A:N/ Link to song for this chapter: www[]youtube[]com/watch?v=DMQbzLrvwlE

Copy, paste and replace the closed brackets with fullstops. FYI; I knew about the song before 500 Days of Summer, how hip am I? :P

To Be By Your Side

Chapter 7

A Lonely Soul

"See the life I've had

Can make a good man bad

So for once in my life

Let me get what I want

Lords knows it would be the first time."

Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want - The Smiths

Hermione yawned as she made her way over to the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. She dozily sat down next to George and dropped her heavy bag to the floor. She started placing food on her plate, feeling George wrap an arm around her while kissing her temple. Unfortunately for her, he was now well aware of her fatigued state and he was hardly going to let such a good opportunity pass him by. Shivers crawled up her spine as a warm slimy sensation spread from the back of her ear to her jaw. She batted his head loosely and wiped away his saliva, scowling at him. Seeing him grin as a response, she continued with her breakfast, determined to ignore him.

She was vaguely aware that he placed a hand on her knee as she poured out a glass of pumpkin juice but thinking nothing of it, she began eating.

"Hermione, you kinky thing, I didn't know you were into that sort of thing." Fred exclaimed. She furrowed her eyebrows but suddenly became acutely aware of the hand that was dangerously high up her leg. Thin nails scratched at her inner thigh and she recoiled by harshly slapping it.

"George! What were you doing?" She snapped, immediately awake. He grinned mischievously rubbing at his now lightly pink skin.

"Just seeing how tired you really are. It turns out a lot." He said, and she had to refrain from wiping the smile off his face.

"Why are you so tired? You weren't-" Fred began.

"-studying most the night again, were you?" George finished, and Hermione gave him a warning look.

"No. Professor McGonagall wanted me to help her with a new patrolling system and I wanted to get it done in one night." She explained, causing George to sigh.

"Typical Hermione, lying for professors." George said.

"I'm not lying." She said through gritted teeth, as her knuckles turned white around the spoon in her hand.

"You weren't helping, you did all of it." George stated, and Hermione chose to stay quiet, continuing to eat.

"That's the Hermione way." Fred said, and she glared at him. She yawned again and covered her mouth politely with her hand. George gently forced her head onto his shoulder as Harry sat opposite them. He chuckled lightly as George patted Hermione's head while she grimaced at him.

"I've told you Hermione, you don't need to study as much as you have been." Harry said, and Hermione lifted her head off George's shoulder, trying to appear more awake. She poured herself another glass of pumpkin juice and swallowed it down in one gulp. Mildly aggravated that it did nothing to help her sleepiness, she ran a hand through her bushy hair, as she unconsciously glanced over at the Slytherin table. She looked down it until her eyes landed on Ron.

The usual ache in her chest increased seeing him so alone. He was propping his head up, staring down at the table lifelessly. He took tiny bites out of his toast and the occasional sip of pumpkin juice but wasn't necessarily paying attention to it. He looked completely lost in his own thoughts and, judging by his expression, they weren't pleasant. His eyes that held so much emotion were radiating his sadness and suffering. His body was hunched over like he was trying to be as small as he could be but with his height, it was still easy to see him. She suddenly felt overwhelmed to wrap her arms around him telling him everything was going to be okay.

She bit her bottom lip and looked away, physically not able to look at him any longer and glanced at George, who was eating his breakfast without a care in the world. She hesitantly looked at Ron again and sighed sympathetically.

"George." She said quietly, and he looked at her, not noticing her troubled tone. She swallowed before continuing, "Has Ron always been lonely here?"

George looked mildly surprised at her question and peered over at Ron, instantly understanding why she asked him the question. He sighed and continued eating while saying, "Pretty much."

"Doesn't it bother you?" She asked, pushing her plate away and Harry looked between the two of them interestedly.

"Sometimes. I've gotten used to it now." He said, and she gave him a disapproving look which was something he noticed. "There's not much I can do about it."

"Ronnie thinks whenever we hang around with him we're taking pity on him." Fred explained, over hearing the conversation. It certainly sounds like something Ron would think, Hermione thought.

"And Ron being well -" George continued.

"-the stubborn git he is-" Fred included.

"-won't have it. We gave up after his third year-"

"-he'd only yell at us and end up getting even more moody."

"I'm quite surprised he doesn't get moody with you more Hermione. You see him more than any of us." Ginny joined in, now sat next to Harry. She gave Harry a brief shy smile which he returned.

"That's a point." Fred said, with a grin slowly forming. Once again, Hermione's knuckles turned white around her spoon.

"Don't get any ideas Fred. I only see him because we patrol together and I tutor him." She said strictly, and he feigned an innocent look.

"I wasn't going to say anything." He answered, holding his hands up in mock surrender.

Still seeing the familiar gleam of mischief in his eyes, she shook her head in disbelief and got back to the subject.

"He seems fine at the Burrow." She pointed out.

"That's because he's home. He can't accuse us of taking pity on him when we live in the same house." George said, making Hermione's eyebrows furrow.

"You have to understand Hermione; Ron is like two different people. At home he's himself, our brother, but here he's… just another student." Ginny tried to explain, and Hermione frowned.

"But he seems all right when I talk to him. He's Ron." Hermione answered, hoping she made sense. The Weasley children looked at each other with slightly perplexed expressions before Ginny spoke up again.

"I think that's because you're his first real friend that's not part of his family." Ginny concluded.

Hermione's mind reeled over what she just learnt. She was well aware that Ron didn't have many friends but she had thought he could have had some before Hogwarts. She swallowed, feeling much more awake and looked over at Ron again, unaware his eyes were already on her. They smiled at each other as the tips of his ears went red. Her smile grew even more seeing him embarrassed, until she heard a shockingly high pitched squeal that belonged to Lavender Brown.

"Parvati, he's smiling! I've never seen him smile! He looks so handsome!"

Hermione gave her a scolding look, the girl simply had no idea how loud she could be. What kind of an example was she setting? She was acting irresponsibly in front of the other students and Ron had probably heard her squealing. To check, Hermione looked over at him and saw him holding a mildly surprised expression then looked at her. He gave Lavender a look like she was insane while sniggering and Hermione couldn't help letting out a quiet laugh.

"Merlin, now he's laughing! Parvati, would you look at him?"

Now Lavender had successfully gained the attention of all the Weasleys who sat at the Gryffindor table, Harry, Seamus, Neville and Dean. They all simultaneously looked behind to see which Slytherin Lavender was cooing over and everyone's eyebrows raised in unison. Hermione laughed some more as Ron attempted to shrink in height from all the attention he was gaining.

"Oh the things I could do to him."

Hermione instantly stopped laughing. At first, it sounded as if Lavender could be talking about a baby; the way she had been cooing over him but now, that clearly wasn't possible. She glared at Lavender and was about to snap at her but Ginny beat her to it,

"Lavender, do you mind? That's our brother you're talking about. Keep your fantasies to yourself please." Ginny gave her a look similar to Hermione's and Lavender's smile dropped off her face. She shot Ginny a cold look before flicking her hair over her shoulder and turning away from them to gossip to Parvati.

Hermione smiled appreciatively at Ginny, despite the fact she wasn't paying any attention to her. She looked over at Ron again expecting to see him give her another 'Lavender's insane' look but saw his expression was far from it. He actually looked rather proud of himself and Hermione wasn't sure why that made her temper rise. Some random girl wouldn't mind sleeping with him? That's what made him smug? Seriously, are sex and Quidditch the only thing men care about? She thought to herself.

She gritted her teeth and glanced at her watch with her eyes widening seeing the time. She hastily pulled her bag on her shoulder with her anger immediately being replaced by worry.

"Harry, we better get to Defence Against the Dark Arts. You know Snape will deduct an unreasonable amount of points if we're late." She said, ignoring the fact he rolled his eyes at her. She stood up and pecked George's cheek in a goodbye, making him frown as Harry slowly got up.

"Is that all a man's getting?" He whined, and she raised an eyebrow at him, daring him to go further with the statement. "I'm surprised you can resist me at times."

"It's a good thing I do. Otherwise I would have hexed you long ago." She snapped jokily, lightly pushing his shoulder before walking to Defence Against the Dark Arts with Harry.

"I think it's got to the point now, I'm not surprised you're always late. Is it the same flying excuse?" Hermione questioned, when Ron ran up to her red in the face. He stopped in front of their usual tutoring table and leant down placing his hands on it, trying to catch his breath.

"I ran into Lavender." He managed to gasp out, and she furrowed her eyebrows at him.

"What?" She snapped, before she could stop herself. Thankfully, he didn't notice her tone.

"Was on time…ran into Lavender." He repeated, taking deep breaths standing up right, only to collapse into the chair opposite her. He ran a hand through his slightly greasy hair due to the sweat he got from his running. She bit her lip to stop from snapping again and tried to act nonchalant.

"What did she do?" She asked, taking out her Herbology book, glancing at him nervously to see him grin.

"I think she may have may have hit on me." He answered smugly, and she slammed the book down. She made it appear accidental and feigned her anger for confusion so he explained, "She said hello, I said hello back but said I had to get to a tutoring session. So she said maybe we could have a tutoring session of our own sometime."

"R-really?" She stuttered out of shock. She knew Lavender wasn't the most innocent girl in the world but she didn't think she was so upfront.

"Yep." He said complacently, and she frowned at him.

"Why are you so smug? I thought you said she wasn't your type." She said harshly, and he looked at her noticing it. He shrugged his shoulders before answering.

"She's not. But still, it is nice knowing someone wants you though."

"Especially if they'll sleep with anyone." She mumbled under her breath, which he didn't hear.

"Don't pretend you wouldn't like knowing that." He said, with a somewhat egotistical smile on his face.

"Actually, I wouldn't." She replied, flicking to the right page in the book to avoid looking at him.

"You're just saying that because you're with George." He retorted, and she sighed frustratingly.

"No, it's not because of that. I know someone who liked me that way and it was not pleasant." She snapped, and the smile wiped off his face in a flash with his eyebrows rising.

"Really? Who?" He asked, and she glanced at him. She could tell he was trying to act as casual as possible but secretly knew there was a little anger behind it.

"I'm not telling you that." She said, looking down at the book again.

"Why? Is it because George doesn't know?" He questioned, thinking that would be the only reason why she wouldn't tell him.
"No, he knows." She replied curtly, and got out her parchment and quill.

"Then what's the problem?" He asked, as she started making notes for him.

"The problem is I know you, and you will want to punch him." She retorted, making Ron's ears turn red. He awkwardly scratched behind his ear before smiling lopsidedly.

"At least we know it's a him." He joked, and she shook her head in disbelief.

"That's very mature." She reprimanded, and he sniggered leaning forward to rest his arms on the table.

"I won't care. Honest." He said quietly, and she groaned knowing he wasn't giving up on it.

"Fine, Cormac McLaggen. He's a seventh year Gryffindor" She said, with her handwriting becoming more rough than usual.

"I know who he is." He snapped back, "What did he do?"

"He was a bit too forceful." She wasn't entirely sure how to explain it without making it sound worse than it was and so far she wasn't being too successful. She looked up at Ron to see his jaw tensed and his fists clenched.

"Forceful?" He said, in a tone quickly getting to furious and she bit her bottom lip. She placed the quill on the table and rubbed her temples, knowing she had to put all her focus on her explanation for him.

"It's hard to explain. He wouldn't take no for an answer. He kept on touching me inappropriately while saying, 'it only has to happen once, it'll be our little secret, you can stay with your boyfriend.' It wasn't a pleasant experience knowing he wanted me that way." She clarified, to hear the gritting of Ron's teeth.

"Sounds like a sick perverted creep." He growled, for some reason sounding angry at himself rather than Cormac. She hesitated a look at Ron and saw him glaring at a spot on the table.

"He wasn't that bad. I don't think many girls have said no to him and actually meant it." She explained, which did nothing to ease Ron's anger. If possible it made him even more so.

"Don't make excuses. What made him stop anyway?" Ron snarled, sounding like he didn't want to know the answer, in a way.

"George tried hitting him with a bludger." She admitted, and Ron instantly burst out laughing. She sighed in relief but quickly glanced at Madam Pince to see her glaring at Ron. Hermione was about to tell Ron to be quieter since they were in a library when he let his laughter die down.

"I would have loved to have seen his face." He said, and she gave him a small smile remembering it. She thought she had better answer his question so they could start their tutoring session.

"Yes. Although, apart from that incident, I think I can understand why you'd think it's nice to know someone feels that way about you. I remember when I started getting to know George. Ginny told me she thought he liked me that way and it was a nice feeling." She sympathised with him, and saw him give her his trademark grin.

"I bet." Ron said sarcastically, and she rolled her eyes. "How did you two even become a couple? I know you went to the Yule Ball together but George never said anything about having a girlfriend after."

"Yes, we became closer after the Yule Ball. It was more official the summer afterwards, the day we were going back to Hogwarts. I got on the train and was trying to find the compartment Harry was in. I ran into George on my way and out of nowhere, he kissed me." She smiled fondly at the memory, having not thought about it in a while and Ron chuckled.

"Sounds like George. When he knows what he wants, he goes for it." Ron said, and she felt her smile drop reluctantly.

"Yeah, that can get slightly annoying at times though." She said in a serious tone, making Ron give her a befuddled expression.

"How?" He questioned, noticing how tense she'd suddenly become.

"It's probably why he's constantly in detention. What he wants isn't necessarily what's best for him." She revealed the half truth, not wanting to give away all her feelings on the subject.

"True." He murmured, staring intently into her eyes. She looked back into his, wondering what was going through his mind. She was curious why he seemed so interested in her relationship with his brother but maybe he was just trying to look out for him. She didn't notice she had stopped writing and that they were both sat, staring into each other's eyes.

She felt obligated to look away, however at the same time she didn't want to. She stared into his cerulean blue eyes and noticed they darkened in colour so they were more of a cobalt shade. She swallowed feeling her heart beat pick up, and unintentionally licked her lips. His eyes immediately darted down to her lips as her tongue retracted into her mouth and she left them parted, needing to breathe deeper. She saw his Adam's apple bob up and down, showing he swallowed and a jolt shot through her, straight to her core. She crossed her legs squirming a little and took her bottom lip in her mouth beginning to chew on it anxiously. He seemed transfixed, staring at the way she was nibbling her lip without so much as one blink. Seeing his pupils dilate, another jolt of heated electricity ran through her and she became very aware of a pulsating taking place beneath her stomach. She stopped chewing her lip and his eyes flashed back up to hers.

She wasn't sure how long they sat there staring at one another but when she had to ask herself that question, she instantly looked away. She tilted her head down so her hair could hide her slightly flushed cheeks and she fidgeted in her chair.

"We should get on with Herbology." She said, refusing to look at him and her words seemed to break his trance. She swallowed, noticing her dry throat and hesitated a flash of a glance at him. His ears turned bright red as his cheeks flamed and he awkwardly fidgeted in his chair.

"Uur yeah. Sure." He croaked, and they stayed on the topic of Herbology for the remainder of their tutoring session. They didn't spend too long studying, according to Hermione anyway, only two hours. The moment she said she thought they'd spent long enough studying he had packed away in a second and ran away at the speed of light. She wasn't much better considering she didn't even bother organizing her notes before shoving them into her bag and rushing to the Gryffindor Common Room.

She slowed down after a few minutes working out her rushing actually wasn't helping in the slightest. She raised her hand to her chest, feeling her heart pounding with a similar kind of pounding below her stomach. If Hermione Granger was being honest she would have admitted she was turned on and had been for the past few hours, in the presence of her boyfriend's brother. She would have also admitted she had never been quite so turned on before from a simple look. But considering she was lying to herself, she put down her state to her running when she walked through the portrait hole.

She looked around the common room and found the red haired twin she was looking for. She walked over to him to have Fred nod at her in a greeting, making George turn his head back grinning. Before he could say hello, she had taken his hand in hers and dragged him up so he was standing. She promptly stalked out of the common room pulling him along behind her. He looked back at Fred waggling his eyebrows suggestively making Fred smirk.

"Someone wants it bad!" He yelled after them, which Hermione mentally remembered to scold him for later. She rushed up the stairs to the Astronomy Tower. It was slightly unimaginative as it was a well known make-out spot in the castle but it was one of the few subjects that Hogwarts A History didn't cover. Therefore, Hermione was clueless as to where else they could go, giving their recent bad luck with the Room of Requirement.

"Hermione, what's gotten into you? I've never seen you like this." George exclaimed, out of breath as they slowed to a stop in the room, "Not that I'm complaining, it's kind of hot."

"Shut up." She snapped, causing his eyebrows to raise before she tilted her head up. Her lips brushed against his, in what she hoped to be a fairly seductive way. She guessed by his fingertips digging into her back and hearing him moan deeply, it worked. It was odd but as she kissed George, her heart race was decreasing rather than increasing like she had expected.

Determined not be put off by this, they moved slowly until she felt her back come into contact with the wall and his hands glided to her front. She hardly noticed his hand on her bare stomach pulling her shirt apart so it lay on her shoulders since she was too busy wondering why she wasn't feeling anything from the kiss. It wasn't causing her body to heat up like she'd expected. She felt quite the opposite and all she wanted to do was stop what was happening.

Luckily, he pulled away breathing heavily and looked down at her chest. She blushed self consciously and was about to button her shirt up again, not wanting him to see the hideous scar that lay there. Either he didn't notice it, which she doubted, or it was too dark for him to see it since he firmly brought his lips back to hers.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" The familiar drawl of Draco Malfoy echoed across the room snapping Hermione's head back causing it to hit the wall. She let out a wince and her hand went up to the source of pain. George pulled away from Hermione slightly, letting Draco and Lavender know exactly who they caught snogging wildly.

Lavender let out a noise of astonishment while Draco sniggered, not believing his luck. Hermione mentally scolded herself for not remembering it was their turn to patrol.

"Oh, this is too perfect." Draco said to himself more than them.

"You'd shut up Malfoy if you knew what was best for you." George snapped, not embarrassed in the slightest. Draco ignored him and his eyes drifted to Hermione, who was still nurturing her sore head and blushing awkwardly.

"I always wondered what you saw in this filth but now it seems pretty obvious." Draco drawled, glancing down at her open shirt. She immediately pulled it together, not bothering with the buttons and crossed her arms glaring at him. "If I knew she gave it up so easily, I might have looked past the fact she's a mudblood, for one night."

Hermione's eyes widened and she was slightly flabbergasted by his comment. She attempted to retort but couldn't think of anything, leaving her spluttering in outrage. She looked at George to see he was positively fuming at Draco and Hermione grabbed his arm, holding him back.

"Don't, he's not worth it." She snapped, forcing George to look at her hoping he wouldn't do anything she'd regret. She saw him visibly calm down and Draco smirked upon the scene as Lavender stood, knowing what she'd be telling Parvati when she got back to the common room.

"You should listen to that slut of a girlfriend of yours Weasley." He snapped, promptly angering George again.

"You're one too talk Malfoy, considering the girl you're with has probably gone through half the male population in this school." Hermione snapped bitterly, giving Draco the coldest look she could gather, given the circumstances. He raised an eyebrow at her in a questioning way and his eyes looked her up and down, in a way that made her insides squirm nauseatingly.

"Why don't you go fuck off Malfoy with your scumbag of a father." George retorted, seeing the way Draco was leering at Hermione. His insult instantly caused the smirk to drop off Draco's face and his gaze changed to a glare at George.

"Come on George, let's just go." She said, not wanting George to get in any more trouble, knowing the comment about Draco's father would undoubtedly end up having Professor Snape on his case. She pulled on his arm but he stood still, glaring daggers at Draco. "George, please!"

But it was too late. Draco smirked again about to say another crude comment about Hermione and George's fist collided with his cheek. George stormed off, leaving a shocked Lavender and a nervous Hermione with a whining Draco on the floor. Hermione sighed and hurried after George using the chance to button up her shirt. She found him back in the common room still furious with a concerned Harry and Ginny looking at him nervously. She bit her lip and walked over towards them taking a seat next to Harry.

"What happened?" Harry asked her, changing his gaze to her, seeing her nervous expression.

"Malfoy." She said, hoping that would be enough of an answer and Harry nodded.

"Fucking slime ball saying that about you." George mumbled, and she sighed reaching over to hold his hand.

"Yes, but you really shouldn't have hit him for it." She reprimanded him, and he rolled his eyes as Harry looked concerned at her. George leant back snatching his hand out of hers and she attempted to not show the pang of hurt it caused her.

"What did he say?" Harry asked, knowing it took a lot for George to get furious with Malfoy. George usually said a harsh joke at Malfoy's expense if he said something, he'd never gone as far as actually hitting him. Hermione was about to reply but George interrupted,

"Basically that Hermione was a filthy slut that he wouldn't mind having a go on." George growled, and Harry's jaw tensed.

"He didn't." Ginny said surprised and outraged. She looked at Hermione to check and saw her embarrassed expression. That was all she needed to know it was the truth. Ginny also noticed the pleading look she was giving George while he stared at the fire scornfully. "Harry, could you help with that essay I was talking to you about?"

Harry looked at Ginny slightly confused but saw the look she was giving him. He glanced between George and Hermione and nodded slowly. Harry and Ginny made their way over to the opposite side of the room leaving George and Hermione alone. Hermione sighed and moved to sit next to him. She hesitantly took one of his hands in hers and stroked the back of his palm, staring absentmindedly at it.

This was the side of George she truly hated. She knew the happy, joking side of him so well. This angry side of George was a rarity and she really had no idea how to act around him. She hated not knowing what to do. Not knowing whether he would take his anger out on her without meaning it, or whether she could calm him down and if so, how could she do it?

She looked into his eyes to see him still staring hatefully at the fire and used the hand not in his to rest on his neck. She leant over and kissed his cheek tenderly letting her eyes close. She remained like that for longer than necessary before pulling away feeling his fingers entwine with hers. She opened her eyes to see him staring at her with most of the anger gone from his eyes and she smiled.

"Is it forgotten?" She asked, and he reached over to tuck some of her hair behind her ear and he nodded.

"Except the stuff that happened before that. There's no way I'm forgetting that." He joked, and she playfully slapped his arm. "Looks like you'll have a hard time to."

She furrowed her eyebrows and saw him staring at a place on her neck. Her hand tore out of his to the spot he was staring and gave him a frustrated look.

"George, I've told you a million times I don't like you giving me love bites. You know I don't have anything to cover it up with. They look tacky and inappropriate." She snapped, and he wound an arm around her shoulders ignoring her tone.

"I'm curious though, what made you get like that? I don't think I've ever seen you like that before. To be honest, I wouldn't mind seeing that side of you more often." He admitted, with her head on his shoulder. She tensed slightly remembering what the cause of it was. That all that happened was her and Ron were staring intently at eachother. She couldn't recall a time before where she ever felt so electrified just from the way a person was looking at her. Her body tingled remembering how intense his gaze was and how alive it made her feel. No-one had looked at her so fiercely before. She closed her eyes with George's hand stroking her hair. She licked her lips involuntarily as a jolt of desire spread through her, remembering his eyes darkening in colour. She ran a hand over George's chest letting out a sound of contentment before replying.

"Just couldn't stop thinking about how long it's been since we've done anything like that."

A:N/ Tut tut Hermione's lying to George. I thought it was about time we see the old Weasley temper again from him. I know this chapter was a bit shorter than the others but the next chapter definitely makes up for it!

I pushed up the rating to an 'M' now, I know it was very light 'M' earlier on in the chapter, but I think it's moved into that category now.

Thanks for the reviews guys! Over the 100 review mark now AHHH!

Also thanks to Sarden.

Just wanted to address KING'S review:

- I'm sorry but I'm a little confused at your complaint about the last chapter being too short since it was a similar length to the other chapters. Also I didn't get why you thought there wasn't much of Ron in it since over half of it was around their prefect patrol… Thanks anyway for your review!

Also wanted to address Sardrinha's review:

-I'm not sure whether this is just our differing opinions but I didn't really consititute what Cormac did as sexual harassment, it was like how Hermione explained, I personally view him as a guy whose ego is too big for his head and she was probably one of the few girls that said no that actually meant it. That being said, I've always viewed Hermione as the kind of person that gives people the benefit of the doubt first, so if Cormac ever does anything like that again, she wouldn't hesitate in reporting him.

-I'm glad Harry was more in character in last chapter though and thanks for your review!

As a small sidenote, I also got into Pottermore! Last night to be exact, so if anyone wants to add me on it feel free, my username's AsphodelUnicorn102.

I'm a Slytherin! I was really surprised with the result but as I learnt more about the house, the more it made sense really. And the fact it's hinted I'm destined for greatness…well, how can anyone hate that? :P

I've been meaning to put this at the end of every chapter, but here's my tumblr in case anyone has any die hard questions that need answering instantly, or you just want to fill my askbox with endless compliments, joking!: glowinglunatic[]tumblr[]com.

Do the same as the song link, copy, past and take out the brackets and replace with fullstops.

Thanks so much for reading!