Ginny's shriek made Hermione drop her letter on the table once more, and Hermione couldn't stop herself from sending Ginny a dirty look, who thankfully didn't see. Harry rubbed Hermione's lower back in small circles soothingly, Fred appearing on her right side. He had a grave expression on his face.
"Shall we wait for Mrs Weasley?" Hermione asked in trepidation. Fred shook his head.
"I need to know now," he whispered, ripping into his letter. Hermione followed suit.
To Miss Hermione Granger,
Your letter of application for a swap of partners in regards to the Marriage Decree has been accepted. Your new partner is Mr Fred Weasley.
Regards,
Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister for Magic,
The Ministry of Magic.
The letter was incredibly short and Hermione's eyes glazed over as she read it twice. A surprised stupor settled over Hermione; her eyes locked with Fred's incredulous ones. Hermione took a hesitant step towards him, almost taking him in for a hug, but chickened out at the last second. She turned to Harry instead.
"Accepted," he breathed, still staring at his letter.
"Finally something's gone right," Hermione joked, rubbing his shoulder gently. Harry sent her a small smile.
Ginny then appeared at his side, her eyes bright with excitement and joy. She didn't hesitate to wrap her arms around Harry tightly, an action Hermione envied greatly. She stepped back to give the happy couple more room since they had now started to sway.
Hermione stepped on the toes of Fred accidentally, who let out a surprised shout. She blushed profusely and turned to apologise quickly. Fred was rubbing his toe dramatically.
"You broke my toe!" he accused playfully. Hermione gasped.
"Excuse you! I'm not that heavy!"
"My toe begs to differ!"
Hermione scowled at her new fiancé. Merlin, what a strange thought that was. Hermione briefly wondered what sort of train she'd gotten herself onto this time.
Mrs Weasley burst into the kitchen, seeing Harry and Ginny (who were still in each other's arms) and Fred and Hermione (who were standing apart).
"Accepted?" she guessed hopefully. The four nodded simultaneously and Mrs Weasley let out a shriek of glee. She hurried around the table to envelope Hermione in her arms tightly. "I always wanted you as part of the family," Mrs Weasley gushed as she moved on to Harry. "Oh, happy days! This is a cause for celebration! A feast for dinner!"
Both Harry and Hermione immediately declined.
"Mrs Weasley, no," Harry said half-heartedly. He knew it wasn't worth arguing with the Weasley matriarch once she wanted to cook.
"A feast is far too much," Hermione agreed vehemently. Mrs Weasley shook her head.
"Nonsense."
"How about a really good cake for dessert instead?" Ginny suggested meekly.
Hermione actually thought Ginny had convinced Mrs Weasley when she suddenly said, "I'd forgotten about dessert, actually. A cake sounds good. Everybody out of the kitchen!"
The four trampled out obediently. George had taken up residence in the armchair Fred was sitting on previously. He was wearing an expectant expression.
"Party or gathering?" he asked sarcastically.
"Feast," Fred shrugged.
Harry and Ginny quietly left the sitting room, moving back outside hand in hand. Hermione placed herself at the end of the couch, resting her head on her hand.
"We need to get back to work," George said thoughtfully. "Now that everything's all sorted."
"It's only July," Fred reminded his twin. "That's two months until school starts."
"Two months isn't that long," Hermione jutted in. George ran his hands through his long hair roughly, leaving it matted and messy.
"The sooner we open up the better," he groaned. "Angie's coming to the shop tomorrow to clean up, what are you guys gonna do? Products or handiwork?"
Fred glanced at Hermione, who shrugged in answer. Fred sighed at her uselessness. "Well, if the family goes to the shop with you tomorrow, we'd be better off doing stock," Fred pointed out. George nodded his head in understanding.
"Why don't we go get a bit of work done at the shop now?" Hermione suggested. "A little bit before dinner couldn't hurt."
George beamed. "That'd be great, 'Mione."
"Actually wouldn't be a bad idea," Fred mused. "I need to get some more supplies anyway."
Hermione smiled and stood, smoothing her shirt down. "Meet back here in ten?"
The twins nodded and Hermione left. A quick change of clothes – into some older clothes that she didn't mind getting dirty – and braiding her hair back as best she could, Hermione returned to the lounge. Fred and George followed shortly after, also in older clothes.
"We've put the wards down so you can apparate straight in," Fred informed her as they headed outside. Hermione nodded her understanding.
"But only around the back room," George added. "Don't want anyone breaking in during these precious minutes!"
"Definitely a likely scenario," Hermione said solemnly, earning herself a chuckle from both of the twins. They had reached the Burrow's wards. "See you there, then."
Twisting, Hermione felt the pulling tug from her abdomen, the crushing of her lungs as she struggled to draw breath, then landed on firm ground. She wasn't sure if Fred and George arrived before her or at the same time, but they were there in the backroom.
The newly concreted floor was unmarked and clean, as were the plastered walls. Inbuilt shelves rested on the walls, some simple surfaces and others designed as square compartments. Hermione had thought that square compartments would be better for ingredients because it lessens the chances of them falling off onto the floor. There were three desks in the room; one for bookwork, one for ingredient preparation and another for spellwork and just in case they needed an extra surface. The twins were yet to bring in their cauldrons which most of the floor space was dedicated to. There were also a few windows near the roof in case experiments went wrong and smoke erupted.
"There aren't any dangerous objects in the shop still, are there?" Hermione asked the twins. They shrugged, opening the door to the main entry.
"Who knows what happened to them after the damage occurred," Fred said. "You know that spells can become more potent over time."
"But we cleaned most of them out, so it should be safe," George assured her. "Just don't touch anything if you're not sure about it."
Hermione looked at the rubble on the ground, seeing scraps of products all over the floor. "I think I'll just get rid of the rubble," she said after a moment, earning a chuckle from one of the twins.
Setting about in her work, Hermione used a vanishing spell to get rid of the broken products. Peruvian Darkness Powder was scattered in crumbs over the ground, releasing little black puffs of smoke every time Hermione shifted her weight. It tainted her shoes black.
The twins were standing at the windows, trying to make them tinted so onlookers couldn't watch. They had succeeded in making them dark blue, light green, and red previously; the windows were currently a deep purple tint. That was when Hermione stupidly tried to vanish half a firework.
Hermione didn't remember that trying to vanish a firework only duplicated it; she thought that since it was broken in half and wasn't alight it would simply disappear. It appeared she was mistaken.
The firework started fizzling and wiggling on the floor. Hermione backed away immediately, calling out a warning to the twins, who joined her in amusement. The firework's hissing noise increased until it filled Hermione's ears, then with a loud pop duplicated. The new firework began hissing too, and duplicated once more. Then again, and a last time. The hissing noise now unbearable, Hermione and the twins were as close to the front door as they could get with their hands over their ears. All at once, the half-sized fireworks burst into the air, whizzing about the room with tangible energy, leaving fire sparks in their wake. They dissipated by the time they hit the dusty floor.
After the fireworks set off the loud noises disappeared and was replaced with silence. George began chuckling as he watched the silent show.
"Maybe we should invent silent fireworks," he suggested, "They're a bit… different."
"A bit ridiculous, more like," Fred returned, narrowing his eyes on a firework. "What good are fireworks if they aren't noisily deafening?"
"Which is why we would call them the Silent Show Surprise," George invented quickly, trying to snatch a firework out of the air to look at. "People will have to buy them to see how crappy they are!"
Fred rolled his eyes at his brother's marketing schemes. With a last fleeting look at the zooming fireworks, he tugged Hermione's hand forward and the three returned to the back room.
"I wonder if they'll last twice as long because they're half a normal firework," Fred mused, making George hum thoughtfully. "Well, there's no point trying to get any work done with those fireworks around, they'll just bugger everything up."
Fred and George sighed sadly together, making Hermione wince.
"I'm really sorry," she said quietly, hanging her head. "I wasn't thinking. I didn't remember they'd duplicate."
"Aw, it's alright Hermione," George said, sounding ashamed. An arm wound around Hermione's shoulder and with a jolt, she realised it was Fred's.
"We're not blaming you," Fred assured her. "There's plenty of time to clean up, anyway."
Hermione leaned into Fred's side briefly, then pulled away. "I'm still sorry. Like you said, those fireworks might last twice as long."
"They'll be gone by tomorrow no matter what," George said with a promising smile.
Hermione still felt bad for interrupting the brief clean up session, but smiled back nonetheless. "Let's head home, yeah?"
The boys nodded their agreement and they apparated back to the Burrow. The twins were waving their wands absentmindedly as they walked through the extensive gardens back to the house; it took a while for Hermione to realise they were putting the wards back up. Impressed at their multitasking, Hermione remained silent while they concentrated.
Inside the house wasn't much louder. It seemed as if a blanket had been put over the entire building, muffling all the sounds Hermione had become so accustomed to. Curious at the lack of noise, Hermione entered the kitchen with the twins behind her.
The rest of the Weasley clan were sitting quietly at the kitchen table, murmuring to each other. At first Hermione didn't realise that anything was different, until she heard Fred and George chorus a greeting.
Kingsley was sitting at the head of the table.