I am back again. Yahy! Actually, I wanted to write and post a new chapter much earlier, but life got in the way. Sorry.

Anyway, now I've finally made it. I hope you enjoy the new chapter and have fun reading it.

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When she opened the door, a bell jingled and she was flooded with bright colors and loud voices. It was a day in the middle of the week and yet Weasleys Wizard Wheezes was full of people. Still, it wasn't difficult for Hermione to spot at least one of the twins in the crowd. He was surrounded by several children, still too young to be at Hogwarts, holding up a small box while he seemed to be explaining something with expansive gestures. Typical twins.

Hermione smiled a little at the sight and made her way through the crowd. She wanted to try that none of the twins noticed her here. Not because she didn't want to see them, but because they always made a big deal of it when she walked into their store. The last time they had followed her the whole time and have asked her again and again how they got the honor that 'the golden girl' comes to visit.

She blushed and fled the store without buying anything.

This should definitely not happen again.

After all, she was here on a mission to actually buy something this time.

She sauntered past the colorfully packed shelves as inconspicuously as possible. She stayed away from the punching telescopes and went in search of a suitable gift for her colleague from the pharmacy.

For over a year and a half she has been working there for her mentor, who trained her to become a potion mistress.

If anyone had asked her earlier where she would like to work later, she would probably have said in the Ministry of Magic. But she ruled that out after the end of the final battle.

She loves her work at the Apothecary and she enjoyed brewing potions and experimenting with the recipes. With the training to become a potion mistress she had made a good decision.

Now, she was standing in front of a shelf with Pygmy Puff and took a closer look at the little creatures, when she suddenly felt a warm breeze on her neck. She turned her head a little to look over her shoulder and was frightened when she saw someone standing very close behind her. Too close for her liking. Startled, she took a few steps forward and bumped her head against one of the shelves.

The person behind her started laughing, while Hermione grimaced painfully and rubbed her forehead.

Before she had even turned around, she had already recognized who had crept up to her.

"You think it's funny sneaking up on people and scaring the hell out of them, huh?" The question was meant sarcastically, of course. She could clearly see him laughing.

"No, no, of course not." Fred was still laughing as he answered her, causing her mouth to tighten in a line to keep from laughing too.

She watches as his laughter and the red fades from his cheeks.

When he finally just grinned at her, she raised her eyebrows questioningly. "Are you done?"

He nodded his head and his grin gave way to a smile.

"Yep, done. How is your head? Do you want me to get you some bruise balm?"

Hermione shook her head, now smiling herself.

She dropped her hand from her forehead and crossed her arms as she looked up at him.

He looked down at her, hands in his pockets, and rocking from his toes to his heels and back again. She had noticed before that he never really seemed to stand still. He was either bouncing on his feet, tapping one foot on the ground or lightly drumming his hands on his thighs. When he was sitting it was the same. Either one of his legs was bouncing up and down or he was fidgeting in his chair.

She was the exact opposite of that. She could sit on the sofa with a good book and then not move an inch for the next few hours. Or she could just stand there, motionless, and wait.

The exception was when she was nervous or uncomfortable. Then she began to knead her hands and to pick at the skin on her fingernails. A terrible habit, in her opinion.

"So, how do we come to the honor of gracing our ridiculous shop with your presence?"

His question snapped her out of her thoughts.

She furrowed her brows and let her arms fall back beside her. His question caught her a little unexpectedly. Actually, she had expected something similar, but not this.

"Ridiculous? Your shop isn't ridiculous, what made you think that?"

Fred looked at her in surprise. He took his hands out of his pockets and ran one through his hair.

She seemed to have taken him a little by surprise with her statement, because suddenly he was no longer scolding at her, but at a spot diagonally above her head.

"Thought you'd find it idiotic, ridiculous and childish. At Hogwarts you always hated our products and threatened to tell our mother about them. I thought this would be the same."

He smiled crookedly, scratched the back of his head and looked down at her again.. Hermione blinked at him a few times in astonishment and then opened her mouth only to close it immediately afterwards.

Her answer had just died in her throat.

For a moment it was quiet between them.

The voices of the other customers moving through the store are still swarming around them. But the two just looked at each other in silence for a moment.

Hermione bit her lip and took a deep breath before answering. "I don't hate your store and I don't find it or your products ridiculous or idiotic. Actually, I'm really impressed by you two and what you create. All of your products are really brilliant. It takes a lot of intelligence to conceive and create something like that. Nothing about it is ridiculous or idiotic. I just didn't like thet you guys gave your products out to first years. Especially muggleborn. They don't know much about magic. They would accept anything magical if offered to them. Just because it's magical. They didn't really know magic before they came to Hogwarts. They wouldn't think about the consequences.

That's the only thing I didn't like.

You are quite impressive and brilliant. George too, of course."

Now it was Fred who looked at her speechless. He opened his mouth, closed it again and opened it again. He looked at her in bewilderment with wide eyes.

Hermione blushed under his gaze and felt the tips of her ears grow hot.

She wanted to take another step away from him, but her back was still pressed against the shelf behind her. Instead, she lifted her hands slightly and held them up between the two of them. When he still didn't say anything, her face twisted into a forced smile and her cheeks got even redder.

"I'm babbling, sorry. Dosen't matter. I don't want to bother you any further. You obviously have a lot to do. I just wanted to get something quickly, then I'll be gone again. Go back to your other customers. I am okay. And I'm babbling again. Sorry. I already left." Hermione was just about to walk past him and out of the store when Fred seemed to snap out of his rigid state. He grabbed her wrist and turned her back to face him. ""You think I'm brilliant and impressive?"

Hermione looked at him in confusion and then in disbelief.

"Is that all you heard from what I just said?"

Fred gave her a crooked grin and shrugged.

"When you get a compliment like that from Hermione, brightest witch of her age, war heroine, Golden Girl, Granger you have to take it very seriously."

Hermione rolled her eyes excessively, but then started to laugh. "Yes, of course."

Fred looked at her seriously at first, but then he started laughing too.

The two laughed together in a corner of the store surrounded by a bunch of other people. For the second time today.

When they had calmed down a bit, both had red spots on their faces from laughing and were still grinning, Fred pulled her a little closer to him. "I'm serious. It means a lot to me that you think so much of the store and us. Thanks."

Hermione's grin turned into a soft smile and she felt her cheeks grow hot.

His hand on her arm made her very aware that he was squeezing her wrist lightly and her skin was starting to tingle where he touched her.

She looked down from his face to his hand on her arm and then quickly back up at him.

That seemed to make him realize that he was still holding her wrist. Because suddenly he pulled his hand back quickly, as if her skin had burned him.

A little embarrassed, she took a few steps back and bumped into a man walking behind her.

He grunted something about "Pay attention!" and then disappeared into the crowd. He probably hadn't even seen Hermione raise her hand apologetically.

"So you said you were looking for something? May I help you? Believe it or not, I'm the best help you can get."

He grinned proudly at her and pointed both thumbs at himself. Hermione curled up a corner of her mouth and looked at him savagely. "Oh, really? What about George? I'm sure he can help me just as well. Probably even better."

Fred grimaced in mock pain and put a hand on his chest as if her words had hurt her deeply.

"Ouch Woman. You know how to hurt someone badly. But you'll probably have to make do with me anyway. My brother is quite busy and I'm free right now."

Hermione's gaze swept across the store to locate the other twin. It wasn't hard to find him at all. Right now he was leaning behind the counter with a mug in one hand and twirling his wand in the other. Yep, very busy.

With raised eyebrows, she looked back at the twin in front of her and shot him a questioning look. But he just acted as if he didn't know anything and just looked back, raving.

"So? Do you want my help or not? Because, there are a bunch of other customers who would like my attention too."

Hermione smiled up at him sweetly and stepped closer to him again. "And yet you give all your attention to me."

Fred also came a little closer to her and leaned down a bit towards her. His smile was mischievous and he jabbed his finger at her shoulder. "Admit it. You like it."

Hermione summoned up all her Gryffindor courage, stretched up a little more towards him, closing the distance between them even more. Now they were so close that the tips of their noses almost touched and they could feel each other's breath on their faces.

"Yes, yes I do." Then she raised her hand and poked the tip of his nose with her finger.

Fred pulled his head back, startled, and looked at her in amazement.

Laughing, Hermione turned back to the shelf to hide the fact that her face was flushing red again. What was she thinking? Had she just been seriously flirting with Fred Weasleys? Surrounded by a bunch of strangers?

She shook her head slightly at herself.

Who flirts with ther Ex Boyfriend/Best friend's older brother? She, what it looked like.

Hermione pretended to examine something on the shelf. She took something out, peeked at it for a moment, and then put it back.

She felt instinctively how Fred stood next to her, took something off the shelf and pressed it into her hand.

She was about to say something, her mouth already opened, but he forestalled her.

"Hermione, who is your favorite Weasleys? I know it can't be Bill or Charlie because you hardly know each other.I know it's not Purcy because you guys hardly ever talk to each other and I also know it's not my dad. So, who is your favorite?"

The fact that he asked her this question again met her a little unexpectedly. The last time he had asked was a few months ago and she had thought that he wouldn't ask her that again.

Obviously, she was wrong about that.

But he had said that he would change her mind. So it really shouldn't have surprised her that he asked again.

She stared down at the box in her hands and considered her possible answers. He had taken a few possible answers from her. With logical reasoning. So she was left with only two options. Three, if she named someone she'd named before. But that didn't seem like an appropriate answer to her. That would ruin the whole...thing...that they were doing. He asked that particular question, she answered with one of his family members, he said he would change her mind, the next time he asked she answered with a different name. That's how it was.

So now she had exactly two options.

Of course she knew he wanted her to say his name.

If she would do that, he would have achieved his goal. Not yet, she determined, smiling a little sneakily.

"Easy question. George, of course."

Beside her, Fred turned to her and looked at her half amazed, half amused.

"My identical twin? What does he have that I don't?" He raised his eyebrows and leaned sideways against the shelf while waiting for her answer.

Hermione gave him a side blink and her grin widened. "Oh, it's not what he has that you lack, it's more what he doesn't have. I don't know, that one ear thing is pretty... handsome and his holey jokes are hilarious."

She pursed her lips tightly to keep from laughing when she saw Fred looking at her out of the corner of her eye. His eyes were wide and his mouth was slightly open. He licked his lips briefly, causing Hermione to quickly look away. "George is your favorite because he's holey? So do I have to cut off my ear to be your favorite?"

A laugh tried to break out of her, but she quickly swallowed it back.

She turned back to him and shook her head.

"No, that's a George thing. It wouldn't be the same for you. Please keep your ears where they belong. I really have to go now, sorry. Thanks for your help."

She briefly held up the box she was holding and took a few steps away from him towards the cash register when his voice stopped her on her way.

"I will change your mind Brace yourself!"

She turned to him again and saw him standing there. Hands back his pockets, Rocking back and forth and a genuine big smile on his faces.

Her mouth twisted into a wide smile all by itself. He had already changed her mind. But she wouldn't tell him that, at least not today.

"Good luck, Weasley. If anyone can do it, it's you."

And she quickly disappeared into the crowd, leaving a grinning, red-cheeked Fred behind.