A/N: Written for 'Kystar's Job Challenge" and most importantly…beta'ed by Selene-Dark-Moon who was kind enough to help me out!

The Twins

Everyone knows the twins are pranksters.

Everyone knows they love magic.

Everyone knows they're successful inventors.

What everyone doesn't know, is how they got to be that way.

Fred looked at George as he saw Hermione walk through the doors of their shop, for the third time this week. George tilted his head to the side, and looked towards Hermione…and then nodded at Fred and went back to helping another customer in the back of the store.

"Hello, Hermione."

"Fred. So have you given what I've said any thought?"

"Of course, oh wise one. But we aren't worried!"

"What will you do if your business ever falls on hard times or your jokes become outdated Fred?"

"It'll never happen…our jokes will evolve as children do, and there will always be a need for humor!"

"That's right Hermione," George butted in, "even dear old Snape…"

"…thought our jokes were funny!"

Hermione shook her head as they started what everyone dubbed "twin-speak". "Say your right, that's great for you. But now you can humor me, what if something bad happens…you only have your OWL's because you dropped out! You could at least try finishing your studies and take your NEWT's to have a back-up plan."

Fred shook his head and wandered off to go greet a family as they walked in, leaving George to handle Hermione.

"Hermione, you worry about nothing. We've been planning this shop since we were little kids, and planned for many setbacks…even if something terrible happens, we have back up plans!"

"Doing what George, what can you do with OWL's alone?"

George sighed, "Hermione, we're just as qualified as Snape is to be teachers…and possibly even more so, because we've never been followers of a megalomaniac."

"HAH! You can't be George; Professor Snape is one of the most brilliant potions masters around!"

"I know, and we are as equally qualified as he is…with less years of experience since we're nowhere near as old as that man."

"But you aren't potions masters…or any other kind of master!"

"Just because you don't know about something, doesn't mean it can't be true Hermione. Don't worry about us. We've had more than enough experience to be fully capable of being a good teacher who is fully qualified."

-Flashback through the years-

Early in life the twins realized how much joy they got from causing mischief at the Burrow among their siblings. They may have only been seven, but they knew after incorporating a prank using the garden gnomes (easy creatures to bribe, luckily for them) that pranking was their goal in life.

They started talking to Zonko the first time they went to Diagon Alley and were left alone in the store after promising not to leave or cause problems. Zonko knew the twins were Hogwarts' future pranksters and made sure to encourage their curiosity. He would send information to the twins about new products and general information on the store. After a few years, the twins realized Charms and Potions would be vital to their increasing interest in jokes and pranks.

The twins finally got their letters to go to Hogwarts, and were eagerly waiting downstairs for their mom to take them to Diagon Alley to get the necessary supplies that were left. They had been saving what little money they earned or received as gifts since they had decided that pranking would be their career goal in order to each buy one book on Charms and Potions to help them understand more than their school books and be useful in their future pranking careers. While their mother was in Flourish & Blott's looking through the used books bin for their spell books, the twins were off in the bookshelves searching for the right books to spend their money on. After choosing, they quickly brought up their books to pay before their mother could see what books they were spending money on…no need to make her wonder why those particular subjects stood out to them. After paying, they put their newly bought books in their pockets, having been shrunk after asking the helpful worker to help them out. On their return home they made sure their books were all placed at the bottom of the trunks they had received as gifts for their birthday last year.

When they were finally on the train, they managed to con an older student into unshrinking their books for them…and luckily never gave the books a second look. Settling in, the twins prepared the jokes and pranks they wanted to pull off in the next few years. They had decided, even though they were going to try their hardest in potions and charms, that they wouldn't over-achieve in any of the subjects…they wanted to be considered completely average, nothing exceptional that would draw even more attention to them than their planned pranks already would.

The next several years of their schooling was spent doing the bare minimum to pass the subjects they chose while spending all their free time working on improving on Zonko's products and creating their own pranks. No one would suspect that the twins were such hard workers and they were very motivated when they were truly interested in the subjects that they found to be useful. They made sure they knew charms and potions better than everything else, but decided each of them would make one a main focus, so that they could learn and utilize even more of the theory behind the topics. They had taken to corresponding with several masters of both subjects, gaining advice and getting several ideas from stories the masters were willing to share with the twins. Each twin had received an offer from more than one master to become an apprentice…but due to still being in school, lengthy papers on topics that would be studied for a mastery were to be sent to their chosen master until they were able to meet with their masters. After leaving school in grand exit during Umbridge's rule, they managed to create golems to leave at their home for a few months while meeting with their respective masters to see where they were at in their apprenticeship. Luckily for the twins, they had brilliant minds when they were focused on one subject, and were able to complete their apprenticeship much quicker than normal, having spent so much time already strictly focused on those subjects in school. While their masters knew their real names, they had their masteries under different names to prevent anyone from finding out about their mastery.

-End flashback-

"I promise you Hermione…that we are indeed masters, and therefore fully capable of teaching."

"…how can you both be potions masters and have no one heard about it? How could you possibly have studied and achieved them when you didn't even stick around to do your NEWT's?"

"Surprisingly easy, we've been working for years with masters…and one of the first things they made us do was take the NEWTs for our core classes…we just have all our results under different names so no one would know what we were doing. Oh, and George is the potions master…I'm a charms master!"

Hermione just stood there with her mouth hanging open…"I just don't understand how…"

"And you don't need to understand, you can just accept it. I swear on my magic that I'm not lying about our masteries."

Hermione let out a gasp as George swore an oath and the magic swirled around him before settling down. She stared at him for a few moments, and then turned around and left the store in shock. She had so much to think about, now she had to reconsider everything she knew about the twins and try to solve this mystery that had just been told to her as an unknown secret.