Chapter 4: Vigilance of Sleeping Wonders
Hermione started to swat George before it broke out into playful punches, both of them were heavily consumed in their bickering that they didn't really pay much attention to Fred's entrance. He leant upon the doorway and chuckled as he watched the pair argue, shaking his head at them he whisked out his wand to summon his Patronus. Hermione looked around and suddenly noticed a very quick creature gliding in between her and George breaking them from their squabble. Pausing they scanned the room for the interruption until their eyes came across Fred casually leaning against doorframe with a slight smile upon his face. Hermione's face turned to slight horror as she realized she was alone with the Weasley twins- the most notorious pranksters the world has ever faced since Sirius, James, and Remus. She had no idea how to approach them this time with their mischief making ways especially seen as they were aimed at her, and her alone. She may have dealt with them in the past but she could no longer take away house points, and she couldn't exactly threaten to write to their mother.
"What's from Krum?" He questioned again curiously. Hermione opened her mouth to come up with a response already getting worried by the mischievous gleam that consumed his sparkling eyes. Sparkling! What am I thinking? She mentally shook her head as if it would oblivate the unthinkable thought from her head. In her slight daze George spoke up to answer his twin, knowing that Hermione was in no state to do so.
"It's a love letter." George swooned, swaying from side to side with a dreamy gaze in his eyes. Fred's eyes flashed with disappointed that only George caught. However Hermione's concern grew even more when the two grinned manically, she attempted to ignore the twins' antics almost kidding herself that they wouldn't cause too much trouble during their visit. Putting the Weasleys twins at the back of her mind, her brain nagged her about letters that needed her attention more – no matter how daunting they would be.
The twins began to mutter to themselves unimpressed with her being too unaware of their meticulous presence. Cautiously the twins gathered some of their Gryffindor courage to approach the often temperamental witch knowing it could be the last thing that they ever do. Much to their surprise she didn't see them coming so much for constant vigilance thought Fred slightly concerned as to how she could of coped on her own for so long. She turned her back and started to move away ignoring their demands for her attention. The twins however were never ones to be ignored and so they put their plan into action.
"It iz I Krum. Viktor Krum. If only you knev hov much how I long to see thee. My sveet Hermy-own-ninny." Fred said dramatically in the best Bulgarian accent he could muster, mimicking a damsel in distress. He glanced over at the girl with a crooked smile playing at his lips to see if her attention had diverted back to him.
"Hi Fred." Hermione replied normally with her back turned away from him completely oblivious to his last sentence and action, assuming it was a greeting of some kind. For a split second Fred thought she had caught on only to be disappointed by the lack of response his smile falling from his face. About to try again a rather loud obnoxious screech came over from the where the eagle owl was perched. Hermione looked up at the owl noticing it growing rather irritable. Why has Malfoy owled me. He knows he's only supposed to contact via owl unless its urgent to avoid the inevitable of her roommates finding out. Wait… it must be urgent.
George saw Hermione distracted by the owl, and looked up at his twin noticing the determination on his face. This can't be good. Fred threw George a familiar look, that look was the look he gave when they were about to go into full on prank mode. That look meant to kick it up a gear. George knew that this was unavoidable so he cheerily winked at Fred for the plot to go ahead.
George began miming writing a letter in the air. "Oh Viktor!" He cooed three octaves higher than his normal voice. Both twins looked at Hermione to see if they had succeeded in their ploy for her attention. Hermione however was scowling at the owl nursing her several of her fingers in her other hand.
The twins noticed the sudden arrival of Harry, Ron and Ginny at the door. They gestured for them to be quiet, and happily grinned as the three nodded in slowly nodded in agreement, unaware of what the twins had in mind.
"Hermy-own-nin-ninny." Fred started, he looked for a response from the others and saw their eyes widen. "I miss you so much. I vish that you would come and stay." Fred mocked keeping his voice lower than normal, with thick over exaggerated accent. Yet the girl whose attention the pair wanted and were determined to have was still scowling at the owl and glancing down at her recently bitten fingers.
"Oh, Viktor. I miss you too." George started again carrying on the higher voice. "But, I'm just so busy at the moment." George grinned triumphantly at Fred, as they had finally managed to get the desired reaction- her attention on them. Hermione heard the voice and snapped her head to see what was going on. She froze, and then she felt the heat of her blush creep up on her cheeks knowing that her blush could easily compete with Ron's.
"I wove you, Hermy-own-nin-nin-ninny Gran-ger." Boomed Fred as it echoed throughout the rooms.
"Oh Viktor. I..I.." George swooned at Fred, and pretended to fan himself with his hand. They turned to gaze at each other's eyes from afar, really making a show of it. The boys then started a slow motion run towards Hermione, as she watched in utter disbelief. The two kept coming towards her in slow motion giving her ample time to move but she just stood there frozen to the spot. A large eruption of giggles could be heard from the doorway, Hermione's face blushed even more then she thought possible as she started to giggle along with her friends. George reached Hermione first pulling her with him as he continued to run straight past the slow motion Fred- who then stopped. He put his hand to his forehand pretending to search for the Hermione, miming that he was searching high and low for her.
"Hermy-own-ninny, vere are you my sveet?" Fred's awful accent that mocked Viktor causing hysterics to break out at the doorway,the sound of loud laughter filling the entire apartment.
"Hermione, save yourself! Run to the hills!" Ron yelled out through his laughter.
"Over here Viktor, my love." George called throwing his voice. George then pulled Hermione to the floor with and told her to down and duck with him. No sooner had George whispered the instructions Fred started to run towards them in a crazy fashion. George quickly whisked out his wand and muttered Impedimenta at Fred. His run began to slow down and he started to trip over George who was shielding Hermione from the collision. Fred fell still in slow motion defying all the muggle rules of gravity his arms flailing around as his head dived into the carpet barely missing Hermione. His legs were still falling through the air after his chin had made contact with the ground causing everyone to laugh harder. His legs started to reach the floor, however Hermione would be the landing pad. George grabbed Hermione and rolled her out of the way causing Fred to crash land into George.
"What on earth was that all about?" Harry said through his laughter.
"I got-" Hermione started however was cut off by George.
"She had a love," George started.
"letter from Krum." Fred finished while both the twins proceeded to make kiss noises.
Harry, Ron and Ginny all looked at each other and burst in laughter. Hermione joined them understanding the reasoning behind it, however Fred and George were slightly baffled heavily disliking the fact that they weren't in on the joke."We hate to be the ones to interrupt, but what's so funny." Fred said sceptically.
"And more to the point why don't we know?" George scolded. Both of them raised the eyebrows waiting for an explanation. The other four looked at Fred and George and again burst into laughter, causing the pair to display mock hurt, and they started to pout.
"Well the thing is." Harry started, he then shifted his gaze pointedly to look at Ron to finish with a large grin on his face.
"Is that well." Ron continued with false innocence portrayed on his face.
"Krum is." Ginny piped in, laughing harder with Ron, Hermione and Harry as the look of frustration grew on twins' faces.
"Will you get to the point already?" stormed Fred. George quickly cast his eyes to Fred whose hands were tightly clenched with the knuckles turning white. Fred looked down at his hands and quickly unclenched them his face turning a slightly red colour.
"Engaged." Hermione finished.
"Who to?" George pounced quickly, looking at Hermione's ring finger discreetly, and then breathing a sigh of relief when he found it bare.
"Oh." Hermione flustered. "My second cousin." Everyone gazed at Hermione with slight shock on their faces.
"Your cousin? Hermione why didn't you tell me?" Ginny gushed. "That's great news, isn't it guys?" She said the last two words through gritted teeth trying to encourage them to say something positive rather than gawking at her. "How did they meet?" Ginny questioned trying to break the silence, as she could see Hermione building a hypothetical security wall around herself.
Hermione cleared her throat "Oh well..um… Viktor was helping my search for my parents-"
"Wait, hold on a dam second. You let Viktor help you! But you refused to let your best friends?" Ron started to brew.
"You and Harry have had Auror training." Hermione said trying to keep her voice steady.
"But we would've of helped you Hermione. I wanted to help you find them; I wanted to be there for you. But instead you just let Krum help. I feel hurt Hermione." Ron said in defeat.
Fred could quickly see the argument escalating so broached to change the subject, and quick. His eyes rapidly scanned the apartment until they reached the owl sitting on the window sill.
" Oi Granger, I think that owl wants a reply. It's starting to get impatient." Looking over at the impatient owl hoping it wouldn't nip his fingers too hard. " I'll go and get the letters for you." He turned making a quick dash towards the owl.
"Thanks Fred." She smiled at him, knowing he caught the double meaning for getting her out of this mess.
"Congratulations, Hermione." George started catching on to changing the subject, fanning himself with the letter from Angela Nightingale. Everyone turned at looked him in surprise.
"Didn't you lot know. She's only tried telling three times tonight, but nah you guys keep interrupting." He said shaking his at them all, followed by several tutting noises to try and shame them further.
"George, what are talking about?" Hermione asked moving closer to him, as she began to realize what he held in his hand. Fred then caught Hermione before she could move closer and held out his hands with the letters in, however when she went to take them he withdrew his arm. She huffed aloud. The smile on his face grew wider lowering his head his performed a regal bow sshe stifled a small giggle.
"Mi Lady." He said not moving from position except lifting his head to make eye contact with her. He watched in delight as her cheeks tinged a rosy red in embarrassment, she cautiously went to take the letters from his hand. He gently grabbed her hand and placed soft kiss upon it, causing her to blush even more. He chuckled loudly and handed her the letters. As he passed them he noticed the Malfoy seal on the back, he raised one eyebrow to inquire about it, she looked pleadingly at him to drop the matter so after several seconds of contemplating he did just that.
Hermione sighed in relief, that he didn't ask more than he did- not wanting to cause another argument for the evening. She already owned Fred from changing the subject once, and now again for ignoring the Malfoy seal. Hermione knew that he would come questioning about it later, she just hoped he wouldn't want too many details, and if he did then she hoped that Ron or Harry wasn't around.
Once everyone had finally fallen asleep Hermione finally had the chance to open her letters from Malfoy and hopefully enough time to make a response to Healer Guiscard. As it was three in the morning she was relatively sleepy, knowing that she needed to be able to think when she read the letters she quietly left her room and snuck silently passed the other bedrooms, and into the lounge. She awed at the twins noticing how handsome and peaceful they looked as they slept, discreetly moving past one of the sofas she was then grabbed by Fred. He pulled her towards and nuzzled her neck. Hermione was squirming trying to get out of his grasp, she was about to start to swat him.
"Angelina." He grumbled incoherently. "I've missed you baby." He all but moaned, as he pulled her closer to him. Hermione realized he was sleep talking, or hugging… or something. His grip was strong like a vice as she tried wriggling out of his grasp, cursing herself for forgetting her wand.
"Angelina, baby." He started to kiss her neck. Hermione started to panic now. Oh Merlin, he's kissing me! She tried taking calming breaths, and hoped that Fred would stop soon.
"Angie, don't ignore me. I need you sweetheart; you know I can't stand it when we fight." He mumbled in his sleep. Hermione saw the other body stir on the other sofa.
"George." She hissed. "George." She tried. Hermione quickly had a new idea. "George Katie Bell's waiting for you."
"Huh? Really? Oh crap. I'm not ready. She … she can't see me like this. "He got out of his bed quickly, jumping to his feet rustling his hand through his hair. He froze as he woke up more beginning to realize that there was no Katie Bell. Hermione would have normally sniggered at his reaction but was in a rather compromising position.
"That was low…" He sauntered, then his face dropped as he saw Hermione struggling wrapped in Fred's arms.
"Well desperate times, call for desperate measures." She hissed back at him knowing that Fred was in too deeper sleep to wake, and she heard somewhere that you should never wake a sleepwalker. She tried to figure out if the same thing would apply to this situation or if was all just utter nonsense.
"You know what, I'm tempted to leave you there." He drawled. Her eyes widened at him becoming very aware of the arms squishing around her and the mumbled snoring that was very close to her ears
"You…you wouldn't." She stuttered becoming more of a question than a statement.
"That was a low blow Granger, and you know it. Besides I think you'd enjoy yourself." He smirked at her.
"George, I'm sorry. I just.. I " She pleaded, not wanting to spend the night in Fred's arms trying to ignore how comfy she had started to feel. Fred moved whispering nonsense in her ear, then moved placing a kiss on her head then deeply inhaled her hair, relishing in the smell of violets.
"Alright then, prove it." He said sniggering at himself for becoming such a genius. Trying to hold in more sniggers as he watched his brother place kisses on Hermione's neck as George watched her try and shun him away unsuccessfully.
"I'm really sorry and I'll never do it again." She tried, still trying to escape Fred's grasp and lips, as he started to stoke her hair.
"Nice attempt, but not quite."
"Angie, Angie, baby. I love you so much, I want you." Fred said huskily even in his deep sleep, clearly enjoying his little dream. Georges started to chuckle uncontrollably.
"George. Help. Me." Feeling increasingly more awkward the longer she stayed there, so much for being comfortable she thought.
"Make me offer I can't refuse." .
"Ang, you're so warm and soft. I could hold you like this forever." Fred said with his eyes wide open, scaring Godric's pants off of Hermione.
"He's still asleep Granger." George interrupted settling her a little bit.
"I'm sorry, I'll never sink so low again. I'll even help with your products." She said already instantly regretting the offer.
"I'll make a deal with you Granger, help us with some tricky products, and I want you to explain why you're down here, at three in the morning with those letters." He said bluntly stated pointing towards them.
"Okay, okay. I surrender down to you. Please, George." She pleaded.
A triumphant grin spread across his face. Hermione was just in the mist of wondering what she had let herself in for, knowing that those letters contained some very personal, and secretive information. She wouldn't be happy telling Ron and Harry about it, but the thought of telling the truth to at least someone gave her some comfort.
"I think we've made a deal Granger." He gently bent down to Fred and Hermione.
"Freddie, its me. George." He started hoping it would repel Fred off of her, knowing that it worked for him when they were younger when they used to share a bed through the thunder storms and even during the roughest nights of war providing some sort of safe feeling.
"Don't be so silly Georgie, it can't be you. You don't feel this good." Fred dreamily said. Hermione squeezed her eyes tight, hoping that George would get his brother off her soon.
"Gred, it's me. Get off." He said implying a bit more force into his voice.
"Oh Forge, don't be so daft. You don't have these." His hands slowly started to make their way up her body to Hermione's breasts. She pleadingly looked at George before Fred's hands could trail up any further. George looked concerned to feeling his slightly brotherly instinct for Hermione kick in.
"Fred, get off of her. It's Ginny. I was trying to save you the embarrassment." He snapped at him. Hermione choked at George's latest tactic.
Fred's hand froze on the bottom of Hermione's ribcage. Hermione let out slow shaking breaths hoping he'd let go after this attempt. George was obviously becoming impatient with his brother. He leaned over into his twins ears and whispered something Hermione could not hear. Fred instantly released Hermione as George moved away, letting her body tumble to the floor, letting out a small surprised yelp before she got up and headed for the kitchen. It was time to tell someone the truth,she quickly cast a silencing spell with non-verbal magic, and put the kettle on for some coffee whilst she patiently waited for George.
Meanwhile George checked on the sleeping Fred, casting a simple charm on him that settling into a peaceful sleep rather than one filled with constant sleep talking that no one needed to hear. Giving his twin one last glance before heading towards the kitchen.