Later that night, Hermione was joined by the girls. They nervously asked her what had happened and she explained Fred's anger and his plan to report Angelina to the ministry.
"Has he told George? I haven't seen either of them." Ginny said.
"He's telling him now. He said he was going to tell them when they closed the shop for the day."
Fleur shook her head sadly, "It's awful, especially with everyone's wedding coming up. This isn't going to be pretty."
The other agreed and waited anxiously for dinner to start so they could take their minds off it. Molly and Narcissa were bustling around the kitchen cooking, waiting on everyone to get home from work. The girls were actually the only ones who didn't work. Arthur, Sirius, Percy, Ron, and Harry all worked for the Ministry. Bill was the curse breaker, Charlie worked with dragons, Fred and George had the shop, Blaise was redoing his father's business, and Draco was partnering with Blaise. Hermione, of course, was working on getting the bookshop ready and Ginny still had another year of school, but Hermione didn't know if Luna had anything she was trying to do. She couldn't even imagine what type of job Luna would enjoy.
Something outdoors, she thought to herself.
"Hermione," Ginny yelled. "Mum's calling for dinner, lets go."
She snapped back to the girls and followed them downstairs. When she sat down she realized that everyone was there except the twins. She cringed at the conversation she knew they were having.
"Hermione, do you know where Fred and George are?" Molly asked.
"No, I haven't seen them since lunch." She said quickly.
She felt Harry, Ron, Draco, and Blaise staring at her. She wasn't a good liar and the boys especially could spot her lying from a mile away. Molly didn't seem to notice the high pitch in her voice or how she quickly spit out her answer and just shrugged.
"Well, they better hurry before it's all gone. They know better than to skip out on dinner!" She huffed.
Ginny met Hermione's eyes across the table and Hermione could feel the youngest Weasleys anger. She quickened her pace so she could finish quickly and go to make sure the twins weren't doing something stupid.
"I'm going to go find those boys, make sure they're not up to no good." She casually joked.
"I'll come!" Ginny yelled.
Ginny shoveled the last of her plate into her mouth and dumped her dirty dishes in the sink. "Mum, I'm going to stay with Hermione at her flat, okay?"
Molly nodded absent-mindedly and waved her daughter off as she discussed the upcoming weddings with Narcissa. The two matriarchs talked about nothing else these days but nobody said anything. They were mothers whose children had lived through a war, no one blamed them for being overly happy about weddings.
"Oh, before you go actually," Narcissa started, "We wanted to discuss our house elf situation with you all."
"You know, I was wondering what happened to all the house elves that Draco brought here," Ron said.
Hermione sighed and impatiently waited for everyone to discuss what to do with the remaining elves that didn't want to be freed.
"Please we have so many that don't want to go anywhere, Molly I know Bitsy and Liddy love being here with you so I think you should keep them. They adore it here." Narcissa said.
Molly had always wanted a house elf or two to help out so she was overjoyed, especially because Narcissa was right. Bitsy and Liddy loved Molly and Molly was just as fond of them. Arthur was already talking about letting them pick out a room and giving them pay each month.
"Well, I'm keeping my elf," Draco said. "She wants to stay with me."
A few others in the group asked if they could meet the elves and see if they fit well with each other; Bill and Fleur, Percy, and Blaise. Hermione wanted nothing to do with it and she was thankful for a moment that Fred wasn't here, she knew he would want an elf.
"Fred and I don't want or need one. They should all be freed." She said.
No one argues with her, they all knew her stance on elves. However, she was outnumbered. They ignored her statements and talked excitedly about the elves and how they couldn't wait to meet all of them. Draco had only brought them here for a short time before he sent them to their manor in Paris, so a lot of the elves were still unknown. Bitsy and Liddy were the only ones who frequented the Burrow.
"Ginny, are you ready? I'm done talking about elves."
Ginny nodded and followed Hermione through the floor. They came out at the twins' shop, but it was dark and quiet. Even the offices were locked.
"Maybe in George's flat above," Ginny suggested.
They started up the stairs and soon heard muffled voices. As they reached the door, they realized it wasn't Fred it George. It was Fred and some woman, going back and forth, by the angry tones Hermione guessed it was Angelina.
"It's easy for you, Freddy! You got paired with your girlfriend. You already love her, it's not that much of a stretch for you to marry her. I got stuck with someone that I don't love. I don't want to spend my life in a loveless marriage!"
"What do you mean, you've always been close to Georgie!"
Angelina scoffed. "Close to Georgie in a way that two friends are close! Not two lovers..."
Ginny then decided to barge in, and against Hermione's protests, walked right into the conversation.
"Ginny, what are you doing here?" Fred asked
His sister didn't have the time to answer, Angelinas face grew red as she saw Hermione and Ginny. "Of course it was you two! You couldn't mind your own bloody business, could you!? You just had to go blad to Fred."
"You're lucky all we did was 'blab to Fred'," Ginny snapped. "I should have hexed you into Azkaban myself!"
"Ginny," Hermione started.
The redhead, again, ignored her best friend and continued throwing insults at Angelina. Fred sat by, grinning with pride at his baby sister
"Okay, okay, enough!" Hermione yelled. "It really doesn't matter what we think about this situation. We can be angry at her all we'd like but in the end, it's George's decision if he wants to report her."
"We should listen to Hermione," Angelina said smugly. "After all, she is the brightest witch of her age."
Hermione sighed as Ginny and Fred started yelling again and Angelina laughed at their outburst. In the middle of all the commotion, no one noticed George entering the room but Hermione. She noticed his eyes were slightly puffy and his mouth was glued in a straight line. She jumped up and greeted him, pulling him into a hug.
"It's going to be okay." She whispered.
"Georgie!" Fred yelled.
The others caught on to the other twin and they all started firing questions at him. Fred and Ginny asking if he reported Angelina yet and Angelina begging him not to report her because her life would be over.
Hermione was getting angrier every second they continued. Finally, she cast a silencing charm to shut them up and turned o George. "I'm sorry they are being so INSENSITIVE..." Her voice yelling the word at the others, "Don't let them decide what you do, we support you no matter what."
"Well I'm definitely not going to be marrying this slag," He spit out.
His answer brought out cheers from Fred and Ginny and screams from Angelina. She quickly grabbed her cloak from a nearby chair and threw it on before waltzing out the flat as quickly as she could.
"Way to go, Georgie. I knew you'd do the right thing."
"You know it, Freddie."
"So, now what?" Ginny asked, "When are you going to report her?"
George waved her off. "Don't you worry about it. I will take care of it."
"I'm so sorry George. I know this can't be easy, but you deserve someone who respects you and sees how wonderful you really are." Hermione said gently.
He grinned at her, "Keep talking like that and you may give me the wrong impression, love."
She rolled her eyes but she was happy the mood improved. Something still felt off but she was sure everything would be okay. Shortly after, the group decided to go to Fred and Hermione's flat above the book shop. It was bigger and most of the time, everyone gathered there anyway. That night was no different. They arrived at the flat and Harry, Luna, Ron, Draco, and Blaise were already in the common area. The boys were talking about quidditch and Luna intently listened as she leaned up against Harry. As soon as they walked in though, the conversation stopped and everyone turned to see what was going on. They already knew that Hermione lied to Molly at dinner, now they looked at the twins, Ginny, and Hermione and waited for an explanation. Ginny jumped into the story, telling the others what Angelina had done and Fred added some colorful commentary as well, just a lot of insults and curses. As expected the others got angry, especially Ron, and they all vowed they would make Angelina pay. As awful as it was though, Hermione wished they would just all calm down and give her another chance. The marriage law took away everyone's choices and she could understand why Angelina fought back. She hated that George was hurt, but no one should have to give away the freedom to choose their future. At that moment, she locked eyes with George and she was pretty sure that he was thinking the same thing.