A/N: Hey, sorry this took a while to get done, I had a busy Christmas and I've not been well. But I'm recovering now so on with the next chapter.
Hermione returned to the common room, Fred was stood at the bottom of the stairs to the girls dormitories with a rather large grin on his face. Hermione grew hesitant. She had seen that look before, mostly on both twins at the same time, she knew that look. That look was often followed by some kind of rule breaking mischief. She began to double think the whole thing. What had seen gotten herself into?
"Part one of the plan," Fred said before Hermione could say a word, "do you know where Harry keeps that special cloak of his?" Fred asked, he was bouncing on the balls of his feet, he looked as though he wanted to laugh out loud but was holding it in.
"How do you know about that?" Hermione asked, she wasn't aware of how many people knew about Harry's cloak, but she didn't think Fred Weasley would be one of the people he had chosen to tell. Maybe Ron had let it slip once? Or maybe they found out last year when they got a hold of the map?
"Harry and I have talks," Fred said with a shrug, "so do you know where he stores it?" Hermione worried about what they might be doing if it involved the need to be invisible.
"I mean probably his trunk, but I don't know for sure. Sometimes he carries it around with him." Hermione said looking around to try and make sure no one else was listening.
"Go get it." Fred said gesturing to the stairs behind him. Hermione wasn't sure if loosening up should involve stealing from her friends and sneaking around their dorms. "It's just so we can sneak out of this place without being caught. We'll use it just this once and put it right back. Promise." Fred said holding his hand over his heart. "Scouts honour." Hermione raised an eyebrow, how did he know this muggle phrase she wondered. "Something Lee Jordan said to George and I once." Fred explained.
"I'm not doing it Fred," Hermione said, she may want to loosen up and have fun but she wasn't going to throw her morals out of the window, or completely change her whole personality. "But I do have another idea." She said, Harry was sat in the corner of the common room with Neville Longbottom and Dean Thomas. "How about using the map instead?" Hermione suggested, "I'm sure he would have no problem letting us borrow that?"
"And how are you going to explain your desire to borrow it?" Fred asked. "I mean he's attached to the map too."
"Yes," Hermione said with a small smile, "but I've borrowed the map before, you're the one who gave it to him. I would be beyond worried about that cloak, it's way more important to him," Hermione said already formulating the little lie she was about to spin for Harry. "And leave the story to me, I have a brilliant idea." Hermione walked over to Harry, gesturing that Fred should stay put for now.
"Hey Hermione," Neville said with a smile, he was reading from a rather large looking Herbology text book. She did not recognise it as one of the ones they had been assigned. Had he picked up extra credit? Did she miss something professor Sprout had said or accidentally missed it when she picked up her books from the reading list? She needed to take a breath and relax, this was about relaxing and letting lose after all, not obsessing about school work.
"What's up, Hermione?" Harry asked, putting his quill down and giving her a smile. He looked happy to have a distraction.
"I was wondering if Fred and I could borrow something?" Hermione said, all three boys looked behind her to where Fred was waiting, he waved a little when they all looked over.
"Sure," Harry said standing up, "what do you need?" He asked walking towards Fred.
"Would you mind if we used to the map for the night?" Fred asked. He assumed Harry wouldn't mind too much, after all it had been the twins who had given him the map in the first place. If it wasn't for them he wouldn't even know about it.
"I guess," Harry said turning to head to his dorm. "What do you need it for?" Harry said as all three walked up the stairs.
Hermione had figured Harry would ask about their intentions, he wasn't one to ask too many questions, but Hermione knew he would want some kind of answer. She wasn't even going to be lying to him, technically. She just wasn't going to tell him everything, since Fred hadn't told her everything. She was just going to drop a name or two she knew would convince him.
"After what Draco said in defence against the dark arts Fred and I have been working on something." Hermione said glancing over and Fred who was leaning against one of the beds, he looked odd in Harry's room, Fred was too tall or too relaxed or too something, it was just bizarre to Fred stood there with no mirror image next to him.
"Here you go," Harry said handing over the currently blank parchment. "Just give it back tomorrow or whenever you're done." He said, Fred took out his wand and pointed it at the currently concealed map.
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." Fred said without missing a beat. All three watched as the ink appeared tracing itself into the perfect map of Hogwarts. Little name tags appeared, walking their way from room to room. The map had always fascinated Hermione, even if she spent the rest of her school days working she highly doubted she could even come close to what the Marauders had achieved. Her eyes scanned from room to room, until she found the tower in which the Gryffindor common room was located. It took her a second until she saw her own name stood next to Harry Potter and Fred Weasley.
"We'll see you later Harry," Fred said as he led Hermione out of his room and directly to the exit. "Stick close by," Fred said, his eyes not leaving the map for a second. "No one's about at the moment, but that could change," Fred said as they hurried through the corridor and towards the stairs. "Could you provide a little light?" Fred asked.
"Lumos," Hermione said as she held her wand out in front of her. She kept glancing over her shoulder convinced she had heard footsteps and or breathing. But just like the map said, there was no one there.
"Hold on a second," Fred said coming to an abrupt stop. "Put it out." He hissed. Hermione did as she was told. "Mischief managed." Fred said quickly. Before Hermione could ask what was happening or who was coming, Fred grabbed her wrist and pulled her into a nearby room. Fred pressed his hand over Hermione's mouth and pressed himself against her. Hermione felt her heart beating faster than usual, she hoped it was just due to the thrill of sneaking around and not because of the current position she found herself in with her current company.
Fred smiled down at her, slowly taking away his hand, he held a finger up to his lips, signally they needed to be silent. He felt a little bad that Hermione looked so flustered right now, but he couldn't deny that she looked kind of cute when she was distressed. He pushed that thought aside and pulled the map back out, activating it again and scanning the area they were currently hiding in.
"Fred?" Hermione said looking confused.
"Filch," Fred said as he watched Filches name disappear around a corner. "Coast is clear." Fred said opening the door for them. "Let's go."
"A little warning next time would be appreciated," Hermione hissed as they walked towards the nearest exit. Fred was about to say that you don't get prior warnings when on missions like this, that everything just happens, you have to just respond, not warn but he was too focused. He did not want to get Hermione into trouble, not on their first night of turning her into a free spirit who laughed in the face of detention. If they got caught now she would never do anything fun like this with him again, they would just have to spend their nights studying. And Fred could not have that.
Hermione kept walking until she realised they were stood outside and how cold the autumn air felt. She shivered as she wished she had grabbed her cloak and wasn't just wearing her school robes.
"Where are we going Fred?" She whispered, she reached for her wand as she tried to remember some kind of spell that would warm her up right now.
"To the lake," he said with a smile, "race you there." He said before taking off at full speed to the calm strip of water that laid just beyond the Quidditch pitch. Hermione took a second to think about it, she could just turn back now, no hard feelings she just didn't want to do this, she was cold and currently alone in the dark. But this was about developing herself, this was about trying new things and going outside of her comfort zone. So she took off at a sprint after Fred. "Come on Granger!" He called out, "keep up."
Hermione did not think of herself as an athletic kind of person, she couldn't fly, run, or lift anything heavy without a wand. But Fred, although brilliant at wizard sports, also was not the fastest runner. He did not like having to run places but he could see the lake now, and he had a fairly decent head start. But he was starting to run out of air in his lungs and his legs were on fire.
"Come on Weasley," Hermione shouted out as she ran just past Fred, "I thought you were supposed to be in good shape." Hermione smiled as she saw Fred struggling to keep up, he'd taken off too fast and couldn't keep up that speed. Hermione collapsed by the lake when she got there with a big smile on her face. She did not care how but she had beaten someone in an impromptu race and she felt on top of the world. Fred knew he was already doing his job right when he saw her face.
"Congrats," he said as he leaned over, they both took a moment or two to get their breath back. "Now it's time to get down to the real fun." Fred picked up his wand and walked over to the lake.
"What exactly is the plan?" Hermione asked following. Fred smiled and leaned down to the water. It took him a moment to make sure he was doing the spell correctly but when he was sure nothing would go wrong he recited the spell they'd learnt in charms last week, perfectly. Hermione watched the water slightly confused when nothing seemed to happen. "Not to be rude Fred, but what was supposed to happen?" Fred's smile didn't change. He touched the water and immediately knew he'd done everything perfectly. Rather than the water feeling icy cold, his hand was greeted to warm water, the kind of temperature you'd find in a bathtub.
"What was supposed to happen is that water turns warm," Fred said standing back and up and beginning to remove his robes. "We're going for a late night swim." Fred explained. Hermione had to tear her eyes away as Fred got down to a dangerous amount of clothing. She felt her cheeks warming as she turned around unsure of what to do with herself. She waited until she heard a splash and turned around Fred was fully submerged into the water, all his clothes sat close by. Including his underwear. "Come on." Fred called from the water, "I promise it's nice and warm."
Fred wasn't sure if Hermione was going to along with it. He'd taken care of the temperature but it was down to her to let go and have fun. "Promise I won't look." He waited as Hermione slowly removed her robes. Sure he found Hermione not bad on the eyes but he would never hurt his younger brother by looking at Hermione that way. Ron had never said he fancied Hermione but anyone with eyes could tell that he liked Hermione as more than a friend. Fred turned around and waited until he heard a splash from behind him. Before he could turn around her felt a small wave of water hit him from behind and soaked his hair. Hermione was submerged up her neck but she was laughing and Fred splashed back.
The pair spent longer than either had planned playing in the water. Hermione was careful the entire time not to reveal herself to the Weasley but she often found herself just enjoying the moment. Fred was doing a very good job.
They made it back to the common room without any incident's. Fred felt rather proud of himself that he managed to pull the evening off without either landing themselves in detention. He was also rather proud of the fact that he had contributed to the smile currently on Hermione's face.
"So did you have fun?" Fred asked as he walked her to he bottom steps of the girls dorms. He'd tried to walk up the steps with George before but found themselves thrown back down each time they tried.
"I did, thank you Fred," Hermione said smiling, "I never thought I would be the kind of person who would enjoy sneaking around, or skinny dipping but I guess I am."
"I guess I'll see you tomorrow," Fred said, he felt himself wanting to lean in and hug her goodbye or something, but instead he settled for a smile and a nod before he walked away.