Summary: Cursed by a dark spell, Hermione has to race against time to find a cure. When things begin to look bleak, the Weasley twins make an offer that turns her world upside down. Fred/Hermione/George fic, Rated M for smut.
Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter Hedwig and Fred would never have died.
Beta: I was BOTWP
Note: I'm going away today! So I thought I'd update both stories just before I have to head out of the door. I won't be updating for 2/3 weeks as I'll be on holiday. As soon as I'm back I'll get more chapters edited and out. So, don't worry! I haven't vanished and I will be back :D
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
"I know pregnant women can have mood swings, but I've worked with dragons better emotional control," Charlie grumbled.
It was Monday morning and just over two weeks since Hermione had last seen the twins at their shop. She had managed to avoid them, not wanting to face any awkward conversations. The distance was good for all of them; it gave Hermione time to process her feelings. The twins were probably a bit annoyed at Hermione's rejection of their owls, but they would get over it.
She felt sure the time apart was good for all of them, but it was still so hard to follow through. Hermione's mood had been sour for the last two weeks, and the pregnancy hormones weren't helping. Work with Charlie Weasley didn't help; he was always such a smart arse. He was getting on Hermione's last nerves. "Perhaps if you didn't stink up my office with coffee, I would be in a better mood," Hermione snapped, her nose scrunched at the smell coming from Charlie's cup.
Charlie moved closer, placing the coffee cup on Hermione's desk, closer to her. "You're just sour because you're not allowed any of the real caffeine. Seriously, though, what's got you so cranky? Hormonal? Hungry?" Charlie clicked his fingers, "Horny. That's it, isn't it?"
"You're fired," Hermione announced, standing from her desk. She stole the coffee cup from the desk, and despite Charlie's protests, she threw it in the bin. She'd introduced him to a muggle coffee shops several weeks ago, and she was starting to regret her actions.
Charlie growled, "That was Chocolate bianco guava flavored."
"Do you even know what guava is?"
Charlie pursed his lips, "No, but that's beside the point. These muggles have crazy flavors, and I'm going to try all of them. Now, can you sit back down and stop trying to move the conversation to a different subject? You've been extra prissy the last two weeks, and you're scaring away the staff. That's saying something too; we work in a department full of creatures."
Hermione ran a hand over her face, using her fingers to rub the sleep from her eye. She wasn't sleeping that well. Actually, she was sleeping terribly. "I'm just hormonal Charlie, I'm sorry."
Charlie sighed but made his way over to her. His arm went to her hip to turn her around, and he held her gaze. Despite all the humor and the bickering, Charlie was a really good judge of character. He knew when people were hiding something. It made him a fantastic boss when Hermione was away or busy.
"Hermione," Charlie said, his voice soft. "Talk to me."
Hermione pulled from his grip and moved back to her desk. She saw the look of disappointment in Charlie's gaze, but Hermione shook her head. She wasn't refusing to answer; she just wanted to show him instead. Opening her desk drawer, Hermione pulled out a magazine. It was a Witch Weekly. Most of it was filled with gossip, but there were a few good articles on the wizarding progress. Occasionally, Hermione saw her own name printed because of the changes within her department. "Page forty-three," she instructed, throwing the magazine to the other side of the desk, in front of Charlie.
He grabbed the magazine and found the page. Hermione knew the moment he saw the pictures; his face looked how her heart felt, crushed. The twins were regularly pictured in the magazines; all the Order members were. This week, the twins were in the magazine because of a party they had attended. It appeared to be a birthday party for a witch Hermione didn't recognise.
"I mean… Maybe it's the angle of the pictures," Charlie suggested. He was wrong, the angle of the pictures were fine, but it was sweet of him to try. "Hermione, they probably had a bit too much to drink and forgot themselves."
"I don't own them," Hermione stated, her voice cold and hard. Despite how strong she tried to be, her face showed the hurt and pain she felt. The pictures weren't terrible, but they told a story. Fred and George were out at a party with Katie and Angelina. There were pictures of them all dancing together, drinking and then a little later into the evening, the four drunk friends were getting a little too close and handsy on the dance floor. Katie was giving Fred a peck on the cheek in one of the pictures.
"Hermione."
"We're not in a relationship, and I think I've made that quite clear to the boys this week when they've been trying to come over," Hermione said firmly. She was saying it more for her own benefit than Charlie's.
"Hermione."
"We have never been an item; it's only been about the pregnancy. Now I'm pregnant, I can just…"
"Hermione!" Charlie said once more, this time loudly. It startled Hermione enough she stopped talking and glanced at Charlie. He had a sympathetic look on his face, and he moved around the desk to her. Within seconds she was in Charlie's arms, sniffling as he stroked her hair.
"I don't care," She sniffled.
"I'm sure you don't," Charlie agreed, but Hermione knew it was a lie. He stroked a hand down her back, comforting her. "On the off chance you're a liar and do care, try talking to them. You three were so good together, don't waste that. You've been pushing them away: give them a chance to fix whatever is going on between you three. The twins care about you; I know they do. They're just scared to take the first step; you mean too much to them, and they're probably worried about ruining something."
Hermione sniffled again, her arms wrapped around Charlie. She was hormonal, sad and hurting, but Charlie was there. Despite the headaches he gave her sometimes, he was such a good friend; he was like family.
0o0o0o0o0o0
The pregnancy was a great distraction for Hermione. She spent most of her evenings studying books on pregnancy, as well as guides on looking after a baby. Hermione had never been around children. She was an only child, and none of her family members had young children when Hermione was growing up. In fact, she was the youngest in her family. With little to no experience, she needed to be well prepared before the birth.
The reading was pointless though because, for the first time in a long time, Hermione just couldn't concentrate. Hermione's mind kept going to the mess with the twins. After a few more days of rejecting their fire calls, they sent Ron round to try and gain some information on what was going on with her. Hermione had stood her ground and refused to answer Ron's questions. He was an informant, nothing more. Hermione managed to guilt him into staying and changing the subject to something other than her and the twins.
Now though, Hermione knew she had to do something. She had been thinking about Charlie's words, and she knew she was being silly. Avoiding the twins wasn't achieving anything.
Hermione knew avoiding the twins was worse than just talking with them and working things out. Perhaps the photos were out of context? Even if they weren't, the least they could all do was sit down and talk about it. Hermione felt comfortable with the twins, and used to be able to speak so freely with them.
Throwing her textbook aside, Hermione gathered all her Gryffindor courage, and she went to the floo. It was time to face them and get it over with.
Hermione arrived through the floo to the sound of voices. It was more than just the twins in the flat, so she turned to leave. Hermione didn't want to have the conversation in front of their friends or family. It could wait until they were all alone.
"Hermione!" Fred called from the doorway. Hermione looked back just in time to see his arm dropping from Katie's shoulder. He looked surprised, but then his face broke into a smile at the sight of her. "Don't go! We're just settling down to play some Exploding Snap. Lee's popped out to get some food. Why don't you join us?"
Hermione looked at Katie, feeling uneasy. She didn't want to interrupt their evening, and she couldn't sit through the twins acting so friendly with their new girlfriends. It was childish, but Hermione was going to blame it on the pregnancy hormones messing with her mind. Yes, that was a good excuse.
"We've ordered a mountain of food," Katie offered.
"I said I would meet with Charlie later tonight to prepare for a meeting next week. I just popped over to see if you would be both be going to dinner on Sunday? Your mother's been asking," Hermione lied.
Fred could see straight through her lies; she could tell by the raise of his eyebrow. He turned to Katie, "Do you mind giving us a minute? Tell the rest I'll be through soon."
Katie nodded, her eyes lingering on Hermione for a moment before sure turned and left.
The moment the door closed behind the blond, Fred crossed the room. Hermione stepped back from him, but Fred closed in on her. "Hermione," Fred said, his hand going to hold her waist and stopping her from turning away from him. "It's not what it looks like, I swear it's not. Katie and I are just…"
"I know," Hermione said, her voice soft. "It's fine Fred. I have no right to get upset about you two, or George and Ang. Honestly, I don't know why I even came over, it was a silly idea. I know you both made a commitment to help me with the curse and pregnancy, but you've both fulfilled your roles now, it's done. I want you both to move on now, to go back to your life and be happy."
Fred's hand went to Hermione's chin, turning her face, so she met his gaze. "I've been meeting with Katie because I'm her sponsor. I'm going to a meeting for addiction, and I've been helping Katie. I swore to George I would finish the St. Mungo's addiction course before the baby arrives. I've been doing well, and I haven't been tempted by the dreamless sleep potion. Katie's new to the program; I only managed to convince her the other week."
Fred held her gaze, giving her a moment to process the information. She believed him of course. Fred had never lied to her before, and he had no reason to.
"I don't know how you feel, but for the last few months, there's been something between us, the three of us. George feels the same. He's not with Ang; they ended a while ago."
"I saw him kissing her," Hermione confessed. "I came into the shop a few weeks back to ask if you both wanted to come for dinner with me and a few others. George was in the back room; I saw them kissing. Verity said you were upstairs with Katie, so I just left."
Fred raised an eyebrow at the information, surprise clearly showing on his face. He stepped back and strode towards the door.
"What are you doing?" Hermione asked, stepping forward to stop him. "Don't make a scene; it's fine Fred. He hasn't done anything wrong."
"It's upsetting you, so it's clearly not fine. George and I knew something was wrong; you've been avoiding us for the last few weeks. We tried to come through, but you either had us blocked on the floo, or it was closed. Now I know which one."
Before Hermione had time to stop him, Fred disappeared out the door and into the kitchen where she could hear the laughter of the twins' guests. Moments later, both the twins came through the door. They were whispering; George's eyes locked on Hermione's when he stepped into the room. Fred gave him a slight shove to catch his twin's attention.
"I don't want to interrupt your party," Hermione said, feeling unease with the entire situation. She had chosen the wrong time to do this. It was rude to keep the others waiting because Hermione was being hormonal and bitter about the twins' relationships. "I can come back later when everyone's gone."
"We're sorting this out," Fred said, closing the door and moving closer. George followed his twin, his gaze on Hermione. She could see the sadness in his gaze; Fred must have explained to him on the way what Hermione had said. "The last few weeks have been awful; I'm not leaving until we work this out."
George sighed, "Ang kissed me the other week because she had mixed signals. She asked me to talk, and I agreed. I knew Lee was starting to have feelings for her, so I thought it was about that. She came in and started talking about the future. She kissed me, but I stopped it and told her I didn't feel that way about her anymore. I told her about the baby, about what we had gone through with you. I explained it all to her. I still care about her; we came so close to a life together, but I don't love her, not anymore."
"I don't love Katie," Fred said. "She knows about the baby too. We have to be open with each other because we're sponsors and I told her what made me want to try so hard. We have a past, I'll admit that, but it's in the past. I liked what we had going, except for the last few weeks."
Hermione took a deep breath, calming herself as she tried to sort through her thoughts. Everything was a mess; she didn't know how to feel. It was good news, and she couldn't deny she had feelings for the twins. Her feelings had grown stronger over the last few months, since the pregnancy. Seeing them with other people had broken her heart, but she had been prepared to move on if that's what they wanted. She hadn't been prepared for such a good outcome. For the twins to be able to explain away their actions.
"There was a magazine with pictures," Hermione stated. "I'm not saying it because I don't believe you two. I just know this was a limited time thing we had going on. You did me a big favour. You saved my life and gave me a child. Now, though, you don't owe me anything, and I want you to move on with your life, to do what you wanted to before all of this."
"We can't do that," George disagreed.
"The last few months have changed things. We have to take that into consideration, and you've changed both our lives," Fred said.
"You weren't the only one needing fixing, Hermione."
"And those magazines are rubbish, we were out with Lee and Verity as well, but you never saw them in the pictures. We're all still friends."
"We've known them since school," George shrugged. "We had a laugh, got a bit drunk, and the cameras got some ill-timed shots, that was it."
"We're skirting around the main issue," Fred pointed out, and his twin nodded in agreement. "We want you to have the right to be jealous. We don't want whatever this is to come to an end because of the pregnancy. What we had was good, the weeks after the pregnancy were perfect."
George moved closer, "We went about this the wrong way; everything moved so fast we didn't get a chance to check on how we felt. How about we start again? We'll go slower, see where this goes. If it doesn't go anywhere, we'll be best friends having a baby."
"But we want it to go somewhere," Fred stated, taking a step closer, so he was beside Hermione.
They were so close; their sides pressed together and only a few inches in front of Hermione. She could feel the warmth of their breath as they spoke, the tension in their gazes as they watched her mull over their words. "I don't want this to end up in a fallout, and then the relationship we share with the baby will be strained," Hermione explained
"It won't," George promised. "Let's just see where this goes. No labels, but no one else. We can get quite jealous too. So we make this exclusive."
Hermione met both of the twins' gazes in turn, then sighed. Yes, she wanted them to try and have something more than just friendship. She felt the chemistry - the unspoken words as they all walked on eggshells. They hadn't stood a chance at the beginning, things were so rushed to get Hermione pregnant, they didn't have time to assess the growing relationship between them. Back then, feelings didn't matter because Hermione thought she was going to die. Now she had a future, a good one.
"I want to see where this goes," Hermione agreed. "We can try. I like what the three of us have together; it ate me up inside seeing those pictures and not being able to be angry about it, to show how upset I was."
"You need to time to get to know the both us," Fred pointed out. "You've had months getting used to us separately."
"But together," George smiled wickedly. "We're at our best."
"Okay," Hermione agreed, her heart hammering in her chest. She felt excitement and hope fill her chest. They were doing this, giving the relationship a shot.
The twins grinned, and they each pressed a kiss to one of Hermione's cheeks. Then, they led Hermione into the kitchen, to spend time with their friends and show her off. Lee, Katie, and Angelina were all wonderful to Hermione. They were friendly, and the uneasy tension left the room. They made Hermione feel involved. The twins weren't overly touchy feely with Hermione, but she could feel their gaze on her throughout the night. For the first time in a while, Hermione felt a thrill of excitement at how good her future was finally looking.
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