A/N: This is my entry for the Twin Exchange August Challenge. It's Hermione/George, the prompt was procrastinating and the quote are "School isn't all bad," and "Are you even listening?"
"Procrastination is the thief of time." -Edward Young
"Hermione, we need your help right this minute."
Hermione looked up from her book to see Fred and George standing in front of her, looking urgent. "Are you severely injured?" she asked.
"No," they answered together.
"Are you dying?"
"No," they answered, glancing at each other in confusion.
"Then can it wait?" she asked. "I have a Herbology essay due-,"
"Tomorrow?" George asked.
"No," she answered slowly, "next week, actually, but-,"
"Then you have time to help us," Fred interrupted, plunking down on the table in front of Hermione's cozy armchair. After a second, George joined him.
"Why use a chair when you can sit on a table?" Hermione muttered, leaning forward and clearing away a few of her things to avoid them being sat on.
"What's with the sarcasm?" Fred asked, looking at her in wonder.
"I'm under extreme pressure," she sniffed. "I'm taking my OWLs in a few months' time and I need to review for them as well as complete the rest of my homework."
"Well," George said slowly. "Would it be okay if we added to the pressure?"
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer.
Fred and George looked at each other. "We need your help on our Transfiguration homework."
"I thought you were good at Transfiguration," Hermione said, raising an eyebrow.
"We are," George said quickly, "well, Fred is, but I'm not."
"Okay," Hermione said slowly, guessing that she was still missing something.
"The truth is," Fred said, letting out a puff of air, "we missed class the other day and now we're behind. We procrastinated on our make-up work. It's due tomorrow and Transfiguration is one of the classes we really want to do well in. It comes in handy for joke products, you know?"
"Why did you miss class, then?"
George glanced at Fred. "We were testing our Skiving Snackboxes. We're working on our last one. It's called Fever Fudge. We tested it out and it worked. When we left class, we took the curing end and that worked as well."
"Why didn't you go back to class?" Hermione asked.
"Are you crazy? McGonagall would have had a fit if we distracted class even further for such 'nonsense'."
"Okay," Hermione said, "but couldn't you have caught up with just reading the book?"
"Fred could have," George began.
"But why read the book when we can just ask you?" Fred asked, shrugging.
"Please, Hermione," George said quickly as Hermione opened her mouth furiously.
She sighed. "Oh, all right. Show me what you need help on."
An hour later, Hermione was still giving homework help. She hadn't realized how much there would be from missing one class, but on the other hand, she should have expected it. Fred and George were in their NEWT year after all. However, after only fifteen minutes, Fred had declared that he understood, was all caught up, and could manage the rest on his own. He had jumped up and headed to the other side of the room as his twin sent a perplexed look his way.
"Are you alright, George?" Hermione asked.
"What?" he asked, turning back to her.
"You look slightly panicked."
"I don't understand this," he muttered furiously, running a hand through his hair. "I really shouldn't have missed class, but I didn't think it would be this hard for me to catch up."
Hermione blinked a few times in surprise. She had never seen either of the twins so concerned about grades before. "If you don't mind my asking," she said slowly, twirling her quill between her fingers, "why does this matter to you so much?"
"Like we said earlier," George said, raising his head from his hands, "Transfiguration comes in handy with inventions. I mean, so does Potions and Charms, but I'm good at Potions and decent at Charms. If our joke business falls through, I don't want it to be all my fault because I can't get caught up. We didn't do so well on our OWLs, so our joke shop is really all we have. If this fails…." He sighed and shook his head. "If this fails, we have nothing."
"George," Hermione said calmly, reaching out and placing her hand on his. "Your business is most certainly not going to fall through because you were one day behind in Transfiguration homework. Although, that should be a reason for you not to skip class anymore."
George sighed. "I hate school."
"School isn't all bad. Besides, this would have been a whole lot easier if you didn't procrastinate on your make-up work," Hermione said, flipping through the rest of the work they had to do. "I mean, you've had two days to do this and you decide to ask me for help at the last possible second."
"Trust me, the night before is not the last possible second," George said, looking at her. When Hermione raised an eyebrow, he continued. "Fred and I have completed homework as teachers were going around checking it. We sit in the back right corner of the room for a reason, you know."
"Because teachers always start at the front left, so you two will be the last to be checked, giving you more time to finish it," Hermione said as it all clicked into place.
"Exactly," George grinned. "You really are the brightest witch of your age…and probably of my age, too."
Hermione found herself blushing with no way to put a stop to it. She ducked her head, hoping George wouldn't notice. He did, though.
"Are you…blushing?" Even though Hermione wasn't looking at him, she could tell he was smirking.
She rapidly shook her head. "No," she said. "It's just getting very warm over here by the fire."
"You are blushing!"
"We still have a lot to do," Hermione said, clearing her throat nervously. "And I'm going to help you finish it if it's the last thing I do. We don't want your joke shop falling through because you're a procrastinator." She finally looked up to see George looking at her with an odd expression on his face. "What?" she asked.
"Did you really mean that?"
"Mean what?"
"You don't want our joke shop falling through?"
"Well, yes, of course I mean it," she said. "And I don't want you to be failures unable to get a job because you didn't prepare enough for your OWLs and skipped classes to test products. Honestly, have you two ever heard of a back-up plan?"
"Of course. We use them all the time. Just not for school."
"Naturally," Hermione sighed.
"I thought you said we wouldn't be failures from me missing one class," George smirked.
"Yes, I did say that," Hermione said.
"But then you said-,"
"I was trying to get you back on track. I want to help because panic doesn't suit you. Although, if you would-,"
"Stop procrastinating, I wouldn't have a reason to panic," George finished. "I know."
"Okay, well, let's get back to work, then." Hermione picked up where she left off in explaining the lesson to George. She finally looked up to see him staring not at his textbook, but at her. "Are you even listening?"
"No," George said simply.
"No?" Hermione felt instantly frustrated. "I thought you were so worried about this. Or was that all some kind of joke? Please explain, because I don't understand why you asked me for help if you really don't care at all."
"I do care," George interrupted, sliding closer to her on the couch and taking her hand.
"You're wrinkling your essay," Hermione pointed out faintly, her frustration subsiding and her blush appearing again due to George's sudden nearness.
"Hermione," George said, tilting her chin up so that she was looking at him. "I do care about Transfiguration. Trust me, I do, but at the moment, I care about something else a little bit more."
"Yeah? And what would that be? What's more important than your Transfiguration grade?"
"Whether or not you feel the same things for me that I do for you."
"I don't know what you're feeling, so I can't exactly tell you," Hermione muttered, "and that's really not all that important. I'd say your grade was more important. We should get back to studying. You don't want your business to fall through."
"Ah, that tactic isn't going to work on me this time," George whispered.
"Oh," Hermione whispered back, struggling to think of something else to say. "Well, we should still get back to studying. We have to finish this by tomorrow because, yes you did procrastinate."
"I've decided I'm going to work on that. Starting now." A smirk spread over George's face and Hermione wasn't sure how to feel about it.
"Good," she said.
"Which means," George said, "I'm going to ask you something important now instead of at a later date."
"But we-,"
"After I ask you, we can get back to studying. I solemnly swear." When Hermione didn't say anything, he continued, brushing a strand of hair off of her face. "Hermione, will you go on a date with me?"
"A date?" She blinked rapidly up at him.
"Yes, a date. If you take much longer to answer, I'll consider that procrastinating, which I thought was practically not allowed by your standards."
"It isn't," Hermione whispered.
"Then stop doing it."
"Fine." As her slight shock wore off, it was replaced by a sudden surge of bravery. Hermione leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on George's lips. "How's that for not procrastinating?"
George grinned. "Excellent job. I'm guessing that's a yes to the date?"
"What do you think?"
George grinned even wider. "Wicked."
Hermione smiled and sighed. "I think it's time we get back to your work. I don't date slackers."
"Ouch," George muttered with a small laugh, sliding away from her.
"However," Hermione added, glancing at him, sliding closer, and taking his hand, intertwining their fingers, "I don't have a problem holding hands with them until such a time when they are no longer slackers."
"You have that much faith in me?" George whispered.
She nodded. "Believe it or not, I always have. But you still have to study on your own. I'm not going to help you with everything now that I agreed to a date."
George made a face of mock disappointment. "I think I'll survive, actually. Besides, I'd rather spend time with you doing fun things rather than homework."
"Your definition of fun is different from mine," Hermione reasoned.
"Not by much, surely," George said.
"I consider reading fun," Hermione smirked, "and Quidditch a form of torture."
"Ouch again, Hermione."
"I'm afraid of heights."
"Do you consider sneaking out after hours into Hogsmeade for a nighttime picnic fun?"
"I—well, I don't know. It is after hours."
"Which is the fun part. Looks like I'm going to have to teach you a few things, Hermione, because that's what we're doing for our date."
"I'm a prefect, George. How bad would it look if I got caught out after hours?"
"I never said anything about getting caught. Have you forgotten what I'm famous for?"
"Procrastinating?"
George laughed. "Besides that."
"Getting on my nerves?"
"I was looking for being the most charming, handsome, irresistible, hilarious boy at Hogwarts."
"Oh, I see," Hermione said with a smile. They looked at each other for a few more seconds before Hermione blushed again and looked down. "We need to get back to your homework. We already spent so much time talking."
"I don't think you minded, though, did you?"
"Shut up and pay attention."
"Just what I thought." George smirked, but it only lasted for a second before Hermione hit him with his textbook.
A/N: Don't forget to vote for your favorite entry on the Twin Exchange profile starting on August 20th! Also, thanks for reading and don't forget to leave a review!