AUTHOR'S NOTE: So, uh, everyone who died in the books/films have died. All except for Fred, of course.

Hermione yawned as her heels clicked against the cobblestone street of Diagon Alley, the hem of her black work robes billowing gently behind her as she headed for Weasley Wizard Wheezes after a long day at the Ministry.

George was out on a date, a very important date according to him, which left Fred all alone at the shop. All was fine and brilliant until Fred hit a snag with the newest invention he was working on and needed his brother's potion smarts for a moment. Since he was instructed not to disturb George on his date, Fred was left bringing in the next best thing.

Hermione Granger.

The sun was slowly starting to disappear, the oncoming darkness signaling the end of everyone's work day. Hermione had smiled and waved at each shopkeeper along her way as they were closing up shop, each of them returning the kind gesture.

It didn't take long to finally reach Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, the vibrant orange building standing out against the other dull colored buildings. The inside of the joke shop was dimly lit, Fred nowhere in sight. She pressed her palm on the plane of glass on the joke shop's door, as Fred had instructed in his earlier note, and watched on in fascination as the glass pane glowed yellow. The lock from the door clicked open and she was able to gain entry.

After closing the door behind her and hearing the door lock click again, Hermione turned her attention and listened for any signs of life. "Fred?" She called out.

After a few heartbeats of silence, Fred's voice filled the air. "In the back."

Smiling to herself, Hermione peeled off her outer work robes which left her only in her simple white, short-sleeved blouse with the top couple of buttons undone, and her knee-length black skirt that was fitted to her curves. She laid her work robes on the shop counter as she made her way towards the back and quickly found Fred standing over a bubbling steaming cauldron.

Peering up at her, Fred grinned. "No rest for the wicked, eh Granger? Did you just get off work?" He asked as he took in her tired smiled and slightly darkened bags beneath her eyes.

"Yes." She easily admitted. "Lavender is at the Burrow with Ron and is still currently being a jealous bint. I wasn't looking too forward to heading up to my room with Ron's girlfriend glaring at me the entire time."

Fred chuckled. He had been at the Burrow one time when Lavender was there the same time Ron and Hermione were in the same room. Even with the assurance that Ron and Hermione were strictly friends, Lavender didn't trust Hermione and glared at her every single second until Hermione left the room. "What about Harry and Ginny's?" Surely they had crossed her mind.

Hermione shrugged. "I love them both to death but Ginny is also currently being a nagging harpy. I guess that's what being pregnant does to you. Your offer to help out was most appealing."

"Glad to be of help, m'lady." Fred smirked at her as he turned his attention back to his bubbling concoction.

Hermione's lips twitched into a grin. She closed the space between herself and Fred's workstation and peered down into the bubbling cauldron. "What exactly was it that you needed help with?" Fred was too busy staring at the way Hermione's lips pursed together in concentration, watching the little crease between her brows as she tried to figure out what exactly she was looking at that he didn't hear her question. "Um, Fred?" Hermione cleared her throat.

His eyes snapped up, meeting Hermione's curious gaze as his cheeks tinted the faintest of pink. "Oh, right. Right." He murmured. "It's, uh, it's our new line of our prank beauty products. Seemingly harmless lotions that come in a variety of fragrances but will slowly turn your skin a horrifying shade of orange, purple, blue, or green."

"Oh no." Hermione chuckled. "That's going to earn you a lot of angry females."

"Yes, well, it's all for the greater good of our shop." Fred grinned at her. "It'll be well worth all the angry howlers we're likely to receive."

Hermione playfully shook her head at him, smiling all the while so he knew that she still found it funny. Over the years, she had learned to let loose a bit. The twins were there to make sure that she had plenty of fun with her well balanced plans for work. She, of course, approved as long as she wasn't at the end of one of their pranks.

"So what is it that you need help figuring out?" She steered their conversation back to the problem.

"You can't smell it?" Fred wrinkled his nose. "I'm trying to get the smell of spearmint but I don't remember what I added in to make it smell so.."

"Grotesque?" Hermione supplied as she caught a whiff of it, her own nose wrinkling in the process. She covered her nose with her arm and moved back. "Merlin, Fred, what did you add in there?"

Fred scrambled back towards his work table where various mortars of crushed herbs lay spread out and a variety of vials sat ready for use. "Will a cinnamon stick counteract the smell?"

"Wouldn't hurt." Hermione muttered. She watched as Fred pulled out a cinnamon stick and tossed it into the bubbling cauldron. The shimmering violet it once was gobbled up the stick and was increasingly turning darker by the second. "Uh, Fred, please tell me there wasn't Valerian Sprigs in there already?!"

Fred pursed his own lips together as he desperately tried to remember what he had added. "I think there was. Why?" The potion started to rise in the cauldron and slosh over the rim.

Rolling her eyes, Hermione quickly gripped him by the wrist and started to pull him back. "Because Valerian Sprigs and Cinnamon is volatile when mixed toge-"

BOOM!

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"When are they going to wake up? It's been ages."

"Will you shut it, 'ya wanker. It's only been five minutes."

"They look quite cozy, don't they James?"

"Very." A voice chuckled. "Tell us again, Moony, why these two aren't together?"

Voices all around her spoke in hushed tones, names being tossed around that she knew of but the people who belonged to those names were dead. She couldn't, for the life of her, figure out why these specific names were being thrown around as if these people were still alive. Hermione felt her head roll to the side, her head slowly moving up and down as if her pillow was alive.

"Padfoot! Get that marker away from 'Mione's face. You know she has a mean hex when angered."

"Oh, come on. Do you know how much my instincts shouted at me to do something to the girl-who-lived-to-be-a-pain-in-my-arse while she was at Grimmauld?! She'll never it was me anyway. We'll blame it on James."

"OI!"

"What? She won't get mad at you."

Hermione kept her eyes closed, the steady rhythm of her moving pillow trying to lull her back into the darkness. She felt a rough patch slowly move up and down on her top lip, her lips twitching at the tickling sensation.

"She moved! I think she's finally waking up."

"Prongs, switch me seats! Quickly!"

"No way, mate. Your own fault if you end up on the wrong side of her wand."

"Prat."

"Serves you right, Black."

"Lils, you wound me."

Alarms bells started sounding off in her head, panic building up in her chest. Those names.. these people.. they just couldn't be, could they? And all of a sudden, the pieces fell into place. She remembered getting a note from Fred and asking if she could spare a moment to help him with his newest line of pranking products. She remembered getting there, talking, and an explosion.

That must have been it. The explosion. She and Fred got mixed up with the explosion and now.. well she must have died right?

Again she felt a rough patch touch down on her face, but this time between her eyebrows, and her eyes snapped open. Everything was fuzzy and bright, a dark shadow looming over her face before everything started to sharpen up and become clear. There frozen above her, with black shoulder length wavy hair framing his head, was the guilty face of Sirius Black.

Hermione gulped, her head slightly lifting as her eyes darted off to the side and finding the three amused faces of James Potter, Lily Potter, and Remus Lupin staring right back at her.

"Oi, Moony." Sirius muttered as he stayed frozen in place. "Do you think if I stay super still she won't know I'm here?"

"She's not a dinosaur, you prat." Remus laughed. "She's just in shock right now. You better move away before she comes out of it and realizes you drew on her face while she was out."

Hermione quickly sat up, pushing Sirius out of her face. "No, no, no. You're all dead." She breathed.

"Always the know-it-all." Sirius grinned at her. "You haven't changed a bit."

Hermione remained quiet as she reached out and poked a very solid Sirius in the chest. He smirked in response, shuffling back to sit on a chair that Hermione hadn't realized was there. The entire room was blinding white, the only color being that of the people and their clothing in the room.

"A-am I dead?" Hermione whispered.

"Heavens, no." It was Remus who answered, the adoration for her shining through his eyes.

"Just temporarily.. out of service at the moment." James Potter smirked at her.

Hermione instantly returned his smirk with a sigh of relief, her eyes watering as she then took the time to study the faces of the dead who were all surrounding her. Remus and Sirius looked as they always had, the exception being that they truly looked happy and the weight of the world wasn't resting on their shoulders. She had never met Lily and James Potter, but she had seen pictures that Harry supplied and they too looked as young as ever.

Remus was by her side in the next second, his arms wrapping around her and hugging her tightly. "How is this possible?" She muttered into his shoulder. "How are you here?"

"We don't know." Remus answered. "But who are we to question the Fates That Be?"

Hermione relaxed into Remus, her body going tense only a second later. "Fred!" She suddenly screeched. "What happened to Fred? He was with me in the back room when everything went dark."

"I was wondering when you'd ask about lover boy." James chuckled. Hermione turned to glare at him only to see Lily smacking her husband upside the head. She flashed Hermione a smile which Hermione returned with a chuckle. "He's fine as well." James finally mumbled. "You were sleeping right next to him just a few minutes ago."

Hermione pulled out of Remus' hold and looked to her left when sure enough, there seeming like he was sleeping peacefully was Fred. It was then that she also realized the two of them were in a bed. Hermione's cheeks burned red, her eyes widening slightly as she scrambled to her feet to put a decent amount of space between the two of them.

So that's why her pillow felt like it was alive and breathing. Her pillow was actually Fred himself.

After taking a few seconds to gather her thoughts, she stumbled to the opposite side of the bed where Fred was and started to shake him awake. "Wake up, Fred. You need to see this." Fred grumbled, moving his head from side to side when she noticed something was off about him. His top lip bore a drawn on mustache that curled up at the ends like muggles used to wear them back in the day. Rolling her eyes, she turned back to the other occupants in the room. "I have a mustache too, don't I?"

Everyone grinned, Lily being the only one who actually tried to hide hers, as Sirius hid the marker behind his back. "We have no idea what you're talking about." He feigned innocence.

She playfully scowled at him but the grumbling of Fred won her attention the next second. "Mmm, not now Mum. It's too early."

James and Sirius snickered and Hermione punched Fred in his shoulder. "I'm not Molly.. now wake up!" She grumbled and pinched the skin of his bare forearm.

Fred shot upright, narrowly missing bumping heads with Hermione as he blinked rapidly against the bright room. Groaning, he clamped his eyes shut. "Bloody hell, close the curtains." When he heard no movement or rustling of curtains closing, he opened his eyes back up and fought to adjust his eye sight. All around him, the faces of those he knew to be dead smiled back at him.

"Eerie, isn't it?" Hermione muttered from his side.

Fred glanced over at Hermione, his mouth falling open before he took in the blinding white room they all occupied. "Merlin." He groaned. "I killed us, didn't I? Mum's going to bring me back to life and then kill me all over again for killing you. She always like you more than us, you know?" He rambled.

"No, Fred, we're not dead. Just temporarily out of service." She repeated James' earlier words as Fred looked up at her in confusion. "Don't ask. You'll just give yourself a headache.

Fred breathed a huge sigh of relief as he settled back against the headboard of the bed he was sitting in. "Why is my room so.. clean?"

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she glanced around the room, taking in the normal bedside table, a wooden dresser standing against the far right wall, and a bookshelf behind her. Posters littered the wall but it was as if all color drained from the room. "Why are we in your room?"

Fred shrugged in response since he didn't know the answer to her question.

"That would be George's fault." Remus supplied them the answer. "Your security wards got tripped in the explosion and when no-one was there to shut them off, George felt them. He apparated into the shop with some bird and found you two knocked out. They then proceeded to bring you both up to the flat."

"Why didn't he take us to Mungos?"

"Didn't want to risk Molly's wrath." Sirius smirked. "Smart lad."

"Oh. Okay." Fred numbly nodded. He took a moment to look around before he was up and moving about. His first stop was Sirius; pulling him in the manliest hug he could muster up at the current time. Sirius barked a laugh as he welcomed the hug before Fred was off once again and tightly hugging Remus as well. "Blimey, I've missed you two."

"You as well, my friend. You as well." Remus smiled.

Fred pulled out of the hug, his eyes then traveling over to where Lily and James sat. Smirking, he walked up to Lily and picked up her hand, his lips inches away from her knuckles. "Well no-one told me Harry's Mum was a looker." His lips quirked into a grin.

Before his lips could brush up against Lily's hand, Hermione gripped him by the ear and dragged him away. "You're such a prat, Fred Weasley. Wait 'til Harry finds out you were hitting on his Mum."

Fred's grimace turned into a chuckle. "Please." He snorted. "They'll think we've gone loony from the explosion if we told them we spoke with his parents, Sirius, and Remus. After all, this is all some weird dream, isn't it?" He turned his attention to each ghost and was surprised to see each one shake their head 'no'.

"Harry had a visit like this during the Final Battle but his visitor was Dumbledore." Lily spoke softly. "This is really happening. We're really here inside your head."

All was quiet until the one question that nagged her that she had to ask. "Why did Dumbledore visit Harry?"

Sirius shrugged. "The old coot had some information to pass on."

"Oh. Then does that mean you have information to pass on to us?" Hermione gestured between her and Fred. "Is something going to happen soon that you needed to warn us?" Her eyes lit up with worry.

"No, no." Lily assured her. "It's nothing like that."

"Then what is it like?" Fred frowned.

"We were bored." James sighed. "We've been peeking in on the two of you for the past couple of months and well, we got some advice to pass on." He grinned. His eyes sparkled in amusement which oddly reminded Hermione and Fred of Harry when he and Ron were up to something.

"And what advice would you lovely people have for us?" Hermione quirked her eyebrow in amusement, her arms crossing over her chest.

"No, no." Sirius wagged his finger at her. "That comes later. Right now, we want to know what we've been missing out on."

Fred and Hermione glanced at one another, shrugging before they scooted back on the bed and got comfortable. After pillows were rearranged, blankets and sheets kicked off, Hermione and Fred were finally comfortable enough to embark on the tales they thought the four surrounding ghosts would like to hear most.

Hermione filled in the Potters about Harry and Ginny's wedding and the fact that they were expecting a baby boy soon. Tid-bits of Arthur, Molly, Ron, Bill, and Fleur made it into their conversations as well as their younger days at Hogwarts. Fred had finally filled in the Marauders how it was that he and George came across the map and the boys got carried away by all the pranks they've ever pulled.

SLAM!

The echo of a slamming door reached all their ears and instantly halted their conversations. Remus', Sirius', James', and Lily's eyes had all widened, Lily scowling at her three Marauders. "You made us lose track of time!"

"US?!" The three Marauders laughed in union.

"It was you, love, who got Hermione to go on and on about Harry's wedding." James grinned at her. "It wasn't just us.

"What happened?" A new voice seeped into the room.

"Uh, who's that?" Fred piped up. "The voice sounds far away.. like we're hearing it from under water."

Hermione nodded along and strained her hearing for anything else. "..and why aren't they at St. Mungos?!"

Fred and Hermione curiously gazed at each other, their minds starting to feel fuzzy once again. "What's happening?" Hermione mumbled.

The rambling voices of Sirius, Remus, James, and Lily all stopped as the boys pulled Fred up to his feet and pulled him to the opposite side of the room. Hermione reached out to stop them but Lily plopped herself in Fred's spot. "Don't worry about them. Boy talk." She waved their behavior off. "Now as for you.." Lily beamed.

"What about me?" Hermione closed her eyes and shook her head to clear it. Her head was starting to ache and it seemed like the room was getting brighter.

Lily hooked her arm with Hermione's and gazed over to where the boys had Fred cornered. "Remember when we said we had advice you?" Hermione tried her best to focus her thoughts on Lily and numbly nodded along. "Well," Lily continued to grin. "Our advice to you is to go for it."

Hermione's eyes snapped up to meet with Lily's. "Go for what?"

"It." Lily mused. "Him." She nodded in Fred's direction. Hermione's gaze followed Lily's and her breath hitched. "Like we said earlier," Lily smiled at her fondly. "We've been watching. We see the way Fred looks at you when you're not paying attention and you look at him when he's too caught up in one of his stories. It's clear to everyone that you two make each other happy. Why not see where it goes?"

Hermione swallowed the lump in her throat, her voice coming out in a quiet whisper. "Because I'm just his brother's best friend." She told Lily softly. "That's all." Her eyes found Fred's, his cheeks tinting pink as he got caught looking at her before he turned his attention back to the Marauders surrounding him.

"You're so much more than that to him." Lily murmured back. "Trust me. And if not me, then trust the blush on Fred's cheeks, neck, and ears." Lily chuckled. "The boys are having the same talk with him. It's about time you two finally realize what's right in front of you."

"If they don't wake up soon, George Weasley, it's you who'll be getting a room in Mungos."

Hermione looked up, her eyes darting around the room at the mention of George's name. "What's going on?"

"It's time to go." Lily quickly spoke as she pulled Hermione into a quick hug. "It was lovely to finally meet you."

"Go? Go where?" Hermione was confused. On the other side of the room, Fred was hugging each Marauder and they were soon walking back to where she and Lily sat. "What's happening?" She frowned in confusion.

Remus smiled sadly down at her. "It's time for you to finally join the realm of the living again."

Hermione was pulled into three separate hugs, the room getting brighter by the second now. "But.. bu-"

"No buts." Sirius winked. "We'll talk again." He smirked as he started to vanish before her eyes. "Maybe not soon but we will."

Hermione turned to look at Remus but he was already halfway gone. James and Lily were nowhere to be found. She felt a tear fall from her chin, a warm arm wrapping around her shoulder as she was pulled into the side of a warm body. Sirius and Remus smirked one last time before the entire room flashed white and everything slowly faded to black.

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Hermione groaned as she tried to move her arms or legs. A wet cloth was pressed to her forehead and when she attempted to sit up, a hand pushed her back down.

"No, no dear. Stay put." The voice of Molly Weasley filled her ears.

Hermione's eyes snapped open, the concerned face of Molly being the first in her line of vision. Hovering behind her was George, an amused grin twitching the corners of his lips. "Cozy, Granger?" Molly turned in the next second, her hand rising as she smacked her son on the shoulder.

Confused, she turned to her other side and Fred was laying next to her. Forgetting about her own pain, she scrambled into an upright position and smoothed back his hair from his eyes. He had a small cut above his left eyebrow and soot from the explosion covered his face but she didn't care. She just wanted him to wake up.

"Fred." Hermione croaked. "Wake up, Fred. Please."

Molly and George watched on as Fred slowly woke up, his eyes rapidly blinking as he processed his whereabouts. When his eyes landed on Hermione, he slowly grinned and pulled her down into a hug. "Say, Granger.." His own voice sounded rough to his ears. "What do say about dinner next Saturday night?"

Hermione smiled into his chest, the words from Lily drifting back to her before she voiced her answer. "Sounds like plan." She chuckled.

Molly was beaming, her hands itching to applaud her son in asking Hermione out but she didn't want to ruin their moment.

Needless to say, if one Weasley doesn't ruin a special moment, another Weasley does.

"So.." George drawled. "Does this mean I'm off the hook?"