Fred trudged up the second flight of stairs to his room. He could have just Apparated and saved himself the trouble of being incredibly winded, but he was feeling quite lightheaded after he left the kitchen (Blood didn't seem to rush to his brain when it came to Hermione). Involuntarily, he replayed moments of that night in his mind.
"Aunt Muriel's back fat, Aunt Muriel's back fat, Aunt Muriel's back fat," Fred chanted to himself. A cold shower at this hour was definitely out of the question. Then again, he may not have a choice if Hermione kept popping into his head at inopportune moments. He stopped at the landing on the floor where Hermione and Ginny were presumably asleep. He was sorely tempted to walk into their room and sneak Hermione back into his room, but he knew that was a bad idea. George would never let him live it down and neither would Ginny. Hermione had it made it clear that nothing else could happen between them if Fred didn't work things out with Ron. Fred sighed and glanced wistfully at the closed door before climbing up the last flight of stairs. As soon as Fred reached the landing where is bedroom, Ron walked out of his room on cue. Momentarily surprised by their timing, Fred decided that now was as good a time as any to talk to his little brother. Fred didn't know if it was the late hour that was making the awkwardness between them exacerbated, but he tried to ignore the almighty glower Ron was giving him and speak reasonably.
"Hey, Ron," Fred began awkwardly, unsure of what to say. What does someone say in a situation like this? Hey, Ron. You know that girl you've been in love with for five years? We've been snogging for the past few weeks and want to make sure you're ok with it.
"Hi," Ron said, trading his glower for a wary look at Fred. He suddenly looked very small to Fred in his pajamas. Fred felt a twinge of guilt in his stomach.
Taking a deep breath, Fred decided to plough on resolutely. "About earlier, in the garden –"
"I got to take a leak," Ron muttered darkly, cutting off Fred. He pushed past his brother and headed inside their shared bathroom. He slammed the door behind him.
Fred sighed. "Come on, Ron. Let's just talk about it and go back to normal," He said tiredly. No answer. "I knowing you're not really taking a leak in there. You used to do this all the time to escape George and I when we wanted to dye your hair blue when you were seven. Remember when Mum thought you had a serious digestive problem when you stayed in there for two hours?" Fred asked, leaning against the bathroom wall and hoping to illicit a reaction. Still no answer. Seriously irritated this time, Fred knocked on the door crossly. "For Merlin's sake, stop acting like Moaning Myrtle and come out here." Fred nearly fell backwards on top of Ron as the bathroom door opened behind him.
"I was actually taking a piss in there," Ron growled. "Next time you go in to do your business, I'll just stand outside the door and call you Moaning Myrtle."
Undeterred, Fred tried again. "About Hermione –"
"I don't want to talk to you about Hermione," Ron said flatly. He wore the same deflated look he had when he realized what he had done in the garden. After a moment, Ron added sincerely. "I'm sorry I punched you, Fred."
"It's forgotten," Fred replied easily. "I really do care about her," Fred added quietly. Ron's face contorted oddly, then smoothed back to Ron's original expression.
"Still don't want to talk about it," Ron replied, his demeanor a bit less hostile than before. "Not for a while, anyway." Fred did his best not to glare exasperatedly at Ron. He was making this much more difficult than it had to be. His mind flickered back to Hermione's warm back under his palm. Fred forced himself back into the present – thinking about Hermione that way in front of Ron would make the current situation more uncomfortable than it already was. He noticed Ron looking at him curiously and quickly composed his face. Shaking his head, Ron went back into his bedroom and closed the door behind him.
"We're going to have to talk about it eventually," Fred called from outside the door awkwardly. After a few moments of silence, Fred headed to his room and crawled under the covers of his bed. Attempt number one didn't go as badly as he thought it would have. Now, all he had to do was wait out Ron. Fred punched his pillow into a more comfortable position and quickly fell into a dreamless sleep.
Fred woke up to a pillow hitting him in the face.
"Wake up," George's voice was annoying chipper in the morning. "They're going to leave for Hogwarts soon and we need to start setting up our shop."
Fred glanced blearily at watch. He groaned. "It's eight-thirty in the morning," He complained and rolled over onto his opposite side.
"Come on, " George said, shaking his brother slightly. "I've been trying to get you up for an hour. Mum wants us down for breakfast in ten minutes." George walked out of the bedroom, leaving the bedroom door slightly ajar in order to tempt Fred to get out of bad with the smell of fresh bacon and pancakes. George's footsteps clattered noisily down the stairs and Fred finally opened his eyes with irritation. He changed quickly, brushed his teeth, and attempted to flatten his bed hair to no avail. Sighing, he Apparated to the kitchen, making Mrs. Weasley jump and almost flip the pancake she was making onto his face.
"Just because you can do magic now does not mean you need to whip your wand out for everything, Fred Weasley," Mrs. Weasley exclaimed and flipped the last pancake onto a plate for Fred. She sighed and plopped a pile of scrambled eggs and four strips of bacon onto his plate as well before handing it him.
"Thanks, Mum," He said, grinning and taking his usual place beside George. "I'm going to miss Mum's cooking when we move into our own flat," Fred muttered in undertone to George. George nodded, but said nothing because his mouth was already full with his omelet. They still hadn't figured out how to break the news that they were hoping to move out of the Burrow by the end of the month to Mrs. Weasley. Mr. Weasley had known about their apartment hunt for a while now and promised to say nothing to Mrs. Weasley as long as the boys promised to tell her within the next couple weeks. Fred and George had found a couple of good places after a couple months of going out to Diagon Alley and scouring for a flat. They had even put down a deposit on a place that would be perfect for the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes shop that had an attached apartment above it.
"Mum's going to be hurt that we didn't tell her sooner," George sighed.
"Tell me what sooner?" Mrs. Weasley turned around and narrowed her eyes at the pair of them.
"Nothing, Mum. Don't worry about it," Fred waved off her question casually. Mrs. Weasley opened her mouth to question them some more, but was suddenly distracted by Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny bursting into the kitchen. Fred flashed a grin at Hermione who smiled back and turned a faint pink. Mrs. Weasley served them their breakfast, piling on mounds of food onto their plates. Hermione eyes her pile of scrambled eggs warily as it swayed precariously on her plate. The four of them sat at the table with Fred and George. They were joined by Mr. Weasley and were graced with a surprise visit from Bill.
"I'll take some of that, Hermione," Ginny said in an amused voice, scooping some of the scrambled eggs off of Hermione's plate and plopping it onto her own tower of food.
Hermione laughed. "Thanks."
"…Chudley Cannons are at the bottom of the league again. Honestly, the only way they'd win a game is if they swapped all the players on their team and drank a cauldron of Felix Felicis," Bill remarked to Ron, shaking his head.
"They're really that bad?" Harry asked, munching on a strip of bacon.
"They're abysmal," Ron added sadly. "That Appelby Arrows game still stings. Even Michael Corner would be a better Seeker than Gudgeon."
"Would you lay off him?" Ginny snapped, pausing her conversation with Hermione momentarily.
Ron rolled his eyes. "I'm your older brother. I'm allowed to hate him." Fred saw Hermione shoot Ron a familiar exasperated look.
"Fred and George don't –"
"Oh, but we do," George chimed in.
"When we caught you two snogging in that classroom, we may have rigged a pile of Dungbombs to blow up in his room," Fred added, relishing the memory.
"You did that? He told me he thought Peeves had –"
"Snogging? Who's snogging?" Mrs. Weasley raised her voice, scrutinizing the table. There was an awkward silence.
"No one, Mum. You know Fred and George, they were just kidding around," Ginny said easily. Fred had a proud expression on his face as he gave Ginny a thumbs up behind Mrs. Weasley's back.
"Yep, we're being kidders," George chimed in.
"We love to kid," Fred added.
Mrs. Weasley looked at Mr. Weasley who clearly shot her a look saying the-less-we-know-the-better. Mrs. Weasley turned back to her cooking with a disgruntled expression.
"Well, we better be off," Mr. Weasley announced, glancing at his watch. "Minerva is expecting us in a few minutes."
"Goodbye," Mrs. Weasley said, hugging each of them who were leaving tightly. "Be safe." Her eyes flickered to Harry for a moment and he gave her a small smile.
"We'll try," He joked.
"Wait!" Fred cried suddenly, rummaging in his pocket. He produced a small box. "We've been wanting to test these out, so if you know of any worth candidate, you can slip any of these into that bow-wearing toad's tea."
"Fred!" Mrs. Weasley frowned at her son.
"Thanks, Fred." Harry grinned.
"Don't mention it. Besides, seeing as George and I aren't there to give her hell, the three of you might as well give it a go," Fred replied, grinning back.
"Don't forget to tell people about Weasley's Wizard Wheezes!" George called from the table, finishing up the last of his pancake.
"George!" Mrs. Weasley said disapprovingly, another frown wrinkling her brow.
"What? It's not like I'm asking Harry to slip something into a Ministry official's tea," George retorted. Turning to Fred, he added, "That's bloody brilliant, by the way." Fred bowed with exaggerated formality making most of the room laugh. Bill and George joined the rest of the group to say their goodbyes. Fred, George, and Bill all crushed Ginny in a group hug and lifted her a few inches off the floor.
"Not..five…years..old…anymore!" She laughed breathlessly, wriggling in their grip. The three of them grinned and put her down.
"See you, Ron, Harry, Hermione. I've got to get to work," Bill clapped Harry and Ron's backs and hugged Hermione. They waved him goodbye as he Apparated back to Gringotts. Fred turned to face Ron.
"Let me know if you need an Dungbombs put in Corner's room," Fred said half-jokingly to Ron. Ron cracked a smile.
"Yeah, I will. See you around, Fred."
"Don't get in too much trouble, ickle Ronniekins," George added, smirking.
Ron rolled his eyes. "Shut up."
Fred finally scooped up Hermione in a hug. "I'll see you soon."
Hermione smiled. "I don't doubt it."
Fred and George stepped away from Mr. Weasley, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny as Mr. Weasley produced a Portkey from his pocket. He held it out in front of him and all of them grasped it firmly. Suddenly the five of them disappeared from the Burrow and appeared in Professor McGonagall's office.
