Chapter 1

Early Mornings & Surprises

Disclaimer: I don't own anything JK Rowling does : (

Hehehe, so this the first chapter (obviously) but I didn't really like the end of the six book so I'm just going to exempt it so Dumbledore is still in this story.

Spoken words: "…"

Thoughts: '…'

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The sun was just barely up over the horizon, when Hermione awoke to the light gleaming in her eyes. Groaning she rolled onto her other side and attempted to fall back to sleep. Trying vainly for about five minuets Hermione gave up and glanced over at the sleeping Ginny in the next bed. Seeing that her friend was clearly in a deep sleep and wouldn't be up anytime soon, especially after the late night they had had. They had been up since two enjoying the rest of the Weasleys and Harry. Guessing that it had probably only been about four hours since they had gone to sleep, Hermione climbed out of bed.

Pulling a robe on overtop of her 'my little pony' pajamas Hermione carefully tiptoed over to the door and quietly snuck out. Slowly creeping down the stairs she headed for the family room to sit by the fire and read a book. Until Mrs. Weasley came down and started to make breakfast, then she hoped that Molly would like her help. Or she would spend the rest of the morning with her nose in a book. One she was stuck reading because she wouldn't be able to get one from her trunk without waking Ginny. Unfortunately she had finished the novel that revolved around Quidditch, the day before.

As she walked into the family room she was shocked to find that one of the twins was sitting on the couch by a dieing fire. "Fred?" Hermione asked surprised.

Red head popping up he looked at her shocked that anyone else was up, "Good guess." He replied smirking.

"Maybe it wasn't a guess," Hermione teased awkwardly, unsure of what else to say, she had never really spent time with one of the twins alone. They were always together. Looking more closely at the pajama clad red head she realized he had a book semi hidden under his hands. Curious she asked "Are you reading?"

"If you really do know which is which then you might want to let mum in on your secret because she still gets us mixed up." He told her chuckling, sneaking the book behind him and ignoring the reading question.

Noticing his lack of response on the book Hermione asked again. "What are you reading?"

Fred shook his head and grinned at her, "I can't tell you, or George and mine's surprise we'll be ruined. You can't find out before everyone else other wise it wouldn't be any fun."

Deciding not to bother prying any further Hermione sat down on the sofa across from Fred and eyed him suspiciously. She remembered him and George mentioning something that had wanted to tell everyone the night before, but they had wanted to wait until Bill and Fleur arrived.

"Want to play a game of exploding snap?" Fred suddenly asked after a few moments of silence, his face lighting up with hope.

"Um, sure," Hermione answered groaning inwardly, this was a game she was sure to loose, especially against a Weasley. She couldn't even beat Ginny and Fred was a master compared to her.

Quickly jumping to his feet Fred grabbed the deck from a nearby table. Shuffling them as he sat down, he quickly dealt out the cards and gave Hermione a wicked grin.

Three games and a bunch of laughing later Hermione through her hands up in the air in humiliation. He had won all three games easily, much to Hermione's frustration. Eyeing the chess board on the table Fred had gotten snap Hermione gave him a challenging look and said, "Lets try chess, least there is more thought involved in that. That way a defeat is less disgraceful then being beaten another three times at Snap."

"Deal," Fred agreed enthusiastically, as he grinned evilly as he put the snap back and grabbed the chess board.

Upon seeing the look on Fred's face Hermione realized that she might have picked the wrong game. 'I think this might have been a big mistake.' She feared that she would be even more embarrassed.

An hour later Hermione and Fred were in the middle of their second game of chess when Mrs. Weasley walking into the living room to hear the two people bickering over the violence of a game. Stopping to gaze at them, she was surprised to find the two of them playing chess. "Hermione, George, what are you two doing up this early?"

The pair looked up shocked to see that they had an observer.

"I couldn't sleep."

"I'm Fred mum." The two responded simultaneously.

Looking at each other they both began laughing, leaving a confused Mrs. Weasley to head to her kitchen. Once she had left Fred looked at Hermione and stated "See, she still can't always tell us apart, though it probably doesn't help that I'm in George's shirt."

"Why?"

"Sometimes its fun to confuse her, plus I changed in the dark last night." He told her his smile stretching farther, "Queen to F9."

Looking down Hermione watched as Fred's queen slid along the board and smashed her king to pieces. "No!" she yelped. 'I lost every single game, this is pathetic.'

Jumping to her feet she glared at a smirking Fred, "I'm going to see if your mother wants any help in the kitchen." She told him quickly and fled from the room.

"We'll give it another go later then," Fred called after her grinning proudly, 'I made the Hermione frustrated at both exploding snap and chess.' "I should get a reward." He said to himself out loud.

Just as Fred was about to leave and get changed, he caught sight of Hermione's forgotten book that she had left on the couch. Picking the novel up he read the back cover and was surprised to find it was a fiction story, and about Quidditch. 'Wow, it would seem that our uptight Hermione has a girly side after all.' Quickly grabbing his own book Fred headed upstairs to wake up his brother and share his new found information.

In the kitchen Hermione was busy setting the table and trying not to think about her oddly enjoyable morning with Fred. However she was unable to keep her thoughts from straying down that path. 'I have never had so much fun with Fred without a prank being near by, or George.'

"Hermione, dear, have you heard a word I've said?" Mrs. Weasley asked Hermione from across the kitchen.

Snapping out of her thoughts Hermione looked up at her host and smiled apologetically, "Sorry, I was lost in thought, what did you say."

"That's alright dear; I was just asking if you enjoyed your game of chess with Fred this morning. The two of you don't typically do things together by yourselves; I was so surprised when I saw you two this morning. It's usually Harry or Ron up playing with Fred."

"Yes I did enjoy the game," Hermione responded as she finished placing the last piece of cutlery down. "Is Fred normally up that early in the morning?"

"Umhmm," Mrs. Weasley replied absently as she fiddle with something on the stove, "Sometimes its George that's up early. But most recently this summer it has been Fred and when I go in I usually find him researching something. Though I haven't the foggiest idea of what it is. Probably just something for their shop."

'I wonder if that's what he was reading when I came in this morning?' Hermione pondered. She didn't have a chance to dwell on the thoughts long as a stampede could be heard coming down the stairs. Quickly grabbing her seat Hermione watched as a swarm of red heads came rushing into the room driven by the smell of Mrs. Weasley's cooking. Harry was the last to come down the stairs, his black hair standing out in the sea of red.

Ginny sat down to her right while Harry and Ron sat across form her, and to Hermione's surprise Fred took the seat on her other side. With George on Charlie Fred's left and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley at the head of the table there were two empty seats next to Ron for Bill and Fleur who were expected at any minuet.

Just as the last person sat Bill and Fleur walked through the front door, "Hello, Mum, Dad, were here." Bill called out.

"We're in here dear." Mrs. Weasley called out to the couple, while indicating to the rest of the family to not eat.

The tall long hair Bill suddenly filled the kitchen door frame, the lovely blonde haired Fleur standing just behind him. "Oh, I see that you have started without us. I am shocked!" he stated attempting to sound and look insulted, the effect was ruined by the broad grin that was stretched across his face.

"Oh zees looks very luvly." Fleur announced as they sat down and filled their plats with food.

Once everyone was busy eating, Hermione leant in and whispered to Fred, "So are you going to spill your secret now?"

Chuckling Fred shook his head, "nope we're not saying a word until every one is done."

"Are you trying to get them to tell you what their big news is?" Ginny asked Hermione.

"Yes, but I haven't received even a morsel."

"I've been trying for the last two weeks but Fred said that they didn't want to say anything until everyone was here. I guess they have to spill now, they don't have any more excuses." Ginny told her, looking keen.

Throughout the meal everyone's gaze settled one the twins at least once during the duration. Every one wanted to know what was going on and seemed to be gobbling down the food as fast as possible.

At the end of the meal all the eyes at the table swooped in the twins' directions, everyone was clearly anticipating the twins' announcement. The twins' however seemed determined to ignore the eyes and did separate their bent heads. "Come now boys, what's the news that you have. We all want to know what your secret is." Mr. Weasley finally said after about two minuets of the group just staring eagerly.

Looking up with matching grins the two gazed at everybody then said together, "We're working at Hogwarts for the year."

"What!" The entire table cried in unison.

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Thanks for reading, please review! I'll try to update soon : P