Disclaimer: I'm not JKR. If I was, Dobby would be my house elf.

Chapter 1: Welcome to the Burrow

Hermione has been best friends with Ron for three years now but it still came as a bit of a shock when he owled her to see if she wanted to go to the quidditch world cup and then spend the remainder of the summer at the Burrow. She thought that he would've just invited Harry because she wasn't as enthusiastic about the sport as the two of them. When she said as much in her letter back Ron simply replied, "You're my best friend, why wouldn't you come?"

The only other reservation that she had was her father's reaction, "You can't have a sleepover at a boy's house!" Ron, surprisingly, fixed that problem as well by having Mrs. Weasley write Hermione's parents a letter saying that she would be sleeping in a camp bed in Ginny's room. Her parents knew that Ron and Harry were her best friends but the fact that she was turning 15 in a few weeks and constantly hung out with only boys was starting to worry her father. Her father knows what teenage boys are like and he was not looking forward to the coming years.

That is how Hermione Granger found herself, a few days later, to be packing up her school trunk in her bedroom waiting for Mr. Weasley to arrive. Mr. Weasley had gotten her parent's fireplace hooked up to the floo network for the evening in order to easily get Hermione and her trunk. At six o'clock on the dot she heard her parents come home from work. She crammed a few more books into her trunk and slammed the lid before she made her way down the stairs.

Her parents were already busily starting dinner. Her mum was chopping onions and tomatoes while her dad was getting a pot of water to boil. This was going to be their last family dinner for quite some time. Hermione started to set the table while chatting idly with her parents. She was going to miss moments like this with them but if she was being honest, she couldn't wait to get to talk to wizards again. She talked to her parents about Hogwarts, mostly about grades and classes, but after the whole "your daughter was petrified for a few weeks and we didn't tell you about it but she is fine now" incident, she kind of kept things pretty generic.

The small family sat around their dinner table, eating their pasta, while they discussed the movie that they had seen the previous weekend. As they were finishing up, their hearth emanated a bright green color and a red headed man rolled out with a clunk and a cloud of dust following him. Mr. Weasley stood up and siphoned off the soot with a wave of his wand and looked around the Granger's home with wide excited eyes.

Mr. Weasley could hardly contain his enthusiasm. He was inside of a muggle's house, invited and not on work duty, he could ask questions, and he wouldn't have to obliviate the muggles before he left! He noted that Mr. Granger was putting dirty dinner dishes into a cupboard under the counter and he was about to ask what he was doing when another red head stepped out of the floo.

Hermione was shocked to see that it was one of the twins that had come along to collect her. Hermione would never admit it, but she could not tell Fred and George apart to save her life. She didn't really feel that guilty about it because her interaction with the m was pretty much limited to her throwing the two of them disapproving glances in the common room while they made a ruckus and interrupted her studying. In fact, the last conversation that she had with Fred or George, she didn't know which, was during the quidditch cup after party last term when she was questioning him where he got the butterbeer and food.

"Hey dad, aren't you going to say hello before you start bombarding Mr. and Mrs. Granger with questions?" The twin said, knowing the look on his father's face.

"Right you are my boy," Mr. Weasley chirped, "Good evening Granger family. Now Robert, can you please explain why you are putting dirty dishes into a cupboard before they are washed?"

"This is a dishwasher Arthur, not a cupboard," Robert Granger explained. He was used to Mr. Weasley's strange questions about ordinary things.

"What exactly does a dishwasher do?"

"Um…it washes the dishes."

"Genius, absolutely genius! The things muggles come up with are marvelous if you ask me," Mr. Weasley exclaimed. He wandered over for a closer look.

The twin rolled his eyes and looked over at Hermione, "Hey Hermione, how are you?"

"I'm doing great. I'm all packed and ready to go," replied Hermione.

"That's nice but aren't you going to introduce me to your parents so they don't think that they are sending their daughter off with a random red headed stranger?" Fred asked.

Hermione could have sworn she saw a glint of a challenge in his eyes. "Dang it!" she thought, "He knows I can't tell who he is." She flushed at the thought. She was just going to have to take a stab in the dark and hope not to make a fool of herself.

"Well, mum and dad, this is one of Ronald's older brothers…George?" she guessed, hoping she sounded a little confident in her introduction.

He smirked backed, "It's nice to formally meet you. I think you might have seen me a few years ago in Diagon Alley but I probably blended in with the rest of our brood."

"Oh yes. How many boys are there in your family again?" Mr. Granger questioned with a frown.

His smile grew even wider, "There are six of us Mr. Granger."

Hermione groaned inwardly, she knew where her father's thoughts were headed. The best thing to do would be to get out of here as fast as possible before her dad could change his mind.

"Alright, I'll just run upstairs and grab my trunk and we can be on our way," Hermione said.

Mr. Weasley looked disappointed at leaving so quickly but clapped his hands and said, "Good, good, now Jean, what is the difference between a wizarding mouse and a muggle mouse? I've heard that muggles like to keep them as pets in their offices?"

Chuckling, Hermione made her way up the stairs to her room. With one last quick look through for anything she might have forgotten, she grabbed the handle on her trunk and turned around preparing to drag it behind her. As she stepped through her door, with her head turned for a last peep at her childhood bedroom, she ran straight into George.

"Oomph."

"Ouch."

"Sorry."

"Excuse me."

"What are you doing up here?" asked Hermione. She was quite embarrassed for him to see her room with the purple walls and the lacy curtains that her mum had insisted on years ago.

"I'm being a gentleman," George started, "I'll carry your trunk for you. After all, that's why I'm here to begin with."

Hermione found that hard to believe, "I was wondering why you got stuck doing this and not Ronald."

George gave an evil grin and said, "He was a bit tied up when it was time to meet you so I volunteered."

"And I bet you and Fred had nothing to do with him being tied up, right?" said Hermione.

"Us? Never! We would never stop little Ronnikins from seeing his best friend," replied George.

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like you at all."

"Let's get going then."

They made their way down the stairs. Mr. Weasley was still talking to Mrs. Granger about office supplies while Mr. Granger was anxiously looking at the stairwell.

"There you two are. What took you so long? You know you aren't allowed to have boys in your room Hermione," Mr. Granger snapped.

"Relax dad, we were just getting my trunk," said Hermione, looking annoyed. She went over to her mum and gave her a hug and a kiss on the check. She then went over to her dad and hugged him as well, "I'll write after the world cup to tell you all about it. I love you both."

"Love you too," her parents chimed back.

"Take care of yourself pumpkin," Mr. Granger whispered to Hermione, giving her one last hug.

George clapped Mr. Granger on his back, "Don't worry Mr. G, she has six Weasley brothers to look after her."

"That's what I'm worried about," mumbled Mr. Granger.

George grabbed Hermione's trunk and stepped into the fireplace. With a flash of light and a puff of smoke, he was gone. With a last wave to her parents, Hermione threw down the floo powder and yelled, "The Burrow!" and she was gone.

After a few dizzying seconds, Hermione stumbled out of the Burrow's hearth and right into George's arms. "Thanks," she mumbled with a slight pink tinge on her cheeks.

"No problem, pumpkin," replied George. Hermione blushed even deeper as he smiled mischievously. "Oh by the way, I'm Fred. Welcome to the Burrow."