A/N- I don't own Harry Potter. I do not make money from this fic.
Okay now that that's out of the way, this isn't Epilogue compliant. Also, Fred is alive. He's in a coma, but he's alive.

Hermione Granger sat next to a hospital bed, reading to the unconscious patient. She closed the book and looked at the familiar redhead. He'd been unconscious for three weeks now.

"Hermione?" She turned to see George Weasley standing in the doorway, "What are you doing here?"

She stood, "I come here every few days and read to him."

George moved to his twin's side, "I didn't know that. I didn't even know you were back from Australia."

"As of two weeks ago," she answered.

George looked at Fred before looking at her, "Let's go get a cup of tea."

"That's not necessary."

"No it's not," he nodded, "but I think you could use it."

Once they were sitting down together she looked at George, "Are you doing okay?"

"He's not dead. If he were dead I'd be almost broken. But I'm doing okay. Lee, Angie, and I take turns working the store and coming here to sit with him."

"How are the others?"

George sighed, "Well Mum comes and sits with him every Thursday. She's doing okay. Dad has jumped up in the Ministry pretty substantially. He got his promotion last week. Bill and Fleur are doing all right, I guess. Fleur says Bill has night terrors. Charlie went back to Romania yesterday. He seems to be doing the best. Percy has horrible nightmares that Fred dies in front of him. But Penelope's there for him so I think he'll get better. Especially once Fred wakes up."

Hermione smiled and reached for his hand, "Of course he will."

"I'm doing okay, for the most part. I miss our conversations. Ron's enjoying his newfound war hero status. I don't know, I think he's trying to forget about everything by being with tons of girls. And as for Ginny…well she and Harry are practically inseparable." He noticed she tensed when he mentioned Ron, but relaxed when he talked about Ginny and Harry. "How have you been?"

"I couldn't get my parents back," she whispered. "I spent four days searching before I found them and then…they were so happy. They were happy without knowing about me."

Hermione felt the tears coming and immediately George moved around the table and hugged her, Hermione crying into his chest as he held her. "I'm sorry," he whispered. He didn't really know what else to say. "Where have you been staying?"
"My parents' old house," she whispered.

"You can't stay there," George said immediately.

"George I'm not ready to see your entire family."

He shook his head, "I'm not talking about the Burrow. You can stay with me. We have a third bedroom. Angelina's been staying in Fred's, I'm in mine. You could stay in the extra one. Lee and Angelina won't ask questions and they are understanding. It'll be great," he smiled.

She wiped her tears away and looked up at him, "You're sure it's not an imposition?"

"Not at all," he promised. "You can sell your parents' house. Lee's a Muggleborn and his mum sells houses. I bet she'd be happy to help you."

Hermione kissed his cheek, "Thank you George. I think it'd be nice to not be alone."

"I want to visit with Fred for a bit, then I'll help you get your things."

"You're okay with Crookshanks coming too?"

"Sure," George smiled, "I bet the furball would love some extra hands to pet him."

Hermione sat in the room with George as he told Fred all about the shop and made fun of Ron's apparently frequent one night stands. "And Hermione's going to come live with us. It's going to be great Fred. When you wake up maybe we can get her to take us to a Muggle amusement park like we've always wanted to go. It'd be wicked."

"I suppose I could be convinced to do that," she admitted.

George smiled at her and he squeezed Fred's hand, "I have to go now Fred. Hermione needs help moving in. I'll see you soon."

George helped her pack up her Hogwarts trunk with all of her things. "I bet Angie could come help pack up the house. And Lee's parents too."

"Thank you George," Hermione hugged him, "I really, really appreciate this."

"No one should be alone Hermione," he whispered, hugging her back. Hermione felt very good, settled in George's arms.

They put Crookshanks into his cage and George helped her pack up the things she wanted the most. When George told her that his apartment had little in the way of kitchen items she insisted they box up the pots, pans, plates, glasses, and silverware to take with them. It took them three hours to get everything packed up. They Disapparated together.

When they landed in George's living room they heard footsteps, "George? What took you so…Hermione," Angelina smiled and hugged her, "How are you? What's going on?"

"Hermione's staying with us," George said, "Can you help her get settled in, show her her bedroom? She has stuff for the kitchen too."

"Oh thank goodness I thought we were going to starve," Angelina smiled and picked up the box George indicated belonged to the kitchen, "Did you shrink them?"

"Of course. Had to Apparate with all of them." George looked at her, "Will you be okay here with Ang? I have to go close up the shop with Lee and restock the shelves."

"I'll be fine. Thank you George," she smiled at him and George winked at her before leaving. Hermione opened Crookshanks' cage and he wandered around the apartment.

"At least there will be another girl here. You have no idea how infuriating George and Fred can get."

"I was a prefect, Angelina," Hermione reminded her, "I'm very aware of how infuriating they can be."

Angelina laughed, "I forgot that. Come on I'll help you unpack." She levitated Hermione's trunk and led her into the bedroom that was actually right next to George's. With Angelina's help her things were unpacked quickly. "Time to put things in the kitchen. Then we could go grocery shopping if you want. We don't have much in the apartment."

"That would be good. I can cook."

"I can too," Angelina nodded, "George can't. Well he tries, it just never turns out well. He likes the food he makes. I won't touch it."

George must have talked to them both, because neither of them asked her in the following days why she was there. Hermione didn't see him very often. Angelina said that if George wasn't sleeping or eating his time was spent between the hospital and the store. She got the sense that Angelina wanted to tell her he never did anything but those two things. Hermione helped with the store and in general just enjoyed being virtually never alone. On the eve of the end of the first week she'd spent there she returned upstairs to see George cooking.

"George? What are you making?"

"I don't know but it smells good," he answered. "This is Angelina's night to sit at the hospital with Fred, so it's just us."

"Lee took the bankbag to Gringotts," she hopped up onto the counter and looked at the food on the stove. It didn't look bad, actually. The smells were pleasant, "So you're making dinner for me?"

"To celebrate a week being here," he grinned. Hermione debated telling him she didn't want to eat his food based on everything she'd heard from Lee and Angelina but he looked so excited that she found she couldn't bring down his attitude like that.

"Lee said you usually take new hires out drinking."

"I didn't know if you drank so I decided to make you dinner and then take you out to the bookstore to get anything you want," George said. "Now go wash up so that we can enjoy dinner."

Hermione washed up in the bathroom that she shared with George. There were two bathrooms in the apartment. One connected George's room and hers; the other was attached to Fred's. She finished washing up and looked in the mirror, "Maybe it won't be as bad as they said," she suggested to her reflection.

When she sat down at the dining room table George placed the plate in front of her. Things looked a little different. But it didn't look inedible. "George it smells really good."

"Thank you," he grinned.

She picked up a forkful of peas, eating them cautiously. They were great. "George this is delicious."

"I've been reading all those Muggle cookbooks you brought over," he said. "I think I'm figuring it out."

Now confident she wouldn't die or be comatose from George's cooking, they talked about what Hermione wanted to do now. "Professor McGonagall said that I could sit for my NEWTS. I've debated it."

"You have your books right? I could quiz you if you want."

Hermione looked up at him, "Did you take your NEWTS?"

"Yeah," he nodded, "Dumbledore let me take them the fall of your sixth year."

She smiled, "I did get my books for seventh year. I wanted to stay in step with school."

He chuckled, "I can help you study for your NEWTS. That way you can get them properly. Just like me," he winked. Hermione laughed. George was so good at making her laugh. "Thanks for trying my food."

"I just have to use the bathroom before we go," she said before walking to the bathroom. She opened the medicine cabinet and found a peculiar blue vial with some sort of liquid in it. It looked odd, "George?"

"Yes?" He opened the door leading to his bedroom, "oh you found it."

"What is it?"

"Birth control potion. I increased its length," he smiled proudly, "but I don't know exactly how long it lasts. I had to put an indicator in it. So when it runs out your urine turns blue telling you the potion is no longer effective," he noticed Hermione looked impressed with him, "I was thinking you and Angelina could both try it. Verity already has. It will work, I promise. I just don't know how long it will work and I have to try it on a wide variety of women to see if it changes. Fleur agreed to take it too. I think four is a good number to start with. If the number of months it lasts differentiates drastically I'll have to figure out what I did wrong."

Hermione was very impressed with this. She knew that they typically lasted around three months, meaning you had to take them four times a year. And they weren't cheap. "Why didn't you just ask me? Of course I'll take it if it helps you."

He smiled, "I need to know how the taste is too. I'm thinking about changing it so it appeals to each woman even if they have different tastes."

Hermione looked at it, "Do I drink the whole thing?"

"Yes," he nodded. Hermione removed the top and drank the potion easily. "Well?"

"It doesn't taste bad," she said, "but it doesn't exactly taste good." George smiled. He could fix that.

George didn't really talk about his family much with her, but he noticed in the coming weeks that if Ron's name came up in conversation Hermione would tense up. Finally on a slow day in the store he asked her, "Hermione, did something happen with you and Ron? You get really quiet and uncomfortable whenever we mention his name."

Hermione looked around, glad that they were alone in the store. "Can you keep quiet about something?"

"Of course, anything for my little test subject," George hugged her, "And I won't judge you Hermione. You're my friend."

She sighed into his chest, "Before the final battle Ron mentioned that we should save the house elves so that they wouldn't get hurt and I was just overcome with emotion and I…kissed him."

"Oh," he said, not really sure where this was going.

"And I guess…I mean the kiss didn't mean anything to me, George. It felt like kissing Harry or something. When I came back from Australia I avoided everyone so that I wouldn't have to deal with Ron or that little slip-up."

George frowned, "But since he's dating loads of others why does it matter?"

"What if he sees me and decides he wants more than friendship?" Hermione looked up at him, fear in her eyes.

"Just tell him the truth, you don't want more."

"What if he doesn't want to be friends then?"

"Then he's a git," George shrugged. "If he's that shallow then that's his problem, not yours."

Hermione sighed, "George Ron is that shallow. He's stopped talking to me for less than this."

He rubbed her back, "Well you can either tell Ron the truth, or you can let fear dictate your actions. I'm afraid Fred won't wake up, but I don't let that stop me from creating new products and taking care of the business."

"George you only ever talk to me, Lee, and Angie and mostly it's about business."

"But…" He frowned. That was fair, actually. "Fine, I'll try to open up and you'll tell Ron the truth. Deal?" He held out his hand.

Hermione stared at it before nodding, "Deal," she shook his hand and he hugged her, "Thanks."

George looked at the clock, "It's only two but why don't we close up shop? We could both use a break. I can start that whole opening up thing we just agreed to."

He took her to the Burrow that Sunday for their customary Sunday dinner. "Hello family," George said.

A chorus of "HERMIONE!" filled the Burrow's garden and George wrapped a possessive arm around her to protect her from his mother's crushing hug.

"Please don't crush my best employee. She doesn't deserve that. And neither do I," he added.

Harry hugged Hermione, "We've missed you. When did you get back?"

"No pestering her with questions," George said protectively, "let her breathe first. You lot are crazy to deal with."

Hermione smiled at George, "It's okay, George. I think I can talk about it now."

"If you need me to be a guard dog I totally can be," he promised, walking a distance away but still keeping an eye on her.

She looked at Harry, "It's a long story Harry, come on I'll tell you. I just want to sit down first," Harry followed her to a bench and they sat down to talk.