A/N: hey, this chapter is considerably shorter than the other one because I am going away for a week and wanted to post one more before I left.

Enjoy!

Hermione was dead tired. She rolled out of bed making a hollow thud on the floor as her face landed in her sliver stiletto from last night.

Ugh.

Last night. Last night she had gotten a term's worth of detention. Last night she had had a massive fight with Ron. Last night she had cried in front of Fred Weasley. Last night Fred Weasley had kissed her. Twice.

She lifted herself up off the floor and looked around. The other girls were all asleep. Cool. A clean bathroom.

F+H

Fred stretched out in bed, grinning like an idiot. Hermione Granger.

He had kissed Hermione Granger. Twice. Admittedly, they hadn't really been kisses and she hadn't really kissed back, but still.

The fact that she hadn't broken Fred's nose was a modern miracle. Fred hummed to himself as he jumped out of bed and did a little dance into the bathroom.

George gave an amused snort and Fred leapt three feet into the air. "What are you doing?" Fred gasped.

"I could ask the same thing of you," George chortled, holding his sides. Seeing his twin brother do the grapevine across the room, plus his own arm movements was freaking hilarious.

"Nothing," Fred said, trying to hold onto his last shred of dignity.

"This wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that you kissed Hermione Granger, would it now?" George asked, pretending to be completely oblivious.

"How did you know about that?" Fred said aghast. They were twins, but they didn't share a telepathic bond did they? Maybe it only worked one way. Well, man, that sucked.

George dispelled his freaky telepathy theories when he said, "Uh, maybe because you skipped in here-yes, my brother skipping-singing, 'I kissed Hermione Granger, I kissed Hermione Granger.'"

"Okay, okay," Fred hissed, looking warily over at the other sleeping boys in the room.

"What's happening?" Lee Jordan asked, sitting up and trying to flatten his serious case of bed head.

"Fred kissed Hermione Granger," George said to Lee matter-of-factly.

"Oh," Lee said.

Silence fell over the trio for a total of thirty seconds. Then Lee ventured to speak, "You mean the uptight one that your little brother is totally in love with."

"Yup," confirmed George.

Oh shit, Fred thought. He had completely forgotten about Ron and his 'little' crush on Hermione.

"And," George said. "She's practically going out with Krum."

"Okay," Fred snapped, waving his hand. "You are not helping." He walked, not skipped to the bathroom and shut the door.

"Ah shit," he leant against the locked door and sighed.

Well, that was it, wasn't it? He couldn't go out with her now.

Poor Ron, he was the youngest and never got anything first. Fred couldn't exactly steal his girl as well. Damn, well, he'd have to start dropping hints about Ron into their conversations just when he wanted to kiss her.

Grr.

F+H

Hermione stared out the window into the chilly grey horizon and pulled on her warmest coat before going down to breakfast.

Rounding the corner and going into the Great Hall Hermione saw few students, and only one at the Gryffindor table. That one, of course, was the one and only Fred Weasley.

God, Fate's a bitch.

"Hey," Hermione said.

"Morning," Fred said, unusually subdued for a Weasley twin.

She pulled over the Daily Prophet as she sat down across from him and a plate of pancakes appeared.

Hermione tutted.

"What?" Fred said, uncharacteristically sharp.

Well, Hermione wasn't going to lose an opportunity to spew facts about, um, S.P.E.W. "It's Boxing Day,"

"So?"

"Who made these pancakes?"

"Yes, Hermione," Fred sighed, putting his share of the paper down. "We all know that the house elves never get a day off. You know what? They like it that way." He finished wearily.

"If you could just spare a Knut?" Hermione wheedled, grabbing a moneybag from the deep dark recesses of her coat pocket.

"No," Fred said. God, she knew his family's money situation. Admittedly she didn't know about the Ludo Bagman-leprechaun gold situation, but even so, money was a delicate subject for the Weasley's. "I cannot spare a Knut for your stupid Vomit Club or whatever it is." He banged his fist on the table, emphasising his point and stormed out of the Great Hall, just as George and Lee walked in.

They stopped next to Fred, "Where have you two been?" he snarled.

"My God, he sounds like my mum." George said in an undertone to Lee just as Fred wailed, "My God, I sound like my mum!" and fled the Hall.

"On the other hand," George said conversationally. "I think Ron only has to worry about Krum now." As he saw Krum talking in earnest to 'Her-my-oh-ninny.'

F+H

"I will donate to, how you say, spew," Krum said, holding out an unusually shiny Galleon.

Hermione flushed. "Oh, thanks Viktor."

He began talking and Hermione stood, almost knocking over the stupid, argument starting pancakes as she did. "Sorry, I have to go." She murmured as she too fled the Great Hall.

She wandered the corridors aimlessly before ending up in the library, completely accidentally.

She strolled over to the back shelf and pulled off a dusty volume off the shelf. She inhaled deeply, loving the strong smell of parchment swirling in her nostrils. She opened the book and sank into a chair, revelling in the crackling of the yellowing pages. She took another deep breath, moving the spine under her nose, just as a certain red head rounded the corner.

"You smell books for fun?" Fred asked teasingly as Hermione pulled the book guiltily away from her face.

"Yes." Hermione answered shortly. Her voice seemed to make the room infinitely colder and Fred suppressed a shiver.

"Okay," He drew the word out. "Look I just wanted…" Fred lost his train of thought then. He suddenly noticed how gorgeous she was and said stupidly, "You're really pretty."

"You're an idiot," She arched an eyebrow.

"That may be," his lips twitched. To finish strong because he was a Weasley twin and that's all you need to know, he winked. "See you in detention."

Hermione rolled her eyes as he left the library and suppressed a smile.

Ciao!!