Thank you for reading! I am currently writing chapter 12 and having a bit of trouble so I am going to space out uploads. I hope you enjoy.

DISCLIAMER: Not mine.

Chapter 10: Halloween Feast

Time flew at the Burrow, with everyone's busy days; George and Fred at the shop, Ginny's Quidditch practices, Harry's and Ron's Auror training, and Hermione's new found interest in becoming a healer, everyone had something to do. Every night they all came home to have dinner, the subject around the table always changing, so much that the topic of the threat was almost completely forgotten. Halloween approached and Fred and George's shop got busier, they were around less often and sometimes even spent the night at their old flat, which they had abandoned after the war to be closer with their family. Harry and Ginny were finalizing the wedding details, leaving them a whole month to clean and prepare the burrow. Ron and Lavender came by more frequently and it became more comfortable with each of the residents. Molly was up to her usual activities; knitting, cooking, cleaning, and taking care of everyone and Arthur was constantly working on the threat and keeping up with his new duties as a head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

Hermione was constantly studying about healing, since she was permitted from the leaving the burrow until Arthur cleared things up. She had gotten back to her usual routine of waking up early and reading in the living room. Once a week she would read outside while George was flying in the air, he would come down and talk to her a little while until they were called in for breakfast and asked to wake everyone up. Her days were filled with research on what to expect as a healer and planning the upcoming wedding. Seamus stopped by often, the most she had gone without seeing him was a full 24 hours. She enjoyed his company and the Quidditch games that occurred between the household when he did visit because those were the only times she watched.

It was Halloween and everyone was home but Fred and George, Bill and Fleur had flooed in right after they had eaten breakfast and Percy and his wife Audrey had come just a short while after. Molly also told the kids that Charlie would arrive just before dinner. Hermione had been helping Molly cook for their feast and helped set up the table outside, in the garden. With nothing left to do she sat in her room reading while Ginny scrambled to find Hermione a perfect outfit for tonight. She pulled out multiple tops and dresses, held them up in the air as she inspected them, then put them back in the closet and continued to search.

"Hermione come here." Ginny said, obviously getting frustrated. "How can you just sit there and read when your boyfriend is coming over and you have no idea what you are going to look like?"

"Gin, I'll be fine." Hermione said flipping another page in her book. "And he is not my boyfriend…officially."

"But-"

"He should like me for who I am, not what I look like." Hermione cut her off. "Thanks for helping me dress up for all the parties and doing my hair and make up, but it's a family get together, no one is going to dress up."

Ginny looked hurt, but quickly over came it was she ran over to Hermione's bedside and started begging. "Can I at least put on at little make up?"

"I'm sorry, but I'm not really in the mood." Hermione said closing her book and starting to get ready.

"Why? It'll be fun." Ginny followed her.

"I'll be fine without it." Hermione said picking out a pair of jeans, a plain tank top and a sweater that Molly had given her one-year for Christmas. She got quickly changed and headed downstairs.

When she arrived she noticed Charlie was there, rarely ever seeing him, she ran up and gave him a large hug.

"Hermione, so nice to see you again!" He said as they let go of her.

"You too Charlie." Hermione said.

"Anything new lately?" He asked.

"I'm starting healer training next month in the spell damage department."

"Exciting, and when will you become official?"

"4 months, since my N.E.W.T.s were very high it'll be quick."

"Not very surprising to me." He said with a big smile on his face. "We all knew you were going to do great things."

He moved on to greet his other family members and Hermione did the same. Hugging and having a brief conversation with everyone in the main room, even though she saw most of them just that morning. Seamus arrived right before dinner, giving everyone a firm handshake as he made his way from the chimney to Hermione, who was talking to the newly arrived Fred and George. He walked up and hugged her from the back, then gave her a quick peck on the cheek. She smiled and stopped the conversation that she was just having.

"I'm so glad you could make it." Hermione said giving him another hug.

"Yeah me too." He said. "Fred. George."

Seamus held out his hand and gave a formal shake to the twins, both too polite to say that he had switched their names.

"We hear you're quite the Quidditch player." Fred said starting up a conversation. "George is pretty good too, in fact his bloody brilliant if I say so myself."

George nudged Fred gently as way to say lay off it, but Seamus was interested.

"Oh really, I saw you play for Gryffindor, but have you done anything since?" Seamus asked, his hand around Hermione's waist.

"No, I've been focused on that shop." George said.

"And how has that been going?" Seamus asked, clearly not interested.

"It's been brilliant. He has done so much for the store, I mean we could buy out all of Diagon Alley if we wanted to." Fred said, since his brother was not going to brag.

"That's great." Seamus congratulated falsely.

"Yeah, he's been doing a bunch of stuff. Super smart bloke, if I say." Fred leaned in. "To shy too talk about it."

This time George's nudge turned in to a full on elbow to Fred's gut, which made him bowed slightly at the blow. He waved at Hermione and Seamus as they walked away. Hermione could hear them start arguing, but was too far away to hear exactly what they were saying. Quickly after a few more introductions, Molly called them outside for dinner. The couples filed out the back door into the lowly lit garden. Carved pumpkins held small candles and were scattered around on the ground and a few on the table. There were also levitating candle, all 6 feet up in the air. Hermione and Seamus took their seats as the family started filling in the table. All the couples sat together, except for Arthur and Molly sat at the heads of the table. Hermione had Bill on her left and Seamus on her right. Angelina, and Fleur were the last out, all levitating plates full of food and they gently set them down along the table. After a short toast from Arthur who thanked everyone for coming and congratulated Harry and Ginny on their engagement, which he did every time there was a large group meal, they were ready to eat.

As soon as he sat, everyone dug in. The table was filled with plates of various kinds of meat pies, vegetables from the garden, freshly baked bread, black pudding and a large lamb roast. Arthur had begun to cut the roast and they passed their plates down to get a slice. Seamus was talking to Fred and George, so Hermione decided to join in on Lavender and Ginny's conversation that was happening across the table.

"So how are you and Ron doing?" Ginny asked politely taking a sip of her pumpkin juice.

"Good, it's hard for him though. He gets really upset about what he did to Hermione." Lavender said quietly, not letting Ron over hear even though it was unlikely because of his loud conversation with Charlie and Arthur about dragons.

"He does?" Hermione asked surprisingly. "Sorry, for butting in the conversation but I just overheard.

"It's fine, I have a lot more reasons to say sorry to you." Lavender said. She seemed less ditsy from what Hermione remembered at Hogwarts. "I'm sorry for all the mean things I've done to you, I have been so stupid. I know it's not very likely, but please forgive me."

Lavender's eyes were full of regret and they seem to plead along with her. Hermione wasn't ready to forgive her, but the threatening look that she noticed Ginny shoot at her meant she had to be.

"Lavender we all make mistakes, it's fine. You guys make a great couple." Hermione said truthfully.

"You are so great, any guy would be lucky to have you." Lavender said happily. "You know I used to think you were really annoying and nerdy and all, but your totally not!"

Hermione spread a fake smile across her face, not doing a very good job at covering up her irritation with Lavender. She was tempted to jump across that table and strangle her, but she felt a strong hand grasp her own. Seamus took a break in his conversation, to see Hermione's irritation. He leaned in and whispered in her ear. "She's not worth it."

Hermione calmed down and returned to her plate of food barely eating from that moment on. She didn't talk as much with Ginny or Lavender, only just making a small comment along with a smug smile. She was occasionally able to get a word in with Seamus but he was talking to almost everyone at the table.

oOoOoOo

George's Perspective

"He also invented every single thing in the Wonder Witch collection. That's why he gets all the ladies and his smashing good looks, of course." Fred continued to tell lies trying to make George look better.

George once again elbowed Fred as hard as he could, but Fred continued to ramble on about how George got the idea for the Defense collection, a story that was completely false. Seamus excused himself from their conversation turning to Hermione and checking in on her.

"What do you think you are doing?" George angrily whispered to Fred who seemed quite satisfied as he took a bite of his lamb.

"We are finding his weaknesses my brother and then we are using them against him." Fred took a drink of his Butterbeer.

"Fred, we are not doing this." George snapped, still whispering so Seamus wouldn't hear him. "Hermione is happy right now and I am not going to ruin it for her."

"Fine we wont do this." Fred agreed.

"Thank you."

"You will."

"What?" George asked, he had heard clearly what his brother had said, but was angry that he wouldn't let up.

Before Fred could reply, Seamus had returned to pick up their conversation. Fred kept his promise but was constantly sending small messages with his expressions that George needed to keep up his end. George lost his appetite, and simply used his fork to play around with the food left on his plate. Although Seamus didn't talk to them much the rest of dinner, George could still feel tinges of jealousy when he over heard him talking about one of his many accomplishments or saw him and Hermione touching. Dinner seemed to last forever, he even hated the moment when his mum cleaned the table and laid out all the sweets. The Hogwarts styled treats were loaded onto the table, but before anyone could take anything Bill stood up and cleared his throat loud enough for the table to hear.

"Hello everyone." He started out saying. "I would just like to start out by saying that it's so lovely to be here with all of you tonight. I have an announcement to make." He paused at this point, letting the suspension grow, the last six words hung in the air. "Fleur and I are having a baby."

The table erupted with applause and congratulations. Fleur stood up and joined Bill, both large smiles on their faces. They told everyone that they didn't know if it was a boy or girl, but were happy either way. With that, the group grabbed their treats and ate them quickly then made their way inside when it started to drizzle. They gathered around the fireplace and shared stories. George was able to get a seat on the couch in between Fred and Hermione, who had Seamus, right next to her. Ginny, Lavender, and Angelina were by the fire with Ron and Harry. Fleur and Bill were talking with Arthur and Molly about the news. Percy and Audrey were talking to Charlie in chairs.

"Hey Hermione." George said awkwardly.

"Hi George." Hermione returned.

"Having a good time?' He asked. God, I'm so stupid. He thought. 'Having a good time?' who says that?

"Yeah, it's just." Hermione said, not caring if Georges question sounded stupid or not. "It's just that, when I was little Halloween was a lot more magical. I know that sound weird because I can make it as magical as I want, with my wand and all, but it was fun dreaming up vampires and ghosts and werewolves. But I know they're real now and I don't know, it feels like it's lost something."

"Yeah I know what you mean." George said. What am I talking about, I have no clue about what she means?

"It's just… sorry it's stupid, but I have had a great time. It's so much fun to have all the family together." Hermione said.

George became nervous and didn't know what to say. With anyone else he would've been able to come up with something good, something funny, but now he was struggling to find something that would make him sound cool, at least cooler than Seamus.

"Yeah." George rubbed the back of his neck. Yeah? Really out of everything to say yeah? No wonder why she chose Seamus.

"I'm going to go to the loo." Hermione said getting up from the couch.

"Alright, Have fun… no, er, I mean…um… just…yeah." George said, his face turning a bright red. She giggled at his mistake and as she left the room he cursed under his breathe. I sound so ridiculous, he thought.

"Isn't she great?" Seamus said watching Hermione walk out of the room, George noticed Seamuses eyes fall to her butt.

"Yeah." He said, not in the mood to talking to Seamus, this one was intentional.

"I can't believe I am getting a girl like her." Seamus continued, not seeing George's annoyance and disgust.

"Yeah, your one lucky bloke." George said and drank the rest of his Firewhiskey and held the empty glass on his knee.

"Can I ask you a question?" Seamus asked scooting closer to George, lowering his voice.

"Sure, mate what is it?" George replied.

"Have you ever shagged her?"

"No." George said trying to sound disgusted by his question.

"Is there any reason why? Cause you live with her, you could do it all the time. I mean, is there any quirky, not like sexy quirky but weird quirky, thing about her that just turns you off?" He asked.

"Um, no. I mean, it's not like she turns me on, it's just that we are like siblings so it would be weird." George said, shifting in his seat growing uncomfortable.

"It's just she hot, so I want to make the last one fantastic before my girlfriend returns home." Seamus said, like there was nothing wrong with it.

"You have a girlfriend and you are going to shag Hermione tonight?" George said clarifying, making sure his jaw didn't drop to the floor.

"Yeah." Seamus said.

"So you are cheating on your girlfriend with Hermione?"

"Yes, you just asked me that. I mean Hermione's is bloody annoying and each time she goes on and on about some healing thing it makes me wand to kill myself, but she has an amazing body and we can't let good things go to waste now can we?"

"What is wrong with you?' George asked getting mad. "You were just planning on shagging her all along?"

"Duh, although I do wish she had done something with that truly terrible hair tonight." Seamus said. "Oh well, I'm going to meet up with her right now, so I can be home early. Wish me luck."

Before George could protest, Seamus got up from the couch and ran up the stairs. George started panicking; he didn't know what to do. He knew he had to stop it, but how? He did what he always did in times of need; he turned to his twin next to him.

"Fred, Seamus is using Hermione to cheat on his girlfriend." George said quickly.

"So we have found his weakness." Fred said, not noticing the urgency in George's tone. "The next step-"

"We don't have time to plan." George said shaking his brother. "He is shagging her tonight and he just went upstairs to do it. He is going to hurt her."

Fred became aware of the situation and how desperate George was to prevent it. Fred ran through all of his ideas and tricks. And began putting his plan together. George watched him, losing patience.

"Come on, Fred." George begged.

"I'm trying." Fred was silent for a little longer, and then something seemed to snap him out of his trance. "Okay, this is what you do."