She quickly exhausted the limited amount of books she had brought with her and was out of anything to read. Because of this she'd been unusually irritable and the Burrows inhabitants had taken to avoiding her. Only two were unfazed by her mood. The twins had taken to teasing her even more. They were used to Ron's short temper so they felt perfectly comfortable with her.
Ron himself on the other hand was growing increasingly frustrated and the twin's decision to befriend Hermione only made it worse. Harry and Ginny had found solitude in each other and were rarely found without the other. Hermione had had the misfortune of walking in on them snogging once and had been assaulted by Ginny's banshee screaming. Harry had apologized later but it had been a sad and unconvincing thing to which Hermione only raised a sarcastic eyebrow.
Hermione was pleasantly surprised by the twin's new openness with her. Fred, she thought, was the more daring of the two. He thought of most of their pranks and was quick to try it out on anyone that was irritating him. George on the other hand was much more practical. He figured out how to go about making most of their products and was a touch more intelligent then Fred if a bit more introverted.
Their fifth year of school, Fred and Georges last, was coming up quickly. After Harry's name had been cleared, they had all endured much whining from Percy's behalf about how Harry was lucky Fudge had been so forgiving, they set out to Diagon Alley for supplies.
"Now, I want you all to be very careful." told them all. "Don't talk to strangers and stick together. I don't want to come back with out one of you like last year." She looked pointedly at the twins who merely grinned at her. "Meet me back here in two hours. Harry, Ron, Hermione, you three go together. The twins will be together of course. And Ginny you stay with me." glared sharply at her before she could protest and they all parted their separate ways.
"Oh! Let's go in the quidditch store first! I hear they've got a brand new broom!" Ron said excitedly. Harry too looked eager to go check out the store but looked at Hermione, knowing how much she detested quidditch.
Hermione shook her head. "You guys go ahead, meet me at the bookstore when you're finished." And without waiting for them to respond she swept off to Flourish and Blotts.
She hadn't expected to run into so many Slytherins when she got there.