Fred paced the darkened hallway, his lean body overflowing with restless energy, while George slouched against the wall, entertaining himself by watching Fred pace.
"It's the only way it all fits," Fred finally concluded, pausing mid-stride, as he shook his head in bemused wonder.
"Yeah, you're right, it makes perfect sense," George agreed solemnly before hooting in appreciative laughter. "Trust Hermione to pull off the prank of the year by accident," he snorted, shaking his head in amused disbelief.
Fred shot his twin a narrow eyed glare before his own equally bizarre sense of humor surfaced and he reluctantly grinned. It was pretty bloody brilliant. "You realize she meant the prank for us," he commented wryly.
"Yeah, well," George flashed a grin at his twin. "If you can't take a prank…"
"Don't pull a prank," Fred finished, grinning back with an identical wicked smile.
They'd figured out the mostly likely chain of events after dinner, all the while accepting compliments and hearty whacks on the backs in congratulations of pulling off such a brilliant prank. In unspoken agreement they had merely smiled, neither confirming nor denying responsibility which, of course, to the rest of the students was admittance enough. The twins didn't bother denying it because they knew that for one, no one would believe them and for two, if they did convince others then people would start trying to figure out who really was behind the prank. No, better to see what was what before making their move.
"Hermione's not cut out to be in trouble," Fred frowned at the thought of the sweet girl slaving away in detention. His imagination continued to build the picture of Snape with an evil sneer of triumph on his cold face casting hexes and jinxes at Hermione while she was forced to slave away in the deepest dankest castle dungeon, faint with hunger, cleaning out noxious potion vial after potion vial night after night. The thought sent his pulse to pounding. No, he just couldn't let that happen.
George raised an arched eyebrow, skepticism plain on his devilish face. "Not cut out to be in trouble? Girl seems to have a positive genius for trouble if you ask me."
"Yeah, she really does, doesn't she?" Fred felt his smile go goofish for a minute before shaking it off. He really had to stop doing that. He tossed George a glare. "You know that's not what I meant. I meant that Hermione's not cut out to serve detentions or get yelled at, or well, be on Snape's 'death by Potion's' list."
George straightened up, casting a narrow-eyed gaze of concern at his brother. There was a certain note in Fred's voice that was starting to set off alarm bells. This conversation was starting to head off in a dangerous direction, it was. "Hold on now," he protested. "For one, the girl did the crime, she can do the time," George thought of some of the stunts she, Ron and Harry had pulled in previous years. "She's a tough little thing y'know. And," he continued hurriedly when it looked like Fred was going to try to cut in, "she's already on Snape's 'Death by Potion's' list just by being best mates with Harry. So don't," he plowed on, ruthlessly overrunning Fred's attempts to speak, "even think about getting all chivalrous and gentlemanly on us," he finished firmly, crossing his arms in an effort to convey his total and complete seriousness. "We are not chivalrous and gentlemanly blokes."
"She's just so tiny," Fred finally said after a brief considering silence, giving a helpless shrug.
"Too tiny?" George asked incredulously. "Your argument is that she's too tiny?" He could only stare at Fred in disbelief. "Love is rotting your brains mate! I mean, have you gone completely mental?" He shook his head at the notion. "The girl was clever enough to get into this mess wasn't she? I'm sure she's clever enough to get out of it all on her own." Just because he admired the girl didn't mean he was willing to go down for her.
"She's not used to being devious though," Fred argued. "I mean, she messed up the prank didn't she?"
"Yeah! She did! Or else it would have been us turning into belly-dancing old ladies and what-not! Have you forgotten that? And I haven't even done anything!" George added indignantly, quite willing to forget his earlier amusement. "Besides, this is Hermione Granger we're talking about! She's the smartest witch we've ever met!" He paused, "uh, don't tell her I said that though."
"Yeah, but she's…"
"Don't you dare say she's tiny again or I'll pound you!" George interrupted fiercely. "Just forget it! Whatever you're thinking of doing just forget it!"
"But…"
"No!"
"I only…"
"I mean it! The answer's no!"
Fred stared at his brother silently for a brief, considering moment, thinking of and discarding arguments at a rapid-fire pace behind his clever green eyes.
George, who knew exactly what was going through his brother's devious mind, leaned in, poking a finger at Fred's chest in hot temper. "You listen to me Fred! We are not going down for a prank we didn't do!"
Fred just continued to stare narrow-eyed at George before he suddenly smiled. It was a dangerous sort of smile and George felt instantly wary. He was absolutely right to be.
"I wonder if Genevieve Delorean ever found out who it was that stole her Feather of Love enchantment and replaced it with a Feather of sneezing?" Fred asked casually.
George blinked once in surprise at the implied threat before immediately leaning back in, face going red with outrage. "We vowed never to speak of that!"
"Desperate measures mate," Fred shot back, not at all deterred.
George felt his own eyes narrow into slits of danger. "You want to play that game then do you? Alright then. Oy, I bet Dad would love to know who it was behind that Muggle two-headed bovine emergency that kept his entire department out in the countryside chasing cows for five bloody nights straight last year."
Fred barely flinched, immediately going back on offense. "Well I wonder how Mum would feel if she found out who it was put Draught of belching into Aunt Marge's biscuits two years ago. Right before they were entered into the Portnash baking contest."
George shrugged off the hit. "Ginny still don't know it was you what chained the gremlin to her bed when she was six. And that girl…is getting dangerous."
Fred volleyed. "Ho, I wonder if Charlie would like to know about the time you got Roddy Griffith's cousin to tell Charlie he was an orphan and that the Slytherin Orphanage for Wayward Fiends was going to take him away the next morning?"
"That was both of us!"
"Oh…yeah."
…
"This is getting us nowhere," George sat slowly back on his heels, forcing his temper to cool down.
"Yeah, you're right," Fred nodded reluctantly, also leaning back. "We've got too much dirt on each other. Neither of us would survive full disclosure."
"Alright look," George said after another moment of silence as they both analyzed the possibilities. "You're worried for your lady-love right? I mean, obviously. It's making you so mental that you're actually threatening your own deeply beloved brother."
"S'right," Fred agreed readily. "Which is why…"
"Aw, shut it and listen," George interrupted irritably. "We don't even know she's going to get caught, do we?"
"Well…Dumbledore and Snape'll probably…"
"Forget probably…" George overrode. "Before we cast ourselves on the sword of love, and by the way you are going to so owe me big time for this…"
"Yeah, yeah," Fred responded impatiently.
"Right…as I was saying, before we get all noble let's find out if our monumental act of sacrifice is really needed shall we?"
Fred huffed impatiently. "Fine. But I don't think Hermione's going to be willing to talk to either of us right now."
"Yeah," George nodded in agreement. "Shame you didn't get a chance to put the 'Hermione will be yours' plan into action yet. Still, Ron and Harry…"
"Yeah," Fred nodded. "That's true. Ron and Harry should know what's what. Well…" Fred reconsidered, "maybe just Harry since the last we saw, Hermione wasn't talking to Ron neither."
"Right. Okay, so we corner Harry and find out if Hermione's in danger of getting caught," George concluded.
"And if she is…" Fred asked, one eyebrow waggling questioningly at his brother.
George stared at him in irritation for a brief moment before finally shrugging his surrender. "Fine! If it looks like she's going to get caught and if there's no other alternative that presents itself then we take credit for the crime. But like I said, you're going to owe me…"
"Big time!" Fred agreed hurriedly, flashing his brother a brilliant smile. He'd known George would come through in the end. With his brothers' consent taken care of he jerked his head towards the far end of the hall, eager to be off. "Right then, let's go!"
George watched Fred take off at full speed in his search for Harry, shaking his head slowly in dismay. "The idiot really is in love," he concluded morosely. "Won't get a decent prank out of him until this thing settles down." Sighing, he wandered more slowly after his brother, his twisty mind still considering options. His face brightened momentarily when a though struck him and he shouted after Fred "Oy Fred! What about trying to blame it on the Slytherins?"
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Fred was still a bit ahead of George as he entered the Gryffindor common rooms. Immediately the crowd of Gryffindors hanging out began a rousing cheer for one of their temporary heroes. Fred, as distracted as he was, was still enough of a showman to smile and bow to the crowd of students, raising his arms in grand acceptance of the adulation, taking it as his natural due. "Thank you! Thank you! But really, I'm just a normal lad. Like all of you except, well, taller and more charming and well, better looking of course…" he laughed as the crowd started good-naturedly cat-calling him, the closer students shoving at him playfully.
Making his way through the crowd, he scanned the room but didn't see Harry nor, for that matter, Ron or Hermione.
"Hey Neville!" He reached out and collared the awkward lad. "Have you seen Harry anywhere?"
"Oh, uh, I think he might've left dinner early," Neville replied, a bit nervous. Any time the notorious pranksters noticed him he felt a bit nervous. Although, really, they were usually pretty decent to him. Not that they didn't prank him 'cause, well, this was Fred and George and they pranked everybody. But it was always good-natured. It was the Slytherins you had to watch out for. "He was with Ron and Hermione. I'm not sure where they went though. Haven't seen them up here," Neville offered tentatively.
"Well, d'you have any idea where they might have gone? It's kind of important," Fred asked, the unusually serious expression on his face impressing the younger boy.
"Well…" Neville frowned in consideration before brightening. "Hey! The library! The three of them seem to hang out in the library quite a lot."
"The library?" Fred considered and then nodded. It was worth a try. "Right, thanks Neville," he patted the boy on the shoulder approvingly before bolting off. He ran into George as his twin was just entering the common rooms. "Not here," he told him tersely, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him back out the portrait hole.
"Oh, make up your mind!" The Fat Lady scowled in irritation, closing the entrance in a huff.
They ignored her, George digging his heels in to halt Fred's insistent tugging. "Where, exactly, are we going now?" He asked, unwilling to be dragged willy-nilly along on Fred's crusade.
"The library," Fred responded, still tugging at George's elbow. "C'mon mate, Neville said they hang out there a lot."
"Oh, well, if Neville says," George shot back sarcastically but let Fred tug him along.
They had just entered a passageway which would shoot off to a stairway that most of the time led to the library when the twins both skidded to an abrupt halt. Harry was coming out of a classroom. He stopped short when he noticed the two, blinking owlishly in surprise before offering them up a cheerful, if wary, smile. He said, somewhat loudly, "Hey Fred, George, what are you two doing here?" He then shut the classroom door firmly behind him and strode forward.
Fred, intent on his mission of love, strode up to Harry and urgently grabbed his elbow. Oy, Harry, is Hermione in trouble?"
"Wh…what do you mean?" Harry asked, startled. How could Fred and George have possibly figured out Hermione's plight?
Fred wasn't fooled for a moment. "C'mon, don't by coy," Fred admonished. "We know it was Hermione who was behind that prank."
"Yeah, we know it was Hermione who was behind that prank," George seconded, crossing his arms in emphasis. After all, he might be irritated with Fred right now, but he still had a sworn twin duty to help the love-lorn idiot out. Besides, he glanced at the closed door behind Harry. He had a feeling…
"Why do you think it was Hermione?" Harry asked warily, backing up a step so that his back was against the door he had just exited.
Fred rolled his eyes. "Well it wasn't us."
"Er, well, okay, but there's still lots of other people in the school. What makes you think Hermione could possibly have had anything to do with it?" Harry asked, going for innocent and pretty much failing. He tried again. "I mean, you know Hermione, she doesn't pull pranks. She thinks they're a waste of time."
"Look, you know she was mad at me 'cause she thought I was pranking her when I asked her out earlier," Fred offered by way of explanation.
"Yeah," the word was wary.
"Well, I was watching her when she came in at supper and she was up to something. I could tell," Fred concluded firmly.
"How?" Harry asked, genuinely curious now. He'd been sitting right next to Hermione before the prank and he hadn't noticed anything strange about her behavior.
Harry and George watched as Fred reddened. "I just could," he answered irritably. He really didn't feel like explaining that he'd gotten so used to 'Hermione watching' that he could read her like one of her books.
"Okay," Harry said, drawing out the word cautiously.
"Look, it's not important how I know, I just do," Fred brushed past the question hurriedly. "She meant the prank for us and Ron…"
"Yeah, I know why she's mad at us but what did that git do to get on Hermione's bad side?" George asked curiously.
"Uh," Harry hesitated, trying to think of a diplomatic way to describe Ron's unintentional insult. "Well, he sort of…"
"That don't matter now," Fred cut him off, shooting George an impatient look.
George rolled his eyes. Fred was seriously no fun when he was on a love crusade. He made a mental note to tell Ginny to Avada Kedavra his own happy self if he ever got this serious about anyone.
"We know she meant the prank for us and it somehow hit the head table instead," Fred was continuing urgently. "What we need to know is whether there's any evidence to link her to the prank."
"Well," Harry said cautiously, his mind racing as he considered the situation. Clearly Fred wasn't going to just go away and, well, his thoughts turned towards the room he'd just left. Maybe there was a way to work this thing out so everyone got what they wanted. He kind of liked it when his friends weren't trying to kill each other.
"Okay Fred," he admitted, shrugging as if in defeat. "You're right. It was Hermione behind the prank. But you can't tell anyone," he went on hurriedly.
Fred just rolled his eyes. "Of course we're not going to tell anyone. We're here to help make sure she don't get caught."
Harry opened his mouth to ask why but he was cut off by George who jumped in rather loudly "Yeah! This git won't rest until he makes sure Hermione don't get in trouble! On account of he's soooo in love with her." George winked at Harry when the other lad stared at him in surprise.
Harry felt a small smile struggling to creep across his face. Looks like he wasn't the only one with an idea about a truce. "But Fred asked Hermione out as a prank didn't he?" He asked innocently and loudly.
Fred was so focused on Hermione that he didn't even think about why Harry and George were acting weird. Instead he stared down hotly at Harry, outraged. "You know I was serious when I was asking her out!" He felt genuine hurt. He'd thought Harry had believed him! "I've been thinking about asking her since this summer!"
"Just what exactly is it about Hermione that you like so much?" Harry asked, again rather loudly.
"What's not to like?" Fred finally bellowed in frustration. "She's just, she's just wonderful alright? She's brilliant and funny and sweet and pretty and clever and by Merlin's Beard she just pulled off the prank of the year by accident!" He was beyond pretending to be cool about this. "And if she's in trouble then George and I'll take care of it! We'll take credit for the prank if we have to alright? But we need the details so we can figure out how to fix it!" Why was he the only one getting this?
Harry stared up at him, blinking for a moment, and Fred was barely resisting the urge to throttle the lad when Harry simply smiled before reaching back and opening the door he'd been leaning on. "She's not in danger of getting caught Fred. But you can ask her yourself."
Fred watched in stunned disbelief as Hermione's face came into view as the door swung slowly open. He noticed absently that Ron seemed to be there too but his younger brother barely registered as Fred had eyes only for Hermione. She was looking back at him, an equally stunned look upon her pale face.
"Oh, um, Hermione…hi," Fred said weakly, for once robbed of his normally glib gift of speech.
Hermione remained silent, her eyes studying Fred's face with serious intent.
It was unnerving really. Huffing a breath out in frustration Fred lifted a hand, tugging nervously at his right earlobe. Taking a deep breath for courage he opened his mouth to try to explain. "Y'see I…well, that is, I really just…" he stopped as Hermione slowly started to smile. Something warm and wonderful unfurled in his stomach at the beautiful sight.
"Fred," Hermione continued to smile and it seemed to light up her whole face so that even Harry blinked in surprise at the way it made his best friend look, well, beautiful.
"Yeah?" Fred asked, an answering smile of his own starting to unfurl.
"Would you like to go out with me this weekend?" The smile was turning a bit shy now around the edges; Hermione's brown eyes shining tentatively.
Fred felt his own smile turn into a huge grin. And he didn't bloody care if it was goofy. "Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that. A lot."
Fred fought the urge to reach down and kiss Hermione, instead reaching out to grasp her hand with his own.
"I'm sorry I tried to prank you," Hermione looked up at him, apologizing earnestly. "I'm really, really sorry Fred."
"Don't be sorry about it Hermione," Fred's grin started settling down into something resembling its normal wicked form. "That was a brilliant prank. You'll have to tell me how you did it."
"Well," Hermione hesitated before looking up at him questioningly. "Do you really think it was brilliant?"
"Are you kidding? It was outstanding! Only a brilliant witch like you could have pulled that off." They both firmly ignored the gagging sounds that George and Ron were suddenly producing.
Fred took a more secure grip on Hermione's hand and started leading her off down the hall. "So how did you manage to get the transformation done? Was it a potion?"
"Oh, well, it was actually a combination of several different elements from several different spells and potions," Hermione offered happily, a bubbling feeling of giddiness occupying her stomach as she walked down the hall hand in hand with Fred. His hand felt large and warm and callused and just right. And he thought she was brilliant! And pretty!
Harry, Ron and George watched the two walking off, various expressions of bemusement on their three faces. After a moment George gave a quick shake of his head as if coming up for air and took off after them. "Oy! Hermione! I was willing to go down for you too y'know! I dunno why you want to ask this shady character out." He caught up to them and slung a companionable arm across Hermione's shoulder. "By the way," George bent his head down towards hers in a conspiratorial manner. "Could I interest you in a part-time job this year? Extra cash, lot's of practical applications of magic. We could use a good assistant," at her sharp glance he hastily back-pedaled, "uh, I mean, colleague. A really smart colleague to help us out with development and research."
Harry and Ron watched as Hermione responded pertly to George, causing him and Fred to laugh at her comment as the trio walked off together.
Harry glanced over at Ron who had an odd look of comical dismay on his face. "Y'know," Ron said slowly, turning to look at Harry in half-serious trepidation. "If Fred 'n George convince Hermione to team up with them…well, I fear for the world Harry. I really do."
Harry, however, felt no such qualms. In fact, he felt a happy smile of contentment taking over as he watched something good happening to some of the people he cared about most in the world. It was a nice change of pace. His smile shifted to a grin as he looked over at Ron. "Well, at least the world will be laughing."
There were worse things after all.
THE END
A/N - Well, that's the end. I hope you all enjoyed it! Thank you so much for everyone who took the time to write. Everyone was so kind and encouraging and it really kept me writing. This has been a tremendous learning experience for me.
Thanks to the people who wrote me since chapter 6 came out (LaraLupinBlack, SpikesDreamer, Boogie, eletrikyellow, Tera Earth, Lilly Evans Potter Black Lupin, crystalwish, pixiedust22, tigerlily727, prettybeka, Triste1, little mimi, Pottergurl093, Queen of Duct Tape, SouthernCharm 83, oOo The Skittle Queen oOo, words-are-mine, Kawaii Usagi Chan San, Sakura-jr 17, moonlit mage and avchocaholic)! You guys are great!