"Mr. Ollivander, are you in?" Hermione called out as they walked into his dusty shop. "Mr. Ollivander, it's rather important."

A cough came from the back room and a cloud of dust billowed out of the door. "Whoever it is, we're closed," a gruff voice said. "You shouldn't even be in here. Come back tomorrow."

"Your sign's still up," Fred replied. "And you haven't even locked your door."

"Signs don't mean anything," Mr. Ollivander replied, finally coming around to the front of the shop. "Oh, Ms. Granger. I didn't expect to see you twice in one week. Mr. Weasley," he said, his address to Fred stiff.

Fred frowned at him and set the wands down onto the front counter. "Now do you believe me when I say there's something wrong with my wand?"

Ollivander raised an eyebrow as he picked the fused wands up. After he was satisfied with his inspection he looked at the two. "No sticking spells I take it?"

"Not unless someone has a death wish," Fred said darkly.

"No, nothing like that. We were sitting next to each other and they just stuck together," Hermione interjected.

"Hmm. Well, I would say that congratulations are in order. However I wouldn't suggest being apart for too long after the wedding. One normally can't separate newlyweds to begin with, yet you two seem to have been apart for at least a month."

"Married?" Hermione scoffed. "We're not married. We're not even dating."

"Not according to your wands. In my almost eighty years of wand craftsmanship there were only three times I saw wands stuck together like yours. The first was a duel gone horribly wrong. The other two were from married couples who decided to take after Muggles and separate for a time. And even they learned very quickly that if they wanted to retain their magic they had to learn to get along very quickly," Ollivander said gravely, staring at them over his glasses as if his point wasn't clear enough.

"No, I don't think you understand," Fred argued, holding up his left hand and picking Hermione's up. "We're not married. Neither of us have ever been married. See? No rings, no runes of any kind."

Mr. Ollivander frowned and inspected each of their hands in turn. "No visible runes, no. But perhaps," he trailed off, reaching for his own wand. He muttered a spell that Hermione couldn't quit catch and a blue light streamed out of the tip of his wand and hovered above the wands for a moment before twisting into a shape that looked remarkably like the rune for 'Bound'. Ollivander's eyes narrowed at the symbol and he demanded they place their hands on the counter. Fred began to argue with him, but a sharp repeated order was enough for him to place his hand on the counter next to his wand.

They watched nervously as the old wizard waved his wand and repeated the spell for a second time. This time the blue light shot out of their wands and hovered above their hands before a copy of the rune appeared on the back of Hermione's right hand and Fred's left. The light shimmered briefly before fading out into nothing.

Ollivander frowned and tapped his wand against his thigh. "And you've never been married?" Hermione shook her head. "Are you certain of this?"

Fred scoffed at the question. "Don't you think we would know if we took oaths in favor of each other?" he asked.

"No, I don't think much of anything about you boy, and you'll remember not to take that tone with me in my own shop," he snapped. "Now think, are you sure you've never taken vows in favor of each other?"

"Vows in favor of each other? What are you talking about?" Hermione asked, looking between the two wizards. As much as she knew about wizarding culture, there were still some areas she was woefully ignorant of, especially when she herself had never experienced it firsthand.

"Oh bugger it all," Fred said softly as the realization hit him. "Bill's wedding. We stood in as their substitutes. And at Ron's wedding. But we were only kidding, that shouldn't bind us."

Hermione's stomach began to lurch as she realized this was far more complicated than a momentary blip in her magic. "You mean vows to be married," she said, the words clumping in her throat.

"Aye. Were there any other times?"

"Jokingly, they were all in jest," Fred said quickly, his slow temper rising.

"Runes know nothing of intent, only of meaning," Ollivander said shortly. "Now think. Is that all?"

Hermione swallowed and glanced at Fred. An image of him rubbing her feet came to mind. "Terry's wedding. Then when we were helping Neville out with his proposal. But this is insane, magic doesn't work like this," she said, trying to figure her way out of this situation.

"There's more to magic than you'll ever know, girl. Now think, were there other times?"

"No, no there might have been others," Fred replied, running a shaky hand through his hair.

"Seven?"

"Maybe, I don't know, I don't remember."

Ollivander narrowed his eyes at the two of them. "Then I suggest you take a memory potion tonight and pray the gods take pity that you remember. These runes don't appear without reason. I suggest you two spend the night in the same room together and see Allistar Shipton by morning. Otherwise you won't have any further use for me," Ollivander told them solemnly. He handed Hermione to fused wands and stared at the door.

"Yes, yes, we'll do that. Thank you, Mr. Ollivander," Hermione said softly as they turned to leave, both of them shaken to the core.