"I can't believe you Fred, I just can't believe you!"

Fred groaned and rolled onto his side, pulling the unsuspecting Hermione off the other bed and onto the floor. You see they were tethered together. For the next seventy-two hours. It was all because of Fred's desire to test out his and George's new invention and he had chosen Hermione as the unlucky test subject. Two innocent looking bracelets were placed on a couple, one each. When activated, an invisible connection formed between the bracelets, allowing the wearers to move no further then three feet apart. George had activated the bracelets thirty minutes ago and for the last twenty-eight minutes and thirty-two seconds, Hermione had been yelling at Fred for his stupidity. The fact that it was now half-past one in the morning and they were both tired was not helping the situation. Fred was tired, if he had known she would yell for this long, he would have waited until morning. It was only by chance that Hermione had passed their room on the way back from the bathroom right as they were deciding who to use, otherwise they would have waited until morning.

"Sorry Hermione," Fred said wearily, sliding off the bed to help her up. "We should just do what George suggested and sleep in the same bed."

Hermione scoffed and stubbornly lay back on George's bed. George was sleeping in Percy's old room for the night. Too tired to care anymore, Fred moved the bedside table that separated the beds, out of the way and sent the beds flying together until they formed one big bed. Hermione glared at him and moved as close to the opposite edge as possible. Fred sighed and climbed into bed.

"I mean, really, what were you thinking?" Hermione started up again.

"I was thinking that you have the next week off and weren't planning anything so you wouldn't' mind helping me and George out for a couple of days," Fred snapped, losing patience. It didn't matter anymore that she was technically justified in her ranting, she had let it be known she was angry and was now just trying to aggravate him.

"Just wait until your mother hears about his," Hermione warned. She pulled at her braceleted arm, causing Fred to roll across the joint beds until he was lying uncomfortably in the space between the two beds.

"You're going to have to move over or let me sleep on the bed with you," Fred said, shifting until he was lying behind Hermione but not touching her.

"I always sleep like this, I don't care what you do, just don't touch me," she said snidely.

"Gladly," Fred sneered back, regretting his discission to shackle himself to Hermione for a few days.

They both lay in silence for a while, the only sound they could hear was George laughing to himself a few doors down.

"This is all George's fault," Fred thought to himself.

FLASHBACK

"Hermione and Freddie, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g!" George sang happily.

"Shut up," Fred said, throwing a wild punch at his twin, connecting by some stroke of luck, with George's head.

They were both hanging upside down, suspended from their ankles by some invisible force. So that Fred had managed to hit his brother was really quite impressive.

"I can't believe you dropped your wand," George said, laughing.

"That horse is dead, put the stick down," Fred muttered, making George laugh harder.

"Don't worry, your Hermione will fix it all up," George said, saying Hermione's name in a high pitched girly voice.

"All I said was that out of the three of them, Hermione would be the best to get us down," Fred said, reaching for his brother to choke him but they seemed to have drifted apart.

"No," George said, smirking. "What you said, before I even had the chance to process what had happened, was that Hermione could get us down, she's brilliant. No mention of calling all of them, just Hermione. She must have already been on your mind for you to think of her so quick."

"If she was one my mind, which she wasn't," Fred added quickly. "But if she was, it was only because I know she would disapprove of our new invention."

George chuckled at their own genius. The bracelets. They were going to be a big seller.

"You know," George said slowly, an idea forming. "I don't think our little Ministry worker fully appreciates our products. I think some hands on testing is what she needs."

"No, George, no. She'd kill us. Or worse, she'd tell Mum."

George snorted. "So what? It'd be worth it and don't you even try and deny that you don't want to be chained to Hermione for a few days."

As big a risk as he knew it was, George was right, the idea of being chained with Hermione was very appealing.

FLASHBACK OVER

Fred laughed bitterly in the darkness.

"Yeah, real good idea," he muttered.

"What was that?" Hermione snapped, rolling over and smacking her head against Fred's.

"Nothing," Fred said. They both tossed and turned and twisted for another half an hour until Fred became fed up.

"Stop!" he demanded. Hermione stopped her squirming and glared at him in the darkness. He gently rolled her onto her side and spooned in behind her, lightly draping his arm over her waist.

"Comfortable?" he asked.

"I'm alright," she said stiffly.

Fred sighed. "Good, now go to sleep."

Underneath his arm, he felt Hermione's body slowly relax as she drifted off to sleep. Her breathing deepened and evened out and she was finally asleep. Lying there asleep, Fred was finally able to appreciate the upside of their predicament. He snuggled in closer, breathing in her scent and finally, he too drifted off.