AN: A HUGE shout out to my stunning Beta, katalina_riddle
She always comes through for me and is so amazing! She also made this BEAUTIFUL aesthetic for the story. Show her some love!
"I've got it mate! I snatched the recipe! This'll be brilliant!"
"I don't know Fred, this seems a bit odd," George started.
"Ah, but that's what makes it so genius! It's so daft that it will have to work!" Fred exclaimed.
"Seems like a prank that can go horribly wrong, " George began, but then: "On second thought, you're right Freddie. It does sound brilliant!"
The twin boys made their way to the potions lab to start brewing their concoction. "Ey, Freddie, you know we have to brew two potions in order for this to work, right?" George asked.
"Georgie, Georgie. There are two potions and two of us. C'mon now. Don't make me the smart one mate!" Fred said with a wink. George rolled his eyes, "Which one do you want then mate?"
Fred mocked being deep in thought before announcing "Wiggenweld!"
George scoffed at him, "Ey, I see how it is! Leave me with the difficult one! Perhaps I'll just slip a bit of mine into your drink!"
"You would miss me too much," Fred said shoving his brother. The boys began gathering their ingredients, not noticing the shadow that has been lurking outside the lab door this entire time.
"Good thing we nicked this book from Potter, huh, I would have never been able to make a Draught of Living Death without it. These written out instructions are genius!" George yelled. Fred only shook his head and finished gathering ingredients for his Wiggenweld Potion.
"Okay, added the asphodel. Now to stir it twice clockwise, er, counterclockwise. No, no, clockwise. I am right. Let me just dump in this sloth brain now. Get all that brain juice in there. Brilliant."
"Georgie quit muttering to yourself about sloth brains. I'm trying to brew this and it isn't easy," Fred grumbled to his brother. George laughed, "Ha! You think yours is difficult mate! You should try juicing these Sopop-popo-horous beans. I can hardly say the word let alone juice them!"
Fred glared at his brother, "I wouldn't call your attempt at saying 'sopophorous' - oh, forget it, Georgie. Just get to brewing. You've distracted me and I cannot remember how many lionfish spines I've added in. This potion has to turn so many damn colors I can't keep up. This is quite a stressful prank. Better be worth it or I want a refund!"
"Freddie, was that a shadow I saw? No one else is up here, right?" George asked completely ignoring his brother's current displeasure. Fred sighed and walked over to the potion's lab door, peeked into the corridor and closed the lab door. "Didn't see a thing. Must be the sopophorous fumes getting to your head, Georgie."
George mocked laughter, "Good thing I've only got a couple more stirs on this and my draft will be complete. How's your coming?"
Fred glared at his brother, "Only has to simmer for a bit longer and they will have to cool."
The two boys looked at other and burst into laughter, the realization of what they were doing dawning upon them.
A thought dawning on him, George turned to his brother who was now moving his Wiggenweld potion off the heat. "Freddie, are we going to use this on both our women or are we just going to do one? While I am in full favor of playing this trick on my woman, she might kill me and honestly, it was your idea. I think we should just go for your girl, mate."
Fred laughed at his brother while nodding, "Fine, fine. Abandon me, I see how you are! You little git. You just want to throw me under the train! Well, that's fine. Would only be funny the first time anyway. After that, it just seems to lose effect. Like twins - first born is always better."
"Ey!" George yelled and the twins ensued in a near-fake wrestling match.
The boys broke apart laughing and decided to gather their concoctions and clean their mess. With a wave of their wands, the potions lab look untouched (except for the few missing ingredients that is).
The boys made their way down to the Great Hall. They had flasks in the robe pockets and ready to commence the pranking. They sat down at the Gryffindor table and immediately jumped into the conversation acting like nothing was going on. A very suspicious Hermione chimed in, "Where were you boys earlier? We missed you in charms." Fred and George looked at each other. "Sick," they both said in unison.
"Old Georgie here had one too many butterbeers if you know I mean," Fred said with a wink at Hermione. Hermione simply rolled her eyes and joined back into the conversation of the table. Fred waited until Hermione was properly distracted by the conversation and poured just a tiny of his draught into her juice. No sooner had Fred pocketed the flask when there was a huge explosion at Ravenclaw's table. It appeared that Seamus Finnigan was trying to impress one of the Ravenclaw ladies and it did not go so well. The twins turned back to their table roaring with laughter. George leaned into Fred and whispered, "Did you do it?"
Fred winked and nodded his head towards Hermione who was taking a drink of her juice now. The boys nearly bouncing with anticipation became confused when she was still awake and had no noticeable effects. Hermione noticed the boys staring at her peculiarly. "What? Is something the matter?" she questioned. The boys looked at each other in disbelief before looking back at her, "No, nothing at all," they said while taking a drink of their own juice. Fred had hardly set his cup down before he was asleep.
George looked stunned for only a brief second before catching on to what Hermione had done. "You? Did you switch the cups? Did you make that happen down there with Finnigan to distract us both so you could do it?" Hermione only nodded.
George, looking further confused, "but how? How did you know?"
Hermione smirked, "I came looking for you during Charms. I was beginning to worry about you both. I was nearing the potion's lab when I could hear part of your conversation. I eavesdropped a few moments longer, just to be sure, but I knew Fred was plotting against me."
George could not contain his laughter and he tried to straighten out his sleeping brother. "The poor bloke. All he wanted was a kiss! He's been feeling a bit nervous since officially asking you out and thought this would be an excellent way to diffuse the tension."
"Or get us detention," Hermione chimed.
George laughed, "Come on this. Let's get this heavy bloke back to our common room before we decide how we're going to make him suffer.
Once they had Fred's sleeping body situated in the common room they began discussing ideas.
Hermione gave her best mischievous grin while pitching her idea, "We tell him that I tried to wake him with a kiss using the Wiggenweld potion and it did not work. We will tell him that we had to get someone else to do it."
George's eyes lit up, "I like where this is going, Hermione. I knew you and Fred would make a perfect pairing. Now we just need someone particularly nasty to say they did it. Normally, I would vote Filch but not even Fred is daft enough to believe that."
Hermione nodded, "Who do we know that is daft enough to actually do it but is someone that Fred would freak about?"
"Finnigan," they both said together.
George and Hermione laughed and high-fived as they discussed the details of their plan.
They were soon interrupted by Ron who was examining Fred in his sleeping state. Looking at Hermione and George, Ron swallowed hard before saying, "I think you guys better come look. Something doesn't seem right here."
They both got up to see what Ron was referencing. Hermione leaned in close and Fred quickly swept in and kissed her. Hermione resisted the initial urge to scream before relaxing into Fred's warm and inviting kiss.
"What in the bloody hell is this?" George yelled.
Fred laughed breaking away from Hermione, "Ron filled me in on Hermione's plan, so I only faked taking a drink so she would fall for it. I had to reverse the reverse prank!"
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Of course. You Weasley's stick together."
"Keep up those good pranking skills and you'll be a Weasley before long," George said.
"Ahh!" Fred chimed in, "That reminds me! Hermione, there is something I've been meaning to ask you…."