6 months later.
Hermione was sat at her desk, she still wasn't used to that, and was going through the in tray on it that had gotten rather large over the weekend. She'd already had three owls from Kingsley's secretary, another from Kingsley himself and numerous pieces of official paperwork that she was pushing herself to finish that morning.
Once things had settled down she'd had every intention to return to Hogwarts for her final year but she met with Professor McGonagall and was assured that she would learn very little from a final year at Hogwarts considering her experiences. It was then that Kingsley Shacklebot, newly appointed Minister for Magic, stepped in and offered her a place at the Ministry, as his own advisor. She'd politely declined at first; she didn't have the experience or the knowledge of things in the wider world to hold such a position, but then Kingsley had insisted she was the perfect candidate, once again due to her experiences during the war.
If she was quite honest she was sick and tired of things happening "because of the war". She'd wanted to earn her job and her education, not be handed it. In fact, Hermione could barely remember the last time she was truly satisfied with her life. She could barely handle seeing Harry and Ron at work on the rare occasions that she ran into them and she was declining invitations to the Burrow and every other residence that she once visited.
Hermione was becoming a recluse and it was mainly her own fault. She was yet to locate her parents, who had slipped into Australian society far easier than she thought they would, and since then she was becoming more and more desperate. At the end of each day as she climbed into bed she would remind herself of exactly how alone she was.
Hermione Granger, a member of the Golden Trio, currently led a sad and lonely life. She put it down to the anxiety that she had developed and the fact that seeing everyone that she knew reminded her of all of the bad things that happened over the last few years and for once she just wanted to move on, forget that she was ever a part of the Golden Trio.
Her day passed with little excitement, she didn't have any field work scheduled for another week, so most of her day was filled with paperwork before she left a note for Kingsley with his secretary and left for Diagon Alley to check her finances for going to find her parents.
She walked down the cobbled street, which was far less crowded away from the run up to the beginning of the Hogwarts term, and headed for Gringotts. She barely looked up from her feet and as a result came crashing into someone who was running in the opposite direction.
"Ah shit, I'm so sorry!" she cried as she picked herself up off the ground.
"Granger? Merlin, we were beginning to think something had happened to you!" George Weasley grinned down at her once he realised it was her.
"I know, I've just been-"
"Busy. I know. Ron's told us. Multiple times." He took her by the hand and started to lead her towards the shop. "We've been worried about you Granger, you've barely seen anyone since the day the war ended and I've not spoken to you properly since Percy's send off. It's not healthy. And you don't look like you're eating." He added as an afterthought.
"Like I said, I've been busy. Look, George, I'm not sure I have time for this tonight, I was on my way to Gringotts and…" She was panicking, she'd never had to use more than one excuse to get away from a social situation and George was being so persistent. Inevitably seeing George meant seeing Fred and she really wasn't sure she could handle that right now.
"Relax, we're here now. Besides, Fred's dying to see you too!" he pushed open the shop door and led her through to the stairs that led up to their flat, entering to Fred conjuring up some sort of meal in the kitchen. "Dear brother we'll need to set another place, we've got company."
Fred stuck his head out from the kitchen, presumably to retaliate with a smart comment but stopped dead when he saw Hermione standing in the doorway looking terrified. He dropped the spoon he was holding and practically sprinted across the living room, vaulting over the sofa as he did so, and pulled her into the tightest hug she could ever remember receiving.
"Hermione what's wrong? Why are you shaking?" he asked as he led her to the sofa to sit down.
It was all so overwhelming for her. It wasn't until she returned to her parents' house once all the memorials after the war were over that it all hit her. She'd been reasonably calm and collected in the days that followed the war ending but once she returned to the empty house that had no memories of her left she had lost it.
"I can't do this." She whispered.
"Yes you can. Do you remember what we told you the day the war ended? We'll look after each other. We haven't been able to do that because you cut us all out as best you could." Fred almost sounded angry.
"I had to."
"Why?"
"It was the only way that I-I could process it all and deal with it. I did terrible things."
"Hermione you're not making any sense. You helped to save the wizarding world."
"I didn't want any of this!" She screamed. "I didn't want this." She repeated the words; they were only a whisper now and followed by her sobs.
Fred pulled her close and held onto her before she eventually calmed down.
"I'm going to finish fixing up dinner, you look like you're not eating properly." He smiled and returned to the kitchen.
George followed him and she could hear them discussing her in hushed tones before returning with dinner ten minutes later.
"It's only bolognaise, but there's plenty of it." He nodded for her to have a seat at the small table they had for meals.
She did as she was told and ate her meal in silence, unsure what to say to either of them after her previous outburst. Once they had cleared away their plates George left the two of them to talk some more with the excuse that the Leaky Cauldron was missing him.
"What's the real issue, there's something you're not telling me."
She paused for a minute, unsure if she should tell him the real source of her worries. She then realised that this was Fred Weasley who had looked after her in every sense since she was eleven years old.
"I can't find my parents." She told him quietly.
"What do you mean, where have they been since they came back?"
"That's just it, I haven't gotten them back yet."
"But everyone thought you'd gone and gotten your parents after the war ended?"
"I went over to where I'd sent them but they'd moved and I couldn't track them again, I've been trying to piece it all together ever since. I'm so worried about them."
"I'll help you find them."
"Really?" she looked up to meet his gaze at this point; she couldn't quite read his expression.
"I don't want you to have to do this on your own." He smiled at her and wrapped his arms around her, drawing her closer to his chest and allowing her to rest her head just beside his heart.
They sat in silence like that for at least an hour and Hermione just enjoyed the feeling of not being alone more than anything else. She felt her eyes drooping and stood up, away from Fred.
"I should head home. Th-thanks for tonight."
"You can't go home now, it's ridiculously late. Besides, I don't want you to go yet."
And with that Hermione found herself staying at the Twins flat for the very first time.
She awoke in the morning in Fred's bed wearing the t-shirt and shorts he'd given her the night before with his arm draped over her waist, his bare chest pressed against her back. She smiled to herself and twisted in his arms so she was facing him, their faces only inches apart.
"Morning…" he grunted as he stirred and woke. He caught her smiling and felt himself beam a little,
"I didn't mean to stay last night."
"It's ok, I wanted you to." He cast his mind back to the last time he'd woken up in bed with Hermione Granger. For one thing there had been a hell of a lot less clothes involved. But this was different, she was different. Right now, this version of Hermione in front of him was far more broken than he could have ever imagined her to be after the war and he wanted nothing more than to fix it for her so she could go back to being the Hermione that he had grown to love over the years.
Reign it in there Freddie, he warned himself as he allowed his thoughts to consume him whilst he looked at the young woman in front of him. At that very moment he wasn't sure if Hermione would ever be able to know how he felt about her, there were too many other things to worry about without it.
An hour later Hermione was dressed for work, her caffeine levels were comfortably high and was preparing to leave the twins' flat for the Ministry offices.
"Come back after you finish and we'll start planning to go get your parents." Fred told her as he bit into his toast.
"I-I can't tonight. I really can't." she replied.
Fred glared at her.
"Why not?"
"There are things I have to do tonight before we can sort any of this. You don't have to do this with me." She was at the door now.
"Don't you be so stupid Hermione Granger. Come here once you finish work tomorrow with whatever you have about your parents and we'll start to find them. Ok Kitten?"
The term of endearment caught her off guard but she merely nodded before murmuring a thanks and turning on her heels to apparate to the ministry.
"She's not the same is she?" George asked his twin once Hermione was gone.
"No, she's not. She's a lot more…broken."
"And you need to fix her?"
"Want to, need to, what's the difference?"
"What if that's just who she is now? The war changed us all." George tapped the space where his left ear should have been
"Yes dear brother but you saw her. She's a shell of the Hermione Granger that we knew. There was no confidence, no feistiness and no fight left in her."
"Maybe that's just who she is now."
Fred shook his head. "You didn't see her when she woke up this morning. She was lying there and she was just…her. Just for a minute until she realised everything again. I'll bring her back."
George groaned. "You slept with her again didn't you?"
"Not in the way that you're thinking. I couldn't let her go home to an empty house in the state that she was in. She's coming over tomorrow night. I'm going to help her find her parents." Fred continued when George didn't respond.
"And why can't our little brother help her with that? He was declaring his love for her a few months ago if I remember rightly. Or what about Harry? Wonderboy lets her risk her life to kill off Voldemort but then won't be there to help her pick up her life again? Something doesn't quite click here Freddie."
As George pointed it out it did seem a little strange to him. Why weren't Harry and Ron clambering over one another to help her after all she'd done for them over the years?
"I think a meeting with our little brother and Wonderboy is in order, don't you Georgie?" Fred grinned as he leapt across the room and grabbed some parchment.
Dearest Ronniekins,
We've a matter we'd like to discuss with you if you can tear yourself away from your busy day as a ministry official. We'll meet you at the Leaky Cauldron at 1.
Gred & Forge
P.s This isn't really optional so you'd better show up with Harry in tow.
Content with what he'd written, he scrawled a similar note to Harry and then attached it to the leg of the owl he and George shared and sent it in the direction of the Ministry.
"And now what?" George asked a little impatiently.
"And now Georgie we go and run our shop like we always do."
A few hours later and the twins were telling their assistant Verity they'd be back "in an hour or so" before leaving the shop and wandering down Diagon Alley.
"I still don't know how you talked me into getting involved in this." George muttered.
"I didn't. I told you it was happening and you went along with it, remember?" he grinned as they reached the Leaky Cauldron and entered, already spotting Harry and Ron sat at one of the tables near the wall.
"What was so urgent that it couldn't wait?"
"We didn't say anything was urgent, but I'm glad you're so interested." George told him as they sat opposite the duo.
"Well?" Harry asked them after a minute or so.
"Been busy recently gents?" Fred asked.
"The ministry's always busy, we're still recovering from the war." Ron said rather pointedly.
"But you don't live there do you?" George continued.
"What kind of question is that? You know that if I'm not at the ministry I'm at home with Ginny or Sirius!" Harry told them.
"What about you Ron? Where are you when you're not at work?"
"I'm still at home, you know that too! What's the point of this fucking stupid interrogation?"
"What about Hermione? What does she do when she's not at work?"
"I don't know, stays at home with her parents I'd imagine. She doesn't see us anymore!" Ron was raising his voice a little now and Harry shot him a warning look.
"How are her parents?" Fred asked, changing the subject. The younger men sat opposite them still had no idea what was going on but welcomed the change of topic.
"Probably a bit dazed and rattled but fine." Harry replied. "It's probably why we barely see Mione, she had a lot to sort out there."
"Whilst you two sorted yourselves out these past few months she's been a wreck. You might also like to know that she can't find her parents."
"No, she went and got them. She did that before she started at the ministry." Ron told them.
"She couldn't find them. They'd moved and she couldn't trace them. But neither of you knew any of that did you?" Fred corrected them accusingly.
"She didn't tell us!" Harry hissed back.
"Do you ever go and see her? Because if you did you'd know instantly why she doesn't tell you things, she's a complete and utter mess!"
"Fred…" George warned.
"No! They weren't there when you took her home last night and she was absolutely terrified. When she was shaking and only just finally being able to talk about what was making her hurt. When she was crying herself to sleep!"
"She stayed with you last night!?" Ron's face shifted into an expression of sheer rage.
"I wouldn't let her go home to an empty house to cry on her own." Fred snapped.
"That's crossing a line!" Ron continued.
"So being there for someone who we've all looked after for years as if she's another one of us is crossing the line?"
"You know that's not what I meant."
"You really think I'd take advantage of her in a situation like this? You don't know me at all."
"This is all beside the point," Harry told them, "Why did you call us down here to tell us all of this?"
Fred stared at Harry for a moment before he recomposed himself. These were supposed to be Hermione's best friends in front of him, the two people she had helped out and laid her life on the line for more times than anyone could count, and one was too blinded by his own jealousy whilst the other was oblivious to the problem laid out in front of him. Fred was almost disgusted.
"Hermione would be very disappointed with you two." He said as he rose from his seat and turned to leave the pub.
"We better get back to the shop," George muttered before he caught up with his twin in the alley. "What in merlin's name was that last bit all about?"
"Didn't you see them? Ron couldn't see past his chances of getting laid and Harry couldn't see the problem at all. She'd be so upset if she saw them behaving like that, she doesn't need that."
"Who are you to decide what she does and doesn't need? Fred I think you need to sit down and think about this, people might get the wrong idea, Ron nearly did."
"I don't want anything to make her worse!"
"That's not what I meant." They were back at the shop now.
"We'll just be another few minutes Verity, can you cope?"
"Of course Mr Weasley!" she beamed at him as the twins headed up to the flat to finish their conversation.
The door slammed shut behind them and there was a few second silence before George started again, far calmer than he had been on the street.
"What's going on Freddie? There's something you aren't telling me and we don't keep secrets. Spit it out."
"I've always looked out for her, even when she didn't realise it."
"I know that."
"B-but I never, ever meant for that to be something else. But then we started kissing at Christmas time. It was just play, nothing in it. And then we slept together on her seventeenth birthday. I want…I want…"
"Shit, you actually have feelings for Hermione Granger don't you?"
"Of course I fucking do! But I can hardly do anything about it other than look after her, which is exactly what I intend to do."
"The only way she'll ever be right again is if she finds her parents and even then it's not definite."
"Well then I'll just have to find her parents with her."
"That means-No! You can't just run off to Australia with her!"
"I won't let her go back on her own." He growled and turned on his heels to go back to work in the shop, busying himself in the storeroom for the rest of the afternoon.