Written for Kelly's Decisions, Decisions Competition (Round 3 friendship - HermioneFred). I used the prompts 'someone must roll their eyes'; "Do I have a choice?"; hidden

The Test

"Well, well, well, you finally decided to make an appearance back inside the house. Didn't get up to anything mischievous since I was last there, did you?" Fred leaned back in the chair, placing his feet on the dining table (an act his mother would have scolded him for, had she been there). There was a smirk etched on his face, watching as Hermione turned a very deep shade of red.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, but she didn't meet his eye.

Fred smirked again. "So, you and my brother, eh?"

"No… that was… we were just talking."

Fred shook his head, rolling his eyes at her denial. Okay, so they hadn't been snogging, exactly, when he'd gate crashed their alone time in the backyard, but they would have been had he arrived a moment later. He'd never seen two people jump so high before when he'd made his presence known.

"Hm," Fred said. "I suppose you are smart enough to communicate with your mind. Not sure I could say the same for my brother, though."

"What do you want, Fred?" Hermione asked, almost sighed, as she took a chair at the table with him. She glanced over her shoulder, as if checking to make sure that Ron hadn't followed, and then looked back to Fred.

Fred shrugged. "What makes you think I want something? Personally, I'm not sure what you see in him, but… the heart wants what the heart wants, I suppose."

Maybe he was imagining it, but he thought he saw a slight flicker of anger cross Hermione's expression. It was gone before he could register it, though, and she was back to looking embarrassed.

"Okay, well, I must go and, um, get ready," Hermione said after a moment's silence. She got up to leave, but Fred grabbed onto her wrist, stopping her.

"You know," he said, "George would think it's hilarious if I told him about this. We had a bet, you know. A while ago."

"You're not going to tell him, are you?" Hermione said, panic in her voice. "It was nothing, we were just talking!"

Fred shrugged. "That depends," he said. "How much don't you want anyone to find out?"

Hermione, who now seemed to be way out of her depth in whatever was happening, returned back to her seat at the table. "What do you want?" she asked again.

For a while, Fred didn't say anything. He simply studied Hermione with an amused expression. He'd never seen her so agitated before, nor so red. "You know, if you don't want people finding out you're snogging my brother, then don't do it."

Hermione's eyes narrowed. "What do you want?" she asked for the third time.

"Your help."

Hermione seemed surprised by that. Maybe she'd been expecting him to ask her to do something illegal, or something dangerous. "My help? With what?"

"George and I have a product we want to sell, except… well, we can't get it working the way we want. We need someone to test it on… someone bright."

"I'll take no part in anything that –"

"You know George will tease Ron for the rest of his life, right?"

"Is it illegal?"

Fred shook his head. "Nope, we just need someone to test it on. So, you'll agree?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"There's always a choice, Hermione."

There was silence, and then she gave a weak nod. "It's only until this war's over," she told him. "We… slipped up, that's all."

Fred nodded, understanding. With a war brewing and people dying every other day, beginning a new relationship would just add to the complication that their lives already were. Oddly enough, he got that.

…

It was hidden in their flat above the shop, whatever it was they wanted Hermione to test. She was really starting to regret agreeing to it, but she supposed she couldn't disappoint them now. When George had found out, he'd appeared delighted – as if they'd been waiting for this moment for a long time.

It was difficult for her to actually leave the Burrow without incessant questions from both Mrs Weasley and Ron. Mrs Weasley thought it was too dangerous for her to go anywhere alone – "She's not alone, Mum. We've got her!" – and Ron was just suspicious, wanting to know why she was sneaking off to his brothers' flat. It had taken more effort than she intended to convince both of them Fred and George would be with her at all times, and she'd return safely in a few hours.

That was when the questions of what they were doing began.

"So, this is a little idea we came up with," George explained, taking out a wrapped object approximately the size of his hand, and setting it on the table. "Though, we think it only works for intelligent people."

"What is it?" Hermione asked, unable to hide the slight curiosity that was creeping up on her.

Fred and George grinned at each other, and then removed the wrapping. Sitting in front of them was something that looked very much like one of those Fanged Frisbee things, except without fangs. So, a normal Frisbee.

"This," Fred said proudly, "Is what we hope is a thought-reader."

"A what?"

"A thought-reader," George said. "Reads thoughts. But we tried it on ourselves and all we could get out of it was some muttered gibberish, so we need you to know if it works. It goes on your head." He made to put it there, but Hermione stepped back.

"No," she said, shaking her head.

"Come on, Hermione, you're the smartest person we know. If it works on you, then all we need to do is work out a way for it to work with dumb people, too."

"Thoughts are personal," Hermione retorted, and Fred grinned knowingly.

"Just think about something else," he said. "Like… what you had for breakfast."

Hermione hesitated.

"Please, Hermione?" George begged. "Just a few minutes of your time is all we ask."

Obviously not liking the idea at all, Hermione glanced to Fred. He gave a short nod, and winked. It wasn't worth all this effort anymore, she realised. She'd just been embarrassed at the time.

"Alright, alright, give it here." She all but snatched the object from George and placed it on her head. It gave off a weird buzzing noise, and suddenly a pop. Then something that almost resembled Professor McGonagall's voice echoed around the room.

Fred and George beamed. "Woah!" they said together.

"Fred, it works!"

"George, we're geniuses. Imagine how many Dark wizards they can catch with this!"

"As long as they're smart."

Hermione snatched the thing from her head, glaring at the twins. "Happy?" she asked.

They both nodded. "Very."

Hermione turned around to leave, but not before throwing one more irritated look their way. "It's not a very ethical idea," she told them, and then stormed out. She'd tried very hard to divert her thoughts to something simple… too hard for it to feel natural.

…

A week later and the Weasley product was on the market. Even when the world was under threat by a Dark wizard, people were still queuing out the door to get their hands on Weasley's Wacky Thought-Reader. Hermione scoffed at the advertisement in the Prophet.

"Fantastic, don't you think?" Fred said, startling her from behind. "Thanks for your assistance."

Hermione rolled her eyes, jabbing a finger at the sub-heading. "Only for intelligent people?" she questioned.

Fred nodded. "Ron thinks it's a great idea," he said. "He specifically wondered if he could use it on you, you know."

Hermione had to hold her tongue to stop herself from saying anything.

"Anyway, this… this is for you." He pulled a small, heavy pouch from the inside of his robes and passed it to her. "For your help."

Hermione looked wide-eyed at the pouch, knowing exactly what was inside; and by the feel of it, it was quite a large sum of gold at that.

"I don't know what you and Ron… and Harry are planning," Fred continued, "But I know it's important, and I guess this might help. We pay all those who help us with our products, but… but there's a little more in there."

Hermione had no words, but tried to pass the pouch back to Fred.

"No, take it," Fred insisted. "You helped us, and we pay."

"But –"

"It's our brother who'll be out there, too," Fred insisted. "And Harry, who's the only reason we have the shop in the first place. And there's you – what'd we do without you?" He gave her a crooked grin. "Just take it, Hermione. We want to help. We mightn't be able to come with you, or do whatever it is you're supposed to be doing, but we're helping you." He closed her hand around the gold. "Just… just don't tell Mum, alright?"

Hermione wasn't really sure what to say, but managed a weak thank you, and put the gold safely inside her pocket until she could find another place for it later.

"Look after them, Hermione. They need you more than they probably realise." He gave her another smile. "And try not to get yourself killed."

Hermione returned his smile, even if it was only half-hearted. "I won't," she promised him. "I won't."

To be honest, I had no idea what I was writing for most of this. I kinda just went with the flow and saw where it took me. I'm actually rather pleased with how it turned out.

I hope you liked, and I would love to hear your thoughts :)