When Hermione awoke, it was just after six. She had two choices. She could either spend time now, adding some makeup and fixing her hair and picking out an outfit; or she could go back to sleep, have messy hair, add no makeup, and pick her outfit in a hurry so Ron and Harry wouldn't whine about her slow speed.

She chose the second choice. After all, who did she have to impress?

She jumped out of bed, throwing the covers back and hurrying to the bathroom to hop in the shower. Well, maybe she didn't have anyone in particular to impress, but maybe she just wanted to look nice. After taking a shower, she dried herself and added a bit of makeup. With her robe wrapped around her, she looked in her closet for an outfit. Just a casual outfit, of course. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Fred woke up to an alarm from his pillow. It was a joke pillow from the shop - well, the shop they were hoping to make happen after school. If you were still lying down when it finished singing the chosen song, that only you could hear so it didn't wake anyone else, it would burn your face and any place it touched, so you couldn't just throw it anywhere. Fred's song was a loud, screaming one by The Weird Sisters.

He was thinking of his options. His first would be to just lie down all day and let his face get burnt. He could blame the redness on his show for school spirit, and he'd go to Pomfrey later. Then he thought of Hermione seeing him. The thought made him rush out of bed and towards the shower.

What could she wear?

What could she wear?

Clothes were so infuriating! You had to match, fit, and look good in your clothes all at once. She decided she'd get back to her clothes in a second, and she put all of her focus on her hair.

Perusing through her collection of hair products, the majority of them being gifts she'd received for Christmas or birthdays from distant friends and relatives, Hermione huffed. Bypassing Sleakeasy in favor of something that wouldn't leave her hair feeling greasy after a few hours, she stumbled across a bottle of leave-in conditioner a distant cousin had given her. She weighed her options and finally decided to trust her after remembering she'd just gotten certified for cosmetology.

Taking the cylindric bottle, Hermione popped off the cap and pumped a small amount into her hand. She looked at the small amount in her hand, sighing. She never stooped so low for a boy. Her thoughts flashed to the ball momentarily. Well, that was more for spite than anything, she reasoned with herself. Applying the product to her hair, she decided she could be pretty just because she could - and not out of spite. Take that, Hogwarts.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! My eyes! My eyes! They're burning! Oh MERLIN! My eyes!" Fred had just walked in on a very naked Seamus, and he saw a bit too much for his liking. He was now lying on the floor, shouting, even after Seamus wrapped a towel around the lower portion of his body. "Mental images! And REAL images! Make it stop!"

"Fred?"

George came upon them first, took in the scene quietly, and nodded, as if he understood everything.

"George! Make it stop!"

"Stop what?" George asked, very amused.

"The images!" Fred exaggerated, "Make them go away!"

Another pair of footsteps were heard on the stairs and someone else walked in. "The sight was horri...ble..." he stuttered looking at the person walk in the room. It was Hermione.

She had finally found something to wear. Her hair was pinned up neatly in a ponytail, and she was wearing some old boots.

"Are you alright Fred? I heard shouting. Something about eyes, burning, and mental images," Hermione said, clueless to his staring.

"Yeah. He's alright, but can I say something?" George asked.

Hermione nodded, confused.

"You look bloody attractive!" George exclaimed, making the latter blush.

"I second that," Seamus held up a hand, the other keeping his towel secure.

Fred just nodded, his jaw dropped, but he was quick to snap to attention, "Not that you don't always look good."

The one sentence made them both blush to the roots of their hair. Hermione gave him a small smile, "Thanks."

George smirked. "I hate to break up this party, but I think Seamus is probably getting a bit cold, Fred needs a shower, and I need to pin up the list." They looked at Seamus who just nodded, his knuckles white where they held the cloth separating him from the audience of the room.

Hermione grinned, "Of course. I'll be downstairs waiting for the list."

George spoke up, "It's magicked so that you can only read your name and part. It was a bit difficult, but Fred finally got it right."

Hermione's jaw dropped, "You'll have to teach me that spell sometime. I could use it on my Christmas list. I'd be able to see everything, but no one else could. Same with writing letters to my cousins. I could make both read it, but they wouldn't see the same thing."

"Of all the things you could use that spell for, like forcing our baby brother and the-boy-who-can't-die to take their own notes, and you think of Christmas lists," George chuckled and shook his head.

"It really is extraordinary magic," Hermione beamed at the two, always enlightened by intelligent conversation. "You two can do really incredible things sometimes."

"Sometimes?" Fred pouted. "You wound us Granger."

She shook her head, her ponytail swinging as she did so. "I'll see you downstairs."

"I'll come, I need to post the list." George offered, the two walking down, leaving behind Fred and a shivering Seamus.

"So...do you like my brother?" George asked.

"No, Ronald and I are just friends thank you." Hermione sighed, used to the boys pestering her about the youngest Weasley male.

George, realizing she hadn't answered the question directly, "Five brothers and you automatically think it's ickle Ronniekins." George shook his head, "I meant dear Frederick."

The name made Hermione pause on the stairs. "Why would you ask that?"

George frowned, frustrated, "Just say you do, Granger because if you didn't you'd be lying."

Hermione bit her lip, attempting to play off the response. "I like the whole Weasley family."

"Hermione," George warned.

"Fine. I do like dear Frederick," she said quietly, noticing the common room wasn't empty. "However, Fred and I hardly know each other, so I truly believe it's just a mutual attraction built up from the time we've been spending together for the play."

"Building up a mutual attraction after spending time together," George nodded. "You're right. You two must not like each other at all. Or you're in denial."

"Don't you have a list to post?"

"This isn't over, Granger," George shook a finger at her, pulling a parchment from his back pocket that was entirely too big to have fit their without magical reinforcement.

She smiled. "I didn't imagine it would be."

George walked away from her and pinned up the list, moving out of the way so Hermione could see her name.

Hermione Granger didn't squeal, but when she saw her name and Pansy Parkinson written beside it she jumped up and down in excitement. She'd gotten it!

Caught up in her exuberance, she turned to the closest person to her, which was Fred and jumped up and down, pulling him into a kiss- hardly noticing what she was doing. All at once, she dropped her hands from either side of his face and disconnected their lips (after the kiss had finally registered with Fred), and backed up, eyes wide as a redness slowly creeped up her neck. "Um. Thank you," she directed this at George.

"Seems like you were a little more grateful to Fred," the Weasley twin smirked.

"For the role," she stuttered, walking back to the portrait hole and getting as close as she could to the door before bolting out of the common room to share the news with Ginny.

George raised a brow at Fred who was still standing where he had been standing, slack jawed. "Wow." Fred said, "That was better than at auditions."

"You think she's been practicing?" George asked jokingly. The pillow that hit him in the face must've been Fred's answer.