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Fred POV

Fred hurried from Ginny's room before she changed her mind about letting him leave. He galloped down the stairs and into the kitchen to find Hermione asleep while seated at the long table; head propped up by her long fingers and three of the thick books Sirius had given her sprawled out on the smooth wooden surface.

He chuckled to himself as he quietly sat down beside Hermione, straddling the bench.

She looked peaceful sitting there with her eyes closed and her breathing so deep and even; it was almost a shame to wake her.

Fred tucked a stray piece of her wildly curly hair behind her ear and lightly settled his hand on her shoulder, "Hermione? Hermione, wake up."

Her eyes fluttered a little before finally opening and focusing on Fred. Hermione smiled embarrassingly as she saw who had woken her, "Hi." She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked around the empty kitchen, "What time is it?"

"Quarter to seven. Have you been down here all night?" Fred poked her side a little to emphasize his teasing words.

He was a bit put off when she frowned and turned back to one of the tomes, "No. I couldn't sleep. Tossed a turned for a few hours, but then I got up and began looking through the spells again. Ginny threw a pillow at me when my lumos charm woke her up so I came down here an hour or so ago."

Fred furrowed his brow; he didn't like that Hermione was letting this affect her sleeping. He began to close her books and collected them into one of his arms, "Come on," he gently grabbed her arm with his free hand and pulled her away from the table, "I have some good news to tell you. And, I think I'm going to keep these books until you've taken a nap or something."

Hermione protested all the way up to the twin's room, but her feet followed the tall wizard automatically. When they entered the room, it was also vacant, "Where's George?"

"He's out getting some needed items for your linking spell," Fred closed the door behind them and tucked Hermione's books into the closet before putting a disillusionment charm over them. He turned and found the witch carefully watching him with a confused expression across her face. Fred smiled brightly, "We may have found a way to make it work."

The confusion on Hermione's face instantly dropped away and was replaced with a smile that rivaled his own, "Really? You and George figured it out?"

Fred nodded enthusiastically, "It's amazing what fresh eyes can bring to a project. George woke up this morning with this brilliant theory and we came up with an idea, that I'm so certain of, I'd bet money on it."

"Well, what was the idea? How will we get the parchment to work?" Hermione took an anxious step forward and waited for the twin to explain.

"Turns out, you and I were too focused on exactly replicating Dumbledore's enchanted paper. We still haven't figured out how that parchment works, but George suggested that we try the linking spell on something other than the paper… I was thinking like a quill or a muggle pen," Fred laughed at the look of realization and excitement that overtook the witch in front of him.

"That's brilliant! We were able to enchant those thimbles to mirror each other exactly. If we can link a pair of pens together, they can act as a polygraph!"

"What's a polygraph?" it was Fred's turn to look confused.

Hermione's smile grew even boarder, "Sorry, muggle thing. It was an early nineteenth century American invention that was used to copy handwritten letters. It was essentially two pens joined together. The writer would place a sheet of paper beneath both pens and then use one side to write his letter while the other side copied it exactly."

"Oh, so the idea is not as original as I had hoped," Fred chuckled.

"No, but it's still wonderful. It's a way of making the same type of communication that Dumbledore used but with a simpler spell. It's perfect!" Fred had no idea how it was possible, but Hermione seemed to beam even brighter as she finished her explanation.

"So what's my reward for figuring it out?"

Hermione smirked as she crossed her arms, "I thought this was George's revelation?"

"George's idea to enchant something other than the paper, but I was the one who suggested a quill or a pen," Fred puffed out his chest, a bit proud of himself for suggesting a muggle item as well.

The witch rolled her eyes but continued to smile, "What would you like as a reward then, Mr. Weasley?"

This could be his chance... He actually felt nervous.

Fred hadn't counted on that. He had never been nervous like this with any other girl before. He didn't have loads of experience with asking witches out, but he had done so a few times at least… so why was he so uneasy now?

"Let me take you out for coffee."

"What?" Hermione's eyes widened a little in surprise.

Fred cleared his throat, "I'd like to take you for coffee; maybe next time we get sent out for groceries or something. That will be my reward," he felt his lips curl upward into one of those genuine smiles that he only seemed to share with the witch in front of him, "Agree to go to coffee with me."

"Are you… are you asking me on… on a date?"

"Um, yes. I guess I am."

He held his breath as Hermione took her time answering. It seemed to be having trouble finding the correct words that she wanted to use. The witch wrung her hands and her gaze fell to the floor before she finally spoke, "Oh… I…" Hermione spared a tiny smile before she quickly answered, "Yes. That sounds lovely."

Eek! So yea... that just happened. Guess we'll have to see what comes next. =D

And I've been having lots of creative thoughts on this story... it might go on for a while if I can keep my muse going.

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Misha

Ps. Check out my other stories too! 'Thrown Back,' 'Begin Again' and 'Penelope Jackson.'