"Fred! FRED! WAKE UP!" George bellowed from the hallway. Fred groaned and rolled over, nearly squishing Hermione.
"Fred! Get off!" She said, her voice muffled slightly by his shoulder.
"Fred! Do you have a girl in there? Hermione is going to kill you! And then I'm going to kill you!" George yelled, banging on the door.
Fred laughed sleepily. "You would think he'd be on my side, being my twin and all." He muttered sitting up to stretch.
"FREDERICK GIDEON!" George shouted.
Fred threw a pillow at the door. "It IS Hermione, you git!"
The banging paused momentarily, before starting in even more frantic. "Why the hell is Hermione here?" His voice was urgent now. "Open the bloody door, would you?"
Fred groaned, but got out of bed to open the door anyway. "See? It's only Mione, now bugger off. I was trying to sleep." He tried to shut the door back, but George pushed past him.
"What are you doing here?" George stated.
"And here I thought you'd be happy to see me." Hermione said grinning.
George smiled sheepishly. "Happy to see you both clothed." He shot back.
Hermione blushed, but Fred just laughed.
"I.. was expelled from Hogwarts..." She said quietly, instantly ending both boys laughter.
George's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "Did you... Have you... Was it on purpose?" He chose his words carefully, so he didn't rise suspicion out of Fred.
She shook her head, giving him a meaningful glance. "It just sort of happened." She said lamely. "I hadn't had intentions of staying here either, but Fred barged into my room at the Leaky, and dragged me out!" She said, changing the subject lightly. She knew she would have to talk about it later, but she really wasn't up to it right now.
George laughed. "Of course he did. I'm sure it took sooo much convincing to get you to come back to his room with him, too." He winked at her, causing Hermione's cheeks to burn red again.
Fred snorted. "No, mate. I literally threw her over my shoulder and carried her out of there."
Hermione and George grinned at that. "Well, you've been expelled. Now what?" There was a double meaning to George's question, Hermione knew, but she couldn't discuss the second meaning in front of Fred.
"I told her we'd set up a room for her here, then go down to the ministry, talk to Dad... See what they could do about her keeping her magic. She cast a spell last night, and she's worried she'll be charged for it." Fred informed George.
George nodded. "I'll go. Someone has to stay with Hermione, and watch the store. Oh, and set up a room for her, but honestly, you two look pretty cozy in here." He winked again on his way out the door. "I'll see what I can do though, yeah? Then when we get back, you're gonna have to tell us what got you kicked out." He raised his eyebrows, letting her know that wasn't the only thing they had to talk about.
Fred nodded, and shut the door behind George. He flopped back onto his bed, and pulled Hermione flush against him. "Forget the shop, I'd rather lay here all day."
Hermione laughed and snuggled back against him. "We can't lay here all day, you know."
Fred sighed, "Right." He rolled back off the bed and walked to his wardrobe to get dressed. Hermione blushed as she realized he was changing, but couldn't manage to pull her eyes off his muscle back. 'I can tell you're staring love."
Hermione's jaw dropped, but an incredibly girly giggle escaped her lips as Fred smirked back at her over his shoulder. She pushed off his bed, and grabbed some clothes from her trunk. She walked back into the bathroom she had used the night before and changed into some muggle clothes. No point in wearing robes if I'm not even a wizard anymore. She thought bitterly as she walked out to the kitchen.
Fred was standing at the stove, making what appeared to be blueberry pancakes. "How do you like your eggs, love?" He asked when she leaned on the counter next to him.
"Erm.. Scrambled I suppose."
He nodded, and pulled some eggs out of the fridge. "I set up a room for you at the end of the hall..." He trailed off. "If you don't like it I can change it." He stated, remembering she wouldn't be able to do it herself.
She nodded, and sat down at the table. "I can help you with the shop, if you'd like."
He grinned, and sat her plate in front of her. "Hermione Granger work in a joke shop? Never thought I'd see the day." She laughed, and took a bite of her food.
"You know you didn't have to do this," She said.
"What? Make you breakfast? I couldn't just let you starve." He said, smiling.
She shook her head. "You didn't have to do it the muggle way, though."
Fred's hand froze, fork halfway to his mouth. He sighed and sat it back down. "You noticed then. I just didn't want to upset..."
"Because I can't do magic on my own? Fred... I appreciate the thought, but you shouldn't have to stop just because I was foolish enough to get myself expelled."
Fred nodded. "I know George wants to know too, but what exactly did you do?" He asked cautiously. He had noticed the way she had avoided talking about it, and didn't want to upset her by asking.
She sighed, and pushed her plate away. "It started out innocent... I wasn't paying attention in class-"
Fred couldn't help himself, he had to interrupt. "What could have possibly distracted you from a lecture?" He said in surprise.
Hermione blushed and looked away. "Well... you.."
Fred instantly felt guilty. She had been expelled because of him?
Noticing the way Fred's face had fallen, Hermione quickly continued. "But then Umbridge called on me. She took away points because I wasn't paying attention, not that I minded, Gryffindor was already behind nearly 500 points." Hermione rolled her eyes. "Then she was going to give me another detention, and I just couldn't Fred..." She flexed her hand at the thought of it, and Fred flinched, understanding what she meant. "So I told her I didn't need to pay attention in her class, because it was a waste of time..." Fred gaped at her. The Hermione Granger he knew would never talk to a professor like that. "And then she was going to give me another detention for talking back, so I told her I was not going to go to them..." She said sheepishly. "Then when she told me I had to, I may have walked out of her class. When I was leaving, she told me I was expelled. On my way to the train, Filch had been waiting by the door to take my wand." She sighed and placed her head in her hands.
"If Filch took your wand last night, then how did you cast a spell after you had left?" George asked from the doorway. Hermione sat up in surprise, she hadn't heard him enter.
"I gave him a fake wand. He didn't seem to notice the difference." She eyed George hopefully.
He looked over at Fred. "Shouldn't you have opened the shop already?" He asked.
Fred nodded and stood. "Not my fault, Granger distracted me." He grinned down at her, and ran down the steps to the shop laughing.
George plopped down in the seat Fred had just left.
"What did they say?" Hermione asked nervously.
"Are you sure you cast a spell last night?"
She nodded, "I disarmed Fred when he burst into my room... Nearly gave me a heart attack.."
"Well the ministry has no record of it. In fact, the trace on you was dropped about seven months ago..." He said eyeing her. "I even talked to Kingsley. He said they just assumed you had turned seventeen already, so I didn't say anything that would make them think otherwise."
"Seven months ago... Seven months.. That's how long its been since.."
"I know." George said solemnly. "But now you don't have to worry about losing your magic."
"I didn't even think... I suppose the magic caught the shift in my age, even if nothing else did."
George nodded. "I'm just not sure how to tell everyone else that you were able to keep your magic."
"Who all did you talk to?" She asked suddenly.
"I went to see Dad," Her excited expression fell. "just to see who I would talk to about the trace. I didn't tell him why, just that we were wondering if the trace would pick up on some of our products if muggleborns took them home."
Hermione smiled. "Brilliant! Who else?"
"Dad said to speak with Kingsley, so I did. He said he wouldn't mention to anyone that I was asking about you." George shrugged. "That's it though."
"Then we just tell everyone they dropped my trace at request," she said. "And they only did it because my expulsion had been reasonably uncalled for." She was grinning madly now. "But we won't mention it until after Umbridge is sacked. We'll say Dumbledore spoke for me... He did it for Harry, so it's believable, right?" George agreed, so far it seemed like it could work.
"And until then?" George questioned the flaw in her plan.
"Oh..." She leaned back in thought. "Well the trace wouldn't have been able to prove where the magic was coming from anyway, just that it was around me... So we'll just blame that." She said, happy to know she would be able to still perform magic.
George nodded. "You're going to have to tell Fred eventually..." He said.
Hermione looked away. "Let's focus on saving him first, yeah?"
George stared at her, but didn't say anything else about it. "I'm going down to the store. Make yourself comfortable up here." He muttered before disappearing down the stairs.
25 Chapters! Whoo hooo! Thank you all for staying with me this long! I appreciate all you readers and your lovely reviews! I love you guys!