The Pulchritudinous Palmistry Prank by WeasleyForMe

Fred plays a beautiful prank on George and Hermione.

This story was written for the Twin Exchange August Title Swap Challenge! The title was submitted by .earth

"What on earth are you doing?" George asked his twin brother.

Fred glanced up from his quill and parchment with a quirked eyebrow. "Homework for Divination," he replied. The Gryffindor Common room was bustling with other students working on school assignments.

"You actually do your Divination homework?" George asked, clearly confused and concerned.

"Yes, actually I do."

"Huh, I had no idea," George admitted. "I never do any assignments for that class. I don't think I've even opened the text."

Fred laughed. "Are you joking? If you get another 'dreadful' or 'troll' exam grade, Mum will have you sent to Azkaban."

"Yeah, I know, but I don't really think Professor Trelawney actually grades anything. Plus, she is a bit batty after all. Divination is a bunch of wishy-washy nonsense, am I right?" George asked his brother.

Fred noticed that in that instant, Hermione arrived through the portrait hole, and George immediately sat up a little straighter and quickly flattened his messy hair.

"That may be the case, dear brother, but with our reputations I don't think it will hurt to do a little more studying. Especially if our business venture is on the line," Fred added. But he knew George wasn't really listening to him now that his crush was in the vicinity. "Maybe we should ask Hermione for her opinion. Hey, Hermione, come here for a second!" he called out.

George's ears immediately turned pink. "What do you think you're doing?" he hissed at Fred. But it was too late; Hermione was making her way over to their table where she pulled out the chair next to George.

"What's going on?" she asked, looking expectantly from twin to twin.

"Hermione, we are conducting some advanced research. Would you be interested in aiding us?" asked Fred. "It's all in the name of science."

She sighed and shook her head. "No thanks, I don't want to try one of your ridiculous 'gagging gummies' or whatever those things are that made Colin Creevy sick for three days."

"You mean Puking Pastilles," corrected George.

"But 'Gagging Gummies' is brilliant! Mind if we use that one?" Fred asked.

Hermione snorted. "Did you actually need something from me, or did you simply call me over here to have a laugh?"

Before George could say anything, Fred loudly cut across him. "We just wanted your opinion on studying for Divination."

"Divination. Ha! What a waste of time that class is," she muttered. "I can think of a thousand things more productive than studying for that farce! In fact, I dropped Divination to take Arithmancy instead."

George smiled brightly at Fred. "See, Fred? Hermione agrees with me on this one! Studying for Divination is pointless."

Fred's look of annoyance turned into a malicious grin which he quickly hid from George and Hermione. He cleared his throat and tried his best to feign innocence. "Oh well actually, since neither of you have read the advanced level text, you won't know anything about the Pulchritudinous Palmistry technique."

"The what?" George asked skeptically.

"The Pulchritudinous Palmistry technique," he said again.

"I've never heard of that," Hermione admitted unhappily. She liked the keep up the appearance of being very well informed, but she had in fact only thumbed through that textbook. "But, I dropped Divination before we worked on Palmistry."

"Well, it's very fascinating. First of all, you two will need to hold hands," Fred said, gesturing to Hermione and his twin.

George looked nervously at Hermione before turning to Fred. "Wait, Fred, are you trying to prank me?" he asked suspiciously.

Fred's jaw dropped open. "You can't be serious, George! What's our cardinal rule of pranking?"

"Never get caught," George answered quickly.

"Yes, I suppose that's right. But what is our second cardinal rule? 'Never prank each other'! I would never, ever try to prank my own twin," Fred said as innocently as he could muster as he crossed his fingers behind his back.

"This is all very amusing, but is the holding hands part really necessary?" Hermione asked, biting her lip as she looked at George. Surely Fred wouldn't do anything to intentionally harm his twin or cause any embarrassment. She figured she was safe this time.

"Absolutely," Fred confirmed. He watched at George held out his hand for Hermione's smaller one. She slipped her fingers nervously along his palm, and George grasped her hand lightly.

"Excellent. Now that your Life Lines are joined together, you'll be able to feel each other's energy," Fred said, making everything up as he went along. "It works better if you sit closer together and close your eyes. This will help to block out the world around you, thus opening the accessibility to your Inner Eye."

George glared at his twin, and was quite surprised when Hermione scooted her chair closer to his.

"Interesting, I think I do feel something," Hermione murmured, smiling at George before closing her eyes.

George was sure all she felt was the pounding of his pulse as it beat a steady rhythm throughout his body. She squeezed his palm a little tighter, and he hesitantly closed his eyes as well.

"Now George, lean in a little closer to Hermione. Yes, just like that," Fred said as George leaned blindly toward her. Fred tried not to laugh at the rare sight of them doing exactly what he said.

"Is something supposed to happen?" George asked after a few seconds.

"Yes, just give it a couple more seconds, and lean in a tiny bit closer to each other…." Fred answered as he silently stood and started to back quietly away from the table. He turned and ran out through the portrait hole just as George's lips met Hermione's.

Hermione's eyes fluttered open when she realized what was happening. George jumped a little in his chair and opened his eyes as well. He sucked in a breath, ready to start an extensive apology to Hermione, but he was surprised to find she was pulling him closer by their still connected palms.

Their lips met again in another kiss, this one longer and deeper than the first. Their clasped hands rested on the table between them, and George was certain he really could feel a wave of energy between the two of them.

When Hermione released his lips for the second time, she whispered, "Well, that was actually a pleasant prank."

George was pleased to see she was smiling at him. He grinned at her and asked, "I hope it wasn't unwelcome?"

She blushed and shook her head, trying to hide her mix of happiness and embarrassment from him. "If Fred hadn't played that prank, I doubt it would have ever happened," she said shyly.

George's smile faltered. "Fred! That filthy, rotten, little…. I'll be right back, Hermione, I've just got to go murder my twin right now."

He quickly kissed her cheek before finally releasing her hand and running out of the Common Room in search of Fred.

But, George eventually decided he wouldn't actually cause bodily harm to his twin. He just wanted to find him and congratulate him on a prank well done.

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