the Weasley’s and telling them everything about their relationship. Hermione still didn’t find Ron yet although she knew where he was living at the moment from Harry. Hermione couldn’t bear to be in the house alone tonight. She rubbed her arms up and down as though it was cold and went into the room to pack.

---

‘Thank you for letting me stay here,’ Hermione whispered to Harry as he made a temporary and improvised bed for her. Harry just nodded at her, ‘sorry for waking you up.’

‘Honestly, Hermione, it’s fine. I'm glad you came to stay here with everything that’s going on with Fred. He can be very dangerous when he’s drunk and you know that,’ Harry said as a matter of fact sort of way. He handed her a pillow and sighed, ‘you know he’s not good enough for you. Why do you stay with him?’

‘I stay with him because I love him and where else am I going to go, Harry?’ asked Hermione, sitting at the edge of her temporary bed. Harry took a seat next to her and looked at her like she was crazy to even ask that, ‘I know, Harry, I’m welcome here but Ginny needs her own space. She’s asleep right now, right? I’ll leave before she wakes up.’

‘You should stay for breakfast. She’ll want you to stay,’ Harry suggested but Hermione quickly declined. They sat in silence for a few seconds in the dim light, listening to the night noises around them. Crickets, light rain and the absolute, chilling silence in the apartment, ‘have you spoken to Ron yet?’

‘I haven’t because Fred wouldn’t like it...’ Hermione whispered and then looked at Harry as he stared at the ground, his eyelashes brushing the top of his cheeks, ‘have you?’

‘Yeah, he’s very upset. I think you should speak with him before he loses his mind,’ Harry said with a chuckle but she knew he was being serious, ‘you need to make the right choice, Hermione. Fred isn’t going to change and you know that. You’re putting yourself in risk and your child. If anything happens, I’ll be here for you but I won’t help Fred because it’ll probably be his fault.’

‘Nothing is going to happen,’ Hermione sighed, shaking her head and resting her elbows on her knees, ‘he told me that he found a new place to open his shop in Hogsmeade. I think we’ll be fine if he can get it running. Plus he has us paying rent to the guy who sold him the shop so we can pay debts off quicker.’

‘I never said anything was going to happen. I’m just saying that you should be careful,’ Harry muttered and stood up with a huff, ‘get some sleep, Hermione. I’ll see you in the morning.’

‘You too, Harry,’ Hermione said and stood up. She caught him in a hug before he went away, ‘thanks for always being there for me.’

‘I’ll never let anyone harm you, Hermione, trust me,’ Harry whispered before hugging her back.

He left the room then and Hermione climbed into her bed. She turned the lights off with magic and she wished she could get herself to fall asleep using magic too. Unfortunately it didn’t work that way.

---

*Fred’s POV*

‘That stuff will kill you one day if you don’t slow down,’ Draco mauled, looking at Fred almost lazily as he drank a whole glass of alcohol in one go, burning almost all of his throat in the process.

‘Going to die one day anyway,’ Fred muttered and then asked for a re fill. He turned to see Draco looking over the property papers of Fred’s apartment. His eyes scurried along the paper as he read all of it and then he signed the bottom of the sheet and handed it to Fred, ‘are you sure you want my house too?’

‘I signed it so yeah, I’m sure,’ Draco said, sliding the pen over the dirty bar table towards Fred, ‘just you sign it and it’ll be mine. Just like that.’

Fred slowly took the pen in his hand, hesitating for some reason. He knew he wanted to get the new shop and in order to get it, he had to give away his apartment. Not forever though and he could still live in it. The only problem is that he would have to pay. Fred looked at Draco for a second, could he really trust him? He had been a death eater before but now he was like an... an angel of sorts since he was saving him from drowning in debt. Fred shook his head, amused that he had thought of Draco as an angel. The alcohol must be getting to him.

He signed the papers and Draco’s eyes lit up. As soon as the signature was done, Draco whisked the papers away and thanked him. Another file sat in front of Fred and Draco opened it up. The page was full of writing. Blurred to Fred .

‘You don’t have to read it. It basically says you can have the new property for your shop,’ Draco explained and egged him on, trying to get him to sign the papers.

Fred obliged and loped his signature, a bit trailing off the line, onto the sheet. Draco had never looked this happy in all of his life as he stowed the file away and ordered a drink.

‘Here’s to business partners!’ Draco said, holding up his drink.

They clinked glasses and then drank. Draco smirked into his drink and punched Fred on the back as he nearly choked on his.

This was going to be fun, thought Draco as Fred thanked him, it truly will be entertaining.