AN: Hello, everyone! I know it's been a while sense I've updated (oops), but hopefully this chapter makes up for it! I've had no motivation lately and I've just been busy with life and stuff. Anyways, without further ado, here is the next chapter. ENJOY!

Hermione stood rooted to the spot in Diagon Alley outside of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. It was her first day, and if someone were to ask her how she felt about the whole ordeal she would reply in one of two ways: 1) she would go off about how she was not ready and ramble on about how bad of an idea this all was, or, 2) she would simply vomit from all the nerves. Either way, the person asking the question would have gotten basically the same answer.

Merlin, help me, she thought to herself, becoming more convinced by the second that this was a bad idea. Maybe I should just go back to the Burrow. Yes, that's what I'll do.

However, to her great disappointment, both Fred and George walked out of the shop just as she was about to apparate.

"Ah, ah, not so fast, Miss Granger," Fred said mockingly as he and George came walking out of the shop towards her. "We had an agreement, and surely a self-respecting witch like yourself won't back out now."

Hermione huffed out a sigh of annoyance. "Don't call me 'Miss Granger,' Mr. Weasley," she shot back at him as she began lowering her wand in defeat.

"Using my own tactics against me isn't going to work. I rather like you calling me 'Mr. Weasley'," he said puffing out his chest all important-and-superior-like and shooting her a wink.

Hermione blushed, but snorted in amusement at his words.

"Alright, you two, let's get a move on," George said a bit impatiently.

This caused Hermione to freeze up again. Her heart was pacing at an alarming rate and her palms were coated in sweat. I can't do this.

"Hermione, are you okay?" George asked her, placing a hand on her shoulder. She jumped at the contact causing him to remove his hand.

"I... I don't know if I can do this," she replied, her voice a tad shaky.

"Rubbish!" Fred all-but shouted, causing the other two to turn and face him. "Hermione Granger, the Hermione Granger, brightest witch of her age, afraid to work in a joke shop? Blimey, you've broken into Gringotts and escaped on the back of a bloody dragon for Merlin's sake! Not to mention, you're credited with helping to defeat the darkest wizard of all time. You of all people are more than capable to work in a joke shop with a couple of ginger blokes. In fact, Mione, you are overly qualified to work here."

Hermione stared wide-eyed at him. Never in a million years did she think that Fred Weasley would have such an outburst, in which he praised her for all that she had done. To be honest, Hermione had always thought that Fred had found her to be rather annoying and, to quote one of her teachers, an Insufferable-Know-It-All.

"Now then," Fred said, regaining his composure, "Let's go get set up." He turned and began walking back towards the shop.

Hermione still stood frozen, mouth agape in amazement, until George came and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Close your mouth," he told her as he began to steer her after Fred.

Once they had entered the shop they were greeted by Verity. "Good morning, Mr. Weasley, Mr. Weasley, and Miss Granger," she said happily.

"Morning," Fred and George said together. Hermione, however, only grumbled at being called 'Miss Granger' for the second time that day.

"Any mail today, Verity?" George asked, dropping his arm from Hermione's shoulders.

"Oh, yes," the girl replied sweetly, her blonde hair bouncing about her shoulders in excitement. "Twenty orders for Pygmy Puffs, seventy-seven orders for Skiving Snackboxes, and eighty orders for love potions. 'Course that's just the order from this morning."

"Excellent! Keep up the good work." George then began to lead the way to the back, but was interrupted.

"Oh, Mr. Weasley, a letter came for you as well. A letter from Miss Angelina Johnson."

Hermione could not see George's face, but she could see the blush creeping up the back of his neck and the redness of the tip of his remaining ear. "Well, then," he said before clearing his throat and turn back around, allowing Hermione to see the red state of his face. "I best be taking care of all of those then. I'm sure you can take care of Hermione, then, Forge?"

Fred nodded and led Hermione to the back.

"Okay then," Fred said once he and Hermione were in the backroom. "George and I figured it would just be easiest for you to start out by making some potions and candies today," he continued as he went over to the shelf and plucked a tattered looking book off the shelf. He gestured for Hermione to take a seat at the rather small table that he was now sitting at before flipping through the book.

"Here we have the Nosebleed Nougats," he said flipping to a page titled with the said-product, the rest of the page littered with notes in a combination of his own cramped, somewhat-messy writing and George's writing, which seemed to be a combination of both print and cursive.

Fred continued flipping through the pages, showing Hermione what products she could make today. "Right, so you can go ahead and make the Nosebleed Nougats, the Puking Pastilles, and the Amortentia."

"I'm not making Amortentia," Hermione said instantly, bitterness in her voice.

"And why is that, if you don't mind me asking?" Fred asked, quirking an eyebrow up at her.

"Because."

"'Because' isn't an answer, love."

"Well, it's my answer," Hermione said stubbornly, crossing her arms over her chest.

Fred let out a huff of amusement. "I'm afraid that's still not a good enough reason for you not to make it. Just tell me why you don't want to make it?"

Hermione shot him a glare, but still refused to say anything.

"Mione," he all-but whispered.

Her gaze softened a bit. "Aren't you the one who came up with that?"

He smiled at her. "If I answer your question will you answer mine?"

"Maybe..."

He chuckled. "Yeah, I did come up with it. Sometimes I just tend to talk really fast, so I tend to drop syllables in people's names. How do you think everyone started calling Ginny 'Gin'?"

Hermione smiled at that.

"Okay, now it's your turn to answer my question. Why won't you make the Amortentia?"

She sighed, but she began speaking, "I won't make it because..." she bit her lip nervously, "because you shouldn't have to force someone to love you. Love is supposed to be one of the most powerful forces of magic to ever exist, and to make a potion that mimics that is disgusting..."

There was a pregnant silence before either of them spoke again. All the while, Hermione stared at the wall, refusing to look anywhere else. Fred, on the other hand, had his gaze trained on her face, studying it.

"You're right," he said finally.

She jerked her head in his direction. "What?"

"You're right," he said again. "It is disgusting."

Hermione furrowed her brow at him in confusion. Not once in the seven years that she had known Fred Weasley had he ever agreed with her on anything. Not S.P.E.W. or her belief that Quidditch, though enjoyable to watch, was just a game. Merlin! He even disagreed that testing products on first years was immoral.

"Okay," Fred began, "so just worry about the Nosebleed Nougats and the Puking Pastilles, then."

"Okay," Hermione replied quietly.

Fred stood up from his spot at the table. "We'll come check on you later, then," he said, ruffling her hair, the smell of spearmint and vanilla filling his senses as he did so.

"Okay," she said again.

Fred smiled at her one last time before exiting the room.

Almost automatically, he went off to find George, whom seemed to just be finishing up the order forms.

"So, how'd it go?" George asked, without looking up from his papers, although there was a suggestive tone in his voice.

"I don't know, what did Angelina have to say," Fred replied, turning the conversation onto George, who turned a tad bit red.

"That, dear brother, is none of your business. Besides, I asked you first."

Fred chuckled a bit. "I got her making stuff for the Skiving Snackboxes for now." He paused for a moment, then said, "I don't think we should do Love Potions anymore."

At these words, George looked up. "What?!"

"Geez, Georgie! I guess only having one ear really does affect your hearing. I said that I don't think we should sell Love Potions anymore."

"I heard you the first time, you arse!"

"Okay, then why all the fuss?"

"Because, Fred, Love Potions are one of our most popular products, and you just want to discontinue them?"

"Well, think about it, George!" Fred exclaimed. "Didn't Harry say that Voldemort was conceived under a Love Potion? I don't know about you, mate, but I don't want to be responsible for giving people the power to conceive the next Lord No-Nose. Tricking people into falling in love, it's kind of disgusting, really."

George thought this over for a moment before he spoke. "I suppose you're right, but you get to tell eighty customers that they won't be receiving their order."

"Fine. I'm going to go rid of all of it, then we can go ahead and open."

"All right," George said, returning his attention back to the papers in front of him while Fred gathered up all the Love Potions in the shop.

Using a levitating charm, he brought them into another room at the back, that also served as a work room. However, this one was hardly ever used due to the fact that it was quite a small room and a good portion of it was taken up by a single, large sink. There he emptied the contents of each bottle down the sink, which thanks to magic was a quick process. After thirty minutes every vial was emptied; the cramped room, once smelling like dust, now had a number of different smells added. He could smell his mother's homemade onion soup, chocolate, and the strongest sent of all was a mixture of spearmint and vanilla. Gathering up the empty vials, he left the room.

oOo

Hermione's day seemed to go by quickly. Before she knew it, Fred and George had come to tell her that it was time to go. Having been invited to the Burrow for dinner that evening, the pair of them apparted with Hermione there.

As soon as they were standing in the sitting room, the smell of onion soup filled Hermione's nose. She felt her stomach give an involuntary growl, that happened to be quite loud. So, loud in fact that both Fred and George chuckled at the noise.

"I told you that you should have eaten more than that sandwich for lunch, Mione," Fred said cheerfully.

"I know," she said begrudgingly.

Then Molly suddenly came out of the kitchen. "There you three are!" she cried. "I was beginning to think something happened to you."

"Mum, we're only twenty minutes late," said George.

"Never mind how late you are. Come on and sit down before it gets cold."

The three of them did as they were told, following Molly into the kitchen. Hermione seeing that there was an empty seat next to Ginny, sat down, Fred and George taking the two empty seats beside her.

Hermione took a moment to see who else had been invited to dinner: Bill, Fleur, Percy, and even Charlie were amongst them tonight. She continued looking about the table, and was surprised to see Ron at the table. She had become accustomed to not seeing him during dinner as it had been his sole purpose to avoid her since their breakup almost a month ago.

Despite his presence there, he still looked upset. Granted, he looked a lot better than he did a few weeks ago.

I hope it's not too late to fix our friendship, Hermione thought, giving him one last glance before turning her attention to her supper.

All around her people chatted amongst themselves, asking about their health and their work life. "Work is great," they would say in reply. Hermione, however, ate in silence.

It was not until everyone had nearly finished eating that Hermione paid attention to what was going on when Bill had asked for everyone's attention. "Fleur and I have an announcement to make," he told them in his gravelly voice. "We're, um..." he cleared his throat. "Fleur and I are going to have a baby."

A series of reactions happened upon hearing the news: Molly began crying, Ginny squealed with excitement, and the men clapped Bill on the back and congratulated him. Everyone was bouncing and chattering about with excitement. Everyone except Hermione.

She stayed completely still. Not moving a muscle as a million thoughts buzzed in her head: Pregnant. They're pregnant. I won't be able to tell my parents when I get pregnant. If I get pregnant. Knowing my luck, I'll probably end up alone. I'll just be an intrusion on these people until they finally just get rid of me.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, "Are you okay, Mione?" Fred whispered in her ear.

She gave herself a bit of a shake before nodding. "Yeah, I'm okay." She stood up and began to gather everyone's dishes.

"Hermione, dear, you don't have to do that," Molly told her.

"It's okay. I really don't mind."

Once the dishes were all gathered and everyone else had retired to the sitting room, Hermione began washing the dishes...without magic. She scrubbed vigorously at the pot and bowels, trying to make all the pain go away.

She was happy for Bill and Fleur. Really she was. It just hurt her to think that she would never be able to have anything like that. Tears began to prickle her eyes, but she kept scrubbing away, trying to ignore them.

After about fifteen minutes of this, Hermione felt hands on shoulders. She turned to see who it was. Fred. Abandoning the dishes in the sink, she turned and allowed herself to be enveloped in his embrace. She let her tears flow freely.

Fred let her cry, though it broke his heart to see her so distraught. He held her to him, refusing to let go until she was calm again. Thankfully, that was about ten minutes later.

"What's the matter, love," he asked her.

"I miss my parents," she sniffed. Of course, Fred knew about the whole ordeal with the Grangers. How Hermione had erased their memories and sent them away to protect them.

"I'm tired of being scared all the time," she continued. "I'm tired of feeling like an intrusion and a burden to everyone."

At these words, Fred drew back from her so he could look her in the eye. "Why on earth would you say that?"

"I live here because I have no where else to go. I'm not your parents responsibility, yet they let me. I have no right to be included in family moments like the one at dinner."

Fred brought his hands up to cup her face. "Oh, Mione," he whispered. "Did you ever stop to think that we include you things like that because to us you are family?"

"No," she whispered.

"Well, start thinking it because you are family in every way that matters. You and Harry both. You above all people should know that blood means nothing."

She nodded, then gave a watery laugh. "Yes, I'll just be all your children's Auntie Hermione."

He laughed with her. "Yes, and we'll all love your children just the same"

Her smiled fell a bit. "I don't know that I'll have children," she said.

"Why's that?"

"Some of us are just meant to be alone. That whole idea of there's someone for everyone, that's the stuff of novels." She smiled sadly at him. "Maybe that's why I like reading them so much."

This made Fred upset. The most beautiful woman in the entire world thought she was unworthy of love. Well, he would just have to show her, now wouldn't he.

"Hermione Jean Granger, you are without a shadow of a doubt the most worthy person of love I have ever had the priviledge of knowing," he whispered, though his voice was firm. "And I promise you that you will find someone who loves you with every fiber of his being, and will do everything in his power to fulfill every desire of your heart."

She smiled at him as a new batch of tears filled her eyes. However, this time they were not tears of grief.

Before he could lose his nerve, Fred swooped in and planted a tender kiss on her lips. To his surprise and relief, he felt her kiss him back. After what felt like hours to Fred, but was actually only a few seconds, they broke apart. "Now then, shall we go and join the others?" he asked Hermione.

She nodded, and so they walked into the sitting room hand in hand.

AN: Alright my lovelies, here's the next chapter. Again, I apologize about the wait, but hopefully it was worth it. Oh, and don't fret because our story does not end here. Any-who, until next time, don't forget to leave a review.