All right guys, a George/Hermione fic! IMPORTANT: This is set after DH. There was no law saying that those who did not complete seventh year must return; they were simply given an option, and Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Fred and George chose to accept. IMPORTANT: Ron is pretty OOC in this. I did not intend to write him that way but my fingers went crazy typing this, I don't know how it happened, really. It's like my keyboard forced me into it, not the other way around. ALSO IMPORTANT: This story will come in two parts. This is the first, and the second will be posted on Monday - IF I get at least five reviews. If I get ten, I'll post on Sunday. And if I get MORE, I'll post on Saturday. So tell your friends to R&R! Thanks x

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction, now would I?

"All right there, Granger?" a voice asked. A red-head sat down next to her, uncomfortably close, and another one squashed himself against her other side.

"Piss off, Fred, George," she snapped, her quill almost burning a hole in the parchment.

"Gods, you can't possibly be doing homework. It's the first day back!" Fred exclaimed, stretching his arms above his head.

"It's a letter, knucklehead," George told him. "Who're you writing the novel to, Hermione?" he asked her.

"Viktor," she replied brusquely.

"Krum?" came the incredulous cry.

"Honestly, the two of you are more similar to Ronald than you care to admit. It is absolutely no business of yours what I am writing and if you do not have a valid reason for interrupting my letter-writing, I suggest you move away, now. Furthermore, I'd like to point out that just because neither of you bothers writing more than your bloody order forms, it doesn't mean that everyone else does the same.

"Now, if you would please remove your arses from this seat before I do so forcefully," she finished politely, a little pink in the cheeks from her rant.

The twins shared a look, simultaneously sliding even closer. "Aaah… since when does Granger have an attitude?"

She'd had enough. "It developed somewhere between my parents disowning me and Ronald dumping me with the words 'ugly slag' tossed in," she snapped, somewhat bitterly. She snatched up the parchment and stormed upstairs, leaving a confused Fred and a livid George behind.

And unfortunately for him, Ron happened to enter the common room at that very minute.

"I'm going to bloody kill –" George snapped, lunging in his brother's direction. Fred grabbed him and held him back until he lost his balance and fell back onto the sofa.

"He's your brother," Fred reminded him.

"He's also a bloody git," George snarled, struggling against Fred's hold.

"Yes, we established that a while back," Fred said with a roll of his eyes. His face hardened as he remembered Hermione's words. My parents disowning me and Ronald dumping me with the words 'ugly slag' tossed in. "I can't deny that I'd like to sock him one, but Mum would kill us. We'll get our revenge another way," Fred reassured his twin. George finally stopped struggling and slumped back into the sofa cushions.

"Fuck," he said angrily. "Her parents actually disowned her? Merlin, that must've been so painful…"

"Yeah, she'd modified their memories before going on the Horcrux hunt, remember? She must have removed the charm. They couldn't've been too happy. But I don't understand… I mean, I get Ron dumping her – wait, wait!" Fred cried at George's darkening expression. "Not because she's not worth it, but because Ron's always been stupid that way; ditching the best things he has." Appeased, George leaned back into the sofa.

"Why on earth would he call her a slag? If anyone, Lavender's the slag."

"Maybe he couldn't think of a better insult?" Fred suggested.

"Yeah, he's never exactly been fruitful in the creativity department…" George mused.

"Whatever the reason, we need a plan. It has to be good, it has to be embarrassing, it has to-"

"Target Ron and Lavender's relationship," George said suddenly. Fred grinned at his twin.

"Excellent." The two put their head together and started to plot.

"So, George," Fred said conversationally as they lay in their beds.

"Hmm?" George asked absently, staring at the wood of the bed and thinking about how Hermione's eyes were exactly that colour when she was sad.

"When exactly did you realise that you fancied young Miss Granger?"

George sat bolt upright. "What the hell? I don't!"

"Relax, Lee's sleeping," Fred said with a roll of his eyes.

"Oh." George considered for a moment, and then the need to tell his twin won out. Fred would find out eventually, anyway. "Sometime during the summer after the war. I saw her and Ron holding hands and I realised – I wanted to be Ron. No, that's wrong. More like, I didn't want him holding her hand."

"Is that why you constantly pestered her over the summer holidays to go flying with you?"

"Yeah."

"And why you jumped at the chance to go back to Hogwarts? Especially since you knew you could arrange for yourself and Hermione to be seated together in the car?"

"Yeah," George said again, blushing slightly.

"And why you almost threw Ron out of the window earlier?"

"Fuck yeah."

"Then you know what to do, right?" Fred asked, pulling his blankets up a bit higher. George sighed and looked away from the ceiling to face his twin, a grin spreading over his face.

"Use the twin charm," he and Fred said at the same time. He reached out a hand and Fred shook it twice before reaching a bit further to ruffle George's hair.

"Attaboy. Now get some sleep. You'll want to be all fresh and sunshiney for Hermione tomorrow," Fred said in amused tones.

Too tired and angry with Ron to throw a pillow at his twin, he simply rolled over, focusing on a little black spot on the mahogany which, if he stared enough, could look like Hermione's eye. With thoughts of mahogany and chocolate brown colouring his thoughts, he fell asleep, dreaming of pummelling Ron.

And when he woke up, he had an idea.

Hermione yawned and stretched, She had cried herself to sleep the previous night and the tears had covered her face with a sticky coating. Making a face, she stumbled to the bathroom to wash. Splashing water on her face, she surveyed her reflection.

Deep, dark half-circles under her eyes, which were a mahogany brown rather than their usual chocolate. She was pale and sweat was beading on her forehead. She attributed the weakness to skipping dinner and stripped off, stepping into the warm water of the shower with a sigh of relief.

It wasn't often she cried herself to sleep, but something about Fred and George's incessant attempts to pry had broken something within her. She had cried, yes, when Ron had done that. She had almost hurt herself after her parents disowned her; it took Ginny strapping her down and confiscating her wand to stop her. In the end, it really was Ginny who had helped her through it, Ginny and Harry.

Hermione had expected Harry to be on Ron's side, but he'd taken to avoiding Ron just as much as she had. When she asked him why, he'd replied that, "Ron's got this constant parade of sluts following him around. It's disgusting. And some of them try to chat me up, like they've forgotten I'm dating Ginny. And besides –" he had turned, looking her in the eyes. "What he did to you was wrong, Hermione. I can't let it go. I'm sick of siding with him because I needed a guy friend. I've had enough of his bullshit. He messed around with you for… what, four years?" He'd smiled at her, a real Harry smile, something he only reserved for his closest friends. "I'll always be on your side, 'Mione."

She had broken down in tears, of course, but having been around a very tearful, angry Ginny after Ron had dumped Hermione, Harry was better equipped this time. He had conjured a tissue and handed it to Hermione, stroking her back until she calmed down.

Three months later, Hermione found that she really could not care less about Ron, or what he thought, or about his parade of sluts. He could bloody go and jump off the Astronomy Tower if he felt like it. But her parents, that she was still sore about. After numerous letters without replies, several hung up phone calls and even a couple of failed visits (she had tried Apparating once and her parents had simply ignored her), she gave up.

The Weasleys were her family now and she was more grateful than ever to them for taking her in. She and Harry were alike in that respect; they both had been adopted by the Weasley family. Molly Weasley's generosity is incredible. Seven children and she takes on two more, Hermione thought as she brushed her teeth. Shrugging into her school uniform, she stepped out of the bathroom and met Harry and Ginny in the common room. They set off to the Great Hall, not one of them missing a beat when they spotted Ron wrapped around yet another girl wanting a piece of "one of the saviours of the wizarding world".

"… so then Parvati told me that she'd ran into Seamus last Thursday in Diagon Alley and apparently he's grown into a real looker and is single, and she wanted to know if you were interested, Hermione," Ginny was saying. "Hermione?" she prompted when the brown-haired witch didn't answer. Ginny leaned around her to see what she was staring at, but all she saw was the twins.

"What's she staring at?" Harry asked Ginny from the corner of his mouth.

"Twins, I think," Ginny said uncertainly. Harry looked concerned.

"You don't think they did something, do you?" he whispered. "I mean, inadvertently brought up something that hurt her?"

Ginny surveyed her friend from the side and leaned closer to Harry to whisper in his ear. "She looks like she cried last night. I've seen that pale skin and dark circles combination before."

"Who was she talking to last night before sleeping, then?" Harry asked, brow furrowed as he tried to remember.

"It's on the tip of my tongue. I remember seeing her with some people from the corner of my eye, but we were… otherwise engaged," she said, blushing slightly. Harry blushed a little too, at the memory of what had been distracting them.

"All I can remember is – red blobs," he said thoughtfully.

"Red blobs?" Ginny questioned. And her eyes widened as a thought occurred to her. "You don't think…" she leaned closer to Harry again, "… Ron said something, do you? Tried to apologise, or maybe went to insult her further?"

"No, there were definitely two red blobs," he reassured his girlfriend. As much as he was annoyed with Ron at the moment, he didn't fancy the idea of pulling his girlfriend off his ex-best friend.

"Fred and George," Ginny realised. "But what do you think they said?"

"She was writing a letter to Viktor and they probably asked who it was to, just like Ron did in fifth and sixth year. She must have snapped at them, they must have teased, she must have broken down," Harry deduced. Ginny kissed his cheek, impressed by his deduction abilities.

She turned back to Hermione just in time to see her tilt her head and mouth something at them. They were looking at her too and she nodded slightly before remembering Harry and Ginny.

"Sorry, guys," she murmured, grabbing a piece of toast and shoving a fried egg and some bacon rashers in before folding it up. She took a bite of her hastily made sandwich before continuing. "George and Fred wanted to tell me something. I got distracted," she admitted.

"Erm… what?" Harry asked, confused.

"A form of Legilimency," Hermione explained wearily. "It only allows communication between minds for a limited amount of time and the people involved can only see the thoughts that they want their counterparts to see."

"They invented it themselves?

"George and Fred invented it, yes. A rather amazing bit of magic, really. I should've gotten used to it by now, but somehow, I haven't."

Ginny and Harry shared a look, but for different reasons (although they didn't know that). Harry was thinking how odd and insane it would be if Hermione became a prankster. Ginny was wondering why Hermione had said "George and Fred". Most everyone she knew called her brothers "Fred and George".

"What's the incantation?" Harry asked quickly before the silence got too long.

"Pusillimi Videre," Hermione told him. "It can be used for a group of any number of people. You know, the Order could have used it if it had been invented sooner, to communicate during battle."

"You said it's a variation of Legilimency, how come it doesn't sound anything alike? The spell, I mean."

"Legilimens means 'the law of the mind' in Latin. Pusillimi Videre, however, is short for pusilli animi videre, which means "see a small mind", or "allow me to see a small part of the mind"," Hermione recited in her usual dictionary tone. "Legilimency gives the user of the spell the ability to see anything and everything in a person's mind, whereas the one George and Fred used – let's call it Thought Sharing – only lets the user see what their opposite wants them to see."

Slightly stunned as to the extent of Hermione's knowledge – I should've gotten used to it by now, Harry thought with a smile, quoting Hermione's earlier words – the trio carried on to Potions.

Slughorn was already in class by the time they entered, but as the three of them were by no means the last, he let it go and went back to describing the properties and ingredients of a Jealousy Potion. No one noticed a pair of redheaded twins point their wands at Hermione, simultaneously muttering, "Pusillimi Videre."

"Hey, Hermione." She jumped, and they grinned at her from across the room.

"Can you not distract me in class? This is sure to come up in our NEWTs," she thought back in annoyed tones.

"Listen, we have a plan," Fred told her. She could tell it was Fred by the tone he used. It was the voice of a friend, a good friend, but it didn't have the gentle caress of affection that George's did.

"And this plan is…?" Hermione thought back sceptically.

"Lavender somehow doesn't know about Ron's escapades with other women. We thought she might be overlooking it at first, but then we noticed a certain necklace around her neck…" George began. She sunk into the cadence of his thoughts, but almost immediately wrenched herself back out. What was wrong with her? She put it down to lack of sleep and focused on their words, Fred picking up where George had left off.

"… which has an enchanted charm on it. We Levitated ourselves into the girls' dormitories and nicked it for a while to examine it. And turns out…"

"… Ron's put a charm on it so that Lavender doesn't see anything amiss when she seeing his messing around with other witches. So the plan is…"

"… we duplicate the necklaces with a simple Geminio, which will…"

"… create an exact copy, but without the charm on it, and then…"

"…watch as the drama unfolds," they thought at the same time. Hermione shook her head, a bit dazed from the speed of the exchange.

"Listen, guys," she thought. "This is very sweet of you, but I don't need revenge. I gave Ron a black eye when he did that to me, I'm through with him now."

"Aaah, Hermione, love," George thought back to her. She shivered at his choice of words; her name sounded lovely on his tongue. Thoughts. Whatever. "We're not asking you to participate, and we're not giving you a choice in the matter. We simply thought you deserved a bit of warning before the inevitable explosion."

"Hermione? Hermione!" Ginny hissed. She kicked her shin under the table and Hermione jerked out of her thoughts.

"What?" she asked. Ginny motioned with wide eyes to Slughorn, who looked bemused.

Sheepishly, Hermione turned to her professor. "I'm sorry, Sir, I got a bit distracted… didn't sleep well last night…"

"Thoughts of us kept you up, did they?" asked two voices cheekily in her head. She blushed but hoped they put it down to embarrassment at disappointing a teacher.

"Right, well," Slughorn said haltingly, slightly disturbed by the level of focus, or lack thereof, his star student was showing. "I wonder if you could tell me why a Salamander scale is necessary for this potion?"

"Causes heat in the brain, and clouding of the feelings," Hermione answered promptly without thinking.

"Thank you, Miss Granger," Slughorn said happily, his faith in Hermione now restored. He flicked his wand at the board and the ingredients and method appeared. Quickly scanning the list, Hermione kindled a fire under her cauldron and half-filled it with water. She then rose and went to the store cupboard, reaching for the three ingredients she didn't have in her Potions kit.

"Hippogriff talon, Salamander scale," she murmured to herself as she selected suitable pieces from the appropriate jars, "and… pomegranate juice," she said after consulting the list. She pulled a small plastic measuring cup from a stack in the corner, but could not seem the see the purple bottle. Backing up a few steps, she finally spotted it, right at the top. She prepared herself and jumped, her fingers touching the bottle but not getting a hold on it. She jumped again, unaware of a gaze of her back – or more specifically, on a patch of skin which became exposed again and again as she jumped.

Finally taking pity of her, George stood and crossed to the store cupboard. Ignoring the jolt in his stomach at the smell of her – chocolate and something citrusy – he reached up and easily grabbed the bottle, handing it to Hermione with a small smile. "Trying to get this?" he asked her. She blushed slightly, holding out the small cup. He poured out five millilitres for her and put the bottle back on the shelf.

"Shorty," he teased, standing close to her so that she had to look up to see his face. Although Fred, Charlie and George had inherited the short, stocky genes of their mother, he was still quite tall – towering over Hermione.

"I'm perfectly normal," she sniffed, heading for her table. He followed, unsure of why he was doing so but wanting to continue the conversation.

"Yeah, right. Fred and I are supposed to be the short boys of the Weasley family. If I'm this much taller than you, you must really be tiny."

"I'm five foot four!" she said indignantly.

"Ginny's five foot seven," he pointed out. "She's just lucky Harry's a couple of inches taller."

He watched her tip the juice into her cauldron, stir twice and consult the method on the board again. Watched the way her brow furrowed as she squinted through the multi-coloured haze now filling the dungeon, and the way her lips pursed as she realised that she needed an extra ingredient. He'd noticed her mistake from the start and already had the necessary item in his hand. Just as she was preparing to take her place at the end of the line now forming in front of the store cupboard, he stepped in front of her, holding out his hand.

"Oh," she said, looking surprised. "Thanks, George," she said, taking the frog's eyes from his palm and dropping them into a mortar. He gave her a nod and a smile and walked away to get started on his own potion, all the while watching as she dropped in the talon, the scale and some scarabs. She cast a Shield Charm over the mortar and waved her wand at the pestle, which started grinding. The Shield Charm caught all the little bits of flying frog eyes and he found himself smiling at her foresight.

Feeling his eyes on her, she turned, only to see him dropping his own ingredients into his mortar. As he picked up the pestle, she opened her mouth to cry a warning – but it was too late. A frog eye went flying out of the bowl and hit Fred squarely on the tip of his nose. Fred threw a piece of scarab beetle at George, who threw a Shrivelfig back at his twin.

Hermione couldn't help it; she chuckled. A tiny, tinkling noise that brought all her friends to a grinding halt. Harry and Ginny dropped their pestles, the twins stopped their ingredient-throwing. Harry and Ginny gave each other identical gleeful looks and George and Fred's faces spread into identical twin grins. It had been so long since Hermione laughed that they'd almost forgotten what it sounded like.

"If it makes you laugh, we'll have an ingredient fight every single day," George promised through the still-open mind connection. She shivered at the sincerity in his promise and her eyes found his unerringly through the haze of colours in the room.

"I'm sure you can think of other ways to make me laugh," she thought boldly, almost forgetting that Fred could hear, too. "But, do me a favour and close the connection?"

"Of course," he acquiesced. She heard a tiny zing! As the connection cut and a second one as Fred cut his, too. She thanked Merlin for people who respected her privacy. And then a new thought occurred to her and she aimed her wand and George, muttering, "Pusillimi Videre."

"Who else have you told about this spell?"

"No one," George told her, looking surprised. "Just you."

"Keep it that way – people could modify it and use it to figure out peoples' secrets, and I for one don't want people knowing what happened with my p-parents," she warned. His brow furrowed as he considered this.

"You're right. I'll tell Fred. Thanks, Hermione." She ended the spell and dumped the mixture in her pestle into the purple water, sneaking glances at George every now and then, which he didn't know. What she didn't know was that he was sneaking glances at her too. And something they both didn't know was that a third party was watching the both of them, a small, satisfied smile on her face.

Ginny Weasley watched Hermione and George watch each other, and almost jumped for joy. Ron had been wrong for Hermione, she'd known it from the start. But George… George felt right. She turned to share this with Harry, but saw him staring at the same couple. And then she realised… he already knew.

R&R xoxox