I was so absorbed in my book that I didn't even hear the door open. It wasn't really my fault though, 'The Return of the King' was my favorite novel.

"Mione?" I yelped and dropped my book, whipping up my vibrating wand. I turned around to face the intruder while mumbling the spell to stop my wand. It was Fred. He had his hands raised and was smiling, clearly fighting back a laugh.

"Ooh." I admonished, motioning him into the room. He closed the door behind him, openly laughing now.

"You scared me! What was I supposed to do? Stop laughing!" He didn't though, he just kept on laughing, wiping a tear of mirth from his eye.

"I'm sorry, but you just looked so cute with your wand vibing!" I gave him as stern a glare as I could manage, but I broke. He was right, I probably did look ridiculous. I ended up laughing with him as I made my way across the room to him. I sat down on the bed, thankful that Fred had made me laugh. I had been worried that things were going to be awkward. I motioned for him to sit down next to me and he did, sitting Indian style across from me, crossing his long legs on my bed. I mimicked his style and we sat with our knees barely touching. I instantly became aware of every nerve in my knees, the point where our legs were touching, and how warm his skin felt against mine.

After a moment we managed to get our laughing under control. I took a deep, calming breath and smiled at him.

"You're probably wondering why I made you come up here." He smiled and nodded his head, still laughing softly. "I wanted to explain what I did." That calmed him like I thought it would. He froze across from me and slowly brought his hand down from where it had been clutching his stomach. He laid them on top his knees, and the tips of his fingers gently brushed my legs. I felt the same keen awareness I had with his knees, able to tell where each finger was, and how heavy they were against my skin. I'd never had that sensation before and it sent a shiver up my spine that I shook off. Now was not the time to be ogling Fred, no matter how handsome he did look in his green shirt.

Focus. I need to focus.

I raised my eyes and looked into his blue ones. He looked slightly tense, but determined. I took a deep breath and clutched the book that I had been reading.

"Has anyone explained the Horcrux's to you yet?" I asked softly. He nodded his head.

"Yeah, George told me about it. Creepy."

"Yeah, it was real creepy. Well, Dumbledore told Harry, Ron, and Myself about them right before he died. He never got a chance to explain much about what they were though. So after he died, I… Well, I took some books from his office." My cheeks flushed horridly and I dropped my gaze from his, running my hand along the lettering on the front of the book.

"How'd ya do that? I thought Dumbledore's office was sealed off." His voice wasn't accusing, or even disgusted. It was simply curious.

"I used a summoning charm from the girls' dormitory. It flew right out of his window into my room."

"Brilliant." I raised my eyes, expecting to see a disgusted face. He was anything but. He looked at me with admiration, something I had never expected. Everyone I had told had made me feel guilty about what I did, even Harry had sounded like he thought it was disrespectful. Fred just sounded like he thought it was a cool idea.

"Really?" I asked before I even thought. He looked surprise and nodded his head.

"Yeah, I never would have thought of it. Why do you ask?" I blushed and lowered my gaze again.

"Well, everyone else seemed to think it was disrespectful."

"Really? Why? It's not like he was going to need them again. He probably would have thought it was brilliant too. Don't worry about what they say, their probably just upset they didn't think of it."

I stared at his eyes in utter shock. That was really sweet and sensitive, something I had never expected from him. I realized I was staring a moment later and hastily continued the explanation I had begun.

"Yeah, uhm, anyway, they were really horrible books, full of dark magic. It was terrible to read. But one spell stuck out at me. I read the page about a million times and never could figure out how it was dark, not that there was much info on it." I realized I was losing him when he started to look confused. I opened the other book I had laying on my bed and flipped through the pages.

"Here, just let me read it to you." I looked back down to the book and began to read the passage aloud.

"Ago Redimio: Causes the lives of the caster, and the receiver of the cast to be bound. The affects are much like that of a Horcrux, where neither can die while the other lives. Both share injuries so that the affects are spread out and not as damaging. Also, the spell has an adverse affect with the individuals…" I finished the passage and closed the book, avoiding Fred's eyes. We sat in silence for a moment; I was still avoiding his eyes so I just stared at the book.

"Seriously?" He asked his voice quiet and disbelieving. "That's all it said?"

I raised my head a little, staring at his shirt instead of his face. "Well, it could have said more, the rest of the page was ripped out." I looked up in surprise when he suddenly let out a loud snort of laughter. He was smiling widely and looked like he was about to break down laughing. Which he did less than a minute later. He laughed so hard that tears started to fall from his eyes. His joyous, carefree laughter was so contagious that I couldn't help but join in with him. I laughed so hard I cried. It was just all so absurd! It sounded like something you'd read in a bad novel. How ridiculous was it honestly that the rest of the page was missing, I mean it was just funny.

We both laughed so hard that we fell on our sides, our legs dangling over the edge. I rolled over so that I was lying on my back and stared up at the ceiling as I tried to catch my breath. I draped my hand across my stomach and let my other one hang limply at my side. Fred rolled over beside me, lying on his back as well. He took in a deep breath, laughing lightly every few seconds. After a moment he grasped my hand. I resisted the urge to shoot up and instead just turned my head to look at him.

He was staring at me with a very serious expression on his face. His eyes were calm though and that helped reassure me. Plus the feel of his calloused hand on mine was distracting me from the worry I probably should have felt.

"Hermione?" His voice startled me out of my thoughts. I nodded my head to let him know that I had heard him and was listening.

"What do you think it meant by the two lives our bound?"

"Well, I'm assuming that it somehow bound our life forces together."

CRACK

The loud noise startled me and I jumped, grabbing my wand and twisting in front of Fred in one motion. I had gotten so used to protecting Harry that I didn't think before I threw myself in front of people anymore. George appeared in front of us, sitting on Ginny's vacant bed. He had a huge grin on his face and looked as though he had been thoroughly, well, snogged. His hair was ruffled, his clothing mussed and he had what appeared to be lipstick smeared all over his cheek and neck.

I dropped my wand and let out an annoyed growl. Fred sat up, his arm brushing mine as he did so. Because of how I had moved we were now sitting right next to each other.

"You really need to stop being so jumpy." He said smiling at me and winking. He then turned his head and looked at his brother. I moved my head and looked at him also, fighting the urge to laugh at his mussed appearance.

"Oi, have a good time at Verity's?" Fred's voice sounded right next to my ear and I had to fight back the urge to shiver. Darn it, now was not the time for old school crushes to emerge. Even if I was about to marry the boy, err, man.

I pushed the un-wanted emotions away and looked at George. He had just said something, which I had completely missed. Fred was laughing in reply.

"How about you two, what have you been doing?" He asked, eyeing the nonexistent space between his brother and me. That sobered Fred right up.

"Discussing what happened."

George grew quiet and looked at Fred expectantly. "Well?"

Fred glanced at me before answering his brother. "We may be in trouble."

A/N: You guys rock! I'm having a lot of fun writing this story, and it's great knowing that other people like it too. Feel free to make suggestions, or point out any errors you notice.