Chapter 1
Hermione's stomach dropped and her heart stopped the moment she walked into the Great Hall and spotted them.
They sat together at the Gryffindor table, completely engrossed in each other with his arm wrapped loving around her tiny waist. Hermione had been avoiding seeing them together for weeks now. Just the sight made her sick to her stomach. It hurt too much. She didn't want to hurt.
Hermione was doing well in avoiding the Weasley twin and his current girlfriend. At least, until today.
There were few seats left at the Gryffindor table for breakfast and Hermione was forced to make a hasty decision: sit down and eat while having to endure their sickening displays of affection, or skip breakfast and hide in the library until first lesson. A loud rumble from her stomach ruled out that option. Inwardly, Hermione groaned and sat down between Harry and Ginny, as far away from the kissing couple as she could get.
Throughout their meal, something strange began to happen. Music filled the Hall from every corner and the entire room fell silent. Then, as if on cue, a small, third year girl from Hufflepuff stood up and began to sing along with the music.
The look on her face was pure terror and she seemed to be struggling to make herself stop singing. She tried to cover her mouth with her tiny hands but it did nothing to muffle her voice. She couldn't stop singing and her face grew red as she realized this.
Finally, the music ended and so did the girl's singing. With the entire school looking at her, the girl took her seat and promptly buried her face in her arms. Slowly, talk broke out amongst the students and staff. What in the name of Merlin just happened?
Not even ten minutes later this same thing happened again, only this time it was a Ravenclaw sixth year who stood up to sing a heartfelt power ballad to his blushing girlfriend. He looked absolutely mortified at having just proclaimed his love in front of the entire school, but was quickly reassured by his girlfriend when he sat down.
At this point, the school was abuzz with curiosity and the staff began to murmur amongst themselves. Something didn't quite sit well about this with Hermione. This was clearly not normal and something was off. Weasley off
She turned to Harry and Ron. "What's going on here?" she said to them. "Have Fred and George let another one of their pranks loose?"
"I don't know," said Harry with a shake of his head. Ron just shrugged his shoulders.
Hermione furrowed her brow and turned to the nearest twin. "George," she said. "Do you and Fred know anything about this?"
The quieter of the twins shook his head and looked to his brother who shook his head as well. Hermione wasn't sure whether or not to believe them but, before she could question them further, music began to sound around the Hall again. This time, a fourth year Slytherin stood and began belting out lyrics.
Professor Dumbledor stood from his seat at the staff table and quietly made his way to the singing Slytherin. He observed the student in silence as he tried desperately to stop singing. The Headmaster waved his wand a few times and nodded to himself before resuming his seat at the staff table.
Shortly after, the music stopped and Dumbledore stood once more, every eye on him as he addressed the students.
"It seems that someone had played a rather musical prank on us," he said with a twinkle in his eyes. "Whomever's brilliant mind brought us this wonderful music has somehow magnified the effects of an old Serenading Charm. It appears to be random and I cannot say who it will affect, but I say, let's enjoy the lovely melodies while they last! They will fade eventually, likely in a week or two."
Dumbledore then resumed his seat with a smile on his face. Many students could be heard groaning and several teachers rolled their eyes. Umbridge looked as if she was about to explode she was so furious at the Headmaster's handling of the situation.
Talk resumed as normal and everyone seemed to accept the news. Hermione, on the other hand, began to panic. She remembered reading about Serenading Charms before. Most of them were designed to make an extremely emotional person sing about the one thing on their minds. Dumbledore had said that he didn't know who would be forced to sing about their feelings and that meant that Hermione had no way of preventing herself from being its next victim.
The twins must have noticed her shocked expression because next moment Hermione is being shaken out of her thoughts by George's concerned voice.
"You all right there, Granger?" he asked.
"What's wrong?" continued Fred.
She snapped her attention to them and immediately cringed upon seeing Fred's fingers laced with Katie's. Her eye s got wide and she quickly left the Great Hall before any music could start and force her to be its next victim. This sudden departure caused everyone around to exchange worried and confused looks.
Hermione went directly to the library to brush up on her knowledge of the Serenading Charm. What she found did not reassure her.
The charm worked by targeting a person's deepest emotions, hidden or not. Once an emotion got so strong in a person, the charm took over and made the express it with a musical number. So, unless Hermione could keep her feeling in check until the charm faded, there was every chance she would be forced to sing in front of everyone.
Hermione sighed exasperatedly. This meant even more avoidance of Fred Weasley and that was going to be difficult. The Weasley twins were everywhere – planning pranks, terrorizing Filch, Mrs. Norris, and Professor Umbridge. It was difficult to avoid crossing their path. How was she supposed to accomplish this when she had to uphold her Prefect duties as well? She supposed she could nag Ron into actually doing his job for once. That seemed to be her only option. It was worth a shot.
A week had gone by since the musical prank had been cast on the school and, so far, Hermione had managed to escape being its puppet. Her plan had worked. Avoiding Fred wasn't easy, but Hermione had done well thus far.
Unfortunately, avoiding the twins often meant avoiding Harry and the rest of the Weasleys, too. In fact, it meant avoiding Gryffindor Tower all together. After the third day she even had to stop eating meals in the Great Hall, otherwise she risked seeing Fred and Katie together. Instead, Hermione took regular visits to the kitchens, choosing to dine in solitude.
During the week that had passed, the school had witnessed over thirty musical performances from its inhabitants. Hermione was horrified when Harry stood up during a particularly horribly Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson with Umbridge and began to sing about her stupidity. It earned him a week worth of detentions.
Hermione was doing great at avoiding Fred, but she felt guilty for avoiding her friends in the process. One evening, about a week and a half into the musical prank, Ginny cornered Hermions as she swiftly made her way from the portrait hole towards the girl's dormitories.
"What's going on, Hermione?" Ginny demanded with her hands on her hips in a very good impression of her mother.
Hermione tried to compose herself into an indifferent expression but failed miserably. "I don't know what you're talking about, Ginny."
Ginny's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Don't you lie to me, Hermione Granger," she said loudly, attracting the attention of the entire common room. "You know perfectly well what I'm talking about. You've been avoiding all of us this entire week! What the bloody hell is going on?"
Hermione paled instantly. She looked around at all the people staring at her and accidentally caught the eye of Fred, who was looking at her curiously. Her mouth went dry, her heart began to race, and she began to panic. Without a single word, Hermione seized Ginny's wrist and dragged her up the girl's staircase. Hermione heard a confused murmur echo across the common room before she shoved Ginny into the dormitory and slammed the door shut, locking it in the process.
With a sigh, Hermione turned to face her friend. She was met with a concerned expression.
"What's going on, Hermione?" asked Ginny again. "What's wrong?"
Hermione hesitated. Should she tell her? She loved Ginny like a sister and she was one of her only true female friends. She knew she could tell Ginny anything and she would never tell a soul, but did she really want to tell her that she had certain feelings for one of her older brothers? No, she definitely didn't want to tell her that. So, Hermione decided she would only tell Ginny the basics. No names need be mentioned at all.
"Hermione, what is it? You know you can tell me anything," said Ginny gently.
Hermione gave in. "I know that, Ginny. I'm sorry I've been avoiding you guys. It's just that stupid musical prank! A bloody Serenading Charm!"
Ginny's eyes grew wide. Hermione never cursed.
"Do you know how those charms work?" Ginny shook her head. "A Serenading Charm is meant to target a person's most inner feelings, and when they're feeling most emotional, it makes the sing about their feelings. It's meant to be therapeutic, not absolutely humiliating. That's why I've been avoiding everyone as much as possible. I don't want to be the next subject for public humiliation."
Ginny nodded with her brow furrowed in confusion. "But, Hermione, why avoid the Tower? No one's seen you at meals in over a week either. What don't you want to sing about?"
Hermione winced. She had been afraid that question would come up. With a resigned sigh, Hermione sank down onto her bed. "Because," she said looking down as she blushed furiously. "I don't want the whole school knowing that I – that I fancy someone."
Ginny's jaw hit the floor. There's no way she heard Hermione correctly. Then Ginny smirked. She had to find out who Hermione fancied. "So, who's the lucky bloke that managed to capture our Hermione's heart?" Ginny asked as she sat on the bed with her friend.
Hermione began to fidget with the edge of her robes. "No one, Ginny. Just some guy. He's got a girlfriend already, anyway. That's why I've been avoiding the Tower and the Great Hall. I didn't want to have to constantly see them together. I knew I would probably get all emotional and that damn Serenading Charm would pick me to sing next."
Ginny smiled sympathetically at Hermione while her mind worked furiously to think of who it could be. It was obviously a Gryffindor, otherwise Hermione wouldn't avoid Gryffindor Tower. But who?
"Hermione," Said Ginny gently. "Who is it? You know I won't tell a soul."
A pained expression crossed Hermione's face. Of course Ginny was going to insist on knowing who it was. If Hermione refused to tell her, Ginny would do one of two things; she would either either pester Hermione relentlessly until she got an answer, of she would quietly observe her and every move she made until she somehow figured out the answer for herself. Scarily enough, Ginny was good at either form of information extraction. Knowing Ginny would likely figure it out sooner or later, Hermione decided to just give in now, because if she found out later, Hermione would never hear the end of it.
Blushing, Hermione looked away and mumbled her answer.
"Sorry," Ginny said. "I didn't catch that."
Hermione took a deep, steadying breath and prepared herself for the explosion. She looked Ginny dead in the eye and said, "Your brother."
Ginny gaped at her. Of all the people she expected Hermione to say, one of her brothers was not on that list. What shocked her more was that it had to be one of the twins. Hermione had clearly said the man in question currently had a girlfriend. Ron did not, whereas both of the twins did. Fred was dating Katie Bell and George was with Angelina Johnson. So, which twin could it be?
As calmly as possible, Ginny asked Hermione, "Which one? Fred or George?"
Hermione pales slightly and hesitated. She wasn't sure she could answer that.
Ginny thought harder. Did Hermione act differently around one twin compared to the other? No, not that she had noticed. Hermione was always very good at composing herself. So, which one could it be?
Hermione sighed and ran a hand through her wild hair. "It's Fred," she said finally.
Almost instantly Ginny erupted with questions. "How did this happen? When did this happen? Why didn't you tell me?!"
Hermione smiled sheepishly. Ginny was not going to like how long Hermione had kept this quiet from her. "Last year," she finally answered. "At the Yule Ball."
Ginny's eyes widened. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"I didn't want to make you feel awkward or anything. I mean, he is your brother after all."
Ginny waved away her excuse. "What happened, Hermione? I mean, what made you start seeing him this way?"
Hermione blushed. "It was at the Yule Ball. After Ron was being a prat to me, I ran off crying. Fred must've seen the whole thing because he found me and told me not to listen to what Ron said. He sat on the staircase with me and held me until I stopped crying. Then we talked for about an hour. He made me laugh a lot. We were getting on quite nicely when he kissed me."
"WHAT?!" Ginny shouted.
"Ginny, shush!" said a startled Hermione.
Ginny sat there, stumbling over her words for several seconds. "What happened after that?" she managed to say.
"Well," Hermione started. "After he kissed me, he told me I was beautiful and not to ever let anyone make me feel otherwise. Then he left."
"He just left?" said Ginny with her brow furrowed in slight anger.
"Well, yeah," Hermione said with a shrug. "After that we got a little closer. He was always there to make sure harry and Ron were treating me properly. He stopped playing pranks on me, too. We used to sit by the fire in the common room at night after everyone had gone to bed and we'd just talk. We even sent a few letters to each other over the summer," Hermione paused and her expression grew sad. "But we don't do any of that now. Not since her started seeing Katie a few months ago."
On instinct, Ginny wrapped Hermione in a strong hug. Now it all made sense. She was going to kill Fred for hurting Hermione like this. How could he not see Hermione's feelings for him if they were really that close?