AN: Wow! I'm floored at how many reader alerts I got! Thank you so much for those of you who left reviews. I appreciate the positive feedback. More reviews are welcome. Hope you like the next chapter. I will admit, I found myself chuckling at how last bit of the chapter came out.

Chapter 4

She stood in the middle of the Great Hall of Hogwarts. She was covered in dirt and blood with her clothes torn. Ignoring her shaking hand, she pointed her wand at the tall, pale, snakelike man.

"Did you actually think you would win against me you mudblood? Me? The strongest wizard to ever exist! The most feared wizard of all time? " Those red eyes glared at her with complete hatred as he taunted her.

"Look around you Hermione Granger. Everyone you have every loved, ever cared about is dead. They will never have the life they have always dreamed of. All because you couldn't save them" He gestured as he spoke and she followed where his hand was pointing.

There on the floor lined up were bodies. The bodies of her parents, Ron, Harry, The Weasley Family, Sirius, Remus, Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall and her classmates. She felt as if her heart had been ripped out of her chest.

"No!!" she screamed out in agony.

"No!" Hermione shot up out of bed gulping for air with tears streaming down her face.

She quickly got out of bed and stood in the middle of the room. She closed her eyes and saw that horrible image from her dream. The image of all those people dead on the floor of Hogwarts. Their lifeless eyes staring at her and the look on their face almost asking why she hadn't saved them.

"It was just a dream Hermione. Voldermort is dead. He can't hurt anyone anymore." she told herself. She wrapped a robe around herself and walked through her small flat to the kitchen to get a glass of water and then went to her usual seat in the window. It felt as if she spent everyday just staring out this window.

She replayed the dream in her head over and over again. It was the same dream every night. Every single person in her life had been snatched from her and there was nothing she could do.

After the war, she felt alone and guilty. Why couldn't she save all the people who had died? Why couldn't she keep her parents safe? Life was so precious and fragile. How could this have happened? If she could have given up her life to save others lives, she would have done it in a heartbeat.

Hermione stayed in her window seat and watched the sun come up. She slowly came to the realization that she needed to go and get ready for her first day at WWW. She stood up and stretched and went and took her shower. Afterwards she brushed out her long curly hair and put on her new work robes and stared at herself in the mirror. Her sad brown eyes were looking back at her.

"OK, get it together Hermione" she murmured to herself "You've got to get to work."

Hermione grabbed her wand and with a pop apparated over to the shop. She took a deep breath and stepped into the shop.

"There she is! Our newest employee! Don't you look cute in your magenta employee robes!" crowed George.

Hermione grimaced at him. "Good Morning George. I'm reporting for duty. Where's Fred?"

"He's upstairs making breakfast. Have you eaten yet today?" As soon as he said that he heard Hermione's stomach rumble.

"I'll take that as a no!" He laughed "Come on, let's go get something to eat. Can't have you starving on your first day of work! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day Granger."

"Oh George, you sound like your Mum!" She smiled at him as he pretended to look horror struck and faint from her comment.

George followed Hermione up the stairs and couldn't help but reflect back on his greeting to her. She really did look cute in those robes. The color seemed to bring out those chocolate brown eyes even more.

"Well hello Granger and less good looking twin of mine! Come to eat some of the delicacies that I have cooked up on this lovely morning?" Fred said upon seeing Hermione and George enter the flat.

"Sure did Fred. What do you have cooking?" Said Hermione

"Toast!" Fred Proudly stated.

"Toast?" Hermione raised a skeptical eyebrow, "Toast is a delicacy? That's news to me!"

"I'll have you know that my toast is the best toast there ever is!" Said Fred, trying his hardest to look appalled at Hermione's previous statement.

"Yeah, plus that's the only thing he's allowed to make. Last time he tried to make something other than toast he practically set fire to the kitchen!" Laughed George jumping in.

"Oi! If it weren't for my toast Georgie, you would starve!" Fred interjected.

Hermione couldn't help but giggle as the boys whipped out their wands and proceeded to have a sword fight in the middle of the kitchen.

"Um, boys? As much as I'm enjoying this little theatrical display of yours, I'm pretty sure that your "delicacy" as you put it is about to burn. And also, we should probably get a move on since we need to open the store in 20 minutes."

"Right you are Granger! George here just needed a little arse kicking for insulting my culinary expertise." Fred stated with a mock glare at his brother.

The three proceeded to eat breakfast and trooped downstairs to the store.

"Right, here's the deal Granger. You're our new employee. We'll show you the ropes around the store and we also want to use that brilliant mind of yours to help us come up with new products. We were quite impressed with your improvement on the singing potion last night" George stated with a twinkle in his eye

"Yes, it wasn't bad for an amateur." Fred chimed in

"Amateur? I thought I did quite well thank you!" Hermione claimed indignantly. Secretly, she was enjoying this banter with George and Fred. They had such energy around them that it was difficult to not want to take it in.

"When your time here is over Granger, you will be a master prankster, coming in behind Fred and I of course. Now come on and let me show you around the store." George winked at her.

George spent the next half hour walking Hermione around the store and explaining the products. Every now and then he and Hermione would start to discuss the different spells and difficult magic it took to create each of the products. She couldn't help but be impressed with the talent they both displayed.

"Right, come with me Granger. Let me show you our wonder witch products." George grabbed her hand to lead her away and Hermione immediately felt a flutter in her stomach at his touch but quickly brushed away the feeling as being nervous at the thought of her first day of work.

The rest of the day proved to be a busy one for Hermione. Customers were in and out all day and she was constantly busy with her work at the register. Fred and George kept busy restocking shelves and helping customers. They weren't kidding when they spoke about their charm. Anyone who walked into the store found themselves laughing at the owners' antics and stories. She smiled and shook her head, they really were meant to have their own joke shop and it was immensely successful.

Fred ushered the last of the customers out the door and put the closed sign in the window of the shop and all three of them shuffled up to the flat and collapsed on the couch.

"I can't believe you do this 6 days a week! It's exhausting!" Hermione groaned as she took off her shoes to stretch her feet.

George picked up one of her feet and started rubbing them, causing Hermione to moan and close her eyes.

"George, you have no idea how good that feels!" she said

George and Fred both looked at each other and raised an eyebrow.

"You know Granger.." Fred started off

"We can make you feel good in other ways too.." George finished and wiggled his eyebrows at Hermione. She quickly opened her eyes and her jaw dropped.

"I..um..oh..I don't…" She stuttered

"Relax Granger. Dinner. I was talking about dinner. We didn't even have time for lunch today. Maybe we can order some takeaway before we start working on new products?" George smirked at her while Fred snickered behind her. She gave each of them a playful slap. If they wanted to play at this game she would play. Hermione licked her lips seductively and reached over and put one hand on George's leg and the other on Fred.

"Oh really? That's too bad George. I was all prepared to give you both a full body massage." She trailed off and watched as both of their faces showed their shock until she burst out into peals of laughter.

"That was way too easy! You should see your faces!!" she continued to chuckle to herself.

"That wasn't very nice Mione. You're playing with our emotions!" Both twins pretended to pout.

"Aww..don't worry, you'll get over it eventually!" She winked at them both and jumped off the couch. "Well let's go grab some dinner and finish up our work for the night boys!"

They groaned and heaved themselves off the couch to follow her down the stairs.

Hermione and Fred held their stomachs as they laughed hysterically at George. He had just tested a product the three had created. He was standing in the middle of the back room of the shop. The candy had transformed his clothes into a ballet leotard and tutu and caused him to dance around the shop. After a few minutes the candy wore off and George returned to his regular appearance.

"That was bloody fantastic!" Exclaimed Fred. Hermione nodded her head in agreement and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"We could have these on the shelves by next week! They'll be a hit!" exclaimed George

"It was a pretty spectacular display!" Hermione chimed in and proceeded to check her watch. "It's getting late though. I should be heading out. I'll see you tomorrow!" She skipped over to Fred and gave him a hug and then headed over to George and gave him hug and perhaps holding on to him a bit longer than she hugged Fred.

"Bye Mione!" Fred and George said.

As George fell into bed that night he couldn't get the picture of Hermione's laughing face out of his head. When the candy had worn off he couldn't take his eyes off of her. Her beautiful skin was flushed with laughter and her eyes sparkled. He sighed and drifted off to sleep trying to think of ways to make Hermione Granger laugh tomorrow.