Fred woke up early on the Monday morning, and his first action was to scoop a still-sleeping Hermione into his arms for a cuddle. "You ready for your week, love?" he asked, and she murmured softly as she nestled closer to him.

"I will be when I've made a list," she replied slowly after a moment or two, eliciting a soft chuckle from Fred. "That's my top priority … once I have a desk to sit at … then I'll feel more organised."

"I love you," he told her, using his hand to tilt her face upwards so he could kiss her. "I love that you make lists and plans and schedules."

"Mmmmmm," she said, still not fully awake. "That's good … that's what I'm going to do for the shop," she smiled.

Before she could lean in and return Fred's slow, tender kiss, they heard a loud bang which brought her fully awake. "Fuck!" came George's voice from the hallway.

"Bloody hell …. he's up early for a Monday morning … that's not normal," said Fred.

"Are you OK, George?" Hermione called, scrambling out of bed and pulling on her dressing gown. She opened the door and went out into the hallway.

"He's not very happy, no," muttered Fred, sensing his twin's mood through their bond as he got up himself, but Hermione didn't hear him.

"Oh bother, I'm really sorry," she said, when she saw what had happened. George appeared to have walked into the box of things that she had placed in the flat's entrance hall, ready to be taken down to the shop when the boys lifted the wards. She had deliberately put it in front of the main front door to the flat, which was barely ever used, so as not to block the door that led to the shop.

"What the fuck have you got in there, 'Mione?" George asked, standing on one leg and massaging the toes of the other foot. "The Hogwarts Express? It's heavy enough."

"Just some books and a few things to make my desk nice," she said quietly. "I shrunk the books but I didn't put a weight-reducing charm on yet. I'm really sorry…"

"S'OK," he grumbled.

"Georgie's not a morning wizard, as you've probably learned by now," Fred said, using his wand to charm the box and apply a featherweight spell. "What were you doing there anyway?" he asked his brother.

"Trying to answer the bloody door. Didn't you hear the bell?"

Hermione and Fred shook their heads, and then Hermione blushed a little as she turned to Fred. "We put a silencing spell on our room last night," she reminded him.

Fred gave her a suggestive wink and then strode forward, moved the box and opened the door. There was nobody there, but a tall pink package had been left on the doorstep. He bent down and peered closely at the tag, causing Hermione to remember that she had not yet talked to Molly about his eyesight, and then picked up the pink parcel with both hands. "It's for you," he told Hermione. "Goodness knows why it wasn't shrunk and sent by owl. It's quite light. Come on, in we go; we'll make Georgie some coffee and breakfast and see if we can cheer him up a bit."

Putting the box under one arm so he could steer his brother with the other, Fred got them to the living room, whereupon he put the box on the table and George on the sofa. Hermione sat down at the other end of the sofa. "I'll make you coffee," Fred reassured George with a soft pat on the shoulder, and went into the kitchen.

Three minutes later, he was back, levitating a large mug for George and two cups of tea for himself and Hermione. He laughed when he entered the living room. Hermione hadn't had a chance to open her parcel because George had immediately tipped over on the sofa and was fast asleep again with his head in Hermione's lap. She was gently stroking his hair. "Should we levitate him back to bed?" she asked softly.

"Nah, he'll never get to work then," Fred said. "This works better…" He used his wand to make George's coffee hover in the air a few inches under his nose and, sure enough, after a minute or so, his brother began to stir.

"Ngggghhhhmmmm," said George, reaching for the mug. Hermione helped him get his fingers around it and, after a few sips, he lifted his head and opened his eyes before dropping back onto Hermione's lap. "You're comfy," he told her.

"Thank you," she replied. "But I'd like to open my parcel and have a shower … is that possible?"

George made another unintelligible sound as he lifted his head once more. Hermione pulled a large cushion forward and placed it where she had been sitting as she slid out from under him and, this time, the noise emanating from George was more appreciative as he laid his head on it.

"Flowers!" she exclaimed, as she opened the box. "From Ginny and Harry!" She read the card to herself and then turned to Fred, who was re-entering the room with a plateful of toasted crumpets and a series of pots of jam and preserves trailing behind him.

"Didn't know what you liked on them," he said, by way of explanation for the array of jam and honey before he turned to admire the flowers. "Are they for your first day?" he asked, while adding a blob of strawberry jam onto a crumpet and then passing it to George.

"Yes," she said, a happy look on her face. "For my desk!"

"Georgie and I got you welcome presents too, you know? They're downstairs. And no pranking, like we promised. That's our other present. We're going to be on our best behaviour all day," Fred confirmed.

"Well that's wonderful … thank you," Hermione said, through a mouthful of crumpet and honey.

Half an hour later, Fred and Hermione had shared a berry-scented shower in order to save time and were dressed and ready for work. George, by then fortified by his coffee, took great satisfaction in pointing out that sharing wasn't a particularly effective way of saving time if you took three times as long as you would have taken to shower separately because you stopped to shag halfway through, but they were unrepentant. "We'll see you down there, Georgie," Fred called to his brother, who was still getting dressed, as he picked up Hermione's flowers while she levitated her box.

"Wait, I'm coming!" George called, not wanting to miss out on giving Hermione the grand tour of her desk. He ran out of his bedroom holding his socks and shoes in one hand and waving his wand at his unbrushed hair with the other.

"OK," Hermione said, stopping Fred until George was ready. "I suppose it would be wrong to go in with just one of you." Three minutes later, George was ready and the men offered her an arm each as they headed to the door. Unable to get through the door three abreast, she instead took each of their hands in one of hers and walked down the stairs as if they were a crocodile of small children crossing the road.

With it being July, the store was lit by the sun streaming through the windows that looked onto Diagon Alley, but it still brightened considerably when Fred tapped the main switch at the top of the stairs. His action not only switched on the lights but also set off the moving elements of the store's illumination and display. Hermione stopped and looked around in wonder; she never grew tired of watching the magic that the twins had created, and there was always something new that she hadn't previously spotted.

"Welcome to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes," they said in unison. "And," George added, "we're very, very happy that you've come to work with us."

"But we know it's not necessarily forever," said Fred, "and we'll never mind when you tell us you're ready to move on. We only want happy people here, love."

"And that means we need to show you the most important room first," George popped up, pulling Hermione's hand to a door that she hadn't previously noticed.

"Oh, the loo?" she laughed, as they walked into an area that was hidden behind a screen and which looked like a cloakroom.

"Yes, but not just that," said Fred. "This is the staff happiness area. Augeo," he said, while spiralling his wand, and the room seemed to expand in size.

"Staff loo," indicated George, showing her a bathroom which had a shower as well as a loo and which looked more like one you would find in a home than a shop, "and sitting room," he pointed to an area with a fridge and a few soft chairs before sweeping his arm further to his right, indicating a day bed, "and the Verity Brown relaxation arena…"

"Named for our favourite shop manager," Fred continued, "but actually for anyone who needs a break from the noise. If you lay on the bed and tap the daydream charm with your wand, it closes off the area from all external noise and makes it dark for twenty minutes."

"Daydreams optional," George grinned. "The rest of us can still get to the loo and the fridge, but we only disturb anyone in here in a real emergency."

"And no pranking while I'm in there," came a voice from the doorway, and all three of them turned round to greet Lee, who was closely followed by Verity herself.

"Morning bosses," she said, and the next few minutes were full of greetings and welcomes for Hermione, whose arrival had been much anticipated by both Verity and Lee.

"We won't be open for another twenty minutes," Fred said, "so let's have a quick staff meeting. Does anyone need breakfast or a drink?" he asked, but both Lee and Verity shook their heads.

"One policy that's very important to us," George explained to Hermione as they all settled into chairs, "is that we treat all staff very well, especially when it comes to replenishing their reserves. We keep the fridge fully stocked, we always buy lunch and, if there's ever a need to work late, we shout dinner and beers."

"It's what we'd want if we had jobs," Fred said, "and we reckon that, if we treat those who work for us well, they'll work hard for our business and want to stay with us."

Hermione nodded. "That sounds like a great policy."

"It works for us," said Verity. "Lee came here straight from Hogwarts, so he doesn't know any different, but I've had other jobs and this is the first one that I can't imagine wanting to leave. Especially now I've got my chilling zone!" she smiled.

"It looked great," exclaimed Hermione. "Do you mind if I try it sometime?"

"Of course not," Verity said. Then she leaned in, smiling. "Though I like to have dibs on it for my Saturday lunch break and in the last week before Hogwarts starts back!"

"Fair enough," laughed Hermione, holding up her palms. "I'll steer clear at those times!"

"Not that any of us know how it'll go this year, what with everything…" George trailed off. He didn't need to finish the sentence, because they all understood. Hogwarts was being rebuilt, and they had all helped in that process. Their beloved school would again welcome students in September, but it wasn't yet clear how many students would be going back after their studies had been interrupted by the war.

"But we're all assuming that it'll be busy," Lee added, looking between Fred and George. "Like you've both always said, people need a reason to laugh more now and Vee and I are seeing an uptick in customer numbers, so we don't want to be unprepared."

Hermione nodded. She needed to know this stuff, and she made a mental note to talk to Verity and Lee and get their thoughts.

"We're going to have a party on September second this year," Fred told Hermione. "We'll all be too knackered on the first, just after they've all gone, but on the second, we're going to take these two out for drinks to celebrate the end of the rush. You too, of course."

"That sounds great. I'm hoping that I can help with some of that as well. Not by muscling in on your jobs," Hermione added quickly, "but with some of the planning and stock control."

"Just so we're all on the same page," Fred said, "let's give Hermione a summary of last weeks' conversation."

"That's a good idea," George said.

"Our plan," Fred continued, "is that Verity and Lee will be the general managers and be solely responsible for running this shop."

George took over. "They already do many of the day-to-day things, like cashing up, and now we're rebuilding, they're going to do more of the hiring and firing, all that stuff. We like to visit the shop floor and engage with customers, but we don't want to be rostered onto the shop floor; we want to create and test and make and do the more innovative things that we love to do."

"Sounds very sensible," Hermione said, nodding.

"We have a few other people who will help out for a few hours at the till when it's busy," Fred interjected, "or with making some of the products."

"Yeah," said George. "People we can trust, like Ange, when she has days off. And Ron does a few hours when his training allows; he likes the extra money."

"Meant to say to you, Georgie, that it might be worth mentioning to Charlie that we have hours if he would like something to do … he's great at transfiguration..."

George looked eager. "Good idea, Freddie. And," he continued his earlier train of thought, "we don't want to be tied to always working weekends, even though Saturday is our busiest day. We're doing that a bit at the moment, as you know, while we get things straight, and especially when things get crazy, like it did this Saturday, but we need the shop to work independently of us. And in the long term, if we decide to expand and open other branches, one of these guys," he indicated Lee and Verity, "can stay here, and one can travel and oversee the setup and training of staff in the new shop."

"Unless we are affected by the marriage law threat that everyone's talking about in relation to you two being all over this morning's Prophet," said Verity, pulling a face. "Which you probably know more about than me…"

"Oh Merlin," Fred exclaimed. "I had completely forgotten…"

Lee reached into his rucksack and handed Fred a rolled-up copy of the newspaper. "Keep it, mate," he said. "Got it for you when I saw the cover."

There, on the front, were Fred and Hermione, waving to the camera in their wedding finery and clearly finding it hard to keep their eyes and hands off each other. Another photo showed the two coming down the treehouse rope while gazing into each other's eyes, and they looked at each other as they remembered that moment.

"Yes, it's all very romantic," said Verity, though she smiled at their closeness before she became serious again, "but there are rumours flying around the Alley that the Ministry is leading up to an announcement about a marriage law."

Fred and Hermione looked at each other again. They hadn't anticipated this. They knew exactly what Kingsley had planned, but it hadn't occurred to them that others might ask them, and it hadn't occurred to them to ask Kingsley how they should respond.

"I can honestly say," said Hermione, thinking quickly, "that I am not aware of any plan for a marriage law at the moment. I do know that the Ministry are keen to encourage marriage and babies, to help increase the population after the war, and that's why we agreed to let them run our story." She looked at Lee, who was shifting closer to Verity.

"See?" he said, raising his eyebrows at her and slinking an arm around the dark-haired witch. "Told you you should let me take you out after work one night… Even the Ministry would approve…"

Verity rolled her eyes at him. "And risk ruining a brilliant business relationship and the best job I've ever had? You're not THAT sexy, Jordan!"

Lee pulled a sad face as he looked at Hermione. "Well," she consoled him, with a look in Verity's direction to try and gauge the witch's true feelings, "she didn't say you weren't at all sexy, Lee … she said you weren't sexy enough. Maybe you just need to up your game…"

"Hermione!" Verity exclaimed, laughing. "You need to be on my side, girl, and don't encourage him!"

"Forsooth!" Lee replied, diving to his knees in front of Hermione, dramatically thrusting the back of his hand to his forehead and pretending to swoon as he grabbed for Hermione's hand. "You do so need to help me, oh clever witch, for else how will I win the fair lady's heart?"

It didn't escape Hermione's attention that, while Fred was grinning madly at their antics, George seemed less engaged. She touched his knee and whispered to ask if he was OK. He nodded. "Just need another coffee," he said, with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"In seriousness," Lee said, tapping the paper as he scrambled back into his chair, "it occurred to Verity and I that we might be busier than usual today with people coming in to try and catch a glimpse of the newlyweds…"

"That's a good point," George said, re-entering the conversation. "But we're planning to be out back this morning, so we'll see how it goes for the first hour or two, if you two can manage?"

"Course we can, boss," said Verity.

"I'll disillusion your ear if you like," George offered, looking in Fred's direction, "and we can take turns being me."

"Or," Fred replied, "you could put on the nice ear that I made you and we could both be me and use it as an opportunity to get more business!"

"Hmmm, that's an idea…" George looked thoughtful. "Freddie and I don't really have a normal working pattern at the moment," he said, returning to the previous conversation and addressing Hermione, "as you might have noticed."

"But we're hoping," said Fred, "that once you've joined us, we can get back to a more normal working week, which is what we were doing before the war escalated…"

"…although we'll always need a bit of flexibility…" George continued.

"Yes," Fred took over again. "Like when we're inventing or restocking and need to pop down in the evening to add something to a potion, but the flip side of that is that we can take time off at other times when we want too."

They both grinned at her, proud of what they had come up with. They had worked hard before the war to create a way of working that suited them and their employees, and were happy to tell Hermione all about it.

She nodded, and reached for each of them. "This all sounds really great, guys. I'm really confident I can help make it run even more smoothly."

"Well then," George finished, "shall we escort you to your desk?"

After another quick chat with Verity and Lee, during which they did a quick assessment of what the twins needed to stock up on that morning, Fred and George led Hermione out of the staff area and took her briefly up the spiral staircase in the centre of the shop to point out the main zones of the store before leading her to the back of the shop. "This is all totally private and warded to customers," said Fred. "Family allowed, of course, and I know you've been here before, but we'll get Bill to key you into the wards so that you can bring guests of your own and use the emergency cupboard too."

"Cupboard?" she asked, and they grinned.

"Emergency apparition point," they said in unison.

"No-one knows about it except us and Bill," Fred said. "It's how George got home when we had the wards up and the floo closed when Lauren and Charlie were meeting here."

Hermione's mouth made an 'O'. That hadn't occurred to her. She felt a rush of pleasure at the cleverness of her husband and his twin, not to mention the fact that they could still surprise and impress her.

"We'll sort that later in the week," George promised. "Office. I'm excited to show you your office; we spent ages making it nice for you."

When she reached the office that the boys shared, Hermione was touched to see that they had given her an entire corner to call her own. Their own desks were angled so that they could easily see and talk to each other, and both of them had a large space, although much of it was covered with notes, products and experiments. Her desk was the same size as theirs but, in accordance with her request, she had a space of her own over the other side of the room which they had promised not to encroach upon. Gasping in delight, she looked at her patch of ceiling, which they had charmed to look like the sky, with soft clouds, and a window through which she could see a beautiful garden. Hermione frowned, not understanding how this could be.

"It looks onto the back of Diagon Alley," Fred explained with a shrug. "Just stairs and bins and stuff … not very salubrious. So we made you that. You can use this," he pointed to a dial, "and we've preset some options, though you can make your own too. It uses the same sort of magic as our famous patented daydream charms."

Hermione turned the dial slowly. The garden shifted to show a flowing river, a depiction of Paris at night and then a meadow of wild flowers. She turned it again to see a rainforest, complete with pattering rain, and then the Devon beach on which she and Fred had spent their honeymoon.

"Oooooh," she said, tipping her head to one side and enjoying the sound of the waves, "I like this one. We'll have this today, I think. Oh, and that's a point…" She opened her box and pulled out a muggle notepad and pen. "Date night Wednesday," she said. "Pizza night Friday. Seamus phone. Molly glasses. I've got so much going on that I'm making a list so I don't forget anything," she explained, writing a few more things down before putting her pen on the desk.

"Or," said George, presenting her with a long box, which she quickly opened, "You could use this. I promised you one when Mum was making your wedding list, remember?"

"I do! Thank you!" Hermione exclaimed, gleefully pulling her very own list-making quill out of its box and setting it to work.

Turning around to see the rest of her work space, Hermione ran her fingers over the wood of the desk and then smiled when she saw three framed photos that Fred and George had put on it. There was one of her and Fred on their wedding day, one of herself, Ron and Harry and one of the entire Weasley family. The last one had been taken when she was a fourth year, Hermione thought. She had never noticed but, if you watched Fred, you could see him sneaking a tiny glance at Hermione before his attention swung back to George. She loved it and reached out to touch the frame. "I got those from Mum," Fred said proudly.

George gave her a gift-wrapped parcel, just as proudly. "And I made this for you. It's for your wall," he said.

Hermione took it from him with a quiet thank you, held it to her ear and tentatively shook it.

"It's not a prank, I promise," he said, and he looked – and felt – sincere enough that she decided to throw caution to the wind and tear the paper off in just a couple of movements. Her heart swelled as she saw the sign that he had made her, out of a bit of wood "Strictly no testing on firsties," she read, using her finger to trace the words that he had carved on with his wand. Hermione laughed loudly, pulling him towards her for a heartfelt hug. She loved the sheer volume of history that she had with these two men.

"And there's my whiteboard," George said, pointing to the space between his desk and Hermione's. "I bought it because I thought it would help us plan, but," he grinned, sheepishly, "I don't really know what to do with it, so I wondered if you might help?"

"I'd love to," Hermione said. "I'll help you figure out how to make a plan, don't worry."

"I put it between my desk and yours because it'll be us that uses it. Fred's crap at writing things down; he just remembers it all in his head. We only have a recipe book because of me!" He rolled his eyes.

Fred walked over to his own desk while they were talking and sat on the edge of it. He had a chair but, Hermione would come to learn, rarely used it. He preferred to sit on his desk or to walk around while he thought. Hermione was the opposite; she usually needed to sit down in order to be able to think properly. She settled into the office chair that they had provided for her and then reached for the lever that would adjust it. Notching it a bit lower, she then spun it around a couple of times before running her fingers over her desk again and then levitating her flowers onto the corner of her desk.

"This is bloody marvellous," she announced. "I'm going to like it here. Now, where shall we start?"

"You keep going with your list," said Fred. "We can show you the rest of the back of the shop later, but Georgie and I need to work on our new recipe," he said, as they both jumped up and headed out of the office. Hermione barely noticed; she was too busy writing more things down, delighted with her new surroundings and even happier that she finally had time to get herself organised.

Twenty minutes later, she had not only completed her list but had taken the original, unordered list and turned it into several lists. Hermione smiled as she looked at them, feeling proud of her organisational skills and much better about her ability to handle the coming weeks. In fact, she decided, such a feat called for a celebratory cup of herbal tea. As she reached for her mug, though, a horrible sensation ripped through her. She knew immediately that George was hurt. Reassuring them both through the bond that she was on her way to help, Hermione reached for her wand and began to run towards the workroom.