A/N: Wow, so much love for Fred. He says he loves you, too.

Weddings were a pain in the ass, Fred decided fairly early on in the day. He was glad that Hermione was already well and truly bound to them, and they could skip this crap. When she came downstairs in her lilac gown, Fred almost swallowed his tongue. This dress was nothing like the naughty dress they'd chosen for her. This dress made her seem ethereal, like a delicate celestial being who didn't belong to this world. She had never looked more beautiful. He found himself moving across the room without even knowing it.

"You look incredible," he breathed at her, and he could feel her pleasure echo back to him. She smiled up at him, and he kissed the inside of her wrist.

"You ready?" She asked him breathlessly.

"Always," he murmured, nibbling on her thumb. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Not that, your Mum and Fleur would take turns killing us. No, I mean for after," she clarified, giving him a significant look.

"Oh! Yeah, we both are. How about ickle Ronniekins? Is he ready?" Fred asked her. She rolled her eyes.

"I've packed everything," she said firmly. "Where's George?"

"Mmm. Helping Veela cousins of Fleur's I think," he muttered, breathing in her perfume.

"With what?" She demanded tartly, and he could feel jealousy pulse on the bond. He grinned at her.

"Escape from Ron, I believe," he said flippantly. She narrowed her eyes at him, and he repressed the urge to drag her off somewhere and make her scream his name. "Come on, spitfire, let's go look for poor, lost Georgie."

"No, the wedding's about to start, we need to sit down," Hermione said with a worried frown. He could feel her anxiety. They were supposed to leave after the reception, and Hermione had kept close tabs on the both of them for days. He stroked the back of her neck in an effort to calm her down, and tugged hard on the bond.

"Okay, then, let's sit down," he said with a shrug. George hurried down the aisle looking irritated.

"Sorry," he muttered to Fred and dropped an absent kiss on Hermione's forehead.

"What have you been doing?" Hermione hissed at him. George flushed.

"Escaping a gaggle of Veelas," he said shortly, his face hard. Hermione blinked at him.

"What is that supposed to mean?" She whispered sharply, her eyes narrowing in anger.

"Exactly what it sounds like," he whispered back. "The fact that Freddie and I are immune to them fascinates them."

At that moment, the wedding began, and Hermione turned her attention away from George to pay attention to the wedding. He watched her face while she watched Gabrielle and Ginny move down the aisle. Her face softened and her eyes shone when Fleur came down the aisle and took Bill's hands in hers. Hermione looked at him with those shining eyes and he felt his heart skip a beat. Then she was turning that molten gaze to Fred and he smiled like a besotted idiot back at her. George felt the same grin on his own lips, so he supposed he couldn't really call him on it. After the wedding, they found a table that Harry and Ron had snagged with Luna. Ron leaned across to them.

"I'd keep an eye out, Krum's here," Ron muttered at the twins who snorted in irritation.

"What's he doing here," George demanded. Hermione rolled her eyes at him.

"I imagine Fleur's invited him. They were in the Triwizard Competition, weren't they?" She said coolly.

"Look, you're not upset about the Veelas, are you?" George asked in a worried voice.

"No, not at all. I just love the idea of my husband being pawed by a horde of damned Veelas," Hermione hissed at him. George could feel that besotted smile come back, and Fred rolled his eyes at him. Ron snorted.

"Better not let Mum hear you say that," he muttered at her. "She'll have a fit."

"Well, it's the truth," Fred said with a shrug.

"When has the truth ever stopped Mum? You know she'd get her knickers in a twist if you denied her a wedding," Ron asked dryly. Fred and George blinked at him.

"When did Ron get intelligent?" Fred asked in an awed voice. George frowned and tapped his chin.

"That is one of the signs of the end of the world, isn't it?" He asked Luna who smiled at him.

"It might be, depending on how you translate the fifth rune in the tablets of Unger the Blessed," she said solemnly.

"Come on, spitfire, let's dance before Krum shows up and tries to take you away from us," Fred said, holding out a hand. George snorted.

"Like to see him try it," George snapped.

Hermione felt like heaven in Fred's arms as he spun her around the floor. He held her close against his chest and they danced as though they'd been partners for years, which they had been, but they hadn't spent a majority of that time dancing. George took her from him after that, and he watched them move gracefully across the dance space. When Kingsley Shacklebolt's Patronus Message arrived, he panicked and barreled across the floor to them. Hermione looked disturbingly calm.

"Come on, we've got to go," Fred said frantically. "Where're Ron and Harry?"

"We're fine," Hermione said serenely.

"They're coming!" Fred bellowed over the cries of the panicking guests.

"Let them come," Hermione said with a cool glint in her eyes. Fred paused for a moment and then blushed.

"Oh. Yeah," he muttered. George rolled his eyes at his twin.

"We need to move outside, I have to be able to see what I'm aiming at," Hermione muttered.

As a unit they moved outside, the twins flanking her. They found their own piece of lawn, within the wards, but away from the house. Hermione sank their bond into the earth. She pulled a tiny knife out of her beaded bag and knicked Fred and George's index fingers.

"By the blood of the family, I call you,

By the house that shelters us, I call you,

By the oaths freely given, I call you:

Help us to protect the people and the land,

Give us support while we make our stand."

Everything around them seemed to give off a faint glow. Hermione pulled on the bond and power flooded into the triad. She smiled triumphantly to herself and began to mutter under her breath. Soon she was holding what looked like a lightning bolt. She passed it off to Fred, and quickly made one for George.

"Throw them at anyone who attempts to attack the wards," she said tersely, still crafting lightning bolts as quickly as she could. "They have to be actively attacking the house, the land, or the family."

The twins could feel the power crackling in their palms. The lightning bolts didn't hurt to hold, but they were itchy and uncomfortable. Fred aimed carefully at a flying Death Eater and grinned when he hit his mark. Apparently beater skills were handy for a triad. They worked as quickly as they could, Hermione crafting the bolts and Fred and George aiming carefully and throwing them. The Death Eaters had not been expecting this sort of response. They were quickly decimated and the remainder were thrown into a panic. George supposed it didn't help when Hermione levitated into the air and started flinging fireballs at those Death Eaters who just weren't getting the message. She took the rest of the power that was flooding their bond and she used it to reinforce the family's wards. She gently pulled back the bond, and floated down to the twins, who caught her firmly and pulled her in to them. She was exhausted, and they carried her into the Burrow.

"Hopefully, they get the message," she murmured yawning into George's chest.

"What message is that?" Fred asked her with a slight smile.

"Don't fuck with the Weasleys," she murmured, and then fell asleep in George's arms.

"It's a good message."

"I like it."

"Wonder if we could sell shirts with that on them?"

F/H/G/F/H/G

"I don't see why you can't stay here and plan," Sirius growled in frustration.

"We need to keep moving, keep them guessing," Harry said flatly. "Right now Voldemort's got a hard on for them, and we can't risk them falling into his hands."

"That's a revolting visual," Fred said with a look of distaste. George was busy patting Hermione's back as she choked on her tea and glared at her brother.

"Really, Harry!" She snapped.

"You lot need to work with the Order. Coordinate with McGonagal. She's going to need you two. Merlin's saggy Y-fronts, look who she's got as the damn Headmaster," Harry waved the paper in frustration. Remus glowered at Snape's picture and shot a look at Sirius who sighed and sunk into his chair, defeated.

"Fine," he muttered. "Go, save the world, but if you get yourselves killed, I'll bring you back and kill you myself."

"We love you, too, Sirius," Hermione said with a warm smile for her guardian. He growled at her and stomped off towards the library. Remus sighed.

"He'll be fine," he said softly. "But you should go soon. He's anxious, and it'll just get worse."

It had taken them awhile to figure out why Kreacher wouldn't tell them what they needed to know about the locket Regulus had tasked him with destroying. His beloved Master Regulus had ordered him not to say anything to the family. So Sirius had had to order Kreacher to tell Harry what he needed to know, and then had to leave so that Kreacher would be able to reveal his late master's secrets without any of the Black family present. Hermione had been drumming her fingers impatiently at that point, and Fred had captured them.

Now they were ready to leave. No more excuses. Now it was time to leave, to fight, to destroy Voldemort. Hermione was a little bit afraid, but who wouldn't be? They—Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred and George—knew what had happened to the locket. This information they had also managed to keep from Sirius. They were going to break into the Ministry of Magic. Fred and George were excited. They thought this was possibly the best prank ever. Hermione wondered if she were too young to acquire a drinking problem.

F/H/G/F/H/G

The locket taunted them. They kept moving from place to place, and Harry and Hermione sat with their heads bent close together trying to figure out how to open it. At first, Harry had wanted to wear the locket, to keep it close so that it might not be lost, but its dark magic wore at him, and began to affect him. Hermione realized that the triad bond protected her, and the twins, to a degree, and they ended up with the dubious honor of wearing the necklace. That didn't stop Ron from whinging on a regular basis about everything.

"Mum could make delicious food appear out of thin air," he muttered mutinously one day. George looked at him with an irritated expression, and Fred snorted in disbelief.

"Thin air? Thin air? So I spent most of my childhood peeling huge bowls of sprouts and potatoes for shits and giggles, then? I wish I'd known," George said to his brother in disgust.

"You can't make food out of thin air, you wanker," Fred snapped. "It's the first exception to Gamp's Laws of Transfiguration."

"How do you know Gamp's Laws of Transfiguration?" Hermione asked curiously. Fred just looked at her.

"Love, we're pranksters, not stupid," he said with a small amount of irritation. "Besides, we use a lot of transfiguration for the shop. You'd be surprised."

"I never meant to imply that you were stupid," Hermione said in a small voice. "I was just surprised to hear you spout off like that."

"Well, Ron would bring it out in anyone, I suppose," Fred said with a heavy sigh and another dirty look for his little brother.

"I just thought there'd be something more, you know?" Ron said petulantly, kicking a rock.

"More than what?" Harry demanded irritably. Hermione frowned.

"Ron, Sirius gave us full access to the most horrible books his family owned. There were several books on horcruxes, and one of them mentioned triad magic as a defense. We," and here she motioned from herself to the twins, "can destroy the locket once Harry figures out how to open it. We just have to figure out what Voldemort would have chosen for the other horcruxes and where he would have hidden them, yeah?"

"Well, I thought he would have had an idea already, or Dumbledore would have confided in him, you know?" Ron wasn't listening to reason at the moment, and Harry was starting to get red in the face.

"I'm sorry that I'm not omniscient," Harry snapped. "I don't know everything, Ron, and neither did Dumbledore. We're just men, human beings."

Hermione couldn't listen anymore. This was too painful. She buried her face in Fred's chest and clung to him desperately. Harry stalked into the tent and refused to come out. George looked angrier than she'd ever seen him—except maybe when Percy abandoned their family. She lifted her head and stared at George.

"He didn't leave?" She whispered, shocked.

George turned away from her and refused to look at her, ashamed for his brother. She could feel the pain/shame/embarrassment throb through the bond at her. She ran to the edge of the wards and called for him. He was still her friend, even if he was an idiot. The crack of disapparation was like a slap in her face. She crumpled to the ground and started to cry. Arms lifted her and swung her up against a solid chest. It was Fred, and his jaw was clenched so tightly she thought it might shatter. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into his shoulder. His arms tightened around her reflexively. He let her down inside the tent and she went to Harry. She put her fingertips to his cheek, a brief touch, and he leaned against her hand for a moment. He knew what she was saying: We're staying, we won't leave you.