1A/N: This is for Jillie Bean's Song and Dance Challenge on the HPFC forum. My chosen album is "Minutes to Midnight" by Linkin Park. I took the easy way out and picked the instrumental song to start out with.

I don't own Harry Potter, nor am I Linkin Park. I don't benefit financially from writing this.

Please review and tell me what you think.

Wake

It had been one hell of a night for Hermione. The two-bedroom flat didn't offer much privacy, and until she had cast a silencing charm over their wall she had heard every move Harry and Ron had made.

This wasn't how it was supposed to happen! She and Ron had dated, she thought they were meant for each other. The last thing she expected was for Ron to declare his undying love- for Harry. She had been dreaming of weddings and children and small houses on quiet lanes, and now she was sharing a flat with her ex-boyfriend and his lover. It wasn't fair.

She had stayed up most of the night thinking of nothing and everything at once. She had finally fallen asleep two hours prior, only to be woken all too soon by her shrieking alarm clock.

She stumbled to the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee. While she didn't like it black, she decided her need for immediate caffeine trumped her desire to not taste the bitterness. She sat at the table with a copy of the Daily Prophet.

Harry was the next one to function. He came in ten minutes later with the distinct look of having shagged recently. Hermione smiled as he poured himself some coffee. She held no ill feelings towards Harry and Ron, they couldn't help who they were. Fate was against her, not her good friends.

Harry reached into the stack of papers sitting in front of her and rummaged for the comics.

"Do you have a biological need to leave things out of order?" Hermione sighed, as she straightened the pile back up.

"No. Learned behavior from living with Petunia Dursley."

"Why don't you go make a mess of her house?"

"I've tangled with Voldemort and his followers, but I'm not brave enough to fuck with her."

Hermione smiled. "Is Ron getting up or are we going to be late again?"

"He was up, but there's a good chance that he went back to sleep. Think I should sic Crookshanks on him?"

As if on cue the large orange cat sulked from the room. A few moments later there was a shout from Harry and Ron's bedroom followed by "I'm getting up! Get the hell out of here!"

"That cat scares me sometimes," Harry murmured, buttering his toast.

A minute later a half-dressed Ron stumbled in, muttering under his breath. "Why does work have to start so early?" he griped.

"It wouldn't be so early if you two got to bed at a decent hour," Hermione replied, rolling her eyes.

Harry's head hit the table. "We forgot the silencing charm again, didn't we?"

"Yeah, you did. Lucky for me, I'm a witch, and I can cast my own."

"Well, if you ever bring a date back here you can get revenge."

"What have I told you? Keep your nose out of my love life until I tell you about it."

"Well, what happened to that guy in the Department of Mysteries?"

"It's a mystery," Hermione said, waving her hands.

"And the guy in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office?"

"He had quite an interesting Muggle artifact in his bedroom drawer, and it was nothing I wanted to have anything to do with."

Ron snorted some of his coffee and started coughing.

The rest of the morning was a flurry of quick showers and fast dressing. Five minutes before nine they Flooed to the Ministry and hurried to the Auror office. There they each sat at their desks and looked over the requests for assistance that had come in. Since they had joined the Auror office had "gotten boring" (according to Dawlish). No one wanted to mess with the trio, and so their workload had gone from running after former Death Eaters and Dark Lord Wanna-bes to assisting other departments with minor aspects of magical law. Once they had gone to America to assist with a serial-killer of Muggles, but that had been the highlight of the last three years.

"Six days!" Harry announced as he ceremoniously tore another page off his calendar.

"Sun, sand, adult beverages," Ron sighed.

"It' going to be great," Hermione threw in as she sifted through a dozen requests from various enforcement departments to come with them on what should be routine calls.

The trio, along with a few of their close friends, were off to a resort in Mexico for a long weekend to celebrate Harry's twenty fifth birthday. They had planned the trip months in advance, and Harry announcing the countdown had become part of the daily ritual, so much so that they joked they'd have to plan another one or risk losing track of the days.

"I'm not going to do anything for the whole weekend!" Ron announced, reclining in his chair.

"We don't do much while we're here," Hermione muttered.

"Anything?" Harry asked with pleading eyes.

"Oh, well, there is that," Ron replied, his face going scarlet.

"What are you planning on doing, 'Mione?" Harry rounded on his friend.

"Relax. Maybe read a book."

"'Mione!" Ron groaned. "You're loose in Mexico with a bunch of handsome men and you're going to read?"

"That's our Hermione," Harry said, shaking his head.

___________________________________

George locked up his store and wearily climbed the stairs to the flat above. As was his custom he said "Good day today, Fred," as he passed his brother's smiling picture. His twin's death still hurt, but the pain was starting to dull. It would never fully go away.

Another night, another meal for one. As successful a businessman as he would, George Weasley seemed unable to hold onto a girlfriend for more than a few months. His biggest issue was that, now that he was a rich businessman, the type of woman attracted to him was more what the Muggles called a gold-digger.

A small pile of unopened mail was awaiting him on his kitchen table, and he immediately recognized the top as the final confirmation for his trip to Mexico. Even though Harry had insisted on paying for the trip George had no intention of sharing a room with Charlie, and he had rented his own room. Who knows, Mexico was bound to be full of good-looking Muggle girls who had no idea of who he was or how much gold was in his Gringotts account. He might get lucky.

Of course, even if he didn't, the long weekend wouldn't be a total wash. He needed a break from the store, and there was no better way to relax than being surrounded by family and good friends. Sure, he was still a little weirded out by his brother's relationship. Not because he was gay, he had long since suspected that, but because Harry was like another brother, and it seemed wrong that they were now dating.

"Hermione is also like a sister," he reminded himself out loud, though he didn't believe it for a moment. Hermione was so different from all the Weasleys, save for maybe Percy, that while she was around almost as much as Harry she didn't have the family-like feel he did. How she had hooked up with Ron for even a moment was beyond him. They were so... wrong for each other.

He stared down at the plate of reheated food he had prepared for his dinner, and lost his appetite. It had been a long day at the store. Hogwarts was almost back in session, the summer holidays were in full swing, and while business was up so was attempted theft. He was sick of having to call the Ministry to deal with of-age wizards trying to pilfer something from him. Maybe next time he had to contact them he'd contact Hermione. She needed something better to do, and he needed the adult conversation.

Lying in his bed he realized how tired he was, and before he was able to make a mental list of everything he wanted to do while on vacation he was asleep.